6/25/2012

Hey Everyone! Sounds like all is well! Sawyer, I like your hair! And that´s good all the animals are getting sold and things! I hope all is doing well! It will be fun to work together when I get home.  That´s cool that you all went to the temple like that. I miss the Temple, it really does help us so much.  

This last week has been really awesome for us!  Last week as we were walking back from the computer place, a lady stopped us and asked if we could teach her english, turns out she´s a member! And she came to church last week! So yesterday at church, we had 10 of our investigadors come!! And to top it off 10 of our less actives  that we are reactivating came too! 20 poeple that we were working with this week came!!! It has been such an awesome week!

To try to give it justice, this week has been super eventful, but i´m not going to go in order of when they happened, so that it´s a little easier to get the full emotional effect. haha.  But anyways, on Saturday, we ate with one of the recent converts of the other Elders, and it was the first time they´d given lunch to the Missionaries, so we show up, and they´re really poor, so we weren´t expecting much, however, we get there and they had boughten all new silverware to feed us, and make us feel comfortable, and they basically treated us like kings. It was so humbling for me to see how much that we meant to them.  Some days I really wish I could just give everything I have to these amazing people. 

After we ate with that family, we went to go contact a reference that another family gave us, and it was some really exaggerated evangelist guy, that was basically preaching to us, trying to fight, but I don´t fight with people. I don´t allow people to start fighting with us, because I start to get angry that they are saying things about our church, and it happened early on in my mission one time with Elder Taylor, and it´s a good thing I didn´t know really really good castellano yet because I was going to kill him. So I decided early on in my mission I´m not going to fight with poeple. From here on in the story I would really like everyone to try to picture this! It´s so much better, and I promise I´m not lying, this really happened two days ago! We are sitting outside in the street, with kids walking around and playing, and people playing with their kids and all that stuff, Anyways we had a pretty good lesson after he realized we weren´t going to be arguing with him, and towards the end he starts to preach to us, yelling and "Praising Jesus the almighty Lord!!!" And I start to laugh, and i´m trying so hard to not bust up, so I just asked him if he´d offer a prayer so we could leave. Anyways, he says that he´d love to. So we bow our heads, and he starts chanting really loud. All the people in the street are staring at us, i´m starting to laugh pretty uncontrolably plugging my nose with all my might so I don´t show it. But the best part was, that I opened my eyes, and with my head bowed, I start to see his legs coming towards us, and then I feel his hand start to rest upon my head, and he begins to "bless us" and i´ll give you a few of the quotes he said: (As he´s yelling very loudly) "Bless these two young preachers. Bless their blood that they might walk strong and preach your word, Bless their tongues that the things they say will touch the hearts of many. Give them strenght to keep going strong" And just a ton of things like that. He went on for like 4 minutes chanting like that! And I look over at my companion and he´s plugging his nose as hard as I am to try not to laugh. Ah it was the coolest experience ever! It was so hilarious. We had to stop walking because we couldn´t stop laughing! I´m laughing as i´m typing this it was so much fun. Ah, anyways.

