Week 89 - Escobar 2

So after about 10 days of being stuck in quarantine inside of the apartment I came home two months early. It was a very hectic experience to say the least. It was such a hassle to gather all of the American missionaries and get them to the airport since all public transportation was closed. We were supposedly going to have a meeting in a public event center but we were not even let inside at the last minute. So all the American missionaries were stuck outside in a parking lot at 11 pm in 80 degree humid weather. President and Sister Zuniga gave the summarized marriage discussion to all the missionaries who had more than 18 months and were ending their missions. We eventually had buses take us to the MTC/ Temple because we couldn't all wait at the airport. Over 500 missionaries were crammed throughout the various buildings with just about every American missionary serving in Argentina there. After waiting hours and hours we finally went to the airport to wait even more. We finally boarded a chartered Delta flight with only missionaries. We flew directly from Buenos Aires to Salt Lake City which was nice. Upon arriving in SLC I found out that my flight to Spokane had been cancelled and I would be leaving the next day. But mom wasn't having it so I flew to the Pasco airport that night thanks to the help of Michelle's dad who works for Delta. I eventually made it home after a very crazy couple of days!

 

Week 88 - Escobar 2

This week was absolutely crazy. On Tuesday I went to the mission home for the meeting for the trainers and new missionaries. I got my new companion his name is Elder Martinez. He is from Paraguay. He is a convert of about a year and a half and is the only member of his family. He is 25 years old and a good kind of interesting guy. He has been teaching me lots of Guarani. So the first day here in Escobar 2 it rained soo much so that made for a good first day in the field for my companion. We have been contacting a lot and the ward is really big. They say that 150 people attend every week which is a huge number. We have knocked the door of several active members without even trying to which was funny. On Thursday President Zuniga made a conference call to everyone and sent us to buy a huge amount of emergency food. So we went to the market with a huge list of supplies and food that they had given us and went buying a bunch of stuff. The corona virus really got to Argentina and all the people are freaking out. On Friday we had a district meeting in the stake center and we had to take a bus for an hour and a half to get there since this zone is so dang big. We got news on Saturday that all church meetings were cancelled. So they told us that a church visit could count as bringing a friend of the church to a member's house, taking the sacrament, and doing Come Follow Me. We aren't sure how long there is not going to be church so we are going to have a ton of people go to a member's house. There is a possibility that we have to stay inside our pensions but I hope that does not happen because we would probably die of boredom.

Week 87 - Islas Malvinas 2

 

Week 86 - Islas Malvinas 2

 This week went really well.  The highlight of the week is that on Saturday we were contacting in the morning and we started talking to a guy named Jorge.  Then he invited us into his house and we talked for a bit and he told us he was a bus driver and he has outside his house an old city bus that he does private jobs with.  So we went by his house Sunday morning to go and walk with him to church, and he asks us if we want to go in the bus, so we said heck yeah.  He took us to church in this huge bus and it was awesome.  After the sacrament meeting we showed him the baptismal font and he really liked everything about church.  So we invited him to get baptized on the 29th of March and he got super excited.  We are still teaching Miguel Angel who came to church for the fourth time yesterday.  He is still having a a hard time understanding that he needs to stop drinking and smoking which is really difficult for him.  The Sisuela family had some set backs because the mom got a temp job and had to work yesterday and will have to work next Sunday as well so that was a blow.  On Wednesday this week we did divisions with the Assistants in Suarez and I went with Elder Smith and Elder Valdivia and Elder Fisher went with Elder Wallace.  The family we had lunch with was a family that I had met over a year ago.  They were celebrating the birthday of a baby who was turning 1 year old whom I had seen right after she was born so that was kind of crazy how the time passes by fast.  Thursday we had interviews with President Zuniga and he picked us up because we had stayed the night near the mission offices so we had a nice car ride with him and some interviews.  On Friday we had a crazy lunch where the mom was like threatening to kill her sons with a knife when I was doing divisions in Vucetich. 

Week 85 - Islas Malvinas 2

 This week was super good.  We have been having some super spiritual lessons.  We are still teaching the Sisuela family and Rosa, Leandro, and Sabrina all accepted a baptismal date for the 14th of March.  There is a lot of stuff we have to teach and a lot of obstacles they have to overcome, but we are working on that.  Sabrina couldn't come to church yesterday because she worked the night shift and got home only twenty minutes before church started.  Rosa and Leandro came and they liked it.  We are also still teaching Migel Angel the guy with the drinking and smoking problem.  He actually came to church all on his own.  (We only called him like 47 times.) In the sacrament meeting our branch president went off on the congregation and was reading exclusively from Alma 5 and saying the members needed to help take the burden off of his shoulders.  It was pretty crazy.  We did division two times this week.  We have just been contacting a ton of people this week because we need to start teaching more people.

Week 84 - Islas Malvinas 2

 This week was pretty solid.  To be honest it was kind of hard for us to get things going and find new people to teach.  We are still teaching a family called the Sisuela family and they are progressing really well.  One of the daughters decided to start listening.  So we are teaching the mom Rosa, the daughter Sabrina (18), and the son Leandro (12).  They were reading and excited to go to church but then they got like a weird eye infection and couldn't come on Sunday.  We are still trying with our man Ernesto, the old guy.  He came to church for the fourth consecutive week but still is basically unteachable.  Miguel Angel came to church on Sunday again but he has a drinking and smoking problem.  On Thursday we had made a plan with him that he would only drink five beers and smoke five cigarettes from Thursday until Sunday.  It didn't go very well because he says he already failed Thursday night so that is gonna be a difficult thing to accomplish.  It was really hot this week but we are hoping that it cools down and we have a more successful week this week.  

