Week #27 ~Christmas & Family!

Hola Familia! 

It was so great to talk with you yesterday, Christmas Day!!! 

I loved it so much, by far the best christmas I have ever had!  Apparently it takes a trip to Argentina to realize how important family is to you!!  Thank you for all you do for me. I know I talked a lot to you yesterday, but here is a brief week in review…

Monday

We had a great p-day and we spent all day visiting families in our ward. We tried to share a short message about the Navidad and about the three wisemen following the star.  We taught about how we can follow the Holy Ghost as the star in our life and how it always leads us back to the Savior. We tried to be as fun and very cheerful as possible because Argentines don’t really care to much for the Christmas holiday.  

Tuesday

We had a zone meeting and it was super great. We practiced talking about Christmas messages since it was Christmas week!  We were just ahead of the game. Then we had a lunch with a family in our ward and it was really great especially to tryout our new christmas message.  Then we talked with a new investigator and the lesson went really great. We have another meeting with him later in the week and he also came to church!

Wednesday 

We had a great morning, my comp and I spent a good part of the morning trying to send a package to his twin brother in Mendosa, Argentina.   I colored him a picture of the free crayons while we waited in line! haha  After that we went out to contact in a new area and to share our newly perfected lesson of Christmas.  We didn’t have to much success in this new area but we tried our best.  Then we just kept trying to contact all the streets till it was time to go home.

Thursday 

Unexpectedly, I got my Christmas package!!!  WhoooooHoooo!!  It arrived just in time before Christmas!  The package from home was in the mission home and the only way to get it to me was to purchase a bus ticket for the package.  So the package happened to show up at the bus station late in the day and I was there to receive it.  To my surprise the package came in a big red Santa sack!  So cool!  However, it was so scary caring this big red Santa sack home from the bus station, it is a long walk, and several people asked for “gifts form papa noel!”  I just kept walking quickly home and finally made it safely to the apartment.  Earlier in the day we went Christmas caroling at a retirement home and shared scriptures and our Christmas message with the elderly people.  It was super great and they all loved to have someone want to talk with them! We sang and during every song one woman would shouted “hallelujah" it was great!  I think she thought we were from another church but that was ok! They had an enjoyable time with a Christmas message.

Friday

We had to go clean the baptismal font really early cause it takes so long to drain.  Then we went over to help and eat with the family that is having the baptism.  It was so fun, they were all so excited.  Then after we all went over and got ready and so many member showed up to support the baptism, it was super great and we had an amazing time.  

Saturday Christmas Eve

My comp got really sick so we stayed home.  I read all day and he slept all day.  I read a lot, then ate, then worked out to curb the boredom, and repeated this cycle about five times… but it wasn’t too bad.  After all, my comp and I opened our Christmas Eve traditional gift and true to form Mom sent both of us new Christmas PJ’s to wear!  We both loved them and took pictures of us sporting our new PJ’s.  

Sunday Christmas Day! 

Best day ever!!!  I got to Skype my family and it was awesome!!  You already know all about that!  What a great day to be a missionary and represent our Savior to share his love and message to all.  It was a great day.  

-Love Elder Vance

Week #26 ~Mission...25% complete!

Hello My Family,

Life is good and hot.  Today it will reach 100 degrees.  I am sweating like crazy, but I did find a big tub of sunblock and bought it.  It will help me from getting burnt. I thought at this time of the year I would be a little home sick for Christmas, don't get me wrong, I miss you all.  But it helps that no one is really celebrating Christmas here.  The temps are hot and people just do not consider this a season for celebration.  Life here is as usual.  So it makes it a bit easier not to be thinking about it all day long.  I do miss you and cannot wait to Skype with you on Christmas Day!  Here is my week in review for your viewing pleasure.  

Monday 

We had a good Monday, we visited members and got to spread a lot of illlumielmundo or illuminate the world pass along cards.  We gave to friends and non-members it was great.   We are only sharing scriptures and stories about the christmas time and it’s kind of really awesome to only talk and think about the birth of the Savior all day. Then we get to watch countless videos about him then once again try to share the story of Him to everyone. It's a truly special job and I feel like I am on top of the world because all that consumes my mind this week is el nacer de Cristo and I love it!

Tuesday 

We had some great new contacts on Tuesday.  We contacted a man and he asked us to come inside and to hear our message. We went in to his house and there was 5 beds in his front room and each had a mother and little kids on every single one.  Come to find out they all live together with 6 families in a 2 bedroom house.   It was super crazy but, it turned from a discussion to a sermon on the mount really fast.  We just preaching to like 12  individuals and it was crazy. We then in the night decided to pass for a menos activo that hasn't been to church in 36 years.  We had tried 5 previous times and he wasn't home or nobody answered.  This time he was there and he told us he was having a really hard time in his life and he didn't know what he was missing.  He told us that when we came he felt a little better when we stared talking about the birth of Jesus and we invited him to come to church and he came! He came about 5 minutes late but he came and sat right next to us and went to all of the classes!

