August 22, 2016 Transfers, baptisms, and knitting

August 22, 2016

I love you all! I’m doing good, but I do miss my family. I will never take for granted, and I hope that I never do take for granted the family I have. You all mean so much to me. :)

This week we had transfers and I am staying in Salta! I love Salta and this barrio. Elder Ferreira went to Jujuy to be a leader of the zone. I received Elder Rudder as my new companion. He is the Elder that I was with in the pension in Tucuman! Haha.  Crazy but awesome!

I have a lot of hope for this area. I know that Elder Rudder and I are going to keep ourselves busy.

We have two baptisms planned for this week hopefully we can have the both of them. One is Rita the lady who just got married, and the other is a joven (youth) named Miguel. He is super awesome and just needs to do a few things before he gets baptized. 

There are some neighborhoods that I still don’t know. I feel that this week there are going to be a lot of questions but one needs to learn somehow! Haha

I learned how to knit - haha - because there was an activity in the church! I made a tie! Haha

More than anything this is all

I love you all!

Elder Wolf

This is a family that we had a family home evening with. They are members and are really good!

This is Elder Ferreira and me in the terminal.

August 15, 2016 A Week of Miracles

August 15, 2016

Sorry last week I was kind of short, we were in a cyber (cyber-café) and it wasn’t very good. I couldn’t send photos. 

Haha, it’s always fun to hear about the funny things too that happen in the week! Oh, Otto! (We wrote to him about Otto trying to eat wood chips because they fell off the kitchen table)

This week was a week of miracles! 

We have been working with Gaston and Rita and they needed to get married so that Rita could be baptized. The last week they said that they weren’t going to get married, and we talked with them and told them that we really can’t do anything if they aren’t going to progress.  We expressed to them that we see the potential that they have as a family and we had fasted for them the last week. After we wrote our families last week, Gaston called us and told us that they were preparing their papers to get married. We were so excited and honestly, I was so happy that they made this decision on their own – that they prayed and felt this answer. We were really so excited for them and we helped with what we could to prepare for their marriage.

Also we have been working with a joven (youth) named Ulises and his animo (excitement) is better than his sister, who is our investigator, and they are starting to progress. We got them more involved with the stories of the Book of Mormon with the cartoons.

We have also been working with an investigator named Manuel. He is really awesome but is passing through some problems. He is progressing and is doing good!

As for me, I am doing good. I gained a testimony that when we are serving the Lord and when we are willing, the lord blesses us. There was a night that I was pretty hungry and I thought, “No try not to think about yourself.”  And then, that night, some members gave us some sandwiches. I knew that it was an answer to our prayers and that the Lord blesses us in many different ways. I got the opportunity to see this blessing immediately.

This is the last week of the transfer, and I am nervous, haha, otra vez (another time or again) because it’s very probable that I will stay in the area. I know this area better, and I am excited to see what happens but I also feel the need to step up as a leader.

(We wrote to Jacob about a funeral we attended) It’s always sad and scary to hear about these things, but there is a certain hope, and joy that the gospel brings. We each have a part of the plan that God has for us, and it’s an assurance that we have as members. This doesn’t mean that these things aren’t difficult but it means that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that he made it possible for us to overcome these things that make us sad.

That’s about it for this week! I love you all!

Gaston and Rita's Wedding

Elder Wolf and Elder Ferreira

August 8, 2016 Lava ropas y perseverar hasta el fin

August 8, 2016 Lava ropas y perseverar hasta el fin

Oh wow school! It’s so different to think that you guys just finished summer, because it’s different here. It’s a little chilly some days and then other days the sun leaves and we are hot haha. Reminds me of Reno sometimes.

I’m still working to better my Spanish, haha, but it’s not too bad. I’m working on trying to talk more too. It sometimes hard in a pension of 4 to include myself being the one with the least experience. I try sometimes but sometimes things just go over my head. 

This week we had another lava ropa (washing machine) situation! We bought an automatic washing machine used from a member and, well, we barely fit up the stairs of our own pension and so we had to lift this washing machine up 1 floor! Haha, it was difficult because the stairs double but we did it! lo hicimos!!! 

We did something different this week. Elder Ferreira felt that we should all work to contact some new houses in the area of the other elders, which is in the same ward. So we did divisions, and I was with Elder Benitez from Urugay. We contacted a lot of houses but it was really cool to do, and it made me excited for them because there were some people that I think have a lot of potential in their area.

This semana (week) is going to be a little difficult. We are in the point where our investigators aren’t progressing and we are going to have to drop them. We have had some talks with some of the people and told them what our purpose is and that we care about them, but how it’s up to them now to act.

We have been using Alma chapter 38 a lot about persevere to the end. I think is how you say it in English. Perseverar hasta el fin? It’s a good chapter, and it talks about a lot of principals. 

I have been reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish a lot, and have been trying to read about 2 chapters a day

But that’s about all :)

I hope you guys have a good week! I hope school goes well!

August 1, 2016 Gingerbread and hotdogs

It’s such an honor, really to be doing this work. There’s nothing more fulfilling at times. We have been dealing with a family of a recent convert and he is only fifteen and he has a lot of younger siblings. His mom, in this moment, isn’t very present in their family. We have been having family home evenings with them and I always say this but I’m so grateful for the things and the family that I was able to grow up with. We are trying to help this family with what we can and like I said too there isn’t anything more fulfilling than to give and serve.

They say pucha a lot here, and it means dangit.  Haha.  It’s funny to see the slang and terms that you pick up in every area. I hope Chris Harlow knows too how much of a help he was to the missionary, and still is I’m sure, because now I realize the importance of a good ward mission leader and the affects it can have on a ward and on the work of the missionaries.

This week we have been trying to help a couple get married and things have been going a little bit downhill.  It’s in the point where they need to exercise their faith. It’s hard to see things go downhill but people still have their agency and sometimes we can’t do anything about that. Our proposito (purpose) is to invite people to come to Christ. Also it’s been hard to enter into houses lately. Some neighborhoods are really religious.

We had two new investigators in the church. One was Miguel who is 17 and is very receptive. The other is a girl named Brenda, who has 11 years. She is the sister of the recent convert we have been working with. 

Last P-day I was a little grumpy because I needed a haircut and I didn’t get one, and well it’s a rule that we maintain our hair neat. And so I cut my own hair! Haha.  It turned out not too bad! Haha Tony should be proud! ;D Today I gave a haircut to Elder Benitez. Haha

Oh also this week we had divisions (splits) with the other Elders of Independencia and it went well, I got to see the other area of our barrio.

Other than that we have been working with our new mission leader and he is super awesome! We are so excited to work with him more.

I think that is all for this week not too much happened.

Hasta la proxima semana :)

Un alfajor con dulce de leche (gingerbread with caramel) that Elder Benitez gave us from Urugay. This was our activity in a place called San Lorenzo in Salta. We played capture the flag and it was really fun!

This photo is of some people from two of the zones here in Salta that we played capture the flag with.

 

Elder Reyna and me. He is almost done with his mission.

Then there is Elder Ferreira and me.

We ate something called a pancho con poncho today. It’s a hotdog with ham and melted cheese on top. It was in the fair in Centro.

The other week we played go fish with a recent convert and his siblings.

It has been overcast, and I love it! The clouds in the morning creep over the mountains and it’s so awesome to watch.