Lots of traveling...

Well, well, well it's been yet another week. It's been a pretty good one, but I will admit that I am really flipping tired after traveling in buses almost all week. Early in the week we had to go to Santa Fe for some paperwork for my companion. It was a great trip to be around other missionaries and friends and have some good laughs and experiences. The highlight of the trip was getting to see my amazing and "Golden" family, Familia Penno and get to chat and catch up after so long. They are doing great back in Santo Tome and having great experiences and helping the Ward a lot! Noelia has been released as the Sunday School teacher and now is the President of Young Womens. Jose gave his first talk this week. Ari is going to Seminary, and although she doesn't like waking up early (who does?) she is having a good time and learning a lot. And Fran is just as fun and crazy. 

Then, later in the week we had the Zone Leaders in Hernandarias for a day for Pablo's Baptismal Interview. It was good to see them and have a few more people in the small area, even if the beds barely fit in the small apartment haha. But the interview went alright. For a few things Pablo has to have another interview with Presidente Westover this coming week, which will push back Pablo's baptism. It's a bit of a difficult process, but we are going to be working our hardest to help Pablo stay excited and prepare the best he can for his big day. He is a great guy and is having a lot of fun coming to know Jesus more personally. I couldn't be any prouder of him. 

Then, at the end of the week we traveled to Santa Elena and then yesterday we had our Zone Conference in La Paz. It was great to see all the missionaries in the two Zones and have a great conference to learn a lot and have lots of fun. Presidente and Hermana Westover are the best and we love them so much. They help us so much and teach us even more. 

Also this week we started teaching a few new people. First is the Familia Vegada. They are super great and amazing. They have met missionaries before and were really close to them, so they are already super comfortable with the missionaries. But with the old missionaries, they were more friends than investigadores. So now we are trying our hardest to help them be more serious about reading and praying because they are a great family and would help the group in Hernandarias grow a lot. We did service with them this week and chopped a huge tree down. Sadly I forgot my camera, but I'm hoping to have Hermana Olga send me the pics she took with her phone. 

We are also teaching a new lady named Cicilia. She is super great and has a lot of interest. She already reads the Book of Mormon when we ask her to and has accepted the Baptismal Invitation! The only problem is that we are trying to help her Father support her in the lessons because they live together, so we are teaching him too. But he is a really energetic Evangelist guy and doesn't let us say more than a few sentences before he goes off on a rant about his beliefs. Luckily, all that he says we believe too, so its really just a problem of having to listen to his rants for more than half of the lesson. But, they are really great and have lots of potencial. It's all going really well in Hernandarias.

This week has helped us get even more animated and excited about the work so this week we are planning to go out and just wreck everything and get some people in the church building on Sunday. 

Thanks to all for reading and hope you all have a good week!!

Chau

Elder Haley

Penno's in Santa Fe.  Seriously, made me so happy to see them!

a kid tattoo from a little kid on the street

having he zone leaders over with 4 beds in a super small apartment

Where I am on the globe.

On the way to Zone Conference

Zone Conference in La Paz

YUM!

Missionaries and food!

Lots of superstitions!!

 I’ll explain the title at the end…

So this week has been pretty good. Pretty normal, but good none the less. We have been meeting with quite a few people and trying to teach lots of lessons and get people into the church building.

With Pablo this week we have been able to meet with him and help him prepare even more for his baptism which should be in a week from this Saturday, so the 30th of March. He has been super excited and has been telling us about how much his life has changed and how happy he is now. It’s amazing. We taught him this week all of the commandments and he is pretty well set with all of them and is supèr excited to finally be able to step into the waters of baptism. He is a great guy and I’ve really enjoyed watching him learn and grow and change. Yesterday we were even able to let him come to church on his own! Last week we went to look for him at his house, but this week we trusted him to come on his own, and he did it! The members are also helping us quite a bit in being friends and helping Pablo feel comfortable in church.  It is awesome.

With Belen we have also been trying to meet with her and help her focus more on her baptismal date. As of right now, we are still planning her baptism for the 13. It was going to be the 6th, but with the General Conference coming up we are going to push it back a week. She is super great has a lot of interest in the messages we have to share. But, we were only able to meet with her once this last week, so we will see tomorrow morning if she has been reading or not.

With the rest of our investigadores we are just trying our hardest to help them learn and accept the messages that we have to share. But for now, we are just trying to talk and contact just about everyone that we are crossing in the street and also teaching all the lessons that we can. We have been doing pretty well so far this transfer, but we only have to be getting better every day, better than the day before!!

We have also been meeting with a few less active families recently. It has been great to be able to get to know them and help them feel the spirit more. It is honestly pretty sad to see how so many people go inactive here in Argentina, but it makes us stay busy at all times. This week we had a pretty good Family Home Evening with the Alvarez family. They are a huge family and just about all of them are members, but only one of the daughters goes to church. So we are helping them become more and more excited about returning to church. 

