Week #14 ~Be happy at ALL times!

Hello from Bahia Blanca..

Monday

It was a good day, all we did after p-day was contact and visit our investigators.   We meet one lady who just left the testigos de jehova (Jehovah's Witness) she left cause she didn’t like that her church changes in all the time and so I feel like she will progress really well. 

Tuesday 

We had a zone conference and it was really fun, we have a new zone leader and he is really cool and he and his comp are from Utah. We played get to know you games and it was really fun.  Elder Pitcher and Calixto stayed at our house and contacted with us all day. There bus didn’t leave until 9 at night. It was super nice to have extra elders to visit the other members that we couldn’t get too. 

Wednesday

 I got sick and it was not very fun. Luckly my mom sent a pharmacy with me so I was able to take every kind of medicine that humans have invented to combat this illness. We visited our recent baptism and went over the first lesson again and I didn’t know that we are required to give them every single lesson again once they are baptized, but we are. It is probably good to do!

Thursday 

We were out visiting the members and our investigators.   They live really far west of us about a hour and a half walk.  We found one member who lives in the middle of a huge empty field all by him self in a homemade shipping container and a crazy thing happened.. The coolest thing while we were talking to him and the field next door to him caught on fire. Not a little fire a huge one and a ton of cops came to see what was happening and he was told us and the police that it was his neighbor house burning old crops. He told us we were fine and so while we kept talking  and watched this feild just go up in flames. It was so crazy then the fire truck arrived and put it out . The next day we found out that the field burned way more then he wanted it to.

Friday

We were visiting contacts from the old elders in our house and we came to a kid that is about our age that has taken all the lessons and he was super excited to see us! I can’t wait to go back and visit him again! We also ran in to another family that has taken some lesson from the past elders but wanted to keep meeting with us more. I am also excited to visit them 

Saturday 

We went and visited one of our investigators whom the wife is a member but her husband isn’t and we convinced them to get married and there getting married in November so he can get baptized!! So exciting! I hope I can stay in this area so we can get him baptized!

Sunday 

We had a great day at church and we learned about the importance of being happy at all times and about how we need to not wait until a future point to be happy.  It was from President  Uchtdorf talk, he said do we wait until the last note of a melody to enjoy the song, do we say our prayers with the amen in mind.   No we enjoy it during the whole time and I just really liked the lesson. Then we visited a member of ours who just had knee surgery on his meniscus and the scar looked so crazy I am so glad we have very modern technics in the USA.

Monday

I traveled to Bahia Blanca for tramitas, where I get my Argentina ID and other documents for my Visa.  I had to travel on a bus that was only 7 hours long. The bummer part was that I was the only person on the top tier of the bus, so it was very tranquil but while I was reading my BOM the lights all turned out so I couldn’t read anymore! So I laid across the all the bench of the bus and tried to rest but not fall asleep cause the bus does not just stop in Bahia, it will just keep going if you don’t tell the driver that it is your destination! So I had to be alert the whole time! So, in other word super fun day. Then when I got there, the missionary’s that were supposed to pick me up didn’t come so I just took a taxi to their house. When I went I woke them up and then the apologized for not remembering! 

Tuesday

I am in Bahia Blanca and I forgot how big the city is! This place is so fun and crazy!

I will be in Bahia until Thursday then I will venture home again.  That is my week.  Have a great one & BE HAPPY!

Love Elder Vance

No- I have not learned how to play the piano! Just piano in Spanish! 

Real FOOD... I am so happy, I can hardly open my eyes!

Week #13 ~Early Morning Run

Hola! 

I am feeling good itwasa very long week.  The space buttononmy computer doesntseem to workmost of the time. AHHH!! 

We havebeenwalking sofar this week! We just got a list of the members that are not onour map and we are trying to visit them and they are like anhour and a half walk out side ofthe little areawe have!!! We plan onvisitingthemand we canonly get to a few cause its sofarof a walk we donnothaveenough time to get there.

(I will edit this from here on to correct the non-working space button)

I have attached some pictures of my new creations I call one pankaeggs and the other is my version of egg drop soup. Lovin me some eggs and rice.  I am a little bit smaller than when I arrived, I can belt up everything pretty well but all my cloths are pretty loose the jeans are the worst.   I have them like folded in the back so the front looks fine!!!

It’s still cold here it is getting a little warmer and today is the warmest I have seen in a while! The storm last week was cool but not as cold as everyone made it out to be! People here made it sound crazy and told us it was dangerous, but it just blew some fences over and signs!

