25 de Mayo

Well, well, well. We meet again....today is SIX MONTHS on the mission!  Crazy!

So this week was pretty fun, but also kind of really hard all around. 

On Tuesday we didn’t have any lessons because all the people we had appointments with had to cancel for which ever reasons. But its all good. We got a lot of contacting done and found a few people that were a little interested, but not too much to account for. 

Wednesday we didn’t really have any lessons again, but we still looked for a bunch of people and are trying to talk to a few Antiguos investigadores and other less active members to get some lessons and plans rolling with them. For the most part, people usually aren’t home when we try to visit them, or are just too busy to talk at the moment or meet with us in the future. So that kinda stinks, but we are still praying and fasting to find new people to teach them about their divine identity as sons and daughters of their Heavenly Father. But yeah. Basically all we did on Wednesday was walk around a lot and try to talk to people. 

Thursday hit me kinda hard. It was just a tough day full of rejection. We had a lesson with Larena y Jose. It was all pretty good until at the very end they told us that they aren’t interested in the lessons anymore and that the only thing that they want to do anymore is have an Asado with us and talk more about our culture in the US. So that was pretty tough. they are really good people and I still love them, but at the same time, they make me really sad. But then, after that, we had to go on a really quick divisions with the ZLs because they had too many appointments. So I was with Elder Peña for the rest of the night. It was good though. I was feeling a little overwhelmed and sad but he helped me a lot. He told me that yes the expectations that President Perez and all the other leaders have for us are really big and can be stressful, but the most important thing we have to know, is that if we do our 100% best effort, we have done everything we could. So, basically, if we talk to everyone in the world and no one wants to listen to what we have to say, it is okay! They have their choice to do so! He also shared D&C 123:17, “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.” This scripture was a good one for me at the time and will now be one of my favorites from the mission. So although the day was pretty tough, it ended pretty well. 

Friday was nothing important so we will just skip over that.

Saturday was good.

Nah I’m just joking. FRIDAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY AND IT WAS SUPER FUN. We had a pretty good day on Friday. In the morning we went to the super ghetto part of our area and talked to a few people and had a lesson with a lady called Laura. She is super interested and told us when we offered service to her to help her clean or do anything that she needed that she would much rather listen to our lessons than have us do service, so we were happy to hear that. Then, we had a big activity for 25 de Mayo, oh and if you didn’t know, it was also my birthday. So the activity was with all three of the branches here in Rafaela, and it was super cool and fun. We had one of the members from our branch do some Traditional Argentine dances with his daughters and it was amazing! Then we did the old Joseph Smith stick pull game with a few of the youth and it was super fun. Also, our investigator named Patricia made it too! She loved it and even danced a little bit. She also brought her grandkids, Jonathan and Luz who are super cute and awesome. But then, for the night, we didn’t really get too much lessons taught, but it was still a good day. Oh yeah, and for lunch, we had Locro which is a super good kind of stew that they only make on 25 de Mayo. Its super good, but also super mysterious. Basically, we don’t totally know what we ate, but it was good!

Saturday was a bit of the same as the other days of the week. We didn’t have any lessons, but we went to see a bunch of people and try to invite them all to church. We didn’t have too many people open up to us, but one lady that is kind of less active was super awesome and sweet. Her name is Anita Gaudiña and is just as sweet of an old lady as you’ll ever find. Well, other than Hermana Palota. But she was probably the highlight of the day. But like I said before, we are learning to be as possitive as we can, especially on the hard days. 

Sunday was a gooooooood day. Church was nice. We taught Emiliano in Principios because he was the only one that came to class, I love the kid so much. He is such an innocent and amazing person. He also will stand up for whatever he believes in and will always be an example to me. Then we had a really good lunch with Hermana Palota for my birthday and she made some really good empanadas and chicken. She did apologize a lot for forgetting to make the cake that she was planning to make. But the lunch was perfect without it. For the afternoon, we talked to a bunch of realy cool people and got a lot of plans set up for the following week, so we will see how everything goes. 

