Monday, March 26, 2012

3-26-2012





Your primary class seems like a lot of fun! Everyone sounds
like they´re doing really good! Tara´s baby is really cute! If you get this
before they all leave, tell them all I say hi and that I love them! That´s cool
Tean´s in Disneyland, that sounds like a lot of fun. And Tance scoring in Rugby
and stuff sounds awesome! Make sure to record the games so I can watch them
when I get home! And Sawyer, whenever I show the families our family pictures
everyone thinks you´re the second oldest, right under me! Haha it´s pretty
funny. I´m glad everyone is staying close!
I love you all so
much! And everytime we´re with a family I always tell them stories of us when
we were younger and all the things we´ve done, and they love hearing about
them. I know i´ve said it before, but I know this is the True Gospel. The
things i´ve seen, and the people i´ve seen change have been such a testimony to
me, and some of the experiences i´ve had with the spirit are remarkable. I hope
the whole family gets to read these emails, on Gigi and Papas side and on
Grandma and Grandpa´s side. Tell everyone thanks for the emails, and i´ll do my
best to email them back and to send them letters!


We had another 2 baptisms this week, Gerardo, finally, he´s
the boy that we had to postpone 5 different weeks because he´s had so many
family problems. My comp and I think he´s going to be the next prophet or
something because there were so many problems with his baptisms. If you all
only knew the things we had to do to get him baptized! haha but finally we did
it, and it was a great experience for him and his family. His mom is a member
but went inactive a while ago, and we were able to get her coming back to
church, and the rest of his family too.

The other boy his name is Mauricio. His mom has been
inactive for 20 something years, and we found her name in the records. Mauricio
is the son of Goyo, I don´t know if you remmeber me talking about him a few emails
back, but he´s not willing to get married, so this monday it was pretty funny.
Me and my companion are planning, and we were thinking, and we were like, Why
are we not baptizing his son that has been coming for 3 weeks in a row to
church? haha so we went monday night, and we planned to put the baptismal date
with him, and we were planning for the next weekend, which would have been the
31 of march. That was the plan when we went into it. But we taught him the
lesson, and at the end my comp looked at me to put the date with him, and I was
just thinking in my mind, lets put it for this weekend, but my comp didn´t know
that I was going to do that. So he looks at me, and I look at Mauricio, and I
said, " Mauricio, we have prayed, and we ahve thought much about it, and
we think that you can be baptized this weekend (the 24 of march)" and my
comp looks at me with these huge white eyes, and was like, "what´re you
doing?!" in like a funny, you´re crazy, kind of way, and he accepted, and
we did it! Haha. And after the lesson, my comp was like "wow, I can´t
beleive that just happened, I wouldn´t have had the guts to put it in one
week!" haha but we worked really hard with him, and taught him every
single day, and we baptized him on saturday! It was really awesome.


This cyber that we´re typing at doesn´t have computer ports
to upload pictures, but when we get back to our pension, we´re going to run to
the cyber there and i´ll upload the pictures there, so you´ll get pictures in
about an hour or two. We have 3 baptisms planned for this weekend too. We would
have 4 but we found out the 15 year old that we´re teaching is smoking a pack
of cigarretts per day. he´s freaking 15 years old! But we´re working with him
so he can get baptized too. IT´s amazing what the scriptures can do for people
in their lives. I had no idea how important it is to read the scriptures. I
don´t know if i´ve talked about Luis Velazquez, but he is such a stud. He´s
like 30 years old, and he´s got 2 mentally handicapped kids, andwe have been
teaching him for about a month and a half now, and he has changed 100%. It´s
amazing the things he tells us. I´ll tell you a little more about him later
though.


Here the weather is FINALLY starting to change. It´s really
cold in the morning and at night, but during the day it gets pretty hot. IT´s
starting to rain quite a bit too, which is pretty refreshing.

