Argentina ~week 58

This week was pretty good. It rained alot and got really cold really quick. But we worked hard anyways, then on Saturday we got permission to go to the temple with Felisa.

On Tuesday we had zone reunion in the morning. Then we had lunch with the silva family and after that we taught Leandro. After that our appointments with The Pizarro family and Felisa got cancelled so we went contacting.

Wednesday morning we taught Olga. We read 3 Nephi 11 with her and invited her to be baptized but she just told us she didn't feel comfortable making that decision yet. We're gonna keep reading with her. She did say that she liked our church alot though. Then we taught Leandro the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson, and we taught the Pizarro family the restoration. After that we had missionary correlation meeting.

Thursday we visited less actives and went contacting all day. In the afternoon we went to Felisa's house. We taught her less active sister the restoration, then we brought Felisa to the church to get a temple recommend and do genealogy work.

Friday morning we had an appointment really far away and we took a member and everything then it ended up getting cancelled. After lunch we taught Leandro and a few less active families then did weekly planning at night.

Saturday we got permission to go to the temple with Felisa so she could do baptisms. We had to wait outside though. She loved it alot. Then we taught English classes.

Sunday we went to church. None of our investigators showed up. We went to pick up Olga but she wasn't home. Leandro went to his friend's house to go with him, but he didn't go so he had no way to get there.

Anyways, that's about it this week. Here are some pictures from the temple, and a cool graffiti in our area.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Severtson

temple and cool graffiti

Argentina ~Week 57

This week was a great week! We worked really hard after having been stuck inside almost all the time for a week.

Tuesday morning we had District Meeting, and then we started exchanges. Elder Meza went with our District Leader Elder Guirin, and I stayed with Elder Araneda. We went contact in the streets and taught the Restoration to our investigator Olga. She can't walk so we told her we'd look for someone to drive her to church and she wanted to go.

Wednesday morning we had a service with Felisa helping her remove a few trees from her yard, then we had lunch with her. After that we finished exchanges, and did contacting the rest of the day.

Thursday we did lots of contacting. Almost the whole day we were knocking on doors and talking to people on the street, which is very tiring when it's all in one day.

Friday morning we had weekly planning and then had lunch with the Silva family. We went to visit a young man, Facundo, who was doing really good, but recently stopped going to church, but he wasn't home. We went to Berazategui to start exchanges. At 6 we taught Leando, in the Silva family's house. He's 15 and is one of the kid's friends. He is very shy, but he likes all the church stuff. I think he will probably end up getting baptized. We contacted people the rest of the day.

Saturday morning we did contacting all morning and then had lunch. Our only appointment that day got cancelled. We ended exchanges then stayed at the church to teach English clases. Us and the neighboring ward had the idea to teach English clases in the church. This was the first day. Not very many people were there, mostly just other missionaries. I have to teach it because I'm like the only one who knows both languages good enough. There were just a few people from mutual which was right before.

Sunday morning we went to church. The past few days before we we calling people to see if they could drive Olga to church. Not many people here have cars, and they said they were all busy. It was kind of frustrating, we couldn't bring her because of that. But Leandro came to church and liked it alot. In priesthood, we started talking about how people need to do their visits. Hardly anyone in the ward does the visits and a lot of people go inactive because of that. I think we helped them realize that. Then we had lunch and went to some appointments we had with future investigators but none of them were home. So we just did more contacting.

It was a great week, we contacted more than 80 people, and many will probably be new investigators this week. Here are some picture of our new pension. Anyways, that's about it this week.

Argentina ~week 56

This week was a pretty good week, except my companion was sick for awhile. Most of our zone is the same as before transfers, except we had a new district leader, Elder Guirin.

Monday after PDay my companion said he was feeling better. He had been throwing up on Sunday, and was still kinda sick. The Silva family had invited to eat asado that night, so we didn't want to miss it. We ended up with my companion almost throwing up in they're bathroom, haha.

Tuesday my companion was still feeling badso we got permission to go to the doctor. We went to the station, and had to wait for some elders to drive us there. While we were waiting, and old guy came and sat down next to us. After looking at us for like 10 seconds he told us he fell down and asked us why we didn't help him, even though he only sat down. Turns out he was drunk. We finally got to the doctor, and they just told Elder Meza to eat differently and he'll be better. He felt sick the rest of the day and most of the day Wednesday so we didn't get to do much.