Good news, we fixed the blender-washing machine yesterday and the shower is not that bad its one of the nicest houses in the mission. I do have regular toilets and they are really low to the ground and we have the french side toilet thing called a bidet or something like that.  In our flat we have a bed and a fride but the beds are short so my feet hang off.  My Spanish is ok it still coming along but I am studying hard. 

Tomorrow I get to do splits with my zone leaders, which means….I am close to Walmart. It’s a little Walmart compared to the states but compared to the shacks where we buy stuff it’s a palace.   I have started wearing different slacks that do not have a hole in them with my suit jacket.  It is not exactly stylish but its all I have. I am perfectly happy with it currently.   I hope people think it’s a new american style, they may just start wearing mis matching suits here! Speaking of copy cats my comp copies everything I do and workout and I thought it was funny at first but now it’s crazy! I made up a really stupid one where you l lay on the ground and lift your arms up weird to see if he was really just copping me and I came out of the bath room and he was doing this stupid work out I made up!!!! hahahah

So on Wednesday morning or you could say Tuesday night we gota phone call at 1 in the morning and it was new missionaries at the bus terminal.   They were in  city and they were trying to find their house but the elder left his papers at their last stop. So they called me and my comp and we ran physically ran to the bus terminal at one in the morning! Quite a bit early then our normal run.  The terminal is about 3 or so miles from our house then we helped them take there bags to their house, then we went home! The rest of the day was just tracting all day and visiting members. 

Thursday we were out contacting and this crazy member that rides there bike around the city that some how all ways finds us.   Well they found us and decided to tag along as we go tracting. His name is Cheatsho and he his crazy! He is always telling me about when Argentina will become the biggest government and it will some day be the government of the world and that it's so good that I will be half Argentina and alive for this glories day to come! 

Friday we went on a visit to a less active members house but the best part is as we were walking down the super long road to his farm he drove by and have us a lift! It turns out that we weren't even close to his house at all! We whould have been walking for a lot longer then we planned! They are Goucho and they are the cowboys of Argentina and they dress like a vintage golfer would and I think it looks so cool!!!!! I will have that same out fit when I come home.  Just wait! 

Saturday 

We did service for a progressing investigator by cleaning up his back yard. It was really fun. He handed my an ax and pointed to a ton of wood! While him and my comp were sweeping the cement! It was crazy, but I really enjoyed the hard work and talking to them. We then visited more members in that area .

Sunday 

We confirmed the boy that we baptized last week in church.   I was so scared that the bishop would ask me to give the blessing! Right before he started he said Elder Vance will you pick who does it and I almost had a heart attack! After church we went and meet with some less-active members.

Tyson, I am glad someone is making use of my closet !  Are those my shoes you are wearing?  Just make sure they are put back when you are done! I  love it here! idk why you worry this is just as safe as Nebraska!

I have to go love you!

Elder Vance 

pankaeggs

Week #12 ~Two Mystery Parcels…

Hello All

Life is good in Argentina,

Monday

We had zone conference and it was really great we all talked about our investigators and the problems we faced with them and how the other missionaries would handle it if they had the same problem! I learned a lot from it! Then when me and my comp got back to our house he asked if I was already packed and apparently I was doing splits with the zone leader in another area. he told all the missionaries during the announcements but since the whole meeting is in Spanish some things I still don't understand! So I hurried and packed and then travel to the zone leaders house. It was a very quite night their cause he is from Peru and doesn’t peak any english!

Tuesday

I spent all day tracting with the zone leader and it was really fun we talked about Peru all day and I learned a lot from having a full Spanish comp. We meet a lot of crazy investigators of his. 

Wednesday

me and my comp were visiting members in the evening and we came to a members house and him and his wifed lived in a small 2 bedroom house with there 9 KIDS all under the age in 15. I have never seen so much chaos in one house. I had like 2 babies crawling on the floor grabbing our shoes and some toddlers throwing balls everywhere and it was hectic. 

Thursday

We found two letters in our apartment that were sealed and addressed to addresses in our area but they were both about 5-6 miles in different directions. They looked like really old letters so we made it our quest of the day to find the right full recipients of these parcels and deliver it! We found the first house with relative ease but the second one was far down a deep dirt road and they didn't have signs so we wandered until we asked some people in the street and one on them was him and his mother! They asked us to come back and have lessons with them cause the wanted to with the last elders but when they left they didn't know how to contact us! So crazy!

