El Dia de las Malvinas y La Pascua (Easter)

It's crazy to think that another month has passed.  Andrew has now been out 10 months!  Please write to him at the address in the upper right corner of the blog.  He would love to hear from friends and family.  Let him know how much love and support he has from all of us!

April Letters Home:

April 3, 2012

¡Hola Familia!

So I´m writing today because yesterday was a Holiday, El Día de las Malvinas, or for all the people who don´t live in Argentina, the Day of the Falkland Islands. I think you all know that England and Argentina got in a "little" War over those islands back in the 80s (If I´m not mistaken) so they have a holiday to honor the dead.

As far as Conference went, it was awesome! Lots of good messages, with a ton about the family I noticed; it was quite interesting. I really enjoyed be able to be there and sit and listen, take notes, and have two people come! A few messages really stuck out to me, like President Uchtdorf´s about not judging. It´s really something that many (including me) need to learn and apply better in their lives. If I´ve learned anything here, it´s that gossip and judging destroys more quickly than almost anything else (in the Spiritual sense) and there are so many people that don´t come to Church due to gossip, judging and unfair treatment. It´ll all be better for everyone if we follow that one a bit better! I also liked what Elder Bednar said about being Priesthood holders that do what they´re supposed to! It´s so true that we need to make sure we always do our duties without having to be told about it every time. Especially the Home Teaching! It´s probably the most important thing we do. I´ve met enough people that left the Church from not being visited by the Ward when they needed it. Neglect of our brothers and sisters is something that we shouldn´t have to worry about; we should take care of them without people having to plead and plead that we do it! I can´t remember a lot more specifics, but I took notes for a reason so I can review them! But I do remember the talk by Elder Eyring about the trials. I can´t remember if that was Priesthood or not, but I remember him talking about asking for a "mountain to climb" and the general idea. If I remember correctly, he spoke about how we´re going to grow from our trials and how they´re for our good. I´m pretty sure that he said as well (if not him someone else) that every promise we receive in this life will be fulfilled in the next if not fulfilled in this one. That is something that we all need to remember in times when it seems like things are not going the way we want them to!

The only problem is that twice the satellite  cut out. We weren´t very concerned the first time since we only missed the financial report, but we missed a big chunk of Elder Perry´s talk! That was annoying, so I´ll just have to read that one first afterwards!

In other news, tonight we find out about transfers and all that! I really have no idea what´s going to happen, since I have 1 transfer here, my comp has 2, and really anything can happen! So I´ll let you know how that all works out in the end next week.

My birthday was just a normal day; nothing special happened expect that the other Elderes that live next door and my comp sang to me in the morning, they sang again at our lunch appointment with the members, and then I think they did it again after District Meeting. Oh, and the members, my District Leader, and others told me off (kind of lol) for not telling them before it was my birthday. I kind of didn´t mention it to hardly anyone lol. It´s very surreal to be 20...I´m officially not a teenager and I don´t think I´m mature enough to not be one...time is such a weird thing!

I´m grateful for the little pic mom sent me of little Bradley! He´s a cute little guy and he´s essentially a little Rondy as far as I can tell. I´m happy that Lydia is a little bookworm and I´m grateful for all the saludos that I received for my birthday!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan


April 9, 2012

¡Qué tal familia!

Alrighty, so we all know that yesterday was Easter, o sea, La Pascua, and the day that we celebrate the Resurrección de Cristo. Mom asked me about some traditions that they have.

From what I heard, it´s a way bigger deal in other areas, since here it´s almost like nothing happened. Here they all eat chocolate easter eggs, they "fast" or just don´t eat red meat, and they eat a bunch of fish. Oh, and they´re supposed to not drink, but as far as I could tell no one followed that particular rule. We didn´t have anything special that we did, only that a member made all the missionaries in our Chapel a chocolate Easter egg, which was really good!

Mom also asked about that older couple, and honestly we have no idea what is going on with that. Our Mission Leader said that he talked to them and that they wanted us to come over to give them a blessing; we go over to do it and the son tells us that we´re not welcome there. We think he´s been lying to us since he doesn´t like that we tell him that he shouldn´t drink, especially since it seems to act badly with the medication he´s taking...it´s a frustrating situación to say the least.

Asides from that, we have a couple other people that are progressing. Yuliana should be getting baptized this last Saturday of the month as long as she comes to Church. She seems to understand what we´re teaching and I know she´s got an answer! We actually had a really cool experience with her this last week.

We were playing a game we had made that helps to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation for an example of a Family Night. During, she randomly starts writing something on a scrap of paper. I should note that before I got here she wrote what seemed to be a personally inspired poem. At the end, she reads us the poem she wrote that ended with "Yo soy el que Soy" (I am that I am). She asked us what it meant and told us that it went through her mind a lot at the end when she was writing. So we pull out the Scripture in John 8 (I´m pretty sure it´s there) and then Exodus 3 where in John Christ says "Before Abraham was, I am" and in Exodus where it says "I am that I am" in order to tell her that "Yo soy el que Soy" means Jehová! The poem essentially told her that He would never abandon her and that He would help her through the good and the bad. It was unmistakable to us that she honestly received an inspired poem from God! She didn´t even know what that last phrase meant! So just a cool little tidbit from the mission!

I love the pics I got of the little ones! They´re so darn cute!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

PS. I haven´t got the package yet. Usually they send an email to say that they got the package, but it´s possible that this won´t count since it was just in a big envelope. Last time the package took a month and half to get, but I´ll find out after District Meeting if something has come tomorrow.


April 16, 2012

¡Hola familia!

So things are going alright here in Corrientes. We´re getting nice, temperamental weather right now; really hot days, then it rains and gets a little cold, and then in gets really hot again. It just kind of does that. I kind of expected Autumn to be a little different, but as far as I can tell it is essentially the same thing as the Spring and not all that different than the Summer, though I guess it doesn´t get nearly as hot when its "really hot" but then again I was in Chaco interior for the Summer, so I guess it´s a little different lol.

So Yuliana came to Church on Sunday! That was nice that she was able to come again. Right now we´re in the wait and protect stage until the 28th. She´ll be ready, but we do have to help her with the whole striving thing. She knows its true, but sometimes she just lacks the ganas (desires) to do it. She´ll be all right though. We also have two people who have dates for the 19th of May; Carolina García and Francisco. Carolina is the mom of a decent sized family, and she has 3 kids of age 8 and up plus her "marido" (don´t know if they´re married yet; haven´t met he guy) when we baptize the whole family it´ll be 5! Francisco is a son of our Presidente de Rama, or more accurately, a son of the wife of Presidente. They both look like they´re going to progress well. Especially Carolina! She told us that she had already noticed that the other Churches just ignore parts of the Bible and teach what is convenient to them. She seems very prepared and I am excited to teach her more!

I also got the birth announcement for Bradley! He´s a cute little guy, plus I saw all the photos that Mom emailed me, so I saw lots of photos of the cute little ones! I think it´s funny that Samuel is a little monkey! Sounds like he might be a little daddy´s boy if he´s saying "dada" mucho! All the little ones seem to be doing well, and it doesn´t really surprise me that Anita is being the "social butterfly!"·She was always the sociable one lol. And I´m sure Lydia is sad that she lost her bright pink cast; she probably enjoyed the attention that she got from that thing! I loved the photos Mom sent from Easter since all the little ones are super cute! I love the little ones for "of such is the kingdom of heaven"!

