Happy New Year

Well hello there everybody. Today the rain hit with a fury and so did the aches and the chills, so I’m searching for Ibuprofen to get over it. But other than that, everything is absolutely peachy. I think it was about 90 degrees when I woke up today and now that it has been raining a couple hours it is probably about 70 but with 100 percent humidity. Kind of reminds me of North Carolina.

But yeah, so there isn't a whole lot to say today since I just talked to you all and spilled my guts about everything. Things are well. We have a few investigators that are progressing that are doing well. One is Jorge Mazzala, from Buenos Aires. And the other is Mikaela Moyata. We have also picked up an old investigator I was teaching a while ago; her name is Natalia and her boyfriend is a member.

So they´re all going along and there are a few people on the side that are doing alright as well but it is just too early to tell whether they are really interested and committed or just curious or just polite. That is one thing that happens a lot. There are a ton of people that just will listen to you because they have been taught all their life that you have to respect other religions in order to have others respect you but they would never think about changing. There have actually been times where I have asked someone the question "If god told you that he wanted you to learn these things for your salvation and that it was the only way, would you obey him?" And they just straight up say no. So there are those who are so trapped in tradition and such that they just won´t open their shells and come out of their armour and let anything unfamiliar in. But that is the point of what we are doing; searching for those who are willing, those who are teachable and those who are ready and have true faith.
So have true faith people.
Love you. Out.
Elder Jeffrey Darrell Rose

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire!

Well, first of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you.

I am missing you all a ton at this time of year, but you know what, this may just be one of the most special Christmases that I will ever have because I know that there is nowhere else that I should be in this very moment. Well, things here are festive, just not in the same way as the states. Festive Argentine style = lots of booze, fireworks (most of which get thrown directly at you) scattered Christmas lights, weird Argentine versions of American Christmas music, pan dulce (fruit cake, which actually gets eaten not just re-gifted over and over and over), and crazy people everywhere.

But enough of the description of Argentina; just remember that there are those in the world that would like you to send a fair amount of that snow you are getting our direction to drop the temperature by a couple dozen degrees. Ha-ha. So this has been a rather dynamic transfer with the new elders here in Perico. It is cool having 4 in the same ward. This last Sunday, Monica came to church and this time she brought both of her daughters and her boyfriend. It was great to see them there. I love seeing how the Lord fulfills the promises made by his servants. She is now seeing how the Lord is blessing her family (not only her boyfriend) but her sisters too, by having them be interested now in the church as well.

In church we also had an old investigator return to church with the help of her boyfriend who is a member. Also another girl we are teaching came, her name is Mikaela and she is awesome. After the first time we met her, she read the part we had left in the Book of Mormon 3 times! People rarely even read it once, let alone three times. But the coolest story of all is Jorge Mazzala. We found Jorge knocking doors about two weeks ago. The first time we taught him we just talked about the church a little bit and got a time to go back when he wasn't working. The appointments have progressively been getting better and better. We have had the help of a couple of members. Now every time we go to his house alone, he asks about those members. On Saturday we passed by and it turned out that he was working on a car (he works as a car body mechanic) and he really didn't have much time, but I sat down in the car with him and started helping him dismantle the car. (All that work with Brother Boomgarrden helped out :) and we got to talking. We talked about the part in Moroni 10 that he had read and at the end of the appointment we invited him to come to church with us and he accepted. We left for church at 9:45 and when we got to his house he was outside waiting for us. He came and participated in the principles of the Gospel class and sacrament meeting. He was dozing off a little during sacrament meeting and later told us he had been up until 4 in the morning working but wanted to come to church because he had made a commitment to come. What a stud!

So his background is that he moved to Perico about 3 years ago and about 3 months ago he and his girlfriend got separated and she took the son and daughter back to Buenos Aires where they originally lived. He has been struggling though not having them around and we have been praying for him in regards to that. After church was over, we invited him to get to know the bishop. They ended up having a 1 hour interview and when he walked out of his office he was smiling and it looked as if he had been crying a little bit. We asked him how he was doing and he told us he had had a really good chat with the bishop. As we said goodbye to him he looked at us both and said thank you and his stare seemed to be saying something that he had never seen before, as if he had had his eyes opened and had a new light in them. That was super cool. So this week has had its ups and downs, but I am happy all in all. I Love you all so much, to each and every one of you I wish a merry Christmas and that you may have a very special time. Don´t miss me... too much :) ha-ha. I’ll be there next year :) take care. Celebrate for me. Pray for me and my companion. Pray for our investigators.

Me despido. chau.
Elder Jeffrey Rose

Still Tickin'

Everything is going rather well here in Jujuy. Yesterday was transfer day. I am still here with Elder MacO and we have split the area and we now have two more elders living with us and that should be a cool opportunity. The majority of our lunch appointments we have together and all of the converts that I have taught now live outside of my area, but we will see each other in church every week and all that so that should be really cool. I am excited to be able to concentrate our efforts a little more in a smaller area and hopefully find people that we have never been able to meet before.

So, yesterday was super busy. We spent the majority of the day in the terminal waiting for the other elders to arrive or sending them out. Oh, and I was called to be district leader this transfer so that should be a new and exciting experience.

Last weekend Monica got baptized, it was a really cool experience; the best part was that Ricardo, one of my converts, was the one that was able to baptize her. He had to repeat the prayer a couple of times and put her under the water twice but it got done and it was a cool occasion. There weren't a whole lot of people there and her family didn't come but we had the support of the ward members and things are going well with her.

So right now we are making plans on how to work more effectively in our half of the area. We also did a lot of cleaning and setting up for the fact that we are living four in our apartment now. I'm gonna have to get used to having a little more responsibility now that I have to teach district meetings and do baptismal interviews and all that. I gotta step up my game and start remembering things a little better, but I think that it will be good for me. I like where we're at. We have a few good investigators and I really want to get to finding more more more people to teach. There really are so many things to do in the mission and just in life and in general and it gets me to thinking about a lot of things. One of the things that I love is that the Lord gives us comfort in all of this. Mosiah 4:26, 27, Joshua 1:8 and a little quote. "Many callings will cause you to feel incapable, but you will do them, because the callings come through the Lord´s ordained servants... the way will be opened unto you... your faith and trust in the lord will be great, and this will make you strong." I love you guys a ton. Keep it up, keep praying, keep serving, and keep being good :).

Much Love
Elder Jeff Rose

¿Como andan las cosas por allá?

The update for this last week... It has been pretty nice weather first of all; It hasn't really gotten all that hot and it has been sort of raining or at least misting for a couple of days. It keeps the work a bit easier to do when the temperature is below 100 degrees. Be that as it may, it feels cool but usually it still hovers around 90 degrees. It is really weird that that feels nice and cool for me :). So that is cool but now to the stuff that really matters.

I was asked along with my companion to participate in two baby blessings on Sunday, which was a first. In church on Sunday we had a few investigators, but by far the very best part of it all is that Monica Rodriguez was there and yesterday we spoke with her and she said that she wants to be baptized this Saturday "!" How cool, right? She said that when she went home from church on Sunday she told her parents that she would need someone to watch her kids if they didn't want to come to her baptism. Her blood family and the family of the father of her kids don't really get along good so that is a bummer but she said that the people who want to support her will come and if they don't, oh well. She is definitely one of the most decisive people that I know.