Thursday we had district meeting and got to meet the new people in our zone. We had lunch with the Kiss family, then had to finish moving a few small things from our old pension because the contract ended the next day. My companion wasn't feeling very good but we still went to visit Felisa to bring her to the family history center, but she couldn't come so we'll do that next week. We just visited a few other people.

Friday it was raining alot and very cold, and my companion felt bad again so we were inside all day studying and other stuff.

Saturday and Sunday we had General Conference from Noon until pretty late. We don't have time to come back from the church between sessions so we just stayed and talked.

Anyways, it was a pretty good week, not much happened but now my companion is better. Hopefully this next week everything goes well so we can work all week.

The pictures this week are the torta fritas I made when my companion was sick. A picture we made but cutting out heads from pass-along cards, and standing them up with the gopsel principles book in the background. And a picture I took with a horseman graffiti in our area.

Argentina ~week 55

We had another pretty good week this week. Today we had transfers and I'm staying. I forgot to bring my old agenda to the computer place (normally I use it to write my letters so I can remember what day everything was). Alot of the time we were just contacting people in the street.

On Tuesday we had District Meeting, then had lunch with Danny Galvan, a guy in the ward who was a returned missionary, went inactive, and is recently active again. He always helps us do visits. After lunch he went with us to teach one of the friends of the young men, but he wasn't there. Then we just went to look for some less active families.

Wednesday morning we were contacting, then we had lunch with the Montenegro family. After that we went and visited Felisa. We printed off a picture of her baptism, that she liked alot. We're helping prepare her to do baptisms in the temple for her ancestors. She's doing really good, loves going to church, and some of her family members have already asked for visits (they live outside our area so we can't teach them, so we passed the referrals to other elders). After we went and had mission correlation meeting.

Thursday morning we had a few appointments to go to. But they all cancelled on us. So most of the morning we were just doing contacting. We had lunch with the Silva family, and then stayed to teach one of the kid's friends, Leandro, who was there. He's about 15. We taught him the restoration, and help him to pray. That night we went to the church and played soccer with the young men.

My companion hurt his foot on Thursday, so Friday morning we just did weekly planning and cleaning in the pension. Later we were about to go out and visit a few families. Hardly anyone was home so we just did alot more contacting.

Saturday in the morning we visited one of our investigators Olga, who shared with us about how hard her life is for her, so we shared the Gospel lesson, instead of the restoration as we were originally planning to share. She felt alot better and wants to come to church next Sunday. Then we had lunch with the Jerez family. They are a very poor and lonely old couple. They always invite us over and talk nonstop to us and are grateful for our visits. It's always hard to leave because they don't let us talk, haha. Then we visited Felisa, and helped her more with genealogy stuff. We also tried to help her subscribe for the Liahona magazine, but they never answered the phone.

Sunday we had church. We were in charge of teaching the Gospel Principles class because the teacher wasn't there. Elder Gatto said goodbye to everyone in the ward (the zone leaders called us on Fridayabout transfers and said he was leaving. This transfer they didn't tell people where they were going). After church we went to the pension and cooked lunch. Then Elder Meza was throwing up so we couldn't leave. Later, the zone leaders called and said Elder Gatto wasn't leaving. Also Elder Orellana, my second trainer finished the mission today. He was District Leader, and we don't know who the new district leader is yet.

Anyways that's about all this week. It was  a busy week. Here are some pictures:

One is a sign about Obama that's in all the bus stops. Some pictures of lunch with Danny, and pictures from the Gira Misional last week with a few zones.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Severtson

We don't know who the new district leader is yet, and everyone thinks it will be me, haha. Anyways, I'm here for another 6 weeks, haha.

Argentina ~week 54

This week was another good week.

On Monday after PDay we finished moving most of our stuff to the new pension.

On Tuesday in the morning we had Zone Meeting. After that and lunch we had exchanges with our District Leader. I was with Elder Araneda and Elder Meza was with Elder Orellana. We mostly just looked for new investigators to teach.

Wednesday morning was the same and then we started cleaning the old pension alot. We finished the exchanges and went to teach Felisa and her granddaughter but they weren't home. Later we had missionary correlation meeting.

Thursday we had what is called a 'Gira Misional' which is when someone from the 70 comes and they give talks. Elder Spitale came and they talked about finding investigators and receiving references. After that we visited our investigator Olga and then had Executive Committee meeting.

