Beloved friends, family, and other random people,
This week went well. It was nice to see the fam on the webcam, even
though it was a rather slow connection. My nieces and nephews are
getting huge!! Crazy. This week was the week of transfers... and I
have some crazy news.... Not. I'm still in Constitucion! Hahaha.
Surprise. Elder Ramey left though. He was made zone leader somewhere
else. My new comp's name is Elder Mohulamu. Yup. He is Tongan.
Hahaha. He is going to teach me how to speak Tongan. Haha.
Epicness. Love it. He seems to be a baller (right Josh??) and I am
looking forward to keep helping the ward here. President Gulbrandsen
called us last night to tell Elder Ramey he was leaving and he said
something like, "I know Elder Trayner has been there for 6 months, but
he is baptizing more than anyone else in the mission, so there is no
point in taking him out." It was a nice compliment and I think it is
a good thing to get a new comp to have some new blood and energy in
the area. I'm excited to make the best out of this transfer. I love
all you guys and hope you had a great Christmas and that you have a
happy new year! Oh. P.S. I got packages from Nana and Grandma
today!!! Thank you so much!!! It means a lot to me. I also received
a letter from Charity and from the ward. Tell them thank you if you
see them and that I love them and hope the best for them and their
families! Love you all!
Until next week
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
¡Feliz Navidad! The Baptisms of Milagros and Lautaro San José
¡Hola Todos!
¡Feliz Navidad! Err... Merry Christmas! Haha. Hope you all are
doing quite well this fine day and this fantastic week. This week I
have a very special update that I have forgotten to give every other
time before. Since I started the mission I have been keeping track of
how many red heads and how many nuns I have seen. This week I will
reveal the numbers and who is winning. And the results of this year-
24 red heads and 11 nuns!!! The red heads win!!! Haha. They
actually aren't too rare here because a lot of the people here are of
European decent and are white. As for the nuns, they were hanging in
there, but then it got hot and I've only seen one since then. Crazy.
Well, hope you all enjoyed that bit of randomness...
This past week we ended up having 2 baptisms in 2 baptismal services!
Milagros Povea (her name means miracles, it really was a miracle...)
and then we had to have another service right after for Lautaro San
José because he couldn't make it earlier. It was pretty crazy, and we
were really happy with all the support the ward gave us and those that
were baptized. Milagros was baptized by her husband Amaru and Lautaro
by his friend's dad, Abel. It was awesome. Milagros shared her
testimony and it was so powerful. She said how she had finally found
happiness in her life and in her family and how happy she was to
finally complete her family. It was awesome. It was also really good
with Lautaro and his Mom. His mom said she didn't really understand
why her son wanted to do it, but she said he was happy and so she
would support it. She came to the baptism and it looks like she
really felt the spirit and so we will have to follow up with that.
In other news, we had a zone conference yesterday and it was awesome.
We went to the mission home and they talked a lot about working with
members and it was really something that we feel we can put into
practice and get results. We also did a white elephant and I ended up
with a new tie. Bonus. Other bonuses of the week- we scheduled our
Christmas lunch with Hugo and Miriam Robledo and their family (love
it). And our other lunches are with other ballers in the ward, so we
are pretty pumped about our lunch situation this week. Other news-
transfers are next week, but President really really emphasized how
there aren't going to be changes this time so who knows, maybe I'll
just be in Constitucion my whole mission. Haha. Bonus. In other
random news... we get to do our Christmas phone call by Skype (web
cam) and so that ought to be somethin neat. Oh- We'll see if I can
get the pictures from the baptism uploaded but it's not looking like
it, cuz the computer is being dumb, but if I can I'll put them this
week, but if I don't, remind me next week. What else... I hear Nicole
is back?? Nuts, swear we both just left. Haha. Also... our
apartment is now at an average temperature of 84... suffering...
Haha. Oh well. As for this week's baptismal prospects- we have to
make sure Yarine Cordova really doesn't have a church record and then
we'll have just a private and small baptismal service because she
really is a member, but somehow her record is lost. But we are going
to make sure it really is lost first so we'll see if she gets baptized
again this week. Weird, right? Oh well, it's just like the
Sacrament, but more. Haha... I guess I didnt put what happened with
Maria and Katy. Dumb. So we prepared them really well for everything
and then they went to their interviews in the church on Thursday and
passed. So we're filling out the records and then they started saying
how they changed their mind and that they either wanted more time to
get to know the ward here (because they had gone to another ward
before) or they wanted to get baptized in that ward.... DUMB. We
couldn't resolve the doubt, and they wouldn't commit to coming to
church on Sunday, it was a disaster. But they did come to the baptism
(the whole family minus the brother) and thoroughly enjoyed them both.
