Muy Guapo

 Hola, bienvenidos a mi correo. This week was indeed good. Also quite fast. Had some awesome experiences. I have had killer allergies this week though so that's mega not fun.

Monday- Good pday we played lots of basketball so good. Then we got some burgers. We went to get Ice Cream after that and the place had a 2 for one deal so of course we couldn't pass that up so I got 2 ice cream cones. Very good. 

Tuesday- 2nd District Council, pretty solid talked about how to improve our teaching skills and t'was good. I can't decide if this week or last week´s was better but they were both solid. On our way back we were waiting for a bus, and this kid came up to us and gave us a bag of fruit and some soda. Very kind. But our bus pulled up right as he gave it to us so my plan is to go back this week and find out who he is. The funniest thing that happened this week was when we were waiting at next stop and Elder Ovejero cracked open one of the cold broski's and pretended to do the whirlpool thing and the pop fizzed up and he spit it all out into the asequia! hahaha!! I couldn't breathe it was so good.  

Wednesday- Good day, solid. We met this kinda crazy dude though haha he's whack in the lesson we started talking about Area 51 and the movie independence day haha quite strange. Then we had a lesson with some members, and I was floored at their humble way of life. Their shower was in a little shack outside, it was crazy. That was also kinda weird as we were assuming it was a mother and her son, but then they told us they're married, weird stuff down here.

Jueves- Good day, we ate the most heat lunch ever, muy Rico!! Finally we had a soccer night!! We've been waiting for the lights to get fixed but they got em fixed and so we played... I had a ton of fun but it was quite embarrassing, I couldn't do anything! haha! I'm horrible at soccer.

Friday- Good day we had lunch with a great little fam, so nice. That night we had a little lesson with some other members and their dad is blind. Wow it looks like a hard life, but they are so happy all the time and couldn't stop talking about how happy they were when they got baptized. Great lil fam.

Saturday- English classes again, then we ate lunch with this family, and their dad is a cop. But I don't like them that much cause were clowning on me about my Spanish so I was mad about that, cause they were purposely talking fast and making it hard to understand. They kept saying "Él no entiende nada!!" (He doesn't understand anything) after the 4000th time I was about to flip my lid cause OBVIOUSLY I understand enough to live here. Fantasmas. I wanted to go off in English and then say ustedes no entienden nada. I bit my  tongue though. On the way back there was this man that had just bought empanadas and he dropped 10 pesos so we picked it up and gave it to him and then he gave us each an empanada!! So sick. That night Javier said he wants to get baptized!! so that was probably the highlight of my week. 

Domingo- Good Sabbath, Javier went to church so that was good. We went to the last of our 5 wards, it was quite an awesome solid ward. Then we snagged some indeed yummy empanadas and chowed down. 

Overall great week lot's of good fun stuff. Apparently I'm a 10 here cause all the girls do weird things, we caught one in 4K though, we were making a vlog and a girl cat called me! haha! 

6 Months as a Missionary!

 Hola, I hope you all are doing great! This week was pretty good. People always told me that time started to fly after 6 months and wow they weren't capping. This week felt literally like 3 days long.

Monday- A moderate pday it was also Valentines day so it was a triste day.

Tuesday- I lead my first district Council, I thought it was going to be an actual train wreck, but honestly it wasn't so bad, pretty good honestly, and I got an ice cream cake for us, and needless to say they were quite happy about that! Then we had a lesson with the Hermanas and it was really good, we talked about Nephi and his amazing example.

Wednesday- Pretty good day. We had family night with one of our bishops and it was awesome. His sister came over with her 2 daughters that got baptized on Friday!!! So awesome we talked about the rock of Christ (Helaman 5:12) go give that a read -it's the best thing you'll ever read in your life. Guaranteed. Then we played this cup game and the boys lost pretty bad haha but it was lots of fun. 

Friday- We waited for this guy at the park for like 2 hours apparently he was truly just really late but next time we're gonna go to him so it doesn't happen again. Then we went to a elders quorum activity that was lots of fun. They played FIFA but because I suck at video games (especially FIFA) I didn't play, but they had a ping pong table, and I was taking these dudes left and right, nobody could handle my sauce. (Thanks dad for the practice) But it was so sad because they were making Choriz which is so good but they had just started the grill at like 9 and we had to be home at 9:30. So we didn't get any :( we cried a little.

Saturday- Solid day, we went to English Connect classes,  that was really good. Then we snagged lunch, fire. Then at night we went to charge our bus cards and passed this little burger place that looked really good so on the way back we got some burgers and fries and dang. The burger was pretty good, and super good for the price and the fries were the best I've had in 'Tina, needless to say 'twas a very good decision.