I hope everything continues to be successful for all my family back home! I hope Jeff and Kimia get better and that they can get their move done easily and I hope all goes well with the grad programs of Jeff, Ben, Jeff, and Ryan.

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan


April 23, 2012

¡Hola Familia!

So there isn´t a whole lot to talk about this week. The baptism of Yuliana got moved; it´ll be either Sunday the 29th or the 5th of May. It got moved because she couldn´t come to Church this Sunday since she went to visit her family. She needs to come to Church this Sunday so that we can be sure that she´s really ready for it. I think she is, but we really need to see how she´s doing with everything.

And we haven´t gotten to talk to that family of 5 again still; technically only one person has the baptismal date still and it´s almost impossible to find her at home with the school schedules of her and her kids. She´s like only open on Sundays and this last Sunday she didn´t want to talk because something happened so she was talking about whatever problem it was with her friends. Asides them, we don´t really have anyone who´s listening to us; we´re trying to get referrals from the members, but lately all the referrals we get are for other missionaries, so we still really haven´t seen any fruit on that front. So we´re kind of investigator starved at the moment...but onward with patience! The Lord gives tender mercies to those that work and wait with patience, so I just have got to do what I can until that happens!

It´s really nice to hear all the good news from back home! It sounds like things are progressing well despite challenges and setbacks. I hope you´re all having a good time back there!

¡Os Quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan


April 30, 2012

¡Hola familia!

Mom, Dad, thanks A LOT for your emails! Goodness knows that right now I needed what you said! And thanks to Lydia and Claire for remembering their uncle who´s so very far away right now! It´s hard for little ones to remember and think about people who aren´t in their immediate lives, but they remembered! They seem to be guided in their sweet humble prayers, but that isn´t really a surprise, "For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven"!

Things here in Corrientes Capital haven´t changed much. We still haven´t talked with Orlando and María, since, once again, we got screened by their son. We´re going to send our Líder Misional to go talk to them and then we´re going to come by a little after he does so we can catch them outside. According to him, they are totally fine with talking with us and still have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, but the son keeps us from talking to him. They´re really good people, we just got to talk to them!!!!!!

Yuliana (not Yolanda Dad ;) ) is going to get baptized! This Saturday she´ll get baptized and Sunday confirmed; she´s passed her interview bautismal, she´s doing what she needs to do and she´s ready! We just need to keep on passing by to make sure that things are continuing to go well until that day! She came to almost all of Church on Sunday and the change that is seen in her is obvious! Right now, that´s the only thing that seems to be going well! Just got to count the blessings! We also found the granddaughters of a less active lady, but we haven´t gotten the chance to talk to them again so we´re going to see what happens with that.

Right now we´re just fighting to find new people to teach. It kind of makes things hard when you don´t have anyone! We relate very well with Elderes Murray and Tuitu´u from the Preach My Gospel training DvDs. They had the exact same problem we do, and they seem to have carried it well. I´m just trying to hold on until things start to improve, trying to find things to improve and trying to be patient until I see that light at the end of the tunnel!

I´m glad the pequeñitos están bien; they seem to be enjoying themselves, growing, and being good little bundles of joy! I hope that things continue going well for them all! I´m also glad that school seems to be going well for the old folks, even though there are struggles and difficulties. I understand what it´s like to live in a place that´s really hot and doesn´t have AC! I understand how Natalie and Ben feel; here in Corrientes Capital we don´t have AC, and I finished the Summer here! It was a good 36 to 40 (I think) in Celsius for awhile and only recently has it started to cool off. Now during the middle of the day its fine, but in the morning and at night, it´s just straight up cold! I´m already regretting not buying more than one of those thermal shirts, since I´m going to want to use it a lot! My arms get cold fairly easily...it also makes the faucet water super cold, so I might start washing dishes in the shower...and I´m not kidding when I say that! The shower is the only place we get hot water, since it´s what an elder has dubbed "an electric sprinkler." If you´re not familiar with these showers, it has a shower-head that heats up the water as it comes out by just using an electric wire that´s wrapped around it. There are 3 settings: nothing, summer and winter. In the summer, the "summer" setting straight up burns you, and the winter feels more like fire. In the winter (since apparently they don´t have a big change between fall and winter) the "summer" setting isn´t quite warm enough, since the part of you that touches the water feels alright and everything else is cold, and "winter" is still too hot. It has to do with the temperature of the water in the outdoor tank; if it isn´t very warm, you can actually use the shower! But it still isn´t quite where I want it lol. Oh well, you get used to it!

I am so very grateful for all of you and for what you do for me!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan 

Corrientes

This is a picture from downtown Corrientes.  Maybe Andrew has walked here?  Thanks Wikipedia for the great view!


MARCH letters home:

March 5, 2012

¡Hola familia!

So yeah, I kinda forgot to tell you that my comp´s name is Elder Schreyer (shry-er). He´s from Holiday, Utah and is (gasp) a Ute fan. So yes, of course we get along! No but really, that doesn´t cause any problems, it´s just kind of funny. He´s finishing up in Agosto, he´s fairly sarcastic, and he´s funny. Just some random information :D

Today we got the chance to go to centro en Corrientes Capital (by the way Dad, the mission has the following provincias: Chaco, Formosa, Corrientes, Misiones, y una partasita de Santa Fe) to buy a bus card since it´s way easier to use. Here they only use coins for their buses but coins are so ridiculously small in values that they aren´t used very often, o sea, it´s kind of hard to find them. While we were there, we went to Walmart that happens to be in a shopping mall. And when I say shopping mall, I mean a real one! As in yes, it has McDonald´s! Ridiculously expensive, but it´s there! It feels exactly the same like a mall back home (even down to the fact that almost every store is focused at women), except that around 1 it was completely empty. So it was kinda fun to feel "at home" for about a while over there.

I´ve really enjoyed having another companionship living next door to us; we´re the only ones in the top floor of the small building that has the 4 apartments, so we see each other a lot. It gives us the ability to chat a little bit at night after planning or in the morning before studying, so it´s a HUGE change from San Martín where you almost never see other Elders. Also, in District Meetings, we see the entire Zone, so I actually feel like a part of la Zona Corrientes instead of how it was in the Zone Conference for la Zona Resistencia Sur, where us and El Colorado were almost like the after-thoughts (or so it felt at that conference). A funny tidbit is that Elder Quintana, who´s in Maipú II, was en San Martín to start off his time here.

As far as the work goes, we should have 2 baptisms this Saturday! Antonela y Luis are getting baptized, along with an investigator of Maipú II and a member baptism of an 8 yr-old from the other branch in our building. Luis is getting married el 9 and the baptism is going to be the 10th. They´re both really cool, even though the 9 yr-old Antonela is pretty shy. It makes it a little hard to teach because she doesn´t want to answer questions even when she knows the answer, but its ok, since she really is actually learning. I´ve even heard her talk at a normal sound level! (once...jaja) Orlando y María Aquirre should get baptized the 17th; they´ve accepted every commitment, though they´ve had dificulties getting to church...yesterday they got really sick and couldn´t go...they´re in their 60s, so that can be a challenge for them. Still, I´m confident that they´ll come this Sunday. If that happens, they´ll get baptized the 17th if we feel they´re ready; if we don´t feel that, it´ll be the 24th. But it´s going to happen igual!

