"The Night Is Darkest Before The Dawn"

Hey, this is gonna be pretty short.

Really this week has been difficult, lot of let downs really with investigators being on the verge being baptized and not coming through. We just gotta work harder, right? I do feel like we are working hard. If we give everything we got then that´s what makes a successful missionary.

We´re feeling the Spirit. We are finding people that have a lot of potential. Maybe not people that will baptize in 2 to 3 weeks but people the Lord has put in our path for a reason. We have found a select group of people and families that are really prepared. I know we can help them out with this message we have. 

I feel like there´s a lot of bad things happening lately in the world and all that in our area. But Through the week I remember having some let downs and for some reason the quote from the Dark Knight popped in my head. When Harvey Dent is having a press conference with the city of Gotham. and he says ¨The Night is Just Darkest Before The Dawn, and I promise you the dawn is coming.¨ I love that quote and it was in my head this week.  I don´t know It kept me going. I read Ether 12:4 in the Book Of Mormon that says. 

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with ^asurety ^bhope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which ^chopecometh of ^dfaith, maketh an ^eanchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in ^fgood works, being led to ^gglorify God.

Look, we gotta stay hopeful in this world. We gotta have faith when the odds are stacked against us and the situation isn´t looking to good. Faith and Hope is an anchor for our souls. We gotta keep moving forward and God will lead the way to help us progress and help us to become instruments to lead others to him.

That kept me going. I hope anyone who is discouraged out there reads this and feels they can keep going.

The Work of God is a miracle. I´m blessed and grateful to be a part of sharing that work with others.

´´The Night is Just Darkest Before The Dawn.´´

Much love,

​​

Élder Batman

Rama Monterrico

Monterrico, Jujuy

La Misión Argentina Salta

PDAY

TILCARA

LA GARGANTA DEL DIABLO (The Devils Throat)

ZONA DE PELIGRO (DANGER ZONE)

The majority of our zone in Tilcara and La Garganta Del Diablo

#BUCKETS2BAPTISMS

Hey fam,

Before I forget, I need to share a story from the week before.

Let me paint a picture for you.

It’s 5:00 in Barrio San Vicente (a rough part of our Area) we were contacting houses for about an hour. With little luck. We didn’t enter in a single house. It was a bit frustrating. We walked by a basketball court and saw a group of boys shooting hoops. I feel that we should go up and ball up with them for a sec. I ask for them to dish me the rock and they look at me real weird but they pass me the ball, and I dribble it between my legs, do a stepback behind the 3 point line, let the ball off with a nice stroke and NOTHING BUT NET. (I SWEAR THAT WAS A BLESSING FROM GOD) I don’t shoot very well in basketball (Chandler Michael is witness) but I nailed it right there in front of these chicos. They all started yelling OOOOOOHHHHHHHH ËL PASTOR SABE COMO JUGAR””The Pastor knows how to play”#thatsrightson I was shooting the ball with them and playing a little bit for a good 15 minutes and my companion was playing a little futbol with the other kids. We then start talking to them and talking about what we do and asked if we can share a message with them THEY ALL SAT DOWN AND LISTENED TO US IN THAT BASKETBALL COURT. We gave a prayer and shared a short message of the restoration and baptism. It was an interesting lesson but a good one. We marked appointments to go to their house in the future and we left with a word of prayer. We found new investigators through playin ball.

#Buckets2Baptisms

This week was good. The Famila Caile is progressing well. Juan Pablo accepted a baptismal date for the 9^th of September. We taught the restoration finally after answering all his questions about the afterlife and the plan of salvation. He accepted everything we taught. He read what we left him and he said he would pray about it. We asked if he received an answer would he baptize in this church and he said “Si, porque no?”(Yeah, why not?)

 Maria Romero accepted a baptismal date for the 3^rd. We are trying to invite them all. We are putting baptismal dates with others but they aren’t showing up to church so their dates fall.