Domingo- We went to church in Albardon (like an hour away) but so good. We got like 7 referrals and found a new person. It was a very successful trip. When we were waiting for the bus to take us back, this guy passed us on his bike and slammed the brakes, I was a little spooked honestly cause I thought we was gonna rob us, he like called me over and I was pretty uneasy but we went over and he told us he's having a really hard time and know we can help him, we gave him a number and said a prayer with him then that night called him and said another prayer with his family. Very elect stuff. It just goes to show that even though he's never been to our church and never seen us before he recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ. Sister Cook talked about that at our Christmas devotional, she talked about our countenance, and how people will recognize us as representatives of Jesus Christ. Very cool to see.

We had some fun stuff this week. Me and the comp are communicating better and better, and more. It's super fun were having a great time. 

Happy Valentine's from Argentina!

  We had a quite good week, this week felt 2 minutes long it's insane. But it was actually insane though.

Monday- Good P-day, little ball nothing too great.

Tuesday- Had a nice little zone meeting, pretty good. We made some nicely tacos and they were pretty smacking so that was fun and yummy.

Wednesday- Exchanges! Our silly ZL's are having some problems and so we tried to help them out. It was an awesome day though we taught 4 (quite heat) lessons and found 3 new people so that's awesome.

Thursday- Finished our exchanges, it was quite nice we had a good time. But I got tattled on by the STL's for nothing (snakes in the grass!)

Friday- Very nice day, we had a meeting with our ward mission leader and he's a g, we had an awesome meeting about our ward mission plan and it was so helpful and awesome, and I feel like I understood everything which was so hype (seems to happen with the important things).

Saturday- We went to English connect in the morning, and it was awesome, I always feel like the most important person in the room haha. Everyone also asked me questions and it's so fun, it is a great time. I feel bad for my comp though cause he says he doesn't understand almost anything. 

Sunday- Javier came to church and it was awesome! He seemed to love it and he brought his son! It was a super good meeting. Church is so amazing, so important, our church is so different than all the other churches out there. Our reverent manor invites the spirit and the spirit truly is in our meetings. If you haven't been to a Sacrament meeting or haven't been to one in a while I would invite you to go and really pay attention to how you feel. We also had awesome lesson and he asked so many good questions, I can tell we're helping him grow his gospel knowledge!

Quite a nicely week, I can like physically feel my Spanish getting better which is a wild feeling but also the most exciting ever. 

Welcome home in San Juan

 Hola, this week was, as you can imagine, quite insane! haha. But also quite good, my new district and zone are, not gonna cap, way better, so much more energy and hype, so that's been awesome! I'm in a district with 2 other companionships, both hermanas, so they call it a sistrict haha. It's fun, they're all super good missionaries.

This week felt like 100 años long haha because Monday and Tuesday I was just waiting for Wednesday to come and then it's been crazy since then.

Monday- Last p-day with the district, we went to the mission office to get Elder Nelson cause we were a trio for a few days, said bye to some capos, namely Elder Draughon but I'm confident we'll be comps eventually so I'm not to worried about it. Then we had a pretty good p-day got some basketball in, grabbed some lunch, played soccer which I'm the worst at, so that was less fun, but pretty good.

Tuesday- This was like the longest day of my life, we went to Dorego to work in Elder Nelson's area, and it was pretty good but I was just wanting to go to San Juany.

Wednesday- Ohhhh shoot... Got a quick study in and then zoomed to the mission office and met Elder Ovejero, he's a capo. We had to chill at the office for a while because our bus to Juany didn't leave until 4, so we hung out, had some Mickey D's which is way better here like pretty good actually. We played some cards and it was so funny the natives wrote the "key to the cards" jack=11 queen=12 king=13 ace=14, it was so funny me and the other Americans were dying. We went to the terminal and hopped on a sick double decker bus that said San Juan on it so that was awesome, took a nice siesta. Met a few missionaries, and went to the pension. Wow the pensión is good, way WAY better than my last one so that's nice. We ordered some food which was quite good, and the ZL's stayed the night which was also pretty awesome cause they're cool dudes. 

Thursday- Pretty good day kinda just got settled in, just got some good work done too. I was heck dazed that night though I was like man what am I doing I have no clue what's going on I'm not ready, you know all that stuff- but it's gotten way better.

Friday- Very good day, exactly what I needed. We had a lesson with Javier who is awesome, and we were talking to him and then WAM we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. D&C 33:10 says "Yea, open your mouths and they shall be filled, saying: Repent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" That's definitely facts because I didn't know what I was going to say and especially in Spanish but the Holy Ghost filled my mouth and we gave a fire lesson!

Saturday- Another solid day, we had a virtual lesson with the Hermanas and that was good except he started smoking right in the middle of it. I was like dawg for real, whatever it was funny haha. 

Domingo- Heat, church was good, the Benavidez Ward is SO hype, everyone's so tight and it's just amazing, fast and testimony meeting was fire like half the ward went up and it was so cool. I bore my testimony and I think I did alright for Spanish. 