I´m happy that Shelby and Jeff found a new place to live! It´ll be tough, but it´s good for them. Just make sure you enjoy the 8th Shelbell! I´m also happy that Samuel is feeling better...it´s no good when a little baby is feeling sick!

I hope everything continues to go well!

¡Que los cumplas feliz, Shelbell!

Élder Andrew McClellan


March 12, 2012

¡Hola Familia!

I hope that you guys are enjoying yourselves over there in Washington!  It still makes me a little sad that I didn´t have the opportunity to go over there before leaving for here. It would´ve been nice, but I guess that´s the way the cookie crumbles. I´m glad that it sounds like they´re all doing well up there! Make sure they know that when people ask me where I´m from I say "From the State of Washington!" (not the capitol! since everyone assumes that). What´s kind of funny for me is
that some people have a really hard time understanding that Washington DC is not in the state...I guess that´s because here almost every provence capitol is named after the state, for example, Corrientes, Corrientes and Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires. They think it´s weird that DC is like 3000 miles from the state! I´m glad Grant seems to be doing well out there in Colorado...it´s weird to think that he only has 6 months to go...

So we did have one baptism this Saturday! Little Antonella Vallejos got baptized! She´s a little 9 year-old girl whose familia has been inactive for the last little while. Her dad died when the familiy was planning on getting sealed and so that kind of pushed them to inactivity. We´re hoping that the baptism is going to help the mom reactivate, and for the past 5 Sundays she´s come 4 times, so that´s a start! It was really special to be at the baptism for 2 reasons. 1: 3 kids 12 and younger got baptized, so it was like watching the youth step up to do the right and 2: I, my companion, and the mom (probably Antonella as well) could feel that the dad was there in spirit at that baptismal service! It was really quite powerful, and was something that was impressed upon me at the end of the service. I got to baptize her as well (since she didn´t trust the priests and didn´t know the other men well) and so I feel like there was a personal thank you in that feeling.

This Saturday Luis is going to get baptized, and hopefully by his dad who got baptized about a month ago in another branch in Corrientes! He got married on the 9th, so I got to see that too and that was really cool. We´re really looking forward to his baptism and we´re also looking forward to the opportunity to focus on the wife a little more. We always focused on him because she didn´t show a lot of interest, but we want to fix that particular oversight/mistake and try to find a way to interest her.

Orlando and María Aguirre didn´t come to Church again, which is really disappointing... They accept every single compromiso without fail, yet they just don´t come to Church... first they have a really good excuse; they had something happen since a friend broke their trust, there was a lot of problems and they were up until like 6 in the morning, so they didn´t come (I should say that they´re in their
sixties, so they need their rest, plus they have health problems). The next Sunday they were sick, and eventually they went to the hospital for it. This last Sunday we have no real idea why they didn´t come, but it´s getting to be a little worrisome...when people don´t come to Church with that much space, it´s very very worrisome! We´re hoping that they´ll be able to get baptized the 31st (like in between sessions of General Conference or something) but they can`t miss any more Sundays...we need to see a little bit more commitment to come to Church before they get baptized.

I´m sad that Samuel seems to be the sick little baby; ¡Se sano vos! (¡Decile éso por mí por favor!) At least he´ll be able to get some anitbodies, ¿no? And wow Lidia! 300 books already! She´s a little
bookworm and she´s not even 6 yet! Keep her going and she´ll be reading novels by the time she´s 7! (ok probably not THAT quickly, but she might be some kind of genius or something like that). I like that all the studiers seem to be having success and that it seems like things are going well on the homefront!

It´s weird to think that this will be the 2nd General Conference that I´ll have here...It´s also weird to think that I´m super excited for it when in High School I usually groaned since it meant that Saturday
disappeared! Priorities change a lot I guess lol. No, but en serio, GC is something awesome, something that allows us to answer a bunch of questions, if we come prepared and seeking for answers. We have that wonderful promise that in some way or form, be it an exact frase from
a talk, a thought or feeling that comes to mind while listening to a talk or a song, or something else, we will receive answers to every question that we bring to the Conference! So you should think a little about that one and ¡preparate!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan


March 19, 2012

¡Hola Familia!

So sorry this is going to be a little short this week; I got an email from Grant and I haven´t heard from him in forever, so I got a little carried away in my answer lol...but that´s ok, I won´t be doing that much so you´ll still get the normal messages!

This week there´s not a whole lot to report; mostly just that Luis got baptized! His dad, a recente convert of about a month got to baptize him and Presidente Heyman was at the baptism! I´m not sure why, but he was there! He gave a short message before the welcome to the branch, so it was way cool. I´ll send some pictures of that at some point! He got confirmed on Sunday, and the next Sunday he should get the Priesthood! We´re being very prompt with this since we really need priesthood holders and he needs time to be able to use it so he can receive the Melchezidek Priesthood in the next District Conference. So far one branch has qualified to be a ward, so we just need four more to be a Stake! The next closest unit is ours, so we´re going to be working hard with the District Presidency to get this unit ready to be a ward! We´re getting a lot closer so I´m excited!

One major thing that I learned this week is that being excited and happy in this work (and world) really is a personal choice. Even when things aren´t going the way you want, when investigadores stop talking to you without even a warning or a reason, when it seems impossible, all we have to do is choose. That´s what´s importante, that we take the decision to be happy and that we do what we need to follow through. We´ve got a lot of work to do, but that´s ok. We´re going to find some people that are going to progress and we´ve already got a few who seem promising. We´re just going to do all we can and the Lord will help us with the rest.

Happy Birthday to Anita and Claire! I hope that they had lots of fun on their special day! They´re cuties, and I know they´ll keep on being that!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan


March 26, 2012

¡Hola familia!

So I really hope I don´t have to use the letter d much, since this keyboard stinks and is driving me absolutely nuts.

So yeah this week was a lot better than the last one. We just were able to teach more instead of running into a brick wall every day. We found this guy named Arnaldo who´s really cool! He´s already gotten an answer and we´ve only had two charlas! It´s not a super strong one digamos, but still, it´s a good one! He´s going to progress pretty well I think. He also has a sobrino that seems pretty interested which is awesome as he turns 8 tomorrow! So I´m excited for that! We´ll see what his parents think. We´re also working with the brother of the District President; it´s kind of hard since he doesn´t have a set schedule, but his wife isn´t a member and he´s working on reactivating himself! He asks a lot of questions and they´re both really nice, we just need to help her have more interest. They´re going to get married soon since he wants to do it right, and we´re going to help them with the papers.

Asides that we don´t have a whole lot of people to teach; we´re kind of working on finding more people to teach and to improve the promise of the people we do have.

