Livin’ the Lugano Dream!

Good Afternoon to all y’all!  Livin’ the Dream?  I thought so... This week was pretty awesome! We honestly saw so many tender mercies of the Lord and I’m so Happy to just BE here.

First of all, Gerardo and Eduardo... They didn’t go to church last week... But we found them again and they went to church this last Sunday! AND! Their grandma came here for a few months to live with them and SHE went to church as well! The 2 chicos should be getting baptized this next Sunday; so be praying for them.

Also, Nicole and Angie are doing REALLY well. This last week we got together and said a prayer to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and afterwards it was quiet and Nicole said, “I believe it”. !!!!!! WOW! What a blessing! They also came to church and we will have their baptism on Sunday as well. ;)

Seba.... I seriously love this guy so much! He has just gotten sooo much happier since he decided to be baptized. He is still really stoked to get married as well and is keeping his commitments. Something awesome happened last night though.... He has NEVER prayed in front of missionaries or ANYONE before. And the missionaries have been teaching him on and off for years now! And last night we found us three alone for a minute and I don’t know why, but I just said, “Alright, it’s just us now. Let’s pray as men”.  It felt weird saying those words like that, but he bowed his head and said a little prayer!!!! WOW! Seriously, so amazing! The spirit was so so strong! And tonight him, our ward mission leader, and us will be going out to eat, and then as a surprise, our ward mission leader is gonna buy him a suit! HOLY COW BLESSINGS! Just so you know, they live in a shack basically. He will be so happy! Still going strong for the 14th for his baptism.

We also found a part member family and are working with a little girl named Lorenza. She has a baptismal date for the 21st of this month! The Lord really has his hand in this work!

Thanksgiving was... HOT! I didn’t even realize it was thanksgiving until we went over to a members to get some food. I think it’s better this way though. The holidays don’t get me trunky at all. It’s just another day in Argentine paradise.

Speaking of Holidays our mission has made it a goal to have a “White Christmas”.  As in getting people in baptismal clothing. hahaha! As a mission we are trying for 230 baptisms for the month of December! We can do it!

Anyways, Missions are pretty bomb. I love it. Really tough at times and I get home exhausted, but super awesome. It’s so worth it.

A man never rises above the stature he carves out in the mission field. (props to jake)

“I cannot jump, you’ll have to toss me! ... Don’t tell the elf”

Loves

Matching Ties!!!
That day we taught about how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
are the same in purpose, but different.
Kinda like dress the same, but are different missionaries.

Villa!

Me and Nehemias!

Aldapi Kids!

Sunset

My Thanksgiving

Awesome day... HOT!

Clowin’ around. ;)

Pic with Rulo (curl) the town drunk. Ha!

Chillin’ with the Kids

More villa

More Aldapi

Doctors of Love!

Hey Fam-Bam! Merry Thanksgiving this week! It doesn’t feel like it at all here. Just super hot. Love it! Anyways, this week was super fun and we saw quite a bit of success. The Lord is seriously my Rock!

So to explain the title... Remember Sebastian? Well this week we went with him to set up his wedding! We took out a turn... I don’t know what it is in English, but... sacamos un turno por ellos and now they will be getting married the 13th! And guess what that means!? Baptism on the 14th! Yess! And that isn’t all, we had a recent convert doing the same thing so we said, “Well we did it once, let’s do it again!” So now she will be getting married the 18th of December! WOOO!!! "Some people call me the space cowboy!" It’s awesome to help people in such a worthy cause. Blessing families foreva!

This last week  E l d e r   B y w a t e r  and I found an AWESOME family! The Pacheco family. It’s a cool story... So one day we were with a member and we were going to teach an investigator. Well turns out they weren’t there! After a second, I just said, “Well there is a reason we have a member with us here and at this place, so let’s knock a door and teach someone”. We never knock doors. So we knocked a door and met this family. From Peru, but super awesome! The 2 daughter, Angie (14) and Nicole (16) came to church this last Sunday and will be baptized the 8th of December! And they already love the ward. This week they are going to a church dance with the young women. Niccce!