Good week my companion is awesome and my district is awesome so that makes my job easy. But I love it here, San Juan is ultra pretty, there's mountains in like a full 180⁰ view so it's wicked. I'm so hype for today and this Transfer!! 

Fernando gets Baptized and More Exciting News!

 Yeah haha so, good week but!!! We got the transfer board on Saturday Night (Por que transfers are tomorrow) and well not only am I being transferred but I'm also training a brand new native Missionary, and if that isn't enough, I'm also going to be the district leader. So yeah not quite sure who approved that, considering I don't speak Spanish but it should be fun I guess.

Monday- Nice nice P-day, we finally got a pump, so we got to play some football, I've been waiting for ever for that. We went out to lunch, pretty fire but kinda expensive.

Tuesday- We had District council, that was good. While we were in the chapel, it started dumping rain, like straight buckets at a time and so that was sick.

Wednesday- solid day, lots for waiting for dumb busses.

Thursday- Also pretty good day.

Friday- We taught David again, he's awesome. He's very elect, so this lesson we planned to put him on date. We've been talking to him a lot about repentance, but more about faith. Faith is the first principle of the gospel, it's the first thing we need before anything else. He always asks us to pray for him that his faith will grow, and that's great, but faith is just like anything else, if you want it to grow you need to practice it. How do I practice/grow my faith? I think the thing that helps most is doing the things that are hard, to show god you really care about his gospel and are willing to make sacrifices for him. Another great way is to study, and learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. David's desire to grow his faith is a righteous desire and I can't wait to see him get baped Feb 26.

Saturday- Fernando was Baptized!! Such an awesome experience, Fernando's situation is like a dream situation for the missionaries. He has the best possible fellowshipers, and his family is super supportive! Both his parents came to his baptism! It was awesome to see Fernando make his first covenant with god. Elder Kastner came to the bappy, and that was awesome, he's one of the missionaries that flew out with me, and we were just laughing and laughing we had such a good time.

Sunday- We went to church in Bermejo so we left at like 7:30, David met us on the way and he came to church with us. The members were so insanely awesome, like every single person came up and gave him a fist bump and talked to him for a second. Member relationships are one of the most important things a interested person needs. So if you ever see a new person at church (especially if they're with the missionaries) please go say hi and make them feel welcome and loved.

T'was a good week full of craziness and awesomeness. I hope you all have been having a great time. Its cooling down a little here so that's nice, but I'm going to San Juan on Wednesday and apparently that's like the hottest place on the planet cause everytime I tell members they flip their lids (Oh San Juan mucho calor oh mucho mucho calor!!!) Haha so that should be fun. As nervous as I am to train and be DL I'm super excited, I can't wait to get there. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

More Quarantine

 It's getting old

- Not Argentina, don't worry this place is still new and exciting. Quarantine. I'm over it and I'm about ready to kick it to the curb. Anyway this week was good up until quarantine, AND I still haven't had any beef so I'm pretty mad. 

Monday- First P-day in the 'tina, it was not bad, we got there super late though. We went to this mall and got some food, just a warning, fast food in Argentina is slow food, and it tastes half as good. We waited like 15 minutes for this stupid little tostada, and we all were not full after but we didn't want to wait another 20 minutes to get another one so we just went hungry. Then we went back to the church and balled outside in the hot so that was fun but also hot. 

Tuesday- The busses here are retarded. They just like do what they want it's like they're given a route and they purposely go a different way or do the route 20 minutes late. But the taxis are like 1000 pesos for a ride across the street so what are you gonna do. But we had District council and because of the dumb buses we were like 15 minutes late. Lame. But we got ice cream after so that was nice. Word of advice, bus number 525 does not actually exist its satan's bus to make you think you'll get there on time but then it never comes. We got home so late cause we waited for that bus for like 45 mins.

Wednesday- Some good news, we found this new family who's hecka elect and they are so willing to learn and grow. One down side is I can't talk to them so that's a bummer but my comp is good at Spanish so he can, it works out.

Thursday- We found another really awesome guy, he is super interested and it is awesome. Hopefully we can continue to teach him and help him with some stuff. Then we chilled at this bus stop for a bit waiting for it and it came and so we headed home.

Friday- The Pizza here... bumsmacks. We went to a members house and ate pizza and I put down basically one whole thing cause it's just bread with sauce and cheese and it was cold haha I love it here. But then when we were leaving, I called the busses bluff, it said it was gonna pick us up around a corner but there was a nice bus stop around the other corner and I said "Cap" 0 way the bus stop is there so we waited at the actual stop and I was right. I was pretty hyped about that.

Saturday- Bad news day. We got stupid quarantined again, for those of you not counting this is the 4th time I've been quarantined on the mission (while not sick). I think everyone needs to calm the heck down. Anyway I played a ton of Solitaire and Free Cell and took a mil naps.