To start the week off, on wednesday one of our lessons fell through, so we felt like we needed to go do a little exploring, and we found the coolest family ever. The family Almeida, and they are 5, The mom is a member less active, and she told us she´s been praying for a long time now to find the truth, and to find her way back, and here come us, just exploring and having fun! She has been waiting for so long, and just the releiving look on her face was so worth it to see. The coolest thing, was we clapped the door, they´re super poor, and the little girl came out, and said, What do you need? Kinda snotty, and we were like, oh great, another pissed off person. Because when we go to contact people during like 2-4 in the afternoon, everyone is sleeping during that time, but anyways we told her we really needed to talk with her mom, because we had felt to go to that house, she comes out, and we sit down and start talking and it was just like someone had just lifted 30 pounds off her back. It was so cool. They came to church yesterday too, and they LOVED it. All the members were so nice to each of them, and all of them started making friends instantly, and it was just such a great experience for them.  Anyways since wednesday we´ve had like 4 lessons with them already, and last night was the coolest, we had a lesson with them a few hours after church, and we watched the movie, Finding Faith in Christ, in their really really poor, dirt floor, wooden slate house, with chickens and rabbits crawling all over the floor, and the volume wasn´t super loud, so I was worried they´d get all bored and not pay attention, but before I knew it, almost all of them were tearing up, and the spirit was so strong. One of hte strongest in my mission so far, because we NEVER teach inside of houses. This was like the 5th time total, but it was so awesome. I could literally feel my testimony of Jesus Christ growing. I have never felt so much love from him in that moment, looking around at that family that had been waiting for us for so long. But anyways the movie finished, and she has a really bad asthma problem, which almost made her go to the hospital yesterday, so we offered her a blessing, and she asked that I gave her the blessing, which made me a little nervous, tiny tiny bit because I usually do the annointing of the oil, I haven´t given more than 2 or 3 actually blessing parts in Castellano, but anyways during the blessing, I could really feel the power of the priesthood. It was a really cool experience to be able to exercise my faith, and preisthood power, and It was so awesome.  It was the first true time in my mission, other than the time I gave all of you blessings, that I could really feel the power of the priesthood work through me to bless someone else that was truly in need. The spirit was extremely powerful, and when I finished the blessing, she looked up at me, bawling, and just gave me one of the most sincere thank you´s i´ve ever seen in my life.  I wish I could type better so that everyone could understand how amazing it was to see that, and how yesterday changed my life. It really changed my view of so many things, and strengthened my testimony of our Savior so much, that It really gave me so much excitement for the rest of my mission. It made me understand my true purpose as a missionary. The sad thing is that I might not be here to see them get baptized. We have transfers again tomorrow, so tomorrow night i´ll find out if i´m staying or if i´m going to another area. It´s pretty probable that I leave, because I´ve been here since January 9th, and to tell you the truth it´ll be really fun to see another area, but at the same time really difficult to leave these people. We ate lunch with Mauricio and Sergio and their whoel famiily yesterday, and it really felt like a regular sunday, eating with my own family. I can´t wait to return here and have you meet all of them. They´re so awesome.

Thanks for all the support, and all the emails, sounds like everyone is doing great! Thanks mom for all the spiritual insight, it really helps a lot.

Dad- Espero que haya leido mi email la semana pasada, porque estoy muy agradecido por lo que usted ha hecho por mi en mi vida. Acá todos hablan en Vos, pero los misioneros siempre hablan en Usted, en todo el mundo. Me imagino que ya sabía eso, pero está bien. No puedo esperar hasta que podamos venir acá con toda la familia, para que ustedes puedan conocer a las personas que enseño yo.  Ese dia será muy importante para mi. Espero que usted pueda hablar bastante! Jaja na chiste no mas, pero los Argentinos son muy locos, en serio, hablan muy raros, especialmente porque estamos muy cerca de Paraguay, y hay muchísimas personas que hablan Guatane´e y Portuguese, así que el idioma es un poco de todos!

THanks for all I love you!  

-- Elder Quynton Allsup

Posadas, Misiones

Argentina Resistencia Mission

6/18/2012

Hola Everyone,

Mom- Thanks for all the package, I haven´t got it yet but i´m sure it took you forever, and Thanks for sending me all the pictures! I know it takes a lot of time to do things like that.They are all awesome, and everyone looks so much bigger! Especially Tance! Holy Crap it´s weird looking at him! That´s insane that his foot is broken! Is it his ankle or like his foot or? Sounds pretty cool. That´s cool he gave a talk, sounds like it was pretty good, wish I could have seen it, you´ll have to send me a copy of it or something.  I hope everyone had a good father´s day, it was pretty good here, other than all the drunk people. People here for holidays just use it as an excuse to get drunk and party a lot with a ton of loud music. 

Sounds like Tean is doing well with his job! Congradulations that he´s almost working full time, sounds like it´ll help him a lot, and hopefully he´ll have a ton of money saved up. Tean, you should really start a savings account, so that you don´t waste your money. I wish I would have done mine earlier, it really really helps a ton not to have to wait till the last minute to buy things, or not to have money when opportunities come up.  I really think you should do one, and really try to manage your money really well, that´s something I know that I´m going to do better when I get back. Mom and Dad manage their money really well, and it´s something I look up to them for, and we should all feel really blessed to have parents that can teach us such a huge thing in life. 

