My first Baptism!!

Hola todos.

Hello again. Tis I, Elder Trayner. Haha. Another week gone by here in Constitucion (ConstituSion) and it was a good one! Haha. This past week I had my first Baptism. 4 members of Familia Cordova were baptized on Saturday. I ended up baptizing 2 of them. I baptized Alejandra and Tania and Elder Fernandez baptized the other 2 (Laura and Micaela) because Juan (a recent convert) baptized Laura, but he didn't say one of the words and he left really fast because he had work... anyways... haha...It was awesome. We also ended up singing with someone playing the violin. We sang Our Savior's Love. Everything went well and we received a few references that we're teaching now. I was pretty nervous because of the Spanish and because they all have really long names here (the slap the last name of their mother onto their full name at the end....), but I didn't mess up. It was great. Then yesterday they were confirmed and I ended up confirming Micaela. It was super stressful for me because I found out an hour before (before the Sacrament meeting) and blessings are hard because they are in tu form when we talk and all the members talk to us in usted. Anyways, it went decently well and I'm just going to say that I'm very grateful that confirmations are expected to be much more simple here. Haha. Anyways. I've attached a few photos, the first 2 are in the MTC with a couple bosses and then the photos from the Baptism. In the best photo from left to right Me, Juan, Micaela, Tania, Laura, Alejandra, and Elder Fernandez. The other photos that I'm probably going to attach have the Bishop in one (short and serious looking haha) and the visitors that came to watch. Anyways, I tried attaching them but the computer is doing something weird so I hope it worked. Haha.

Anyways... What else. Our next baptism is going to be relatively soon. I think I shared the story about the friend of familia cordova named Macario. If not here is a brief synopsis. Because Familia Cordova is composed of all women we have to always go with a member or she has one son, but he is always out. Anyways, one night about 3 weeks ago (wowww) we had an appointment set up and the son was going to be there, but he wasn't. So we tried all the members in the vicinity, but nobody could come. It ended up that they invited one of the workers from their fruit and veggie stand. Yup, he is Macario. Anyways, we taught the first lesson and everything went super great and he has come to church the past 2 weeks and so he will be baptized very soon (once we figure out the best time because he works a ton... and we want his boss, Hermana Cordova, and her family to attend, but the problem is that they would have to close the verdeduria... so. we are figuring out a time. Anyways. He is pretty much a miracle because we prayed with him that first meeting and he asked in the closing prayer while we are all kneeling if the message we shared with him was true and we asked him how he felt after and he said something really interesting. He said he felt liberado (or something) or basically free and that he felt it was an answer from God. It was awesome and we visited with him last week and he said he feels like God is answering his prayers and that he believes the Book of Mormon is the word of God then he said, that's why I'm going to keep attending church every sunday and I want to be baptized. Hahaha! So awesome! Such a blessing. He has really strengthened my testimony that there really are people who have been prepared by the Lord to meet us and to accept our message. It's awesome. Anyways, it is interesting because Familia Cordova and Macario are all from Bolivia. Most of the people we teach are immigrants. I know the Lord is putting them in a position that they will be more open and ready to hear the Gospel. Anyways, I could go on more about our other investigators, but we didn't have too much progression from our other ones, but we'll see what happens this week and I'm sure I'll have a lot more people to tell you about next week.