We had to go to Salta for paperwork for Elder Gueller so he can get a visa. Hermana Smith and Daldegan had to go too. We trekked on the bus together to Salta. There was a movie on the bus and it was from Argentina it was interesting except there was a sex scene and us 4 missionaries looked away and covered our eyes. Hermana Daldegan was yelling “NO NO NO”it was really funny and awkward. When we got to Salta we stayed in the house of The Ap’s and office elders. I got to see my MTC Comp Elder McGrath. It was real good to see him. The office elders are real funny and I love being with groups of missionaries. Elder Wolf and his companion Elder Andersen arrived at 2:30 am and we talked a bit. We had to get up at 6:30 to go to the argentine equivalent of the DMV. It was good to see Elder Wolf we got a lot in common. He’s a funny guy. At 3 in the afternoon we left for our area again and we got back at 5:30. We passed out fliers for an english class we are doing every Thursday. We are finding new investigators through it, it’s great.

We had interviews with President. My companion has been saying good things about me to President and he sees the work and effort we are giving out here in Monterrico. He was happy with my progress. He talked about FOOTBALL with me for like 5 minutes in my interview before (he looked in my file and saw that I played football in highschool) President Orquera is from Argentina and doesn’t understand it bu he told me a story of how he tried playing it with his companion and some other elders in his mission in a pickup game and how he couldn’t catch real well but that one time he caught it and got a touchdown. I love my President. Hahahah. He gave me some tips on things I wanted to get better at. Good guy.

I love the unity of our district. We do everything together for PDAY and it’s been real fun. I’m glad to be district leader of a district of awesome missionaries. We are working hard. This month has been a challenge but we keep working.

Not too much to report, but we keep working.

Much love!

FOTOS
BUS TRIP

PAPERWORK

MISION ARGENTINA SALTA (im nearin the top :( )

Élder Batman

Rama Monterrico

Monterrico, Jujuy

La Misión Argentina Salta

I Feel You Alex Ray

 Hey guys!

                Well this week had a lot of up’s and down’s. A week of trial and learning to say the least.

                I remember reading my best buddy, Elder Ray’s email the week before, (Who’s Serving in Uganda) how he had a day full of appointments and went out to work with optimism and excitement and pretty much every appointment fell through. And the day was just a beatdown. I remember thinking “Man that’s rough.” And then that experience came right over to Monterrico, Jujuy. I feel you ARay..

                We had a DAY full of Appointments, Members that would come with us to show us references, A Branch Activity to find members and old investigators, LOADS OF APPOINTMENTS. AND IT ALL FELL THROUGH. OUR BACK UP PLANS FELL THROUGH. THE MEMBERS COULDN’T MAKE IT. THE ACTIVITY WENT TO DUST AND IT RAINED HARD AND MAN IT WAS COLD AS A CROSSOVER FROM ALLEN IVERSON. So we just resorted to knocking doors all day, and it seemed like everyone got the memo to not let the lads with the white shirts and ties in that day.

 Although, out of all the 12938483 appointments we had (or maybe just 11) two of them let us in for 10 minutes. We thought” At least the people that let us in are progressing towards baptism” and haha you know what? They ALL told us that they COULDN’T be baptized on the 19^th. What a day right?

I was really beat down that day. It felt like everything was so good. To prepare 4 baptisms for the 19^th and to have them all give us reasons why we can’t and to have all of our appointments crash. It was pretty devastating. I could tell my hijito was pretty bummed. I tried keeping a good attitude saying there will be the next appointment, or we’ll find some new people. And it just didn’t happen. I kept a smile and a good attitude, I verified with my district, wrote in the Area Book, and just kinda broke down while praying. I felt the love of my Heavenly Father comforting me. Sometimes I feel that’s just how it goes sometimes in missionary work. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s not just baptisms and finding great families every week and day. Sometimes the Lord tests us a bit. To see how willing we are. It really sucked and really that day was like the worst of it but this week wasn’t too far off from that trend.