We had a former investigator return to church after a couple of weeks which was cool. He is actually the father of one of the babies that was blessed on Sunday.

Then there is a really cool story for you all. On last Thursday we were at the bus stop waiting for our bus to go to district meeting and a lady turns to us and asks us what time the meetings at church are on Sunday. We told her and started talking a bit. We got on the same bus and started teaching her. We set up an appointment to go teach her in her home and she got off far before we did. She said she would go to church and in the second hour of church she showed up with her 6 year old daughter. I was super surprised but at the same time I had a feeling that she would go. So anyway, we have an appointment to teach her tonight and she said that she was going to the Relief Society activity today. That was the success stories of the week.

It was a good week all in all but there is still so much to do. There is one thing that I have learned and that is that there will never be a moment in which I am satisfied, that there is always more work to do in the Lord´s vineyard. I gotta go, but just think about that and think about whether you are satisfied or whether there is more to do:). Just think about it.

Love you all TONS

Elder Jeffrey Rose

Thanksgiving Argie Style!!

Well, there isn't a whole lot to say about what is going on here. We ate Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with the normal family and we ate empanadas, how festive, right? Ha-ha., it was cool though, and then on Friday we ate at zone conference which was good; potatoes, pork, corn, lemon meringue pie. And the conference itself was way good. My comp left his suit jacket in the cab on the way there so he is already down one jacket.

Church this Sunday was good. We had the Ruiz family in church finally! Monica missed though. But we had 3 other people who came as well. So we are excited to say that within the next 3 weeks we should be having about 5 baptisms if everything goes well. That would be really really cool and I would be excited. We are working hard to meet that goal and I definitely need your prayers, more on the behalf of our investigators than for me. Also, for my companion since he is struggling a bit and really wants to be here but it is just hard for him. We´re working hard though and I hope that you are doing the same.

Other exciting things to say that have happened in the last week, not really. But I want to share a story that I have already shared with at least one of you but it is a good one. One of those moments that one lives for in the mission.

So we went to teach Monica; the single mom with two daughters that we have been teaching for a while. We sat down and started talking and the lesson went super well. We talked about the sacrament and the importance of it. After the lesson, we were talking to her a little bit about baptism again. Since my comp doesn’t understand much of what was going on I did most of the talking. I asked her if she still had the desire to be baptized. And she said yes, but like before she said that she still doesn´t feel prepared enough to take that step. She said she needs more time to be well prepared to do it. I was very proud of her when she said that because there are many who rush into this sort of decision without thinking it over much. Then what she said was what hit me hard. Not in a bad way, in a very good way. She said "I know I am not quite prepared to be baptized, but on the subject of being baptized, I am decided." She said that no matter what she is going to do it. We asked if she would commit to do everything possible to be prepared and we would do the same so that she can get baptized the 19th of December, right before Christmas, and she said yes, definitely. That was the highlight of my week and perhaps one of the top 10 coolest things that I have had happen to me in the mission, so it is pretty cool :)

My new companion is doing really well. He´s a bit frustrated with the language but I constantly try to keep him excited so that he can continue to do the work like it should be done. We are learning a lot together.

In our district there are 4 companionships. Elders in Perico, Monterrico and Aeroparque (the city of Aeroparque is Alto Comedero) then there are hermanas in El Carmen. That is the district, and then the other district which is the rest of the zone is two sets of hermanas in Palpalá (1 and 2) and then elders in Alberdi, Alto Comedero.

Everything is going good. The companion switch took me off guard but that’s what I’m supposed to be doing so I am all for it. We had zone conference last week and I talked with president and he congratulated me on it and apologized for me not knowing, he said he asked the assistants to tell me but didn´t know what happened there. It is way good though. A new experience but I like it a lot. Thanks for writing.

Well, I am off for now. I love you guys a ton and thanks for all you do for me, especially for your prayers. Love you all.

Take Care
Elder Jeffrey Rose

New Companion

How are things going back in the homeland? Are the chestnuts roasting on an open fire yet? I think we have successfully scared Jack Frost away from Jujuy for a decade or two with the heat that has been going on here. Ha-ha. It is rather warm, but it rains every once in a while to keep things under control.

Everything is going fantastic here. The biggest piece of news it that I have yet another new companion. I tell ya, I’m going through them like they´re going out of style! On Thursday past we received a call saying that on Friday my comp, Elder Willeitner would be going to an area in Tucuman that had been closed for 14 months and would be reopening it with another elder here in Jujuy.

Then the big chunk of news… Elder Rose is now a proud father of a little baby missionary. My kid´s name is Elder Macovichuk from San Diego, California. He just got to Argentina about 4 days ago due to his VISA. So I’m training. What a trip, no? It´s fun though. Everything is way good, he´s fun and he´s learning and he speaks a decent amount of Spanish.

As for the investigators; we had success at church!!! Half of the Ruiz family finally came, as well as Monica and a kid named Alejandro Vilte and another man named Eduardo Farfan. All of them have a date to get baptized in the middle of December right before the holidays. I am super excited because they seem like this time the things might actually just work out good.

Campanion Respect!

We had a fun Zone activity today up in one of the other areas. We all went up early and had a capture the flag water balloon war. We had a blast. Or at least me and Elder Willeitner did, and then after wards we went and got something to eat and headed back to Perico where we got ready to work.

So the last couple of days have been kind of not so fun because I have been a little sick. I successfully gained the respect of Elder Willeitner (that's what he says at least) by teaching a lesson, going out to the street, puking my guts out, and then continuing to work for the rest of the day. Hardcore right? Ha-ha, I feel a little bit better now, but I'm still a bit unwell. Other than that though, everything is fantastic.

The baptism this weekend went really well. It was a super rainy day but that was good because Perico really needs the rain a lot. The mom and the brother of the girl that got baptized were there to support her and there were about 30 people that showed up to the service. It was really cool. Busy and difficult with the rain and all that, but what can you expect. It has gotta rain some day. It hasn't rained since but hopefully it'll pick up again soon. But yeah, so Lorena was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was a super satisfying experience.

As for the other investigators that we have, there are a few that are progressing; they just lack going to church a little bit more. The rain kind of killed attendance at church on Sunday. Not just for investigators, but for members too. And on the way to church we also ran into the father of an investigator family drunk in the street. So they need a lot of help and a lot of prayers. But yeah, things are looking good.

Things might be changing a little bit in the companionship's in the mission a little early this transfer but that is more news to come. Listo (means I am ready). I think that is all. I will talk to you all later. Big hugs and kisses for everybody. Take care of yourselves. Love you a ton.

Elder Jeffrey Rose

Bee Hunting!

Elder Willeitner and I are doing good. He has 16 months in the mission. He´s from Sandy, if I didn't already throw that in there.

We have a baptism planned for this weekend. Her name is Lorena and she is the sister of Ricardo, the guy who was baptized the week before. We gave Ricardo the priesthood in church last week, which was way cool. Elder Willy and I also gave talks in sacrament meeting, on very very short notice I might add. And our ward mission leader was just changed, it is now Fabian, a kid who just got back from his mission in Buenos Aires about a month ago. He´s way cool.

As a thank you to our ex-mission leader we have been over at his house in the morning the past two days helping him dig a trench in front of his house. Thanks to Brother McGarry I have some good experience in that field of work :).

