Argentina ~Week 39

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This week was pretty great. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving here so nothing too interesting happened, until Sunday.

So Tuesday, we had district meeting, then went to lunch, contacted a reference, and visited our investigator Elba Gonzalez. We taught part of the Restoration, and she told us alot about the trials she's had. She accepted a baptismal date for the 12th of December, and she's really excited, and so are we. Then we had mission correlation meeting.

Wednesday we visited a few less actives, and our other progressing investigator, Agustin. We taught him the lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we visited another less active family.

Thursday we went to set appointments with a few people. We had lunch, then went to visit less active families with the family we had lunch with.

Friday we had zone conference. They talked alot about the new Christmas stuff with the church. We have cards to hand out to people to invite them to navidad.mormon.org. President didn't talk very much because he talked in our zone meeting the week before about faith. After we went to visit some less actives but nobody was home.

Saturday we cleaned a little, and organized more stuff. After lunch we visited a less active who started going to church. Then we visited less actives with a member.

Sunday like I said was kinda crazy. Our investigator Elba Gonzalez came, and actually arrived a little early. She loves going to church, and looks forward to it all week. We had to help her know where to go. Also the ward leaders asked us to get the baptismal font ready for a ward baptism, even though I don't think it's our responsibility. We started filling it, and the water heater wouldn't work unless a button was help down, so the 2nd counselor shoved a knife in the side of the button to hold it in and said it would be fine. On top of that they asked me to play the piano, a song I never played before because it doesn't exist in English, and for that same reason it's not on the automatic player and wanted me to play it. They told me that halfway through sacrament meeting. So we had lots of things on our mind. When I went to play the piano, the pedal was stuck, and also a few keys, so I played horribly and a few people laughed at me. Then after sacrament meeting we saw that the kitched was full of smoke. Apparently the water heater burst into flames we heard from someone. One sister in the ward kept saying it was our fault, half-jokingly. After we got all that taken care of the baptism started. They asked me to give a talk about baptism right before it started, and made me lead all the music. I don't know why, but here, they always plan baptisms last minute. I gave my talk and it went pretty good. After that pretty much everything was alright. So it was a crazy day, but that made it interesting.

Anyways overall we had a great week. We were able to do lots of things and help lots of people. Sorry, I don't have any pictures this week.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Severtson

Argentina ~week 38

So this was another great week! We were pretty busy this week, especially since it's the beginning of a new transfer. And the weather's starting to get hot again and it's not even summer yet.

On Tuesday we visited a less active member, and had lunch with the Villar family, a family who we just helped start going to church again after 5 years. Then we visited one of our new investigators, Elba Gonzalez, and finished teaching her lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Wednesday we had Zone Reunion. This zone reunion the zone leaders gave us and some other companionships assignments to speak like 15 minutes. This reunion was special because the zone leaders invited our mission president to speak too. Well, he spoke way too much, and we couldn't share what we prepared, but we were alright with that :). That afternoon we visited an investigator Augustin, who lives with a less active family (family Stocki) in our ward.

Thursday we visited some less active families, had lunch, and visited an "investigator" who's wife has been an active member for many years, and he's read alot of the book of mormon and gone to church many times, but never wanted to be baptized. Hopefully we can find something to say to him to help him.

Friday we had a meeting for new elders and trainers. That went until pretty late, and then we visited a less active member who recently started going to church.

Saturday we visited a less active in the morning, had lunch, and visited 2 more less actives that night.

Sunday was great, we had 2 of our investigators go to church (Elba Gonzalez and Augustin), and 2 less active families we've been working with for awhile (Stocki and Rocco). And we had the highest church attendance I've seen in this ward (100 people). After church, we had to be back in our pension before 5:00 because of the presidential elections and the people go crazy sometimes. So I stayed and read the book of mormon and got caught up to finish before the end of the year.

Anyways, we were blessed this week to be able to help quite a few people go to church. It was great to see that we helped so many people be able to go to church this week!

Anyways, I don't have any pictures this week, but next week hopefully.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Severtson

Argentina ~week 37

So this week was a great week. We were able to find several new people and go to the temple on Saturday

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So Tuesday in the morning we had district meeting, I got a package from my family, and then I was on exchanges staying in another area. We ate at Burger king because we didn't have lunch, and then we just visited a few people.

Wednesday we finished the exchanges after lunch. Then we visited the Villar family, who we are helping reactivate. This sunday then went their 4th time to church.

Thursday in the morning we visited a less active member who asked the relief society to send us. She didn't have very much time, so she just asked us to give her a blessing and we're going to visit her again this week. Then we had lunch with a member and then is started raining like crazy. We tried to visit a few other people but they all canceled because of the rain.

