July 27, 2015 - #CUPCAKESSSS

Fam bam... whats good? 

This week was another great week out here in the mud and the rain!  

My comp and I were pumped that we didn't have to do too much stuff other than workin in our area.. We met some AMAZING people this week.  We walked to the back of our area that's touching the coast and contacted for days! If I've learned one thing out here it's saying what the people want to hear in order to get in a house! 

Miracle!! So it was so cold and we were contacting in the back of our area here where its completely dark and we saw this nicer cement house.. We clapped outside of the house and of course this dog was barkin at our heels.. it's always awkward trying to talk to someone.. them wondering why the heck two gringos are at their house and all this time a dog barking like crazy.. usually when this happens they shake their head and shut the door... but this man told us to come in as soon as he opened the door.  My comp and I looked at each other and he asked me.. "is he talking about us or the dog?" haha - we hesitated then the man looked at us this time and told us to come in.  

We went in and we met an amazing young family with two young children. It was even the husband's birthday and the wife made him cupcakes!! She made legit cupcakes!!!  With frosting!!  and she gave us two!!!  We were freaking out!!  We got to know them and we set another lesson for today! So excited!!

We also were able to meet with Carolina who is a recent convert.  She is an ony child and her parents are super supportive of her decision to be baptized.  The parents have a Book of Mormon and the mom has the Gospel Principles book.. well she has been reading the Gospel Principles book and she loves it.. She read the section of honestly and put what she learned to practice and resolved problems that she had with her neighbors!  Our lesson yesterday was amazing! We were able to testify of the restoration and put the pieces together of the doubts that they had.  They were so happy to hear that we have a prophet today that has his 12 apostles that hold the keys of the Church of Jesus Christ, the same that He established when He came to this world!!  We put a goal for them to be baptized the 22 of August!  

the people are prepared...and if we don't talk with everyone we are taking away the answers to someones prayers... 

SHARE this gospel! Give a Book of Mormon to a friend or neighbor! "Make someones day" - Big Dan

I LOVE RIO GALLEGOS!!!

I LOVE sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your prayers and support.. they are felt!!!

Con amor,

Elder Lamb

ps.I'll send pics in a minute!!

pps. I don't think you all realize how big of a shock everything first world will be to me.. literally if ANYBODY here even has a little bit of grass we just stare at it.. I have never seen a dishwasher here... never have seen a dryer.. I've seen one sprinkler other than what the churches use! so crazy! so when I get home we cant be using iphones and stuff!  haha my head will explode!

love you so much!! keep sendin pics of whats goin on! 

the compu wont read my camera so i have to wait till next week to send the pics! sorry!! 

July 20, 2015 -#justkeepSMILING

Whats good ya`ll.. this week has been crazyyyy! Transfers were last week and all the homies that were crossing the border between Chile and Argentina down at the southern point had to pass by us.  This meant that we soent soooo much time in the terminal waiting for the missionaries to arrive and leave.  Then we had to do a bunch of legal paperwork for those that were illegal and that meant we were just sitting in the bank for forever!   

The cool part is that there are so many foreigners that are headed to see the glacier so we were able to talk to people from all over the world.  This German dude kept dropping the f word just talking and me and my comp were shocked, its been a minute since we've heard that one.  We have a lot of dope homies in our zone now and this week we have so many plans to do WORK in our area.  Que se manejen the other missionaries for a little bit.  

Even though we had a crazy week not being able to work in our area much I had a really cool experience.  Yesterday morning we had the opportunity to help this sister missionary buy her ticket and everything to head to Ushuaia at the end of the world.  So we were at the terminal and there was a line of people awaiting to get on the bus. There was a lady that was in line and was staring at me hard.. being the only red head its a given that people always stare..always!!  But she kept staring.. then I thought she might have been a lady that worked at this ice cream place in Comodoro. 

After a couple minutes I said hi and asked if she worked in Comodoro.. She said no and that she was from Rio Grande.. RIO GRANDE!! Thats where I was born!!! She said she remembered me from over a year ago.. She was walking on the street and we passed her and I said with a big smile "Hola buen día!"  She told me that she didn't respond and that she thought about that a lot.  Just that a random person would smile and greet someone that they didn't know.  She thanked me for saying hi to her OVER A YEAR AGO!!!