I don´t know if i´ve
told you all about Alfajors, but they´re so goooooooood. It´s like a cookie
brownie mix, with Dulce de Leche is what it´s called. It´s like liquid
chocolate that they put in everything and it´s the most amazing thing ever.
Anyways, with Alfajors, it´s pretty funny, with the families that we´re
teachign with a lot of kids, I tell them "Okay, we´re going to do a challenge. If you don´t read
the scritpure that we mark you, by the time we come for our next visit, you owe
me an Alfajor", and then I tell them my favorite kind, and they start to
laugh and it´s pretty fun. nobody has yet to actually give me an alfajor
unfortunately though. haha.

One of the families we´re teaching has a few yuounger kids,
and one of them is an exact replica of Lilo, from the movie Lilo and Stitch.
And ever since the first lesson, i´ve called her Lilo, and now it has grown
into an epodemic, haha her mom calls her lilo, her family calls her lilo, and
the other day we actually heard people in the streets calling her Lilo! Haha
she loves it and it´s so funny that everyone is calling her Lilo now because of
me!



Dad- Every weekend here the people are always BLASTING their
music really loud in the streets, and about every other song is a song from
Franco Devita or one that I knew before coming, and the people always laugh,
because they see this gringo singing all these spanish love songs, and it´s
actually a good way to contact people.... "Woah, where are you guys
from?" "The united states" "then how do you know this
song?" " IF you give us a few minutes i´ll tell you, we are
representatives of Jesus Crist....." hahaha.

But i´ve also been
writing down a lot of really cool songs for us too, dad, for when I get home,
and i´m going to start buying some CDs for us too. They have some really really
good music here. One song that´s really popular here is called "The
Watchiturro" look it up on youtube and you´ll probably find it. It´s
pretty cool. I don´t know what it says, and i Hope it´s not bad, but it´s a
really popular one.

Thanks for all the encouraging emails dad, they really help.
Did you ever feel bad when people wouldn´t accept your message as a missionary?
Or when parents wouldn´t let their kids get baptized, even when their kids
really want to? It makes me really sad, and it´s really hard for me to see. I
love you dad, and I miss you. Thanks for going golfing with me before we left.
In our area there is a golf coarse that´s beautiful and looks really fun. We´re
definitely going when I bring you all
here, and since my companion leaves and goes home this week we´re going to ask
permission to be able to go for a going home present haha.

I love you all, and I really miss you all. Thanks for all
the support you give me!

