2000!

Welp, ya fue the first week of this new transfer. I am really loving Soldati. The members are so good to us and there is never a dull moment! There is a lot of growth here in this ward and I am so happy to take it on with all I have.

For the week...

My companion got better slowly, but surely. The climate is pretty crazy here. One day it's really hot and then another it's raining KATS! As a missionary, I pretty much hate the rain with a passion. But yeah, like Ammon did, we just try to see all our challenges as an opportunity and ask what Heavenly Father is trying to accomplish through this situation. It's a lot harder than I had thought.

We had another Zone Council meeting and it turned it really well! We really tried to keep the focus of obtaining the vision of President Ayre and accomplishing that 2000 conversions for this year. I know it was inspiration of God! The Book of Mormon has so many answers, and helps us feel good.

So... This last week I had to say Goodbye to Luisa... for 10 days. I about DIED! Haha, She is seriously such an angel! My straight up Argentine Mom. Whenever I need something or a lunch falls through or we are throwing up or WHATEVER she Always has our back. She is such a special person with so much illumination. And when she decided to go on her little vacation, it made me think a lot. Actually, she was planning on leaving for a month, but didn´t want to be gone too long, so she could still be with us and stuff. So yeah, she is going strong on going to the temple in a year and she already wants her Patriarchal Blessing! I couldn´t be more proud of her. Happiness!

Oh and Happy THANKSGIVING! I totally forgot about it until today when everyone was talking about it! Haha, We will see if we can get some turkey with mashed potatoes somewhere. ;)

https://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#gods-greatest-creation
-One of my favorites

Love all y´all!

Luisa

Baptized August 31

Ammon defends the flocks of King Lamoni

A Humble Argentine?

So this week was pretty awesome and full of stuff to talk about, so... first of all... IT'S HAWT!!!! And thank you all so much for all the emails and love every week. It's so much appreciated. Oh and so yáll know, we just had transfers and..... I am staying! Yup, Elder Costa and I have one more together here in Soldati, so that is awesome. The zone is doing amazing things and believing in themselves, so that is fantastic... So let's get started...

So remember how I said that Elder Engebretsen was made an AP the other week. Well, we had Zone Conference with the Mission President and his APs and yeah, I went on divisions with him and Elder Wade out in their area for the day! It was so awesome to spend the day applying months of missionary practice that day together and seeing each other's progression. I definitely look up to him. He is a stud! And Elder Wade is a champ! I am really thankful for them both. AND Elder Williams (the red head from my MTC district) is now a DL in my zone, so we are gonna be talking everyday now!

As for my companion.... On Friday, it was hot and we had started a fast and well... he just wasn't feeling good. So after stopping by some members places trying to get better, we headed out to teach and so we got to an investigator's house and we started teaching at the door. He was being a little weird and then left in the middle of it all and sat down. So I continued to teach with the member we had accompanying us and then I hear, Bloouughhhhhh! Hahaha, he blew chunks EVERYWHERE! Oh man, it was so hard. We had to go home early.

Then on Saturday... Wow... Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and we were able to listen to him, along with Elder Christensen and Elder Gonzalez from the Seventy. He taught about repentance and preparing the way for the Lord, but what called my attention most was his way of being. He was so calm and seemed like he could look at you and read you like a book. Nothing but love with that guy. And he talked flawless Spanish the entire time! It was awesome! And to explain the title, we were talking about being humble enough and we applied it to a less active member. One of the seventy said the man just needs to humble himself and ask of God, and Elder Christofferson looked at him and said, "A Humble Argentine?" and the whole audience just bursted out laughing. It was so true.

I also was able to do a few baptismal interviews this weekend and it is always a special experience. One of them was named Carmen and is 39 years old. We had a really nice chat and at the end, she asked if I could baptize her! So I was really happy to be able to do that since she was a baptism of the other Elders in Soldati, so it was great!

Dylan is doing great! He should be baptized the 30th of this month! The other investigators are por alli. Just trying to resolve their doubts and difficulties. But we are on the hunt for more!

I love this mission and my life! Livin' the DREAM!

Elder Christofferson and Elder Nelson

Tu Mejor Esfuerzo!

Tu Mejor Esfuerzo!

This last week was incredible! I feel personally, and as a companionship, and as a zone, that great things are to come for La gran Misión Buenos Aires Norte! Up with Hope! So here is a rundown of the week...

