April 19, 2010

Wow... this has been quite an epic week and congrats as well!!!

Well, the main focus of my letter this week is Patricia fortunately. First and foremost... she has committed to Baptism!!! Patricia is a women that we've been working with for quite a bit. She lives in pretty humble circumstances, in a Barrio (which is also the same word for ward here) named San Juan in which most of this area is pretty small and humble circumstances, but there are still those that take pride in their circumstance.

Any-who, this last tuesday we planned to commit her that day but it wouldn't be an easy day. Most of the day was dark and cold, cloudy, and not very welcoming... like most of the people that day. But we stayed positive because we knew what may take place near the end of the day. When it was time to go to Patricia's, we picked up a member in the area who we asked to help us with this lesson, in which the member would give her conversion and baptism story. This worked well and we continued on by teaching Lesson 3, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ," which is just a really expounded version of AoF 4. We taught her and she took it all well. When the time came to extend the commitment, we did so (obviously.) She gave a small chuckle then said yes. When we extended the commitment, when she accepted it, and a short bit after, the sun broke through the clouds and brought a bit of light and warmth to this day. I know it really doesn't mean much, but it, in a way, testified to me she was honest in her acceptance.

This week we also taught her the 10 Commandments and Sabbath Day. One of the ways that they get money is that they (her family) make a certain bread here and then on either saturday or sunday, would go sit on the side of the highway and try to sell it. On sunday, we waited for her cause she had committed to come to church. When she didn't show up, we called her and didn't get an answer, so we went to look for some other 'gators' to bring to church. On our way back, after not finding anyone, we received a call from her in which Patricia said that wouldn't be able to come, but had decided, with her family, that they would stop doing this so the she AND her family could come to church.

It truly is amazing how much the Lord and the Spirit can work with some one and change what used to be normal for someone. This week we plan to work with her more to prepare her for baptism along with her family.

In a short miraculous story about how the Lord has helped me on my mission so far. I know that one thing that we were all worried about was my desire to play video games... alot, as well as fears of "withdrawls" from not playing them. Fortunately, I've not had any withdrawls yet, because I have been so involved with the work here, so invovled with my studies, so not invovled with my wants and desires. I see this as a my miracle of the mission so far, and know it is a good thing that this is happening. Don't get me wrong now, I'm sure I still have a love for games, but it has not hindered me here at all, especially since I was excited a few days ago to start the old testament. I feel that this has been a blessing and will always look back on it this way.

So now that I have been here 3 weeks, there's another interesting story of things that has happened. Earlier last week, we had power cut off to our pension.... so we had to do quite a few things in the dark. This was caused by first-off, we hadn't paid rent yet, and that the entire city had lost power. Now just acouple of days back it happened again. It's back, but we're trying to figure out why it happened this time.

Anywho, Gnocchi is here but is spelt a little differently ñoquis. It's just as good here and we had it twice this last week.

Well that's really all. How's Lil' Red doing? How's the end of Ellie's last year in elementary school shaping up? Any more mischevious things that Grif has done?

And about music, it's totally fine if you can't get it up here, but it would be awesome to still have something. But don't stress.

¡Nos vemos y buenas suerte! (See ya and good luck!)
---QK E' Asplund

April 12, 2010

I did have it in my carry-on.... the thing was that I had to put my carry-on on as regular luggage so yeah... well... if you can just find a ipod shuffle that will work. Also... odd as it sounds, the Sons of Provo soundtrack is allowed.... weird right?

 

So to answer the freaky question I've two experiences one back at the home and one while tracting. The home one is sad and silly, but we had a moth in the room so I was trying to remove/kill it. It started flying near our lightbulb, and I don´t really know what happened exactly, but i went to kill it with my eagles shirt (Mcnabb is gone!) and after that... there wasn't a lightbulb, a moth, and a lot of ashes... and a black spot on the cieling... which we believe to be the moth. The Freaky tracting story was only that two drunk men came and talked to us and they had a lot of cats.... that´s it really.

 

Well Florencia was married, baptized, and confirmed this weekend and it all worked perfectly so yeah. We did get an 'gator' (investigator) to come to church this week and see the confirmation, so we have a new progressing investigator named Patricia.

 

The greatest thing I learned so far was from our zone conference this weekend. E' Holbrook told me to come in with a question, so I did. Over the last few weeks I've felt like I haven´t been praying as hard or effectively as I should be. At the zone conference, Pres. Olsen felt inspired to talk about prayer and said in his lesson that we should pray at least a few times a week to our Father out loud because prayer is a two-way conversation. I know that was the answer that I needed and have started to do that now.

