October 11, 2010

This week was a challenge for sure, but at the very least, with sacrifice there's always the opportunity of finding blessings.

I fell down with respritory illnesses this week again because of the changes of the weather, so it made it quite a challenge to work, nevertheless, I continued to work with all my strength.

A lot of the work E' Roldán and I have been doing these last few weeks has seemed to been in vain, especially because after our great experience with the Flia Segovia last week, they ended up rejecting us and our message. However, with all the work we've been putting in, we finally found the blessing we've been looking for.

On Friday, we headed to Santa Maria, a small city just outside of Cosquin. We dedicated an entire day there so that we could learn more about the area and have the hope of finding a family. Late in the afternoon, we decided to head to a member family that lives at the end of big long hill. While climbing, E' Roldan felt thirsty, and maybe a bit insipired to knock on a door that was near the top of this hill, and ask for a drink. When we knocked on the door, the family looked like they were going to reject us before we said anything, but when E' Roldan asked for a drink, they polietly gave it to him, and then we all started talking about the Book of Mormon. They then let us in to start talking more about it, because they were curious to find out if the things they had heard about us, from various Evangelist and JW's leaders, and about the "Faults" that our religion has. As we began to talk, the mother of the family started asking us very sincere and important questions.

We decided to pray in the middle of the question/answer section, and asked that one of the daugthers would pray and ask God if overall, we had the authority to be preaching the Gospel. At the end of the prayer, the mother told us directly "I know you have the authority to do this." We invited the daughter that prayed and the mother to baptsim, and they accepted. The true blessing of all this is that for the first week, we got more than Alberto to church this week. In fact this mother, Stela Amione (Am-e-own-eh,) came from Santa Matia by herself to the testimony meeitng that we had this week.

It's interesting that in times of great trial, especially the one that Elder Roldán and I have had, trying to find the Elect, that when one, continually looks, and looks, and looks, and looks, and when one really has put all his effort into his work, the Lord will give us that blessing we've been searching for. In the New Testament, we learn from Christ's ministrey, that those who may not even have much for them, but when they provided for His servents something to strengthen them, even if it's just a small glass of cold water, that those who make that sacrifice will be blessed.

This week, was hard, especially with all the physical and mental challenges that I had faced this week, even pushing myself to talk with more people than ever before, but, I truly see that the Lord right now is proving me, testing me, and now that I've just begun to truly be the missionary that He wants, He's just begun to provide the blessings that I've been searching for.

Love y'all and hope the week goes well!

-Ian

October 4, 2010

Well, this week was an awesome week, to say the least, with a ton of work focused outside of Cosquín, and of course, Conference.


The awesomeness of this week is equal to a family that we found Monday night last week. When we knocked on their door last week, they opened the window, and in all honesty, really hesitant to open the door for us. But after I promised them that they would receive blessings, the fear left their eyes, and invited us in. The lesson was amazing, and later in the week we committed this family, and others of their family who live in a small part of the area outside of central Cosquín, to baptism. The spirit in the committment was amazing, with E' Roldán asking this family to pray with us while kneeling to know if they should be baptized. There was no dry eye in the room at the end of the prayer, and they all know what they need to know, the presence of the Holy Ghost.

Conference this weekend was awesome, the Branch provided a way so that E' Moore and I could watch it in English. It was a spectacular conference, with a lot of the messages based on Godly vaules, agency, and surprisingly, a lot of showing the tricks and power of the devil. Our area president, Elder Marvyn Arnold even spoke!

So to answer the P-Day questions for the week, on P-day... it's different every week, sometimes we play, sometimes we clean and sometimes we do absolutely nothing. Today for instance, I had the opportunity to wash all my clothes again and to sweep out the room the E' Roldán and I share. Sometimes the District will get together and we play soccer or Ping-Pong. What we wear typically is proselyting clothes, but if we're playing sports, we do change into gym clothes.

The Conference issue liahona I will end up getting in english and spanish, so don't worry about that, we also listen to conference talks quite often so yeah!

Love every single one of you
-Ian

September 27, 2010

This week, we worked for a very hard, and while at one moment, it felt like no one was actually progressing, we were given a blessing de diez.


