District Fun in the Park

Dear Dad,

Thanks for the message and the updates. I have no idea when we´ll be able to Skype but I´ll keep you all updated. My investigators are doing awesome. Daniel and Maria came to church yesterday and we´re trying to have a baptism for them this Saturday. They are totally ready they just need to accept  the invitation. Please keep them in your prayers. I am doing great here. The weather is starting to get colder but it´s still not really cold. I am totally looking forward to the time when it really is cold. I miss winter after two straight summers. Also, I cut my hair yesterday with my companion and he did a great job cutting it. It looks really good and I am really happy with it. The other cool thing that happened this week was that on P-day I got to have a great time with a lot of the other Elders in my zone. We ate sandwiches in a park and just enjoyed being together. It was tons of fun to be with all of them. And I found a little shop that sells the coolest souvenirs. I am going to pass by again some other P-day before I leave here to buy some stuff. It was legit. I hope that you guys all have a great week and that things go well for you. Love you all tons and miss you lots!

P-day with Zone in the Park

Love, Michael

Eating in the Park

Nice sandwich

Chasing Pigeons

Hey Zander!

I found some cool hats from the Heat here for really cheap and I think that I´m going to buy one for you. I´m still about 6´ and I have lost a ton of weight. I goa bit fatter here because we have a Bolivian family that gives us a ton of really good food. They are also thinking about having a party for my birthday which would be totally legit. I have also gotten a bit tanner here and my comp tells me that I sound less like a Gringo and more like a Chileno or Peruano when I talk and he´s also taught me a bit of ketchwa. It´s totally legit. Also I think that I may have a couple of baptisms this week. Their names are Daniel and Maria and they are totally awesome. I love this couple and I really hope that they get baptized this week. Pray for them and when I have your hat I´ll shoot you a photo. Love you tons and take care of yourself!

Lovew, Michael

 

Elder Sirrine's District

Dear Mom,

Thanks for the letter and the updates. Tell Zander to take care of himself. The cool updates from this week are that Daniel and Maria came to church and we are hoping that they get baptized this week. Please pray for them! The other cool things that happened are that I cut my hair yesterday and it looks really good, I´m finally happy with a hair cut. My companion is totally awesome. And that we´re going to have a conference on Wednesday with Elder Gonzalez of the 70 which should be really cool. That´s really all that´s new here. love you guys tons and miss you all lots!

Love, Michael

Hey Mormor!

It´s good ot hear from you even if things aren´t all fine there. I hope that Morfar gets better soon and that Martin figures out how to deal with things in Moab. I´ll remember all of you guys in my prayers this week. It´s way cool that you had an awesome blessing from brother Halverson I totally agree that the priesthood is the best. I hope you have a great time in the hospital when you are there and that the seminar is good. I am working to help a couple get baptized this week and I hope that things work out. Please pray for Daniel and Maria that they can get the answer to their prayers and that they´ll be baptized. Love you tons and miss you lots! Have a great week!

Love, Michael

Baptismal dates are set.

Dear Mom,

Nesquik is a favorite

Thanks for the updates about the family and for the highlights from your talk. They were cool to read. As of right now the only things that I think I need are another scarf and a pair of gloves. It´s starting to get cold here and my face is freezing. lots of the nights I can´t feel my chin. It´s weird. Outside of that thanks for putting my investigators on the prayer roll. Could you guys pray specifially for Daniel and Maria? They have a baptismal date for the 3rd and they need to come to church and Daniel is looking for a testimony. It would be awesome if you prayed for them. =) The other cool update is that Ronaldo another of my investigators accepted a baptismal date for the 17th of May. It´ll be way cool to see him progress. And my companion and I went to the saladita and got to talk to the people and see all of the cool stuff there. Zander still loves the Heat right because I saw some cool stuff there and I thought about him. Ask if he´d like that. Also, I´ve got pictures to send you and this Saturday we may go to the Chenque which´ll be awesome. Chenque is the hill here where you can see the entire city of Comodoro. It´ll be fun to see that. Love you all tons and miss you lots! Have a great week!