Friday we did weekly planning in the morning. President sent a challenge to everyone to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year, which is like 5 chapters each day. I'm on 1 Nephi 13 right now. after lunch friday we found a new investigator named Elva Gonzalez. She is a golden investigator. She told us how she always noticed how missionaries are so nice, and thought they were so important, but never talked with them until now. She's an older lady who loves to talk, and she told us she always feel lonely. After talking just a little bit she told us she wants us to come over like 3 times each week, and told us she wanted to come to church. We talked a little bit about faith, and gave her a book of mormon, and then had to go.

Saturday we got permission from our mission president to go to the temple with a family in our ward. We went there and my old ward was all there too, so that was pretty cool. We took some pictures, and I've attached a few below.

Sunday we had Ward Counsel in the morning. Our new investigator came to church and loved it and told us she was going to come next week and try to bring her husband. It was funny because there are a whole bunch of gonzalez families in her area, and none of them are related. After church we visited a couple. The wife is a member for like 20 years, and the husband isn't because he doesn't believe the Book of Mormon and has lots of questions about it. We helped him answer a few questions. Then we had a family night with another family, and that was it.

Anyways, there were lots of blessings this week, and we were able to find some new investigators, and help some less actives!

I'll send another email with a few more pictures this week.

Have a great week!

-Elder Severtson

Hola!

Training is going very good. We just finished another transfer, and we're both staying here for the next.

Argentina ~week 36

So this week was pretty interesting.

Tuesday after district meeting we did exchanges with the zone leaders, which went pretty well, then we went to missionary correlation meeting that night.

Wednesday morning we went to look for some old investigators, and found a guy in the street who wanted to talk to us, so we set an appointment for Saturday. We also visited a less active family who's daughter's boyfriend is interested in the church. So we talked with all them and shared the Restoration.

Thursday morning we visited a less active family, then visited a member whose dad isn't a member and we were going to teach him, but the dad wasn't there, hopefully next time.

Friday we were able to set quite a few appointments with old investigators. We also taught a man whose wife has been a member for a long time, but he never got baptized. He says he thinks the churches teachings are interesting, but won't get baptized unless he knows it's true.

Saturday morning another ward in our zone had a 'tormenta blanca' or white storm, where all the missionaries in the zone go to work in one area. After that we went and talked to the old man we met on Wednesday. And he talked to us for like 3.5 hours, and wouldn't stop talking. Whenever we tried to talk he would cut us off after a few minutes and keep talking again. Eventually we finished teaching the restoration, but he didn't seem to care about what we were saying and kept changing the subject.

And Sunday we had a meeting in the morning at 7:30 about Home Teaching. After that and church we had lunch with a member, and then went to visit a few less active families.

Today we had our District Meeting. We went to a place called Parque Pereyra and just took pictures and ate food. We didn't do much there, but we got some pictures.

Anyways, that's all for this week. Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Severtson

Argentina ~week 35

This week was pretty good.

Tuesday we had interviews with our mission president. That went well and we talked about Moroni 7. After that we had Mission Correlation meeting.

Wednesday was a day with lots of appointments. If all went well we were going to have 3 new investigators. Unfortunately all of them got cancelled, but we were able to set new appointments for this week, so hopefully that goes well. That night we taught a less active family.

Thursday it rained alot. We got a call from the relief society saying that a less active family was mad at us for always setting appointments, then not showing up. But we had shown up everytime and they never were there. Anyways, we were able to set an appointment with them and visit them that day. They also said one of their friends is interested in the church, so hopefully we'll get to teach him.

Friday we did weekly planning, and after lunch we looked for some old investigator families. We set a few appointments, nothing else.

Saturday we went and talked with someone in our ward who is preparing to go on a mission. Then she went with us like 2 hours looking for less actives in her neighborhood. There are so many, and she was looking through the list and found out her cousins are less actives, and didn't even know that. Hopefully that'll turn out well if we can go teach them

Sunday after church we had lunch with our ward mission leader, and two other elders in our district. We visited a guy who is a little bit less active because my last companion left his suit for him. The guy's dad isn't a member but goes sometimes with his son and likes it. He told us he never heard the lessons or anything, because he doesn't have much time, but we're trying to organize so we can teach him during one of the church classes. That night we visited our investigators Ramona and Manuel because they called us asking if we can give a blessing to them. That was good because it shows they trust us, and we talked about blessings, faith, and the priesthood with them.

This morning we had Zone Activity, and ate food and played a game throwing flour at eachother. I'll send you all the picture when I get it.

Anyways that's all this week. I don't have pictures this week either, but next week for sure.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Severtson