Last Thursday we met the new hermana who arrived to the mission recently. She was born in this zone (that means she started her mission here). Her name is Hermana Hanson and you may be surprised to hear that she is from the Morgan hill Stake. She is from Hollister (she lives in San Juan Bautista). I know her family but I never met her, but we had a cool chat about people and stuff from back home. This past week has been pretty busy and we have been working really hard. We have been going along with this goal that we have of following every single one of the mission rules and purifying ourselves of the things that we do that don't allow us to have the spirit with us. It has really made a big difference and we are only a week of the way there but I have noticed changes and more things happening in the work. Things are fantastic here. Just thought that I would let you know that I am extremely happy and though I am tired, I have the force to move on because I know why I am here.

Today was p-day and I tell you what we did with a bit of caution; don't want to freak anyone out. But today we wet bee hunting!!! There is a member of the church here in Jujuy who makes a living raising bees and harvesting the honey. So we went up there with him today and had a barbecue up in the hills and then helped him out with the bees. He had the suits and everything for us to use and then we went and helped him harvest the honeycomb. I now have found my path in life! I am going to raise bees in the backyard!! Ha-ha. It was way fun and the fresh honey is super yummy. And I only got stung once! Yeah for me. Good thing I’m not allergic :). So everything is just fantastic here. We´re working hard and we’re smiling and trusting in the lord to guide us. I love you and trust you to do the same. Take care and don´t do anything I wouldn't do :).

Elder Jeff Rose

President Has Created a Monster!

Hey Everyone.

Pay attention, here is the official update for the week. This time, the full length version :). Starting with yesterday and going backwards. Monday was Transfers and my Birthday. woohoo! I’m not a teenager anymore. Weird.... so Elder Gamarra got sent to Salta and my new companion is Elder Eric Willeitner, the weird thing is that he came from Monterrico, the next area over; the shortest transfer ever. Not to mention that there are rarely two missionaries with the amount of time that we have together in a companionship. And the reason I say that president has created a monster is because of our personalities and interests. Before the mission we were the same people. I know that I said that about Nicholls, but this is even crazier. The biggest thing that we have in common is rock climbing, we were both huge into it before the mission and now it is going to be a topic of conversation. He is from Sandy, Utah and we know some of the same people from BYU, and also he has a friend that is going to be going to the MTC soon and will be going to the California San Jose Mission. I’ll get the name for you later and see if you know the person when they get there.

But anyway, the day was good, just a lot of driving back and forth between the bus terminal and Perico and Monterrico and back and forth. I got egged and floured during lunch; that is one of the Argentine traditions on birthdays. And on top of that the 2nd of November in most Latin countries is the Day of the Dead, which means that there were parties everywhere and it seemed like everybody was celebrating my birthday with me :). I didn’t get to do much celebrating though so I will be doing that today for p-day. Thanks to everyone for all of the birthday wishes. I really appreciate it.

On Sunday (remember we are going backwards through the week) was the confirmation of Ricardo Tolaba. It was the first opportunity that I have had so far to confirm someone. My other baptism I was in the water and in the circle, but never did the confirmation. It was cool. His younger sister Loren who is also receiving the lessons was there to support him on Sunday. We had a couple of other people in church as well.

On Saturday was the Baptism of Ricardo. His mom, dad, and sister were there along with me and Gamarra, and a couple of the guys from the young single adults that he is friends with. It wasn’t a big group, but it was a cool; more intimate sort of for the people that were there. Everything went really well and I was super happy that he had the support of his family.

Friday was a normal day, we had an activity that night to try and get people to bring their friends but there wasn't a great turnout. We did have Ricardo´s interview that night though and that is also when we found out about transfers. Earlier in the day we had a lesson with Ricardo and taught him the last few things that he needed to know for his interview and to be able to be baptized. He was such a stud and I am constantly amazed at how completely ready he was right from the start and he has already got a strong testimony and doesn’t hesitate to share it with others. He constantly calls us ad tells us about his latest "mini-mission" and how he went to his aunt´s house or his friend´s house to share the gospel and ask if they want to hear from the missionaries. He already wants to serve a mission and I am literally just blown away by how amazing his conversion process was.

Now on to Thursday... we had our district meeting and took some pictures and everything so that we could have a photo of the whole zone together. Wednesday we had the special conference with president and sister Northcutt and with Elder Zivic and his wife. Elder Zivic is in the area presidency of South America south and he is way cool. He talked to us about a ton of stuff, and raised the excitement in the group a ton. It was a great spiritual experience and I had a great time. I felt like I could conquer the world after wards, or at least that I could conquer my area.... :) so yeah, that is the wrap up of the last week.

And now to answer the random questions of the week… Holidays: way different here. The ones from the states that they try to copy here just don´t work (like Halloween) and the ones that are unique to this country are highly religious and take over the cities. The Word TRUNKY: yes it is a word. It means to get to a point when you stop working as hard and are thinking about home a lot (I’m not there). My BIRTHDAY: it was good, I enjoyed it, and I am a perfectly happy 20 year old kid. (Still a kid!) Me and my comp are doing great. I would say it is kind of an Elder Mike Rose and Ben Chase combo, although I don´t know how that was but if it was completely amazing then that´s what it is. I Love you all a ton, thanks for your prayers and your thoughts. Take Care. Be Smart. I´m thinking about you.

Elder Rose

Hello there to all my loyal followers. Thanks for tuning in this week. Here goes for the short program once again, perhaps for the last time. Transfers are coming up this week, what are you predictions?

Things in the area are really going well. Ricardo went to church for the third time this week, and this time he was traveling and in a different city but went anyway. The Ruiz Family also went to church and we had a good Family Home Evening activity with one of their friends who is a member. And Monica Rodriguez also went to church with her two young daughters. She is a single mom we found while knocking doors.

Things are going well. Our relationship with the ward here is way good. The members love teaching with us and every once in a while we even get a phone call asking if they can come teaching with us. That is a first in my whole mission. The baptism for this week will go through so long as Ricardo feels ready and wants to do it this weekend. If not it will go through for the next weekend.

Thanks for all of your happy birthday wishes, it really means a lot, I will be talking to you next week the day after my birthday to tell you whether I have moved or if I have a new companion. I am doing well, everything is good with my health. I am writing in my journal every day faithfully so don’t think that there are lost memories by the short emails of late. Take care and I send my love to you all.

Elder Rose

Things here are going well

Hey Everyone.

How is everything going? Things here are going well. So as for me and my house, everything has been good. We do have a couple of really good investigators. Ricardo came to church again, this time with his sister. Last Sunday was stake conference. It was a really good experience. He really enjoyed it and it was his sister´s first time. He should be getting baptized the 31st.

We went to play paddle (pronounced pod-lay) today and invited him. It is a game similar to tennis but Argentine style. It was fun.

Yesterday we did divisions in an area called Monterrico. It is super tiny, like 10 x 10 blocks, but we had a good time. My junior comp for the day was Elder Rojas, a Chilean elder who has about 4 months in the mission. He's a cool kid. We worked a little bit in our area as well. The rest of the week has been super good. We had a missionary in our ward come home and he has been helping us out with visiting some people.

This week coming up we have a conference with one of the seventies in the area presidency. That should be fun. I was assigned to do a group musical number. I don´t know how that is going to go! Everything is good here. Things are good with the area and the comp.

