A Gift of Cherries November 25, 2013

The cherries were delicious

We got two bags full of cherries from a sister we did service for.

These are the only pictures for this week. We got two bags full of Cherries from a sister that we did service for. The Cherries were delicious!

Dear Mom,

 

I´m glad you liked the pictures I sent. Thanks for the prayers and the support. I love them both. I am trying to take care of myself, I fix my hair every morning and I am using sunscreen. It doesn´t do me a whole lot of good to shine my shoes because all of the streets here are dirt and there is dust everywhere. I´d have to shine them every day and I don´t have the time, desire or need to do that. I do brush off the worst of the dust every day though. Not all but most.

 

I´m glad that things are going well for all of you guys at home and that Brandan had an awesome home coming talk. I hope the Frogley´s have fun on their mission in Hawaii. That´s crazy small! I don´t think we´ve ever had a Thanksgiving that small before. Man how things are changing. Happy birthday to Dad! That story of the Elder is really cool though.

 

As for me I am able to talk to the people more and the language is a bit easier to understand. Our investigators right now are Sergio, Maria Elena and her grandchildren and we have some references that we are trying to contact. The Sister missionaries found Sergio first and we met him when he came to church on Sunday, and my companion found Maria Elena before I arrived. The references came from the Elders in the other Ward that shares our building. It seems like all the missionaries around us want to work in our área. It´s crazy! I am adapting to missionary life and to life in Argentina now. Things are starting to get easier for me here. I´m loving it.

 

Love you tons,

Michael

 

 Dear Dad.

 

The man that baptized Natalia is Enrique. He was baptized in October and is awesome. My companion and I love spending time in his house talking to him. He has also helped me a lot with my Spanish and has helped me get comfortable talking to people.It was her grandma but she´s not Maria. I don´t actually know her name. Maria is a different lady. I´m glad that you had a great birthday. I don´t think that we´re going to get much of anything for Thanksgiving here. I got to ride with the AP because there wasn´t enough space on the bus or with the President. Then I look forward to getting my package soon. I think that we have everything we need for the mission effort in our apartment right now. We also have a form that we fill out to ask the mission office for supplies that we need. So, thank you a ton for thinking about me and if I need anything I will definitely ask you guys.

 

That sounds awesome. I think I´ll be able to Skype with you guys on the 24th but I am still not sure of the time yet. I hope that I am able to get an iPad. I know that Brayden has one right now. I think that someone told me iPads would get to South America sometime next year. That will be really cool to see. I´m glad that Brandan had a good homecoming talk and it sounds like he had a lot of cool points. Thank you for sharing those with me. Thank you for letting me know that. If I need to tell you anything confidentially I will definitely do that. We email from an internet café type place. They call them Cybers. I have around two hours to write emails on Mondays.

 

Thank you a ton for the prayers, I love you guys too. I´m glad you guys could go to the temple. Sounds like you guys have your priorities straight. I´m definitely glad that you are praying for me and I love having your support. You guys are teh best.

 

Love, Michael

 

Dear Dad,

 

I have a couple of interesting experiences that I can share with you guys. One is that I almost got bit by a dog and the other is the time we played Rugby with a bunch of youth. Elder Davis is the AP that I rode with to Punta Tombo. My stories will probably be short but here we go. First story about when I almost got bit by a dog. The first thing you need to know is that there are about a million stray dogs in the streets of Argentina and quite honestly all of South America. And almost all of these dogs are very territorial and will bark when you walk past their house or their street. There is one of these dogs on the street that my companion and I walk down every day. One day, we were walking along minding our own business when my companion tells me."There´s a dog behind that car. Be careful when you walk around it." So we continued walking now knowing that we need to be careful. As we pass the car nothing happens. Then about two or three steps later this dog comes charging out barking like nobodies business. He charges at us and jumps up. We´re walking away mostly unaware of what this dog is doing when I feel a pressure around the entire backside of my knee. I thought that dog was going to cripple me. His bite didn't pierce my pants or skin but it was crazy.

The second story. Behind all the chapels in South America there is a field that people use to play soccer or basketball. There is also usually a bunch of grass. Nearly every day there is a group of close to ten youth that play on the soccer field behind my chapel. My companion and I have started playing with them when we have the opportunity and we are starting to try and teach them something about the gospel and English a bit. One day when we were playing with them my companion brought his Football that we were going to play Rugby with. Well, we didn´t have enough people or space to play real Rugby so we improvised. The goal was that one person would throw the ball to another and then that person had to run it into the goal. There were three of the kids that were going to try and tackle the person. My companion threw the ball to me and I had two of the kids hanging off of me while I was walking into the goal. That was a lot of fun and interesting.

I´ll try to write more next week.

Love,

Michael

November 17: Elder Sirrine Gets His First Baptism, The Trelew Zones Go to Punta Tombo (Megellan Penguin Beach)

Dear Mom,

The baptism was awesome! I loved it. It took less than an hour to get to the penguins. No, just the two zones in Trelew. It was fun to see other missionaries.

Elder Sirrine, Maria, Natalia, Ward Mission Leader, and Elder Salas

Natalia just baptized.

To Callista: It was about 5 hours. The best food I have eaten here is the Empanadas or the milanesa.

To Max: I´ve seen about 6 different animals. And my Spanish is coming along great.

Wild Lamas

Magellan Penguin at Punta Tombo

Penguin on egg nest

Penguins hanging out at Punta Tombo

Wild ostriche type bird

To Naiah: We´re both doing awesome.