 

Yes... showers are how Dad described them... one room... tile... and uncontrolable water temperature.

 

Some more info about the mish. Here... we don't knock on a door very often. We stand outside the gates of the houses, becaue over 80% of the houses have lock and key, tall, gates, and clap. It's kinda cool actually, especially when they are obviously outside and they hide, good times.

 

I have found my favorite munchie food here, outside of all the other fantastic stuff here like ñoquis, empanadas, steak, and lots of bread and pasta. It´s a bakery item called a Criollos (Cree-o-shóws.) They're small, square, little biscuits that are like pilsburry grands biscuits in the fact that you can peel them apart.

 

Another thing is that dogs are EVERYWHERE, they are like birds and seagulls in utah, they just roam the streets. All of them are not neutered as well... so we've seen some pretty crazy things.

 

Anything about Dad´s mission and also if it´s possible, there's a member here who's way interested in Lacrosse and people want more pics of the family. If you just send them as attatchements, I can pull them off and put them on my camera.

Tracting is getting better, it looks like I'm losing a little bit of weight and it's not as tiring anymore. E' Holbrook and I are getting along just fine (We both freaked out when we saw the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie poster,) which I do hope that someone sees, buys... something like that. Well, my hour is about up so I will talk with y'all later, I haven't received any letters of any sort yet, but things can happen.

 

If you do end up being able to send a Shuffle, or any mp3 or music player, write on the package "Missionary Supplies" they reminded us of that today.

 

¡Cíao! -QK E' Ian

April 5, 2010

Yeah!!! Go Eagles!!! I knew that they would want to do that, as would the entire Philly community. Well as for me, I cannot believe where I am still. I'm in a city south of Córdoba called Alta Gracia, and serve specifically in the are El Crucero. The members are nice, and have provided some great food. One of them was especially interested that I played Lacrosse and looked it up. He came over during conference and was totally excited by it all. Anywho, in spiritual matters, we have a wedding and baptism this week for a woman named Florencia. She is being married to a member named Hector this week on the 9th, and she will be baptized the 10th. My new companion is Elder Holbrook from Lehi. We also room with two native-ish elders. One is named Elder Trigo, the other Elder Fontes. Elder Fontes is from Uruguay and wants to know where Dad served specifically and when.

 

I got to meet some of the other Elders in our zone (Córdoba South) and they actually had me sing a bit of a song for them while my comp played his guitar... they enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

So yeah I got to view the last 3 sessions of conference in English cause the first two we didn´t have anyone to set-up the english transmission. And we did get to go past curfew and also sleep in a little (so we could have the full 8 hours that we need) I loved it all, especially Pres Uchtdorf´s in priesthood session about Patience.

 

Another thing, one of my bags was stolen from...the one that had the Ipod, plus the cord with it. Nothing else was stolen. I was wondering though if I could have another sent to me with similar songs, now that I know what I can and can´t listen to. I can listen to Motab, and church stuff, but I can listen to others like all A capella (Vocal Point, Moosebutter) and instrumental, Disney, soundtrack (Lord of the Rings, Star wars, my PLAY cd) and anything that is good (Like "my hero" by paramore) if you can send me one yay, if not it´s all good...with the power cord of course. If you do send it, make sure to put a list of the contents on it.

 

The Rest of our district did arrive this wed. but none are in my current district or zone. I learned a bit about the weather here, there´s two seasons, the rainy, and the dry. I got here as the rainy was ending, but it still started pouring on Friday. OH and a funny thing, our plug converter didn´t even need the other extension part, it works just fine by itself.

Well, just keep me updated on everything, the salvage of Lil´ Red as well.

 

Thanks Mom!

Notes:

• Donovan McNabb, the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, was traded to their rival, the Redskins. 
• As for the music, I am not sending him an iPod shuffle with Paramore on it!
• Lil' Red is the kids' car (pretty much Ian's since no one else drives) and it was involved in an accident.

March 22, 2010

Well here's the updates for this week:

The 24\7 spanish didn't go so well... the first day yeah, but that was about it. we're all still working hard at it, so we aren't giving up yet.

We got our flight plans and we do leave on march 29th, we leave slc to atl at 1215 and arrive at 535, and then we leave at 8 from atl to go to buenos aires airport (yay) so either in the morning or at around 3 here the family will be receiving one call, if you could get christ there to that would rock.

