The Baptisms of Gaston and Nicole!!

Hello everyone,

Another fantastic week goes by here in Constituciòn, hopefully this
week isn`t the last because there are transfers next week. We'll see
what happens, everyone is telling me that I'm gonna leave. Haha.
Anyways, this week we had 2 baptisms, but I forgot my camera so
hopefully I remember next week. We had the baptism of Gaston Miranda
(the 9 year old stud who recently moved here) and the baptism of
Nicole Caimi (the 81 year old woman). Everything went really well and
we had good participation from the ward. We are hoping for the
baptism of at least the dad of Flia. Medrano, the others are being
frustrating and the dad ended up coming to our ward alone yesterday.
Annoying.... It's been getting harder to trust people when they say
they are going to do something. Anyways, that's the news here for
this week. Hopefully I don't get transferred next week, but we'll see
what happens.

Back at home I hear Bailey almost died!! That's horrible, but we
can't lie, the dog is a fighter. Thank goodness she should be ok.
Well... not much else this week. Let me know if there is anything you
want to know! Love you guys! Keep safe!!

The Baptism of Yarine Cordova

Hola todos,

Hey so I didn't remember if I ever sent the pictures from the baptism
of Herminia so I sent one of those too. Anyways, everything went well
with the baptism of Yarine (shah ree nay). She ended up asking me to
baptize and confirm her and it was a smaller service, but it was kind
of sad too because it was like the farewell for the bishop's family
who were good friends with all of us. Anyways, we are excited to work
with the new bishopric and they are all really dedicated and willing
to work hard, so we are really excited. They even called a ward
mission leader!!!! Hahaha. Epic. A young man named Gonzalo just
started his mission papers and he was just called on Sunday. We are
excited, especially me because I've never had one. Haha. The stake
is also really excited and just implemented a new plan. If the wards
cooperate and do what they ask, I think there will be a lot more
success this year. It's just kinda tough to get everyone to work
together and to commit. Oh well.

Anyways, this week we have 2 baptisms. Nicole Caimi, an 81 year old
lady who lived in the U.S. and Venezuela and has lots of interesting
stories, and Gaston Miranda, a 9 year old stud that recently moved
into the ward whose dad is pretty inactive (but he came to church
yesterday!!!). Love it.

Did I tell you guys about the girl that walked into the church last
Monday morning? Anyways... On pday last week we went to play bball in
the morning (which we never do) and it just so happened the a 18 year
old girl was just inside the door talking to a member of our ward and
saying how she had a mormon buddy in Mexico and how she was really
interested. Yup. Her name is Rosio and she came to church on
yesterday. We are excited to work with her and it's funny because she
lives right above Carla (who we baptized like 2 ish months ago that
lives in the building where we used to live??). Epic. Well. Until
next week. I love you guys!! Keep safe and sisters- you better catch
me next week! Haha.

Hola de Constitución

Hello everyone,

Elder Trayner here, writing from Buenos Aires. Hope everyone is doing
well, and from what I hear everyone is doing well. This week was
another good week here. This week we have a kind of interesting
baptism. Yarine Cordova is going to be baptized because somehow her
membership record got lost and there aren't witnesses. Then the
following week we have at least 2 more and we are hoping for 7. On
the 27th we have the baptisms of Nicole Caimi (a really old lady who
has had a really rough life, but feels really happy with the church),
Gaston Miranda (the 9 year old who just moved here a couple months
ago), and we are also working really hard so that the Medrano family
(with the 2 young twin girls) can get baptized. They just struggle to
understand and they don't trust in what they know they have felt. It
is kind of frustrating, but we are expecting them to be able to be
baptized the 29th as well. These are our baptismal prospects at this
point.

Ok. So my whole mission just changed yesterday... They released
Bishop Villalba!! He is leaving to live in his other house in Azeiza
(where the temple is here). Now we have Bishop Casariego who was the
counselor. So crazy. I can't believe him and his wife are leaving.
We are going to miss them a lot. Also, a returned missionary who did
an epic job as the young men's president, Fabian Cardozo is leaving.
Lame. But we are working hard with a lot of people and the Lord is
blessing us to meet people that are really prepared and also people
that are members that fell away a long time ago. We are trying to
bring them back, but as it explains in the Book of Mormon, once they
have had the light and rejected it once, it is really hard to bring
them back, but we are trying really hard, but we understand it is up
to them to make their own decision. It is really hard to see when
people realize what they are missing out on and how they don't have
the happiness that they need in their family and then they don't come
to church to be able to change their lives. So dumb. It happened
this week with a few people. We went to some former investigators and
they told us how they were even worse off now than they were before
and how they realized they needed to find the help of God, and how
they had seen how the Gospel and our church helps people change, but
none of them came. Also, we found a man the other week who has 8 kids
and he isn't happy and he told us he really wanted to go and he didn't
come. And the worst was the dad of Gaston Miranda (the 9 year old who
is gonna get baptized the 29th) didn't come. It is so frustrating
sometimes. I just want the people to just fulfill what they say and
finally change their lives, but in the end it is their choice. Lame.
But I understand we are doing a good job here and the ward really has
changed, and that makes me really happy. I hope that this year can be
a year even better and I know that the Lord called our new bishop and
it must be for some reason, so we are excited to get working with him
and the new bishopric now.