On Tuesday, we had a Leadership Council Meeting with President Ayre and I think it was one of the best ones I have been to before. We talked a ton about making real goals and obtaining the vision. For this year of 2014 as a mission, we put the goal of 2000 baptisms. As of right now, we are at 1587. We have 2 months to make it and we felt the Spirit so strongly testifying to us that we can make it! As we counseled together, President showed us this video that we later showed to our zone in a Zone Meeting. Even though it's in español, you can catch the drift. I reflected on my mission and received so many ideas and promptings from the Spirit on how to follow those promptings and achieve more than we thought possible. Here is the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7Y_Cf0-tQ

Anyways, we started working like crazy to get things going like crazy in our zone. We have a great potential. As for us, we focused a ton on NANCY, ESTEBAN, and LETICIA! Nancy is the gramma of the two others and we have really been trying to help them get out of bad circumstances and make a covenant with our Heavenly Father. Not only that, but it is so satisfying to help people receive the gift of the Holy Ghost afterwards. Anyways, after some fasting and praying, and overcoming difficulties together, they got baptized this last Sunday! It was an amazing experience for everybody. Nancy expressed to us that had she of known how you feel after baptism, she would have done it years ago! She also talked of how she just felt such a rush of love from everyone that took part. Like she was a part of something a lot bigger than her or I. She also made me vow to always send emails and stuff till the day I die. I´m cool with that. Haha!

Apart from that, we found a family of 6! And they all came to church this last Sunday! They liked it and had a good experience with the members and all. They are a bit timid, but I really hope that they can make it to their date of the 23rd of this month! We also found a girl of 13 years that was a referral from a member. She has a baptismal date for the 30th of this month! We really are trying to just do everything to the max.

Oh, and remember my companion from the MTC, Elder Engebretsen? Ha, he is the Assistant to the President now! So that is pretty cool cuz we are gonna be in a lot more contact now. This is the last week of the transfer, so next week I will be writing on Tuesday! Hopefully I stay one more here in Soldati!

This Church is true. It is the same as the one Jesus established on the earth. I know it! Thomas Monson is a true Prophet of God.

LIVIN´ THE DREAM!!!!

Oh, and this weekend we have a special visit with Elder D. Todd Christofferson! It will be totally awesome!

The zone scrambling to get in the picture and crashing into us

Bautismo!!!!

With Elder Becerra and his bautismos as well ;)

I looked out the window and what did I see....
Gregory Hankins in the subway train!

Ice Skating, This is Ale! 

Mas Patinaje

Lluvia Missionary!

Lluvia Missionary!

Okay, this week has been WEEETTT! Haha. Well it started off hot, but ended cold and nasty. Haha. And when it rains here, it gets interesting because the sewage system is like the worst! So everything is flooded and wet for dayzz! However, it was a good week, so how about...

Divisions! We did divisions again and I went with Elder Evans de Los Angeles to his area in Pompeya 2. It was pretty good and I got to know him a little more. The mission is great for meeting lots of new people and learning how to establish relationships quickly. Anywho, it was good.

We faced an interesting challenge this week concerning church attendance for investigators. Here Halloween isn't that big of a thing. Almost no one celebrates it, but there is a interesting Bolivian tradition that is... well... LOL. So on Saturday, they make a ton of bread and sculpt them into funky shapes like people, birds, fish, crosses, etc. and then place it on a big table along with candles and fruit and decorations. Then in the middle, they put a picture of a loved one that has passed away. They then pray to the spirit of that person and then on Sunday they all go to the cemetery to pray more to the spirits or something... I'm not really positive if they really did pray at all, but I DO KNOW that everybody we saw were drunk as fish and didn't want to go to church.

But now for those that actually DID go to church. Nancy, Esteban and Letti are all progressing and preparing themselves to get baptized this Sunday! That is getting me super pumped! Nancy's daughter who claimed to be Atheist before, came to church and LOVED it! Which is funny because all the classes talked about the Law of Chastity and she isn't married. Anyways, Jorge and Noemi didn't go because of the Bolivian thing. Just bad influences. Pray that they will all make it. Satan always goes full throttle with those that are about to do great things!

I love all yáll and the excitement that your emails bring to me every week. It's like a spiritual powerade after a crazy football game. Speaking of Football... Go CHARGERS AND BRONCOS!

Livin' the Dream!

The consequences of record-breaking rain hitting Greater Buenos Aires and outlying rural districts in the province during the last five days reached new extremes yesterday, with the number of evacuees topping almost 5,300 people across 23 districts.  Despite heavy rainfall in the area being far from strange during the month of November, government authorities on a municipal, provincial and national level were quick to describe the situation as an emergency, reporting widespread flooding and damage to property in places ranging from highly-populated GBA districts like La Matanza to more rural areas like Luján.  Schools were closed, suburbs lost power and many City streets were effectively cut off by overflowing drainage easements during what was a day of consistent — and at times, heavy — rainfall. Over 170 milimetres of rain had fallen yesterday, authorities reported.  Two peoples’ deaths have been attributed to the flooding.  Tigre, Quilmes, San Fernando, Ensenada and Lomas de Zamora are being reported as the worst-hit zones along with Luján and La Matanza.     -Buenos Aires Herald