Going to New Area - La Prensa in Comodoro Rivadavia

Dear Mom,

 

Goodbye to the Recedo Family

Sounds like you guys are having a good time there. Thanks for all the updates about the family. Today I´ll send you so you´ll have those today. I hope that Martin and family have a fun time in Moab and that they come back to the church. It would be way cool if they did. THe update for this week is that we found a less active member that is way cool and that I´m leaving this área. I get to go to Comodoro Rivadavia now and my área is La Prensa it´ll be interesting to see how all of the changes work out and to see what all Comodoro has to offer. OUtside of that the only other new thing is that I got a new pair of boots from a less active member and they are going to last me my entire misión. These boots are crazy durable and I love them a lot. That guy is an amazing person. Love you guys tons and wish you all the best.

 

Love, Michael

Goodbye to the Carota Family

Goodbye to Ringo

Chubut River

 Despedidas! Goodbyes! Family Carota and Racedo. Racedo is the one with the blue shirt and the other is Carota. The dog is Ringo

Dear Dad,

 

This week has been kind of crazy for me. We found a couple of new families and one of them is a single mom with three kids and the littlest one who is 4 can take a hit and not blink. She told us about her conversión experience and it was something else. She said that when she was getting to know the góspel she said the prayer to know if it was true and that night she Heard a voice say, " Here I am daughter. What do you want to know?" And from there she has a rock solid testimony. She knows that she needs to return and we´re going to visit her, or my companion will. This week I´m being transferred to Comodoro

Great find out hiking

Rivadavia. My companion is going to be a Peruano that has one transfer more than me in the field. It´s going to be really cool to get to know another city and to have new experiences. I´m sending you the fotos of the river and of the goodbyes I´ve said so you can have those. I´m really sad to leave my área but I look forward to the new one. I hope that Comodoro is as good to me as Trelew was. Also, my zone leader is going to be in the same zone as me but as a district leader so that´ll be really interesting. I´ll let you know what all happens next week. I head out at 11:30 tonight and I´ll get there at 4 in the morning. Crazy oficinistas. Love you guys tons!

 

Love, Michael

Divisions and the Chubut River

Trelew North with new companion

Dear dad,

Thanks for all the updates about the things in the world and about what all is going on. I love hearing about it. Woot! The states are doing really well in the olympics it looks like. I hope that Martin, Kat and Atticus have fun in Moab and that everything else Works out for everybody else. This week the interesting things that happened were that my companion and I tracked down the Chubut river today which took us about two hours of walking. It was an adventure and I´ll send you the photos when I can. Probably next week. Also, we had divisions this week and I got to spend the day with my district leader. That was a lot of fun, he can do contacts amazingly well and I showed him around the área and we talked about dividing it. I think that when the transfer ends this week they might divide my área. The other fun thing was that yesterday we were walking down the Street and a guy came up and talked to us and it turns out that he is married to a member and he invited us to go over to his house. So we´re going to see how that turns out. It´ll be interesting. That´s all that I have for this week. Love you guys tons and I´ll send the pictures when I get them.

Love, Michael

 

Dear mom,

Thanks for the updates about what all is going on with the family and with your new job. I look forward to getting my package and I will let you know when I get it. Thanks for the quote too. It was way cool to read that. Well, in response to your questions. I pray about the people in my area and that I can be the best missionary possible and that God will watch out for all of you guys. My heart´s desire right now is to help the people here to come to the gospel and at least have Heard about God. My investigators are progressing very slowly and they haven´t come to church yet but we keep working with them. And I still haven´t bought the pillow. I did buy a flash drive and I think that a pillow will be about 900 pesos. But I don´t know if I have that much money on my card. And my companion and I are still the best of friends. We really are getting along fantastically. Love you guys tons! And good luck this week.

Love, Michael

February 10, 2014 - Baptismal Date Set

Dear Mom,

To start out I shined my shoes this week and washed them because they did look really sad and worn out. So, I think that they´ll last me longer now. Also, thanks for all of the updates about the family. I love hearing about how you guys are doing and what all is going on. It sounds like you all are having tons of fun. Things here for me are going really well too. We got invited to an Asado on Saturday with our investigator family and I ate intestines. They were actually pretty good, I think that you have to know how to cook them though. And I learned a lot about how crazy the people in my area are and how funny they can be. There are a lot of Gypsies in Argentina and some, most I think, are good but a lot of them break into and rob people´s houses. It was kind of interesting to hear that. I didn´t know that this area was that dangerous. I´ve never had problems here. Outside of that not a whole lot else has changed for us this week. Thanks for all your support and everything else. I love you guys tons!

