Gran Mission Buenos Aires Norte

¡¡Hola Todos!!

How are all of you doing? It sounds like you are all doing well. I hope everyone is well, I didn´t get letters from all, but I understand you are all busy and I can especially understand for if Nate and Josh don´t write because I wrote them like 2x their whole missions. Hahaha. Anyways. I guess this week was interesting. I´ll say a little bit about me first and then about our investigators and then who knows what.

So... Right now I am in the middle of capital (Buenos Aires) right next to the obelisk and world´s widest avenue. Haha. This area is in our zone so we can come on P Days. We went to a pizza libre (unlimited pizza). It was only 18 pesos (4 pesos = 1 dollar, $4.50) for unlimited pizza, salad, empanadas (my favorite), and I dunno. Something else that I didn´t eat. It was pretty good. The pizza here is great. Empanadas from The Empanatta (delivery!!) are the best. Haha. But I can´t use my personal funds for like a year because I have to have a Argentine I.D. which takes like a year. Haha. Ridiculous. I found out that Constitución borders the South Mission. Who knows, perhaps I am within 10 miles of Jordan Allen. haha. Anyways. Sunday went pretty well. We had 7 investigators in the capilla (chapel) so that was decent. Uh... great part was after church we went to the house of the Bishop and his wife made us canelones, and then some delicious postre (dessert) which was some kind of pudding cake deliciousness, and then to my great surprise the most delicious flan I´ve ever had! Haha. It was awesome. Loved it. Uh what else about me... I guess I´ll throw out some more stuff about the area. Constitución is apparently one of the. . . most interesting places in Buenos Aires. Haha. There is definitely a lot of. . . weird stuff in Constitución, but we are finding the people that the Lord has prepared for us. It is great. There is a great big train station out in front of our apartment (i sent a picture last time). It is so weird. I can´t help but wonder why they spent so much on trying to look Romanesque here when all of it is decaying and it would have been better spent making the structures more sound, but oh well. It is interesting I guess. Uh... What else. Lots of spaghetti and some rice. Oh! I started eating tomatoes. They´re actually pretty good on the pizzas here. Haha. I still don´t like olives (sorry Maddie), but yeah. It is good here and I´m getting used to it. It is hard for me to learn the area because it all looks the same. Haha. Eventually I´ll get it. Anyways. Not as much meat as I thought. Just from streetside stores. We buy them like once a week. They call it Choripan. Just like a brat in a french bread bun. Pretty good and mostly everything here is pretty cheap if you think about it in US dollars. Anyways, enough about me and the area... Haha.

Investigators. Familia Cordoba is still doing really well. It is hard because their father left and so we have to bring a male member over 18 everytime and that is hard because our ward is really small. Because of this they brought a friend over last night. He is 19 and it went really well with him so we are going to continue teaching him. He seems really receptive. We´ll see. Anyways their Baptism is the 14th and we´re hoping to add another family that day, but we haven´t confirmed the date yet. The family is a father (member who was less active for a long time, named Amaru) and his wife (we´re not really sure if they are really married...) and their daughter. We´re hoping to definitely baptize the daughter soon and hopefully the wife, but we have to find out if they´re married for real soon. Anyways, familia Cordoba is the only super solid date we have but we have been teaching a family who is muy bueno. Oscar y Mierta and their 4 children (3 over 8 I think). This week Mierta and the children came for the 1st time and it was awesome. It was too bad Oscar didn´t want to get up in the morning. Anyways. Hopefully he´ll come next week. I have faith that they will all end up baptized soon. However, we also need to find out if they are married or not soon. That is the biggest problem down here. They all say they´re husband and wife, but they´re not really married. Haha. Nobody is married. Anyways, it is good to see how they´re chaning through the Gospel. At the beginning Oscar didn´t want anything to do with religion, but he is the one who answers most of the questions and things. Capo (the man). They´re all feeling really good about the Gospel. Anyways... other experiences this week. We had investigators with doubts because they watched a Discovery channel show about polygamy or something, but we just responded by asking how they felt while they were watching that compared to how they feel when they´re with us or in the capilla and we told them the only way we can know the truth is through prayer and el Espiritu Santo. They were more settled and by last night they were feeling a lot better. It was unfortunate that they didn´t attend church yesterday though. They´ve been doing pretty well (except the husband... he is hard to get to do anything... haha.....) Oh. Also. We have Vidal and Paulina. They´re so awesome. Paulina is only 18 and has a 1 year old child from a past relationship, but she has been with Vidal for a long time now and so we finally got them to commit to get married and they were about to start on the papers when now suddenly they decide they are going to move because they don´t have very much money and it is expensive to live in Capital. Paulina thinks she is leaving with the little one (Michael) to Paraguay I think and Vidal is thinking about moving to Province (outside the City). It is a tough situation. We hope that whatever happens they continue in their quest to be baptized. They also didn´t come to church yesterday because he went looking for a home or apt. outside the city. It was really unfortunate because we have had so many great experiences with them. They even just bought new clothes the other week for church and everything. Hopefully Vidal will stay in Constitución so that he can be baptized really soon. Anyways. I hope you like reading about what is going on here. They are truly great people and we can see how much the Lord has prepared them for us. It is so hard to get people to change, but it is amazing to see the happiness that enters into their lives through the Gospel. Vidal and Paulina after the week of transfers and craziness told us that they were kind of upset because we hadn´t come by the whole week and that they felt something was missing from their lives. It´s true and I hope they realize how much the need the Gospel.

Anyways. Enough of this typing business. I love all of you back home and I´ve been a little homesick (as much as a man of my great stature can be...) but I know I´m in the right place. It is awesome here and I know it is where the Lord wants me. It is funny to think about how different experiences I am having from my roommates at school. Me in a huge city, Benji in Africa, Tyler in Provo, Colby in Bulgaria (hopefully... he got sent to Washington in the mean time last I heard...). But I know where we were sent is where we belong. I can´t wait til I see you all again and I miss you all a ton, but this is where the Lord wants me and I was so happy when I saw 7 people in the Capilla and a bunch of other people that have been inactive forever that we were able to visit during the week. It is nice to know I¨m making a difference and I hope we can get another solid commit to Baptism soon. I know that the only way to truly achieve happiness in this life is through the Gospel and through our Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to be able to pay two years back for his life that he laid down for me. It wasn´t only his death. He had to be perfect his whole life, even through His temptations and He couldn´t afford to forget His purpose. Neither can we forget our purpose, and that includes me as a missionary. I hope you are all doing well. In fact, I hope you all are above average. Haha. Thanks for reading this extended edition of the life of Elder Trayner. Love you all! More photos attached! Enjoy Constitución and downtown BA!