October 2, 2017

October 2, 2017

Hey Family! Happy Late Birthday first, to Shaun, and now Happy Early Birthday to Mom!!

We got to watch conference! This conference was really good! I don’t know if I am just paying more attention now, but I felt like this conference was extremely inspired. 

This week was a good week. We pretty much did a lot of explaining about Prophets to help people prepare for the conference. We used a lot, Amos 3:7, 1 Nephi 22:1-2, and the story of Naaman in 2 Kings chapter 5. I really love learning about the prophets and I think it’s such a special moment that we get to have every 6 months that the prophets and apostles can talk to us.

One Elder in the district (Elder Utai) helped me realize the calling of the apostles and prophets when I was verifying with them through a call one night. He said “Did you see how the prophets and apostles aren’t afraid of anything?” And I was like, “Yeah!”  It’s so true, they have such amazing testimonies, and really when we can listen to what they have to say, we know that they are called of God. They talk with such power and authority because they know that Christ Lives and that this is his Church. 

It made me reflect on how we should be as missionaries, also being witnesses that we have a Savior, and that he is Jesus Christ. I loved all the analogies that they had in the conference.  I really liked the talks of Dallin H Oaks, Tadd R Callister, and Deiter F Uchdorf, but there were so many other great ones.   I just told my companion that I wish I had the time to re-watch all of them.  And, well, I hope you guys feel the same way. :)

This week was good though. A pretty normal week. I had exchanges with Elder Stocks and we did a lot. Went to an area where we hadn’t gone a lot to contact. On the way saw 3 dead dogs. Saw a big spider, too. We walked a lot because pretty much all the appointments went through, but that happens sometimes. We cooked chicken milanesa for lunch (it was one kilo) and then we had a lot left for dinner, too!

My companion likes to cook, and we have been cooking a lot of things with noodles. We made a hamburger helper type of thing last night and that was pretty good!

All in all we have been good!

Here is Elder Andersen and me with a Paris Saint Germain Jersey. We went to the fair and bought one.

Then this is another picture of us today. We are writing a little bit earlier because we are going to go to San Javier where there is the statue of Christ. We are going with Pedro and some other Elders.

Then this is a picture of me with Elder Stock in exchanges. We had quite the little adventure.

Here’s a huge spider that we found in the church. There is a shoe by it (not mine...) for the scale.

September 25, 2017

September 25, 2017

This week was an interesting week. Full of adventures.

I had exchanges with another Elder, Elder Kana from Kentucky. He’s pretty awesome and we had a fun time together.

We had a Zone training and it was great. I love the zone and am happy to be here in Tucuman. We talked about talking to everyone that we possibly can.

We met a Lady this week that is from Ghana. We started talking to her and she told us that she doesn’t speak Spanish well, and that she speaks English. I thought for a second and was worried about how we could explain to her and communicate to her what we were doing and who we are... then I remembered we speak English too! Haha. After that we started speaking in English with her and she was really interested. We said we are the missionaries, and she said oh yes, from the Latter Day Saints and we said exactly! We returned and gave a full lesson in English. That was something I have never done in my whole mission. It was hard. The next lesson we are going to be explaining the Book of Mormon more, and well we only give out BoM’s in Spanish, normally. Just a few weeks ago we went to the offices and we brought back 2 Books of Mormon in English. I don’t know why we did. But we did. So I’m convinced that this is one of the purposes.

That I think was the highlight of the week and a big testimony for me of the gifts that God gives us to do his work.

Love you all.

Elder Wolf

Only have a couple pictures this week. 

This week I stepped out of the church one time and it felt good outside. The sun was setting and I looked out. There’s not that much to see in the picture. It’s just part of the church, but to me it was kind of a shock to SEE the difference. I just sat and thought for a second about how I’m in Argentina. It’s still somewhat of a shock when I think about it.

  

Then I saw my reflection in a cup of mate that I was drinking in the morning and so I took a picture.

September 18, 2017

September 18, 2017

Hey family!

It’s fun to read the Spanish! Love it!

How awesome that you guys got to see the air balloon races, I miss some of those fun little events that Reno has.

And well I had memorized the two hymns and got them down pretty well, and then in the end we didn’t have a piano for the meeting with the leaders (where I was going to play). But we did perform a musical number with the district and two other elders, and that was fun.

The conference with Elder Bragg was awesome. Afterwards we ate empanadas.

Yeah! It’s great. We are also kind of filtering through some investigators and seeing who is really willing, but we are happy to hear about the people who can fulfill their commitments. And yaaaay! It´ll pass by quick! Don’t worry!

Thanks so much. We feel your prayers and I am so grateful for all the support that you are for me.

Here are some pictures.

One of Elder Bragg and us

 

The other of us in the bus

A before and after picture of getting a haircut. I was needing one badly.

  

September 11, 2017 Time to Practice

September 11, 2017

Hey all!

This week was pretty good!

