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
18 August 2009
16 August 2009
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!
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!
04 August 2009
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
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
28 July 2009
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
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
22 July 2009
MTC Experience
I had a couple of cool experiences with helping out some missionaries in the MTC. Don´t get me wrong, being zone leader in the MTC is nothing like it is in the field, but there are a couple of responsibilities :). There was one night when one of my roommates wasn't in the room after the hour and I went looking for him cause that was me and my companion´s job. I found him in the hallway sitting on the floor with his head in his hands and could tell that something was wrong just by the situation. I sat down next to him and started to talk to him. He told me about how he was feeling and how he felt like he as a missionary couldn't do anything, that he wasn't strong enough.
At that time he had just had his pacemaker removed and I had spent a couple days in the hospital with him. He said that following the accident which resulted in him having a pacemaker, he didn't understand why the Lord spared his life. He didn't know what his purpose in life was supposed to be, he said he just felt lost. At that point his companion found us sitting outside and sat down with us. Now I don´t profess to be some super wise all knowing person, but I tried to offer him some sort of encouragement, a helping hand. I bore my testimony to him of how I knew what he was doing was right and that the cause we stand for as missionaries is a true one. Along with his companion, I talked with him for about an hour and helped him to gain a little bit of hope, at least enough to stay. "If I can do that" I said to myself "I can at least have more time to help him." So we did that and then for the next couple of weeks his companion and I helped him constantly to realize why he was there and how much he really can do in the work of the Lord.
Sometimes I think that we as humans think in the same way as that Elder was thinking that night, that is, that we can´t do much, we don´t know what the Lord expects of us or what he wants from us is too much. And that is probably right, what the Lord asks of us is too much, for us alone that is. But with the help that He gives us each and every day of our lives he strengthens us and makes us able to stand up and rise to the task. I have seen that so much in my mission and in my life in general. When we think we can’t, we´re usually right, because those thoughts of inability come from a lack of faith, a lack of vision. What the Lord requires of me I will do, and I will hold him accountable to fulfill with his promise to fill in the gap after, and only after, I have done all that I can do. The lord has told us time upon time that nothing is beyond his power to accomplish and that if something seems to be beyond ours, if we call upon Him for the help we need, never doubting, rather trusting in Him, we will receive. As sure as I stand here as a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ, I promise you all that when you need the Lord´s help, he WILL be there for you IF we are there when he asks us to be. It is a two way relationship, we cannot expect to always be able to ask and never give, just as we have to serve the Lord in order to merit his love. We can never repay the Lord for what he has done, and he doesn’t ask us to. He only asks for everything we have and nothing more. Are we willing to give Him that? If the answer is yes, we have the promise of the scriptures that we will be blessed and he will never suffer that we perish or suffer that which is beyond our ability to bear. This is my testimony to all of you that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and He loves us and we sure better by doing the things He asks of us if we want to receive the blessing He has prepared for us.
Things here are going good. We have a couple of good fechas that seem pretty solid and a couple more that are up there floating in the air that we are trying to peg down so they don´t float away.
A little more information about Salta. There are about a half million people that live in the city alone and in the roundabout areas there are about a million more. There are buses and such but we rarely use them because the schedules hardly ever work for us. When we have to go out of capital, like to teach our investigator who lives in rosario de lerma (wikipedia that) then we usually do take a bus, but that’s just cause a taxi would cost like 80 pesos. There are two stakes in the city; about 15 wards that I can count. My area, not counting the little pueblos that are a couple hours away, can be walked in about an hour. Then we also have a few places you have to take a 30 minute bus ride to get to. In our ward, there are about 500 members, around 60 to 70 of which are active. Most of the member help we get comes from the same 3 or 4 families. In Salta capital there is somewhere around 36 to 40 missionaries including the offices where there are 4 plus the assistants. It is one of the more concentrated areas in the mission. The 4 centro areas (Salta capital, Tucuman Centro, Jujuy Centro and Santiago Centro) are the most populated areas and thus have more missionaries.
Everything is going well here. Always improving in little ways you know... I have undertaken the task of teaching my comp English per the mission president´s wife, so that is fun and interesting. The weather here is super weird, the sicknesses are going strong but so am I so I have been lucky so far.