Friday morning we went to visit a lot of people but none of them were home so we spent a few hours contacting people on the road, giving them a new card the church gave us for easter. We had lunch with the Silva family. All the appointments we had that day got cancelled but we did set up some appointments with new investigators for next week. At night we did weekly planning.

Saturday was the Ward Activity we planned. There were lots of little games and food that we helped plan. About 20-30 people showed up. It was pretty good.

On Sunday we had church. Unfortunately no investigators showed up. Olga said she was going to come but got sick. In the afternoon we went to a few appointments that got cancelled so we visited Felisa. We are trying to help her do baptisms in the temple.

Anyways it was a good week this week. Hopefully this week we can find some new investigators. Next week is transfers but I think I'll still be here with my companion.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Severtson

Argentina ~week 53

So this week was pretty busy and we did not have a lot of time to work unfortunately, but when we did it was good.

So Tuesday morning we went out to work and look for new investigators. And in the afternoon we had District Meeting.

Wednesday we didn't have too much. It was really cold for some reason, the rest of the week was hot. We had a few appointments that got cancelled. Then we met with Felisa and taught her granddaughter Oriana who is 12 and wants to go to church. We spent the end of the day packing because originally we were going to move on Thursday to our new apartment.

On Thursday I had to go to the mission office in the morning to do paperwork for my visa. I went on exchange with one of our zone leaders Elder Stevenson to do it. We got there at 8:00 then they told us the driver couldn't make it until one so we had to travel alot and go back and return again. Then we went to capital to get fingerprinted and got it all done. We got home pretty late that night.

Friday we did weekly planning and spent most of the day packing and cleaning. We moved some stuff over at night, but we had to stay at our old apartment that night.

Saturday we moved the rest of our stuff over to the new pension. We're still missing bed frames, oven, fridge, and a water filter so hopefully we get that done soon.

Sunday we had stake conference. It was cool to see some people from my old ward Hudson, then we had lunch and made a few trips moving stuff from our old pension to the new one.

This morning we cleaned a lot more of the new pension. We went to Pizza Libre with alot of other missionaries, and the rest of the day we're going to be moving.

Anyways, that's about all this week. It was pretty good, but hopefully next week we have more time to work.

Here are just some random pictures I took on the way to capital on Thursday.

Have a great week!

-Elder Severtson

Argentina ~week 52

This week was a good week and in ended with a baptism!

Tuesday we went looking for people to teach. After lunch and District MEeting we went to go teach Hilda but she wasn't there. We taught a less active family, the Rondan family and small lesson.

Wednesday most of the day we went looking for people to teach from the old investigators list. We had lunch with the Jerez family, and then we visited Felisa and shared with her 2 Nephi 28:30.

Thursday morning we did service with the Morel family, a less active family who has one married son in a neighboring ward who wants us to visit them alot. We moved rock and dirt for like 2 hours with broken shovels without handles. Then we had lunch with the Godoy family and that night we had executive committee meeting.

Friday morning my companion had Tramites, which is like paperwork and other stuff for the Visa. We took an hour busride to Quilmes to drop him off, I came back to my area with Elder Tolman another hour busride. 45 minutes later they told us they finished early, so we had another hour busride there, and another hour back. That was exhausting. Then, Felisa had invited us to lunch to eat pizza and we shared with her Alma 32, 42-43. And that night we had mission correlation meeting.

Saturday morning we did weekly planning because we couldn't friday morning. Then we got all ready for the baptism Saturday afternoon. It was great! My companion baptized her and then I confirmed her. We did the baptismal service with the Berazategui ward, who had 2 little girls getting baptized. Then that night we got a new investigator, Olga, and old lady that wants to learn about the church. She is having a hard time because 2 of her sons died in the past few years.

At church on Sunday we had the confirmation of Felisa. We came home and cooked lunch. Then visited a few families. Next week we have stake conference and it will be cool to see people from my last ward.

Pictures: This week I made pancakes. Also we have a lizard living in our bathroom. He just goes all over the place and has stayed there already a couple days. And then a picture from Felisa's baptism.

Anyways this week was great to be able to have Felisa's baptism. She always tells us that she is being an example for the rest of her family and she has faith that they will be blessed for her decision too!

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Severtson