Feliz Navidad

Hey guys.

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad.

This has been my second and last christmas in the mission. It´s been weird. I haven´t felt that ´´christmasy´´vibe that I got when I was home in the states. Probably because it´s summer time here. It maybe has it felt like a christmas in that way but I have really gave more importance to the Savior during this time. We have been focusing a lot on helping others through the initative of #LIGHTTHEWORLD. #ILUMINAELMUNDO It´s been a joy to see.

We are preparing the Nicastro family in these next weeks to be baptized. Little by little I know they will all take upon them the promise to follow Christ and be baptized in his name. I love this area. It´s progressing.

Our district is baptizing and it´s great. We have all baptized this month and we are shooting to reach the goal.

I have as of now 6 months left. I will be returning 26th of June, 2018. It´s a scary fact and I am excited for the future but also sad that my time is reaching an end in the mission. I feel the changes in me. I feel myself becoming a better man. I am becoming more of the man the Lord requires of me. I have enjoyed helping people to come to Christ and being an instrument in his hands to help others to be baptized. I have been able to help various people to come to Christ with my companions and with all of the Lord´s help and guidance.

I am thankful for the blessing the Lord gives us and the success he has lead us to find. 

I am thankful for my family and I know that families can be together forever. I know my family is forever. And I want my future family to be forever and eternal. This is what joy the gospel brings. Only through our Savior and his gospel we can have families forever and return to the presence of our Heavenly Father.

I am trying to keep converting myself. And I know I got a lot to do and a lot to work on but the Lord will strengthen me. I love it here. I love the mission. I love Argentina. I love Tucuman. I love the grind.

I love you guys.

Merry Christmas.

Feliz Navidad

Élder Batman

Barrio El Colmenar

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán

La Misión Argentina Salta

CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE 

TUCUMAN CENTRO ZONE

WHITE ELEPHANT, I GOT ATHLETIC SOCKS....LAME

PRESIDENTE ORQUERA AS PAPA NOEL (santa)

The Work Will Continue

We had the baptism of Jessica. It was great!

She asked if I could baptize her. She´s awesome. SHe will be a great convert.

We are going to focus on finding this week. We got to find more chosen people to baptize.

The work is progressing.

This week is the Christmas Conference.

We are going to focus a lot on using the Christmas Initative.

I know it will help a lot.

I love this area, I don´t want to leave but I am not sure what will happen at the end of this transfer.

We are working a lot with members.

I love the work.

I love the work.

I love the work.

I am sad I have 6 months left.

I am sorry this email sucks but I next week I promise will be better.

Love you!

Élder Batman

Barrio El Colmenar

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán

La Misión Argentina Salta

Transfers

Well this week has been pretty good.

I had a rough week but the scriptures really helped me to find the peace I needed.  Helped me to keep moving. I feel like I have been getting sick a lot lately. I have been so exhausted lately.

The scriptures gave me the force I needed to keep moving and working.

Elder Lowe got transferred today. He`s in Salta now. I am gonna miss that guy. We had a ton of success together. We became great friends. Hope the best for him.

My new companion is Elder Souza from Brasil. I am excited to get some work done with him. I want to try to learn some PORTUGUÊS.

We are preparing a baptism this week. Christian, the son of Monica (recent convert of mine),  is getting baptised. We are real excited for that. He wants to be baptized and has attended 5 times, but he is so busy during the week so we taught him all the lessons in 2 days. He is so intelligent and so prepared he accepted all of it and has a testimony of it. The young mens president of El Colmenar will baptize him.

We also have an open chapel this saturday and I have to plan and coordinate all of that so that will be interesting. The stress is there but a little stress doesn`t hurt nothing. It will be a good opportunity to reactivate and find new people to teach.

No pics this week. Sorry guys. But all is gucci over here in Tucuman.

We`re gonna keep working and finding.

Love you guys.

Élder Batman

Barrio El Colmenar

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán

La Misión Argentina Salta

Trust In Them

11/20/17

Hey guys,

This week has been really good. I really learned some valuable lessons.

