#Blessed

Como andan locos?

This week was dope. We had a lot of success this week. Elder Lowe and I are working hard and working efficiently. My first week here in the church we had 20 attending this week we worked hard to get people to come back to church. We had 50 people come to church this week as a ward. It was great and the excitement of the ward really raised up. 

We had a lot of investigators come to church which was a blessing. Jose Juarez and Noemi Juarez attended church. They attend every week. They have been working to try to get married and baptized. Jose needs to get his divorced finalized from his previous marriage. (Which is quite a pain to get all taken care off.) So we weren´t sure if this was going to happen soon. WELL THURSDAY HE TOLD US HE GOT HIS DIVORCE FINALIZED FROM HIS PREVIOUS MARRIAGE AND THAT HE WILL BE ABLE TO GET MARRIED IN THIS NEXT TWO WEEKS. They were so happy. He hugged us with almost tears in his eyes.

We put a date for the 18th. #blessed

Monica and her daughter Marlen have accepted a baptismal date for the 11th along with their neighbor Rocio. They all showed up to church and MONICAS SON AND ROCIOS SISTER CAME AS WELL. Monica´s son didn´t like religion and wanted no part of us. We invited all of them to come to church and Cristian suprisingly said YES. We were suprised as was Monica. And he came and HE LOVED IT. He said he wants to clean up his act and get baptized. He didn´t want to be baptized the 11th, but he wants to think it over and let us know when he thinks he should be. #blessed

Monica said that here husband moved back in. It´s common to call the person you love with husband or wife even if you aren´t legally married. We were worried that was the case. She was so excited for her baptized and understood all the commandments so we asked her if she was married and she said ´´yeah I am legally married. We are just working things out for the kids and he does better in the home.¨ HUGE RELIEF. SHE IS MARRIED. FINDING SOMEONE MARRIED IN ARGENTINA IS LIKE FINDING A UNICORN.  

If everything goes well we will have 5 to 7 baptisms in November.

A lot of people struggling with addicition are coming to us for help. There is a lot of drug problems in Tucuman. We are finding some good people. They have got a road ahead of them but they have potential.

PROGRESS

Funny Things:

Elder Lowe got pooped on by a bird in a tree when we were eating a crescant waiting for the bus.

Then the next day, I HAD A PARROT IN MY HAND AND IT POOPED IN MY HAND.#birdshatemissionaries

We survived off 9 pesos for 4 days. Which is the equivalent of 50 cents. #ballinonabudget

We ran 8 blocks to get back to the pension before 10 after eating a giant sandwich. #stitchesinthesides

FOTOS

I got to visit my old area UNIVERSITARIO today. It was dope.

LOVE YOU GUYS

Élder Batman

Barrio El Colmenar

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán

La Misión Argentina Salta

Lost, Then Found

Hey what´s up guys?

Well I am getting all settled in here in my new area. This area is awesome. There is a lot of potential here. The people are a lot more open here and it´s a lot easier to find new investigators. My companion Elder Lowe is a stud. We get a long real well. He works hard, he´s obedient, and speaks well for someone with little time in the mission. We are working our butts off. We have been finding a lot of new people to teach, and we´ve been putting baptismal dates and goals with people like nobody´s business. We have been trying to be more bolder and inviting to baptism on the first lesson everytime, and we have gotten quite a bit of no´s but we´ve also got some yeses. I´ll take that anyday.

We preparing a lot for baptism in the weeks to come. On the 4th of November we should have some people getting baptized. We need to help some of our investigators get divorced so they can get married.  But we are working. The Familia Juarez is one of those families. They are basically members of the church they just aren´t baptized yet. They want to be baptized so bad but Brother Jose Juarez has to get a divorce from his previous marriage, and then get married to Hermana Naomi so they can be baptized. They´re so loving and kind. They really take good care of us. We are hoping and praying they can get all the paperwork and legal work done so they can take part of this great ordinance and follow Christ.