Love you all.

Elder Jeff Rose

All is Well!

I hit 11 months in the mission yesterday; there is a milestone for you. Ha-ha. It was just a normal day. Things here are going well. This last week we had zone conference and so we had our interviews with President Northcutt and all that good stuff. It was way good. I learned some cool stuff and had a good time. Everything is going good. Then this Sunday was fast meeting since we had conference last week, I believe that is the same for all of us right?

So for the investigator situation…. We have one investigator that if he continues strong, he is on the track to be baptized at the end of this transfer. His name is Ricardo Tolaba and he is a stud. He is the kid we talked to out on his front step a couple weeks back. Then we found a pretty cool family, well a mom and a daughter at least. They lived in Cordoba before and were listening to the missionaries. Her mom recently died and so she is here for awhile and we knocked on her door yesterday and they received us and accepted a baptismal date for the beginning of November along with her daughter. Lourdes Mamani is also progressing pretty well. We had a lesson with her yesterday and she was saying how she read but didn't understand some things. So we started talking about prayer and how it helps us with the things that we don't understand and her eyes lit up and she said "so what you're saying is that if I have a question about something I can get on my knees and ask God and he will answer me?" I almost jumped for joy in that moment and that "Somebody finally gets it!!" Ha-ha, that was a pretty cool moment!

We have had some other really good lessons over the week but they don´t really stick out in my mind at the moment. But that is why I write a journal so if you want to read it when I get home, you are more than welcome to do so. Things here in Perico are going well. The temperature is kind of starting to even out to a lukewarm summer sort of thing. It still has yet to rain which is a bad sign for the people of Jujuy considering the economy is mostly based on the harvest of tobacco. We'll see what happens, personally I think that they need to repent and hurricane Fran will come back from the dead and they'll have all the water they need! Ha-ha. I like the people here. I have seen that they are a little more accepting than the people in my last area were. Or maybe I am just doing something different. Whatever it is I am enjoying my time more because we are having more success. Or at least it seems like it.

Love you all, and take care.
Elder Jeff Rose

Good times.... yep, they were good!

Hey clan!

How is everything going for you all there in the states? Hope things are going great. I think the weather here finally decided to turn to summer; it has been pretty hot these past couple of days. Thank you all for your letters, To the Jensen and McGarry families a huge hug and thanks for your support. Today was a pretty good day, (we´ll start with today and go backwards.) it was P-day and we did an activity with three zones here in the mission so all of the missionaries in the province of Jujuy came and we played a soccer championship, not much of a championship since we only formed three teams but it was super fun. After that me and Elder Gamarra went and ate pizza with a couple of elders and the sister missionaries. It was a good time and now I am here writing you guys :).

Yesterday was a normal day of work; we taught some good lessons and visited some cool people. It started to sprinkle for about 5 seconds, but then it just shot lighting about 50 miles away and Perico remains a dry state :). It has been pretty hot, up in the 90s at least. Saturday and Sunday were fabulous. We were able to go to conference for all of the sessions. We live about 40 minute away form the stake center so we took a bus up on Saturday morning (the sessions here are at 1, 5 and 9 for priesthood) and stayed the night in the missionaries apartment that live close. It was way good. I enjoyed several of the talks that stood out to me. Elder Holland’s talk was AMAZING. Then there was another one that went by so fast and I was trying to write down all the stuff that occurred to me but I didn’t have the chance and then one more I put a star next to in my journal but I cannot remember which one it was.

We had one investigator come to the Sunday sessions. I got to tell you this story. So we had talked to this one lady who said to come by her house and we passed by and said she didn't have time. So we passed by again and talked to her daughter who said she wasn’t there and then we passed by again and found her son Ricardo. First you must understand that we normally don´t pass by people that many times when they don´t give us the time of day) so we talked to Ricardo. We sat in front of his house on the curb which is also out of the norm. We taught the restoration lesson but more answered a lot of his questions we asked him to read the Book of Mormon and pray and go to conference and be baptized. And he said yes! I didn’t get my hopes up too much though because we get that a lot. But then he came to conference and asked us to come by every day that we could. That got me pretty stoked and I was way happy to be able to teach him. We talked during conference and he as really loving it. The members just befriended him so fast too.

Before I got here there had been a few baptisms, and it is known to be a fairly highly baptizing area, but one thing that I have learned in the mission is that statistics don´t matter at all. If an elder goes into an area with faith that the lord will lead him to those who are ready to be baptized, anything is possible. I’ve learned so many good lessons in the mission, perhaps too many of them the hard way but I learned them and that is what matters. so here I am in Perico Jujuy, with good members, good leaders and I am committed to do all that is in my power and I know that the Lord will help me if he calls on me to do something out of my power. I love this work; just the little things that happen that make you smile from ear to ear. I’ll be looking out for the opportunities that the Lord gives me to teach and I expect all of you guys to do the same. ¿aight chicos? Love you with all my heart.
Take care of things for me.

CHAUCITO,
ELDER ROSE

Greetings from a Frozen Summer.... brrrrrrrrrrrr...

So everything here in Perico is going just dandy. It is cold again..........., need I say more? We had about a week and a half of summer and now it has dropped almost to freezing temperatures again. Pleasant, no? haha. I’m finding my way around slowly but surely. My comp has three transfers here and you would think that he would know his way around pretty good by now but he still gets lost a lot. So it is a good reason for me to learn right? This is his 4th transfer here so probably his last.

The ward here is good. There were aver 100 people in sacrament meeting because it was ward conference this past Sunday, so that was cool. The elder’s quorum is way cool and there is finally someone that plays piano (and there is a piano... haha) so it is nice. The bishop is a stud. He is involved in the work and we have quite a few people who are willing to help us, so that is good. I think things will be going well here in a little bit. The area seems like it didn't get worked very hard the last few transfers, but we´ll get that all turned around and fixed up here pretty soon.

I'm excited for General Conference and all the good stuff that is going on here in the near future. Sorry this entry is kind of short; they might be that way while I am with my comp. I love you all. I keep you all in my thoughts and prayers and I wish the best in all your endeavors in life. Take care. Love you all. SMILE.
Elder Rose

Have you ever fallen asleep standing up?

Things here are going pretty good. The work is going alright. Like I said I am in a new area now. Last transfer with Elder Marsden and everyone there was super good and just flew by. Now I am in a different province, Jujuy, and I am in a little city called Perico. It is a little bit bigger than Pocitos, my first area was, but still a little town.

So the transfer went well; I got here all good and everything. My new comp is Elder Gamarra, he’s Peruvian. He is a cool enough kid. Perico so far is a nice place. It is cooler here which is going to be nice for the summer and it also rains a lot but that isn’t saying much considering we are in a drought. The rainy season should have already hit so it should be starting any day now. We live in a nice apartment. I’ve been lucky ever since Pocitos to have a pretty nice place to live. Of the people that I have met here, they are great people. It is always a little frustrating getting to a new area and not knowing your way around and having to depend completely on your comp, but it teaches you a little bit of humility among other things.