Wednesday 

We contacted most of Wednesday and we meet some potential leads and we ate with a family for lunch then in the night we went contacting some more! Haha, we also meet a man whom was an old investigator and just decided he wanted to talk with the missionaries again so thats really good!

Thursday

Thursday we had our weekly zone meeting and it was fun, the elders de bolivar came and stayed with us then after the meeting.  We did splits and I went with Elder Calixto and we went to visit members and the contact until night then when we got home. Calixto taught me how to make Peruvian food and we had some type of stir fry for dinner and it was super good! It was like the meet of a chicken that nobody wants and lots of soy sauce haha but I liked it.

Thursday we all got up super early and headed to the capilla of the hermans and got on a van that took us to tres arosos and to our christmas party! haha it was super fun! We did some type of scavenger hunt part of the hunt was to sing hymns to people in the streets, draw the plan of salvation on the plaza, give apples to policia  and then give out 5 pamphlets to women.   We also helps by preforming service. haha.   Then we watched Ephriums Rescue decorated cookies and the buscando a dory, then the winners of the games got to pick presents for the houses and since we WON first we got a new pot with soy sauce and rice!  It was sweet! It’s going to revolutionize how we cook! Then we all took photos and then came home!

Friday

We had service with a man in our ward and we did more cement work for him in his back yard we once again tour up the old concrete and laid a new pad right where it was. it took a good part of our day then we walked home and passed by for our contacts we made earlier in the week and it was really fun to stop by and visit them again, 

Saturday

We had a normal day of contacting in the morning and the visiting our investigators at night, it was hard to work this day because it is a day where they all don’t answer there doors.  This is because answering the door is considered work. This is because it’s a day to think of the virgin Mary which is a great idea but not when you try to go teach about the story of her, so ironic ehhh! 

Sunday

We had a great Sunday, we had investagoators come to church and the menos activo and it was great! The topic was about missionary service, so thats all ways a good week! We ate with a family and his friend that is not a member came over to eat with us. We have a cita with him tomorrow and I am excited to talk to him he has come to church with his friend for the past 5 weeks consistently, so I am super pumped for that! 

Cannot wait for Christmas Skype with my Family!  

Love you,

Elder Vance

My Mission President

week #25 ~Working ALL hours of the day...

Hola Familia! 

Este semana fue fantástico tenemos mucho lesiones y nuestro meta es 5 mas fechas bautismal.

Monday

We had a great p-day last week and we had a few citas (appointments) en the night we visited once family that was a recent convert and his mother and grandmother are not members. But they came to our open chapel but the coolest part is the grandmother can’t walk and we have never ever seen her leave her wheel chair that she has been in the whole time we have been here.   She said she wanted to go to our open house, so her daughter took her.  It was so amazing getting to teach them about baptism in all white cloths in front of the font. They had a list of questions about baptism and we spent the whole time there talking about their concerns and what they need to do to prepare and it was so amazing! I just don’t know how we would baptize such fragile old woman! She can’t stand on her on but I suppose the lord will provide a way! On top of it all I got a call from one of my best cousins in the world elder Kofford, he called that night to make sure I was doing ok! 

Tuesday 

These next few days all started out really early, we had to go to the terminal for the other elders coming through and coming to our area and we had to babysit them and say goodbye to leaving and coming elders and hermanas. We started at 1 in the morning and had to be there until 4. A good chunk of time away from bed! Elder pitcher, one of my good friends in my zone, got transferred which is sad and 2 other hermanas got transferred. After we left and returned to bed we had a few lesson today mostly pass-by’s for contacts we previously made and then we got a call that they hermanas left some supplies for open chapel’s. We had to go get it! The one thing they needed most was a big banner that we had bolted to our building but we only had my Leatherman that I brought with me. We had about an hour till there bus was leaving! Haha, so we had one elder stand on my shoulders and using my little tool for almost a whole hour try to unbolt a sign and some guy passed and asked if we were stealing it! Haha, not a very good look for elders stealing a big sign with Jesus on it! haha 

Wednesday

This  was a really slow day, we tried to pass-by for more contacts and with little to no success, it was really discouraging. And then we had a member that is about our age come with us to go meet some of our investigators that are also similar ages! When we got there all three houses we wanted to visit weren’t home. And then we went to go to the ward meeting that night and about 30 min after they called to tell us it’s canceled. So Wednesday was simple not our day.

Thursday

We had to go on split at 3 in the morning cause the zone leader needed to go to Bahia and not his comp so we once again went to the terminal and picked him up. Then went home and proceeded to do service for the day, which was cutting a field of grass just like last week previous then we went to go visit some of our investigators and contacts.For dinner that night we had hot dogs on pizza bread with tomato sauce! Hahaha! We are chief extraordinaire.

