Week #18 ~OLAVARRIA for another transfer!

Hola, how is everyone! 

I am doing good in Olavarria for another transfer! Our whole zone is staying not one person is getting transfered. We had quite the fun week, 

Monday 

We were going to visit one of the recent converts, on the way 3 guys asked us for money and it was really scary but funny at the same time.   We were walking through a big field.  These guys were trying to catch up with us and we gave them some money then they asked for a hug. They said not a lot of people will just give them money.   Then they left.  We had a great lesson with the member and his mom.  His mom is not a member but she wants to get baptized. At the end of that lesson we gave her the baptism challenge and she said "yes" she would like to work towards baptism.  

Tuesday

We had another zone meeting because we though someone would be transferred this week.  It’s really funny because we are all here for another transfer, no one was transferred.  Everyone was signing my journal because the next time we figured we would see each other would be state side. I received a package from the Carn side and I read all the notes and hung up the cute decorations and the poster.  I loved all the cards they were so great!!!  They filled me with so much joy and love from back home!  We have a new investigator that wants to get baptized.  We meet on Tuesday and he wanted us to come back every day to talk to him.  He is missing an eye becasue when he was twenty he got hit by a train.  He is really nice and lives in a shack he built himself about a 45 min walk away so it’s really fun going to visit him.

Wednesday 

My comp had to go to Bahia for a day so I was comps with another elder and it was really fun, we worked in his area for half the day and mine for the latter half. We contacted a missionary but sadly it was from another faith and I am sure they practice scenarios for when the MORMON missionaries knock on their door.  She was so excited to see us and then she just let us have it!  With all of these bible references and she loved to tell us about the "el libro de Jose Smith is a crazy book" and it was crazy!   We talked for about 30 min before I just thanked her for sharing her beliefs then said that we needed to get going.  Haha it was so crazy!   We tried so hard to share our beliefs but she wasn’t to interested yet.  We left a pamphlet about the restoration but I hope she will one day be ready to recieve the fullness of the gospel. 

Thursday.

We had to travel to the bus terminal at 3:30 am to get our comps because there bus broke down twice on the way here.  The rest of the day was great!  We had a great day we made some great contacts in the street and had a great lesson with the man missing an eye, his name Es Enrika, and he asked why women could not have the priesthood becasue he feels that this should be changed. He felt we should ask our mission president if he would change it.  We explained to him that everything is from God and that all things are a certain way for a reason. It was really good he learned a lot in that lesson. We ate lunch at an english teacher house. She brought us an english test that local high school students are required to pass her English class and earn a certificate stating they speak english.  It was like I was in third grade the first question was "I like eating... A) trees B) cats C) bread" so english class is a very easy class to pass here. 

Friday 

We did service this day for most of the day.  We tore up a concrete pad in one of our members yards and it took forever.  The work reminded me of remodeling the duplex in cedar city.  It was really fun to do physical work.  In the afternoon they poured concrete back in the same area we just took it out . I am not quite sure what our goal was but I didn’t complain I was just glad to be able to work up a sweat!  That night we were walking home and in the streets they were having a crazy fiesta for the founding of our city.   They had live bands and street dancers and booths everywhere and it just came out of nowhere. We walked around for a little bit then headed home but it was super fun to see!

Saturday

We had an "open chapel" this day so we were in the hermanas area all day setting up booths and banera for the open house and passing out flyers on the street all day.  It was really great.  My comp and I were in the baptismal font area all day dressed in white explaining what baptism is to all who stopped by and it was super fun!!!   We got a lot of people whom have never been in a chapel and wanted to come in, it was so great!!!  We are spending all day tomorrow going to the references they left for us!

Sunday

We had a great classes and we had some of our investigator come to church so that is always great!!!  We had ALL the elders come to our house for the zone meeting today so it was really fun to hang out with a whole bunch of people.  It was kind of like high school with that many guys just hanging out in one house. Thats really been it for this week.   