Last Tuesday I finally got the letter the Boyd family gave me! I thought it was pretty entertaining to read the thoughts of the little one´s and Michelle´s commentaries! Tell Claire that she shouldn´t be worried "about getting killed"; she´s a little young to worry about that one! And for Lydia, I want Shelby to write "ARM" in all caps! Uncle Drew needs to have his signature on that cast! If it serves to point out the obvious as well, so much the better!

It´s fun to hear the commentaries about Shayon and Samuel and Bradley. It would appear that the older one´s are turning into funny little guys. Bradley is just a typical little kid, wakin ya up all the time! I´m sure they´re awesome chiquiticos!

As far as the weather is going, it is cooling down at night a fair amount. It´s cooler in general in Corrientes than Chaco (especially San Martín) but even for here it´s cooling down bit by bit. That´s good since we don´t have air conditioning, but we don´t have a heater either and it seems to me that sometimes at night in the winter it might get pretty cold! Oh well, it´s still nicer than my first pench! I found out when I got transferred over here that if Presidente hadn´t emergency transferred Elder Laniel and his newbie to whitewash another area in January that they were going to be kicked out. It really was una pensión hecho percha! (Literally, done hanger, but it´s essentially destroyed, falling apart, piece of junk, etc). IT was pretty bad, not going to lie!

I also got a rundown from Grant how his mission has gone for him. It was nice to get a note from him since it´s been a long time! That kid is awesome!

It is kind of weird that tomorrow is my birthday...I don´t feel old enough to not be a teenager! It´s so weird...it´s still 2011 isn´t it!? Fa...it seems like time doesn´t flow normally sometimes. It´ll be a little weird, to pass my first birthday in the mission, but I guess that´s a good thing since it means that I get my yearly birthday present of GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! ¡Por fin! I can´t believe that before I treated it more like a chore than something I enjoy! As a missionary, I´ve just learned to love it and take advantage of it! It´s really quite nice. An opportunity to hear the words of God through His chosen servants and His prophet! It´s just a really cool opportunity to receive revelation from God for us, and for my investigadores! It really has something for everyone, and many times it has something for you in every talk! All in all, it´s just really cool! Make sure you take advantage of it!

I love you all and I hope that everything continues to go well!d

¡Que os vaya bien! ¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

San Martin and another transfer!

Obviously, this is not an LDS chapel, but it gives an idea of the condition of the roads in the town.  It wouldn't be too fun when it's raining!

February's mission letters:

Feb. 6^th

¡Hola Familia!

Bueno, voy a escribir algo más normal esta semana porque no tengo que esperar mucho para poner fotos, ¡porque no tengo mi cámera!

Ok, enough of that lol. I didn´t feel like messing with my camera this week, which is good, because this browser is also super old, meaning that it would be just as slow to attach pictures to this one! And as
far as mailing the tarjeta, I´m not sure if I really want to do that...it would be pretty expensive to send it certified, and I´ve heard that sometimes the certified letters don´t even make it...mostly I´m just not very sure about certain aspects of Argentina and correo is one of them.

So yeah, this week was pretty good, though frustrating. We had a lot of people fail to be at home for citas or they told us sorry people came over or some other excuse, like there´s too much mud, come back when it´s dry! Still, we managed to teach a bunch of people, and we found three really cool people! Lorena, Rodrigo y Abigail all have fechas for the 3rd of March, and I think they´re actually going to go
all the way! Abigail is especially cool; she read the Restauración folleto that we gave her and of all the things she remembered, she remembered Amós 8:11-12. Other stuff too, but no one ever, ever mentions that scripture! She was very accepting too of the Libro de Mormón. In hindsight, I think we need to be better about sharing the Book of Mormon in the first charla...with my other compañeros we
almost always shared the Book of Mormon the first time, but for some reason we don´t do it here. No sé, pero a lot of missionaries have their own way of doing things, and he´s not the first Elder I´ve met
that prefers to wait a little bit to give copies out, since many don´t want to place them with people who aren´t very interested. Still, I´ve seen people become interested who didn´t seem interested simply by
teaching simply and using the Book of Mormon a lot. So I want to go back to using it more in the first visit to use that wonderful tool in all stages, not just the second and adelante.

This Saturday we´re going to have a baptism! Alondra is going to be baptized, which is really good for her. She´s had a lot of trials in her life already, so the extra guidance of the Holy Ghost is going to help her immensely! I just hope she´s willing to open up to another missionary in the interview since it took her awhile to really open up to us and respond to our questions. Still, she says she has a testimony, she´s just shy. This week we´re working on finishing all the requirements for baptism so that she´ll be ready for this important step. I have confindence that she´ll be ready. She´s already come to Church at least 4, maybe 5 times. She´s the niece of a member and she´s living with her right now.

As far as the heat goes, yes, it´s pretty rough at times, though I find the humidity worse than the heat. It´s the humidity that makes us sweat buckets (yet we don´t lose weight :P, curse all that greasy and
oily food!) and makes everything all uncomfortable; that and the sun helps sap a lot of the energy we have. Though this week wasn´t too bad with the heat thanks to all the rain; it just made the humidity worse afterwards...and we got super wet since we were outside teaching when it started to just dump. I had to dry my shoes for a few days after that! Not to mention the tons and tons of mud everywhere...needless to say, there was a lot of dirt in a pench when we cleaned it today!

Also right now in Argentina we have "Los Corsos"...in other words, the thing that makes Carnaval famous...if you´ve seen "Río" you´ve gotten the cartoon version. Thankfully, it´s far from our pench and only at night when we´re already in the pench. It´s pretty bad though, from the little we´ve seen of people preparing beforehand. Everyone goes, everyone participates in some way...it´s pretty terrible to be looking for a house to contact and then having to turn away in disgust because you saw a pair of 7 year old girls in their "costumes." I use quotes because they´re actually wearing very little...and it probably gets worse as people get older. The thing that really bugs me is that even the members go to watch...something utterly loaded in sin and worldliness that´s just encouraging the incredibly low and pathetic moral standards that this world has. At least I can avoid it! Though, it´s making bringing people to Church very hard since it´s Friday and Saturday night for 3 weeks in a row...from about 9:30 to 4 in the morning.

Anyways, I need to go, but ¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

Feb. 13^th

¡Hola Familia!

So the most important news first: Alondra got baptized! All went well Saturday and Sunday, even though the Branch Presidency almost forgot about the confirmation in Sacrament Meeting...I was kind of freaking out a bit since I was sitting over in at the Sacrament Table about as far out of the line of sight of the councilor as I could be...but thankfully the Aunt of Alondra didn´t have any shame in calling out in
the middle of the meeting and saying that we forgot about that! A little odd to be sure, but at least it got done!

Asides from that, not a whole lot happened. We had a old investigator come to Church on Sunday, but she ended up leaving because her son was having trouble. He certainly seems to have problems with strange places like a lot of little kids, though I was sad that we didn´t have the opportunity to talk to her and ask her how she liked Church...but we´ll be able to do in our next lesson. One thing that´s kind of
frustrating is that all the people that have baptismal dates haven´t come to Church yet...they all say that they´re going to come and the commitments certainly seem to be real but they still don´t come, for
various reasons...We need to find a way to give the commitment better, so that the compromiso is more real and that they´ll be more likely to accept it. We have a fair number of people that are progressing
towards baptism, and if we get them to come to Church, I think they´ll realize without a doubt that this is what they need to do. Church attendance really is what makes the answer clear; reading the Book of
Mormon is key as well, and prayer is the most important way to receive an answer, but I find that people often recognize their answer in the Church because it´s more obvious to them. If they come to Church without praying, it won´t help as much, but by being in the chapel, they can feel the Spirit testifying to them. It´s one of those trials of faith that proves that people have faith and have true intent. For me, that´s one of reasons that we give commitments; the people have to show if they have true intent, and this they do by keeping the commitments, which also demonstrate their repentance and qualifies them for an answer and for baptism.