I was left so impressed by the effect of a simple smile and a greeting can do.   I love being a missioary but what I love even more is being a desciple of Christ!! The little things matter! Greeeting someone with a smile doesn`t cost anything!! Sure the majority of the people don't respond and act like they didn't hear anything but thats not our choice! We do have the choice to atleast try to make a difference:)  

Still livin the life!!! 

Elder Lamb

July 13, 2015 - #C'mooooon

Whats good... legit have no time.. but this week has been cray cray.. so my dime piece chilean comp Elder Caceres got called to be the new assistant so he bounced on me a few days before the transfer ended so he just left me to deal with all of transfers alone! haha

Where I'm at is Rio Gallegos and you have to go through chile so I'm on the grind right now trying to get all the missionaries that are getting transfered tickets and making them legal... stinks because I feel like I already did my time as secretary and now I have to do some of the same stuff.. this week is gonna be crazy but then it will be amazing again.

Before Elder Caceres left the sisters wanted us to pass by a house that they had contacted a while ago.. we passed and the homie wasnt there.. so we decided to contact there neighbor.. we clapped.. this teenage girl opened the door..looked back at her parents.. and before we could even say anything they told us to come in!  The air or something must be different in Gallegos or something because the people are soooo nice!!

And guess what.. we start chatting and they have 2 boys and 2 girls in their family in the same order as our family and they also have an another daughter (who is the oldest) that died a little over a year ago... Ive been waiting for this family!!!

We let them know that we had answers to some of the questions that they had and that we would love to share with them the plan that God has for every single one of His children.. They listened!!  After teaching them and sharing about Harding and our family the spirit was so strong.. The parents eyes were tearing.. We are able to teach something so eternally important.. SO IMPORTANT..

We shared with them that they will see their daughter again if they are willing to follow Christ.  They found hope.. they found the path.. now we get to help them get there.. they accepted a baptismal date for the middle of august and I just already love them!! They let us right in... they are so prepared for the gospel!!! 

So our investigator Gisella came to church yesterday!! We woke her right up clapping our butts off yesterday morning infront of her house.. she loved church!!! she learned a ton and is excited for next week and told me to note down her baptismal date after church.. the only thing is that she lives with her boyfriend and she doesn`t want to marry him because honestly he`s a pretty big tool but we gonna try and fix that!!

My boys here in the mish are going home tomorrow and it's so weird!!! I was able to get a lot of advice from them and I will make my last 6 months my best 6 months ever!!!!! My boy Elder Scogin is my new comp from Washington and we are going to have too much fun!! He's hilarious and such a hard worker so weez about to do work!! 

Love you allllllllllll!!! 

Elder Lamb

July 6, 2015 - CELINE DION

Nothing better than a canadian singing God Bless America huge s/o to Celine Dion for making our 4th of July even that much more special! 

This week was a lot of craziness traveling.. learning..teaching..and observing.

My comp and I were on a bus for 40 hours this week and ya...I'm gonna go back to the states and the 12 hour trip from Utah to AZ is gonna seem like CAKE. haha so much traveling.

We had the 4th and not gonna lie... my comp was probably tired of hearing about the rodeo and the family and camping and the food and the music and just everything the has to deal with the 4th back home.  Probably the hardest day to miss but we did what we could.. pulled out a rusty barbecue looking thing and cooked up some burgers and doggers and listened to the star spangle banner and wore red white and blue.

I am loving Gallegos. It's not the best smelling city becuase the city workers are on strike (shocker) and nobody is picking up the trash so it just piles up in the streets and the weather is bitter cold but the people are AMAZING!!  It's a branch but it has about 70 people attend every week so its growing!!!  

Love you all... pound some Mcdonalds for ya boy down here.  

Elder Lamb

June 29, 2015 -GLACIAR/ #BIRDWHISPERER

Wowskies..... just best week of my life!! I seem to have had a ton of those on the mish. 

So this week we still had to run around everywhere because half our zone is super sick but we really wanted to work hard and talk with everyone!  The people are so amazing here in Rio Gallegos... I don't know if it's because they like what they here when we knock on their door and they let us in or it's just because they feel bad for two homies shaking outside their house but we entered into 8 new houses this week.  Every day this week we went out thinking we were going to contact for hours every day but this first couple doors we knocked every day let us right in and listened to us and every day someone different accepted a baptismal date! (also NEVER happens). These people are so prepared!!  There are 2 experiences that were beyond amazing for me.  