I ate Iguana this week! Not kidding you. We ate Iguana. But it was actually surprisingly good! Like a mix between chicken and fish. And guess who we were eating it with… Seba and his family. And then Seba made a joke of eating flies for desert and I told him I’d give him 10 pesos if he ate a fly and he did it! Siiiiick! Love that guy.

I went on divisions with my district leader,  E l d e r   Y a n e z  this week. He is from Chile. It was super cool to work with him and learn some new things. :)

Most of you don’t know, but I used to have night terrors as a kid... Well.. I didn’t have one this week. But I did have a nightmare! I dreamt that I went home! Seriously though, at the end of the dream I was just crying super hard! And when I woke up, I just started thanking my Heavenly Father that I was still here. It was cool.

And also, just thought I’d say that I’m thankful for the Priesthood. Seriously. Super Hero’s got nothing on the Sacerdocio. I’m so humbled and grateful for the chance that Heavenly Father has taken on me to let me wield such a power. Loves!

Until next week, I suppose! I love all of ya!

“There is always hope!” -Aragorn

Took a shortcut through the park!

View from outside the house

Familia Pacheco
(yes I know I’ve gotten fat) ;)

Martin!  Seba's son.

Elder Estrada
(other Elder of Lugano)

Playing soccer on p-day at the church
I'm leaning against the wall in the blue "Devil Madness" shirt

BUEN DIAAA!

It’s so obvious the truthfulness of this Gospel, isn’t it? I seriously love this job. I can’t say that any of this was an accident. Everything has purpose, even me. I’m just in thankful mode right now. This week was pretty awesome.

So as some of you may have already heard, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to Buenos Aires this last weekend and talked to all 3 Buenos Aires missions and the MTC here. It was such an inspired and spirit filled meeting! Seriously. He said soooo much! But what he brought with him meant a ton more! Something that he talked about was slavery. And how there are basically two ways for someone to escape captivity: Try to escape on your own or have someone buy you and be your savior. I’m sure you can already make the connection. We are captives to the enemy of God. Satan. But we CANNOT try and escape on our own. It is illogical, and ends in disaster every time. The greatest part is this, WE HAVE BEEN BOUGHT! We are saved! And that is why I am here. To let others know of this truth and be freed from Sadness and Despair. I love my Savior; it’s crazy to think that the tears that I shed here on the mission and before were shed by Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. The same tears. Wow. He also said something that was pretty fuerte... He said, “If you have an OUNCE of INTEGRITY, you will have true conversion”, or something like that. It just stuck in my head. I had to look at where my spiritual integrity was. Love it. Also Hermana Holland talked and something I looved was “Always ask God and ALWAYS keep your eye on him”. Him first, me later.

This last week  E l d e r  B y w a t e r  and I ate cow stomach. It’s called Mundungo I believe, and it’s the nastiest stuff I’ve eaten on the mish. It was terrible. I didn’t even finish it. But she understood. Haha, stinking yankees.

Also, we just had a great week and people came to church. I’m just super grateful for that. And remember Sebastian? Well, we started working with him again and tomorrow we are going to get on the internet together and fill out the marriage forms. His plan: Marriage on Friday, Baptism on Saturday and Confrimation on Sunday. YEEEESSSS! So grateful that Heavenly Father has kept me here in Lugano to help at least this one soul. We also have been working with 3 youth: Eduardo, Gerardo and Tobias. All have baptism dates for the first of December. I’m super stoked!

Silly story, last night we had a member, Ariel (9 years old, sebas son), with us to meet one of our investigators and this crazy fight broke out right next to us. All these drunk guys were throwing punches and breaking bottles and throwing stones and we just booked it out of there and went to his house where we had a spiritual lesson with Sebastian. The Lord works in mysterious ways! Love it!

The Church is true! I stinkin’ Love it!

“How far to the nearest crossing?”
“Brandywine bridge. 20 miles!”

Loves,

Click on image to enlarge

Conference with 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland 

and

841 Missionaries

from 

all 3 Buenos Aires Missions & the MTC

Elder Holland

Elder & Sister Holland

The Villas Zone!

E l d e r s    E n g e b r e t s e n,   H a n k i n s   &   C h r i s s
MTC District back together again!

