I'm hungry right now...

Hey everyone, I'm pretty hungry this morning and it is pretty cold outside. Plus it is raining. Haha. Anyways, I received many excellent emails this past week, thank you all for writing me and keeping me in mind. Oh a couple things I forgot to put in the emails to people... mom or dad, is it possible to send tobasco sauce or some type of delicious spicyness??? If so please do, along with CDs of music and talks or whatever, I need new things to listen to. haha. I am still waiting the Jennie Oaks Baker CD since I left the MTC... Hahaha. Anyways, a few weeks ago I bought boots and they are warm and water proof. This week I need to buy a belt and new socks and new basketball shorts. Just so you know what I am buying. Haha. Welp, this past week was most excellent. We were able to do some pretty crazy things and we are really excited for our future prospects. We ended up teaching all of the lessons this past week with member. A feat I've never heard of. Haha. We taught 22 lessons all with a member present in the lesson. Unfortunately Monica decided not to be baptized last week, but we put a new baptismal date with her for next month. In total we now have 6 baptismal dates and we had 7 investigators in church on Sunday! Woo hoo! We are still trying to boost the attendance of the members, but we didn't have much luck with the long weekend and everyone going camping. We had an attendance of about 65. We are working a lot with a family called the Ahumada family. They are 2 young parents named Miguel and Natalia that we found the other week from an old record that was buried away. Anyways, they are progressing A LOT. They heard the missionaries before like 4 years ago and the last time they had contact was a 1.5-2 years ago. They have 4 little children, but unfortunately they aren't married (who is married here??). They went to church and are starting to do some paperwork to get their birth certificates to be able to get married. Miguel knows that the church is true, but it is taking Natalia a little bit more time, but she is reading and praying every day. Spectacular. Miguel even offered to sleep at a members house and live the law of chastity so that he could get baptized this week, but he realized that isn't the best option and so we are working on the papers with them. We are also working a lot with the Ochoa familiy. Also former investigators with about the same time periods. Unfortunately Miriam (the mom) ¨wasn't feeling well¨ so they didn't go on Sunday, but they (Ricardo, Miriam, and their 8 year old daughter) have a baptismal date for next month as well. We're going to keep working hard with them so they can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon because in the 1st lesson (I was on splits with a member) I asked (as we were introducing the Book of Mormon and what they have to know if it is true- read, ponder, and pray) if they had prayed if it was true and they said, Honestly, no, I have never prayed about it, and she said the same. So I bore testimony about how I received an answer and how I knew they could receive an answer too and they accepted the challenge. Unfortunately they didn't read either, but they are committed to read before Thursday. They are a really good family. Anyways, those are the baptismal dates that we have now. It made me so happy to see the Ahumada family together in church on Sunday. It is hard to keep the faith when everything is going wrong, but that's what the faith is- keeping your head up and trusting in God even when we do everything right and receive everything wrong. I believe that next month will be an excellent month here in Austral, hopefully I'm still here to see it (there are transfers next Sunday), but I'm pretty sure I will because we just started doing really well and I am training. We'll see what the Lord wants. Anyways, I love you all. Thank you so much for all your love and your letters of support. Keep reading the Book of Mormon and you won't stray from the strait and narrow. Holler at me next week! Keep it real! P.S... I can't remember if I didn't send a general letter of if something went wrong... hahaha... sorry! Love you all!

It's snowing here...

Hello family, friends, and acquaintances, Today it is snowing quite a bit in Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Probably going to have to buy more ski socks... haha. Anyways, not much is happening. We have one investigator that is progressing pretty well. Her name is Monica. She went to church for the 3rd time yesterday. The only thing is that she came to Rio Grande 3 weeks ago to start dating an active single member and so she kind of feels pressured to get married and baptized. Haha. All of our other investigators are slower... it's been pretty tough, I don't know what the difference is between how I was working in Buenos Aires and how I am working here, because their must be a difference. Anyways, hopefully we start seeing the fruits of our labors soon. This past week we had zone conference in Ushuaia with their zone too. It went really well and the picture with the mountains is in Ushuaia, the other is the 2 zones together and the last one is our front yard through the window here in Austral this morning with the snow. Anyways, I've been pretty frustrated lately, but I just gotta keep working and eventually we'll see the results. Elder Mateos is doing really well. He is a really good missionary, but he is one of the hardest people I've ever known to get up in the morning... if anyone has any ideas let me know. Haha. That's pretty much it for me here... Nana and Forrest! You'll have to share your experiences with me next week! Congratulations Forrest! I'm so happy for the decision you have made. Also, happy birthday josh (again). Well. Love you all. How's your reading in the scriptures going? Hit me up with some questions next week. Love!

Coldness in the toes of the earth

Hey everyone, Tis I, your beloved child, brother, broskie, lover, and missionary, Elder Trayner. This week was relatively boring, although I did enjoy the general conference thouroughly. My favorite talk was by Elder Robinson about being and doing. Helped me realize a few things I can do to become a better person or being and also how to more effectively help others here in argentina become better people, and more like their Savior and Father in Heaven. Anyways, we had a pretty decent family home evening for the branch on Friday where we watched finding faith in Christ, listened to a few testimonies, and then ate some pizza and stuff. It was a pretty good activity. Hopefully we can keep doing them and getting better attendance each time. Anyways, it continues getting colder, and this past week was freezing.... umm... what else... not many of our investigators made it to the conference, which was super lame, but surely they'll go next week and that we'll be able to find a lot of new investigators this week. Hmm... I don't have much else to say. That is so awesome that Forrest is going to be baptized! Epic. Well.. we keep working hard here and we're hoping to see the results soon, just gotta keep our head up and try to get everyone to feel the love of Savior here, because if they don't feel that, the members are never going to do anything and people could get baptized, but they would just end up like all the converts from the past 2 years- inactive. Out of like 30ish converts in the past 2 years only 3 are active. It's horrible, but a bunch moved too. We're doing our best to get them back and get them over their offense or their laziness or whatever it is that is preventing them from going. Hopefully we'll also be able to have a baptism soon. Surely the Lord will help us do a miracle here if we keep working diligently with faith. Anyways, I love you all and hope you are all doing well. I testify to you that the true happiness is not in the world, but is in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Follow what He has shown and taught and you will find peace in your life. Love you guys. Until next week.