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!

Buenos Aires Livin'

"I'm not happy, Bob. NOT HAPPY." -The Incredibles

I love that quote. Anyways, being a missionary is pretty legit. There is no way that I could learn the things I'm learning anywhere else or in any other way! I am super thankful that I'm allowed to do this for the Lord. That I can grow in this way and help bless others. Pretty awesome.

A positive this week! So we have been working quite a bit with the Less actives in our ward this week and when Sunday came around we were Suuuuper surprised to see 5 or 6 less active families show up to church. The ward was just sooo stoked! We definitely gained some points with them this last week, all thanks to Heavenly Father. I just love re-activating members. It gives you the greatest feeling, especially when their challenges are pretty great, unlike anything I've seen or want to go through. It's all just a part of the learning process. We are hoping to work a ton with less-actives and recent converts to keep them faithful and find new people to teach through them. :)

Prayer has played a pretty big factor in my week. Firstly, we found and taught this lady who is suuuuper prepared. She just wants to go to church and have the gospel in her life, but her husband won't let it happen. Her prayer was so powerful after our first lesson with her. She just asked so sincerely to our Father in Heaven if He would just touch the heart of him so she could go to church and be baptized. I don't know why, but I was just blown away! It put into perspective the kind of prayers I say. If I really think about my identity and who I'm talking to before I start my prayers. And when I kneel down to tell him how my day went, I'm just exhausted, and the spirit isn't really with me. Constant Prayer kinda stuck out to me. I really liked it.

It is getting super pretty out here! Spring is pickin' up and everything is blooming. I didn't realize how many trees there are here. Got me all trunky for North Carolina! Ha! Also,  E l d e r   S t o c k i n g  is preppin' to head out for Idaho once again. He's got like 10 or 9 more days left! Pretty crazy. He is a great teacher! It's amazing to me sometimes how charitable he is. Sometimes we will get done being harassed a little by some silly teenagers and I'll say, "Man I had zero patience for him" and Elder Stocking will say, "I was just praying to have charity". Love it. I'll most likely stay here though with Bywater. I'm totally okay with that,  E l d e r   B y w a t e r  is a champ!

"I feel like I'm back at the Green Dragon after a hard day's work!"
"Only, you've never had a hard day's work, Pippin!" -Lord of the Rings

Anywho, I love all of y'áll! Always look up!

Loves!

Loves

Hola familia! Todo Bien? I'm still super good and loving it here! Keepin the mantra, "Livin' the Dream" going, as Devin would say. We had an interesting week. I'm learning quite a bit about satan right now. He is crazy. Haha. But we are doing our best. :)

So I didn't use to be a big lover of bananas, but... They sell these bananas from Ecuador here and they are SUUUPER good! I just can't get enough of them! I guess you could say I'm... bananas. ;) Couldn't help it. Ha!

Y'all know that I love fishing. I didn't care what I caught as long as I caught something. But I ALWAYS knew that Carp were trash fish and not good to eat... So this last week we were with a member family that I just love and for lunch she walks up and slaps a fresh carp in front of me. Lol! I couldn't believe it! I was going to eat a fish that eats trash! Pretty much tasted like pond mud. Love it! I'll send a picture. But yeah... carp.

This last Sunday we were surprised to have a member of the seventy join us... Wilshem or something like that from Chile. He was great! During priesthood meeting when they asked him if he had something to say, he turned to us Elders and said, "How is the work of salvation Elders?" and so we talked about missionary work and he DROPPED THE CANE on not going out with us for lessons... "What brethren? Is it too difficult? Inconvenient?... Huh?". I loved it. So awesome.

"Let's just nuke this place and do baptisms for the dead!"
- E l d e r   B y w a t e r

Some things I've learned is that if I want revelation, I need to do my homework. It's not just gonna come by sitting on my bum. Reading the scriptures diligently is a big deal. Also, as we taught a family this week, I felt this overwhelming knowledge of what this family needed to be happy. But another thought dawned on me: I can't be the one to tell them that! My job as a missionary is to create a warm, loving environment so that the Spirit can tell them. I think I lost sight of that for a bit. Love missions! :)

Also, one last thing. It was Mother's day here in Argentina yesterday. Just thought I'd give a shout out to my Mom real quick. There is no other women like her! Absolutely amazing and in tune with the spirit. Always seeking the good in everything and loving me with all her being. Love you, Mama!

Let the lower lights be burning!     (listen to hymn)     (Boyd K. Packer's Talk) 

Loves!

The Carp

Funny
Santa Pecadora

Car!!! Ha

Climbing up villa stairs

E l d e r   T i p p e t s   a n d   I

Some mini gangsters and I

E l d e r   S o l i s   a n d   I

More villa after a rain storm

Standing by a passing train in the villa

WARNING
You may want to stop here

The following images are gross

(pig head & dog on train tracks)

They eat pig head here...

Dog that got cut in half by the train!