There´s a lot of great families here that take care of the missionaries and I am so thankful for that. I have come to realize how much of a blessing we are to others. People really need the missionaries in their lives to bless their homes. I´m glad we can help uplift these families as they have uplifted us.

So I really like this area. I think Elder Lowe and I are going to have a ton of success together in this area. We are going to focus on the members a lot here and building them up because there is only 20 active members in this ward. It´s a big chapel for a little amount of people. We´re going to focus on building the core and reactivating a lot of members. I know we will make the most of it.

Spiritual Experience of the week:

Elder Lowe and I were looking for a house of an old investiagator that him and his old companion use to come to. We were looking for it for a good 20 minutes. My companion was getting frustrated and said ´´we´re lost´´ and apologized to me for wasting time. I felt prompted and said ´´We are here for a reason.¨ So we kept walking and going down roads that the both of us didn´t recognize for 10 more minutes when we saw a man sitting down in front of his house with crutches. We felt very prompted to talk to him. He invited us in. He gave us some water as it was very hot that day.  His name was Rocky. He had a tragic accident and had a prosthetic leg. He also is an alcoholic. He was explaining to us his life and the things that had happened with him. He explained his sorrow. We explained to him about the love our Father in Heaven has for us and has for him. That we all pass through challenges and that he is a strong man. We explained the Plan that God has for him. He liked what he heard. We testified very strongly that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can make him feel whole. He stopped. Looked us dead in the eye and asked. ´´Did God send you?¨ We said with much conviction that ´´Yes, He sent us.´´ He began to explain with tears in his eyes that he had made the decision that he was going to take his own life later that night that he didn´t feel a purpose in his life anymore. He thanked us and thanked God for sending us. HAD WE HAD NOT OF LISTENED TO THE SPIRITUAL PROMPTINGS WE HAD, I´m not sure if Rocky would be alive this day. I know and testify that God lives and is among us. And that he uses us as his tools and instruments to help people. We most act on the impressions we have because it can even be as important as saving the life of another. I love being a missionary. We are really out here saving souls.

Funny Things:

A drunk middle aged guy was stopped us and was speaking to us in Portugues and Spanish? He wasn´t making sense at all and was as hammered as a nail, he had shook my hand but he wouldn´t let go. Everytime I tried to let go he kept tightening his grip. I kept telling him to let go of my hand but he wouldn´t budge. He just kept slurring ´´Portugues´´ at us so I saw no other choice to grip his hand with a lot of strength, and he let go real quick. My companion seeing that we were close to the pension didn´t want him to follow us and to know where we lived so he said to the guy ¨Hey look that guy over there wants to talk to you he´s calling your name.¨ He looked around for a good 5 seconds and we just walked away as soon as he turned around. When he looked back we were already have a block away. We´re a good team.

We contacted some guys playing basketball. We played a game to 15. It was my comp and I with another guy, against three other guys. We beat them. It was real competitive. We were playing in shirts and ties as well. We shared a message of the restoration after and invited them to come to a church service sunday and ball with us mondays at the church, (they didn´t come)

Got to make the most of missionary work and use your talents.

The Elders of Villa Urquiza from my district got  held up by some guys and got their cell phone robbed in their area. Elder Kanan´s only complaint was that now he can´t call delivery anymore.

#priorities

I was cutting my hair and I was trying to fix this last detail and I just went to high up on my head to cutting it and totally botched the haircut. So I just buzzed my head with a #2. People keep calling me bald, soldier, Dom Torretto (Vin Diesel), etc. The heat has been real here so I don´t really mind the short hair. 

Our chapel has an armed security guard out front.

