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

5/28/2012

Hey Everyone!

Fotos: First one is of me and Elder Posadas, one of the elders in the other room connected to ours, hes from El Salvador, and he came to this area with me, so weve been together for like 5 months now and were pretty good amigos now! Hes awesome we always play around, we set up a hammock in the room and were playing around on it!

Second is of us at lunch with a member that feeds us every other week, but they dont eat because they feed us because theyre so poor, theyre so awesome.

Third is us doing service for Luis and his family, he needed to put in a big gate and were helping him move a lot of dirt for it, it was pretty fun!

Fourth is service too

Fifth is us at the baptism with Sergio,we had a double baptism with the other elders!

 Sixth is the same as 5, hope you enjoy them all!

This week was pretty fun, but fairly rough at the same time. If you guys remember Blanca? She was about to get baptized and a few days before we found out she was going to go live with some guy, remember? ANyways this whole last 2 weeks weve been calling like crazy and passing by the house to try to get a hold of her, only to find out she actually moved out and basically fled off with the husband of her next door neighbor...... The worst part is, is that shes 25 years old, and the neighbor is...... 58!!! We couldnt beleive it.... Its pretty sad though because we cant get a hold of her at all, and she is completely gone for now at least.  But some fun news is that weve started a war with the other elders, and ill be teaching, and open my bag to get my scriptures and ill find Something crazy in my bag, like 2 days ago there was bug spray, and yesterday there was a spatula, and im sure today ill find like a live cockroach or something haha. But its pretty fun to mess around a little with them like that. 

How is everyone doing? Suonds like everyone is having fun! Sounds like Tean had fun with his graduation and his dances and stuff! Is he excited to graduate? Tance sounds like hes doing well in his sports and thats too bad he couldnt play last game, im sure they would have won with him. And sawyer sounds like youre just kinda going with the flow! But you better not get a boyfriend, or ill fly myself home to kick his butt.. Mom and Dad, anything new? Sounds like memorial day should be fun! These past few days have been the independence day for Argentina, so the street has been pretty crazy with a lot of music and stuff, but its a lot of fun!  Other than that not a whole lot is going on! Ive been experimenting a lot with food these past few days. Today I made pancake batter but I fried it in oil, and then put some sugar on it, oh it was amazing! Its really fun to learn how to make things like that, especially because the other elders are from El Salvador, and the other is from Uruguay, so we all have awesome recipes to contribute.  Im learning to cook a lot from the members too, which is pretty fun.  Ill have a lot of good recipes to ake when I get back.

Oh my companion got sick again, and the Mission presidents wife made him do an analysis so hes had to poop in a bag for the last week and keep it in a little plastic cup. Pretty gross but I laugh so hard everytime I hear that bag whiggling around in the bathroom. Its so funny. Weird but its the mission life! Also, last night we met a person thats super super adventista, a really popular church that was started from a lady that was the secratary of Joseph Smith and she had a dream telling her Joseph was wrong, so she decided to be a prophet, anyways its really almost exactly like our church beecause she took all the teachings of Joseph Smith and its really popoular here,but its so much like ours that the people are really nice, anyways we found one last night, and hes super nice, and he gave us 3 HUGE garbage bags full of cookies! Because here there is a line of a brand of cookies thats really popular and the adventistas are the ones who run it, and theyre amazing, I always buy them, but he gave us so many!!! He also gave us an adventista bible and one of his adventista books, so now well know how to destroy them even more.  And it was so awesome! I almost got baptized adventista because he was so nice and shared so many cookies with us! Haha not really.

This last sunday was really cool, because Mauricios family, and Sergio, which is Mauricios older brother, well their mom has been a member for like 20 years, but she hasnt come to church for a long time, so on monday, this last monday, I told them I had a goal for them, that I wanted to see all of them in the church at the same time, because she hadnt seen mauricio pass the sacrament yet, and I committed them to all be in the church at the same time, they whined a little but said yes, and yesterday they were all there! It was so cool, and tonight we have a meeting wih them, im really excited to see how the mom liked it. Shes so awesome, she helps us so much.

There was some other stuff I was going to tell you but I forgot what I had written on my little paper in the pension, so Ill have to share it next week.

THanks for everthing everyone, stay strong and I love you all!!

Love Elder Allsup

PS.  Yeah I get milk here, and its not too bad, but it comes either in a bag of 1 liter, or in a box of one liter, its pretty funny looking but its not too bad tasting or anything! I do miss goat milk a lot!

May 14, 2012

Hey I don´t have pretty much any time, these computers haven´t worked really at all, so i´ll send the pictures in another email if i have time.

Just a few things really quick. Dad- How was my castellano? I speak better than that. It was really hot in the booth and I felt rushed because there were people behind me. I speak better than that. But hopefully you got to see that i´ve improved pretty quickly.  It was really good to talk to everyone! Everyone sounds really good!  Mom will you please send me some EFY songs, a lot if you can, especially the years I went. One is ´´Steady and Sure´´ and the other has Purify in the name I think, i´m not sure, but if you could figure out that would be amazing.  Also if you could send me 2 mini books of mormon in english, the really really mini ones.  Also a copy of Elder Uchdtorfs Talk in genereral priesthood session this last session.  Here are some of the pictures, I´ll send more next week, this computer really doesn´t work very well. I love you all, and I might get transfered! I´m pretty excited! I love you thanks for everything.  I´ll include the pictures next week of more details. The ones that are there are of my Elephant speaker, oh and Sergio is going to cut his hair! I gave him one of my white shirts and ties and now he wants to cut his hair and stuff for the priesthood! It´s really cool. That family gave me like a ton of cool stuff i´ll show you next week. Sergio cut one of his dread locks off for me and gave it to me! But don´t worry i washed it! haha Love you all, Nos Vemos next week!