Elder Bragg (a seventy) will be coming to have a conference with us on Thursday and they asked me and the district to sing a musical number. They also asked me to play two songs for a meeting with leaders with Elder Bragg. I told them that I do know how to play but I’m not fluent and that I don’t feel comfortable. They told me, “Okay, well you have time to practice” ... so I have been practicing a lot. I just kept thinking, “Why didn’t I practice more?” haha.  But I pretty much have them down.

We focused on finding some new people to teach and we found a lot of people this week.

We found two Africans from Senegal with Pedro.

We have had some other lessons with some awesome families. We met a family, the Marchettis. Their name comes from Italy, and they are half Catholics and half another Christian religion. They welcomed us and we got to talk about the gospel.

A brother in the Ward (Leo Trejo) had a baby (his first) and he asked us to participate in his blessing and that was an honor

That’s about it though.  A good week.

Love,

Elder Wolf

This is us one lunch.

A picture of me in the pension.

We had a lesson with Pedro and two guys named Mamaru, and Abdul. They are from Senegal, Africa. They come here to sell stuff and to work. It was a fun lesson.

   

Here is us in Pedro’s car.

September 4, 2017

September 4, 2017

Hey there, fam!

Well I ended up extending my mission to the 3rd of April. I was praying a lot to try and know and I felt comfortable with extending.  Seeing that now there are no more extensions in the mission, I don’t know why I was presented with a choice like this. Supposedly there was some mistake or error in the system and well they ended up letting me have the choice of extending a transfer. I felt like I should take advantage of an opportunity like this and try to magnify my calling the most that I can in this time.

I hope you know that I love you all! Love and miss you guys so much. I have had some dreams that I was home but it’s so strange. I love it like there´s a joy of seeing you guys and all but I also felt sad to not be in the mission. I can’t quite explain it but I know that this calling and opportunity is once in a lifetime.

This week we had a return missionary come with us a lot. He is so awesome! He´s called Gustavo, and he always talks about his mission in Paraguay. 

This week we focused a lot on trying to get people to church and we had a few investigators. Some older investigators that never came before were able to come to church. Also an investigator who wants to get baptized and married. Her name is Mikaela. There is a little more progression from her so we are happy for her.

Nothing super crazy happened this week.

A thing we ate this week are Arabic empanadas. They are made with raw ground beef and they cook the beef with lemon juice. They then throw them in the oven a little bit to cook the bread on the outside.  They are actually really good!

That’s about it though!

Love you all!

Elder Wolf

Here's me in the same position but with different elders... jaja.  My companion Elder Andersen and then with Elder Lowe from another area in the district.

  

Here is a picture of the train and part of our area.

August 28, 2017

August 28, 2017

Hey Family!

Hope you guys are all well!

This week was good!

It was pretty normal. We are working with a Mikaela. She wants to get baptized and we are just waiting for her to get married with her boyfriend.

We found a family this week that is really nice! One of the ladies accepted a baptism date and so we are working with her. About 10 years ago was the last time that missionaries came to their house and we happened to contact their house and know them.

A little spiritual thought: Alma 26:22.  While reading the Book Of Mormon, I really liked this scripture because it talks about repentance. But it says a lot of really awesome things. I like it because it shows us how we can apply the atonement to ourselves and then use it for the mission work. It says that if we pray diligently, and repent we will be able to bring thousands of people to the gospel. I think that that’s an amazing promise that we have and I think and invite all of us to try and apply that in our own lives so that we can help others to have the same peace and joy that we have.

Love you all!

Here is a picture with Elder Kanan. He is in another area of the district, and we had exchanges one day.

This is a picture of “dulce de batata.” It translates to the “sweet of sweet potato” or something like that. It’s like a brick of that (sweet potato) but they eat it here as a desert. They eat it with a cheese. I thought it was the weirdest thing at first but I got used to it and now I really like it! We bought some and I have been eating it. You eat it just like that. A slice of both and then you put them together.

  

This is a picture of a conference in the stake center that we had with the stake here. I saw Exequiel Trejo and his girlfriend there, and also Elder Santana. We had to take a picture, and so here it is. I love them both. 

August 21, 2017

August 21, 2017

Hey all,

I can’t believe how quick the time passes by. I think my date that I get home is April 3. I think it got moved up or something. It must be when the transfer is.

This week was an interesting week. We had to go to Salta to do some customs paperwork for my companion. We had to travel to Salta 4 hours and then 4 hours back. It was a little tiring, but all good.

This week we also had an activity. We are trying to help the wards help support the mission work with some activities. I had asked a lot of people if they had seen Meet the Mormons and they said, “No.” I thought, “Whaaaat? But you’re Mormon!” haha.  And so we had an activity with that!  We made popcorn and we had soda there and well we watched Meet the Mormons. It was good and about 20 people had shown up. Some of them brought their friends.

More than that, this week went by really quick and we are continuing to teach some people and look for more!

Much love!

Elder Wolf

Here is a picture of Elder Andersen and me in the train tracks of our area.

Also this is a picture of the movie night activity that we had. We watched Meet the Mormons.

This picture is of when we had to go to Salta this week for some paperwork with customs for my companion.

A member of one of the wards gave us ties and so now itis the tie of our district! this is a picture of us.