Zone Conference Fun

Dear family,

Thanks for all of the pictures and for the emails. I really do love hearing from all of you. It´s also crazy to see how much the house has changed from what I remember. It´s weird.

Ushuaiah Zone

My updates from this week are that first, we had conference with our mission president on Friday and the coolest part of the conference was when we learned to use a truly random verse from the book of mormon to help an investigator find an answer to their question. That was hard, funny and really good practice for teaching with the scriptures and following the spirit. The worst part of the conference was when I had to stand up and teach all of the missionaries in the zone about MMT it´s a program that our mission president started where once a week the missionaries go out with the members to visit less actives with the goal of a temple. I talked to them about the preparation for the visit and how it can make things a lot better for all the people involved. It was really suckish having to teach all of them and I was super nervous but apparently it turned out really well and people commented on that. Then we had a conference Saturday and Sunday with a visiting 70, Elder Spannaus. He´s from Argentina and I have to say it was really interesting listening to him speak. The problem was that I had to sit towards the back both times I listened to him because of transport issues and so we couldn´t really hear him very well. But what I did hear was totally awesome. One thing that he said that I really liked was when he talked about repentance and forgiveness that when God forgives He forgets and He doesn´t want us sitting around with the memory of our guilt either. He shared the story of Alma the younger and his miraculous repentance and it was awesome.

Elder Sirrine

Sea Lions on Island in the Beagle Channel

Lighthouse on Island in Beagle Channel

Elder Sirrine on Boat Light House in Background

Elders Sirrine and Bartlett

And then the last update from the week is that today we went on the boats to see the lighthouse at the end of the world. That was totally fun and freaking amazing. I got to see sea lions, the lighthouse, be on a boat and we got off at one of the islands to take pictures. It was a really fun trip and I absolutely enjoyed it. The only weird thing was that there was a group of school kids on the boat too and they all wanted to take pictures with the gringoes. It was cool to be popular but it wasn´t really awesome. And after that we went to a soccer field and played for a while which was awesome. I really missed playing soccer, it´s been a while since I´ve played a lot.

And the other cool thing that I just thought of is that we did divisions on Saturday with the Elders from Rio Grande, another city. And we saw miracles. I taught three lessons in three hours which almost doesn´t happen and it was really spiritual too. I have to say divisions always bring miracles. It´s kind of crazy how different a missionary works with a different companion or in a different area. Pretty spectacular. That´s all for me this week. Love you all tons! Hope your week goes well too.

Love,

Michael

Argentine Mother's Day & Super Friday

Dear family, 

Thanks for the emails, support and everything else y´all have done and are doing for me. It is really appreciated. Also, I took some money out of my card because we are going to go to the lighthouse next week with President and he is only going to pay half, I also took some money because here in Ushuaia things are expensive and my monthly money doesn´t go quite as far as it used too. My size would probably be a 32 waist. I know that I wore 34 and now I´m quite a bit smaller. And my shoes are holding on. I already had one pair die, my boots that I was gifted are now being maintained and fixed as much as I can do and the other boots are still holding out. And my normal shoes are still alive and kicking. I haven´t payed a fee that I know of. Kendall is doing great and she may have something to send in the package but her schedule is really full so she may not get around to sending something when you send it. I look forward to getting that package then.

Mother's Day Craft Project

As for updates from me this week on Friday we had a freaking awesome day and were able to teach 4 lessons and find three families that want to listen to us. I am really excited to see how they all progress and I know that day was a day of miracles. My comp and I managed to find one family in the morning that we had contacted before but not taught and we taught them about the Book of Mormon and how God blesses us and guides us, they said they were going to read the Book and that they were going to pray about it. Then in the afternoon we went to do follow up on some contacts and got in to teach again about the Book of Mormon, then we taught a less active member about how the Book of Mormon can bless his life and he read with us in Mosiah talking about Noah, we helped him see how his actions can change the course of his life and his son´s life and he said that he was going to be better and come back to church. And then at 8 on the way home we went to another person´s house that we hadn´t seen for a long time and he let us in and told us that he had been reading the Book of Mormon and that he believed it. We invited him to church and he said he would think about baptism. Friday was probably the greatest day that I have had yet in Ushuaia and I felt super energized coming out of that last house. I know that God was with us that day.