Week 83 - Islas Malvinas 2

 

Week 82 - Islas Malvinas 2

 This week was pretty crazy.  On Monday night I got the news that I was getting transferred from Retiro 1 to Islas Malvinas 2.  My new companion is Elder Fisher from Texas near Houston.  He is also really tall, like 6'7" so it's pretty awesome.  Basically Islas Malvinas is in the boonies and is way different then Retiro.  On Thursday we had the leadership conference and we talked a ton about working with the members and how if we didn't work together we would never achieve our potential.  This week we were working a ton and are teaching some good people.  We have probably walked more in this week than I walked in the last three transfers in the Villa.  So yeah we have a long walk in between just about everything.  We had three new people in church on Sunday Miguel, Ernesto, and Edith.  Ernesto is this 70 year old who literally will talk for three hours straight without breathing if you let him.  But he came to church and really liked it.  On Saturday we were contacting and Elder Fisher got too close to the fence and a dog bit his leg and that was funny.  But then we had to try to got to the hospital so they could give him some shots.  So we waited for like two hours on Saturday night but the train never showed up.  So we went on Sunday afternoon.  They told him we had to track down the owner of the dog to see if it was vaccinated but we couldn't ever find it so we don't know what we are going to do.

Some other things that I learned from talking with Tanner:

He is still a zone leader.  There are 20 elders in his zone (22 counting him) 20 elders and 2 sister.  There are 3 districts.  He says his area is mostly dirt roads and there is very limited public transportation.  This is the farthest out of civilization that he has been on his whole mission.  He says his apartment is nice and even has a washer in it.  It is really hot right now in Argentina, like in the 90's and Tanner looked very sunburned on his face when we talked.  He said it felt like he was in another country because in the Villa there were no Argentines because they were all immigrants and now there are only Argentines in his area.  He said the area is like a ghost town from 2-5pm because everyone takes a siesta.  He says that he is usually too far away from his apartment during this time, so that they usually rest and do their studying in a park or sometimes a members home.  He is in a branch right now of about 80-90 people.  There is another set of Elders in the branch and one of them is Elder Peterson who was his MTC companion.  

Week 81 - Retiro

 This week was super good.  On Tuesday we did divisions with the Elders from Constitucion 2 and I went with Elder Jones who used to live in Spokane until he was 11 so that was fun.  (Tanner also told me when we talked that this Elder Jones now lives in Utah and went to Lone Peak High School and knows Jackson and Hayden Enloe).  On Sunday we had 12 people in church including the Sarzuri family.  Also Veronica and Omar, converts from my first ward in Boulogne came and visited and they are doing really well. (Tanner didn't have his camera with him so he asked this other American couple that happened to be visiting the branch to take a picture of Tanner and his comp and Veronica and this American couple texted the picture to Kirt.) The Sarzuri family has been progressing really well except for the dad.  All the kids went to a primary/youth activity and loved it.  But Ramiro, the dad, is having some troubles stopping drinking and hasn't been present in the last threes lessons.  They are getting married and baptized in a week and a half so that's very worrisome.  Another that we are teaching is a guy name Luis Poca who is 25 and his cousin who is 11.  Luis is super interested and come to church the last two Sundays and is preparing to get baptized on the 8th.  His little cousin Anali is super funny and super intelligent.  She has a question every two seconds and wants to know everything.  On Sunday I was supposed to give a talk in church but the other speakers spoke too long so I was ok with that.  Today for p-day we are gonna go to to a famous restaurant here called Siga la Vaca (Follow the Cow) which supposedly is like a huge meat buffet so that will be good.  It was a really productive week and tonight we get the new transfers so I am probably gonna get sent to another area. 

Week 80 - Retiro

This week we had some very good things happen and some not so good things happen.  The good thing is that the parents from the Sarzuri family did all the paperwork and they are going to get married on the 6th of February and then on the 8th they are with the three oldest children going to get baptized.  We are so excited.  They came to church yesterday even though they had only slept for like three hours because they were visiting a relative.  The whole branch is really excited especially the branch president is going nuts.  Another good thing that happened is that we found a guy named Luis in the street and this dude wanted to go to church.  So he brought his niece and came to church.  We set a baptismal date with him for the 1st of February.  He is super excited.  The bad news of this week is that we were scheduled to have the baptism of Cristofer on Saturday.  When we went to go pick him up we couldn't find him.  And everyone we asked had a different opinion about where he was at.  So we couldn't find him and the baptism got canceled which was really frustrating.  We found him later that night and he gave some lame excuse but basically it came down to the fact that he doesn't know how to express himself so he thought hiding would be better than telling us he wanted to wait a little bit longer before being baptized.  It was a good week and we are going to keep working hard in this last week of the transfer. 

Week 79 - Retiro

 This week was really good.  We have been teaching a lot of really good people. Cristofer an 18 year old is going to get baptized on the 18th.  On Sunday morning we had to go get him to go to church.  When we got there the door was shut and Cristofer was sound asleep.  So his dad and mom were sleeping upstairs and we got them to come down and open the door.  Then we went and woke Cristofer up.  Then we had to make him breakfast and iron his shirt for him.  We were like his mom for a second.  We had the Sarzuri family in church for the second time and they were so excited and loved church.  It was awesome.  The three kids are getting baptized on the 25th and possibly the parents as well if they get married.  On the 8th it was Guachito Gil day. Guachito Gil is a Saint that the people worship here and all the people went  crazy.  On every block there were grills with like 500 braught wursts (otherwise know as bratwursts-that's how he wrote it) on them.  We did divisions three times this week and on last Monday we did a proselyting activity as a zone where we all went to the area of Palermo.  We contacted a ton of people and found some really good people to teach.  This Monday before emailing we played basketball and President Zuniga and the AP's came and we played in la Boca and it was awesome.