Monday, March 19, 2012

3/19/2012














These are just some fun pictures we´ve taken in centro and things like that, the one of me in front of the statue the statue of The Matte Man. I don´t remember if you remember when Matias told us but EVERYOEN drinks matte here, and they made a statue of what everyone does all day long, and it´s hilarous because it´s perfect. Everyone sits with their little mugs and their matte cup and pass it around while we teach and things. It´s really funny. The boys we baptized: Alejandro is the older boy we baptized, and Julian, the little stud is the one I baptized, the one that calls me Elder Azucar. This family makes me feel really close to all of you, and it makes me really happy. Make sure you attach all these photos so everyone can see them!
Hey Everyone
To answer the questions, my weekly budget is like 250 dollars ish each month, and we only have to pay for snacks and things so it´s not bad, and it´s just barely enough that I don´t have to go hungry or anything at all so it´s enough. Things here are REALLY cheap, like the common things you have to buy every week are probably almost half compared to utah, a loaf of bread here is like a bunch of rolls, probably double the amount of bread in one bag for about 2 dollars, and I love all the snacks and things. I found out that Monte Carlo where Ben is going is actually pretty close, but he´s not in my zone or anything like that unfoturnately.
This week was excellent. I am starting to really love the people here, and care a lot for them, rather than just try to baptize them to add a baptizm to my name. We had two baptisms!! It was awesome! SO i´ll just explain the entire stories first off.
About 3 weeks ago we received a reference from a member to go to this house where only about half the family are members, so we went over there and found out that they are really really poor. Their house is literally just a big shack and they´ve got 12 people in the family. Their land is just bare with weeds all over and they are all super super dirty. To shower they have a big well and they send down a bucket, and get water, but the water is really dirty already and it´s really nasty, and the little kids always are just filthy.
The first time we went there the little kids had more dirt under their finger nails and on their face than in the whole state of utah, and when we shook all their little hands, afterwards i looked at my hands and mine were about the same color and it was really nasty. But nonetheless we started teaching and trying to figure out the situation and things like that. Anyways we come to find out that about half that there are about 5 baptisms that still needed to be done in the family, the dad, the oldest kids, and two younger kids of 9 and 13.
THe dad is really really really addicted to tobacco and we´re still working with him, and the oldest kids have kids of their own and are trying to get married, but the kids we baptized are the two younger ones. Alejandro 13 and Julian 9. Me and Julian from day one started having so much fun. He´s just got the cutest little voice and he´s hilarious and we are always playing together. About 3 lessons in, he finally gave up on trying to pronounce my name, and from then on started calling me "Elder Azucar" which means sugar, and it´s so funny.
Every time we go, their house is WAY far outside of the edge of our area so we only went about 3 times a week but every time that we went they made "Chipa" which is like a scone type thing, with all hteir dirty little nasty hands and they use the same oil to cook every single time, and the whole situation is just nasty, but the Chipa is really good, and we eat it without saying anything haha.
But about a week ago we started talking about the baptismal service, and how it was going to go, and we asked the boys who they wanted to do the service, and Alejandro chose the bishop, but when We asked Julian, his cute little face looked at me and said, "I want Elder Azucar to do it" and it was a really cool moment for me.
When he said that I just felt so much love for him and this family, becasue we have gotten really close to them over the last few weeks, and we´ve had a lot of funny stories that i´ve been writing in my juornal. When he said that I could just feel how much THe Savior loves him, and how excited I was that he wanted me to do it. So we prepare them, everything works good with them, and Saturday we start preparing the font, and the drain doesn´t work, so all the nasty crap in the bottom wasnt´t draining, adn I had to climb down in it to clean it out and it was a giant mess haha but it was fun and the baptismal serivice went great.
But I just remember climbing into the font, and then I told him to come down, and there were a lot of members that came and are looking at us, and I was pretty nervous because the baptizmal prayer in castellano is a little hard to pronounce some of the parts, so I was a little nervous, but I did it perfectly, put him in the water, and then brought him out of the water, and before he was even standign on his feet as i was bringing him out of hte water, he just said, really really loud, "Que Lindo!!" Which is like saying, how nice, or how lovely, or how great, (somethign like that)!! And everyone started laughing, and it was actually really special for me.
I could feel that he felt clean! Which really really surprised me the feeling I felt when I brought him out of the water and when he said that. I almost started crying because it was so cool! But i love this family so much, and last night we went to visit them and the dad is going to get baptized in two weeks, he´s going to stop chewing and everything he told us that he wants to change because he´s seeing the changes happening in his family, and how they are all loving eachother more and he wants to be apart of it, and wants to be able to go to heaven with them.
This week I got to taste a little bit of why missionaries say this is the best 2 years of their life. I felt the spirit and the love our savior has for people multiple times this week, and I am so happy. It´s a happy feeling that you just can´t explain. I think it´s a feeling of the pure love of Christ, and We´ve got some other baptisms planned for these next few weeks, and it´s just a relief. Becasue we worked SO hard for so long without a baptism, and now that i realize the joy you feel when you bring someone that much closer to Christ, It´s going to give me even more of a drive. THanks for supporting me everyone. This week made me miss you all a lot, but it was a life changing experience. I love you all so much!