The first night was interesting. There was a newer elder who got transferred and got off in the wrong city so we had to go get him and take him to his area. In my zone there are a couple of elders that I have gotten to know before. Elder Vidal who I lived with in Salta is in my zone and I recently met Elder Willeitner who is from Utah and I met him once before. He is a big rock climber too so we met once in the gym. He´s a cool kid and it is cool to have someone to connect with. Today we had our district meeting and I decided we need to find a better way of getting there instead of waiting for the "sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn't" bus for 4 hours. That is where the subject line comes from. I actually managed to fall asleep standing up on the bus today, luckily I have good reflexes even when I am sleeping and I didn't quite manage to fall over.

I have been getting to know some of the old investigators that were left from last transfer. There aren't very many of them. I’m thinking I want to focus on knocking a lot of doors in the next couple of weeks so that we have a good group of people that we can teach throughout a good period of time.

I’ve been getting over a little cold that I have had since about two weeks ago. I am almost all the way healthy again. Everything is going well.

Everything is going well here. I am going to ask all of you a favor though for at least this transfer. My comp doesn´t really like writing his family a whole lot, I don´t know why. But anyway, he likes going to write emails really early in the day on Tuesdays to get it over with. So here´s the favor… could you write your emails to me either early early on Tuesday or on Monday so that I can get them for sure if we go pretty early on Tuesdays for p-day, that would be super cool. I would hate not to hear from you.

Oh and the last update from Salta. The baptisms that we were hoping for in Salta didn’t go through. There were a lot of things that happened and then people just got lazy so they just kind of got put on the back burner until they decide what they want to do. It´s sad when that happens but every once in a while they get so close yet they just can´t take that last little step to get there. Elder Marsden and Elder Dommer are working hard there though so I have faith that if the investigators want to progress they will have all of the help that they need.

Everything here is super nice though. Just moving along and going through that awkward new area, new companion at the same time phase... I Love you all. Thanks for the very many things that you do for me. Take care, send pictures and think of me.
Elder Jeff Rose

This past week was very interesting...

We were very busy, but not necessarily in a good way. Well, okay, it was a good way, but not for us. So I already said how on Monday we did a tormenta blanca in the area of La Loma. Then Tuesday was p-day, not much time there. Wednesday we went down to Rosario de Lerma to see Gonzalo, he is still doing good by the way, then on Thursday we had our baptismal interviews and district meeting so that was most of the day. Friday we had interviews to go do in Güemes which is a ways away so there goes most of that day and Saturday and Sunday we had the whole days to work, so that left us with not a whole lot of time to do anything. So it was a busy week. We managed to complete with our goals anyways but we didn’t see the things happen like we wanted to. The one big thing was the baptism, that didn’t happen either. One of the girls said that her mom won´t let her even though her dad is a member and the other girl was sick. So that was a bummer. On top of that this week is what they call La Semana de Milagros. That is the week of miracles, which is a huge Catholic festival down here and nobody wants to see you during the nine days that the party is going on. As I sit here writing this email, there is a procession of catholic saints passing outside. That’s a fun one. So this week was a bit rough but we finished strong.

Yesterday was actually a way good day of work. We had some really good lessons and we saw some way cool things work out for us. Elder Marsden and I are convinced that they worked out the way that they did because we were being obedient, following our plans and doing the best that we could. We had a member introduce us to one of her really good friends. Her name is Elsa and she is a devout catholic but said that she would love to listen to us but will never change religions. As we left the house, the member who is her friend commented that she had said the same exact thing before she joined the church. It was a huge testimony to me in trusting the spirit and saying what you need to say in order to reach out and actually get to somebody and tell them what they need to hear. You know how it is sometimes when we want to tell somebody something but we hold out because we feel that it would be uncomfortable or awkward or something like that. But if we are trusting in the spirit and what it is telling us to do we really cannot go wrong. I learned a good time ago that the difference between boldness and overbearance is the spirit. If we trust in ourselves maybe we will screw up but if we trust in the Lord then that is never going to happen.

So here is the little update on what is happening here. First of all, the transfers come up in five days. I am pretty sure I am gone but who knows to where. The investigators are doing well. Isabelle and her boyfriend finally decided to get married so we will see what happens with that pretty soon. It really is quite a difficult process here. Gonzalo has his date to get married this Saturday and we will see if he can get baptized that same day. The two girls are still there. Jimena not so much because of the opposition from her family, but Rocío is still going strong. We are teaching the wife of a less active member now. Her name is Laura and in the last lesson we had with her last night she offered the coolest prayer. In this prayer she asked that God would give her an answer about the Book of Mormon and the restoration so that she could go to church and bring her whole family back into the church. Talk about starting off strong and with good goals right! I was pretty excited when I heard that prayer.

Oh, another big thing in the mission right is that the LDS Spanish version of the Holy Bible just came out. It was a big step and now the church has their own version. It has the Joseph Smith translations and all that but it is still lacking the topical guide and Bible dictionary and that stuff. That is soon to come though.

Today for p-day we kind of took it easy because of the festivities. We played a lot of soccer, went grocery shopping, went to the centro area to take advantage of all the vendors that come out for the festivities and then played some more soccer. My comp took a knee to the face and we think he might have broken his nose. He is doing alright though, we´re going to go get him all checked out. Everything here is going dandy; nothing to complain about. The weather is still super weird and can´t stay the same for more than two days in a row, but it´s alright.

Love you all. Take care and be smart and learn stuff.

Elder Rose

p.s. I tried to attach more pictures but it just wasn´t working out :)

Life is Good!

This week has actually gone rather well. Things are still a little bit sluggish in the area of finding new people but the great news is that we have been working really hard with the people we have and have been seeing some good results. It has been the week of preparation for the next two weeks and what they will hopefully have in store for the Lord. So remember the name Jimena Nogales? I started working with her in the middle of my first transfer here. That is about five months ago. Well, Elder Marsden and I started working with her again awhile back and it has been good. Not only is she coming to church and is super cool now, but her dad is getting active too. And the best part... she´s getting baptized this weekend! But that isn't the best part! Remember the name Rocío Lozano? Well she is getting baptized this weekend too. The coolest thing is that Rocío is 16 and Jimena is 15 and they are good friends now and they are getting baptized the same day and they are totally into it. I'm super stoked about that. Gonzalo Tapia, the eternal investigator who has been trying to get married for six months. Wedding bells will ring on the 18th of September at about 11:00 am and he will be baptized shortly after. That is a story of perseverance. My goodness gracious has it been a long time coming. Okay. So lot´s of names to remember. Next name: Pilar Jeres and her daughter Maria. Elder Marsden and I also picked them up again recently and they said that they will be baptized on the 19th as well. Now that one is still a little bit up in the air, but hey, they are progressing again. And Isabel... well, still being Isabel and still stuck with her (I wouldn't think the word dirt bag would be too strong) boyfriend because he won't marry her, he won't leave her house and he won't talk to us and she is too much of a softy to do much about it. We are still working that one out.... but yeah, so things are looking up. Things are going good now. I love my bishop... just in time to leave... :) The ward is working better. There are quite a few less active members that are coming back.

So we recently did divisions with the elders. Elder La Loma and I worked with a new Elder in the mission. His name is Elder Ayllon and he is Bolivian but he grew up in the states since he was 6. He's a way cool kid. We ran into a really funny old man while knocking doors who wouldn't tell us his name then we got him laughing making a couple of jokes and he told us he doesn't believe in anything then went on to tell us how he prays to god every night. That is good at least... right.

