April 7, 2015 -FELICES PASCUAS

Another week just flew by...I can't believe conference is already over!! It was soooo amazing!! Good night being a missionary during conference has got to be the greatest blessing ever.. I left with so much animo to work and do it the right way.  

First of all...President Rogers challenged our whole mission to read the Book of Mormon from start to finish starting the first of January and ending yesterday.. I am sooo grateful for this challenge. We had to mark the scriptures that dealt with missionary work in blue and scriptures about Jesus and the atonement in red... literally almost every single scripture has blue, red, or both markings,   The Book of Mormon is TRUE!  It was saved for our days to learn and grow.  The promise is real.. if we give head to the teachings of this great book we will be saved.. salvation is personal.. we will all be accountable for our own actions.. The atonement is REAL,.. The Plan of Salvation is real! 

 Elder Holland made that very clear in his talk! Adam was just as big a part of the plan as was Jesus Christ,  He called Him the second Adam.  1 Corinthians 15 has changed my view on a lot of things.  As in Adam all men will die, in Christ all may live. That is so profound.  Once we realize how important the atonement is our life will find more joy and peace as long as we use it.  As Elder Bednar said The Atonement allows us to reach a potential that we didn't know was possible and we can not and will not be good enough as we rely solely on ourselves.  We know that Jesus Christ lives and has paid for all the sins of the world,,we need to go to him with faith.

Another thing I took away from conference is just how important the families are to God's plan! I am so grateful for my family.. I am so grateful for you mom and dad and the examples you have been.  Like the reminder Larry M. Gibson made "Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words." You have been the greatest examples service and love.  You ALWAYS put the family first. I've said it before but the fact that you both went to ALLLLL my games growing up since t-ball to my last travel game for every sport and season in every state even is the greatest demonstration of love.  THANK YOU!!!  I will do the same for my kids because of your examples.  

Great week but if what you did yesterday still looks good today then you haven't done much today- (Coach Homestead)   so Elder Lyman and I are going to make this week even better! 

Con amor,

Elder Lamb

Pics.. We did an emergency natural disaster practice? ya who knows but we had emergency bags with cool stuff in them:)

Yesterday for Pday we went to the beach and had a sweet asado and found some cool caves:) 

March 31, 2015 - AGUANTE SAN MIGUEL Y LA RAMA!!!!!!

What is happenin back in the good ol US of A??

Everything here is sooo amazing.. just another great week! So we had 3 family home evenings this past week and I am now the biggest fan ever of FHE!  We made tacos one night...a peruvian food the next night and then this dope argentine pasta made from potatoes called ñokis! Sooo bomb! 

We were able to teach the plan of salvation a lot this week and every time I teach it I just am so grateful to have this knowledge!! It is truly a plan of happiness that is dependant upon the atonement of our Savior.  

Best feeling ever... when your recent convert is in church teaching classes... already doing her visiting teaching.. and helping us to teach lessons....I LOVE ROSA!!!! I'll send you pics of the baptism.. :):)

On saturday we did service from 9 in the morning till 6 in the afternoon... we just went from house to house for the members in the branch ready to get dirty and work.. then right after Hermano Santana in our branch wanted to take us to visit one of his friends... we ended up visiting 4 families that are inactive that have members that are not members all that night with Hermano Santana and the next sday at church 3 of the families came!!!  We had the highest attendance in months with 91 people! I was toooooo happy to see these families making their way back!! 

Guess what!!! Our mission leader that my old comp and I reactivated just got called to be the 2nd counselor in the Presidency of our branch!!!! 

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE SO MUCH!! I'm already dreading the day when i have to leave!!! 

We get to hear the voice of a prophet of God this week!!!!!! His most trusted messengers are going to help us with all the problems that we are facing!! Go to conference with questions and pray throughout the week to be prepared to apply what we are going to hear in your lives!  

Love you all!

Que tengan una buena semana y no se olviden la importancia de Èl y todo lo que ha hecho por nosotros:)

Elder Lamb

pics!

Rosa and the Leon family.. Her son Pablo was able to baptize her and I will never forget seeing a son baptizing his mother so that she could enter through the door of salvation!

Selfie with Rosa!

Handstands with the little Leon homies after the baptism!! 

More Pictures:

#1 fùtbol with the homies #BOCA

#2 Pizza lunch with flia Leon!

#4 other pizza lunch with lamily Polacios

#somuchfood

March 23, 2015- ESPÍRITU SANTO:):)

Se bautizó!  Sorry for not writing yesterday.. it's another holiday just like every other week... literally these people will celebrate anything to get work off!!