The first was Orlando.. We just knocked on a random house and this man answered the door and all we did was introduce ourslves and he asked if we would like to come in...(that NEVER happens).  So we talked about his likes and his background and eventually taught him the Restoration.  We asked him if he had ever prayed before and he said no.. so we taught him how to pray and asked him if he could give the closing prayer. Teaching people how to pray is very common but for some reason the spirit was so strongg this time and during his prayer it hit me hard that this humble argentine man that recently moved to this city, being about 40 years old, was talking to his Father in Heaven for the first time in his life.  It was a small moment of heaven.. This man said the most sincere prayer I have ever heard all in about 45 seconds.  

Then sunday night we were walking and one of our citas fell so we were going to contact for the 1 hour and a half till we had to start heading home.  The second door we contacted let us right in and the house just reaked of marijuana and tobacco.  It was a young hippie couple that had Bob Marley all over the walls with abstract weird drawings and a weed movie posters on the wall.  My comp and I looked at each other and just thought what the heck did we just walk into. We talked about a ton of stuff from family to tobacco to politics to that good kush.   They thought it was crazy I came from the states and asked us our purpose in coming here..BOOM.. we started teaching and chatting. They are both extremely inteligent and were taking it very seriously.  We set up the apostocy so well and they were asking so many questions.. to the point where the husband said.. "well, I was baptized catholic and no one gave them the authority to baptize..I want to be baptized by someone like John the Baptist who has the authority the same way Jesus was.. how can I do that!?" BEST QUESTION EVER!!  We taught them the restoration and they are sooo game! They marked on their week calendar the time of church on Sunday and are excited to prepare to be baptized the 1 of august. Word of Wisdom is gonna be a fun lesson but I honestly think they will love it because they know smokings bad but they don't have a reason to stop. Weez about to hit them up with one though!! 

Yesterday we went to see the largest glacier on EARTH! haha it doesn't sound that amazing... like a huge piece of ice.. but it was unreal!!  Seeing it.. you just can't deny that there is a God!!  We had a lot of fun.. it's a 5 hour drive away which seems like nothing now because of how big our mish is but the bus we rented for the 16 missionaries here kept dying so we all got our and pushed started it about 5 times, it was great.  HUGE tourist place so it was cool to find some people from San Diego there. Weird to have the little get to know you convos in english...haha super weird actually.  We drank some glacier water and had an amazing time and got back late last night.  

In an hour my comp and I are headed to Comodoro for a meeting tomorrow so it'll be anoth 12 hour bus ride there and 12 coming back tomorrow night.. fun stuff.. :) 

Goodnight I wrote a lot but I had such an amazing week!  There are so many people waiting to hear that the church has been restored and that we have a prophet today! Thank you for all the support! Love you all!

Elder Lamb

our dope district here!

The last pic was just straight memories.. se we had been trying to push start the bus for 15 minutes and all of us were panting and dying... then we grouped the elders up and asked for some help from the Man upstairs.. the next time we pushed we were all screaming and pushing with everything we had!! and guess what!!?? it started!!!! haha we were running and screamin!! good stuff... #prayerisreal!

and you can notice the hermanas cheerin us ion...inside the bus... jana 

June 22, 2015

Whats goooood?? I'm just living it up here freezing my butt off!! It's just a process for me to but on all my layers but so worth it.  This week has got to be one of the shortest weeks ever.  It just flew by! 

One of the things we decided in a conference with President is that our missionaries need to become better teachers.  We are worried that a lot of missionaries don't know how to teach that well so this past zone conference we spent the whole time trying to help their teaching skills.  I thought I was just going to teach but in reality I learned so much.  It helps my companion and I to really teach the doctrine clearly.  We were able to see the techniques that every missionary in the zone used and as a zone I really think we improved that day.  President taught us that we should be focusing more on the temple.  And that we could teach the temple with many other lessons.  Elder Caceres and I put that to the test when we taught our investigator Carlos about the authority and the priesthood of God along with the temples.  We taught it slow in a way that he could understand and really see the importance of both the priesthood and the temple.  He is about 60 years old and lived in a little house full of cockroaches.  Carlos was able to understand the importance and then accept a baptismal date.