Love you all so much and thanks for all the letters they were the highlight of my week!

Elder Vance

Week #17 ~My Adventure Hat is ON!

Hola! 

This week was just as great as the last.

Transfers next Monday so p-day next week is Tuesday.   My Comp and I are getting along better this week, I heard him tell the zone leader I was his favorite comp.  Dad, mission accomplished!  I am just not letting anything bug me, I am trying so hard not to just tear him apart.... God is teaching me a lesson here.. and I have to learn it fast.  

I am learning to be thrift and spend the money I have gotten. I wont all ways have mommy giving me lunch money! I have enough money on hand for anything that was through my way don’t you worry.  I am an eagle scout if you don’t remember, and I still live by there mottos

SO far with the new change of only getting 1/2 the amount of money to live off, about $100/month, and the ability to eat with members now, we have only gotten 4 meal invitesl.  They have been so fun though.  BUT…I have my hands on a new vegetable that I recently purchased.  It looks like a pumpkin but tastes like a zucchini and a cucumber but it’s really small like a potato…so try to figure out that one! It is supposed to be really good in eggs. I  am super pumped for my new eggs with this vegetable tonight!!

I really am doing good.  We just finished a service project removing concrete from a  backyard.   hahah I felt just like I was at Cedar again at the house working my tail off.  It is in an investigators yard and they really needed our help. It felt very great to give back.  

My week in review…

Monday

We were able to meet with one of our investigators that we always seem to have a hard time meeting with. He is never home when he says he is, but it was really weird cause he lives with his girl friend and we taught about the law of chastity.   He wants to be baptized but he was unaware of this law and he said he would pray about it and we don’t know what his answer is yet. As you can imagine, it was a very touchy subject cause it was either get married or move out. 

Tuesday

We had a cita con one of the members of the ward for lunch! We are very excited because that means food! It was right in the middle of our afternoon studies so we decided to tract all morning since it was very far away.  It would take about a hour walk to get there so we walked all morning and then when it came time to eat, we couldn't find their house! The address was wrong so we looked for ever and we eventually found it.  They called and asked if we were coming and it was even further away! Our legs are getting in great shape none the less!

Tuesday was the hottest its been here by far! Luckily the new rule change allows us to take our jackets off and wear in addition hats and sunglasses.  So that means my adventure hat is coming with me every where now! 

Wednesday 

Was  super cool we had a little flash flood from the rain! It filled all the streets and ran up to the houses over the side walk and we lost power! So that was definitely a first for me.   We tried to take a picture but it wasn’t very good cause my camera was inside a bag hah.

Thursday 

We still had no power but we made a lot of good contacts on the streets.  The water was all gone and a lot of people were outside.  We tried to talk to every one we saw. We also had another progressing investigator whom is a young boy about 17 years old and he is scared to talk to us because his mother hates Mormons.   She was told from her preacher that we were a devils church but he wants to hear what we have to say so I really hope he will listen to us!

Friday

We finally got power back and I got to take a hot shower again!!! It was so great! We went and renewed our contract for our building and while we where walking some man in a store wanted to talk to us because he sees us all the time but couldn’t figure out what we are doing walking everywhere.  So we talked with him for a while and I hope that he reads the pamphlet we gave him. 

Saturday

Today we taught four lessons and visited the members whom are getting married soon, November 1st. They are super excited, but we have to help finish his back yard to hold the ceremony in.  We are going there tomorrow to help him finish the work for the wedding. Another man on a bike asked if we would allow him to come to our church and after we told him that all were invited he got really happy and rode off so I hope to see that guy again.

Sunday 

We had a great sunday these are the days where I can see my Spanish improving the most. I can understand more and more of the talks and the lessons and it’s really a great feeling. 

We were invited to go to primary because the children behave well the teacher say when they have elders there and they would take our plaque (name badges) and give them to the ninos when they were acting good.   It was really funny. I liked going to primary because I can follow the whole Spanish lesson there. haha

That brings us one again to p-day today is great ,we played some basketball and going to do some service in a hour or so it will be a great day!