Well this was one of the greatest weeks of my mission.  Rosa was baptized by her son Pablo Leon on saturday.  To see her before the baptism and she see her desire is something I will never forget...she truly understood the promise that she was about to make with our Heavenly Father..I gave the message on the Holy Ghost and I told her that she should have been the one giving the message seeing as she taught about it the week earlier in church.  I absolutely love her and family Leon.  They have changed my life.. 

Being here in Puerto Madryn has been the best for me!! It takes me back to those Austral days when I was in Rio Grande just trying to help out the branch in any way that we could.  We have an amazing relationship with all the members and we've challenged them to invite their friends over for a message...we already have three family home evenings planned this week alone!! Huge fan of the family home evenings...members..investigators...food...fun...just the best of the best!!! / every house we go to just loads us with food...I need to run some laps or something because walking all day doesn't do anything!

Yesterday we got together and had an elders quorum activity..they rented out this all dirt soccer field and we played some legit 11 on 11 soccer...legit has become one of my favorite sports..and i've been really able to expand my spanish vocab playing with random kids and showin them how a white boy can play.. haha

Everything is great...pray for Rosa and her family! She has 11 kids and the majority are not going down a good path. With her example we're sure they will realize it and want to change!! 

Love you all!! I'll send the pics next week! 

KEEP GOING TO THE TEMPLE:):):)

QUE VAYAN A LA CASA DEL SEÑOR!!

con amor,

Elder Lamb

March 16, 2015- ROSA LA MAESTRA/ LAS CHANCHERIAS!

WHERE DID THE TIME GO??? 

Elder Lyman and I are having so much fun! We are complete opposites and I love it!! He is a stud that wants to be a great missionary! 

Can't believe AF lost to PG... come on now...

Ok so the mother of my favorite Hermano here came to visit his family.  She hasn't seen the family for 7 years and didn't even know the two twin boys that the family has!  Well her name is Rosa and she is AMAZING!!!!!!!  She has only been here for 2 weeks and we have already taught her 4 lessons.  After the second lesson we went to the families house on Tuesday and we were sitting with her and she said to us..."ok what do i need to do to be baptized....?"  I went into shock...

haha but i was sooo happy for her. She lives in northern argentina and has had the hardest life ever!!  We have had the most powerful lessons with her and she wants to change so bad and is so willing to submit to the gospel!  Guess what!  Her daughter-in-law is who teaches the second hour of church Principios del evangelio (principles of the gospel?) but she couldn't come to church yesterday so guess who gave the class yesterday with the topic Gifts of the Holy Ghost???? ROSA!!! In the class it's all the recent converts, investigators, and missionaries and this amazing women that is not even baptized yet prepared for hours the day before to give the class.. I can't describe to you how i felt when she was teaching us about the gifts of the holy ghost and the role of the holy ghost in our lives... she was so sincere and is sooooooo excited to be baptized to be able to have the constant companionship of the holy ghost as long as she lived worthily of it! I was just bawling like a baby during the whole hour! One of the greatest moments of my mission! 

Seeing somebody make a 180 degree change in their life to come unto Christ! So we were kinda bummed because she was going to go back to her house up north but guess what?? SHE'S STAYING HERE:) She's so happy here that she's staying here and her two teenage daughters are going to move down here as well!!  

Rosa is getting baptized this saturday by her son!! He is my favorite person here and he has this unreal blessing of being able to baptize his mother after years and years of her not wanting ANYTHING to do with the church! I'm inspiring to be more like Rosa and I am so beyond grateful to my Father in Heaven for the opportunity to meet her, teach her, and learn from her! It's moments like that that make the mission the greatest thing in the world.. makes it all worth it.. :)  

So many other miracles happened this week but I already wrote a novel so just remind me when i get back about walking for 5 hours in the dessert and praying to find someone:) God is so willing to answers our prayers...but are we willing to listen?

The church is so true.. the mission has been the hardest thing I've ever done but by far the greatest.. I can't imagine my life if I never met these people at the end of the world...They need me and I need them.

Elder Lamb 

pics..last night we asked members in the branch to go on visits with us.. #winning 

huge fan of the package.. At one time yesterday during sacrament meeting I had every single kid under 9 years old sitting by me asking for more of the candy hearts.. haha i wish i had a pic.. love all the little homies here! makes me miss all the little cousins!! 

March 9, 2015- PROYECTO DE DIVERSIÓN!