I have been having a cool variety of experiences in the mission lately and I am loving it. I have got to tell you, the best part of the whole thing is the entertainment. You get the whole gamut walking the streets in another country. If I could I would take more pictures to show you but sometimes it just isn't practical. For example, an 80 year old woman with no teeth but so many cocaine leaves in her mouth that they were falling out. You know the good life!
Chaucito queridos.

Elder Rose on left and Elder Marsden on far right. Elder Marsden is Jeff's current companion.

Bowling for preparation day

Enjoying a little American cuisine at McDonald's

Elder Rose and Elder Marsden

Desperation while tracting - teaching two donkeys!

All is Great!

Hey Y´all.

Fantastic to hear from you this week. Thanks for the emails and not forgetting about me :) I am glad to hear that all is going well. Things here are going good. They have slowed down a little bit lately but they are more consistent I guess. It has definitely been getting hotter here lately. This past weekend was the weekend of the Santa Rosa, which they say is always when the weather changes. It is kind of like Groundhog's Day in the states. If it is cold on the day of Santa Rosa, it's gonna be cold for a while and vice versa. And guess what! It was about a hundred degrees yesterday so I guess that means that it´s gonna be hot. It has been pretty hot but I like it.

I got my haircut today and we ran into the mission president in the barber shop. It was actually kind of funny because the guy cut my hair super super short. Luckily president went right before I did and he didn't get to see the hack job. The mission president is a really cool guy and way smart. I am glad to have him around. So today was good. We did our studying and all that in the morning and then we went out to get our hair cut, ate lunch at McDonald's :) a little taste of America. And then we went to centro and I bought a couple of jerseys from some of the teams around here. Oh and I also took two of my pairs of shoes in to be resoled and fixed up. I'm on my third pair of shoes already... we´ll see what happens, I will be alright, I think I will just have to get them resoled every so often. But yeah. On that note, if there are any soccer jerseys or anything like that that you would like, or any sort of souvenirs you would like tell me now while I am in a big city cause I will probably be leaving in a couple of weeks. Okay!

So the question about holidays and festivities unique to Argentina. The thing that you have to understand is that the people of Argentina live to party and sleep the siesta. There is a special holiday for some saint or virgin about twice a week and when there isn't a holiday; they usually find a reason to party anyway. That is one thing that they've got on us, they definitely know how to party. This whole month that is coming up starting on the 15th or something like that is the "Month of Miracles" so that means that it is a month of people being permanently in party mode. It is enjoyable as long as you know how to steer clear of the drunks and all that stuff.

This past week went pretty well. We had the zone conference on Friday so that was a whole day and then all the stuff that went on that my comp and I had to do to organize since he is zone leader. We didn't have the baptism but she is still on track and went to church and all that. The mom also went to church again so that was cool. We are working with Rocío for this weekend if possible. Then Jimena Nogales we have started teaching again and her dad who is a less active has been coming back to church. Gonzalo still isn't married. And Isabel is still trying to figure out what she wants to do. We did divisions yesterday and we resurrected a couple old investigators. Pilar, the lady who almost got baptized is listening to us again. Along with a young couple who never really progressed but we wanted to give them another chance. We went around looking for old people that other missionaries before us had taught also, and we found a couple of people that still live at the same addresses and we will see what happens. I will also have to meet the new investigators that Elder Marsden found on his division as well, so I am happy about that.

Things really are going well here. I can´t really complain about anything. I would send you a picture of my haircut but you would probably laugh so I better not. It may just be the shortest I have ever had it cut. EVER! I am doing well. I am enjoying the work and I am gaining the confidence and abilities that I feel I need to be able to have success. The young kid, Gustavo, we baptized got the priesthood last week so that was super exciting. It is cool to see that sort of thing happen because sometimes you don't really realize the extent of the change the gospel can have in someone´s life. I keep learning and trying to remember everything that I learn every day. I´m super stoked to hear that you are all doing great. Thank you for bringing blessings to my life by praying for the Lord´s work and praying for me. Enjoy the blessings of the gospel that you have and make sure that you share them with others. I Love you. Take care and I will be thinking of you all the time so don´t even worry about that.

Be Good and Learn Stuff
Elder Jeff Rose

Here´s the update from the other land down under!

August 25, 2009

Well the good news is that we had a baptism this weekend. The bad news is that there was only one. Gonzalo still hasn't gotten married yet. I guess if you think about it there were 2 baptisms cause another kid from the ward got baptized but our baptism was Gustavo Vilte. And boy do I have a story to tell you. So we had a meeting in the church around noon and started filling up the font. Then we went to pick up lunch and brought it back to the church. Everything was going well and all of the sudden the church ran out of water. Who´d have thought that that would happen right? So we run out of water and we decide to go out and knock some doors and see if we can make good use of the time that we had. When we got back to the church we had water which was a blessing. The baptism was scheduled to start around 6:00 and around 5:30 everyone started arriving. Everything was on track until someone made the comment "doesn´t the font need more water?" We were like "what" and we went to look at it. Apparently one of the little kids that was running around had pressed the button to start the pump to drain all the water out of the font. So now we have about six inches of water and a baptism in five minutes. What to do? We asked the families and left it up to them and they said to go on and so we had to stall for time. We did everything in reverse order, ate refreshments first, did the talks and all that and when it came time for us to enter the water there was still only about a foot and a half of water. So needless to say it was interesting trying to get the kid completely submerged. The first time his feet floated up so I had to kneel on the ground with him sitting with my leg covering his legs to keep them under and hold him under for a couple seconds to make sure everything was all right. That was fun. The story of a week! I don´t know if I will have a baptism that crazy ever again in my life. It was good though. He was confirmed on Sunday. Needless to say I had a huge headache from all the stress and it still hasn´t quite gone away. I think I need to be drinking more water. So it was a blessed thing that p-day was today.
This past week has been super crazy. It is getting hotter here, the crazy religious festivities are at their prime and it seems like the adversary is working harder than ever against us. The work moves along as long as we are doing the things that we are called to do. If there is one thing to learn or rather re-learn from all of these experiences is that the harder you work, the harder it seems that everything else is working against you. We have tons of great experiences that I would love to share with you but honestly there just is not the time. I have started writing in my journal more frequently in order to have the stories to tell when I return home. I would love to hear what is going on at home and know how all of you are doing. The best things to hear as a missionary are those things that keep you inspired and remind you of home but at the same time they don´t make you think about home or wish that you were in a place that you cannot be. I am so thankful to all of you for the things that you constantly do for me. If I can be extremely sincere for just a second I would like to tell all of you that each and every one of you has had an influence in me being here, getting here, staying here, and all that. I want to thank you for all that you do and the constant love that I feel through your emails and letters. Keep doing what you are doing and showing your love. All the missionaries really need it. We have all come to the conclusion at some point in time during our missionary service that more than numbers, more than fun times, more than anything else, really the only thing that we need is a friend to feel that someone cares and on top of that that our God is there for us and that he will always be with is. Mira que te mando que te esfurces y seas valiente; no temas ni desmayes, porque Jehová tu Dios estará contigo en dondequiera que vayas. Josua 1:9 remember that guys. I love you all. Take care and be smart in what you do and say.