That´s awesome dad got "Dad of the Year". I would give him the same award! Thanks for everything dad, you really have taught me things that i´ve used in the mission more than I can account for. I have literally seen with other Elders the lack of parenting in their habits, and their work ethic, and I´m really thankful to have a dad that has taught me how to work hard, efficient, and that work doesn´t have to be "work", and that you can have fun, and I´ve been able to use that a lot here in the mission, so thank you very much for that, and all the other things you´ve taught me. I´ve not been scared of anything in my life, because of what you´ve taught me, and i´ve always been able to go after the things i´ve wanted in life, and been able to achieve, because you´ve taught me not to care what poeple think, and what others say. I´ve been able to acheive quite a bit until now in my life, and I owe almost all of it to you, and to mom for helping me understand so many life principles. So thank you so much for everything you´ve done for me.  

Sawyer, stop growing up! My companion and the other Elders from my apartment saw a picture of you and now they won´t leave me alone, saying how they´re going to marry you and you´re going to go live in their countries! haha it´s pretty funny. That´s really cool of you to clean Tance´s and Koa´s rooms.  Thanks for all the things you´ve done for me to help out too. 

Last week in Centro, we went with the other Edlers, and I love haggling so much, and i´m so good at it that They all have me haggle for them to get them awesome deals, and I love haggling so much I get myself in trouble, because I get them to drop the price so much, I can´t help but buy the thing, even when I only started to haggle just for fun, haha. I learned that In Guatemala, and It´s cool to be able to do it! 

 It still hasn´t cooled down a whole lot yet. Still sweating a lot, but this week it rained like pretty much the whole week, and it was pretty brutal. The humidity just absolutely kills me. It´s like almost painful! Nobody does ANYTHING when it rains here. I mean nothing. Not even let us in. Not even the members let us in sometimes! It´s pretty brutal when it rains, and it´s a big toll on the mission work.  But all in all this week wasn´t too bad, it was pretty fun and I learned a lot of things. It´s pretty funny, every time we teach Sergio, he comes and gives us a Huge hug and thanks us for everything. I love it haha. He´s such an awesome person, and he´s so thankful for us for helping him and bringing him to the truth. Nothing makes me never want to stop being a missionary more than that feeling. 

Earlier this week we did Divisions with the Zone Leaders, and I got to know their area, and it was really cool. We went to a hospital to give a member a blessing, and it was so nice inside that it was the most at home i´ve felt so far in Argentina. I couldn´t beleive it!!  And we gave him a blessing at it was really cool, and it taught me a lot how much it means to people.

Last Night we went to one of our investigators house to teach, his Name is Carlos Dasilva and his wife and kids. They aren´t married, but the´re trying to get married, because he´s still married with another woman, and he´s trying to get baptized, and he´s read the book of mormon 2 times already without being a member. He´s basically a member, but just lacks the title haha. 

But anyways, his son was there, and Let me try to describe his son. Simply: He´s easily, (Not exagerating at all) literally over 320 lbs, and he was a tiny bit drunk, and he began to tell us all the things he does to his family. He beats them, he leaves them for a few days without food and things, and he´s a complete tool. But anyways as he was talking I was getting a little fired up because of the thigns he was telling us, so I started to get a little irritated and start telling him all the thigns he´s doing wrong, and start giving him scriptures that basically just condemn him, and he starts to get a little angry, because he doens´t like that a little white boy is telling him he´s going to hell if he doesn´t stop, but the cool thing, was I wasn´t scared at all. It didn´t occur to me he was about 2342424 times my size, but for soem reason I wasn´t scared. And I was really bold with him, and it felt really good. It was a cool experience, however if i had the chance to do it again, I think i´d pass.  But the mom was really happy that I did that, she thanked us for at least being bold with him and telling him the things he´s doing aren´t okay. That was pretty cool.  But anyways, sounds like everyone is doing really well, I love you all, and I hope all is well, thanks for everything, if anyone needs anything let me know! Seeya next week, Nos Vemos!   

6/11/2012

PHOTOS:

The first photo is of Mauricios birthday, we had some cake and I gave him a watch!

The other few are of our pension!

How is everyone doing?