We also taught Teresa.  She is about 65 years old and lives with her daughter and grandkids.  She just broke her hip and had surgery.  She has been a catholic her whole life and does the little chanting "gracias jesus" "si jesus" "haleluya" deal during the prayers.. pretty funny.  We also taught her in a way where she actually asked us... "Well then why are there so many churches in the world day..?"  BOOM!! My comp and I looked at each other and smiled.. What a great question.. and we have the answer!  We explained the apostasy and how important the priesthood is and it just makes sense!! She had already been baptized in the catholic church and in her own words she said.. "I was baptized because I had so much faith in God and in Jesus Christ but I have no idea if the pastor who baptized me had the authority." BOOM we talked about the authority line and she was so impressed our authority went back to the apostles and the Jesus Christ. She, very willingly, accepted a baptismal date, and in the closing prayer asked God if this was the path that she could go..without us even asking her..S/O to Teresa for being prepared and amazing.

Every time I teach my testimony is strengthened. Every time I testify I am cementing my testimony even that much more.  It's so amazing that we are able to help people so much physically with service and a smile but when we get to help people eternally is when we feel happiness that can not be measured.

I am doing great.  The branch here is AMAZING!! Our dueño is 84 i think and RUNS with us to lessons.  It's 2 degrees outside and he is running and laughing and ALWAYS making jokes. I'll send a pic next week with him.  He is my straight IDOL!  He'll just come over to our little house and chill with us at night and chow.  He has a brand new dodge suv sitting in his garage but he likes to walk and run so he doesn't feel the need to drive it.  Literally so funny.

People so nice and willing to help..We've been doing so much service and are seeing miracles.  I am so grateful to be a small part of this great work.  

Lost my camera cable so gonna have to wait till next week for pics:)

They put a subway in Rio Gallegos!!!! There are only two in the whole patagonia! It's not the same and they don't have any jalepeños so that's a joke but it's still so baller for here and it's literally like the only American food I've ever seen here so I'm too pumped:)

Love you all!!

Elder Lamb

June 15, 2015 - What's Good!!

It's soooo cold down here!!! It's back to them "cover every part of my body except my eyes kind of weather!" But I'm liking it a lot.  

The people are super nice and the houses are always burning with the heaters and the ovens are always on so it's awesome.  This week just literally flew by so fast I can't even remember what we did really.  A few of the nights we had to go pick up missionaries at the bus station so I'm running on 2 hours of sleep right now.  

The branch is awesome.  The people are so nice.  We're trying so hard to find service opportunities but nobody wants to work in this cold weather so even finding service has been difficult and I'm going through withdrawals. It's been almost two weeks since we've done a service  project and I'm trip pin! 

All my homies are going home in the next couple weeks so that's so weird! Today I hit 17 months and i can't believe it!! Time is movin!

I hope everything is going great back home! Remember to read and pray!!! Too easy but too important.

Love you all!

Elder Lamb

June 8, 2015 -Rioooo Gallegossss

What is up fam!!?? Literally can't imagine Reegan and flying alone!! Like where's her companion!!  So crazy! Mexico and Jamaica?!?! That's insane! The best part of that deal is definitely the 24 hour food service!! I would POUND!!

This week hasn't been the shortest week.  It was so weird to leave Puerto Madryn.  That was my first area when I left the office and I made so many goals to just serve and give my whole heart to the people in Madryn.  Well I didn't take into account that one day I was going to leave and I part of my heart would be left there forever. 

A ton of families came to say goodbye when I got on the bus to set out for my next journey.  It didn't hit me until I loaded my bags and I was in my seat looking out the window that I literally gave everything to those people.  I truly tried to lose myself in the work as instructed in Matthew 10:39 and it's crazy how blessed I was because of it.  They truly are part of my family and I reflected so much that long 17 bus ride to Rio Gallegos and I found out a lot about myself.  I truly love to serve. I want to ease other burdens.  I want to put a smile and these peoples faces.  I want to make a difference.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve in puerto Madryn.

I have new reponsibilities here in Rio Gallegos and we don't have as much time to work in the area but we have taken advantage of every second.  Elder Caceres is very humble and focused and we are going to do great.  He is from Santiago Chile.  IT'S SO COLD HERE!! the high this week is 40 degrees and it's just bitter to the bones.  But the people are soooo nice!! Almost everyone we talk to in the streets are super nice and want to talk to us.. To get them to go to church is a different story.

I am learning so much about the Plan of God out here.  When asked how we had so much success the only thing I can think is..
     1)You have to love the people and
     2)You have to SHOW them you love them ...by SERVING them!!

