Elder Morley Haley Santa Fe Argentina Mission: Week 5

Holy Cow I've been here for over a month. It seriously doesn't feel like that. I feel like I've been here for maybe a week and a half. Wowzers.

Well, Christmas does not feel like it was a few days ago. It was a good day, don't get me wrong. It just doesn't feel like it’s the end of December and about to be 2018. But the days of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were pretty eventful.

Christmas Eve went a little like this:

Woke up and had Breakfast.

Elder McCown and I taught Priesthood. It was really good. We taught about The Apostasy, the Restoration, and the Priesthood. Everyone in the class was participating and we learned a lot from each other.

District Meeting was good, as it always is. The new District Leader, Elder Hansen, is really good. We've become pretty good friends. Sadly, he is going to Rosario, not Santa Fe.

After District Meeting was Sacrament. It was really good. The talks that were given were awesome, and I learned a lot, both from the speakers, and from the Spirit.

We had lunch and went back to our District Floor for some leadership and teacher training classes.

After that, Elder McCown and I went to choir practice. I love it. The director is a really awesome and funny guy and always shares amazing and Spiritual experiences. We learned a song that we sang for our Christmas speaker the next day. Then, the MTC President and his wife set up a really super cheesy, but still Spiritual Nativity Program. The actors were mostly some of the MTC Presidency's grandkids, which was funny but cute at the same time. My favorite part was at the very end when President Martino asked his grandkids what they can do because of Jesus. One of the boys stood up and said "I can be a missionary like all of them" while pointing at all of us missionaries in the crowd. It made me choke up and almost lose my composure. When everyone was talking about it later, all the Elders said they were balling throughout the entire program.

After dinner, we watched a movie called Christmas for a Dollar, which had to have been the cheesiest movie I've ever seen. But hey, it was a movie none the less, and everyone in the MTC loved it. They were yelling and clapping and having a great time through the whole movie.

For Christmas, I woke up and opened my presents. I got some awesome gifts from my family, including my new favorite tie. I’ll send some pictures of it all. After breakfast, we had another movie. This time it was the really old version of the Christmas Carol. Like with the other movie, if I was outside of the MTC or back home, I never would have watched it. But here, it was awesome and funny. After the movie, I got to call the family and talk to them for 30 minutes. I loved it, especially since we weren’t expecting to be able to talk while I was here in the MTC. They seem to be doing really well without me there.

Later that day was the Christmas Day Devotional. It was really good. The Apostle that came and spoke was Neil L. Anderson. He gave a really good talk about Jesus and how he is our advocate in all things. We sang our song for him, and it was really powerful and amazing. Afterwards, he went around and shook hands with a few people. I didn’t get to shake his hand, but it was still really cool to be in the same room as him for a little bit.

We went to our classroom and took our sack dinners to talk about what we had learned from the talk and what other things we have been pondering and thinking a lot about. It was really Spiritual and inspiring.

On the schedule we were sent in our Emails, the last part of the day was set apart for another devotional. So when we got to our seats, we were expecting to have another hour long talk. But when a member of the Presidency stood and announced who was speaking for that time, we were all surprised to hear that David Archuleta and a girl by the name of Madelyn Paige were going to sing for us. So that was an awesome surprise. And after the amazing singing and testimonies and mission stories, they let all of the missionaries go up on stage and shake their hands. It was pretty sweet.

The rest of the week wasn’t too eventful

Wednesday we had our first Skype TRC. That was not my favorite thing in the world. The people we teach are from all across the world. They volunteer to have us teach them lessons every Wednesday. So that part is really cool. They come to us with really questions and problems and we are there to help them receive answers and some closer to Christ through our lessons. But there are all sorts of technical difficulties and problems that are tough to deal with. Our member that we taught was from Argentina which was cool. She lives in Buenos Aires. But she was Skyping us through her phone and we couldn’t really understand her. And the camera wasn’t working so that was pretty lame.

We had our last lesson with Mauricio last week, before Christmas. So this week for TRC’s we had two lessons with a guy named Jamie. He is from Chile, has a wife, daughter, and son and is just a good man. If he commits to something, he does it. So he was a great investigator. We only had two lessons and had just got through talking about the Book of Mormon. But the trio companionship in my district also taught him for a few lessons and he committed to baptism. It’s awesome.

After we had our second lesson with Jamie, we don’t have anymore TRC’s. So companionship’s from our district and the other district that we reported with teach each other. It’s been pretty good practice. It helps me view our teaching from the investigators eyes.

Hermano Agyin has to leave yesterday so he won’t be teaching us anymore. He is a really cool guy. I don’t think I told you guys about him before, but he got back from his mission to Mendoza, Argentina about 6 months ago. He shared some awesome stories with us and help me a lot with my not-so-perfect-but-improving-Spanish. He also told me that he knew Elder Shields which was really cool. But he said goodbye and we got pictures and his email. We also have another teacher, Hermana Fletcher. She went on her mission to Chile and is more of a doctrine teacher than a Spanish teacher. Of course, all of our lessons are in Spanish, but we aren’t just learning Spanish with her. She is staying through the holidays because her family lives close. Her younger bother also just reported to the MTC last week so they get to see each other every so often.

Let’s see what else...

I’ve started playing four square during exercise time. That’s pretty fun. The food still isn’t the best, but it’s better than nothing so I am thankful.

Oh! We got our travel plans with Airline departure times and stuff! We leave on the 8th, fly from SLC to Atlanta. Stay there for a little bit, then fly all the way down to Buenos Aires in one flight. The plans say that we leave at 9:50 at night and land at 9:50 the next morning. So 12 hours, but a 10 hour trip with the time change.

And today, we have been assigned to help clean the temple. It has been closed for the last two weeks. I’m looking forward to spending the 3 hours in the temple or on the grounds helping it look amazing. It’ll give me all sorts of time just to think and ponder

Awesome. Well, I do enjoy getting emails from you guys. I can’t wait for next week. I will try to send more pictures next week. I've had so many cool experiences and learned a lot while still having fun and feeling the spirit.

Love,

Elder Haley