PROYECTO DE DIVERSIÓN!

Oh my goodness... the mission is so crazy! Literally just one of the best weeks of my mission and of course transfers come along and my companio little Elder Gutierrez is gonskies. My new comp is Elder Lyman from Indiana and he doesn't know a lick of spanish so it's going to be interesting...he's super excited though and he told me he's going to sing to me every morning at 6:30 to start the day off....yikes.

This past week soooo much happened but i'll just share some of the many miracles.  

So we have the most amazing members in the world here and Hermana Abregu wanted to take all the used and thrown to the side of the road tires to build a playground for the kids in the street and buils bird and flower pots and everything out of the rubber.  So we have been helping a ton with this and yesterday was the grand opening.  Justo we had a family home evening so we arrived late but everyone from the neighborhood was hanging out around the tires and playground stuff with all the little kids chilling and drinking some mate.  We showed up and we were walking accross the street and the non member neighbor who hated the missionaries before and never even allowed them in her house was yelling at Elder Guti and I to come over with a huge smile on her face.. so we went over and when we got to her she told everyone to listen up.. she then went on to tell everyone all the work we put in to this project and wanted everyone to thank us..everyone started cheering and I was just on cloud 9.  Point of the story? SERVICE BRINGS MIRACLES!! 

We were able to talk and go to the neighbors house now and we even took a picture with her in her house as evidence of the first missionaries to ever enter.. haha it's like a big deal for us and all the people who know her! And while we were hanging out there a mom of 8 little kids came up to us and started talking to us!!! She wants us to pass by!! We also found 2 inactive families and another girl named Jessica who is a friend of one of the youth that wants to get baptized!! again... SERVICE BRINGS MIRACLES!! 

I love life and we are going sooo hard right now in the work of the Lord... This is HIS work!!! Why not give it your all?

Mom, YOU ARE THE BEST!!! Thank you for going to the temple!! Thank you for the package!  I LOVED IT SO MUCH!!! I will send pics with it next week!

Love you all, 

Elder Lamb

pics.. Family Home Evening and the Poyecto Diversion:):):):)

March 2, 2015

March 2, 2015

LA VIDA DEL CORDERO

This has been another testimony builder week.  We have a ton of menus activos in the branch as well as part member families so we have been doing Family Home Evenings with a few families that need a push.

I can't explain the happiness I have felt from doing the FHE's.  We reactivated our mission leader and had a FHE in his home and he has many children that are all older and only 2 or 3 go to church. We had such a powerful lesson with the father and we were able to listen to him bear his testimony and actually teach his children what he believed.  One of his daughters is not married and has had a boyfriend for years and he asked her directly, "what do you think is going to happen after we die?"  "Do you truly believe that you will live with your boyfriend forever if you aren't sealed in the temple?"  It was so powerful and spiritual.

We also wen to the recent convert Emilse's house to have FHE with her family who are all nonmembers and again we made a huge progression with her family.  Her husband was aging off about the typical church is in my heart stuff and that he didn't need to go to any church.  He told us that he knows a lot of bad people that go to church.  We were able to testify that we don't go to church just because.  We made covenants with our Father in Heaven that we would follow His Son.  We talked about the importance of covenants and the importance of baptism and the temple.  We listened and he listened........which doesn't happen too often.  I am so grateful for the knowledge that God has given me in this lifetime.  SO grateful that I can help people make these promises with our Father in Heaven.  My companion is an amazing missionary.  Very sincere and wants the best for everyone.  I am learning so much.

We also had FHE with the Leon Family and we taught the 5 principles of the gospel and we played a game where you had to explain what faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end were before you got a prize. Our investigator Uriel was there as well as all the kids of the Leon family.  4 kids under 12 describing in their own words what each of the 5 principles is was extremely spiritual.  I was looking at their dad and told him he should be so proud.  There is a reason the scriptures say over and over that we need to be as little children to inherit the kingdom of God. When the little 7 year old twins explained the process of repentance and how if they fought each other they need to kneel down in their room and ask God to forgive them and then ask the other brother to forgive him was sooooo amazing!!! 

Love my life...

Elder Lamb

pic is of the twins...Bruno (recent convert) on the right.. and Uriel the other homie in the middle!:)

February 23, 2015

MOSIAH 2:17!!:)

Literally can't believe this week just flew by like that!  Sounds like the family is doing great and that makes me tooooo happy!!!!!! 