Anyways, I just want to invite you guys to change the things that you
know that you need to change right now. Don't put it off, because it
will never happen. That is something I have learned here. I have
also learned the importance of being true to your word. I am so happy
for the opportunity I have to be here in the mission and I really have
seen a lot of miracles that the Lord has performed here in the ward
and this area. It's tough when there are changes, but I know the Lord
is looking over us and He always has His hand in our lives, even when
we don't realize it. Anyways, I want you all to know that I know the
Book of Mormon is true, and that by reading the book, by pondering
what it says, and by praying to God we can all know it is true. I
know that Joseph Smith was a prophet chosen by the Lord to restore His
church on the earth. I am so greatful to know this church and to be a
part of it, and it really has changed my life. I hope we can all
recognize the influence of the Lord in our lives and see how much He
really does bless us. I love all of you guys and I want you to know
that each one of you has changed my life, and for the better. I have
learned something special from each one of you. I love you all.
Don't forget that it is us who leave the Lord, not the Lord who leaves
us. Keep safe and look forward to hearing from you all next week!

The Baptism of Herminia Alicia Martinez!!

Dear Everyone,

This week was a most excellent week. This last week we had the
priviledge of baptizing Herminia Martinez, the mother of a less active
who came here from Mendoza to be baptized. It was awesome, and she
was so grateful for us and for the members and her family. It was
awesome to see how the family has become so much more active and
excited in the past 2 weeks. Anyways, this week we got word from the
mission that Yarine Cordova (remember my first converts??) doesn't
have a membership record, so we are likely to have to baptize her this
week because there aren't any witnesses or anything from her baptism
10 years ago in Bolivia. It's gonna be pretty weird, but oh well.
Also, we found a new family who moved here not too long ago that was
going to another chapel and their 9 year old son wants to be baptized
and so the Elders of San Cristobal said they would baptize him... The
Elders over there have made such a fiasco for us. Anyways, they are
excited to start coming to our ward and we are going to talk with
their son on Wednesday, so he should be baptized soon. We are still
working with the flia. Medrano, but they are being really slow and the
women of the family won't accept our commitments other than reading so
it's been kinda tough... Yup. Anyways. I love you all, thank you
for all returning to writing me this past week. Haha. Keep safe and
I'll try to send the photos in a separate email if I can. Love!

Is anybody out there?

Greetings all,

This week it seems my words will be limited because I have no emails
to respond to (other than the fabulous pictures that Megan sent...).
Don't worry, I still love you all, but c'mon... haha.

Anyways, this week went really well. We ended up having 7 people in
church and we were able to get two inactive families who have never
come to our ward to come too. The ward was really happy and Elder
Mohulamu is really excited because he sees how much the ward helps us
now. Well last week we were hoping to go and fill out papers so one
of our investigators could get married, but they ended up not having
argentine documents so we have to wait until they have those... so it
is going to be a while and I think it cooled their excitement some
because they didn't come to church... :( But we commited another
couple to do the papers when they receive their argentine documents
next month (so they will get married a month from then) so that was
neat... then we had 5 from flia. Medrano which is the family with the
two twin girls who are really confused about getting baptized because
the other elders told them that they really shouldn't get baptized
here. Anyways, their whole family came for the first time with all of
them (3 kids and both the parents) so that was neat too. They liked
it a lot. Then we also had Hna. (sister) Moron, who is the mother of
an inactive who came to church with her as well. She is getting
baptized on Saturday because she had all the teachings and everything
in Mendoza Argentina. She really is a blessing from the Lord. So
those people are pretty much our main investigators right now. We
were disappointed because we taught 6 family members (cousins and a
brother and his wife) of a sister in our ward and none of them came to
church. That was pretty rough, but we are going to keep trying to
work with them this week and with a lot of praying and insisting they
are sure to show up. Haha.

Yup. Well hope you all had a very happy new year, looks like you all
partied too hard to write me. Haha. We had to be back in our
apartments at 9 on new years eve, but we still heard lots of
fireworks. Uh... Elder Mohulamu and I get along really well and oh!
Haha. We did the Haka at the ward new years party. That was pretty
sweet. I'll try to attach my holiday pics and a video of the haka in
a separate email because I know some of you can't receive attachments.
Well love ya all. Make sure you write me next week or in the next 15
minutes! Happy new year!