Friday

We had a service project at a orphanage and we and our ward cleaned up their park and the area around it by chopping down little trees and painting the cement divider walls and clearing the field it was really fun. It took most of our day but it was cool to see the progress from start to finish. It look so much better at the end of our day.

Saturday 

We had our first baptism in our area a boy named Ezikel and it was really great. we had a lot of members and investigators come and it was a lot of fun. our investigators were asking lots of questions about what was going on and the ward brought a lot of tortas y pan so that is always good

Sunday 

We had church like normal and we learned about service and it was cool. I could follow the lesson for the most part and I answered a few questions! I loved it.

Monday

We had transfers all day me and my comp are some of the only staying here. but we got lucky enough to help the others carry the bags to bus terminal from there house all day. We helped 4 different companions from their house all the way to the terminal it was like I did 4 backpacking trips all day! Sadly p-day was moved to Tuesday! 

Love you all

-Elder Vance

 Ezikel's Baptism

An Amazing Baptism

We run by this waterfall every morning on our morning run!

Fun at the waterfall

AHHH Meat!

Actual Food

Week # 11~ Another week in paradise!

Hola! 

I am good! Long day of walking but good! This week was really fun we had a lot of fun things going on! The temp is about 50 degrees it has gotten so cold lately and rainy!  My comp is fine we are getting along well but we are so different-so, so different, but I am making it work!

Here is my week in review…

Monday-

 Today we went to the zoo!  It was like Hogle Zoo was closed and you could only look through ONE hole in the fence.  Lots of chickens and birds.  I was dreaming about my next piece of protein the whole day.

We ran out of money on Saturday cause that was the day we receive our sig. or the money for the month. It was ok because it was finally in our account today, so we had extra rice so we were fine! 

Our zone leader is leaving to go home this week and rubbed it in everyones face especially mine and I almost got to go home this week also from wanting to beat him up! So funny!  

We also found out in October we can eat at members homes! Our President just announced, but with that we will have our $ cut in half. We are only getting $1000 pesos a month starting in October about $100 american dollars, so that will be really hard! I have faith it will all work out! I am doing good here on money next month with our money cut in half -I have no idea then!!! 

We taught only one lesson today to a new contact and got about 5 other new contacts that same afternoon. This is really good most people just shake there fingers through the window or say that they are already believe in christ so they don't need to know more. Which is crazy! One man said he was part of our church and we asked if he was mormon and he said no but he is catholic he refused to believe that we are from a different church. It was so weird.

Tuesday-

Not a lot happen on Tuesday. We walked a lot and contacted a lot .

Wednesday-

It was a hermana in our districts birthday so we got to eat cake! I haven't had cake in what seem like forever! The best part it was funfetti! My favorite flavor!!!!

We meet with a baker who is a member, He gave us some bread and it was so great, we are trying to think how often we can visit him with out making him annoyed by the Missionary! 

Thursday-

We were out tracting and we meet a man who used to me a member and is a barber and he said if we come meet with him again he will cut our hair for free!! So we are going tonight to visit him! It’s amazing that the Lord will bless us with what we need, like free hair cuts and bread!

Friday-

The church had a dia de nino, which is a ward party for the kids. It was crazy with lots of little kids and funny weird activities for them. There was about 3 fist fights from the Decon age boys but nothing to violent. 

They asked me and my companion to go stand my them cause they are all afraid of us, because we are so much bigger then them. So funny! Then the bishopric did a skit form some very old Argentine show and I had zero idea what was going on! It was very fun!

Saturday- 

We just tracted all day and made a lot of contacts in the morning. I almost fell right on my face in the middle of the park I was reading my Spanish book as always…and wasn’t looking as well as I should of where I was going.  I hit a lip on a rock  that we were passing it must have looked so funny!

Sunday- we announced our baptism for next week in the chapel and we meet with a some members cause the President wants Sundays just for meeting with active members.

Thanks Mom & Dad love you too! Thank you for giving me so many tools and things so I am always prepared here!

No I am not starving just eating what matters!

Love you all,

Elder Vance

My poor Pants!

ZOO

ZOO FUN!

One of the amazing Zoo animals!

One of the Zoo animals

Yes Dad I am holding a snake just for you!

We are Famous our pictures in the paper!

Chalk art in the newspaper!

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner!

My ZONE

Pass along cards.

I Love you Mommy!

More at the Zoo

Mom, I thought you would love this...The exciting Zoo animals!