February's mission letters:
Feb. 6th
¡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
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. 13th
¡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
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. 20th
¡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!
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!