Anyways, my message for you guys this week is centered on the Book of Mormon. It is interesting to see why less active people are less active and why some recent converts are so strong. I have seen that it is because of their reading in the Book of Mormon and their testimony that comes through reading the book. Anyways, I just wanted to challenge all of you to read at least a chapter a day this week and to strive to strengthen your testimony of the Book of Mormon through reading, pondering, and praying about it. Also, seek for opportunities to help the missionaries in your area and share the Gospel with your friends. I'm realizing missionary work is all through members pretty much. Without the help of the members that help us, it is so much harder to accomplish anything. Luckily, we have an awesome relief society president with a recent convert husband that are willing to help us a ton and they really do make a difference. Calls, visits, and pies. Haha. She is awesome. Hopefully we'll get a ward mission leader sometime soon.... Anyways some matters of business to close. Haha. From the members I have a request for a recipe for frosting for cinnamon rolls and also violin fiddling music (at least that is what I understood because she said country...haha silly people...). Haha. I also would like a couple cello pieces. Mom tell Rach what to do. Haha. Also. As far as I know right now, all Christmas packages that you desire me to receive before Christmas must be sent in October. At least from what I know right now. This is because we receive letters and packages every 8 weeks or so at zone conferences and our zone conference should be towards the end of november. Packages take about a month from what I hear to get here. Yup. Things I am thinking I would like so far... deodorant (old spice, the new kind maybe?? something tropical and something cold... I don't remember the names. Otherwise just ask josh or something), contact solution, rechargable AA batteries and/or a cord for the CD player i brought, altoid or preferably icebreakers mints, and a jennie oaks baker CD because she played the violin the last day i was in the MTC and it was epic. Haha. Anyways. Just some things to think about and also a couple immediateish requests. I love you all! The Gospel is true!

Update that is up to date

Hello all. Tis I. Your beloved family member, or friend, or acquintance that you knew at some point. Haha. Just kidding. Anyways. I´m going to put my letter from last week first because I got a bajillion things saying that it was too big for a lot of your emails. Oh ps. I can get attachments.
Bueno. And now, my letter for this week. Haha.

This week was a decent week. I guess it was probably above average, or at least above below average. I hope you understand. This Saturday is the Baptism of Familia Cordoba!! Yay! Haha. As of what we know right now, I am going to baptize for the first time on saturday. :) There are 4 being baptized, but 3 count as convert baptisms because the mother is a member and one of the children turns 8 on Thursday. Just so you know. Haha. But yes, we are most excited about this. Also. Because they are all female and we have to have a male over 18 with us in all appointments, we went to their house about a week ago for an appointment, but the son (who is an inactive member, 21) was not there. We tried 4 or 5 members (the only ones that ever accompany us... haha), but none of them were home. So then the family realized that they could invite one of the workers in one of their 2 verdadurías (sell fruit and veggies). He ended up coming and is un capo. Or basically, he is the man. Anyways, the lesson went really well and he came to church yesterday and I think he will end up being baptized in a couple ish weeks. I was happy the Spirit indicated to the mother to invite him. Other investigators are all here and there except there was one other miracle this week! There is a family that we are teaching, the family of a man named Amarú. The missionaries have been in and out of their house for YEARS. Because he is an inactive member and his wife and 3 children are not members. Anyways, he hasn´t been the greatest example for his family and this is really what has prevented the family from progressing. Anyways, the father (Amarú) has made it to church for the past 3 weeks. And the biggest miracle of all, his wife came this Sunday!!!! Her first time ever. Anyways, we are seeing a great change going on in the family and they loved the church yesterday. It was awesome. We hope to be able to baptize the 2 children over 8 in the next few weeks and we will have to see what happens with the mother. It was really interesting because we stopped by once this week and she was cleaning and nobody else was home so we couldn´t go in so we were just having a small conversation, but then we asked her what truly was stopping her from attending church and she confessed that it was because her husband is a member and he hasn´t been living how he should and she knew that eternal families were a part of the gospel and she didn´t want that. It was really special and she was crying, but it is awesome to see how the whole family is changing and how she attended church this week. Huzzah!