  

Chocolate egg for Easter

Sunset from Pension

Love, Michael

 

Dear Dad,

Cake

Things are going awesome for me. My stomach has been doing fine and my companion and I have been boiling our drinking water recently. So no more food poisoning problems. I just sat in the seat, the bus belongs to a member and he let us hop in and take photos in the driver´s seat. My investigators are doing awesome. Ronaldo now has the goal to get baptized on the 17th and Maria and Daniel are working towards the 3rd. If they come to church they can make it. Also, Daniel is looking for a testimony so it´s been hard to get him to commit to much of anything but next Sunday I think they´ll come because they have promised to be there. My Easter passed without too much of a celebration. My companion and I got some chocolate easter eggs from members and we also bought some. That was awesome. It´s interesting to see that the Catholic´s don´t eat any meat during the week of Easter it´s all fish. We didn´t get any fish this week but the lunches were awesome. The other two cool things that happened this week were that my companion and I went to the Saladita which is an open air market that runs Saturdays and Sundays it was really cool to walk around and see all of the things there that are a lot cheaper than the main stream stores. I bought a hat and my comp bought himself gloves, plums (which are delicious) and two Easter eggs. One for me and one for him. Also we got some cool sunrise pictures Saturday. You can´t see me but the sunrise is awesome. And that´s about all that has happened this week. I hope you guys have a lot of fun and I love you all tons.

Love, Michael

Down Pour Before Easter

Maximus: Rock on little bro! I love you tons. You are totally right. Two years will fly by crazy fast. Look forward to seeing you all on Mother´s day. Love you tons!

Elder Sirrine and cool statue

 Naiah: It´s different to have to worry about if the water is dirty or not and it´s weird to walk on dirt streets with houses made out of whatever they can find. But the people here are awesome and I love it. It would be way cool if you were a missionary too. Love you tons!

Ocean at Comodoro Rivadavia

Callista: Way to go on your reading and writing! Keep it up! Have lots of fun in school and make tons of friends! Love you too!

Elder Sirrine sits in Driver Seat of a Bus

 One of the times I felt the spirit this week was listening to the music that I got from my companion. It had a super uplifting message and was an answer to me. The other time was in the conference, not exactly this week but still, when they were talking about the temples I know that Comodoro Rivadavia will have a temple announced in the next conference. It will happen.

Love, Michael 

Rain Run-off Outside Elder Sirrine's Pension

Dear Mom,

Elder Sirrine in Rain By Graffiti

Thanks for the update about the family. I really appreciate hearing about all that you guys are doing. The one interesting thing that I have learned about Easter here is that the Jehovah´s Witnesses get together to commemorate the death of the Savior and that they take that custom out of what is supposed to be the sacrament. That is just weird to me. I also learned that the Jehovah´s Witnesses avoid talking to missionaries as much as possible. They say hi and then disappear, according to another Elder it´s because they know we´d win in an argument. Either way it was odd. The other crazy thing this week is that on Thursday it rained so hard that we got trapped in the pension. There was a legit river outside our house that went up to about my knees. It was crazy! Hope you guys have a fun week and I love you all!

Love, Michael

Rain River outside Pension

 Dear Dad,

Thanks for the updates and the pictures. Max looks good with his new glasses. This week the updates are that we had a river on Thursday appear outside of our house in about 20 minutes and it lasted all day. We couldn´t go outside at all because the rain froze our heads in about 10 minutes and everybody just kept telling us to go home and get out of the rain. It was a rather suckish day. Then on Saturday and Sunday things got a ton better we were able to set four baptismal dates with some of our investigators. The only problem is that they haven´t come to church yet. I know that they are way prepared they just need to meet the requirements of assistance and one couple needs to get married. So we´ll see how that all turns out. I think it´ll be awesome and my companion and I are going to work hard to get things ready so that they can get baptized on May 3rd. It´ll be crazy to see how this all works out. The other cool thing from this week is that we are finally able to use our chapel again. They still aren´t totally done remodeling but it´s close enough that we´re going to be able to use it again. I am so excited because that will make our work a whole lot easier because now our investigators can walk to church. Lots of good stuff is happening here for me. My companion and I are working amazingly well and things are progressing a ton. I love this area and this work. It´s the best! Hope you all have a good week and enjoy yourselves this Easter.

