Week #51 ~LOVE getting letters!

Hi Everyone,

Life is good, companion is rough, weather is cold.

It is really getting cold here today, we have a high of 5 degrees.  I am so looking forward to Elder Bragg.  He is going to come next Thursday and speak to all the missionaries in our area.  The great thing is, I am close and do not have to travel to far to hear him.  I am so excited!

My comp and I are working on compromise, just to get him to work and not be rude to investigators.  That seems to be his expertise.  It is aweful!  I am staying strong and positive and will be fine.  I look  forward to having p-day and zone meetings so I can  get together with other elders and have some happiness and laughter.  There are so many awesome elders out here for the right reason!  It is an awesome army of missionaries here to share the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It truly is the plan of Happiness.  I am blessed to be able to serve my Heavenly Father.

Thank you for all your kind letters and support.  I look forward to them and draw strength from the letters from everyone.  Please keep them coming!

Love Elder Vance

A mall of sorts near us.  But never the less a store!

Week #50 ~COLD!

Hello Family,

This week was full of cold and colder! We have been playing a hopping game from house to house from heater to heater! I am all bundled up trying to stay warm! We had a zone meeting this week and interviews and some super great lessons. We have a lot of investigators but a lot are not completing their goals like reading or praying.   They are not going to church, so we have started what we call lessons of fire it sounds cooler in Spanish. It’s when we have a lesson and I wouldn’t say getting mad at them but getting more stern and telling them that they have to make the leap of faith to complete the commitments.  That’s what we have been doing this week!  We had some hard lessons but they all seem to be yielding fruits! We had a lot promise to come to church and to start praying which is a start! We will see how it goes next week, we are having a lot of fun here I am starting to become friends with my comp after we had a good long talk.  After he tried to be the big tough guy. We decided to arm wrestle when there is argument or a decision to be made.  I now have a 100 percent deciding power haha!!!   We are doing great and loving life down here in the cold, love you guys.

Love Elder Vance

Week #49 ~Keeping my head up & working hard!

Hello family,

So, this week has gone fast and very furious.  I had transfers and I got a new comp named Elder T and he is from Peru.  He is infamous in the mission for being the missionary everyone DOES NOT WANT!  He does not want to serve and doesn’t not want to abide by ANY rules!  He is serving because he is getting paid and living better than at home in Peru.  So, he is on a vacation, getting paid.  So far this week we have had 2 investigators who he completely offended and yelled at one for not giving him what he wanted.  They both asked us to not come back.  It saddens my heart tremendously.  We are supposed to be an ambassador of Jesus.  Instead, it is a huge struggle for me.

I am still in the same area and I love this area the people are so great.  I had some great lessons and new investigators this weeks.  It looks as if we might enjoy some fruits of our labors week.  We will wait and see. This week we had a great lesson with an investigator that’s living with a member.  She is very interested in life after death, as most people are inclined to be. It’s great because we have the answers. I am so pleased to be able to talk with him about that!  We also are teaching a young boy named Juan.  He is fantastic, he is interested in improving his life and becoming a man, as he says.  I can think of no better way than through the church!

It’s getting very cold here just dropped below 0 this week. It’s cold but I am surviving and learning how to love.   I hope everything at home is as well as my love is for the people of Argentina.   

Love you all,

Elder Vance

Week #48 ~I am turning into a softy!

Hola Familia! Come estan!

I am doing great! First things first we had traslados, and I am staying but my comp is going! JAJA!  

This is a great thing! I am very excited!

This week was very rainy and very cold this week was very slow.   Sadly, nothing of a lot of importance.  This we had a family night with some of our investigators. We watched Ephraim’s Rescue and it is a super great movie! I highly recommend everyone to watch it, we watched with a less active member named Eduardo he is the one with the American flag! He has 4 roommates all are investigators but are progressing slowly.   They all watched the movie with us and I must say… I have become a softy in my mission. I felt like I almost cried varies times during that movie. I thought the movie was a was not an emotionally charged movie but on the contrary, it’s quite heart filled. 

We had some great lesson with a references from an open chapel of the other elders! The best part is he had the first two lessons and just moved to our area.  He is still interested!   We are going to meet him tonight and I am very excited for him. He is a young guy and lives with his mom and he has a lot of great questions.

-Love Elder Vance