Love you guys too. Love, Michael

 Dear Dad,

I love you too. Things are going great here. It was awesome to see the penguings at Punta Tombo! Thanks for the Prayers. I did get your really long email but I didn´t have time to read all of it. Thanks for the package. I get 900 pesos each month and it lasts pretty well until the last week. Thanks dad. My pension is on Rio Negro and between Santa Fe and Cuba. Those are the street names. I hope that helps a bit. I´m glad Brandon is home safe. I can Skype on Christmas I just need to figure out when and I need an account.

Love, Michael

Dear Mom,

I´m glad that things are going well for all of you guys at home. It´s sad that Zander didn´t make the team though. I had my first baptism this week and we changed our ward mission leader. He is awesome and I think that the ward is going to grow a lot now. I am definitely looking forward to working with him. Outside of that not a whole lot has happened saw the penguins on Thursday and there were a ton. I also got to be in the Ranger with one of the assistants and he drove about 100 mph down the freeway. That was crazy! And the crazier thing is that President Rogers drove even faster! Fun times in Argentina! Thanks for the prayers and support. I love you guys a ton!

Love, Michael

View at Punta Tombo of Atlantic Ocean

Elder Sirrine at Punta Tombo Argentina

Elder Salas and Elder Sirrine at Punta Tombo

Third P-Day, at the Arcade

Dear Dad,

Sounds like things are great at home. I think it takes about a month for letters to get to me here. It could be more or less but about a month seems average. Thanks for the support. Also, my apartment is on Santa Fe and Rio Negro, it´s pretty far from the chapel. Hope that helps you find it.

Love, Michael

P-Day at the Arcade, Elder Smedley The pool shark

Dear Callista,

Our investigator, Natalia is 14 years old and Maria is almost 80. We are teaching the grandchildren of Maria. We also found a new investigator yesterday. We are also going to get an investigator from the sisters who were tracting in our area.

Love, Michael

Dear Naiah,

Thanks for the love and support. I hope you have fun at school and I will definitely send you a picture of the penguins.

Love, Michael

Elder Sirrine's first district in Trelew, Argentina. At the Arcade

Dear mom,

I´m glad that things are going well for all of you guys at home. Things are starting to look up here too. I´ve got a baptism set for Saturday with Natalia and on Thursday I´m going to Punto Tombo to see the penguins! I think that´s going to be awesome. The other really awesome thing that has started to happen is that I´ve started to talk more to people. I think my Spanish has improved a ton and I look forward to having cool experiences to share with you guys.

Love, Michael

Dear Mom,

I´m glad that you guys are having fun there at home and that you got to see Lynette and Tyler. I´m also glad that everything went well with the choir on Sunday. Thanks for the prayers and the support. They mean a lot.

Love, Michael

The Elders at the Arcade

Dear Isabel,

I´m glad you like it. I love you too and on Thursday I will take a picture with a penguin if everything works out how we´ve got it planned. Thanks for the quote of the week. It´s a good one. Just stick it through school and eventually you can do something awesome too. I do remember Narnia. It´s good that you don´t have snow but I´m walking around in Summer weather here. It´s tons of fun.

Love you!

Michael

Week Two in Trelew

Dear mom,

Things are going pretty well here. It sounds like you guys all had a great Halloween. I´m glad things are going well for all of you back at home. To answer your questions. Yes I do like what I´ve seen of Argentina, it´s pretty cool. The houses and buildings here look beat down on the outside but are really nice on the inside which was odd at first. My companion is pretty cool, he´s from Peru but has lived in Argentina basically his whole life, he has one older sister and one younger sister, he´s been a missionary for 8 months, he´s an awesome missionary. I am obeying the rules. I don´t find it hard to be with him the entire day. I am not tired over the jet lag. I love the food it is amazing! I just wish that I could try more of the meat but the people in my área are very poor and we don´t get a lot more than variations on pasta. I don´t have a topic to discuss yet and my favorite scripture right now is Mark 1:1-somewhere in those verses Jesús teaches an awesome lesson very simply.

I´m trying to enjoy my time. My favorite experience thus far has been in the house of Enrique. He´s a recent convert and he and his wife are amazing! We got to share a message with them and I was able to speak calmly, clearly and it was spiritual. I felt very proud of myself. That´s the only really cool thing that´s happened to me so far. The members are great even if 90% of them are inactive. One of my investigators, Natalia, is going to be baptized sometime this month. I look forward to that.

I love you guys a ton and miss you lots.

love,

Michael

Elder Sirrine's first apartment

Elder's Kitchen

Elder's bedroom

 Dear Dad,

You got to me just before I stopped emailing. We are four hours ahead of Utah time now that daylight saving time is over in the U.S. I don´t have any interesting stories yet I´ll let you guys know when I have anything cool. My Ward is Parque dos and outside of that I don´t know the adresses of the church or my apartment. They´re both on the Street Rio Negro which hopefully helps. I´m about an hour away from the ocean in my área right now. Thanks for your email it really helped and I love the scripture. Thank you so much for the help dad. I will definitely tell you if anything cool happens to me and I´ll share my stories.

Love you guys,

Michael

Elder Sirrine's Email To Elder Halverson

Hey Brayden. I´m glad you´re having a great time in New York. In Argentina we don´t celebrate Halloween at all. But, On Christmas I get two P-days in a row and the entire city is going to be up all night. I think it´ll be awesome. My favorite food here in Argentina so far is the Empanadas, they are amazing! I hope that I can have as good an experience as you and I hope the Lord is with you.

Elder Sirrine's first companion in Argentina

Attached is a quick picture of my new companion taken in our ward house here in Trelew. He is from Argentina and only speaks Castellano (their word for spanish)Things are going awesome down in Argentina. I have had Empanadas and I love them. All of the food and the people down here are the best. I am so happy to be here. Thanks for the hope and the support. I love getting them both.

 

Love, Elder Sirrine

 

Elder Sirrine and new companion Elder Salas