We had the baptisms of Rocio and Milagros. Which indeed was a bunch of milagros. 

(miracle in spanish) We worked really hard and they wanted to be baptized. Thursday in the afternoon we had the interviews for them. Elder Carreras, one of the zone leaders, did their baptismal interviews and they were excited for Saturday. Friday, I had to do exchanges with Elder Altamirano in his area in 9 de Julio. Leaving my companion with Elder Burnham, who is on his first transfer. My companion called me to tell me that Rocio was backing out and didn´t want to be baptized. I felt pretty useless because I wasn´t in my area and I couldn´t do anything to talk or teach to Rocio before the baptism Saturday. It was just my companion (who is quite new) with an elder who is very new taking care of my area for the day. I had to admit I was in doubt on how they would handle the situation.

 I got on my knees and prayed for the guidance on what to do. Then I got that thought to my head. 

´TRUST IN THEM.´

I felt that and I knew that they would do what would be necessary to help Rocio to be baptized with her sister. They would accomplish whatever the Lord saw fit. I felt at peace and I knew everything would be alright. Later that night I was doing my nightly verifications with my district and I called Elder Lowe to see what happened. I could feel by the calmness of his voice that Rocio got the help and answers she needed. That was the case. Elder Lowe and Burnham got the job done and helped solve the doubts that Rocio had. I feel like If I was their that Friday Afternoon, Rocio may not have been baptized. The Lord needed those two Elders to help a daughter of God with their doubts.

I learned some valuable lessons that day. I´ve heard a lot growing up that ´´If you want the job done right, do it yourself.´´ When that situation came to my awareness I immediately thought how can I fix this situation. Or dang I should of stayed in MY area so I could of handled this. I´ve really come to learn a lot about working as a team and trusting in those that you work with. 

As a missionary we all have different skills, talents, and abilities that make us unique. BUT. The success we have isn´t because we are just so talented as a missionary but rather that the Lord uses us in his way and will to achieve what was part of his plan. We must give our all and he will use us as an instrument in his hands. As missionaries we have to trust in our companions and their abilities and talents. Everyone brings something different to the table. And this work CANNOT be done alone. In life we must trust our companions, spouses, families, any and all who come under our service. The Lord trusts in us. We must trust in them when a task is in front of them or the situation has shown a little adversity.  THE LORD TRUSTS US. TRUST THEM. 

I feel like I am learning each and everyday about leadership and discipleship. I really feel like I am changing alot in these few weeks. I am happy about my progress and that the Lord is shaping and molding me to become the best Elder Batman I can be.

The Lord is blessing us a lot. Elder Lowe and I are baptizing quite a bit here in El Colmenar. We have a lot of people planned in these next few weeks to enter in to the covenant of baptism. I am happy with the work we are doing and we are going to try to give even more of our effort and focus.

I am thankful to be here, and I am thankful to have had such a great companion in Elder Lowe who has helped me a ton this past transfer. We´ve worked very hard and have achieved much success together. It would be great to stay together one more transfer but it seems like one of us will be transferred from here. I really hope I stay here because this area has so much potential and I have come to love it here.

But whatever the Lord´s will be, I will follow it.

Thanks guys for everything, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Love you guys.

Élder Batman

Barrio El Colmenar

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán

La Misión Argentina Salta

Blessings and Blunders

HOLA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!

This week was dope. Monica and Marlen got baptized! WOOHOO.

It was so cool to be apart of that process. They are so converted and ready to follow Christ.

I got to baptize Monica and Elder Lowe baptized Marlen, it was an emotional service.

Well when the baptism was over and everyone left we cleaned up but the drain didn´t work. So WE HAD TO TAKE BUCKETS AND THROW THE WATER OUT OF A WINDOW TO EMPTY THE FONT. TOOK 2 HOURS. We ate ice cream after so it was all good.