During the week we continued to look through all the dark and undiscovered corners of Cosquín, largely to find someone who was truly ready. Saturday morning, we passed by one of our investigators Lucas, who, while we can't find him very often, is now starting to read the Book of Mormon by himself AND pray by himself. He has accepted the invitation to baptism already, and we are working with him to meet the goal of the 23rd.

We also happened to find a woman Saturday morning as well on the other side of Cosquín. When we first entered, we asked if Christ was standing right with us what she would ask him, and she said, that he could guide me (OMGOSH!,) so in that moment, we immediately taught her about the Holy Ghost and extended an invitaion to baptism which she did accept.

Finally, this Sunday, a member in our branch brought us someone to work with and this young woman that she brought is ready (the member is the YW president.) We talked to her, and really she is super prepared already, she just doesn't realize it herself.

We did a ton of work this week, with a few testimony confirmers, especially with another baptism this week.

It's lame what I have this week, but really, this is what I feel is important.

As for the not really importnat things, I hit 8 months in the mission, and this week I hit one year of my call to service.

Love y'all
-Ian

September 13, 2010

Freak! I totally forgot to bring my card to send pictures to you this week, not only that had I brought it this computer doesn't have a USB port... so I'll just tell you the news anyways.


Well, this last week sure was interesting, especially having to be in a trio with two latinos, but I really got to see for my self how much spanish I actually knew and understood. I also got to do Exchanges with the ZL's this week, and that was very intersting. They showed me some of the new things that we should be doing in lessons now and let me just say... I didn't think mission work could get much easier. Most of the times with on-the-spot contact lessons, they would just honestly explain baptism, and at times, just straight out ask them if they wanted to be baptized (without even committing them to it,) as well, as when we left and we prayed with them, every time they informed the new investigator that one of us would pray first, and after, those that were in the room were asked to pray in the most sincere way possible, by just confessing the true feelings of their heart to God and to close in the name of Christ. Then we would all kneel down and do that. It was amazing to here how many people had honestly needed help and to hear some of their pleas was something that really humbled me. I'm convinced after that, that what the church is basically re-teaching to missionaries, is how to be honest, sincere, and in all honesty, real representatives of Christ.

So yeah... I'll be working on getting you pix in the following week of it all.

As well, the mission has had some schedule changes so now I have to be out and working by 6 PM on mondays, so I probably will be very busy.

Now as the subject says

New Transfer.

Well, I am ending up staying here in Cosquín for another 6 weeks (which means I´ll be seeing Conference here!)

New Compañero

I FINALLY got a companion and he really is awesome. His name is E' Roldan. He has only one transfer more than me and as well... he is from Buenos Aires. Which now means... I will be speaking in solid spanish for the next 6 weeks at the least... this is gonna be fun!

and...............................

I think that will serve as the letter for the week, if y'all feel differently I'll send a better one next week.

Love y'all!
-Ian

P.S. Look down below

GUESS WHO BAPTIZED THIS WEEKEND!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!

Yes, I have finally, actually, baptized AND confirmed. It was interesting, I baptized Favio Perez, he has about 9 years of age, and I had only taught him once before on exchanges with the district leader. It was a pretty strange experience... largely because he is almost the same height as me... and the same weight. So obviously, or at least I think it was obvious, I did screw up the first time, largely cause I'd never practiced with him and we weren't very coordinated. The amazing part of it all was the Confirmation, which in that, I honestly felt the full power of the priesthood. To this moment... I don't know what I said after I said receive the Holy Ghost. I do, though, remember feeling the Spirit fill my body and fill me with what felt like the fire which we are promised to feel with the Holy Ghost.

September 6, 2010

Well... an emergency transfer will be happening today.


Yesterday, while we were walking back from church, we walked by one of the members of the member family that lives below us. When we did, she said something really quiet, and honestly... really, really fast to E' Hone. When she was done saying it, she walked off, and E' Hone looked at me and told me, "We need to go to the pension and we need to talk now."