"Hey, we're in the Villa"

Meaning  "Ghetto"

Pronounced  "V-ee-sh-a"

Hollllla! HI!

So uhhh... This week has been great! We worked a toooon and saw the fruits of our labors in the end! Seriously, I just love this gospel! I love missions. I'll get to that in a minute though...

So this week we focused a ton on less-actives and recent converts. We know that it's through them that we will find success. We find through their friends. So we would visit with them with active members of the ward (obra de salvacion) and help them get back to church. Something special happened this week. There is a single lady with a daughter and we just felt like we needed to focus on her this week. Finally, I just told her what President Monson said to that priest who hid from him, "We love you. We need you. The Ward misses you and we know who you are. You have incredible talents and abilities. Will you come to church with us this Sunday with your daughter?" And she cancelled her weekend plans to come. But satan worked on her. The next day (Saturday) we went by and she had a pounding headache, the kind that lasts for days. I had the strongest prompting to offer her the opportunity to receive a priesthood blessing. She accepted and we gave her the blessing! Afterwards, the spirit was suuuper strong! And.... she came to church the next day without any pain! I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD! And she set up an appointment on her own to talk with the bishop and set a goal to enter the temple. WOWWWW! How great shall be your joy with one soul, right? Baptism or reactivation.

E l d e r   B y w a t e r  and I have also seen the blessings of obedience this week as we planned, worked, and well, that's all we do. Haha! Obedience is super awesome. It pretty much saves us! And  E l d e r  B y w a t e r  is a stuuuuud! We have so much fun together. We are always laughing and quoting and making jokes. Sometimes we get all worked up and stressed and so we have an antidote. We smile as big as we can and look at each other and talk for a minute straight. HAHA! But it works, seriously!

Oh and I got a package of marshmallows and gummy worms and I about DIED! It was super good! But... All the gummy worms are gone now.... Dang. We did make s'mores with the Villanueva family yesterday though. HA! They thought the texture was a bit strange eating the marshmallow alone, but they still liked it.

Anywho, Buenos Aires is pretty awesome. Crazy and tough at times, but awesome. SOOO many people. OH! And we were working with another less-active family this week and not only did they come to church but they brought a non-member friend! NICE! Love this work.

E l d e r  B y w a t e r:
    "E l d e r  H a n k i n s, how is it outside, what do you see?"
Me:
"...The Uruks have turned Northeast... They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!"

Couldn't resist.

Loves!

Lugano Train Station      -34.677562, -58.47655

My mom made me a sweet bookmark!

Hey Hey!

So this is gonna have to be short today because we are on a tight schedule, but here it is... Transfers have come and as I expected... I´m staying. Ha! And I will be training  E l d e r   B y w a t e r.  I'm super stoked! Ha! This week has been really good and I owe it all to the Lord.

Something awesome that was taught in Zone Meeting was this... So you all know Lionel Messi, right? Like the best soccer player in the world and he is from here in Buenos Aires. They talked about how he is suuuuper short but he is still the best! He doesn´t look at other players and think, "they are bigger and stronger than I am". They just think about what he can do to win and be the best he can be. And, no matter what team he goes to, he makes it the best! We likened that to Missionary work. We can't compare ourselves. We can and are the BEST and no matter where we go, we can make that area the BEST! I really liked that.

E l d e r   S t o c k i n g  is leaving tomorrow, that is pretty crazy. I can't believe the transfer is already over.

This last week was fun. One day we were walking and saw these people moving. After a little bit of discussion (we had a member waiting for us) we decided to help them. They lived on the 4th floor without elevators and the crew was 2 old ladies and an old guy... So we carried the fridge and washing machine and EVERYTHING up the four stories. It killed. But they said that we were blessings from God! And we got to teach them later and show what we are all about.

We also played soccer this week with a bunch of kids and totally destroyed! Afterwards, we met all their parents, and several of them and their parents accepted baptism dates! WOOT! This transfer is looking good. Super stoked.

I know that this Church is true! It's ALWAYS better to look up. I promise! Keep trucking! I know that if I do my best and do it all the time, the Lord will bless us! Loves!

"Just follow your heart, that's what I do" -Napoleon Dynamite

Loves!