Juancito vino a la Iglesia!! La oración tiene poder!!

Well this week had its ups and downs. The week started pretty well with a few good lessons and contacts, but then as the week went on, the days got a bit harder and not too many people were opening up for us. We walked a lot this week and my old, mission-worn body is starting to feel it... ha ha ha. But as the days were long and tiring, we worked hard to make the best of them. 

We have been working with Juan a lot this week. He is always ready for us to go over and teach him every night, in fact he would like it better that way... But we are trying to keep the citas nice and spaced out so he can have enough opportunity to read and pray on his own. He is a great kid and having a lot of progress. As the header says, Juancito came to church! It was great for him. He really liked the meetings and all of the members were really good at reaching out and greeting him! Now we are just trying to work a little more with his parents and siblings. Of course Juan's progress is great to see, but it would be so much better if the entire could do the same, especially to have a good support for him. Especially because of the kids in Juan's neighborhood. Every time we go to pick him up and teach him, all the other kids in the streets say stupid things like "Eyyy Father Juan" and "Hey Juan, I can't wait to see you in a shirt and tie too!" It's just going to be great when we get him an actual shirt and tie and he shows them the real change that the Atonement can have on those that are humble and willing to become better. He is going to be a real example to all of them. He already is for me. 

 But right now Elder Smith and I are trying to meet and get to know a few of the Less Active members and families in the ward. We are trying to find a few part member families and other people that haven't been to church for a while to hopefully get them back on the right track. Being that the missionaries have been in our area for more than 60-80 years, there are quite a few less active members that have lost their way. So we are going to be focusing a little more on them. 

Now, I can't remember if I've talked about this before, but the mission is starting to do a new thing that every morning at 9:00 the entire mission kneels down to say a personal prayer for the Mission. So this week we all got a text from one of the Assistants saying that he felt that we needed to work hard to invite as many people to church as possible and that through our prayers and faith WITH works that we would end up seeing the results. And it worked. The Mission reported high attendance this week and we are seeing the fruits of our labors, on a wide range! Its great to know of the power that Prayer has, especially as we work hard to fulfill the blessing that ask for in those prayers. I know that Prayer is real and has a true power in our lives. 

A few fun things this week: there was a cool moto at a service project we had, we LOVE empanadas and I had some souvenir mission tags made. 

Thank you all for your love and support!

Chau

Elder Haley

my foot got a crazy fungus..... just kidding! It's just my shoes! the insoles are of leather, so the stuff gets on my foot... don't worry mom.

a nice moto at a service project

mini frog and Elder Allen

empanadas for dinner

Juan came to church

My souvenir plaques

It's cold and wet, but WE ARE WORKING HARD!

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY DAD!  It was awesome to call home on Father’s Day this year! LOVE YOU!

IT’S SOO COLD HERE.

But other than that the week has been pretty great. We are finally getting some lessons taught and getting some of our investigadores to progress. Luckily I’m not sick anymore and Elder Smith miraculously hasn’t gotten sick yet so we are going to bust this week out. 

So this last week we had a few cool things happen. Elder Smith and I were walking in the little more dangerous area and just about to visit a few people that we have met. But, just as we were walking in the area, a couple that was walking in the street in front of us turn around and they say " Hey! We're looking for you guys!" And we are like "...... eh.... why???" And they continue to tell us that they had a son that was looking for a church to join and to help him turn his life around. It turns out that their son, named Juan, has done some stuff that has really messed his life up, but he is really looking to turn his life around. So we went straight to his house, met him, sat down to talk and get to know him. But as we were getting to know him, he tells us that he likes to play futbol. So Elder Smith asks him if we could take him to the church and show him around. He said that we could go so we went to the church, gave him a quick tour and then we sat down and taught him about the Plan of Salvation. It was a great lesson and the Spirit was really present. Then, two days later we picked him up again and we took him back to the church and taught him about the Restoration. Again, it was a great lesson and he is so far keeping all of his commitments. He is a great kid and really has a lot of potential. 

