¡Buen Día familia!
Bueno, so we had three confirmacions yesterday! Natalia Velazco,
Olga Cardozo, and Fernando Zalazar! Which means Saturday we had three
baptisms, but the confirmacion is really the important part. It was very
nice to see all of them get baptized and confirmed, to see the smiles on
their faces and to feel the joy! Especially since they all had some
struggles with this all...the family of Fernando didn´t really
understand, and no one from his family came, but he had a lot of friends
there at the baptism and the Elders from Güiraldes that did the actual
teaching (or at least one; the other got transferred). Still, he said
that a lot of people were questioning his decision but that no les hizo
caso (he didn´t pay attention to them). He really does have a strong
testimony and it shows in how happy he his. Olga too had family
troubles. She was talking with her son in law, an Evangelico, and was
subtly asking about what he thought about the Church and he said that he
would disown her is she got baptized! So she didn´t tell him. She said
that she just stopped talking about the subject, so he never knew that
she got the confirmation from the Spirit to do it. Natalia...this one
hurts the most. Luis was slowly distancing himself from us, probably
because he was sad that his wedding wasn´t going to be the way that he
wanted to be, without a big party and all that, and it eventually got to
the point where he wouldn´t talk to us about anything. He said that he
only wanted family at the wedding Friday, so I didn´t get to go, and
during the interview Friday Natalia told our new District Leader, Elder
Haslam, that Luis wants absolutely nothing to do with the Church and
didn´t want her to get baptized...He isn´t supporting her at all in her
decision. Still, she has a very great faith. We talked to her on
Saturday before the baptism and she tearfully told us that she felt that
the Lord has always been at her side, and that she knows she´s not
alone! She really knows that she´s made the right decision and she has a
strong testimony! It´s really faith building to see someone make hard
decisiones like that! I just want to do everything I can to help support
her in this time of need, of dificulties. She really loves Luis, and
she really wants an eternal marriage, so we´re going to do what we can
to try and help Luis understand, to help him soften his heart and decide
to let the Spirit teach him. I´m hoping that he´ll see the blessings
that come to Natalia and realize that she´s doing a great thing and
receiving great blessings for it!
As far as transfers go, I´m still in Barranqueras, and now that the
baptisms are over I realize more than ever how much little else we
have! With the craziness of the week before, with three people to
baptize this past week, and with Elder Mantilla leaving, we didn´t have
the easiest time finding new investigadores. Elder Mantilla worked hard
until the end, but we lost time picking up my new companion, and we
visited a lot of recent converts and were taking pictures...still, as
far as "dying" missionaries go, Elder Mantilla was very good about not
wasting a lot of time. It just made it more difficult to find new people
to teach. The days after he left, we spent a lot of time clapping doors
without a lot of success. Very few people let us in and almost no one
would accept baptismal dates, so we´re kind of starting from nothing. We
have some referals we need to contact and some older investigadores
we´re going to work with to see if they can progress more, but we really
have a lot to try to do. Baptising 3 people is cool, but we
baptized almost all of our progressing investigators! Still, there´s a
lot of things we can do, and we´re going to work hard to find new
people!
My new companion is Elder Laniel. He´s from Canada, and he´s
trilingual. We get along well, and I don´t forsee any problems with him.
He likes to work hard and work effectively with members and he´s not
one for wasting time. Honestly, I feel like we´re fairly similar types
of people, so I think that once we´re used to our styles of doing things
that we´ll work very effictively together.
As far as Christmas goes, I have absolutely no idea what is going
on with that. So I´ll let you know. And I´m absolutely amazed that my
letter for Jeff and Kimia got there already! Usually when we send
letters "simple" it takes like a month to get there! If we want to
assure that it gets to where it´s going quickly we have to pay like
three times as much and that assures that it´ll get there in about 10
days, and here I go and pay the normal price and it takes 9! Goodness,
I´m not sure if I´ll ever pay the more expensive one ever again! Then
again, I´ve only done that once, and I might change my mind when I´m in
an area that´s farther away from a provence capital. Still, I´m sure the
packages will take awhile longer, since even the normal letters take
like 3 to 4 weeks to get here.
And Natalie, thanks for the photo! He´s a cute little guy and he´s
certainly got a funny little face there! I love hearing about the antics
of the little ones; one perk about living at home in AZ was seeing the
little kids a lot, and so I love hearing about them! I have the
priviledge of being an uncle to 6, and soon to be 7, sobrinos and I love
the little tyks! Make sure they all know that I love them, and that the
can all say my name (if they can´t already) by the time I get to see
them!