Elder Jeff Rose

P.S. - While I am waiting for all the pictures to attach I’ll let you all know a little something. There is something that is really cool that happens in the mission. You get to see a lot of people that you have worked with in the past progress more than they did while you were with them and sometimes even get baptized. That has happened to me twice so far. Maybe I have already told you about these experiences but they are super special for me. There was one man named Ramón who Elder Nichols and I taught in Pocitos who got baptized a while back. Then there was a lady that lived in Bolivia but was coming here for bone cancer treatments. Elder Jara and I taught her all the lessons but she had to get baptized in Bolivia because she lived there. I say lived because one week after her baptism she passed away. The little miracles of God´s work are so cool. I hope sincerely that at least once in your lives you can experience the joy of knowing that at least one soul has returned back to our Father in Heaven due to some small effort on your part. Love you all. Take care.

Other little notes: I’m still no good (absolutely no good) at playing soccer; at least not compared to here in Argentina. We have been playing a lot lately on p-days and we have plans to go to the church next door to play soccer for exercise in the mornings. We keep running into gypsies who want to rob us. Ever seen a gypsy before? If not you´re lucky.

Oh yeah, and for this weekend, hopefully Gonzalo will get married, baptized and confirmed.



Argentina Sunset


Elder Rose, Sister Vilte, Gustavo Vilte, and Elder Marsden


Elder Rose and Gustavo Vilte preparing for the baptism


Solis Pizarro Zone


Lucas Miño and family prior to baptism

Greetings from beautiful Salta Argentina

So things are going super well here and I am happy to say that the progress of the work is speeding along. Since Elder Marsden and I have been working together we saw a little bit of a slow start but the work picked up and we worked hard the first week and the fruits are being seen. This weekend we have two baptisms scheduled along with a ward baptism. The people who should be getting baptized that day are Gustavo Vilte and Gozalo Tapia. Gustavo is the son of a member who had been less active for 15 years when we found her. Now her son wants to get baptized and she says that she is never going to fall away form the church ever again. So that is sort of a double whammy because it is almost as if she has been reconverted, and we actually may have to re-baptize her because nobody can find her records.

The second, Gonzalo Tapia is the guy we have been working with forever in Rosario de Lerma, and technically we are not sure whether he will be able to get baptized because he is still not married but he said he is doing it this Friday. So that would be the wedding on Friday, interview and baptism on Saturday and the confirmation on Sunday along with the Aaronic priesthood maybe.

What a weekend right? We have also been spending a lot of time with Isabel Cayo who still needs to fix her situation with living with her boyfriend, which she is trying really hard to do but he isn’t making it easy, and she has the goal of a baptism not this Saturday but the next. Along with her we have Rocío Lozano. She is the 16 year old daughter of a family who listened to the missionaries a long time ago. We are teaching the mom and one of the brothers as well but they aren´t progressing as quickly as she is. She has a baptismal date for two Saturdays from now as well.

Elder Marsden and I have been having a lot of fun while working and have seen some really cool stuff happen. Like I said, it started off slow but now we have gotten into a rhythm and we are just cruizin´ along. We have found a few new investigators, had some good experiences with members and I have been learning a little bit more about what it means to run your area since this is my first experience with being the companion with more time in the area. It is a great experience though. I am super glad that I have the opportunity I am having to learn at this point in the mission and not later.

Well, some of you have asked about some interesting expressions that we have down here in Argentina. Let’s see what I can think of. It is kind of funny how many English expressions sneak there way into Spanish. For example: “a Full” means exactly that... like “to the max.” A lot of the kids down here say “de diez” which literally means “of ten” or “out of ten.” It could mean something like “that´s awesome.” I figure it comes from on a scale of one to ten who is it... so it is 10. Instead of saying “como está” which means how are you, they say “como anda” which means “how does it walk.” When someone asks you something or tells you something and you want to say you agree all you have to say is “meta.” Which means “goal.” There are a lot of expressions that also mean absolutely nothing in the real world but in the mission among missionaries they have there own special meanings. Here is an example of a typical conversation between two people.

¿Che! Como andás?
Todo bien! Y vos.
Acá estamos. No pasa nada. ¿Y que pasa con vos?
Todo de buena honda.
Ese partido anoche, ¿lo viste loco?
Nah che, estaba renegando con trabajo, me dio bronca el jefe.
Que lastima, che... bueno, nos vemos la proxima.
Que bien, cuidate ¿no?
Dale che. Nos vemos.

Yeah, so that is pretty much it. It is super cool now being able to pick out people´s accents and tell where they are from and understand pretty much everyone says. It is a huge difference when you hear someone talking as they pass you in the street and you can just pick up on what they are saying right away without having to listen too intently. I still have a lot to learn though.

So everything here is just going great. It is good to hear from all of you and know that you are doing well. Thanks for your emails and for letting me know that you care. I keep you all in my prayers and think about you every day. Love you all a ton. Talk to you later.

Hasta vernos juntos algun día. Les quiero todos. Cuidense. No hagan nada que no lo haría yo :)
Elder Rose

New Companion

August 11, 2009

Hey everybody. Elder Rose again. Well, transfers have come and gone once again and there was actually a change this time. I am still in the same area, Solis Pizarro, and I am now working with Elder Marsden. It is actually really cool because I knew him up in Tartagal when I was there. If you find the picture of my whole zone up there right before I left (it will be near the one of me with the branch president and his wife and daughter) you can see a picture of him. He is one of the taller ones, light hair, skinny, he is a super cool kid. He got here last night and there are some other changes too. We live six in our apartment and all but two of us changed, so there are some new faces. One is yet to be known because he will be a newbie, but I’m super pleased about whom I am living with. Elder Jara was transferred to Tucuman and he will be zone leader there too.

The past several days have been mostly taken up by Elder Jara saying goodbye to the people he wanted to and him packing and all that. As for the investigator situation: Gustavo has a new date for the 15th of this month. Isabel is still waiting on her boyfriend to move out. Gonzalo, I’m not completely sure because I haven’t talked to him in a few days but he should be getting married soon. And then there are all those other investigators that are out there slowly progressing.

So I heard some super awesome news. Last night when we were getting dinner, Marsden and I were talking (he was still in my old zone after I left) and he told me that Ramon, one of the guys me and Elder Nicholls were teaching in Pocitos, got baptized!! I almost flipped out with excitement. He told me that a lot of the people that we found up there and were teaching have gotten baptized or are super close. It was one of those moments that just make being a missionary all worth it. I hated thinking that all my time up there had just been a waste, but now I know that there is something that has come from mine and Elder Nicholls’s efforts. It was a moment of pure joy.

Today for p-day 8 of us elders went to go shopping for the week, then went out to centro, developed some pictures, looked around some stores, went to eat lunch and just hung out, got to know each other, shared stories. It was a good time. I’ve got high hopes for this transfer. Things are looking good.

I just want to tell you all how much I love you and I want you to know I appreciate your prayers and thoughts on my behalf. I appreciate each and every one of you who are reading this email so much. Just for the fact that you are interested in what is going on makes me happy. Stay strong, do it right, and always remember that we rely on God for everything. I wish you all well and I keep you in my prayers.

Fuerza Chicos!

This week has been a pretty good one.

The investigators that we are teaching are still all on track apart from the baptism that we were supposed to have on Saturday. That didn’t happen which is actually a sad story because it resulted in us stopping teaching her. She told us that she really does have interest but she was mostly just listening to us because it was like having a good friend. She always followed through with the commitments we gave her, but she just wasn´t willing to take the step yet. But what can you do?