So surely they will be baptized, but we'll see when.
Well that is all for this week! Looks like the pictures won't send so
I'll try to send them next week. I love you all very much and I hope
you all have a very merry Christmas! Do some good in the world!!
Haha. Eat enough casserole to cover me and looks like I'll see you
guys (the fam) on Christmas! Merry Christmas!
¡Feliz Navidad! Err... Merry Christmas! Haha. Hope you all are
doing quite well this fine day and this fantastic week. This week I
have a very special update that I have forgotten to give every other
time before. Since I started the mission I have been keeping track of
how many red heads and how many nuns I have seen. This week I will
reveal the numbers and who is winning. And the results of this year-
24 red heads and 11 nuns!!! The red heads win!!! Haha. They
actually aren't too rare here because a lot of the people here are of
European decent and are white. As for the nuns, they were hanging in
there, but then it got hot and I've only seen one since then. Crazy.
Well, hope you all enjoyed that bit of randomness...
This past week we ended up having 2 baptisms in 2 baptismal services!
Milagros Povea (her name means miracles, it really was a miracle...)
and then we had to have another service right after for Lautaro San
José because he couldn't make it earlier. It was pretty crazy, and we
were really happy with all the support the ward gave us and those that
were baptized. Milagros was baptized by her husband Amaru and Lautaro
by his friend's dad, Abel. It was awesome. Milagros shared her
testimony and it was so powerful. She said how she had finally found
happiness in her life and in her family and how happy she was to
finally complete her family. It was awesome. It was also really good
with Lautaro and his Mom. His mom said she didn't really understand
why her son wanted to do it, but she said he was happy and so she
would support it. She came to the baptism and it looks like she
really felt the spirit and so we will have to follow up with that.
In other news, we had a zone conference yesterday and it was awesome.
We went to the mission home and they talked a lot about working with
members and it was really something that we feel we can put into
practice and get results. We also did a white elephant and I ended up
with a new tie. Bonus. Other bonuses of the week- we scheduled our
Christmas lunch with Hugo and Miriam Robledo and their family (love
it). And our other lunches are with other ballers in the ward, so we
are pretty pumped about our lunch situation this week. Other news-
transfers are next week, but President really really emphasized how
there aren't going to be changes this time so who knows, maybe I'll
just be in Constitucion my whole mission. Haha. Bonus. In other
random news... we get to do our Christmas phone call by Skype (web
cam) and so that ought to be somethin neat. Oh- We'll see if I can
get the pictures from the baptism uploaded but it's not looking like
it, cuz the computer is being dumb, but if I can I'll put them this
week, but if I don't, remind me next week. What else... I hear Nicole
is back?? Nuts, swear we both just left. Haha. Also... our
apartment is now at an average temperature of 84... suffering...
Haha. Oh well. As for this week's baptismal prospects- we have to
make sure Yarine Cordova really doesn't have a church record and then
we'll have just a private and small baptismal service because she
really is a member, but somehow her record is lost. But we are going
to make sure it really is lost first so we'll see if she gets baptized
again this week. Weird, right? Oh well, it's just like the
Sacrament, but more. Haha... I guess I didnt put what happened with
Maria and Katy. Dumb. So we prepared them really well for everything
and then they went to their interviews in the church on Thursday and
passed. So we're filling out the records and then they started saying
how they changed their mind and that they either wanted more time to
get to know the ward here (because they had gone to another ward
before) or they wanted to get baptized in that ward.... DUMB. We
couldn't resolve the doubt, and they wouldn't commit to coming to
church on Sunday, it was a disaster. But they did come to the baptism
(the whole family minus the brother) and thoroughly enjoyed them both.
So surely they will be baptized, but we'll see when.
Well that is all for this week! Looks like the pictures won't send so
I'll try to send them next week. I love you all very much and I hope
you all have a very merry Christmas! Do some good in the world!!
Haha. Eat enough casserole to cover me and looks like I'll see you
guys (the fam) on Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Yet another update from Constitucion
Hola mis queridos amigos y hermanos y etc...