Alright, now for the title. Here in Argentina the people are super Superstitious. There are lots of crazy myths and stories that all the people believe in. For example, there is a story of a man-wolf thing called the Lobizón that is a man by day and a wolf thing by night. You might say "NOOO that’s just a Werewolf." But that’s where you’re wrong. The Lobizón doesn’t attack just any ol’ person. The Lobizón only takes the children that aren’t baptized!! Jajajaja  Really, that is what people say. I actually have a really hard time trying not to laugh when people tell me that they have seen one in real life. It’s honestly pretty funny. But I’ve also heard a few stories about Elves, Witches, and all sorts of other things. It’s pretty funny, but it’s just one of those things that makes the mission such a crazy experience. 

Spiritual thought: A quote from Jeffrey R Holland, “You can change. You can be helped. You can be made whole-whatever the problem.”

I know this is true and it is through our Savior Jesus Christ that this is possible.  Believe and trust.

Thanks for reading and hope to have more to tell you all next week!!

Love you all

Chau

Elder Haley

MY NEW LATINO SON!!

WELLLLL how are we doing this week?? I’m pretty great! We are getting a lot of great stuff done here in Hernandarias and we are having a lot of fun and success. 

First order of business, MY NEW SON! Reminder…in mission we call someone we are training, who is brand new in the mission our “son”…so I am training again!!! His name is Elder Casamona and he is from Lima Peru. He is a super, super, super hard worker and came to the mission ready to get some people baptized. I don’t know what it is that they feed the people in Peru, but it makes them all super crazy good missionaries. He doesn’t let anyone not hear about the gospel. He is super happy to be here and we are working really good together and getting along awesome. Also, he is a convert of about a year, he was baptized in January of last year. When he was baptized I was already in the mission field.  It’s so nuts to think that we are comps now!! Jaja He has learned a lot in mission prep classes and also in the MTC and is super excited to finally put it all into use. So we are super excited for that. We are working really hard and finding lots of people. He loves to talk to literally everyone in the streets and in the park and literally anyone. It’s amazing and he is actually teaching me a thing or two. So far it is a totally different experience training someone who speaks Spanish as their 1^st language. 

This week was also super good because we were able to finally get Pablo to commit to a baptismal date. He is super excited for the 30th to come so he can enter in to the baptismal waters and feel the great spirit that comes from the purifying powers of the baptism. We are crazy happy for him and his willingness to follow Christ and take this step of Faith. He came to church on Sunday and it was awesome!

We also found this super great Hermana named Belen. She is super funny and really enjoys what we have to say. We met her one night in the plaza and had a lesson the next morning. It was a great and super spiritual lesson that we were also invite her to baptism. It was even better because she accepted! We are planing to prepare her to be baptized the 6th of April. She is super excited and has been keeping her commitments really well.

We met a family this week who are the parents of one of our investigadores. They are super great and have talked to the missionaries about a year or so before. But since that time have had one of their sons pass away, so we are hoping to help them and teach them a little more about the Gospel and about the Plan of Salvation more than anything. But, after meeting them and talking and getting to know them a little bit, they asked us if we were able to do some kind of prayer or blessing on their home to help them feel better and more calm. They wanted the blessing for a few reasons, but I guess you could say that the most important was because they have a neighbor who likes to do some kind of witchery stuff and throw bloody hair and dead chickens at their house while yelling some kind of gibberish. So yeah. We were happy to do the dedication of their home and help them feel better and we hope to meet with them soon this week to teach them a little bit more. 

We are also working super well with all of the less actives her in Hernandarias. we are planning a few Family Home Evenings with a few of the families so we can help them be a little more excited and feel the Spirit and the desire to come to the church. So let’s just say we have a lot of good stuff going for us right now.  The work of the Lord is amazing!

So yeah. I know the emails are a little shorter these days, but I hope you all can still get something from them. Thank you all for reading and have a great week! 

Spiritual thought: our efforts are magnified by our Heavenly Father when we are doing everything in our power to keep the commandments and serve.  When we are doing everything we can to better ourselves through reading the scriptures and praying, we are promised that we will be blessed.  I know I need those blessings in my life.  I know you do too.

Chau

Elder Haley

Pictures from our call today!

Meeting Elder Casamona for the first time!

The new missionaries and their trainers

Elder Casamona came to the mission with a bunch of dollars. It's the first $100 bill I've seen in soooooo long!!

Favorite glasses got broken

Yes, I made this pizza.  From scratch.  College food won't be too bad after cooking on my own for two years!

Our tacos were amazing too!

We get along great!

This is our pench.  We are one of the six. 

TRAINING!

Hola!

The computers are really bad here in Parana to this will be short.  Elder Mitchell got transferred and I am staying in Hernandarias and TRAINING again!  It will be great.  All I know about my greenie is that he is Latino.  I don't know where from.  I will find out more tomorrow.  Elder Mitchell is going to be companions with Elder Gonzales, who was one of my companions in Santo Tome.  And get this...Elder Loveridge and Elder Grandon are companions now...both companions I had in Santo Tome.  I also was able to see Elder Robinson at the terminal.  It was awesome!

Not much happened in Hernandarias this last week.  Here are some pictures to tide you over until my regular email next Monday.

Love you all!

Elder Morley Haley

Rice and milk with some sugar.  Good, and cheap!

Elder Gonzales

Goodbye Elder Mitchell!

Hello Elder Robinson!

Hanging out in Parana!

Elder McCown trying the handstand!

Me!