As far as the cooking goes, I cook even less here than in Barranqueras, which is saying something since in Barranqueras we had almost 80 or 100 people every Sunday in the Chapel (unless in rained or was a holiday) and here I think we usually have about 25. I think once we had more than 25 in the Church. The town, though in the middle of nowhere (when the city stops, the country starts), is decent sized.
Unlike Barranqueras it has its own "downtown" since Barranqueras had Resistencia. So it has a few more things intown than Barranqueras did. Still, it´s very similar. It has a lot more area without pavement though, so it´s pretty annoying when it rains. All in all, it´s a lot bigger than Barranqueras and it doesn´t have any buses. In spite of that, I haven´t lost any weight...it doesn´t help that the members
almost insist that you eat...and that I ate way too many empanadas for the baptism! For some reason the first councilor bought enough stuff to make 120 empanadas...and we had maybe 15 people to eat them. Needless to say, I need a comp who´s willing to run! And that doesn´t have a bad knee and can´t run... (Élder Navarrete is willing to do it but can´t due to his knee...)

As far as the package goes I can´t really think of much...Some more pictures would be nice, but I think you were planning on that anyways. And as far as buying something here for my birthday, I´m at a loss. My card´s in the Office anyways, so I wouldn´t be able to get it for a little while anyways (which reminds me; the card expires in July, so you´ll have to do something about getting me a new one when that
happens!). Another problem is that most the stores close right around the time we can leave the pench and don´t open until we have to start working again. If I´m lucky, maybe I´ll be able to find something cool to buy, but I don´t know when I´ll be able to find a store open when I can go.

I´m glad that it appears the family is doing well; all the little kids, the studiers, the workers, the moms lol. I do enjoy hearing about everyone back at home!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

Feb. 20^th

¡Hola Familia!

It´s a little weird...it´s time for transfers again! Tomorrow night we´ll find out if anything happens...we´re really not sure what´s going to happen. My comp has 1 transfer left but he´s already had 3 here...he really wants to finish here and he told me that when he talked to President Heyman Friday when we had Zone Conference he asked how much time he had; my comp said "4 months" and President said "Ok, váyase!" so he thinks that he´s going to stay here to finish off his mission. As for me, I have absolutely no idea since it´s not all that uncommon to send Elderes to other areas after only one transfer; Elder Laniel was in Bella Vista for one transfer, was sure that his comp was going, and then his comp staid and he left! So we´re going to see what happens.

And yeah, we had a Zone Conference. We had to leave at 6am because the only other bus we had was at 8, it´s two hours to Resistencia from here (where the Zone is), and the Conference started at 10. So we got up at 4:50 to have enough time to get ready even though we had la fiaca and got there super early. Then we had a really good conference about how to work with the members to get references and prepare them to accompany us to charlas, and how to contact menos activos from the list of members. It was a really good conference and I think it´s going to help us a lot in the work here. It´s really focusing on what we need to do in order to find people in a more effective manner. President Hinckley said that really it´s in the members where we´re going to find the people in order to baptize. We also know that more people are baptized if they were a reference in stead of a door contact. So we´re going to work with that in order to improve.

One downside of the Conference is that we really didn´t have time to work in our area at all Friday. Well, ok we visited one recent convert in la noche, but we didn´t leave Resistencia until 6:30 because of the schedule of buses. So we asked permission at went to Walmart! Mostly just for peanutbutter, but I also found Skittles, Cadbury Chocholate, Nerds, Nature Valley Bars, Icebreakers, and the best surprise of all, Neutella. So yeah, I´m getting a little fat off of that, but it was worth it!

Right now we´re kind of fighting to find some good families that are going to progress; right now the most promising is the boys from the Pera Family. Their parentes just separated and so their kind of having a rough time; they listen very well, but they haven´t come to Church so that´s making things a little difficult. The other people we had that we were teaching stopped progressing and one more or less is avoiding us, so that´s a bummer...still, yesterday we found a pretty cool invesitgator; she´s the older sister of a recent convert that hasn´t been coming to Church; we finally found the family together at home so we taught a lesson. Her sister had heard the missionaries before but didn´t remember hardly anything (then again, the menos activa didn´t either... :P). Still, she´s very, very sincere and even though she´s studied with Testigos de Jehová, she never got baptized. We just have to teach the true doctrine and make sure she understands the nature of the Godhead well. She´s more concerned with following what God says, so all should go pretty well with her.

I´m happy that the family is staying busy and having fun and success! And I´m happy that Bradley is already being taught how to love Uncle Andrew!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

PS. Dad, I got the note. ¡Muchísimas gracias!

February 28, 2012

¡Hola Familia!

Ok so here´s the news about transfers: I got moved to Corrientes Captial, Maipú 1! It was really kind of sad to leave San Martín ya, but I know that I need to be here helping out. It´s a night and day situación really. Here we´re almost a ward! We have about 80 people in Church every Sunday and there´s even two branches in the building.... needless to say the Chapel is pretty full! The coolest thing is that we´re really close to being a ward! Though     I´m pretty sure you can´t become a ward unless there´s a Stake...so we´ve got a little ways to go! RIght now, according to the list that we have, our branch lacks 7 Melchezidek Priesthood holders that are paying a full tithe in order to become a ward, and the district lacks 45 in all to become a Stake. Just so you know, that´s based off of the number of people here. You have to have at least 1 MP for every 20 people that are in the list. So what we´re going to do is go clean the lists. If it´s like other places I´ve been, there are a lot of people in the list who´ve moved on and we don´t know where they are, they´ve died, or the address just doesn´t even exist; so that should help us lower the number a little so we´re working with the number of people who are actually here!

The cool thing about our number is that the branch is about to have 3 people become MPs that pay their tithing and we´re about to baptize two men! After having the Aaronic Preisthood for a little bit, they can become MPs in District Conference! I´ve learned here in the mission that you don´t have to have the AP for a whole year before getting the Melchezidek, just an unspecified period of time. So we´re going to let the Branch President deal with the when, we´re just happy that very soon we´re going to have a branch here!