Love, Michael

 

 Dear Dad,

Thanks for the email and the thought. It´s way cool to get the thoughts and updates from you guys. We have a tentative date for the 15th of March but they need to go to church three times first. The transfer ends on the 23rd, so I probably won´t see them be baptized. This week the cool things that happened were that we had an Asado with the Galdamez family. They´re our investigators. And that we had a couple of less active people come to church this Sunday that hadn´t been in a long time. It was way cool to see that the lessons we share with them have an effect. We also had a lot of lessons with members this week which was amazing because they were good lessons and because we haven´t had that before. On Monday we had a family home evening with one family and they invited some people that aren´t members to participate which was way cool. We talked about how families can be eternal and had a good spiritual lesson. And on Tuesday we started teaching one guy named Sergio who has lived in the street his whole life, been in and out of prison and has done just about everything that you can do. He´s a crazy person but now he´s calmed down a ton and we were able to gain his confidence. Now we´re good friends and have had a lot of fun times talking to him. This week we learned that the gypsies here sell their daughters in marriage and it´s a really tight contract. Sergio explained that the daughter and the son have to be in agreement and then the fathers get together and talk price. Afterwards they make the exchange and the marriage is binding and the daughter ends up being better off because the community is so tight that they can´t do any violence to their wives and she usually ends up in a better position than what she was in. I thought it was interesting to learn about how that culture is and I think that it is a pretty well thought out system. The other thing that I have learned this week is that one of the service missionaries here Elder Sirena has found our name in a list of the variations of his name. He told me that our name comes from Italy but is from the Vikings because they conquered that part of Italy or something like that. I thought it was interesting to learn about where our name possibly comes from and a little of the history there. That´s really about it for the week. Pretty normal and boring. Love you guys tons!

Love, Michael

 

Photos of Michael and New Compaion

Elder Sarmiento and Elder Sirrine

Elder Sirrine on shore of Trelew River

We received these photos the next day from Elder Sirrine's companion Elder Sarmiento. My new companion is Elder Sarmiento, he´s from Santiago, Chile, he is a convert to the church and used to drink a lot. He is an awesome missionary and has the gift to know the references and what the scriptures say. I do not have that gift. It´s been cool to learn how he works and how he thinks. We´ve been working a lot trying to track down less active members that we have on the list of members and it´s been frustrating to have people insult us, throw rocks or just not come outside when we know they´re there. But, things have been going well for us with this work and I love him. His interesting quirks are that he repeats himself a lot and that he does some things different. Like when he cooks he´s all over the place with food and stuff. I don´t think that I´ll have many problems with him this transfer which is awesome.

Trelew Norte and Puerto Madryn Zones

Trelew Norte Zone

February 3, 2014 Family accepts baptism challenge

Dear Dad,

 

I can read the Infinite Atonement. Thanks for all of the things that you guys are going to send me I look forward to getting them. Thanks for all of the updates about the world. I really love getting them. The updates from me this week are that we found a family of four that want to get baptized. It was the coolest experience. They have two sons that are 11 and 14 years old and all of them accepted baptismal dates. The mom needs to get married and to stop smoking but I think that they´ll be awesome. The mom really wants to stop smoking and the kids are way excited about baptism. As for my other investigator I don´t think that she´s really going to progress at all. She doesn´t really want to do anything and hasn´t really gotten a desire to go to church. So we´ll keep working with her but I don´t think that she´ll progress. Another cool thing that happened this week is that our family of investigators invited us to eat an Asado with them and I think that we´ll do that on Saturday. THey are way cool people. The dad is a carpenter that has his own shop and he does really well. And the rest of them are just Golden. They want to learn, want to be baptized and don´t like any other church. The mom also told us that they have been searching for a church for a long time but the kids need to make they´re own decisión so I think that they are really excited about this church. It´s way cool to see the miracles that happen when we work. We now are also working a lot with the members to reactivate the partially active families and have a couple of lessons set up this week with members and less actives. I think that this área is starting to progress now and I know that the Lord has his hand in this work. I look forward to see how things pan out this transfer. Also we had a meeting with Presidente this week. He taught us to aim high. Set your goals realistic but high and if you work your hardest the Lord will help you reach your goals. We also learned a couple of ways to improve our planning and they really work! Our week has been really good and I think that we will end this transfer on a good note. Also, I have a lot of add on thoughts this week. I ate Chori llana and it is one of the best foods I have eaten in my pension. The other new favorite food is Canelones those two foods are amazing! And last night when my companion was cooking he has a grease fire start in his pan and he had the funnist look on his face. That was a priceless experience. The mission is the best! Love you guys and miss you all tons! Have an awesome week.

 

Love, Michael

January 27th Transfer

Dear Dad,

 

Thanks for the updates about the peso and things. It is good to know what´s going on. This week with my companion we have been contacting less active families and have actually found alot of them at home. It was way cool to see that there are people in this área that are nice. We haven´t had success finding new people that are willing to talk to us even for a minute. It´s been a bit sad and a lot funny. One other thing that happened this week that was a miracle is that one of the less active members of our Ward that hasn´t been to church in years went to church yesterday. That was a way happy momento ofr me. This week the biggest thing that I have seen is that the Lord Works in His own time and it´s usually after we´re about to give up. Because my companion and I have not been having a lot of success thus far finding people or being able to teach lessons. But, yesterday we had a really good day and things have been looking up this last week. I think that the work is going to progress here now and I am looking forward to see what people we can help. Thank you for sending me the King Follett discourse. I have been Reading that the last couple of days and it´s way cool and I am learning a lot. One of the interesting things that I have noticed is that our Ward misión leader has taught us a lot of the same things in the various different lessons we´ve had with him. It was way cool to see how that worked out. I love that brother. His name is Hermano Agüero. He knows the most about the góspel of any person that I have talked to and I always learn a ton visiting him. I love passing by his house to learn from him. That´s all for this week. Love you guys tons and hope everything is well with you.

 

Love, Michael