Love Elder Allsup

May 7, 2012

May 7, 2012

Hey Everyone

This week was pretty good. It´s a little nerve racking because I may get transferred to a different area, not this tuesday but the next, and we have a baptisms planned for this Saturday, so we´re really trying to work hard to prepare him. His name is Sergio, and he´s like 22 years old, and the older brother of Mauricio, the little kid that got baptized the other week, and he wants to change, so he came and found us about 3 weeks ago. Our investigators that are really close to baptism right now are: Blanca, she´s 24 and pregnant, and we just got a little lucky by finding her, but she´s progressing pretty good. She´s got a lot of doubts about some wierd things, but she told us, "I always feel so calm and feel really good when you guys come over" and now she´s getting a good testimony of the Book of Mormon and things like that, and it´s working out to be really good. She´s really really nice, and she´s had a pretty crazy life. But I know she´ll get baptized. Our new Pension is really fun, because it´s with the other elders, and we´re all together, so you can imagine that it´s pretty fun and we´re always having a good time.  The weather here is getting a little bit cooler. During the day it´s finally starting to be pretty nice, and a little breezy every once in a while, but other than that it´s still a little hot. Today we went to centro, and I bought some pretty cool things, I´ll send some pictures next week. 

That´s cool that you are going to be able to work in the Temple again. I know how much you loved it. Mom thanks for always sending me insight, and all the things you send me. You always know what people need and you always give the encouragement for what people need, and you always listen to the spirit. Thank you so much for always doing that and always helping me in your emails. Dad thanks for always giving advice. You always give such great advice that is somehow always something i´ve been thinking about lately or something that I´ve needed to help me to help others. You´re always so aware of people around you and I´m so greatful you taught me that.

These pictures are of us today in front of Paraguay, across behind the water is Paraguay, and the huge river, when we come back to visit this place we are going to go fishing in it, it´s pretty awesome. Oh and us messing around in the pension, and a huge spider we found.

This week we have had to clap doors for pretty much the first time in my mission. We had to clap for about 2 hours the other day, and that was pretty awful, It really drains you having people just say no a ton and walking all day. We also had a Noche de Hogar again, and we had a lot of the little kids there which was pretty fun. We had 13 candles, and we turned off the lights and stuff and we lit all the candles and said that they represent the prophet and his 12 apostles, and then we explained the apostasy and how all the candles got blown out, leaving the world in darkness. It was a pretty cool idea we came up with and each of the little kids got to blow a candle out to participate. Also we have been helping the members out a lot lately, which is really fun to do, and it´s going to be really hard to leave this place with how attached i´m getting to the members, so I hope I don´t leave quite yet. Plus me and my companion have worked a lot of things out. We´re really growing to love eachother, and i´ve really had to humble myself a lot, which really helped me. I had to learn that it´s okay to let other people do things their way for a little while.  He´s taught me a lot of things, and it´s pretty miraculous to see how the Lord works. Even though i´ve seen that a lot in my mission, it still surprises me every time.

I love you all, and i´ll talk to you on Sunday, thanks for everything, Hope all is well!

Elder Quynton Allsup

Posadas, Misiones

Argentina Resistencia Mission

5/2/2012

FOTOnumero 1, We moved our pension, and this shower doesnt let me turn around all the way because its so small.

Number 2 When we made tacos the other sunday!

Numero 3 Just some of us playing around!

Same with4

Same with 5 with my other companion Elder Taylor

           Hola everyone. I get to call the 13 of May! Not too long!! Should be pretty cool! Im excited.  Thanks everyone for the emails. Mom thanks for all your awesome experiences to help give me motivation. It really helps to hear other peoples testimonies, because I am always giving mine all day long and I actually dont hear them that often.  All the cool stories are great to hear also.

          Dad thanks for your email, I always really look forward to the advice you give me.  This week was pretty rough, we moved our pension this monday, so that is the reason we couldnt email, sorry, but we are right next to the other elders haha its apretty fun time. I am including a picture with all the books of mormon with all the languages that we have in this mission. English, Castellano, Guatanee, and Portuguese. Its pretty cool to see how many are used. Also a picture with Mauricio, our little stud convert, who just got a calling to be 2nd councelor in his deacons quorum. When we told him he said "Does that mean I get to come with you guys to preach the gospel??!" It was the coolest thing ever. We take him to lessons with us too. He keeps saying how bad he wants to meet Sawyer. haha But I told him maybe when he learns english. So now he wants to learn english haha.  But hes such a stud. I have come really close to him and his family.

         ALso there is a picture of me on a stage. Yesterday we had a talent show in the church, and me and Elder Posadas, the other elder from El Salvador taught a "mock lesson" for the talent show and the investigator was a member who pretended to be drunk and it was hilarious. We got a lot of laughs out of it! The bishop is the other guy, and the one in the jersey is the mock investigator. It was really fun.  Sorry    I dont have much time to write but i hope you all like the pictures, I love you all tell everyone hi for me!