Friday

We had lessons with our investigators that want to get baptized and it went well, she had some doubts and worried about if she was getting in to a church to fast which is very understandable and so we addressed these issues.  After that we visited another boy that we invited to be baptized Saturday but he just graduated from school and apparently after you are done with school you decide to question everything. Which is good I suppose but the funny thing is he didn’t question anything about the church he only questioned about the earth being round! Yeah crazy, so after a quick science lesson he felt a little better and then we departed.

Saturday

We had divisions and I spent the day in another area and it was really fun. We walked all over the place and we had some lesson with there investigators and we had an Asada at one of the member houses and it was super good! Then we walked all they way from the opposites side of their area to ours to switch.  It was like I was on a backpacking trip with how much we walk out here everyday! 

Sunday 

We had a good Sunday. We had lots of good lessons and watched some videos from the church, which got translated recently so the ward was super excited to finally see a new video! Haha! But it was good we ate with a member and then we visited one of our investigators in the night and it went really well he asked about how God can talk to us and how he can help us through prayer.

Love you all,

Elder Vance

Week #24 ~Azul Adventure...

Hola familia,

This week was transfers, but I am staying one more transfer in Ollivariia! Yeah! Life is good for us in Argentina.  Cannot wait until Christmas to talk to you.  Thank everyone for the emails, they really make my day & week.  I am really enjoying the small bags with Christmas count down that you sent,  it makes everyday fun!  I am happy and healthy and know that the Gospel is true.  I am learning so much here, about myself and about my Father in Heaven.  It is a blessing to be able to serve here in Argentina!  Here is my week in review.

Monday

We had a little Thanksgiving as a zone and it was super fun! We (kind of) had food similar to Thanksgiving! It was fun, we had some other elders staying at our house and so we did splits with them that day! We talked to a lot of investigator this day and one want to come see our baptism this week. He was wondering what it’s like! He is really cool and just graduated high school and he is about our age and we have been meeting with him for a while. 

Tuesday

We had our last zone meeting with the current zone. After we all signed each other books kind of like the end of a school year books. I think it is kind of weird, but fun. It took awhile because everyone was writing like a page in each others books.   After that we had a meal with some members, and did splits and visited menos activos and members. It was really fun, it got cold this night because it was so over cast.  It was a great blessing from the crazy heat!   We have been seeing temperatures in the mid to high 90’s.  Not even full summer yet!

Wednesday

Today it was really raining so we had a difficult time going out, but we made some visits and some contacts.  I got the privilege of calling my dearly beloved cousin in Buenos Aires and we talked for about 10 min! It was so great to talk to Elder Kofford!  He is doing great and counting down his mission in Argentina.  After that in the evening we had to go prep our chapel for this Fridays chapel open house.   This is the day where the ward comes helps us  prepare for the open house, so I guess it was a prep for the prep.

Thursday

We went to Azul this day to interview the hermanas investigator for baptism. It was really fun… except the bus didn’t come to take us home at the time we needed.   Then on top of that I did not have my Argentina ID, I had some how forgotten it.  IMAGINE THAT MOM?!?!   So they didn’t want to sell me a bus ticket and it was very scary!  Luckily an old member was a few people behind us and he knew the bus driver .  He talked on our behalf and he allowed us to just pay the bus driver directly to get a ticket to ride, it was a super great blessing! He just asked us in return if we would go check on his mother for him cause she lives near us… we are going to do that today! hahah

Friday

We spent most of our day in the chapel cleaning it and prepping all the rooms for our open house. We had to move all the furniture at least 4 times until the hermanas where happy, haha!!!   It was good, we cleaned every corner and space and we hung new pictures.  It looked super great when we were done and lots of member and menos activo (less actives) came to help support and assist in the prepping of that chapel.  

Saturday

We had the open chapel we had 5 investigators come! It was great we were in the baptismal font room.  We talked about the importance of baptism and it went amazingly!   They all asked questions and it was great, we even had some contacts that we meet in the street come by.  It was a great day. We had all the elders and hermanas in our city come and help and be part.  It was good to talk and get to see them all again!

Sunday 

Fast Sunday! It was really great we had some investigators come to church.  I have no way to describe the joy this little thing brings missionaries, only other elders and past elders will understand this simple joy, it was great!  We didn’t have lunch this day, we were given stuff for hamburgers from our bishop the day before.   I had some pineapples, so we grilled up some mean hamburgers with grilled pineapples.   We didn’t have any bread so my comp and I tried to improvise and cook some, but we also didn’t have flour.  So he thought… blend up some rice and thats like the same thing,RIGHT??    Let me tell you it’s not close to the same thing as flour.  We ate meat and that was great!  

Love you all,

Elder Vance