10/29/2012

Saturday we had the baptism of Esteban y Mirian!! It was great! I was able to confer Mirian a member yesterday too. The first one i´ve done personally here in Argentina. Yesterday was pretty crazy, the night before last I couldn´t sleep because the thunder was so loud, and the lightning lit up the whole room and was super bright, and I got up to go look outside, and didn´t realize my companion had gotten up too, and we scared the crap out of eachother. But it´s been raining like crazy, and yesterday the bishopric and us, and Esteban y Mirian were the only ones in church, which was pretty crazy to only have like 8 people. But the baptism was great and everything went smoothely.

 

 We have transfers this week so we´ll see what happens. I get a new companion no matter what, but I think i´ll stay here in Santo Tomé for at least another transfer. So that´s exciting, and i´ll let you know. Next Monday we have Zone Conference, so I´ll have to write on Tuesday, just to let you know, so you´re not waiting an email. But i´m doing really well here. It´s getting really hot, but the rain is refreshing us a little bit. But it´s been raining harder for longer than i´ve ever seen. I´ll make my list of what i´d like for my package, and i´ll send it the next week, because I hear around Christmas the packages take a lot longer. Thanks for everything! Hope all is well! Love you all, thanks for the support!

10/22/2012

This week was really big! I hope you all remember Esteban y Mírian from a few weeks ago? The house that we were walking, and I just had a slight impression to go clap and we went, and they attended the conference? Well they have been coming to church for about a month now, and the week before last, we got all the arrangements for them to get married, and we paid for them to get married and everything! So on friday they got married, and we invited them to have a BBQ in their house, and we paid for that too, and this Saturday they´re going to get baptized! Wow, it´s so awesome! They are so humble, and so obediente, and really want to progress in the Church. We are literally seeing how the spirit is changing their lives. It´s so amazing how ready they were. They both gave up alcohol, Esteban stopped working sundays, and they are keeping every single other commandment. It´s amazing to see their progression. If you could all pray that they can get baptized this saturday please, it would be great. THanks for all the prayers. I can feel them.

 

It´s starting to get really hot here, but it´s been raining the past 3 days, so that helps a lot. But it´s extremely humid, which makes it hard to breathe, and we sweat even more in the humidity, but it´s nice to get out of the freezing cold. We have been traveling a lot this week, which is really fun. We had a few conferences this week in Oberá, Misiones, which is pretty close to my other area, and I love traveling and getting with all the other Elders, and it´s a lot of fun to get to know the other areas of the mission. But 3 weeks ago my mission president´s wife had a stroke, and she´s in Buenos Aires recuperating, so be sure to pray for her too please. The mission presidente is in Resistencia now, still managing the mission, and he goes to visit every once in a while, but he´s doing well. On Wednesday we had interviews with him via Skype, which was pretty interesting, but pretty funny. We also are teaching some really great people. Andrea Santarén. She´s a reference from a member, and she´s extremely sincere. She´s about 40 years old, and her husband works on a farm really far away, so he´s only here for about 15 days at a time, and she´s got 5 kids, so that´s pretty rough on her, but she´s really awesome, and she´s going to get baptized in 2 weeks we are hoping. We are also teaching some other really good people. My companion is finishing his mission this week, and he´s heading back to Peru, so that´s a little sad. We get along really well, and we work extremely well together. He´s a really great companion, and It´ll be a little hard, but i´m excited for a new companion and to get to know someone else!

Something I learned well this week: Sometimes we think about how much we are going to give the Lord. DON¨T. Give it all and he will teach us that no sacrifice to him is in vain. I learned that really well this week. We worked so hard I could barely walk last night basically! But I´m really happy about it. Thanks for all the support, and for the prayers. Hope all is well. love you all! Love Elder Allsup

10-15-12

This place is closing, so i´m unable to write a letter, we don´t have internet for the rain, i´ll try to write next week, sorry, love you, all is well,  I love you, thanks for everything. Have fun. Tell everyone to check next week for a really really awesome email from me, lots of cool thigns happening! Gonna be a great week, so tell everyone on Facebook to look at the next letter! Love you all tell all hi for me