It´s also weird to think that Mom and Dad have a new Christmas
tree...I´ve only ever used the same one, so it´s just weird. Then again,
the life before the mission just seems like forever ago. It´s almost as
if I had a dream before and this is the only thing I´ve been doing for
awhile. Which is weird, since I know I´ve only been out for 5 months! 2
years really is a short period of time, and every says that it seems
shorter and shorter as you go on! Time is weird. And I can say that
since my last semester at BYU we did relativity; I have some familiarity
with the weirdness of time, jaja! Like the following formula:
time=weird.
I´m glad that everyone is doing pretty well even though you´re all
getting sick and whatnot. Try to be healthy and happy, and always be at
least happy!
¡Os quiero!
Élder Andrew McClellan
December 12, 2011
¡Hola Familia!
Ok, so I´ll just start really
quickly for the Christmas stuff:
I get to call for 45 minutes on
Christmas from the Church building or from a members house. They haven´t given
me a time period for when I can do it so I´m assuming I can do it whenever. I´m
four hours ahead of AZ, so when you get out of Church, it´ll be like 2 and I
think I´ll be studying. We only have an hour of Church on Sunday, so I´m not
exactly sure what we´re going to do the intervening time, I just know I can´t
call since you´ll all be asleep! I haven´t gotten the package yet, but that
isn´t really a surprise. It´s much more of a pain to get packages than letters,
and the mail system here is so unreliable...they don´t have a government office
that does it, so I have no idea how they decide which company gets it to take
it to the home. I´ll also get to have an hour and a half to have a dinner with
a member, so I really don´t know what else is going to go on.
So to the work:
This week was by far the hardest
week I´ve had in the mission. As I said, we baptized all of our progressing
investigadores, so we were kind of working from scratch. This week I spent more
time clapping houses than I ever have before, and it was kind of heart-breaking
since almost no one let us in the house. I admit that I was pretty down; my
desires to make contacts like that just died since I almost expected to get
turned away; not a good thing! I´ve realized that I need to learn how to take
disappointment better, that I need to keep at it even if things are going bad.
Saturday was particularly tough. Our first lesson was at 8:20 that night. Yeah.
Ouch. That doesn´t count a charla we had with Natalia, since we don´t count
lessons with converts and less actives. We were trying to contact and find
people, talk to a part member family and whatnot, but everyone was sleeping! We
actually passed by the Family Hilbert, a part member/less active family because
the husband expressed desires earlier of wanting to quit smoking so he can get
baptized. They were still sleeping at like 6:30. We also talked to Norma
Valiente to find out why she didn´t come to Church when she said she and her
husband were going to go; she told us that they made the decision to never come
back...That was heart-breaking; to see someone that I saw baptized, that I
helped overcome her doubt, be such a different person, lacking so much joy and
just seeming hard! It´s a testimony to the difference between someone who lives
the gospel and who doesn´t. She´s just not receiving the blessings, and we´re
not even sure what´s happened. I still don´t know what we´re going to do about
this. Needless to say, I wasn´t very happy! We had been having a really really
tough day, and an idea popped into our heads to head off to two potential
progressing investigadores. We stopped by the pensión first to use the bathroom
and to, more importantly, say a prayer. The lession that followed was a direct
answer to our prayer! Lessons are like therapy lol. They didn´t come to Church,
but I just felt really good about that charla and it was exactly what we needed
after a very tough day.
For some better news, a less-active
family that we´ve been trying to talk to for awhile came back to Church! It was
a big difference, they just seemed much more happy at Church on Sunday and when
we walked by their house that afternoon, and like the whole ward was super
happy that they were back! We also found some less actives that seem like
they´re ready to come back to Church, they just need a little help. I think the
thing I´m most happy about right now is someone we found on Sunday. Her name is
Faustina, and at first I felt a little unsure if she was actually going to
progress or not. Still, we were sitting outside talking about the Restauración
and we were talking about why there´re so many churches. I decided to share 2
Nefi 26:20-21, even though we hadn´t even explained what the Book of Mormon was
yet! After reading she told us that it was exactly what she wanted to know!
Then, after we taught the rest of the lesson, we taught her how to pray and she
prayed. She was crying when all was said and done, and she excepted a fecha
para el 14 de Enero! I really felt like that was a blessing of trying to do our
best and just continuing to work hard. I think everyone has to go through
trials like this to show to the Lord that they want to work even when things
aren´t going well. Sometimes it felt like everything I could do to keep on
going, but at the end of the week, even though our numbers were terrible, that
things were coming together, that we did some good this week, that we´re trying
to strengthen the ward and that this next week will be better. We made a plan
on how we can improve, and so we´re going to work on that. I just feel like
we´re being blessed with small and simple things for our diligence, and as we
work on improving our skills with contacting and working on keeping our
attitude during the hard times better, that everything will come together.