Anyways. Good ole ConstituZION is doing well.... haha. Oh! Haha. I will now discuss the Bishop here a little bit. When I arrived Elder Fernandez told me that the Bishop wasn´t a big fan of the missionaries because the missionaries before him were slack jobs. Anyways, right now the Bishop is re contento (really pleased) with the work we are doing in the barrio (ward). As well, he asked last week if Elder Fernandez would speak the next week (yesterday) and Elder Fernandez asked why I couldn´t speak and the Bishop was surprised and said he didn´t know if I would be able because of my lack of Spanish. I responded and told him I could do it and he asked if I had understood the whole conversation and I said yes. He was surprised again and said that Elder Fernandez would speak the next week. Needless to say, we spoke in church yesterday. I didn´t think mine would be very long, but it ended up being 15 minutes long! Haha. I talked about preparing for a mission and I challenged all the youth (quite a bit in this barrio) to decide to serve now and to prepare by attending seminary and institute, reading the book of mormon and gaining a testimony, and by living worthy. The ward members were impressed and were all congratulating me after. Haha. I just hoped they would understand my Spanish... Haha. Anyways, we´ve only taught 2 people that haven´t understood me (because of my accent??), so I guess my Spanish isn´t too bad??? Haha. I dunno. I am understanding a lot right now. I think I said this last week, I don´t think in English first very much anymore so sometimes it is harder to remember what I am saying?? I dunno. It is weird. Haha. But I´m getting better and teaching more. Hm... What else... Elder Fernandez and I decided we´re like a married couple because we either hate each other or love each other. Which I guess is a good thing and a bad thing.... but at least we don´t always hate each other?? Haha. I dunno, it is interesting. He is a good missionary and he is about to die (in the mission sillies). I´m learning a lot from him and we´re doing some of the best work in our district even though historically constitucion isn´t too successful. So I´m content, but of course we can always improve.

Uhhh... Cultural facts of the week... The people drive like crazies and I´m pretty sure there aren´t any speed limits, only 2 people own a car in our ward, the spaghetti here is different because they have like a brownish sauce, people from paraguay and up there like rice a lot... Rice isn´t too bad, but always eat it with something... Don´t throw things around latinos.... what else.... Oh. I love all the spray paint pictures all over the city. Totally my style with weird monsters and stuff. My companion wants me to put that he almost speaks english?? Haha. Buses are super full and we always run out of coins.... police are afraid of some areas haha... uh.... the oranges are juicier here... they call popcorn popcorn... i dunno. Ask me some questions if you would like, I never can remember what I notice throughout the week. Haha.

Anyways, I just want to leave you all with a little testimony. I know that Jesus Christ suffered for all of us. Not just for our sins, but he felt every pain and everything that we feel. Because of this we are never alone and someone always understands how we feel. This knowledge has always brought me so much peace in my life and I know that he loves us, because he understands us perfectly. However, we can´t just let his sacrifice be in vain. We have to act and always remember what he has done for us and accept it in our lives. We do this by repentance, or changing our lives. The only way we can change is through Christ. Anyways. Time to go. :) I love you all a ton!!!! Share the Gospel with a friend this week! I love you. ¡Hasta el proximo Lunes!

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!

Constitución week 2ish

¡Hola todos!

I hope you are all doing well. The work in Constitución moves on. Haha. This week was a lot better than last week. Even though I was in another area for 3ish days because Elder Fernandez had to go to training for leaders (he is district leader) it was good in our area. I really liked going to the other area. I was with an Elder named Elder Witherspoon who is Navojo from Arizona. The area is called Parque Patricios. I think that is how it is spelled. Anyways. I enjoyed going there. They have a villa (sounds like bee zsha) Haha. It basically just means slum. I thought it was awesome. They are sooo much more laid back there. It was so much easier to contact people and the people were so much more open to the gospel. Anyways. The work in that area is going well. It was interesting because Elder Witherspoon only has 3 months in the mission and I had one week. Haha. But we got by. He can understand 99% and me 25% haha. Yup. Anyways. Then I took the Subway back to Const. and got back to work with Elder Fernandez. The week before this Sunday we had 0.5 investigators in the Capilla (cah pee shj uh) Haha. Yeah, it was pretty frustrating. Anyways. This week it didn´t rain and we had 8 investigators. I am most excited for familia Cordoba. They´re so awesome. Here is their story.