Love, Michael

Zone Interviews

Sister Rogers

We love zone interviews. We have the opportunity to talk individually with each missionary.  It is always a sweet experience.  We love our missionaries!
President’s talk was on the challenge that Elder Ballard gave us during the mission presidents seminar.  There are 5 things that each missionary has been asked to do. Make 10 contacts a day, study and internalize chapter 3 in Preach My Gospel, invite the less active to return, leave the pension by 10:00, and ask for a reference at each lesson. John 10 tells us we are the voice of the Shepherd and as we do these 5 things we will be blessed to find those that the Lord has prepared.

Comodoro Zone, Elder Sirrine back row 5th from right

“Lock your Heart”, a talk given by President Spencer W .Kimball was the theme of my talk. “Whose mission is it”?  It is the Lord’s mission, our mission, and the individual missionary’s  mission.  One missionary’s behavior effects the entire mission.  They were challenged to be exactly obedient.
Encourage your missionary to be exactly obedient so the Lord can bless our missionaries to find, teach, and baptize those that are searching and prepared to hear the truth.

Conference and Empanada's

Dear Mom,

I was really rushed for time last week because we were having an activity with all the missionaries in Comodoro and I didn´t think to send the email to both dad and you. Sorry about that. Thanks for the quotes from conference, they´re way cool. I got to watch the conference in Spanish this time and it was a little bit different from what I am used to. They have translators that are translating as they hear the talk and sometimes they mess up or get a bit lost. It was really cool though and I loved all of the talks and the thing about the temples at the beginning was for my mission. Next conference we´re workibng so that they announce the temple here. We´re getting really close too. Things are all going well for me and my companion. We aren´t changing at all just getting a smaller area to work in. It´ll be fun to see how things work out with Hermanas in my ward. And I have pictures this week so you´ll be able to see those. 

Playing Games Between Conference Sessions

Love, Michael

 

 Dear Dad,

The transfers this time didn´t hit my companionship. Both Elder Abarca and I are going to stay in the area one transfer more. So, thanks for the advice about training but I´m not doing it this time. For me it hasn´t been the hardest to do the contacts but I have found it harder to get my companion and I out of the door earlier. Seems like there´s always something that keeps us inside longer in the morning. But outside of that the changes that they have made weren´t too hard. I have gotten over 90% of the food poisoning incident. But I feel fine. We are splitting my area in half to give them space to work. And we have a possible apartment for them now but nothing is really set in stone yet. We´re just hoping that this pension works out for them. I think that we may get the conference talks but we haven´t gotten a Liahona here yet so it would be nice if you guys sent them to me.

Hanging out with the gringos between sessions

This week has been mostly normal. We had a big party with both of the zones on Monday and really enjoyed ourselves eating and playing soccer with them. That was a ton of fun. And then the rest of the week was really normal. On Saturday we got to watch conference until about 11 at night which was cool and then we had a member buy us a dinner when he was taking us home, that was way cool of him. He´s also talking about cooking an asado for us on Thursday. That´ll be really cool to see if it works out. And I got to see the beach on Saturday but I didn´t have my camera with me so I don´t have any pictures yet but I think that soon I´ll have pictures of the beach. And then on Sunday we had conference again and between the sessions I hung out with all of the gringos and we played a card game called Truco that is from Argentina it´s a really fun/complicated game that has two different sets of rules and is full of cheating and lies. You can play with 2, 4. 6 or 8 players and it´s really messed up. I finally figured out all of the rules though and now I just need to memorize the values of the cards and I think that I´m going ot buy myself some cards for Truco and also the regular poker cards because I miss card games and would like to have things to do with my companion in the pension when we´re bored out of our minds. So we´ll see how that goes. This next transfer is going to be fun. My companion and I have decided that we are going to work hard for a baptism because we have a lot of people that are right there ready for it and we just need to get them to church. We also are going to finally have our own chapel on Sunday and I am really looking forward to that. It´s going to be a good transfer. Love you guys tons and miss you all lots. Have a great week!

Empanadas. Yum!

Love, Michael

Pension Problems and a Sunrise

Dear Mom and Dad,

It´s crazy how fast time has passed for me. The soccer field is from one of the local clubs so the buildings are either from the club or from the Carrefour that is right next to the church. Carrefour is like Walmart here. My house is on Cayelli and we´re like three blocks away from the church building. My investigators are doing really well. The problem is that we have a huge family that are investigating and the dad is in the hospital right now because they recently discovered that he has diabetes and his sugar levels are way high. Also he´s lost all desire to eat and is kind of freaking out because he had a grandma or something die from complications of Diabetes, alcohol and cancer. So he thinks that diabetes is going to kill him. I just hope that he calms down because he can live fine and be diabetic.