One of those guys is named Luis; he´s a relatively young guy who´s about to get married so he can be baptized and he has a 5 year old kid. He´s a quiet guy, but he´s really cool! His wife hasn´t shown a whole lot of interest, but we´re hoping that she´s going to see the change in the life of Luis and gain some interest. His baptism is going to be the 10th. The other guy is named Orlando; he´s going to get baptized the 17th (or sooner!) with his wife. They are really cool people and already have very strong testimonies which is amazing considering what just barely happened with their "member help"...so essentially they were giving everything that this guy had, the very guy who showed us this family, including clothes, and money, and food, and just about everything since he literally had nothing. They even gave him a little "house." So all was good, though he was bashing on the Branch Presidente in front of them since he was inactive by being offended (not the fault of the BP by the way), and then he gives a really dumb suggestion. He goes and says that he´s going to take their car and earn them 200 pesos a night by being a remis driver (more or less a taxi). So Saturday they leave him the keys and all the documentation of the car and then they left to go to some music thing. The next time they see the car, he had crashed it with minor damage because he was drunk. Essentially he totally destroied their trust and went against all the good they did for him. And then he said we was going to pay it all off even though he has nothing. And leaves for who knows where. So of course we´re really worried because the guy who introduced them to the Church was really untrustworthy and was being a good example either (he was smoking too...). Then they tell us that 1: they still want to get baptized and 2: they want to DEDICATE their lives to the CHurch! That is NOT the way most people act after a member utterlly throws back at you what  you did for them! They are truly converted and they truly realize that all this is true! Orlando y María are going to be baptized the 17th or maybe sooner since all we have to do is teach tithing and they´re all set! It´s so nice to see people like them!

So a little info about Corrientes; it´s a lot nicer than Resistencia though it has its downsides like anyplace. We have 4 elderes in the branch and our pensiones are right next to each other, so all in all it´s a lot more entertaining than it was in my other areas! I actually see other missionaries on a daily basis! Not to mention that my entire zone has district meeting in the same chapel, so another huge change from the isolation of San Martín! One other nice change is that in our boundaries we have something called Changomas, which more or less is a dumbed down Walmart, since walmart owns it. So we can go there on Pdays to shop! Its not quite as good as Walmart but at least it has more selction!

And someone needs to give Lidia kudos from Uncle Andrew! Not because she opened her medicine even though she´s only 5, but that she can read the top and follow the instructiones! That´s one smart lil´ girl! And I really hope Samuel gets better soon so he can be happy WITHOUT wheezing! Babies are too cute to get sick!

¡Os quiero!

PS. I really hate this keyboard; you have no idea how much of a pain it was write this!

Felize Ano Nuevo and San Martin

Today is Andrew's extra day in the mission!  Happy Leap Day! 
January's mission letters:

January 3, 2012

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Ok first things first Mom,

It´s 366 days! Leap Year! :D

Ok so New Years was good; if I thought that they shot off a lot of fireworks on Christmas, it wasn´t anything to new years. They just kept on launching those suckers off and they were super loud! Our neighbors were shooting them like right over our apartment. And yeah, everyone went and got drunk too. The main difference is that it seemed like everyone went to bed even later on New Years than Christmas. It was a terrible day to try and do anything since everyone was just asleep, and I feel like they were asleep all day long! Oh well, así es.

I´ve been kind of thinking about why this transfer has been so difficult. We still don´t really have anyone who´s progressing since we haven´t been able to teach any of our new people a second time; everyone´s been busy, or not home or something like that. Or we can´t find the house since we met them somewhere else. We keep on finding really cool people, like Faustina Paiva, who told us the first time she read a Book of Mormon scripture (before we explained what it was, I might add) that it was exactly what she wanted to learn and who cried after giving her first prayer with us, Jorge Rodriguez, who is juntado with an inactive member, who wants to be in the buen camino and is very accepting of everything, and Daniel Granados, a prior investigador who didn´t get baptized, and we can never find them again. All of them are really cool, but it´s hard to progress if you´re never taught! At least with Jorge, when we failed to find his house (trust me, the road and map system here is a little trucho) we went to find a menos activo, who we found. According to Bruno, we were lucky, since recently he had moved back to that area (justo behind his old house of his mom who died) and he´s almost never home. So the Lord helped us find him at home. But still, it´s been a difficult transfer since we haven´t been able to teach anyone a second time. I was talking with my companion, and I realized that maybe the purpose of this transfer is to teach me to be happy even when things look dim and hard, when things aren´t turning out the way I want them to. I have to be happy with what the Lord wants me to do, so I should be happy with that. As long as I´m obedient and I´m trying to do what the Lord wants me to do, I´ll be happy even if our "numbers" are low. I can´t forget that helping the less actives, even though we don´t tally the number of lessons, is helping some of God´s children and that He wants all of them to receive the help that they deserve. My purpose is to strengthen God´s Kingdom wherever I am. Of course I´m supposed to baptize and help those people stay active too, but whatever the Lord wants me to do, I will do it. So I´m learning patience and how to be happy no matter what! We´re supposed to be happy as members of the only true Church of Christ no matter what happens, so that´s what I´m going to do!

Still, yesterday while working we managed to contact this reference that seems really cool. His name is Luis and he´s juntado (maybe casado, pero creo que no) with a less active member and he´s been to Church before and everything. We taught something really short and simple since we didn´t have much time, but he´s accepted a fecha for the 5th of Febrero and he´s already asked the person (his brother-in-law) to baptize him when the time comes. He has a Book of Mormon but he´s never been taught by the missionaries (or at least we think so). He said that he feels good the times that he´s read from it. He seems really cool, though also really shy. But I think he´ll progress well; we just have to teach everything!

And I got a letter from Grandma and Grandpa Hale today! It was really nice to be able to read their message to me and enjoy it! It´s always nice getting mail lol. Which reminds me; next week is transfers! So next Monday will be the last PDay of the transfer, so there´s a possibility that in two weeks I´ll be emailing from somewhere else! But who knows, I could stay here another transfer or two; one of the sisters in my District is training, and with the new program, trainers usually are with their trainee for two transfers; meaning she´ll probably stay one transfer more. Which also means she´ll have been in her first transfer for 8 transfers, aka 1 year! Kind of ridiculous.

Thanks for the fotos and information of the li´l ones! I loved hearing in detail about all those adorable bundles of joy that have been brightening our lives for some time now! And we´re getting another one soon! I love little kids :D Especially my sobrinitos! Because they´re the best ones! Jaja!

I hope you all have an awesome year! It´ll be my only "complete" year in the mission, which is weird. It honestly doesn´t feel like a new year; maybe it´s because I´ve almost been in a perpetual summer since I entered the MTC. I had a few weeks of winter that didn´t really feel like it; only in the morning did I really feel cold. It´s been hot, but not blazing here. It hasn´t rained since Christmas so it hasn´t really been muggy much. I hear the only place hotter in the mission than Chaco is Formosa, so those days where it is blazing here, I´m really glad I´m not there! A funny thing about this "complete" year is that, as mentioned above, it´s a Leap Year! So I get an extra day in the mission! Yay!

:D

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

P.S. Hey Mom! Don´t forget to check my email and Facebook periodically for anything important that I might want to know for when I get back! Or anything interesting that´s happening right now that I might want to know! ¡Muchísimas gracias!

January 9, 2012

¡Hola Familia!

So yeah, Wednesday is transfers. We´re going to see what goes on with all that! I think that I could take another transfer here, but I think a new area would be nice. It would be kinda sad to leave, but I kind of want to get to know another place, and another provence too. I think Misiones would be cool, but honestly I´ll be happy wherever I am, so why does it matter?