So. Before I got here I guess they just started taking the lessons. I guess the mom and one son were baptized a long time ago, but were never really members... Anyways. Then I got here and when we went the father was never home so we could never go in, but then one day we went in with a member and the mother told us that the father went to peru for work for a while. Turns out a few visits later that she found out he was going out with other women and things and so now they are separated and he left and isn´t coming back. It is a really sad story, but it is amazing to see how she has moved on. At the home we teach 6 people. Her and her 4 daughters and 1 son that has 5 or so years. The other son never comes because he has a girlfriend, he is about 21. It is rather unfortunate that he never comes because our dream is to have all of them baptized and have him serve a mission. So far we´ve taught him once or twice. Lame. Anyways they´re so prepared for the gospel and are progressing really fast. Their baptism is scheduled for the 12 or 14th of August. I can´t remember. It is because one child is turning 8 the 10th or so. This way they can all be baptized together. It is going to be awesome. Most of our other investigators just have to get married, but it is hard to get them to act. Haha. We´re doing our best though. At least they went to church. :) Yup Yup. Well. Rach asked for pictures so hopefully I can attach some in this cafe.

Other random tid bits. Uh... The food is good. Tons of noodles and pasta, not really meat. However, we´re going to a parilla (par ee shj uhh) or something like Rodizio today. Should be most excellent. The people are cool, but hard to understand because their are tons of different immigrant nations here. However, the biggest problem is how they are so lazy and don´t really open their mouth to talk. Hahaha. It´s all good. I´m starting to get used to it. Elder Fernandez says I´m actually doing pretty well with Castillano (spanish... haha). Hopefully he starts thinking I´m doing other things well... It is hard with him... Oh and one last tid bit. I actually played the cello last week. Haha. Their is a family here that does Suzuki!! Haha. They´re all really good, but I couldn´t even remember a song because I hardly practiced the past year. I played half or so of my concerto and then I couldn´t remember any more. Haha. But it was fun. Pretty crazy eh? Anyways. I love you all! The Gospel is true and I´m so grateful I have it. It changes lives and brings happiness! I´m starting to see this in my investigators. It is awesome. I hope you are all doing well! If you have any questions you´ll have to wait until next week! I love you all!

Oh the photos are of me and elder fernandez and my old mtc comp elder hunt and his new comp and the train station right outside our apartment. :) And some others for kicks and giggles from the mtc.

Elder Zachary Trayner

Elder Trayner, in the field. Week 2... kinda. Haha.

Greetings!

I am doing well! I hope you all are well. So first off so I don´t forget. We only get mail and letters 7 times my whole mission so.... Make sure anyone that wants to keep in contact with me keeps in contact with you?? I dunno. I was super bumbed when my comp told me that. We only get our mail at Zone Conference which is once every 3 months. So I hope these letters are getting posted?? I dunno. Haha. If not that is ok. My poor friends... I hope Pres. Gulbrandsen changes it so we can email friends.... I had like 5 friends writing me in the MTC.. Haha. Oh well...

Anways... My first week was pretty rough. We had a really hard time meeting our goals and it ended up that we had one investigator come to church that we basically dragged there 20 minutes late and then we left the room for like 5 minutes to call a family that didn´t make it and he left!!!! It was horrible. He was the one I challenged to be baptized my first day. So I guess he isn´t progressing anymore. We were hoping to baptize him this week or next because he had attended church a few times before in another area. Oh well. His name is Hector.... Anyways. We have a family that is quite sure. It is an interesting situation. I guess one of the sons is a member?? He is 22 and has a girlfriend... So our hope is that we can baptize the rest of the family and get him ready to serve a mission. Although the father was planning on being baptized earlier (before I was here) he left for work in Bolivia..... We actually found out yesterday that he had cheated on his wife and so now they are separated, which is probably for the best. They are an awesome family. They are the Cordobas. We are waiting for a few weeks for their baptism because one of the children turns 8 in a couple weeks. Awesome.