Sunrise from Elder Sirrine's Pension

My companion and I are doing fine. At the end of the week are when the transfers are going to be and they´re going to put hermanas in my area and people are saying that I am probably going to train next transfer. It´ll be really weird to see all of the changes that happen but I think it´ll be fun. I look forward to the next transfer. The funniest thing that I have seen with the ward is how they react to hearing that there are going to be hermanas here soon. Lots of the members are excited but nobody wants to sign up to give them lunches. We pass around calendars on Sunday for the lunches with the missionaries for the month. And the calendar for me is about full and for the hermanas there are three days filled. It´ll be odd to see how things play out for them. The other problem is that we need to find them a pension and there is nothing here. So we may need to move out of our house or they might have to live with the other hermanas. It´s been weird trying to figure this whole thing out but it´s been cool. 

I still haven´t been to the ocean because we´re not allowed to go during the summer. I think that I´ll be going out there sometime soon though if we can get permission. The funny stories from the week are my companion and I found a latino sized Lagoon here. They have roller coasters and all sorts of stuff and it´s all tiny. I don´t think that any gringo could fit in there but it´s perfect for Latinos tiny as they are. It was funny to hear my companion say that. The only other interesting thing about this week was that last Monday when my companion and I left the pension we found a cop outside and he said, " what are you doing here?" and we were like, " We live here. What are you doing here?" Then he called his companion and said, "I´m here with two Mormons and they say that you aren´t inside. What happened here?" Then he told us to be careful because this area is dangerous and we went on our merry way. That has got to be one of the oddest conversations that I have had with a person in the street. And that´s really all that happened this week. It´s been pretty boring and normal. Love you guys tons and hope you have a great week.

Love, Michael

First week of autum in the Patagonia

Dear Mom,

Breakfast with companion

Thanks for all of the updates about the family. It sounds like you are all having a fun time. My companion and I are getting along great, we have lots of fun together and are working well. This week we found a couple of new people and we´re going to see how things go with them and the people that we are now teaching are really progressing a ton. It´s been awesome to see that change. I hope that next month we´ll be able to have some baptisms because we´ll have our chapel back. No, I don´t play the piano in church here. I love my district and my zone. The missionaries here are all awesome! And for the moment I think that I have everything that I need for winter but if I don´t I´ll buy things or ask you guys. Thanks for all being so awesome! Love you guys tons and hope you have an awesome week.

Love, Michael

Sunset in Comodoro

Cooking up eggs

 Dear Dad,

I think that it would be cheaper for me to buy stuff here. I have have a couple of hats some gloves and thermals. So I think that I´ll be pretty well set for the winter and if I need anything it will be a whole lot easier for me to just buy it here. So, I´ll let you guys know if I need money or anything.

The updates from the week are that we did divisions on Friday and Elder Tyler and I had an amazing day. We found a guy in the street that started to talk to us and he told us about a crazy drug induced vision that he had that was pretty intense. And as we were talking to him he said that we had guts and he respected us for walking around in the areas that we walk in without fear. It was really cool to meet him. And then he introduced us to his friend who needed help cleaning out a house before moving into it and while we helped them clean we got to teach the guy all about the restoration and about god and what god wants for us. He was a way cool guy and he asked us to come back and talk to him more and to help them clean. He also asked us to say a dedicatory prayer in his house to take out all of the bad energy that was in there because there used to live a group of satan worshippers there before him and he wanted to be totally sure that any lingering bad energy would be totally gone. Lots of crazy cool stuff happens here.

The other really cool thing that happened to me this week was that my companion and I have been having a lot more luck finding our investigators and people at home recently. We went to an investigator yesterday and learned about his life. He was in the military in Bolivia and told us about all of the crazy things that happened to him while he was tracking down the illegal cocaine dealers. The things that happened to him were crazy. He´s a way cool guy though. And that´s really all that happened to me this week. Love you guys and miss you all tons! Hope that you all have a great week.

Love, Michael

Gift for a little girl in an Investigator family from Bolivia

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