I really want to work hard so I can help my companion have a good first
transfer as M1. I feel like we´re together right now so we can learn how to be
better. As a trainee with Elder Mantilla, a missionary who was
"dying," who knew his area very well, it wasn´t hard to have
something to do. I really wasn´t challenged as much as I´m being challenged now
because I could always fall back on his experience. Now Elder Laniel and I have
to learn how to better fulfill our roles in the companionship and we can really
grow. If we aren´t challenged, we won´t grow. I feel like we´re together so we
can grow more faster and be prepared to take on other roles later on in our
Missions.
As far as my comp goes, I really
like Elder Laniel. We´re very similar in many ways, and so we get along very
well. He has a year in the mission, so he has a lot more experience than I do,
but he´s also never been M1 before, and I´ve never really been M2 before
either, since I was being trained. I like how he focuses on how we´re helping
the ward and that he´s looking for people that will help the ward. We try to
visit less actives and find new investigadores that way, since many have kids
that aren´t baptized or we can get referrals and go visit them WITH the
less-active to help them rebuild their testimony. It hasn´t gotten the best
results, but I feel like as we find more less-actives, will be able to help
them more and more.
I guess I should mention that the
schedule changed for the summer. We get up at 7, do the normal excercise, eat,
get ready, etc, and then after personal study we practice for half an hour and
then leave. After lunch, we have comp study and lang study (half an hour) and
then we leave. I´m excited for not having to work the entire siesta, since
that´s the equivalent of walking around in the sun trying to wake people up!
Everyone sleeps through it, so it´s really hard to talk to people during that
time.
Thanks for all the news from home; I
just love hearing how the little ones are doing! And thanks a lot for all your
prayers; they are very much needed! There´s a ton of work to do down here, and
goodness knows I´m one of those simple and weak ones that the Lord is using to
do a mighty work and a wonder. But it would be less effective if all us
missionaries were prideful and overconfident, ¿no?
¡Os quiero!
Élder Andrew McClellan
December 19, 2011
¡Feliz Navidad familia!
It´s so weird to think that
Christmas is Sunday! Super, super weird!
So yeah, the package is in, so
tomorrow I´ll get it after District Meeting. I got Ryan´s present a few weeks
ago, but there´s a little snag lol. I should say that I did open Mom´s present
already, which has been quite nice! Thanks a lot Mom! It´s very fun to have the
music around! The problem is: Mom I´m quite sure used Windows Media Player, or
something like that to do the MP3 player, so all the files are MP3s...Ryan
seems to have used ITUNES, since I know he has it, which has MP4s...meaning
that as far as the player is concerned, that microSD card is empty! Which it
isn´t. So I´m going to have to see what the ciber people here can do para
change the file format so I can actually use it! Sin embargo, the thought
counts a lot more than that! So thanks muchísimo Ryan y Rondy! I was really
excited when I saw what it was, and very sad when the MP3 said it was
empty! I´ll see what I can do with it, but as a future warning to other family
members; if you´re going to send me music, don´t use ITUNES! Reformating is
kind of a pain, and I´m not even sure if I can change (or the guy more
accurately) the format anyways.
As far as the phone call goes, I´m trying to call around 3 or 4 here (we´re 4 hours
ahead, at least according to the second time setting my watch has that I set
before leaving home) which will be 11 or 12 en AZ. I figured calling around
then would be easier for you guys. I have no idea what times you have Church
(Natalie y Shelby) so I hope you can be there! I think I already said that I
have 45mins to talk, so that will be nice. We´re going to have dinner with the
Relief Society President, as long as it´s cool with her husband, so that will
be nice. I just don´t know what time that is! Hopefully we can work out a time
that works for them.
So someone, I think it was mom,
asked if they have any Christmas traditions down here in Argentina. Realmente,
the answer is yes, but it´s more or less no. All I´ve seen is some decoracions
here and there, a little carnival they set up, and an extreme increase in
alcoholic beverages they sell. Oh, and firecrackers. The only tradition
I´ve really heard of is getting amazing drunk. They drink cider and stuff like
strawberry fizz and pineapple (ananá) fizz. The upside is that they sell la
ananá fizz without alcohol! Yea! It looks pretty good, so we want to buy some
at some point. They also have these really good sweetbreads and peanutbrittle,
so I´ve kind of eaten a little too much junk :) I´m going to start a no junk
food diet after Christmas, I think!
As far as the work goes, this week
was similar, but I was significantly happier this week. I just kind of realized
that I can´t measure my success based on things like lessons. Sometimes, we
have to realize that other people have their agency and we can´t force them to
do stuff. Also, part of having faith is having patience. Sometimes the Lord
wants us to work a little while before we see the results that we want to see.
He is the real judge of our success, so I just need to make sure that I´m doing
what he wants us to do. Right now we´ve got one guy who´s really progressing.