Monday, March 12, 2012

3/12/2012







Picture is of our district at a district meeting! Us eating at a members house eating Churipan, it´s SOOO good, i can´t wait to make it for you. Us outside of our stake conference two weeks ago. Picture of us having some fun in the pension of the other elders and two silly pictures.
How is everyone? That last email seems pretty exciting that everyone is starting up new things! Dad´s business sounds like it´s coming along really well, you´ll have to send me a few photos when things are all the way up and going.
Tean, that´s so awesome that he got his eagle and is working out a lot. That´s more than what I can say, i´m trying to work out really hard in the mornings but it´s really hard because i´m so tired, but I still do them, we go play basketball a lot.
Tance, that´s awesome he´s playing rugby, that sounds like a lot of fun, you´ll have to film all the games so I can watch them when I get back. Sawyer, congrats with the Beehive and the youth coucel stuff! That´s going to teach you so much and ít´ll be so much fun I bet!
I hope Tean and Tance made that Misison List I told you to a while ago, because i´ve got some more stuff to add to it right now: Buy a 16GB Flash Drive, because you´re going to want all the documents and music and pictures from the other elders, I just bought one last week, and it´s awesome to have to be able to back up all your pictures and music and all that stuff. Also start looking for a hand bag that you can carry, at least for me, I don´t need that shoulder bag right now, it´s just too hot, and we only need our scriptures, not our preach my gospel, so start looking for a little bag you can carry that will fit a BofM a Bible and an extra BofM for the investigators, plus some room for some pamphlets, and that works well for me at least. THe shoulder bag is great for Pday when we have to carry some things and groceries and stuff, and for when we travel, but for every day proseliting and things i just have that little hand bag.
Last week I bought a sweet Argentina Jersey, i´ll include a picture next week when I can, and hopefully you get the pictures i´ll attach this week. The baptism we have planned FELL THROUGH AGAIN, becasue the kids dad has cancer, and they had to travel to go see him, but we talked to the mom, and she said we will have it this week no matter what.
Plus we have another family of 3 kids we´re going to baptize, which is really good because it´s a family of 11 and we are reactivating the whole family, and baptizing as well. We are finally starting to find the people that are ready. This week we found 3 different families with the parents less active, and the kids need to be baptized, which I found out that basically what this mission is all about, Baptize teh kids, and reactivate the family.
I found out about 80% of our baptisms are like that, and it´s really cool to see the parents come back to church, and feel that gospel in their lives again. This week I´m transfering all my pictures and music and thigns so sorry the email isn´t really long, but next week I´ll include the stories of all the baptisms and the stories of hte families and how we found them. HOpe everyone is doing well, thanks for everything, Love you all. Nos Vemos, suerte

Monday, March 5, 2012

3/05/12

Thanks for all the advice about the emergency stuff, i´ll do that today. Next time i´ll upload a few photos that we took today in the main city, they´re pretty cool, but my camera battery just died sorry, or else i´d do them today.

I still can´t beleive Tean is trying to pick a college, that just sounds so weird and i don´t feel old enough to have a younger brother ready for college! And Tance, that´s awesome you´re playing rugby, it sounds like a lot of fun. Sawyer, I hope you like the new highlights in your hair! You need to send me a picture so that I can see them!

Not a whole lot happened this week. It rained like crazy, but now theSun is out and since it rained so much the humidity is pretty atrocious. The baptism got cancelled again this week, because his mom got called in to work, so this next week we´re hoping for a double baptism with another kid we found, and then next week we´ve got a family baptism planned, so hopefully all that works out.

Today we went to the big city, and to the placita and I bought some awesome stuff, and a Jersey that i´m pretty excited about. The language is coming along much better every day, and it´s not SO frustrating anymore. I can have a pretty regular conversation now with people, so that makes me excited and i don´t have to worry as much. I still have a while to go until i´ll be able to be completely independent, but for now the progress is coming at a good rate, and i´m pretty happy about it.

I found out that you can actually still DearElder me if you want, and I get them the same week, or a week after depending on when you write them, so if anyone wants to do that, tell them that is an awesome way to write me, or they can just do a letter. But the dear elder is really nice because it´s just one piece of paper, and it´s free. So tell people to do that when they ask.

This week was pretty regular, not a whole lot happened that I can think of. It was a little frustrating with that baptism falling through, but we´re still working really hard.

Oh and I found out my companion lied to me, this is hislast transfer! But he didn´t want to tell me because he didn´t want me to think that he wasn´t going to work hard or that he´d be lazy because he´s almost home. So this is his last month, and I think i´m going to send a few things with him to give you all, or at least some letters, rather than me having to send them from here and them take forever.

Sorry this isn´t a whole lot I know, but next week will be better with the photos and things like that. Thanks for all the emails, keep them coming. Tell everyone I love them, and that i´m proud of them. NosVemos, Chau