What we discussed is that E' Hone, his entire 6 months that he has been here has always liked this girl, and now that he knows that she likes him too. It snapped in my head because I had noticed, just as well as he did, that she was flirty and very friendly with him, I didn't understand why.

With that in mind, I told him, "You know what you have to do," and he replied by saying yes and getting the phone.

He called and told him the situation and asked, for his saftey and security, to be transfered to another area.

I don't think anyone should feel like he did anything wrong, in fact, because he was willing to talk to me and to be honest about it all, I think he did the most correct thing he could do, which is to get the hell out of dodge.

So here's how things are gonna go for the next week for me:

This week, I will be in a trio with the other Cósquin Elders, as well, I'll have to wait till Saturday to find out who my new comp is going to be.

Also, this means with transfer calls arriving Saturday night, this will mean, that I will absolutely be staying in Cósquin for at least one more transfer.

Really that's it for the week, because we couldn't find Alberto or Tamara, we had our Testimony meeting which was a little odd...

I'll see if I can talk to y'all more today, but regardless

Love you and take care!
-Ian

PS Oh and one quick and awesome note, 1 year ago this month, I was called to serve here... if that isn't trippy let me know!

August 30, 2010

Well this week brought us gold, after dropping all our investigators to find new ones, and maybe, just maybe, a new hope to bring someone to the waters of baptism.


Our gold this week is detailed in two stories.

The first: Alberto Altamira will finally have his divorce finalized by the end of this week, which means he can get married AND baptized. Alberto, I haven't said much about since I first got here because he was largely in this stand still with not having an official divorce, so not much has happened really. However this week we passed by to see how they were doing, and his fiancee told us, before Alberto was even there, that the paper would be ready next week. We all cheered for joy and we are now working on helping them prepare for these two wonderful moments that will pass in their lives. It will take them about a month to get married really, but at least that countdown is for sure.

The second: Tamara Lopez. On Thursday, we did a huge crunch down on contacting, largely to find someone who would honestly progress. In the morning, Elder Hone was to lead in getting the first contact of the day. It took a while because we were just running around, even he said to me, " I have no idea where I'm going really, just feeling where I should go." With that feeling behind it all, we found Tamara, who when we knocked the door, told us to come in immediately. We started to talk a bit about the Book of Mormon, and during it all, she asked us questions of some of our beliefs. She informed us that she is Catholic, but when she asked us if we believed in the Virgin, we told her no, in the which she followed saying, "Good, neither do I!" This passed for most of her questions, in which, while she was catholic at one point, she doesn't believe anything they believe. She even informed us that she hates reciting the catholic prayer and prefers conversing with God in her Prayers. In other words, she's golden. The only things we really, really need to do with her is that she needs to get married to her boyfriend, and we have to get her to church. She even asked us when we gave the Book if she could read it all!

That was the week for me, the temperature here has been funny, but it's been spring for the most part.

I've also happened to step in a few dead frogs this week.

Well, love you all!
-Ian

August 23, 2010

Well this week was a hard week to say the least. Tuesday of last week started the training for the new way the Brethren want missionary work to be, and so, for 4 days, all, District Leaders, Zone Leaders, and Trainers went to Córdoba to receive this training. So that meant that I, Elder Hone, and the other Elder, Elder Ferraira, were put in a trio to do the work in Cosquín.

What made the week hard more than anything is that we had an immediate season change, with tuesday being very warm and most of the following days as well. Now while I would usually be happy for a change in season, I was put in bed, having small asthma attacks every day. I honestly was once again scared by it all, because I thought I had been doing good. One night however, it being the hardest day of them all. While lying in my bed, it being almost the 3rd night that I couldn't get any sleep because of serious coughing, I said a silent prayer, begging and pleading that it would all pass, that I could get back into the work without a problem. Then ten minutes later, I had probably the best sleep I've had my entire mission.

Well, I finally received the care package and the bag of Jelly Bellys were eaten in less than 10 hours after receiving it. As well, the peanut butter has been opened and eaten a bit, but because of an allergy the Elder Hone has to nuts, I am not eating a ton. As well, thanks for the ties and Ipod.

I hope all goes well!! Love you all too!

-Ian