Roberto was about to become an antiguo because he didn´t want to commit to
anything, but then he came to Church of his own accord. We went back to teach
him and it turns out that a talk and testimony given by a sister really touched
him and the fact that he came by himself showed that he was ready to receive
his answer. He told us that he´s pretty sure that he´s started to receive it
and he accepted the fecha of the 31st for baptism. He´s still not a hundred
percent sure, but once he´s committed, he´s one of those people that´s going to
have a super strong testimony! I´ll let you know how that goes.
You´ll notice that I´m
attaching some pictures, I´m going to send another email too with more, I don´t
know how many I´m going to try to send since it just takes forever to attach
these things! Either way, I´ll have the card with everything else on it
already. I´ll be more selective with the rest of the photos I send lol.
I´m happy that all the little ones
are doing well, including the "namless one!" I do hope that Jeff´s
little deal clears up so he can continue on with his training. I don´t want him
to have any problems with that. Know that I´m praying for all of you and I´m
looking forward to talking to you on Sunday!
¡Os amo!
Élder Andrew McClellan
December 27, 2011
¡Hola
familia!
So yeah, I have PDay today since
yesterday was the day after Christmas. Honestly, it felt like anyother day; it
didn´t really seem like anything special was happening except that people were
blowing up the rest of their fireworks still lol.
So Nanny asked if I noticed anything
special on the actual days of the 24 and 25th...the answer is yes. It would be
impossible NOT to notice the mounds and mounds of firecrackers they were
setting off! And it was mostly just firecrackers; it was just a bunch of noise
and a little light. Then around Midnight the just started lighting off the real
stuff! It was like everyone and their families were doing it! It was
kinda noisy so I looked out the window and the sky was all tinted red
and the next day you could still see the smoke in the sky lol. It petered off
about 20 minutes after it started, which was nice since it wouldn´t have been a
very fun night if they had kept on doing it! Asides that, I just talked to a
few more drunk people than I have yet talked to lol. One guy was telling me
that we were doing wrong and that he belonged to the greatest Church in the
World and he said that he was "reprending" us! It was pretty funny.
We were waiting for a member to show up so we could enter the house, so we just
kind of "listened" and were amused. Thankfully I didn´t meet any mean
drunks since most people were inside due to the rain. It was actually a lot
like Washington in late March, early April, so it was kind of nice! I was in
Barrio II on Divisiones up until that night right before we had our dinner with
the Soloaga Familia. They´re a young couple in our ward and are way cool; Pablo
is the secretary of the ward and Adriana is the RS Presidenta, and they have a
little 1 year-old kid named Máximo. We just had a big dinner with cérdo asado y
pollo asado. That´s just pork and chicken, grilled in the oven. Or at least as
close as I can get to it lol. We also had brownies and ice cream and non-alcoholic
cider! I was almost surprised that they have that year, since almost everyone
just uses holidays as an excuse to get drunk and not work. The more important
thing about the family, however, is that we´re the first people that
they´ve spent time with since they got married; they decided before they got
married to spend it alone. But they said that since we´re good
Elderes that they were going to share it with us. I could just feel the joy and
the happiness that the family felt, especially la Hermana, at having us
there. That, I think, was the second-best part about this particular Christmas;
that family! The 25th was way tranquilo; almost everyone just stayed at
home all day and did nothing. I feel like the whole weekend would´ve been different
if it hadn´t rained a ton on Saturday in the morning and then lightly rained
all day. It gets super muddy, so no one wants to leave! It was a little
blessing honestly, since I don´t really feel like dealing with more drunk
people than I have to! And of course, the best part about Christmas was the
phone call! It was nice to talk to mom and everyone just a little; it seemed a
lot shorter than it actually was! It was nice to just chat about random stuff
and all. Lydia and Anita made me smile a lot! They're little cuties! Lydia´s
excitement about everything was adorable, as was the comment about the hat made
by Anita!
I also really enjoyed what Nanny
told me about little Samuel! He sounds like a way fun baby, and it´ll be really
fun when I get to see him again! How´s little Shayon doing? I have this
impression of a super-quieto bebé, but some more info on how he´s growing up
would be nice :D
I´m glad that everything seems like
it´s going well at home! I loved hearing about the excitement of the little
ones, and the general craziness of it all! I wish good luck to Ryan and Rondy
for the little guy that´s coming soon, and I´m grateful that Jeff doesn´t have
anything long-term. Know that I´m well and that I´m learning and growing as I
go!
¡Os amo!
Élder Andrew McClellan
P.S. Someone should email me
pictures! I want to see how the little ones and everyone were enjoying
themselves! ¡Enviámelas! (Just a little vos for y´all!)