Mother's Day Craft Project

Happy Mother's Day

And then on Saturday we got to help the Elders quorum make little gifts for Mother´s day that was this Sunday. Happy Mother´s day mom!  (I know it isn´t Mother´s day there but still. I love you tons!)  It was fun then on Sunday to hear the talks about mothers and one of my favorites was the talk by the branch President who told a story of a mother in Florida. One afternoon her little son decided to go out to the lagoon behind his house to swim so he ran out of the house and jumped right into the water without looking, so he didn´t notice the crocodile in the water. The little boy was swimming away happily without a worry and the crocodile was getting closer to him. The boy´s mom, looking through the window saw the crocodile and ran out of the house yelling to her son to ´get out of the water´ the little boy heard her, saw the crocodile and started swimming as fast as he could towards his mom. He reached the dock and his mom grabbed the little boy´s arms right as the crocodile grabbed his legs. The mom pulled with all of her strength against the crocodile and managed to keep her boy from going into the water. A neighbor hearing the screams came out with a pistol and killed the crocodile and the boy was fine even though his legs were damaged. A reporter went to see the kid in the hospital and asked if he could see the scars on his legs. The little boy showed him and then rolled up his sleeves to show the scars on his arms where his mom´s fingernails had marked him and he said "those scars are cool but the ones you should see are these. These are the marks from my mom´s hands when she didn´t let me go and saved my life." Then President Nuñez (the branch president) told all of the moms to not let go of their kids when they get trapped by spiritual crocodiles so that when they see Jesus they can show the scars on their arms and say "these are the marks of my mom´s hands when she didn´t let me go and saved my life." 

P-Day on the Beach, Beagle Channel

Elder Bartlett and Sirrine

Elder Sirrine Visiting a Preserve

Needless to say that story was super spiritual and it made me miss my mom a ton. I love you tons mom and I just want to say thanks for all that you did and do to keep me out of trouble and to help me have a great life. Love you tons!

I hope all of you have a great week and I look forward to talking to you for Christmas.

Love,

Michael

Service and Miracles in The Monte Olivia District

Dear Family,

Thanks for all of the updates about the family. It´s great to hear that you all are well and that things are going good at home. Also, thanks for sending me the conference talks. As to skypeing I don´t know where I´m going to do it yet. I´m pretty sure that I won´t be in Ushuaia but I think that if you send me the camera I should be able to download the software. I think that the most likely would be that we find a person or place with cameras to use. But, if you want to send me one I won´t say no.

My updates from this week are that we tried to hike up to the glacier today which is why I´m writing as late as I am. It´s been super cold and snowy here for the last couple of days but we´ve been fine. Today on our hike up we were hiking on the mountain through 6 inches of snow into a storm. I had a blast. We´re all wet cold and tired but it was fun. At the end we didn´t manage to get to the glacier because one of the guides at a station towards the top told us we still had a good long walk and the storm would make it really dangerous. We still got to play in the snow and some of the elders made a snowman. It was a very fun and productive P-day.

Also, on Friday I got to do a couple of service activities. It´s been a while since I´ve done service. We helped a member move a bunch of logs, it was hard work and Elder Smith (who´s new) had a log roll down the hill at him and he almost didn´t get out of the way and almost had his ankle crushed by the log. That was kind of scary but the rest was fun and difficult. The other service we got to do was to help another person move into a new house. They are moving into our ward and are a part member family, the husband is an investigator, so we´re going to see how that goes down for the Elders in that area. 

Spring in Ushuaia

Mountain Homes

Also, we had a bit of a miracle for our district. On Sunday two people came to church for the second time and seem really interested in the church. They are students of one of the members that teaches dance, they seem like really awesome investigators which means that my district may have baptisms this transfer. I´m really looking forward to that. I hope it happens that would be freaking awesome for my branch. 

And outside of that everything is going well here. My comp and I are doing the work as best we can but it has gotten harder to do it since I got here. I don´t know why but stuff just falls through a lot more for us than it used too. But we keep moving forward doing as much as we can and things are looking up. I´m pretty happy with my area. Love you all tons and hope you have a great week!

Lots of love,

Michael

Conference and Super P-Day

Dear Family,

Thanks for the emails and the updates about the family. Sounds like you are all doing great.

This week has been fun for me because we got to watch the conference all of Saturday and Sunday. That was basically all that we had time to do both of those days. In between sessions we goofed off and played games while eating food. It was really fun to be together as a zone. Also, it was really nice to be able to listen to two of the general authorities speak in Spanish. That was a really nice change, to have the general authorities talk in their native tongues. I thought it was cool for the church to show a bit that they are more worldwide and that it isn´t just the "gringo church" or the "states church" But that we come from all over the world and that we speak different languages. It was really nice.

Elder Sirrine on a Mt Stream

New District

Elder Sirrine and Missionary From Zone

Elder Sirrine Super PDay

Super PDay

Super Pday Zone Name Tags

And today in the morning we went as a zone on a hike up a mountain. There is a ski slope that is above the city and we went there as a zone to hike up and have a picnic on the mountain. That was a lot of fun. But, because of the recent snow melt the path was super watery and slick. It was sort of hard to get up the first hill but once we made it up it was fun to walk around in the woods and we found a lake, some snow, had a snowball fight, and did a lot of entertaining things. I had a blast.

And on the way down it was really funny because my comp went running on a part and hit a really slick patch. He sat down really hard and slid about six feet, and the Elder behind him went rolling too. I laughed when I saw that my comp was okay because it was really funny to see him slide. I have to say that today was one of my favorite pdays in Ushuaia. It was a very nice trip.

Also this week I went on divisions and got to see the part of Andorra that we call "Narnia" it is really pretty and I want to go back there. 

I took a ton of photos and we had a great time on divisions. And that´s about all that happened to me this week. It was fun, tiring and a great learning experience. I hope you all have a great week too and I love you tons!

Love,

Michael