Hosting wasn't too bad, but there were so few missionaries coming in that i didn't get to help. And finally elder quentin l. cook was our devotional speaker this week, it was so awesome. i have the notes and i'll be sending them to you in mail. and speaking of mail, i don't need stamps at the moment, but i will be needing more.

thanks. ¡Adiós y me da suerte! ¡Les quiero mucho! QK Ian

Note:

He sent this as I was online writing mine. In fact, it came through and I was able to type quickly to him that we had something going through the mail for him. He responded within seconds with another email, and I responded back a quick "love you!" It was a great few minutes.

March 15, 2010

Yeah, i don't have much time, and I'm gonna be taking Dad's advice on the email next week, also, Let grandma Asplund know that I'm recieving her letters and to keep sending them. So yeah, I can't tell you how happy I am to here about ellie, it was really scary last thursday and praying for her all day... but fortunately cause of the many prayers that were given for her in the temple and in my district, i knew it would all work out.

Well this week i get the opportunity to host, just like i was hosted when you left me here. I can't wait, we also maybe getting our travel plans this week so, fingers crossed!!!! There's only one thing I need this week, and that is more ties, my yellow one fell-apart, and my blue italy one is starting. I would like to have a big bag of Cooler Ranch doritos, but really not much else. Well about ready to go out and finally do what I've been trained to do, YES!!! This week we are starting to talk 24/7 in spanish, and I'm one of the most exctied about it. Well, that 's about it for all!! I love ya, and can't wait to here more. Oh and thanks for the Paper plates, That was a really nice thing to get. --Ian

Notes:

• Ellie had surgery on her mouth last week where they had to cut into her palate and bracket a tooth that was growing the wrong way. (In a few weeks they will attach a chain and we will begin cranking it down [insert grown here] over time.) Her recovery is slow and painful but she is doing well.

March 8, 2010

Yes, only Griffin. Well, not only am I praying for Ellie, but I´ve got my entitre district praying for her, and her name is also going through out the entire temple. So this morning after our P-Day temple trip, Elder Winger and I were talking, and we realized how little time we have here left at the MTC, in fact, 3 weeks. Our district is also now the oldest district in our branch. Over the last few weeks, I do admit, that I have forgotten to talk about the Characters that I am around every day so here we go. 1st is Elder Lazarte. He´s from Arkansas, and loves fishing like you´ve never seen anyone love fishing. 2nd is his companion Elder McClellan, who is from Houston Texas, and he´s a true texan, played football, big...everything, except and accent. Next there is Elder Adams from Texas as well. To Describe him think of Simon from firefly... that is Elder Adams, refined. He also happens to look a lot like Super-Man... There´s his companion Elder Gwynn. He´s from Logan, and is a very funny guy. He is super fast, and also is a pure farm boy, and can go all red-neck with funny  jokes and everything. Dang I´m almost outta time... well, I love you all, and ya, I can´t wait for Conference. ¡¡Les quiero muchisimo!! --Élder Asplund

Notes:

• The "Yes, only Griffin" refers to a story I told him. On Saturday, while going to a store to get shoes for Maggie's ballroom class, Griffin stood in between Ellie and I, put his arms around our shoulders and said, "So, ladies. Where are we off to?" Only Griffin.

March 1, 2010

I love that you are making a goal to go the temple every saturday, with the chance I've had here to go every monday, my mind has been clearer and I've had tons of revelations and guidance by the spirit. One, for example, happened last week. Elder Winger and I decided after the Endowment session, we'd go participate in Sealings. The man who was doing the sealings was Neal A. Lambert, and man, did he have a vigor and love for what he was called to do. I got to be proxy for some of the child to parent sealings, and... I can't believe what happened. Every one that I participated in, I could feel, and one point I swear hear, the thanks of every single person who was sealed to their family forever. Put aside the fact that it was the first time I had heard the sealing prayer, for both couples and entire families, I just can not describe what happened, I have learned, so so much there, that I can't wait to  go back every week, and one thing that also happened, because i've now felt the power of the temple in it's entirety, I have a goal, to go through with a, hopefully, future wife.

Well.... that's really about it for me, and also, there's one thing I would like to ask you to see if you can get a missionary mall: there's a bag there, with the brand of mountaineer or something like that, it's small, and is kinda green. I would really like it because the bags that they provide here aren't really the best, especially the shoulder bags. So yeah... if you can otherwise, I'm not home sick cause of all the pics and stories so far, and am coping well. AND I've got the cleanest desk and closest in my room!!! ---Ian