At least I can say that I have been free of pit-bull fights (don´t worry dad, all 10 fingers still intact) and that we have been working up a storm and have some good stuff planned for the weeks that are coming up. Our eternal investigator, Gonzalo Tapia, who lives outside of our area, is actually very close to getting baptized. He should be getting married in a couple more weeks. Isabel Cayo and Gustavo Vilte have baptismal dates for this weekend but we are still waiting on a few things before that can happen so we will see. (But they have the goal firm in their minds). Then we have found some super cool investigators lately, one of which is the Lozano family. It is the dad, Guillermo, the mom, Marcela, and the three kids Nicolas, Rocio and Augustine.

Nicolas was actually a kid we were teaching a while back who lived with a ward member but we found the rest of his family, the other four. They actually live on the opposite side of the street from our area but we got permission from president to teach them. The mom and the two kids went to church on their own on Sunday and they loved it, I have a good feeling about them. They have listened to the missionaries before so we will see if that means that they will eventually just stop listening again, but I have a lot of faith in the Lord that He will help them along and I feel like at this point they are more prepared. It was actually interesting the story of how we found them. We had been teaching Nicolas and one day we ran into his mom in the street but we had never met her but she called to us and asked if it was us that were teaching him. We talked for a bit and she asked us if we could pass by her house. It turns out that it was in the other are but we live with those elders so we gave them her address and they went by. After a while though they stopped going by because it is the far edge of their area and they had a hard time finding her at home. It is super convenient for us though so we asked president about it and he said of course we could do it as long as she was going to get taught. So we went over and found the whole family at home and taught them the first discussion. It was kind of wild because they have tons of questions and there is a little bit of sibling rivalry and step children versus step father thing going on, but the second time we went by it was super good, I felt way good about it. So we will see. The moral of the story is that we really have no idea how things are going to work out, we just have to trust that the Lord does and things are going to work out good if we are doing what we should be doing when we should be doing it.

I hope you are all well. I love you all a ton and I hope to hear from every single one of you soon (That´s my guilt trip :) take care.

Elder Jeffrey Rose

Dog Revenge and Other Interesting Experiences!

So let´s start off with the interesting experiences that happened this week. First of all, I got my revenge on the dog population of Argentina. All those dogs that bit me before now know not to mess with me. We knocked a door of a lady we have taught a couple of times and her six year old son came to the gate. He recognized us and opened the door to let us in but the only problem was that their pit-bull was off his chain and roaming freely about the yard. As soon as the gate was opened he ran out to the street around the corner and pretty soon you hear a bunch of people screaming. So I took off after the owner and Elder Jara followed behind me. When we found the dog, it had another dog, (a boxer), by the throat and was at the point of killing it. So I got down on my knees and took the dog by the neck and tore it off the other dog. So now I have an angry pit-bull in my hands so I grabbed it by the collar and twisted it tight so I had it in a choke hold and it couldn't bite me. Then I dragged it back to the house and tossed it inside the fence. Thankfully, I didn't get hurt and both of the dogs are going to live. It was a crazy experience.

Next, the wind that hit last week was stronger than I realized at the time and it tore roofs off of houses and destroyed a lot of stuff. Some of our investigators were affected. Yesterday we went to do service for a family in our ward and had to shovel dirt and move it around to fill in holes and level out the ground. Good thing I got some good practice with Brother Mcgarry before the mission! I was able to win the contest to see who could fill up the wheelbarrow fastest with dirt.

It got super cold here for a while and I mean super cold. One day it hit 8 degrees below zero Celsius. I’m not sure what that changes to but it was cold. (It is 18 degree Fahrenheit). We did divisions that day and I worked with Elder Lowder. I had a blast; he is a super cool kid.

Oh and I don’t know if I told you, but last P-day we went to the offices for a surprise birthday party for President Northcutt. It was pretty fun.

So transfers are rolling around again in about a week and a half, we´ll see how that works out.
At this point who knows what is going to happen, all the old patterns in the mission for transfers have been broken.

Alright, so now for the investigator update. On Sunday we had five investigators in church which was awesome because all of them have baptismal dates for this weekend or next weekend. Pilar and Maria Jeres are going to be baptized this weekend. Then next will be Gustavo Vilte and Isabel Cayo. And then Gonzalo, the younger guy that we are teaching in another area that needs to get married. He just has to wait for his new marriage date to come around which hopefully is soon.

Two very important things happened to me yesterday. First, we were walking down the street and I saw a man heading towards us and I said to myself, "I’m going to talk to him" and he got closer and closer and closer and as I was about to talk to him my companion said something to me and instead of talking to the man I looked at my comp and the man passed by. "Darn" I thought "I wanted to talk to him." We walked about 10 meters farther and then I hear someone yelling "Muchachos! Muchachos!" I turned after the second yell and I saw the man standing at the corner waving to us. I went to him and he asked if we were the Mormons. I said yes and he asked if we gave classes to the people. I said yes and he looked at me and said in a voice that seemed to be almost at the point of tears, "Could you give me the classes?" Of course I responded yes and we wrote his direction down. After he walked away I felt the feeling of a mix of guilt but at the same time amazement at how the Lord gives us second chances sometimes. The moral of the story is though, what if he hadn't turned around, I never would have talked to him and he may have never had the chance to listen to the message of the restored gospel. What should we learn? Don´t count on second chances. Do what you should do and do it the first time you feel that impression, because second chances are few and far between.

The second experience…. Elder Jara and I were in the street and it was getting dark and while walking to a lesson, I saw a lady walking towards us. I was about to open my mouth to talk to her because I felt that feeling again (this was the same day) when Elder Jara started to talk to her. When he had talked to her, even though she had no interest, I said to him "that’s funny, I felt like we needed to talk to her too." Isn´t it so cool how the Lord does that. It´s like he knows that sometimes we ignore those promptings and his children are so important to him that he has a backup plan. The even cooler thing is that we both had the same feeling in the same exact moment.

Things are going good here, it is crazy, but the Lord definitely takes care of us. I used to say that the mission is hard. But it really isn’t. It is hard if you think of it as something that you have to do, but it becomes easier when you think of it as something you want to do and as soon as you gain a true desire to work and the love for the people. There´s that love for the people that everyone always talks about. I always thought it was so cliché to say that, but it really is so true.
If you don´t love the people then you don’t have anything. One of our investigators, Isabel, said something the other day. She was talking to us about going to church and how people have been telling her she is crazy and all that we always hear. And she said this: "at this point it doesn't matter whether you two (me and my comp) are here, if someone comes by to pick me up for church or any of that. At this point, I’m committed; at this point I am going all the way and never coming back." That hit me hard. The question is the following, are we at that point in our own lives? Are we that dedicated to Christ and to this church that we can say that as well? I hope we all are.

I want you all, each and every one of you to know how much I love you and how grateful I am for the support you give me, your emails, your prayers and your thoughts for me. It really does work miracles. The wife of a good friend of mine in the mission passed away recently and something he said hit me hard and is sort of my new theme. A simple two words. With tears in his eyes he yelled to us all "fuerza chicos!" “Strength boys and girls.” It´ll get us all through this. I love you all. My thoughts are with you.

Elder Jeffrey Rose