Ummm.... My comp. Elder Fernandez. He is the man. He is a really good teacher and has tons of experience. He has served in every leadership capacity there is in the mission. I found out that he only has one more transfer here in the mission so I am likely his last companion. Sweet. This week was trying with him though. It gets hard sometimes because we can´t communicate precisely with each other. He also thinks differently and so I told him that is totally fine with me and I think it is cool, but he thinks it isn´t good enough. He thinks we have to have the same opinions in everything?? I dunno. It is weird and sometimes I feel excluded and unimportant, but we talked this morning and so I hope this week is going to be better. We´ll see. Haha. He is the man though.

Um.... other random experiences this week. We had to "cast out a demon" out of a little boy... Haha. Elder Fernandez was mad after because the Catholic uncle insisted that we bless the child because "he had a demon." E. F. was mad because he thought the man was the one with the bad spirit, not the child. Which was actually quite true. Haha. But it was good. We gave the blessing and after the child wasn´t crying or wiggin out anymore. It was good in a way I guess. I thought the child had Pneumonia at the beggining though cuz the word is demonio and that sounds like Pn. when said really fast in a latino accent. Haha. Yeah. Anyways. Interesting. Oh and then there was our solo investigator who left after the first meeting.... Umm.... We unknowingly drank tea with milk at a less active members house and found out after. Haha. It was weird. The food here is of course really good. The serve us spaghetti a lot. I am always really grateful for the food they give us because they don´t have much, but they are really willing to give it to us. Americans are so stingy with their things and money. I like that a lot about here. I guess that is probably all the exciting experiences this week. Other than the annoying rain yesterday and today that magically makes everyone too sick to go to church. Dumb. Haha. Oh well.

How are all of you doing? It sounds like you are doing well. I am doing just fine here. My spanish is coming along. I feel like I´m understanding a lot more and getting worse at speaking. Haha. It´s because my brain is meddled with all this Spanish I´m hearing. It´s good though. Well. I look forward to your emails next week. I love you all ahhh the stupid exclamation point isn´t working. Weird keyboard. OH well. Love you allª Let my friends know that I love them even if I don´t write themªª Haha.... Hasta luego

Elder Zachary Trayner

So I'm in Argentina...Haha,,,

Hola Familia!

So I´m in an internet cafe with my companion Elder Fernandez!!! He is from Uruguay (spelling??). He is a baller. President Gulbrandsen told me he is pretty much the best I could have gotten and so far we´ve got along great (at least from what I can understand from his Spanish and a few words he knows in English... Hahaha). No but really, he is an awesome Elder. I guess he used to be A.P. and he is in one of his last transfers but he won´t tell me how many haha. He has two younger sisters and he is super diligent. I am really lucky I have him.

Argentina- So far the only 2 things I have eaten are empanadas, spaghetti, and a bowl of strawberry corn flakes??? Haha. Awesome. The empanadas are quite nice. I like ham and cheese the best. It is huge here. I am serving in Constitucion, you can look up Plaza Constitucion to see. It reminds me a lot of Mexico City in a way. The people here are really hard to understand. They all speak a million miles an hour and they sound like they´re singing. Haha. Old people are the hardest because they have scratchy old voices and they don´t annunciate. Haha. So yeah. Anyways I made my first Baptismal commit on my first day yesterday and they accepted!!! Haha. It was awesome. He is a really cool guy so we are going to try our best to make sure he can be baptized. So much Spanish!!! Haha. But yeah. I´m good. It´s pretty shady and we cross lots of streets, but nobody needs to lose any sleep hahaha. It´s awesome. My companion tells me we are in a historically difficult area. The bishop set a goal for 10 baptisms this whole year. We have 7 people with dates right now so we are hoping to at least double the goal. I am so glad he is such a hard worker and he is pushing us. I am trying my best to learn Spanish. :)