Sunday- We watched zoom church and President gave us the nice thumbs up to blessing the sacrament in our pension, so that was nice. More Solitaire, a nap or two, more texts, good and boring stuff.

Gracias, I hope you all had a good week and didn't have to quarantine. It's getting less hot so that's good, waking up in the mornings I'm no longer waking up in a nice little hot tub of sweat. I miss you all! 

ARGENTINA!!

 Well, this week was pretty boring, not a lot happened but I guess I´ll write an email anyway. I guess the only interesting thing is that I made it to Argentina, but besides that nothing really happened. Bwahaha, I am in my original mission assignment!!! It's insane down here I hope this email isn't too long but it will be. My favorite part are the keys, they are soooooo cool looking.

Monday- Stupid last p-day, we were quarantined and so I couldn´t see the gang. Muy Triste.

Tuesday-Solid, I think I can't really remember but it was probably a good day.

Wednesday- Last day in Utah so it was insane, we got to go the Temple, so I loved that, I'll miss the temple a ton. Then I said adios to lots of amazing people which is never easy but I'm glad I saw them before I left. The Diaz family took us out to dinner at a Chinese place that was indeed quite yummy. Then as I was packing some other missionaries came and said bye. Muy triste but it's ok.

Thursday- Pretty boring day. I woke up and made sure everything was good, then said adios to the Chillers in the Chill House, indeed another sad moment. Then I zoomed to the Airport, ALL MY PAPERWORK WAS GOOD! So that was a huge sigh of relief. I was walking around the airport when I met some other Missionaries who were super dope, we ate some Café Rio which was much needed, and then we awaited the departure of our plane. We hopped on and zoomed to Atlanta, very wild flight we played this like find the object game together on the T.Vs and that was fun. I flew with two bros, Elders Ross and Kastner, both hecka cool dudes. We landed and we got some garbage McDonalds, (don't get airport mikeyD's(it's so bad)) then while waiting we played cover your assets with a couple Hermanas that were also waiting to fly to Argentina, so that was fun. Then we hopped on our 10 hour flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Indeed it was a long flight but we made it kinda fun. We played some loser, cover your assets, ate airplane food that was actually pretty good, got about 2.87 hours of sleep, woke up to a nice egg sammy, saw the light in the firmament appear, and then we couldn't resist so we watched movie trailers with no sound, (we determined it wasn't apostate). 

Friday- So when we landed we got our luggage, we were all flipping out cause we were in Argentina, they let us in the country just fine (I was hecka worried about that). Then we waited for rides. This is where it gets hecka whack, so I was with 5 other Mendoza lads, but they took 4 of us and then we went to a hotel, for like 4 hours then they brought us back to the airport, I KNOW very silly. but we got to walk around the streets a little, and took a quicky nap, then they gave us some quite yummy lunch, one of the Elders texted his brother who served in Cordoba, and he said it would probably be the best meal we'd eat for our entire missions haha. Then we zoomed back to the airport and hopped on a plane to Mendoza (this all sounds a lot easier than it was, people here talk a different kind of Spanish, I know that sounds basic but it's simply facts). We landed in Argentina, met the AP's, President and Sister Judd, then hopped on a bus to some zone leader's house to stay.  We had a grand old time playing some card games, and such. Then we went to bed and it is quite hot there, luckily I was tired as a mug so I fell asleep pretty fast.

Saturday- Woke up and hopped in some whippin taxi's who drive so insane it's wild, but made it to the mission office, I don't want to brag but I paid all the taxi's and then sent them on their way. We had a good meeting with the office missionaries, the AP's and President and Sister Judd. Then I saw Draughon!!!! and met my new comp, Elder Bartholomew who's a stud, and we eat some heat empanadas for lunch, and then zoomed to the area, our pension is so sick, its crazy like half the things are broken, it's insane. We went out for a little and then went shopping right quick and then kinda chilled and he taught me about the area. I was also crazy tired and fell asleep pretty fast.

Sunday- Zoomed to church, insane they asked me to bare my testimony so that was insanely insane and then some teenagers basically made fun of me so that kinda felt bad, but I met some dope members and they were super nice. Everyone complemented my Spanish (I know, hard to believe) so that was kinda nice. Then we just did missionary work for the rest of the day. I couldn't go to sleep though I was so unrealistically hot but finally fell asleep. Every morning I wake up with my bed like 100 degrees celsius, which I think is very hot. Oh and found out I´m in the same district as Draughon!!!!!! From ULM to Mendoza!


Pues, a pretty crazy week, I´m hype to be in Argentina, and can't wait to continue the work. Don't worry mom I'm safe, there is clean drinking water, and good healthy food. Thank you for reading about my insane journeys, if 'm missing anyone, tell me and I'll add em. I miss you all a ton!! especially the ULM guys. (and my family of course)