This week was a good one. I feel like we had a lot of success and that things are going well here. We´re getting started to be more consistent with our meetings with the members, and we even spent most of Friday with members! The sad thing was that almost every person that we had a set appointment with fell through...still, we did work with the members, and that´s what counts! We have a new guy named Luis whose juntado with a menos activa. So they need to get married, but I almost expect that of every couple we find. He´s cool, has been to Church, likes the Church, feels good when he reads the Book of Mormon and everything. He just needs to understand the Gospel since he doesn´t really understand a whole lot in that regard. Things are looking up as far as the whole getting married goes, and we´re working through the other obstacles. We also have another person who seems promising; her name is Verónica and she´s similar in a way. She understands more about the Gospel, but not a lot. So we have to explain things simply too. Still, she´s very accepting of what we tell her and she even asked us to verify the baptismal date! She still hasn´t come to Church, but she´s been before. It looks like Elder Mantilla taught her awhile back, but stopped going by because he could never find her home. She´s moving soon, but still in our area. Another family that we´re teaching is the Familia Bast (it’s a German name). They´re pretty cool and really nice, but a little hard to find a time when they aren´t busy! Daniel is a ref for the Argentine Fútbol Associacion and also fixes computers; his wife Verónica stays at home. She was probably the most excited person I´ve seen when we first gave them a Book of Mormon! She´s very accepting and very kind, even asking us already about how we´re doing and if we got to make our call on Christmas! Daniel seems a little doubtful, but then again, everything we´ve told him is very new. I have high hopes for this family!

Other than that, things are chill. Burning hot still and hasn´t rained at all since Christmas. That little fan is kinda nice, but it´s not the sturdiest lol. I dropped it once, and ever since it´s been shuddering a little. Plus, one of the blades is cracked so I´m not sure how long it´s going to last. But I´ll see it out to the end of its life lol. It was a fun, novel little gift :D Thank you Mom! And the peanuts are long gone! It didn´t help that I didn´t hide them during divisiones, so about a third of it was eaten by the other Elder :P I guess I did say he could eat some, but I didn´t think he´d eat so many lol. I´m almost done with the first jar of peanutbutter already. So odds are I´ll run out long before I see a Walmart! There´s only two in the entire mission. I haven´t tried to do anything with the SD card yet. I´m not really sure if there´s anything anyone can do about it anyways. If all else fails, Ryan can email me the files and the guy at the computer place can put them on it for me.

Speaking of which, I´m looking forward to seeing pics of the new little guy when he comes! It´ll be really fast, probably even faster for me than for you all! The weeks just kinda disappear down here. Also, congrats to Nanny for making the top Choir! Not that it´s a surprise seeing as the fact that all those choir teachers at BYU loved her lol. And good luck Mom with your new calling! Have fun trying to reign in all those little kids! Should be fun lol.

It´s weird to think that 25% of my mission is gone. I´m 25% "dead" as we missionaries say. Still, I don´t think I´ll really realize how fast time is flying until I get to a new area. Everyone says it picks up speed once you´ve left your first area and gone somewhere else. Plus, no one I know really well has left yet except my trainer, and since I "killed" him, it honestly doesn´t feel that weird. Time is so weird. I look at it from the perspective of transfers, and it seems like I have a ton of time still in the mission; then I look at it from the perspective of months and I´ve hit 6 of 24 already. So, so weird it is. It makes you think of what you wanted to be at six months when I was starting and where I actually am as a missionary. More and more I´m realizing how short the mission is...but that´s ok, since I don´t have to think about that! 18 months is plenty, so I think I´ll go back to blissfully ignoring the passage of time until it hits me like a ton of bricks that it´s over. It´ll be better that way.

I hope that everything continues to go well for everyone! It´s nice to know what´s going on in your lives and all. Keep up the good work!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

January 16, 2012

¡Hola familia!

So yeah, I´m officially in my second area! San Martín! It´s a little pueblito about 2 hours from Resistencia and near Formosa. The funny thing is, I´m still in the same stake! Except I´m in the Resistencia Sur Zone, so it´s a little odd. I think they wanted to avoid overloading the Resistencia Zone since it has the office already. Plus, San Martín used to be in the Resi Sur Stake anyways. It´s a nice little place, but I still don´t really have any orientation. In Barranqueras it was kind of easy to know which direction was "up" because the city was kind of long in the North direction. Here it´s just a big square, like it usually is in Chaco; Barranqueras was just a side of the square of Resi en realidad. So I would be pretty darn lost without my compañero! He´s Élder Navarrate from Chile. He lives about 2 hours from Concepción, and that´s his home mission, so Dad should tell me his areas he had there! And it looks like I might be "killing" another Elder! Like Elder Mantilla, he only has two transfers left, so unless I get transfered after one being here, or they decide to have him spend his last transfer in a new area, I´ll be "killing" him. So odds are I´ll be here for three transfers too.

Here we´re a consilor in the Branch Presidency, and I think we´re officially the secretary too (at least unofficially we are). It´s interesting though; we have a chapel that´s as big as the average stake center here but we have less than 30 people in Church! Apparently in the past there was a district conference or something and there wasn´t enough room, so the President said that they were going to make it "a little bigger." Yeah, uh huh, sure. The thing is huge, by Argentine standards! It actually has a legit chapel with benches and the stand, enough rooms for the clases and everything. By US standards, it´s probably slightly smaller than normal, since it doesn´t have all the overflows we have, just one, and less classrooms since there aren´t enough youth to actually meet as separate quorums and groups. Still, it´s a very nice capilla. It´s just a little funny to me, since Barranqueras has a regular attendance of like 80 to 100, sometimes a good 120, and the chapel doesn´t have benches or a full-size stand, and the only reason we have enough rooms for all the classes is that they almost always combine the High Priests with the Elders. It´s just one of those things lol.

Still, we´ve got good members here in San Martín. There´re few (well, the actives at least, there´s as many members on the list here as in Barranqueras) in number, but the Church has only been in Argentina for about 80-90 years, and here probably significantly less. There´s a lot of work to be done here! It´s a decent sized pueblito, and I´m going to be walking even more here since there aren´t any colectivos ni remises.

And yes we do have people to teach! The coolest one that I know as of now is Nilia. We found her on Thursday (2nd day here). She´s an inactive Catholic, but she has a lot of interest in what we have to say! We taught her again Saturday and she committed to come to Church with her daughter and read the Book of Mormon. Then she comes EARLY on Sunday, stays the whole three hours (which is way good, since Sacrament Meeting is last), tells us that she liked it, has already read the chapter we left, and has questions. Aka, exactly the kind of person we want! We even forgot to get her number to call her before and she´s too far away to go get ourselves. So she came all by herself! So cool! So yeah, I´m kind of excited about her. We have some other investigadores too, but I still don´t know them very well. So I´m sure next week I´ll be able to give you some more information about the people here.

Samuel sure sounds like a funny little child! Blowing raspberries while eating! I´m sure Nanny and Ben have fun with that little guy! Anita also appears to be continuing to be a little cutie; I guess that shouldn´t be a surprise since she won a baby contest with her personality! I´m glad all the little ones are growing well and being funny. And I´m so ´cited for the newbie! ¡Enviame fotos cuando venga!