Love you all! 

-Elder Vance

My Little Pony... If only I could ride him tracting!

Week # 16 ~Speaking in Turbo Spanish

¡Hola familia!,

¿como anda?

So because of all these weird p-days in a row,I don't know where I left off on my latest email. So I’ll just finish with last p day.

Tuesday 10/4/16 

We had 3 extra elders it was really fun! We all played uno and had a lot of fun and because we had to go pick up our zone leader from the bus stop at 2 am about 5 miles away.  We decided to stay up and play games until he came! Except by the time it came to leave we were all so tired and regretted not taking our chance of trying to sleep. But we got there on time then walked home and it was about 3:30am. We were all extremely tired so we fell asleep pretty fast.

Wednesday 10/5/16

This day is devoted to just doing service all day. We went to a recent converts house with the hermanas to pull weeds in her back yard. It was really fun and we pulled like 9 big garbage bags of weeds. We had to battle so many snails it was super groody. She gave us milinese which is chicken breast with bread crumbs and we were very happy to receive such a great prize!

Thursday 10/6/16

The day our heater broke. Very sad day!   We got a all clear for no more suit jackets on this day so it wasn’t sad for long! No more silly jackets! 

Suns out Guns out!!

The best part is I can wear sunglasses now and hats!!! So my adventure hat has now just been recruited for my daily attire. We visited a lot of investigators this day and met some great new investigator that just had a baby and they both just left their old church because they didn’t like the preacher saying that they cant live together forever after this life so i am very excited for their next lesson!

Friday 10/7/16

I really liked friday because we visited one of our progressing investigators.  They are  the ones getting married and they gave me and my comp hand written invited for there wedding next week! I so hope I stay in Olivarria for one more transfer so I can attend we got a baptism date for them and also super excited for that one week after they are married. 

Saturday 10/8/16

In the morning we had a very fun church activity where it was a soccer tournament for all of the stakes and cybers in our city. It was fun cause they cooked a type of meat here that I have never had called chorry it’s good and a hot dog but a lot bigger and looks like a sausage. Later that day in a lesson with a investigator while I was bearing testimony my comp says, we need to head home and I was like uhhh now and he says it cant wait so we depart. When we were in the next street some 2 miles aways my comp askes hows my stomach and iI say fine I had meat today so really good!  He says his is not good at all. He spent the rest of the day being very sick, but is better now.

Sunday 10/9/16

We had a great fast and testimony meeting and it was really fun we had a lot of visit with the members of the ward.  I tried to share a different scripture &  thought at each house but we had like 10 appointments and its hard to remember them all especially in Spanish.  All the elders in our area came over because I recently bought clippers and a razor for you head and I gave 6 haircuts to them haha it was super fun! 

Monday  10/10/16

We had some hermansa come to our zone meeting and taught us about the chapel open houses that we are going to start doing now.  We invite  a lot of people to come and have a tour of the chapel and me and my comp are assigned to be in the baptismal font area in white clothing.  We are to  talking about what goes on with the baptism.  I am super excited for this I believe our first is next week but they are still planing it. We watched the movie the testaments at one of our investigators house about the coming of Christ and we had such a strong spirit there everyone had wet eyes.   We also got another baptismal date.  It was so amazing I feel like my Spanish is significantly better when we can all feel the spirit it's like in TURBO mode.  

I love you all and am praying for you!

Elder Vance 

My comp & I at a ward members home.

 For your birthday mom...I love you and am thinking of you.  If you were here you would be saying,
" ONE MORE PICTURE!"  so I did for you.  Happy Birthday!

You are the best mom!

Week #15 ~Chicken & Potatoes!

Hola, Feliz Cupliaños Madre!!! 

Este es fantastico perro lo seinto por meo dia de prepration es hoy!

