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