Today for my birthday I bought myself a new Argentina futbol jersey and am super proud of it. It is about authentic as you can buy. We also made some breakfast burritos for lunch and they were amazing.

Another really great thing I did this week was read my Patriarchal Blessing.  I am so glad I did. 

So, that is the week. Sorry for not having many pictures or videos. The computers this week are super old and lame. It takes FOREVER to upload any pictures. But next week for sure I will send more! 

Love you all and thank you all for the prayers and birthday wishes. I CANNOT wait for my package to arrive this week!

Elder Haley

LOCRO! 

Bought myself an authentic Argentina futbol jersey for my birthday!

We saw blessings!

Yes! It was a good week. We saw the fruits of our labors a little and found a bunch of new people to teach. 

Wednesday. In the morning on Wednesday, we had a lesson with HNO Ariel. It was good because we haven’t really been able to meet with him for a while. During this lesson, we helped him better understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And later, we talked a little bit about the Priesthood, because he has been a member for a while, he just needs to start working with our Branch President to get an interview set up. Afterward, we were just visiting a few resent converts and less active members to invite them to the noche de hogar at the church building on Friday. In the afternoon, we taught a really good lesson to a couple named Larena y Jose. They are super great people and have three little kids are super crazy, but fun. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had a lot of good discussion and helped them answer a few questions they had. We invited them to read and pray about our message and are going to meet with them again tomorrow in the afternoon. Later that night, we taught a lesson to a recent convert, Matius, and his younger brother, Gabii. Yes, with two I´s.  They were awesome. They are about 8 and 7 years old, so we taught the Plan of Salvation, drew it out on paper, and colored it in a little bit. It was super fun and they learned a lot. 

Thursday in the morning, we had a choque de fuerza for the Hermanas. A choque de fuerza is when all the missionaries from the district work in one area. So we worked in the Hermana´s area to help them find more people to teach. So Elder Robinson and I contacted a bunch of people and then passed the references to the hermanas. Also, the hermanas are now in a trio companionship. You have Hermana Ceron, Hermana Logan, and now, Hermana Hundewadt. Hermana Hundewudt is brand new and is being trained in a trio companionship. Pretty crazy! Then in the afternoon, we were on divisions with the Zone Leaders and I want with Elder Duval. We were going to visit a few people, but actually just ended up talking to a bunch of people in the streets and got a few really good contacts. Then we had English Class and the only person that showed up was Adrian, the super awesome and cool guy that let us use his computer on Mother’s Day. Since he already knows a bunch of English, we didn’t really have anything to teach him. So we just talked in English for an hour and half or so. It was really cool. We ended up talking a lot about the Plan of salvation and temples and he was really interested. So hopefully we can teach him a little more about that. 

Friday. In the morning, we went all over the place, looking for antiguos investigadores and older contacts to invite them all to the activity that night. It was all good and at the same time, we contacted a lot of really good people that are going to end up being really good investigadores. The whole morning, it was like we couldn’t even walk a few steps without finding someone else to talk to about the Gospel. Everyone was super nice and super interested! Then in the afternoon, after ending the Divisions, we visited HNA Soledad and taught her the Plan of Salvation again which she always loves. Then we had the Noche de Hogar. It was going to be really good! We had invited a bunch of members, investigatores, and other people and they all told us they were going to come. We also planned a really cool Spiritual Thought thing where we would all take a copy of the Book of Mormon and write our testimonies in the front cover. Then, afterwards, as missionaries, we would pass out and give the Book of Mormons to people we taught. But only 2 members ended up showing up. But that didn’t stop us from doing the spiritual thought anyways! So it honestly wasn’t too bad, we were just a little dissappointed that only 2 member made it. 

Saturday in the morning, we taught Ariel about the Priesthood after giving him some homework. He learned a lot told us that he just needs a little more time to prepare to receive such a great and big blessing and responsibility. Then, afterwards, He and the Familia Fernandez were gracious enough to feed us some ASADO! It was amazing. This time, we had kidney, intestines, ribs, steak, and chorizo. It was some good stuff. Then in the afternoon, we walked around a lot and tried visiting a few people. Sadly, almost all of them weren’t home, but we did end up teaching one lesson. It was to a really old couple named Amelia and MaxiEmiliano. It was alright, except for the fact that they couldn’t remember a single thing that we were saying. It was kind of frustrating, but we know that they still appreciated it. 

