January 23, 2012

Hey everybody! This week was awesome! so much to tell you in so little time! Okay so there is no way i have time to answer all those questions, so i´ll just write what i want to write, and at the end try to answer as many as possible. first off, padded envelopes DO NOT count as a package, so those are fine.

my mission mailing address to send letters or packages or anything is:

Elder Quynton Allsup
Argentina Resistencia Mission
425 Entre Rios
H3500AKE Resistencia
Chaco
Argentina


just to start off, we opened this area that has been closed for about a little over a year, and it´s been a lot of hard work, but we´re doing it, and we´re doing well. we have taught the first lesson probably close to 35-40 times already, and we´ve got like 25 new investigators, with 9 baptisms lined up, we just need to commit them to their commitments and we´re golden. we should have 12 people coming to church this next week too which is good. we are working really close with the ward members right now for contacts, and so far, we haven´t had to go clapping for doors. here, you don´t knock on doors, because everyone has a gate infront of their house, so you clap to get them to come out, it´s pretty interesting.

There is a big siesta in the middle of the day where everything shuts down, and people go to sleep for a few hours which is when we do our study times and things. so i´m going to start with afew things that happened last week to explain some of the things that happened this week. last sunday we took two boys to the ward, and it´s a ward here where there are about 50 active members that go each week, and there are two other misionaries in the area close to ours. the city we´re in right now is called Posadas Argentina, maybe you can look it up and find photos and things. it´s really hot, and really humid, but it´s a lot of fun, and the people are great. they´re so great in fact, that this last week during 6 lessons the mothers like to feed their babies right in front of you, like we saw in guatemala, so that´s a little distracting. but here, every lesson has distractions. it´s pretty funny. since the houses are so small and stuff we teach every lesson outside, where we´re hot and muggy, but it´s fun. there are dogs passing by barking, kids riding bikes, motorcycles hauling past, drunk guys yelling, all sorts of fun stuff!

but last sunday we took 2 boys to church, and they had fun, but we actually lost them and had no idea where they went, and we were scared to go back that night, but we did and they had just walked home without us. one of the boys isn´t baptized so we´re trying to get him to come to chuch because the requirement is come to church 3 times before they can be baptized, so that´s really important. but we ate some marinara noodles that were really really good, and each lunch we eat with members. sometimes with the bishop and the council, but we try to eat at different houses each time.

that sunday night that we lost the boys, we were heading to a members house to find contacts, and we felt to clap for this mans house. his name is Luis Velasquez, and his son´s name is luciano. which is actually really weird because the 2 investigators i had in the mtc were luis and luciano. anyways we clapped and this guy is ready for the gospel. he said he felt just like joseph smith, not knowing which church to join. he´s realy awesome, and we hope he can make it to church this next week. he´s followed up on all our committments so far, we just hope his wife doesn´t try to talk him out of things.

Another cool thing that happened is my companion wrote down the wrong address to that next house, so the people had no idea who we were, but as we were leaving there was a lady who accepted us to come to her house the next morning, which was a week ago, and then the next morning when we went to find her, she wasn´t there, so we decided to talk to her neighbor, which is a 50 year old guy named pedro pinto, and he´s accepting us now. so all because my companion wrote the wrong address, we have a new investigator that is ready for the gospel. it´s amazing all the little things that are happening, and it´s really cool to see.

the language is getting better. i can understand a little more each day, they just speak so fast and they don´t really pronounce their *s* in words so it´s a difficult thing trying to figure their conjugations. every week the ward has a noche de hogar and it´s kinda like a family night and they invite everyone possible, and it´s a lot of fun to go to and talk to the members and have a lesson. but on thursday we had a noche de hogar from some lady that is evangelico, and invited us, so we said we would...... we show up to 20 little kids between the ages 3-11 and it was so funny.

we taught a little bit of the first lesson, asked them what they knew about god and things, and it was hilarious. then after me and my companion just sang a few hymns just us two to 20 of these little kids, and 3 other investigators, then we started teaching them english. it was a lot of fun, but the best part, was when we were almost ready to leave, i told my companion.... hey lets hand out all the pamphlets and pass a long cards and things we have and we did. we made them promise to give it to their parents, so being little kids they were ecstatic to receive all these pictures of Jesus and pamphlets on like, chastity, and the gospel of Christ, and all this stuff, and we wrote the address of the chapel on them all, and we took down all their addresses so now we have 10-12 new houses to visit. hahaha.

in english we were making them say some funny things too. we tought them how to say their name, and just some other common things it was so much fun. they all went home with all these pamphlets of jesus and stuff, and were ecstatic, ah it was such a hilarious sight. but right before leaving the evangelico lady passed around this bucket of tang with one cup.... every single little kids dirty hands were in it and drinking from it and stuff, and it got to us, and they expected us to drink from it, and it was absolutely discusting to think about, but it tasted like tang, and minus all the little crunchies i got to chew on after drinking which were probably bugs, and dirty, and nasties, but it was fine, and no side effects so far.

on friday i stepped in mud, and my entire foot went into the mud, and i almost fell because so much of my leg sank down into the dirty, which was a great experience... my companion looks at me... laughs really hard... and says welcome to the mission field.. so that was great.

i´ve eaten a lot of empanadas and noodles and all sorts of really really good stuff. there hasn´t been one thing ive not liked so far. it´s all really good, but they give you so much that it´s pretty hard to walk after eating. the dirt here is really really red, so all my shirts are pretty dirty, and our shoes are pretty dirty too, haha but it´s fun.

i´m getting really tan, and next email i´m going to include all the pictures i have taken. the internet cafe we´re at today is a little gross and i don´t want to test it with my camera. the bugs are big, and scary looking, and last night i woke up to go to the bathroom, and a spider the size of a phone was flying across the floor and i think i peed a little... before reaching the bathroom.... but i´m doing great.

i love you all, and i´ll try to write a letter with all theother stuff i didn´t include. food is great, i´m not sick anymore, and i´m getting more used to the heat. but other than that i´m good i think! don´t need anything as of right now, but i´m out of time, so next week i´ll answer all the questions, and hopefully have more stories to tell. i love you all, thanks for all the support, and i hope all is going well, i pray for you all each night! i love you! have fun! say your prayers and read your scriptres! next email i´ll send photos!