Well, that´s all for now. I´m super glad that todo está bien and that you´re all enjoying yourselves!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

January 23, 2012

¡Hola Familia!

Bueno, so to clear some stuff up: I am in the Resi South Zone but the unit is in the Resi Stake. Don´t ask me why, as I don´t know lol. Needless to say, my zone is differente, but my Stake President is the same. It´s a little weird.

And something interesting about my companion is that he is indeed from Chillan! So even though he wouldn´t know Dad, it´s possible that Dad knew his family! So yeah, random cool fact of the day.

As far as this week went, it was a good one, though with enough frustrating things. For example, we couldn´t find Nidia at home (or awake; and I should mention that I wrote Nilia the last time since I didn´t understand clearly su nombre lol). Still, we have a baptism online for the 28th. Her name´s Brisa and she´s the younger sister of a convert of one year and an older sister of a convert of a few months. It´s kind of nice, since she already knows everything; we just have to review a little bit and let her teach the lesson! We´ve also been teaching Alondra, a niece of a sister in the ward who´s been living with her aunt and coming to Church for a few weeks. At first, she was hard to teach because she didn´t want to respond to any questions or really do anything; we thought that she just was listening for her aunt´s sake, but we found out from someone that we introduced to her that she doesn´t trust men. But after that conversasion that she had without us there with this particular member, she opened up considerably, though she does have a little trouble wanting to say the prayer at the end (not that that´s unusual) and doesn´t have a lot of patience for reading. She´s going to be baptized the 4th, though that might change since we´re not sure when all of the youth are going to get back from their "EFY" trip (I don´t feel like explaining why it´s different than those in the States; it sufficeth me to say that they´re going to Paraguay and it´s not in a University). Another group of people that we started teaching this last week is a family that moved in about a month ago to San Martín. They have some difficulties understanding sometimes, since they´ve never really gone to Church, but they´re interested! We´re going to have to take it slow with them; it seems like when we taught them that maybe we taught a little too much. They didn´t come to Church Sunday, but they told us it was because they didn´t have shoes for their sons. We told them when we talked about Church the first time to come dressed in such a way that they feel comfortable, and it seems like they wanted to come a little more nicely dressed than what they had been able to bring along with them when they moved. They´re very humble, and I think they´re going to be the first complete family that I´ve baptized in my mission!

Asides from all that, I very much appreciated the fotos! I have so many adorable little sobrinitos! We have a nice "little" family and it makes me happy to see you all! And it seems a little odd still that Rondy´s so close! Hope it goes well!

And I´ll keep Caitlin in my prayers; I know that she´ll be ok as long as we have faith!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

January 30, 2012

¡Hola Familia!

Ok this week it´s going to be short, since I was trying to attach some photos but this computer has a old browser so I couldn´t attach and write at the same time (not sure why, but it´s pretty annoying) and so
I just had to cancel it so I had any time to write at all!

So congrats a Ryan and Rondy!!! He´s a cute little guy, and personally I think he looks more like Rondy; then again, all that can change very very quickly with little guys like him! He´ll be all nice and big when
I see him, so it´s up to Ryan and Rondy to teach him who I am!

The most important thing we did this week was baptize! Brisa Ponce de León was baptized on Saturday! I had the privilege of baptizing her, since she told us that she didn´t want to choose (I think she didn´t
want to offend or something like that) and my comp said that I was going to do it! She has a strong testimony of the Church and knows a lot, so that is really cool!

As far as speaking English, forget about it! My comp knows almost no English; so I get to try and teach him during language study! It´ll be fun trying to do that and everything!

As far as the work is going, we have enough investigadores that we tend to stick to teaching them. Alondra is going to be baptized the 11th! She knows the Church is true, we just have to teach her a little
slowly since she has a hard time paying attention sometimes (for being sleepy and only 13th :P ) We have some other pretty cool investigadores too, but they haven´t accepted fechas when we tried to
place them; we´re not sure why but we´re going to have to improve our invetación it looks like.

Well I have to go, sorry that it´s so short, but the computer was really being a pain in the neck...you´d think that I´d be able to attach and write at the same time, but apparently it doesn´t work so well when the browser is way older than the site!

¡Os quiero!

Élder Andrew McClellan

Fotos!

These first three pictures were taken on Elder McClellan's last Sunday in the MTC:
Sep 4, 2011

Elder McClellan arrived in Resistencia, Argentina on Tuesday, September 6, 2011.  This picture with his first companion, Elder Mantilla of Columbia, and the mission president and his wife, President and Sister Heyman, was taken September 7th.

These baptism pictures were taken September 9, 2011.  Andrew is serving in Barranqueras at this time.

September 15, 2011

Baptism pictures from September 17 and October 8, 2011 ~

October 18, 2011

Baptism, October 29, 2011

November 5, 2011

November 22, 2011

Baptism, December 3, 2011
Companion, Elder Laniel from Canada

A Christmas message from Elder McClellan

Andrew sent us a great Christmas gift - photos!  While he waited for them to upload, he wrote a Christmas message for us:

December 19, 2011 - Christmas Message

I really hope this doesn´t take forever to load...these computers kind of stink. Just some clarification. In the picture of a baptism with the guy with a shaved head, he´s a member and that´s his son. The woman and her kid are Cristina y Federico Rudín. I included some random pics of my districts, the funny thing is that one sister in each of the two fotos of my districts here weren´t actually in my district! We had a sister go home in each transfer (one was a mini misionera, o sea, like a short term service deal, the other went home in her first transfer...) so two are replacements. I also have a pic of my MTC district at the Mission conference. I´m just including mostly baptisms and the districts. I have some other ones but they're not important. I´m just rambling as I wait for this to finish loading the files ladadadadada! Maybe I´ll just write a little Christmas message that you can include in the blog or something!

So Christmas as a missionary is way different. I´m in the business of saving souls, and the birth of Christ is the start of making what I´m doing possible at all! Without the Atonement, we´d all be doomed forever, but he was born, and he suffered and died so that this work is possible. And it really is something really good! It really helps one focus and helps me to not get homesick at all. Like, I just don´t have any time to think about anything else. So anyways, back to Christmas. One thing that I noticed by singing that arrangement of "We Three Kings" in high school is the significance of the myrrh. These three special men realized who the Savior was as a young child; and they brought Him gifts in order to honor Him. The thing is, myrrh is used for preparing bodies for burial. Even as a young child, even the story of His birth and early life, we are reminded of that Sacrifice. For that purpose Christ came to the world; He came to give us the chance to save ourselves. Only we can make the decissiones necessary to take advantage of the best Christmas gift we´ve ever received. I´m here to give people the chance to accept or reject that message; that anyone can be saved by the Atoning Blood of Christ! His hand is outstretched to be taken and we just have to take it. No one who fails to be saved can blame anyone else but themselves. Everyone has the chance! We should best remember Christ by giving Him the greatest gift we can; our heart. By giving Him our heart, we will do everything that he asks of us. We will receive forgiveness for our sins, and we will receive the Kingdom of God! I know this is true, and that if we remember this during Christmas and forever, we will be greatly blessed!

Merry Christmas!

Élder Andrew McClellan