The tender mercies of this week is the Familia Caile (CHAI-LAY). I called Juan Pablo Thursday (The day that everything hit the fan). I called him to see how he and his family was doing after the recent passing of his Father. I didn’t want to try to hassle him for an appointment, but without even asking him he said “Hermanos, when can you come by and visit?” I was kind of shocked. I thought we would need to give them a little space for them to mourn and recover a bit but they NEEDED us. I feel like that was a blessing for our efforts. We set an appointment for Friday. Juan Pablo received us into his home and his mom was there also. They looked really good for people that just lost a loved one the week before. They said the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation helped them to feel comfort during all of this. That yeah, it was sad that they lost him, but they know they will see him again. They also feel that we are a blessing in their home because they fell at peace when we enter into their home and pray and when we share the message we have. We answered all their questions they had about death and the afterlife and they felt better. It was a very spiritual lesson. My companion shared experiences that he felt the presence of his late friend and teammate when he played his senior year of Soccer. My companion testified with power about the plan of salvation. The Spirit was so strong.

Juan Pablo asked us if we could come back the next day and teach his sister. Who has taken the passing of her father really hard. We came back the next day and within 30 seconds of the arriving she was already in loads of tears. She asked us a lot of questions and the answers brought her comfort. I felt impressed to ask her if we could give her a priesthood blessing of comfort. She said we could and the blessing was real powerful and spiritual. After the blessing she said she felt a heat all throughout her body and a peace in her heart. She was at ease and was happy. She received the peace she needed. The discussion was just overwhelmed with the Spirit. I have really come to love this family, I’ve come to worry about them and I really feel like they are chosen and prepared to join the fold of the Good Shepherd, which is the Lord and follow his Gospel. I know it. I just know that they will find more and more peace through this gospel.

                This mission sometimes has the difficult days but the Lord knows our capabilities and always has something in store for our growth and progress.

I am thankful for this week. I am thankful for my family. I am thankful that my family will be together through all eternity through this marvelous plan that are Heavenly Father has. That no matter what happens in this life, we will ALWAYS be together. This is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Élder Batman

Rama Monterrico

Monterrico, Jujuy

La Misión Argentina Salta

HiiPower

• 
  

Hey guys how´s it going?

It was a real good week. We had a good zone conference and we´ve got a lot of work done.

In the zone conference we talked a lot about helping people get to church and the importance that attendance of church plays in conversion. We talked a whole lot about how we can use our members to help our investigators come to church. We put a lot of those ideas in practice and we´ve seen some difference in our area.

The Dad of Juan Pablo Caile, (Who I gave a priesthood blessing to last week) passed away Thursday Morning. In the blessing I said he would wake up to see his family one last time before departing here. That blessing was a very spiritual and heart wrenching also. Saying that man has few moments left on the earth is quite sad to say. Juan Pablo´s Dad was unconscious for 3 weeks. Juan Pablo called me and told me that Thursday Morning he woke up and looked at his family for a good 5 minutes and within an hour passed away. Juan Pablo and his family are quite sad right now but they called and thanked us for all we did and that we  (acting in the Lord´s authority) gave his Dad a chance to see his family one last time. This testifies to me of the power of the Priesthood. The Priesthood is the power and authority to act in God´s Name for the salvation of his children. A priesthood blessing is given under the direction of the Spirit and if it is under the Spirit then it is according to the will of God. It was God´s will that Juan Pablo´s dad would wake up and see his family one last time when the Doctor´s said he probably wouldn´t, it was God´s will brought Juan Pablo´s dad home. It´s God´s Will that is growing the faith of Juan Pablo and his family. I have only known this family for about two weeks now. I really think that the Gospel will help this family to become whole. I have really came to love this family, to think about this family, and to worry about this family. REAL MISSIONARY WORK IS LOVE. If we love the people we are willing to go the extra mile for them, to prepare ourselves just a bit more and to really think ¨How can we help this family?¨¨How can they get closer to Christ?¨Love is key in the work of the Lord. I am so happy to be a part of this marvelous work. ¨Que os ameis unos a otros, como yo os he amado.¨Juan 13:34  (Love one another, as I have loved you.)

Elder Gueller and I are the dream team, we are out here working hard. I am astounded by his willingness to grow and keep working. I don´t speak any English to him. I imagine it´s frustrating for him but it will help him out in the long run. We are preparing 3 people for baptism on the 19^th. We have put a goal in faith to finish August with 4 baptisms. We just got to keep working and keep grinding. If we keep searching and inviting we will help that fourth person to enter into the waters of baptism.

Much love guys,

Élder Batman

Rama Monterrico

Monterrico, Jujuy

La Misión Argentina Salta