This week was a week that almost didn't turn out very well. Haha. We were really struggling until Saturday when we had an above average day and then yesterday (Sunday) we had an excellent day, although we had an average amount of investigators in church. Key events... we found a man named Ruben on Saturday and he came to church yesterday and said he had read and the only let down was that he hadn't prayed. He really enjoyed church and the best part is that he has a normal schedule. Haha. He is a really good guy and in the first lesson he even agreed to postpone his trip to Cordoba to be with his family a few days to be baptized, as long as he receives an answer before hand of course. Also Wendy and her mom Nelly came to church again, we are still trying to work with them so they can be baptized the end of the month too. Then... On Sunday we returned to a family that we visited last transfer one time because the daughter was going to another ward with her cousin, but they weren't ready to progress so we left them. The cousin ended up getting baptized a week ago and we heard the girl in our area went, so we went to visit them again. Turns out the twin sister starting going to church a few weeks ago at the other ward and likes it and that the mom went to her niece's baptism and loved it. So they were all really good and agreed to come to our church, but they said they are leaving this next weekend (of course...). The dad and the brother (21) are still a bit rough, but I know if they just do the things we tell them to do that they will be able to feel the same as the women in the family. Then we also visited Familia Cordova (remember? My first baptism??) and spoke with all the family. It was really good because the bishop and his wife were just leaving when we
arrived. The dad was a lot more acceptive this time and the mother got emotional and started crying talking about how her son recently left to Bolivia and how her husband has never participated, and it really helped him to see the importance of having the family united in
the church. He agreed to search out a solution with his store to be able to come to church, or at least rotate with his wife every other week (although we told him that kind of defeated the purpose...), but at least he is a lot more open now. The girls (the 4 that we baptized
and one older) are all doing really well and the older girl is an excellent influence and example in the family. We are excited to help them. We left him with the homework of reading a chapter in the BoM and praying. In other news, the dad of familia Povea (remember? We baptized little Raul and Nicole??) is progressing now and he is going to baptize his mom who lives in another ward next week!!! He is really excited and I think it will really help his wife (Milagros) to
open up and finally accept the invitation to be baptized. We'll see.
Hmmm... What else.... today we are going to play basketball with a bunch of ballers, the young men of the ward. Haha. First time I've played sports since the MTC, finally!!! We never do anything on p day. Haha. Anyways, should be fun.... welp... not much else to say... Haha. I love you all! Hope you're doing well and gettin all decked out for Christmas, the people here don't do much it looks like... at least so far. Love!
This week was a week that almost didn't turn out very well. Haha. We were really struggling until Saturday when we had an above average day and then yesterday (Sunday) we had an excellent day, although we had an average amount of investigators in church. Key events... we found a man named Ruben on Saturday and he came to church yesterday and said he had read and the only let down was that he hadn't prayed. He really enjoyed church and the best part is that he has a normal schedule. Haha. He is a really good guy and in the first lesson he even agreed to postpone his trip to Cordoba to be with his family a few days to be baptized, as long as he receives an answer before hand of course. Also Wendy and her mom Nelly came to church again, we are still trying to work with them so they can be baptized the end of the month too. Then... On Sunday we returned to a family that we visited last transfer one time because the daughter was going to another ward with her cousin, but they weren't ready to progress so we left them. The cousin ended up getting baptized a week ago and we heard the girl in our area went, so we went to visit them again. Turns out the twin sister starting going to church a few weeks ago at the other ward and likes it and that the mom went to her niece's baptism and loved it. So they were all really good and agreed to come to our church, but they said they are leaving this next weekend (of course...). The dad and the brother (21) are still a bit rough, but I know if they just do the things we tell them to do that they will be able to feel the same as the women in the family. Then we also visited Familia Cordova (remember? My first baptism??) and spoke with all the family. It was really good because the bishop and his wife were just leaving when we
arrived. The dad was a lot more acceptive this time and the mother got emotional and started crying talking about how her son recently left to Bolivia and how her husband has never participated, and it really helped him to see the importance of having the family united in
the church. He agreed to search out a solution with his store to be able to come to church, or at least rotate with his wife every other week (although we told him that kind of defeated the purpose...), but at least he is a lot more open now. The girls (the 4 that we baptized
and one older) are all doing really well and the older girl is an excellent influence and example in the family. We are excited to help them. We left him with the homework of reading a chapter in the BoM and praying. In other news, the dad of familia Povea (remember? We baptized little Raul and Nicole??) is progressing now and he is going to baptize his mom who lives in another ward next week!!! He is really excited and I think it will really help his wife (Milagros) to
open up and finally accept the invitation to be baptized. We'll see.
Hmmm... What else.... today we are going to play basketball with a bunch of ballers, the young men of the ward. Haha. First time I've played sports since the MTC, finally!!! We never do anything on p day. Haha. Anyways, should be fun.... welp... not much else to say... Haha. I love you all! Hope you're doing well and gettin all decked out for Christmas, the people here don't do much it looks like... at least so far. Love!
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