Also, we had a great Zone Council (because that's what they are called nowadays) and we learned a lot about how the Book of Mormon is a lot like a potato (I'll explain some other time). It was a great time and we learned a lot. I also had a good time meeting up with Elder Moore again after not seeing him for so long. He has really come along and learned a lot in the mission. He is now working hard and sounds almost fluent in Spanish. I can't say that I have much credit for how he is turning into a great missionary, but I'm proud of him for doing so well. I am thankful that I was able to be his trainer, he is a great guy!  I also saw Penno's again, totally not planned.  Ari had Youth Conference in Santa Fe and we just happened to be at the same church at the same moment.  Love that family!

Then, just yesterday morning (Sunday) we woke up in the morning and figured out that we didn't have light. What we first thought was a small power outage in just our area ended up being a huge problem across almost all of South America. A couple of COUNTRIES were out of power for a few hours. It was pretty cool though to have a Sacrament Meeting without light. The Bishop also took advantage of the opportunity and chose to sing hymns like "Teach Me To Walk in the Light" and "The Light of Truth." I thought it was a pretty funny thing to do, jajaja. But then, luckily the light came back on during the second hour class and we were able to call our Fathers and families on Father's Day.

I also had the great opportunity to call and chat with my wonderful Nana and Pa and also my great-grandma Christian. If you could all say a small prayer for them I would be really grateful. They are working their hardest to get out onto their mission and change some lives, but they are having a few challenges with their medical checks. Thank you all! I love them very much and I know that their desire to serve a mission is so strong. It would be so awesome to be serving missions at the same time, even if only for a short time.

Love and miss you all. Thank you for the love and support! 

Chau

Elder Haley

Introducing my District to the family

Elder Moore

Zone Conference

Cool mural

Exchanges

Penno's

Sick and tired but still working hard...

Welp. This week was pretty normal. Not too much happen honestly. But to sum it all up really quickly, we walked a lot, knocked on a lot of doors, I got sick for a day or two but now I’m better, and we did divisions with Elder Urmston and Elder Allen. So yeah, that’s basically it. But I guess to make this email a little longer, I’ll fill you guys in on a few other details. 

So we have found a few new people to teach this week too. One guys name is Elias. He is super awesome. He has been meeting with the missionaries now for a while, but was never officially taking the lessons. But we found him after looking for him for a while and this week had a really great lesson. He is one of the only members in his family and says that he has always been a bit of a "rebel" and that’s why he never got baptized. But we are trying to help him understand the great need and the blessing that baptism is. We talked about the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, and the need for Temples. It was pretty in depth and he had some really great questions. Also, this coming week is his birthday and he invited us to have an asado with him, so we are pretty excited for that! I love some asado!

Then we also found a guy named Manuel. He works in the street as a food vendor. So we met him one night as we were buying some food from him for dinner and ended up talking to him for close to 30 minutes as he was working with his grill and everything, but also he talked to us about how he was really interested in hearing about the Church’s HUGE library of Family History information and that he would like to do some of his own family history work. We said Perfect! And then gave him a Book of Mormon, We hope we can help him progress and understand a little bit more about our beliefs and also help him with a few of his addictions. Somethings are pretty serious, but nothing is impossible!

Then also this week, like I said, we had divisions with the Zone Leaders. It was great. I went on divisions with Elder Allen, who is a new ZL this transfer. He is tearing up the mission with only 10 months in the mission. He is a great guy. A very mature, hard working missionary that only wants to help others. And while I was with him, he mentioned to me that he thought divisions were going to be a little awkward because he has so much less time then I do, but I really learned a lot from him about how to love everyone and just focus on serving the Lord. He is a great missionary and is going to do ever better things in the future! Not to mention that he reminds me of Pa! I swear, they could be close to the same person. If only I could have known Pa when he was a young missionary. 