FOTOS

Sandwich de Milanesa with my bud E´Lowe

The Trash Canal

A lot of garbage

HURRCUT

My comp, and a stud named Gernan

LOVE YOU GUYS

Élder Batman

Barrio El Colmenar

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán

La Misión Argentina Salta

Back To Tucumán

I got transferred. I am going to TUCUMAN again. I started my mission there, left to Salta, came back to Tucuman, left to Jujuy, and came back again. I am excited. I love Tucuman. My companion will be Elder Lowe from Herriman, Utah. He lives super close to me. Seems like a cool guy.

Well do not have much time but love you guys. 

Élder Batman

Barrio El Colmenar

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán

La Misión Argentina Salta

Weekly Update

Light

Hey guys,

I haven´t sent an email in a good while. I´ll be honest, Things have been real tough here.

I have come to learn a lot about myself these past few weeks and the love my Heavenly Father has for me. And that I really have a purpose here and that my Heavenly Father has a plan for me and is molding me in to the person he wants me to become.

These past few weeks, I was pretty distraught and overwhelmed. I felt like what I was doing here wasn´t amounting to anything. I felt like the advesary really had a grip on me, to make me think that I wasn´t worthy to be on a mission, or whatever I do I was not making a difference in this area.

 I was pretty discouraged and thought that I wasn´t supposed to be here or that I wasn´t worthy to be here for things that I did that I HAD ALREADY FIXED and REPENTED of. I was pretty discouraged that I thought going home would be the best option.

I talked to President Orquera about how I felt and what I was going through and he said I am worthy to be here and that you are working hard and doing what you need to do. He also said that I can overcome the trials that are in front of me and become the great missionary and man I want to be. I am thankful I have a great president.

General Conference really helped me out. I felt like the Saturday Sessions were messages tailor made for me and my situation. It gave me hope and gave me the strength and motivation I needed.

I love the quotes from Dieter F. Uchtdorf in the Priesthood Session of General Conference

We can heal spiritually. …

Whatever causes our spiritual ailments, they all have one thing in common: the absence of divine light.

Darkness reduces our ability to see clearly. …

Light, on the other hand, allows us to see things as they really are. …

Darkness is not an indication that there is no light. Most often, it simply means we are not in the right place to receive the light. …

It is up to us to be in the right place to see and feel the divine light and truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even when night has fallen and the world seems dark, we can choose to walk in Christ’s light, keep His commandments, and courageously testify of His reality and His greatness.

As a bearer of God’s priesthood and as a disciple of Jesus Christ, you are a bearer of light. Keep doing the things that will nurture His divine light. …

My dear brothers, you are instruments in the hands of the Lord with the purpose of bringing light and healing to the souls of Heavenly Father’s children. …

Christ’s light brings hope, happiness, and healing of any spiritual wound or ailment. …

It hit me hard. We all need light in our lives. We all need to stay in the light. Darkness obscures our path. Christ´s light can heal us from spiritual wounds or ailments. It can give us hope when we are discouraged. Choose to walk in the light.

I am here. I am a missionary. I am a servant of the Lord. I will beat my obstacles with him on my side. I know why I need to be here. I am thankful that I have a loving Father in Heaven who knows my needs and understands me. I felt his love . I know he listens. I know he is there for me and all who needs of him.

Transfers are this week. I am not sure what Is going to happen. I feel that I am leaving. A lot of people have been speculating that I will be called as a Zone Leader but we will see. That kind of thing doesn´t matter. I just want to serve the Lord, doesn´t matter the place.

I am thankful for the opportunity to have trained Elder Gueller. He is one of my really good friends. We have gotten along great and we have done a lot of work here. I will miss him and I am happy to see his progress. I have learned a lot from him.

I am thankful to have been made district leader to all these awesome sisters. They have helped me out so much and I feel that they are great friends to me. Our district has been a team and we have all helped one another out and raised eachother up when we feel a bit low.

I will miss this district. I will miss Elder Gueller. I will miss Monterrico.

Thank you all for you prayers and I love you guys. 

The Grind Continues.

(Philippians 4:13)

Élder Batman

Rama Monterrico

Monterrico, Jujuy

La Misión Argentina Salta