Monday

I was traveling to Bahia Blanca and talked to you a little about it then but, I had a super fun day there.  I was able to eat at McDonalds and I was never so happy to eat at such a fine establishment! haha It was so great! and they have a luxury side and all the Argentines love. The funny thing is it in English so they assume it’s luxury restaurant in America.  We played soccer all day and had a zone meeting in that area and it was a ton of fun! I was able to speak more Spanish then the other elders that came with me to Argentina.   Not a lot more but they did asked me questions like, what did he say or how would I get this and it was kind of awesome! 

Tuesday

We were living in a elders house in down town Bahia for a night and they were super cool I became really good friends with them and had a blast and for diner we went to a chino to buy food and these two guys got in to a fist fight with the cashier and tried to steal a whole bunch of things.  They ran away and pushed other chinos to the floor and it was crazy! I was just standing in the back of the line in shock looking at Elder Tranyhill whom I was on splits with and we were like, did that really just happen????  It was crazy but a good experience I guess, at least they didn’t want to rob us!

Wednesday 

I returned to Olivaria and got to travel on the super luxury bus!  Just kidding but it was the nicer then the bus to Bahia.  I laid on my ruck sack in the back of the bus and slept almost the whole way! It’s a little longer of a bus ride back because they stop in so many small city’s it was about 9ish hours to get back but thank heavens for the little travel book you sent with me.  I finished all of the wheres Waldo and read a lot of the scriptures in Spanish when I wasn't trying to sleep! I got home around 3am and waited for the other elders to come and pick me up so I could walk home to my house! It was so nice to get back to our house, I fell asleep faster then I think I have ever before!

Thursday 

We went tracting all day and made a few good contacts. We visited an old woman who is a member that lives a good distant from our house and she sells honey form her house and she gave us a huge tub about 2 kilos of honey! But then when she came to church she said she had something for us and after church she gave us another tub of honey! I think she forgot about the first time she gave us honey but now we just have a ton of honey at home and I have zero idea what to even do with it!  No Bread, no other for, just Eggs and Rice??? Any Ideas?

Friday

Our goal of the day was to invite 5 investigators or even just random people if we had to, to watch conference with us. So we called and tried to talk to so many people. We only got 4 investigators to come to all of the sessions but we got some people there! We walked to about a third of investigators houses and called the rest to see if they could come but we only had 5 people  home or answer the phone! It’s so crazy!

Saturday 

We went to go watch conference at the stake center! It was really fun the stake president brought his laptop and me and all the other yankees watched all the sessions in a class room in English. It was a great conference! I loved it here!

Since we have to be in our house at nine we had to leave before the priesthood session, but as soon as we got home and changed and started making a late diner president calls and says I forgot to tell your district but tonight you can stay out and watch the sessions. So me and my comp drop our stuff and change as fast as we could and then we are sprinting the mile and a half to try to catch the session! We only missed the first talk but we got back in time for the rest!

Sunday 

We had another great day we invited and had more people attend the conferences and we watched it again in english and it was great! I loved all the talks! I cant wait till they come out in Spanish in the Liahona so I can study them! I took as good of notes as I could but I am still excited! We then had our first meal with a member! It was so great! We had grilled chicken and potatoes! It was amazing! I am so glad for this rule change and I hope we get invited back to eat again!

Monday

We had a zone conference and were supposed to have a chapel open house this day thats why p day is today but it got moved to next week, because about 3 in the afternoon when the sisters in charge didn’t show up in when they were supposed to. We had investigators coming and we had to tell them to go home and come again next week.   I hope they come again! But it was good we talked with them for a good while out side the chapel! We have 5 extra elders staying at out house today and yesterday for this open house and it’s so much fun having all these elders living with us!

Happy Birth day mom! I love you sooo much and p days are my favorite cause that means I get to talk to you!!! 

Love Elder Vance

Hanging out in Bahia, waiting for my 9 hour bus ride home!

Eating REAL food!