But I would also like to take this time to mention Nana and Pa’s great and amazing decision to serve a full time service mission!! I am so proud of them and I personally can’t wait to hear about their experiences and the lives that they touch and change. I know that the time we have as missionaries is a very special and sacred time. Thank you for your example and, as always, for your love and support. 

Well, that’s all I got for you guys this week. Thank you all!!

Chau

Elder Haley

I needed new brown shoes to wear to our conferences. These are super nice.  A few sweaters and a cool jacket.  Everything is so cheap here!

A haircut and birthday balloon!

Cyber Cafe and Elder Smith!

Wards are Cool!

That is really the biggest thing I can tell you guys this week. That being in a ward is super cool. Now, just to clear things up, I’m not saying that Branches or Organized Groups aren’t great and cool, because they are. What I am saying is that I love being in a Ward. My time in branches and organized groups has been great and I’ve learned a lot from them. But, being in a ward is much different. All of the members want to give us food, they are all willing to go out to lessons with us and pick people up for church. Oh, and did I mention that they always want to give us food? Haha, no but seriously. If I’m going to survive this winter, I’m going to have to work out a whole lot.... 

But alrighty then. This week has been pretty good. We aren’t as lost in the area as we were at the being the week and we are working hard. Walking a lot and talking to a lot of people. It’s great! I love it. Esmeralda is a great area and we are going to have a lot of work to do this week. I’m happy to be here and Elder Smith and I are happy to be working hard and having fun together. 

So far, from the investigadores that we’re meeting with the Elders before we got here, we have only been able to teach one of them. We have met almost all of the rest, but they were all busy at the time we went by, but we are going to be able to meet with them again this week. The one investigador that we have met with is named Pricila. She is really great. She has been talking to the missionaries for a while and has been to church a lot. She understands the need to be baptized and has the desire. In fact, about 2 weeks ago she was going to be baptized, but the day of her baptism she was called into work and wasn’t able to attend the service. So we are working with her to help prepare her even more and get her, and hopefully her son who is 8, to get baptized, but for real this time hahah.

Also, yesterday was a great Sunday! First of all, our church building is huge! Two stories and filled with classrooms, which is a bit different than Hernandarias... hahaha. But when I walked into the Sacrament Room, I was surprised to see the FAMILIA PENNO sitting in the pews. It was great to see them and even better to share the meetings with them. In Sunday School, we learned about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Spirit was very strong. I love the class and learned a lot. It was even better to hear Noelia’s great comments and in the end to hear Jose be asked to say the closing prayer. I love the Penno Family. It was also really nice to meet all of the members. The ward area is pretty big, so all of the SIX missionaries of the District are in the same ward. It’s pretty great. So this week we will be doing some divisions and getting to know the rest of the district a little more. 

But today we had a really great experience, one of the coolest of my mission honestly. While Elder Smith and I were walking through an area that is called the Peatonal (which is a long open air mall), there was a group of Jehovahs Witnesses talking to people that were passing by. So, as Elder Smith and I walked past, a young, probably 10 year old JW came up to us and asked if he could talk to us for a little bit. He was all dressed up in his tie and slacks and had his little bag and everything. Then he pulls out his well worn, very highlighted and marked Bible and starts to talk to us about our Heavenly Mother. It wasn’t the small message that I liked so much as the fact that the kid was 10 years old and had the guts and courage to talk to the two of us, who were obviously pretty well dedicated to a different religion. I thought about it a little more as we left and asked to myself, if that kid was able to talk to us and other people, why can’t I do it too?? We talk to people all day long, but we could talk to more!

So I’ll let you all think about that and ask yourselves if there isn’t anything that you can do better to share your faith with those that might need it. 

Love you all

Chau

Elder Haley

Happy birthday to me!  New ties and jerseys!

Air drying laundry...

The food here is so good!

Our District!

Penno's came to Santa Fe and celebrated my birthday on Pday for me!