At that time he had just had his pacemaker removed and I had spent a couple days in the hospital with him. He said that following the accident which resulted in him having a pacemaker, he didn't understand why the Lord spared his life. He didn't know what his purpose in life was supposed to be, he said he just felt lost. At that point his companion found us sitting outside and sat down with us. Now I don´t profess to be some super wise all knowing person, but I tried to offer him some sort of encouragement, a helping hand. I bore my testimony to him of how I knew what he was doing was right and that the cause we stand for as missionaries is a true one. Along with his companion, I talked with him for about an hour and helped him to gain a little bit of hope, at least enough to stay. "If I can do that" I said to myself "I can at least have more time to help him." So we did that and then for the next couple of weeks his companion and I helped him constantly to realize why he was there and how much he really can do in the work of the Lord.
Sometimes I think that we as humans think in the same way as that Elder was thinking that night, that is, that we can´t do much, we don´t know what the Lord expects of us or what he wants from us is too much. And that is probably right, what the Lord asks of us is too much, for us alone that is. But with the help that He gives us each and every day of our lives he strengthens us and makes us able to stand up and rise to the task. I have seen that so much in my mission and in my life in general. When we think we can’t, we´re usually right, because those thoughts of inability come from a lack of faith, a lack of vision. What the Lord requires of me I will do, and I will hold him accountable to fulfill with his promise to fill in the gap after, and only after, I have done all that I can do. The lord has told us time upon time that nothing is beyond his power to accomplish and that if something seems to be beyond ours, if we call upon Him for the help we need, never doubting, rather trusting in Him, we will receive. As sure as I stand here as a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ, I promise you all that when you need the Lord´s help, he WILL be there for you IF we are there when he asks us to be. It is a two way relationship, we cannot expect to always be able to ask and never give, just as we have to serve the Lord in order to merit his love. We can never repay the Lord for what he has done, and he doesn’t ask us to. He only asks for everything we have and nothing more. Are we willing to give Him that? If the answer is yes, we have the promise of the scriptures that we will be blessed and he will never suffer that we perish or suffer that which is beyond our ability to bear. This is my testimony to all of you that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and He loves us and we sure better by doing the things He asks of us if we want to receive the blessing He has prepared for us.
Things here are going good. We have a couple of good fechas that seem pretty solid and a couple more that are up there floating in the air that we are trying to peg down so they don´t float away.
A little more information about Salta. There are about a half million people that live in the city alone and in the roundabout areas there are about a million more. There are buses and such but we rarely use them because the schedules hardly ever work for us. When we have to go out of capital, like to teach our investigator who lives in rosario de lerma (wikipedia that) then we usually do take a bus, but that’s just cause a taxi would cost like 80 pesos. There are two stakes in the city; about 15 wards that I can count. My area, not counting the little pueblos that are a couple hours away, can be walked in about an hour. Then we also have a few places you have to take a 30 minute bus ride to get to. In our ward, there are about 500 members, around 60 to 70 of which are active. Most of the member help we get comes from the same 3 or 4 families. In Salta capital there is somewhere around 36 to 40 missionaries including the offices where there are 4 plus the assistants. It is one of the more concentrated areas in the mission. The 4 centro areas (Salta capital, Tucuman Centro, Jujuy Centro and Santiago Centro) are the most populated areas and thus have more missionaries.
Everything is going well here. Always improving in little ways you know... I have undertaken the task of teaching my comp English per the mission president´s wife, so that is fun and interesting. The weather here is super weird, the sicknesses are going strong but so am I so I have been lucky so far.
14 July 2009
A Baptism!
So everything here is Argentina is going well. I am happy to say that yes the baptism of Lucas Miño did go through. He was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was a super cool experience and there was a pretty good turnout of people who went to see him. The wedding for the 24th is still on track as far as we know. He is out of work right now so that has been a struggle for him, but he is still going to church every week and we talk to him at least once or twice a week. He lives rather far away so it is hard for us to go visit him very often. Things seem to be on track though.