Sunday. We both gave talks in Sacrament Meeting. I gave mine on the Fast because it has been on my mind a lot this week. We fasted last Sunday and we saw a lot of blessing and success in the work this week. It was really cool actually! Then Elder Robinson absolutely rocked his talk on the Repentance. Then the classes were really good too. We learned about Work Ethic and Attitude in Principios del Evangelio and more about Ministering during Elders Quorum. But the highlight of the night was a really, really, REALLY good lesson that we had with a lady named Patricia. It was just absolutely perfect. She was super interested and had a lot of good comments and even helped us with our Spanish. One thing that she said that I liked a lot is that when hard things are happening in her life, she asks God "Para qué?" not "Por qué?" which is like saying “For what” and “not why”. So that was really cool and I’m trying to apply that to my life. 

So yeah! It has been a really good week. We saw a lot of blessings in the form of more contacts, better lessons, and more success in general, all due to our prayers and fast from last Sunday. It was a true answer to our prayers!

I hope all things are good back home. Love you all!

Elder Haley

Basketball courts and the futbol stadium tour we had today

Tour of the Futbol stadium. Go Argentina!  The World Cup is in June!

Helping cook Asados! Kidney and intestines this time too!

Mother's Day & Crazy Week!

Well, well, well, weeeeeell, well, well. It sure has been a week. It was a very busy and crazy week, but one of the best in the mission by far.

 Alright, so first thing in the morning on Tuesday, we had some really awesome plans to go out and see a bunch of people and really get going on finding new investigadores, but it kind of all went down the drain when we got a call form the Mission´s Secretario saying that we had to go to Santa Fe that night so Elder Robinson could do some tramites work in Rosario the next morning. So Tuesday kind of went to trash because we had to go the terminal in the morning to get tickets for the bus and then in the afternoon, leave at 7 for Santa Fe. But it just proves that when you plan act in faith, you never know what is going to happen. But, the day ended up being alright. When we got to Santa Fe, I got to talk one of the Elders from my MTC group and also meet and get to know other Elders too. So it ended up being a good day, just in a different way than we thought.

Wednesday in the morning, we just went with one of the Office Elders to the office and while our comps were gone in Rosario, we just studied and did things in the Office. So it was a pretty tranquilo morning, but still good. For lunch we got to eat at a pretty nice and fancy restaurant with all the Office Elders. It was good stuff. Then after the two hour bus ride back to Rafaela, we went out and had a few lessons and looked for a few other people. We went by to see Hermana Soledad because we had to have daily contact with her before her Baptism! But yeah, other than that, not much for Wednesday. 

Thursday in the morning, because last week was the end of the Transfers, we did our Limpieza of the Pench. So we were cleaning all morning to make the pench look nice and start the new transfer on a good note. But then in the afternoon, I had to go to a town called San Cristobal with Elder Peña, one of the Lideras de Zona. Elder Peña had to go because he had to do an entrevista  bautismal. I had to go with him because Elder Peña´s companion, Elder Duval, had to do some other things in Rafaela. But it was good. We got to San Cristobal and I went on another Division with the District Leader there, Elder Gómez. He is really cool and is in the same group as Elder Robinson, so we are both really young. But we worked in his area and had a few really good lessons, found a bunch of people for him and his companion, and also prepared a few people for baptism. So yeah, a really good and productive night.