So the first day yesterday- Hahaha. First we arrived and were greeted by President and Sister Gulbrandsen!! Yay! I was really happy it was them. They arrived about 6 days ago. Then we ate and had a couple meetings at their house and then we got our companions and rolled out to our areas! I drove past the famous obelisk and in the huge avenue. It was awesome. The people here drive as crazy as in mexico and the buses are pretty crowded. It is awesome. So anyways, we arrive to our apartment and we are standing outside about to go in when my companion realizes he doesn´t have the keys. Hahaha. So we went through this huge ordeal trying to find some and it took hours and anyways... we ended up at the bishop´s house and then we had 3 appointments so we went to those. The first one was difficult because it is a couple that have a child and they live together, but the wife doesn´t want to get married. We didn´t make much progress last night, but we reissued the challenge to pray. Then we went to our next appt just down the hall. He is a man who lives in a small room with 3 other people and there are 2 bunk beds. An old man was sleeping in one of the beds and he refused to even talk to us. It was lame. Haha. But anyways it went really well with him and he had already been to church a while ago. He is trying to prepare for the 31st of July. Then a youngerish woman walked in and at first she wouldn´t listen but then she agreed and we gave her a summary and we all testified and we said how her friend was going to be baptized and so we challenged her to be baptized and she said she would prepare as well. They have a ways to go, but I know the Lord can provide a way. Oh. By the way, she already had gone to church a couple times and spoke with the missionaries 4 years ago. Turns out she is only 16! Crazy. It is really different here. Then we went to another appt with a member, but the mom (who was the one we wanted to talk to) wasn´t home, but we shared a message with her 3 daughters (I guess one is already a member??) I don´t really understand the situation, but we just shared a message about faith. My companion makes me teach large portions of the lessons and I can never understand their responses to my questions. Haha. It is kinda tough that way. Anways it was a good day and we finally got picked up at the bishop´s apartment by the office missionaries and taken to our appartment. And today has been swell as well. We did all of our morning routine and then we had lunch with the Patriarch and his wife in their home where they gave us spaghetti and some dulce de leche stuff or something. It was all really good. So far the food is quite good.

Anyways I think we have to go soon. I just want you all to know that I know this Gospel is true and I´m so excited to keep sharing it with everyone! The Spanish will come. . . :) I love you all! I´ll email next Monday!

General update... Leaving the country!!!

Hey everybody!

I leave for Argentina on Monday! Huzzah!! Yup. We leave the MTC around 8 AM and don't get to Buenos Aires until 8ish the next day. Haha. Lots of flying. We're going through ATL.

I can't even think what has happened this past week. Everything goes by so fast. Haha. Basically I've just been really working hard on my Spanish and teaching a lot, it is going well. My teacher (who served in McAllen) complimented my Spanish and said even though it isn't perfect the investigator will have no question of what I am trying to explain so that was nice. Lots of work still left to do, and I'm sure i'm not going to understand them for the first at least month. We just learned Vos (the tu form they most commonly use in Argentina) and it was super easy, but it's going to be really hard to understand for a while because that is how mostly everyone is going to address us and we're supposed to address children in vos. Crazy.

What am I most excited for???? Real food! Haha. Argentine food too. Yum. I'm way excited. Uh... a lot of missionaries have been delayed with visa problems going to Argentina, but for some reason us heading to BA North don't need them? I dunno. But I really hope our new president and his wife (Pres. Gulbrandsen) received theirs so that they will be there to greet us. They are amazing people. If not, it will be ok. haha.

Oh yeah. I've lost 10 pounds here so far. Yup. I dunno what else to say. The stupid timer is flashing 1 minute 10 seconds. Um.... I dunno. Oh. Mom and Dad. Your mission sounds a lot like what my teacher described when he was there. He said a lot of people in Corpus Christi would just slack off on their spanish, but I'm sure you will get them excited.

Well i love you all. No time left!

Next week from Arg!-