We have a few other investigators that are progressing pretty well. A lady named Isabelle seems really excited about it all and accepted a baptismal date for the 1st of August and committed to go to church for the next two weeks running. She has some really good friends in the church that include the bishop and his family. An older lady we have been teaching named Elva is moving along slowly but surely. We’re focusing on Joseph Smith with her, helping her to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.
There are various others that we are teaching at the moment. We’ve also been having a lot more results with members present at lessons finally. It really helps to have a member with you while you are teaching because they always have good insights and all that good stuff.
It has been a pretty uneventful week all in all. The baptism went well. We did divisions yesterday. We didn't really do anything today for p-day. Things are just super tranquil here. The flu is kind of bad and there are a lot of people who just don´t answer their doors or won´t talk to you cause of the sickness so that makes things different, but what can you do, right?
Take care. Till next week.
ELDER JEFFREY ROSE
We have a few other investigators that are progressing pretty well. A lady named Isabelle seems really excited about it all and accepted a baptismal date for the 1st of August and committed to go to church for the next two weeks running. She has some really good friends in the church that include the bishop and his family. An older lady we have been teaching named Elva is moving along slowly but surely. We’re focusing on Joseph Smith with her, helping her to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.
There are various others that we are teaching at the moment. We’ve also been having a lot more results with members present at lessons finally. It really helps to have a member with you while you are teaching because they always have good insights and all that good stuff.
It has been a pretty uneventful week all in all. The baptism went well. We did divisions yesterday. We didn't really do anything today for p-day. Things are just super tranquil here. The flu is kind of bad and there are a lot of people who just don´t answer their doors or won´t talk to you cause of the sickness so that makes things different, but what can you do, right?
Take care. Till next week.
ELDER JEFFREY ROSE
08 July 2009
I’m doing great!
The baptism last week didn't happen because the bishop didn't announce it in sacrament meeting and his grandma wasn't going to be home from work, so it is supposed to be happening this weekend. Fingers crossed right? But everything has been going well.
On Saturday instead of our baptism we took some of our investigators to a baptism in another ward in our zone and showed them that. I actually spoke for part of the time. That was exciting. It turned out good. We had a few people in church on Sunday, one of our investigators got sick so she left early and took her daughter with her which was too bad, but what can you do.
We have been seeing some better numbers lately and more interaction on the part of the ward so that is way good. For the Fourth of July we sang “The Star Spangled Banner” at the top of our lungs and just talked about our 4th traditions... the gringos at least.
Today for P-day we went to Centro, walked around, I bought a tie. Then we went to a restaurant called Viejo Jacks, which is amazing. A few years ago there were a couple of elders who went there all the time and one day they made a special order. They called it "el gordo" and it is now a part of the menu, well... not on the menu, but they know what it is by name and the missionaries are the only ones who ever order it I’m sure, but it is a huge steak, and by huge I mean like 1 foot square. Then it has onions and such on top and a fried egg and it is served with homemade potato chips and salad. It is huge so we split three of them between six of us. That was the celebration for one of the elder´s birthday.
Everything is just fantastic here. Hope everything is good where all of you are at too. Love you all.
On Saturday instead of our baptism we took some of our investigators to a baptism in another ward in our zone and showed them that. I actually spoke for part of the time. That was exciting. It turned out good. We had a few people in church on Sunday, one of our investigators got sick so she left early and took her daughter with her which was too bad, but what can you do.
We have been seeing some better numbers lately and more interaction on the part of the ward so that is way good. For the Fourth of July we sang “The Star Spangled Banner” at the top of our lungs and just talked about our 4th traditions... the gringos at least.
Today for P-day we went to Centro, walked around, I bought a tie. Then we went to a restaurant called Viejo Jacks, which is amazing. A few years ago there were a couple of elders who went there all the time and one day they made a special order. They called it "el gordo" and it is now a part of the menu, well... not on the menu, but they know what it is by name and the missionaries are the only ones who ever order it I’m sure, but it is a huge steak, and by huge I mean like 1 foot square. Then it has onions and such on top and a fried egg and it is served with homemade potato chips and salad. It is huge so we split three of them between six of us. That was the celebration for one of the elder´s birthday.
Everything is just fantastic here. Hope everything is good where all of you are at too. Love you all.
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