In the morning on Friday, I helped Elder Gómez with the Limpieza for his pench. So yeah, yet again, it was a really tranquilo but not bad morning. Just a lot of time to think and ponder about stuff. And, because Elder Gomez is from Nicaragua, we spoke completely in Spanish, so it was cool to see how good my Spanish has gotten. Then in the afternoon, after the two hour bus ride back home (yes I did a lot of traveling this week) Elder Duval and I went on Divisions so Elder Robinson could do an entrevista bautismal for one of the Zone Leaders investigadors. But we were walking all across town to talk to people and ended up having a really cool time with a new Future Investigator. He is the nephew of our District President, Presidente Horton. We got the reference from him and talked to his nephew for a while. His name is Gonzalo and he is a complete capo (which means cool guy). So yeah. Gonzalo told us that he knows the church is true and that the things we teach are good, but he just doesn’t think he is ready to be baptized. So we just asked him to say a prayer, while kneeling, and to ask God very directly if he should be baptized and when. So a pretty crazy day.

On Saturday, we had to do a lot of prep for the Baptisms that night. In our Capilla (church building), we are having a lot of construction done to paint the walls and make a few changes. So we had to do a lot of cleaning and setting up for the baptisms that night. But it ended up being really good! We got Hermana Soledad there, and the Zone Leaders family was there too. I’ll send some pictures after. Soledad is the older grandma lady, Daniela is the mom, Noel is the older son, and the little guy with the long hair is named Joel. They were all very happy and ready for the baptisms. It was cool because both of the Zone Leaders were able to do one baptism each, Elder Robinson baptized Soledad, and one of the members form Rama Lehmann was able to baptize Noel. The members name is Bruno and he is a complete boss. He is the one on the far left and looks almost like a convert. SO yeah. It was cool how many members were able to make it and support the four people being baptized. 

Sunday was just a wonderful day all around. In the morning, we were able to do the Confirmation of Soledad. She asked me to do it, which made me a little nervous, but it ended up being really cool. I felt the Spirit and I’m positive everyone else that was there was able to feel it too. We also had a bunch of less active members show up for Sacrament too, which always makes me happy to see. We love finding those lost sheep. But, the best part of the day had to of been when we got to CALL OUR FAMILIES! It was so nice to see hear their voices and see their smiling faces, even if mom started crying and made me cry a little bit. But yeah. That’s not what we are talking about here. The rest of the night was really good too. After Elder Robinson and I got our calls finished up, Adrian and Liza, who were more than nice enough to let us use their computer to call our families, bought and fed us some pizza too! So just a really good night all around.

Then yesterday, because it is transfers, we just went out to work. Yeah, so I’m staying here in Rafaela for one more Transfer, which was actually quite the relief to learn about because I don’t really want to leave my converts and awesome members yet. So one more tranfer is going to be great. Especially becasue Elder Robinson and I are going to go out and get some work done!

Thank you all for the prayers and for all the support through emails. It really does mean a lot. And Happy Mothers day!

Hasta proxima semana,

Ciao

Elder Haley

*mom* addition...

I received this text message from Adrian and Liza the day after Elder Haley called home.  Of course, it made me cry...what an incredible impact missionaries can make on other people....

"Hi!!! I’m sorry, I did not see this message. It Was a pleasure. We are happy to have the chance to help. I really enjoy to spend time with Morley and Dylan, even not being a believer. They have a peace, and they spread it through the words of god and I deeply respect it. Elder Haley is working hard by his beliefs, in spite of being so far of you and your family, and that is so valuable. Congratulations, you have a great son, he is an inspiration. If your family or Morley needs anything, We will be here. Cheers!"

 Mi Amigos!

Hermana Soledad was BAPTIZED! Elder Robinson baptized her and I confirmed her on Sunday.

Lunch in Santa Fe with the Mission Office Elders.  Fancy and delicious!

Rooftop of the pench view of Santa Fe.

San Cristobal with Elder Pena, Elder Gomez and another Elder.  

The trip to San Cristobal. I saw some MILO! I felt like I was back home for a little with all the wide open fields. The only difference between here and home is that here we have trees. 

CALL HOME on Mother's Day!! My screen vs their screen.

Adrian and Liza are pretty neat.  They fed us pizza after Elder Robinson and I called home from their computer. 

Elder Robinson's mom sent these taken in April. 

The Internet Cafe we use to email home!

Museum on P-day

We went to a museum today on P-day.  It was pretty cool and I took a lot of pictures. Enjoy.  Oh, we also had Subway!  Yeah!
Ciao!