10-8-12

Hey Everyone! Pretty crazy week, It´s rained all week pretty much without stop, but this Tuesday, a week ago, we were about 2 miles from the apartment, at about 7 pm, fairly late in the afternoon, watching the lightning storms while walking to an appointment, when the Zone Leaders called, and asked if we had food, and water, and we responded that yes we had water and food. Then they said, look we don´t have a lot of time, we have to notify the rest of the zone, but go back to your apartment right now, and if your apartment doesn´t hold up, go to the church. A little puzzled, we just said, alright, no problem, and started walking toward the pension, when a HUGE storm hit. The biggest i´ve ever seen in my life. The wind was knocking us over, the rain literally hurt hitting our backs, and the streets started to fill with water really quickly. We were in a really really poor part of our area, and it was a disaster. The power lines started to fall, and we were walking in about 1 1/2 feet of water, watching the water carry things down the street. It was literally the first time I have ever been physically scared of a storm, and literally the first time i´ve ever been scared that something very serious might happen to me or my companion. It was really really dangerous, and we started to basically run to the apartment, and it was literally like trying to run in a little river because of all the water. I still can´t believe we made it to the pension without any harm, but we did. Both of our umbrellas were pretty destroyed, and my boots were pretty messed up, but they´re fine now. It was amazing! I don´t have a lot of time because it´s still storming here, and the internet is going in and out, but i´ll write more next week. Hope you all loved General Conference! It was great, and really cool to be able to translate things. Some of the messages didn´t translate or something so I was able to translate for our branch! It was pretty cool, but I hope we can all put into practice all the things we´ve learned! I love you all, i´ll write more next week. Have a wonderful week, sounds like everyone is good, i´m proud of you all! Have fun on your trips and things! Love Elder Allsup

PS. Tean go on your mission with the good news!!! Congrats with working with Andy, sounds like it´ll be great, work hard and have fun with it!

10/1/2012

Hey Everyone!

Wow, Tance coached? That´s pretty cool, seems like it´d be a little hard, but that´s cool he did well. That´s great he´s getting good grades. I know that is something that will help anyone in their life, and to set good habits forever. That Missionary retreat sounds like fun. What exactly did they do? That´d be great if Tean could be working 2 jobs, because I know that working really helps, and it doesn´t matter what type of work, it´s all great. That´s really awesome Tean got his Eagle. That´s something I wish I would have done. I know it´s soemthing that he´ll never forget. And Sawyer got braces? Woah that´s crazy. Sounds like a hassle. The puppie sounds like fun, you´ll have to send a picture of it so I can see. Yorkies are pretty fun. I hope we have Goats milk when I get home, whether we have tons of goats or not, I hope we are still able to have the milk!

General conference will be good, we are going to travel about 2 hours to watch it, the same place we went last sunday, and it should be a lot of fun. We´re really excited. The food is good, I´m trying to eat a lot better, it´s really hard with our schedule, but i´m trying. Any tips for losing weight, or a good snack that´s easy to make? This summer is going to be hot, and i´m going to try and excercise a lot better and eat a lot better so I don´t gain weight. I´m learning to make a lot of good food, and my companion is from Peru, and he´s teachign me to make a lot of things too, so that´s good. I haven´t gotten any packages yet, but that doesn´t mean they haven´t arrived, if they don´t get here in a few weeks i´ll let you know.

Some things really cool yesterday - Maria, our convert, got called to be the Releif Society Presidente! She has less than a Month being a member and she´s already the Presidente, how cool! So the next time any of you don´t feel ready, Just think of her! Less than a month being a member and she´s already got a huge calling. It´s amazing to see how prepared they are and how willing they are to serve the Lord, because her daughter, our other convert is in the young womens already. How cool! I also gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting, which was pretty cool to do it all in castellano and not have to write anythign word for word.

Other than that, not a whole lot happened this week, still working hard, and trying to find those that the Lord has prepared. Thanks for all your prayers, I know they are helping me, and supporting me. Stay strong everyone, and prepare for the general conference!

I love you all, thanks for everything! Love Elder Allsup