God is so merciful and if we trust put our trust in His plan...He will bless our loved ones and us.

I LOVE the mission.  By far the hardest thing I've ever done and I'm not going to miss planning and comp inventories for anything but I will miss being able to SERVE and being a representative of the one who served ALL of us!!

Thank you for everything! I'll try and send a bunch of pics!!

Elder Lamb

photos... 1.my best bud angelito the night before i got transfered.. such a homie!! 

2. we went to the dopest beach to see some whales!!

3. i brought that phannypack swag all the way down here... #letsgo

postin with my boys griffits, erickson, and crowley 

1. familia castillo! dopest family ever! family home evening! 

2. waitin for my bus with some of the families

3. rio gallegos is sooo flooded.. makin it 10 minutes without wet socks is pretty impressive! but still sooo dope!!!

June 1, 2015 - I Hate Saying Goodbye!!

Praying for bishop and his family! So sad!

So this week has been just a week full of goodbyes... and I hate goodbyes!!! Another reason why I have to come back to visit these amazing people here!! My time in Puerto Madryn Argentina has come to an end. I have been called to serve in Rio Gallegos for the winter...I will FREEZE! Literally the coldest place in South America right now... Thank you mom for the clothes and warm stuff.. comin in sooo clutch!!

To be honest I am going exactly where I wanted to go with an Elder I wanted to work with.  Elder Caceres from Chile.  Very humble and focused Elder who wants to work just as much as I do!

It was so hard saying goodbye to all my fam in Rio Grande but this time it's so much harder.. the members and investigator's have adopted me as one of their own and we have worked together to bring so many people closer to Christ.  

I dont have time today!! Ill send an email with a ton of pics next week!! 

Love you all!!

Elder Lamb:):)

May 25, 2015 -BALLENAS!!! Whaleta!!!

First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARDING!!! Can't believe she would be 24..that's insane!!

The package got here mom!!!:):) And the footy pajamas came in too clutch! Literally BEST PACKAGE EVER!:):) The sweaters and warm gear are too perfect.. we have transfers in a week going into winter and I'm in the northern most part of my mission so si o si I'm going south to some real cold! Sister Abregu is going to freak when I gift her the scarf and necklaces... mom you're about to hook all the amazing moms that give us lunch up!

Today we went to the beach again for Pday and we saw WHALES!!:) Never thought i'd be seeing whales on my mish but you never know what you're going to find in the Patagonia:)

Guys... Raul and Niko both traveled an hour and a half to go to stake conference in Trelew!!  What studs!  Raul has been listening to the missionaries for over 10 years and this was the first time he came to church! He is amazing! His wife is a member and all his grandkids are members... he had a problem smoking and never felt worthy to be baptized..well he quit smoking and came to stake conference...80 percent of the members didn't even come!  He told me he is going to marry his wife legally and be baptized by the end of this year and will sand me photos.. I'm so happy for him.

So the family of 9 we found is too amazing. We asked our branch president to come with us to visit them and we had an amazing lesson about Ether 12 and how our anchor to our lives should be faith in our Savior Jesus Christ.  Last night we went over again and the mom said she had something to tell me.. she said Sunday morning at about 2 am her husband woke her up.  He told her that he had prayed and had received and answer to his questions of whether all the things we are teaching them are true or not.  He asked his wife if he could join her this Sunday at church!! He prayed with faith and received an answer! I was tearing up as she was telling me.. then after our lesson the grandma came in and talked about how she was going in for surgery for her knees and how she was in a lot of pain.  We talked about the priesthood and the disciples of Christ and how they were able to bless and heal people.  She accepted a blessing and we gave her a blessing of health.. I love giving blessings.. it's moments when you truly feel like you are an instrument in the hands of God.  After the blessing the mom was crying and told us she didn't know that we had access to this authority from God.  I bore my testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ and explained to her that that is what differs us from all the other churches in the world. She was overwhelmed and literally wants us to pass by everyday!! the spirit was sooooooooooo strong. Moments like these are what i make my life!!! There is NOTHING I'd rather be doing than serving my God and these people here:)

Thanks for everything!  I'm having so much fun out here! You just gotta enjoy the little things!

Someone eat a 20 piece mcnugget for me!! Thanks!!

Love yall!

Elder Lamb