Sawyer- That thing about tances team and the pants is hilarious, all my companions laughed when I told them hahaha. First, mom, did you send the package US Postal Service? This week I found out my companion has Gardia! That´s why he has been really sick lately haha. He throws up all the time, but he doesn´t really feel sick, but that explains why, because he´s got a bug in him now.  Yesterday we had a good sacrament meeting, and it was cool to hear all the testimonies of everyone. It´s really cool how much they testify of all the missionaries, and how greatful everyone is that their ward has 2 sets of missionaries, because it´s pretty rare that a ward has 2 pairs of missionaries here, and it´s really cool to see how many people we´ve been able to activate, and to physically see the attendance grow each week. The family of Esteban Vallejos, the kid we baptised last week is already becoming active, and she asked us how she can start paying her tithing! Same with mauricio´s mom. It´s such a cool blessing. Even though it´s not a baptism, it still gives me the same joy and happiness in seeing a less active reactivate themselves.  Even though we have to correct a lot of hte members, and some of the thigns they say, or do in the church, it´s still really fun being there. It´s a little difficult because if they are teaching a lesson, and they say something that isn´t true, or something that is against what they should say, we have to make sure it´s very clear and then we have to tell them how it really is, which sometimes is a little hard because I love these people so much, and I don´t want them to get offended.  I Don´t think they get offended, but still. I´m really starting to lose myself in the work now. It´s hard to even remember what day it is, and what month it is even. I can´t believe how fast the time is flying by!  I love Argentina so much. I can´t wait to bring you all back here and show you all the cool things here.  It´s pretty cool to think that I´m here, Tanner is in Fiji, Aaron is in Japan, and McKay is going to Oklahoma. And when Josh gets his call he´ll be somewhere in the world, and Westley is in California, and all the other places our little friend group is going! It´s really cool to see how everyone is slowly getting further and further apart, and that we´re all starting out lives and doing what the Lord wants us to do.  Sorry it isn´t much today, but thanks for all the support!

The family reunion sounds like so much fun!  Sounds like there are a lot of thigns getting done in the back yard! SOunds like it´s going to be pretty awesome when I get back!  And it sounds like we´ll have a new Ford Explorer! That would be sweet!  Thanks for sending me the ideas for the activity, we´re definitely going to do it, sounds like it´ll be great!  Sounds like you´ve all got some fun plans for the summer, and the lagoon! I miss lagoon a lot.  But the mission is much cooler :) Thanks for putting all the package together for everything, and thanks for always helping me out with everything.  I love you all, sounds like all is well there, i´m going to be writing some letters home, and hopefully they get there! Love you all. Nos Vemos

6/4/2012

Hey Everyone, not a whole lot this week, sorry! I sent some photos in the other email of the baptism we had this week, hope you like them! His name is Esteban, and hes really awesome! His family are all members but inactive, and we are working with them to activate them all so thats really good.  The mission made a really cool Video, go to youtube and type in: La Mision Argentina Resistencia - May 2012

Im not sure if thats exactly it but you can play around until you find it. We forgot to send in all our baptisms so im not in it yet, ill be in th enext one, but its still really really cool to see, i want everyone to go watch it! And mom or dad, can you please find the songs on it somehow, or maybe ask Charli to do it, I know she´d do it, by the lyrics or by a music recognizer or somethign and find the entire albums to the songs, and send those to me somehow? By email or something please? It has some really cool pictures of argentina, and some awesome other stuff. We are going to send our pictures so that we are in the next one. 

Also, will someone please send me a ton of screenshots of my blog? I would really like to see it. Tons of pictures of all the pages and how its set up and stuff please? I would like to see how it looks and what the people are seeing! Like the homepage and stuff!

Yesterday for church, we brought the family of Esteban, the kid that got baptized, and the family is 14 in total, 2 parents and 12 kids! But the mom was there in church, everyone is in their propriate clases for ages, and then one of the primary teachers runs in my class, and tells us that one of the kids ran out of the church. He ran like 2 blocks down teh street, and we were running like as fast as we could to catch him haha, and when we caught him he was bawling and was running home. And the best part, was that it was raining really hard the whole day, and as im running to get him, i slip in the mud, and got all muddy.... again! I have fallen like 5 times in the mud in my mission! But it was pretty funny.  But thats about all I have this week, sorry! Thanks for all the support, love you all, have a great week, im proud of you all for all the things mom is telling me! Tean is graduating and stuff, thats awesome, good job! Keep going strong!

Love Elder Allsup