We went to Salta wednesday for a mission wide conference. Elder Christiansen from the Presidency of the 70 and Elder Bragg from the 70 attended with their wives. We had to shake all their hands and we weren´t allowed to hug them. I shook Elder Christiansens hand and his wives hand and then I got to Elder Bragg and he said ´´ELDER BATMAN MY FAVORITE ELDER SUPERHERO!´´ AND ELDER BRAGG GAVE ME A BROHUG! HE REMEMBERED ME FROM THE LAST CONFERENCE!

It was awesome to see everyone! The conference was very edifiying.

I appreciated it a lot. 

This week we are preparing Jose and Noemi, Rocio and Milagros. We have to get Jose and Noemi married. It will be interesting. I hope everything goes through well. 

I am loving the progress in this area.

I don´t want to leave here.

Love you guys, gotta go

Élder Batman

Barrio El Colmenar

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán

La Misión Argentina Salta

11/6/17

#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

WITH HIM WE RISE

Hey guys.

This week was crazy. We had a multi-zone conference and leadership meeting in Salta. Elder Mark A. Bragg of the 70 visited us. He gave some great messages and I really learned a lot. In the leadership meeting he showed us somethings in our mission we can work on and the blessings we will see in our work if we achieve it. 

We have found a lot of people prepared through following the small impressions of the Spirit. We have to always act. Elder Gueller and I are focusing on finding spiritual experiences to build our fire. To keep us going and working hard. I feel the Lord using as instruments in his hands.

Monterrico has been difficult. It has been relatively easy to baptize in my areas before. I feel like we are planting a lot of seeds here in Monterrico. We are working hard and we are being missionaries of success. I have come to learn the importance of working in harmony of the will of the Lord and accepting his will more. I have come to love it here though and I know the people that we have found will baptize and be grand converts.

I´ve really been reading and studying a lot about The Atonement of Jesus Christ. I´ve been studying also about repentance, forgiveness, and weakness.

I have really come to realize that some of my ideas about the Atonement and Repentance were incorrect. 

I know Jesus Christ is my Savior, but I think I didn´t really put that into as much importance as I should have. He is my Savior and our Savior because he SAVED us. He paid the price for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross in Calvary. We being imperfect are saved through the sacrifice of a perfect human being. Now, that doesn´t mean that because he SAVED us, we can do whatever freely and sin as we want because we are ALREADY SAVED. NO. The way to ETERNAL LIFE is ONLY through HIM. We must FOLLOW HIM. We need to REMEMBER HIM. We have to strive to BECOME LIKE HIM. 

We are humans. We have weaknesses. We make mistakes and we commit sin.  We our hopeless if we didn´t have Jesus Christ. We wouldn´t have away to comeback. WITHOUT HIM WE FALL, BUT WITH HIM WE RISE.

I am so grateful for the things I have learned this week. I am grateful for the Atonement and it´s application to me in my life. 

I walked a dark path before in my life, and was burdened with a lot of sin. But I have changed. I fixed what needed to fixed. I fought the advesary and continue to fight. It is a battle EVERYDAY. I know we can WIN this battle through HIM. We all have problems and weaknesses and mistakes, but through repentance we can fix our errors. We can become clean. We can release the burdens we carry. I testify without a doubt in my heart and mind that God lives and is among us. And that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He gave us the example and showed us the way that me must follow to achieve eternal life. To find everlasting joy. To have families that can be eternal. IT IS ALL POSSIBLE THROUGH HIM.

I testify that our weaknesses can become strong through him. 

 ALMA 26:12

Sí, yo sé que nada soy; en cuanto a mi fuerza, soy débil; por tanto, no me jactaré de mí mismo, sino que me gloriaré en mi Dios, porque con su fuerza puedo hacer todas las cosas; sí, he aquí que hemos obrado muchos grandes milagros en esta tierra, por los cuales alabaremos su nombre para siempre jamás.

Really I know that I am weak and I am nothing without him. But with him I can be strong. We CAN all be STRONG.

I love this mission. 

I love this Gospel. 

I know why I am out here.

WITH HIM, WE RISE.​​

​​

Élder Batman

Rama Monterrico

Monterrico, Jujuy

La Misión Argentina Salta