Mom! I got the letter and the pics! Everbody is obsessed with the pics of all the cousins and all the sisters freak out when I tell them that you made Mckinleys dress! Literally the tie game the Zac has going is impressive to say the least and the boots are prime.. I see you bro...  I was talking to Hermana Rogers (Presidents wife) about the family this week and I just kept knocking on wood as I was talking because everything seems to be great back home! It really does help knowing how everyones doing. 

Anyways I am 10000% convinced that service brings blessings and miracles.  I have seen it through my whole mission...when the opportunity to do service comes along.... take it!!!  And the blessings and miracles just raaaain! I can't tell you how happy I am hitting the bed at night dead exhausted from working all day! We have so many families to teach right now and we have our agenda full already this week with everyday a Family Home Evening in the houses of less actives and investigators! 

We have Family Cabrera who are amazing! The husband is a member but the wife isn't because they still aren't married because the dad is separated but hasn't divorced his ex quite yet...but guess whwere he is going tomorrow!!? He is taking the bus to Cordoba Argentina which is like 9 hours away to divorce his ex then come back get married to his new girlfriend and baptize her!!! 

We have Family Rodriguez who are also waiting on papers from Bolivia so that they can get married and get baptized and we are still working with Cristian and Veronica to flip it into gear and get baptized. Veronica served a mission but stopped going to church a few years back and her husband who is not a member has read the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenents.  KAPISIMO!! 

And thats not all!  So yesterday we helped this super less active family build there house and we were dyin after.. we went to the apartment to change back into our proselyting clothes and it was already 8 at night.. we were almost tempted to just chill in the apartment and call it a day but we knew after doing service a miracle was waiting for us! So we left the pension and passed this families house that had a man working outside.  We have already talked with him for a sec a few days before and he said he is always in the house on sundays.  So we passed his house this night and it was like they were waiting for us.  He immediately invited us in and introduced us to his wife and 2 teenage kids.. They had never ever heard of our church and didn't know anything about it.  Long story short..we didn't have much time so we just went hard in bearing our testimonies of the church and invited them to act.  They were astonished that we would devote our time to 100% helping other people.  It went so amazingly and they will get baptized some day! The dad and his sons name is Jon.. the wife Maria and their daughter Laura! MIRACLE!! All because of service!! He even drove us to our apartment after which is HUGE PLUS! 

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve! To roll up my sleeves and go to work! Another bonus...if anyone wants a house made of brick and cement by hand.. my comp and I got you covered! No such things as power tools down here!:)

 We reactivated our ward mission leader in our branch who was inactive and had an amazing Family Home Evening in his house with all his kids and today he took the missionaries that work in the branch to the beach! What a HOMIE!! We had big time Asado of meat and chorizo! 

Love life...love the people.. :) 

Con cariño,

Elder Lamb

This is a nice email that an Elder's Dad sent me.  AWESOME!!

Elder Lamb,

Yea, you don't know me however I am somewhat  familiar with you.  I read your missionary blog on a monthly basis.  Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with others this way.  

Okay, so you are wondering who in the heck is this goof ball writing to me out of the blue?  Well I have a son serving it the same Comodoro mission as you are serving.  His name is Cameron Carlsen.... Oops, I guess I am supposed to say Elder Carlsen.  As a matter of fact, I am one of "those" parents that called the mission office... and you were the pleasant and helpful voice on the other end of the line that calmed this troubled old heart, and gave helpful information about sending packages to Argentina from the States.  My son finally received his Christmas package towards the end of January which surprised us as we thought it was gone for ever.  

Anyway, Cameron is our son, I mean Elder Carlsen is our son, actually, if you really want to know what he has been called for the most part of his life, if you ever run into him during the remainder of your mission call him "Shorty Boy" and see how he reacts.  That has been his nick name from when he was a toddler and it just stuck.  They even called him that on the basketball courts while playing high school basketball.... 

I know it is your "P" day and I know how busy your can be on this day so I'll not take up any more of your time.  

I just wanted to thank you for being so helpful when I called about our Christmas package.  Also to thank you for sharing your mission experience on your blog.  Reading your latest blog of you standing down, or up to, a person holding a knife made me chuckle as I envisioned it playing out in my mind.  It also reminded me of a similar experience I had while serving my mission of looking down a loaded 357 gun barrel after a door opened one day while knocking on doors.... but that is another story.

It would be cool if one day you and my son could serve together.  I think you two would get along great.

Que nuestro Padre Celestial te bendiga en todas tus endevors . 

(used google translate so that is probably all messed up) 

Kerry Carlsen

Shorty Boys dad.... Boise Idaho.