November 17, 2014-Que grande que sos:)

Que grande que sos:)

This week was so crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!! So much happened in such a short amount of time!!

So it was crazy trying to get everyone here! And Argentina had a bank strike so we couldn't even pull out money! It made it 1000 times more complicated and I'm still stunned everyone made it here on time and was able to hear the Prophet talk..... It was even better than expected!!!!

Elder D. Todd Christofferson came down to La Patagonia to talk with us missionaries and the members! Crazy side note...did you know his first name was David...I didn't until I went to his hotel to make sure he still had his reservation and the employee asked me for his name and I was like uhhh Christofferson? and he was like oh here I have it David Christofferson.  Anyway I just thought that was crazy.  So I Have a picture of Elder Nelson, Elder Hodgson and I driving the truck to go pick him up at the airport!  So crazy!  Elder Christofferson is the most calm person I have ever met.. You could just see the peace and love in his eyes and shaking his hand knowing he is one of the 12 apostles of God is something I am not going to forget!

The spirit was so strong...we had 150 missionaries in the same building singing Armies of Helaman in spanish and the spirit was just BOOMING!!  Then he spoke and left it open for questions and someone asked how can we still stay motivated when we get rejected all day every day.  He was so clutch!  He told us about John the Baptist and how he preached and how after he preached Jesus Christ preached.. He told us that we can't convert.. rather we are to provide the opportunity for the spirit and Jesus Christ to convert.  He told us every time we contact a house we are automatically bringing Jesus Christ closer to that family. He also talked about how Our loving Heavenly Father is willing to give us all the blessings in the world...and then asked us if we are preparing to receive them!

I'll talk more about what he said next week as well. I forgot my notes that I took in the pension. Oh but his spanish is bomb!

So awesome experience happened in church.. during the second hour is when we have a class with all the investigators and recent converts right. . So there is this super extremely shy recent convert named Fernanda.... she is in her thirties but super closed off and doesn't talk to anyone.. the lesson was on the spirit world and the life after this one.. whether it be in Spirit prison or paradise... The lesson was awesome and she didn't say a word the whole time and then finally her hand goes up and she said something..she talked about her niece who died and how she doesn't understand why her sister and brother-in-law were still happy after even though she dies... so I decided I could probably answer her and I opened up to my Harding scripture in D&C 137 and shared the scripture about how all those who die before the age of accountability are in the presence of our Heavenly Father and are saved... I shared about mom and dads experience with Harding and told her how of course it is hard but we have a Plan of Happiness for a reason:)  I told her how even 23 years after she passed we still talk about her and celebrate her birthday. Then she got emotional after telling her that this life is 80-90 years and the time we'll have with her is for eternity! Less than a blink of an eye is this lifetime compared to eternity but that's what makes our choices in this life worth so much when it comes to the great plan.  

I have a ton of photos to send!  Guess who I saw!  Bart!!  Finally!  Bart is about an hour and a half south of Comodoro and he seems to be doing great! I also got to see Tres again and all our friends in  Rio Grande! It was hectic having that many missionaries in one place!

I also added a photo of Elder Nelson and I with a typical day of being all covered up in money and passports!

I'll send more photos...

Elder Cordero

Got a picture of the truck that president lets me drive.. Ha he hasn't let any of the officers drive in a long time but we talked him into it. 

It's a nice manual Ford Ranger..so weird to drive after not having drove fore 8 months..

Then a pic of Tres and Hermana Heath! Awesome to see him again and catch up.. He's doin awesome in a great area.

And then Elder Thacker…he played ball at Layton on that team where Kincaid jacked 3 home runs...He's an awesome missionary and hilarious!

So another story...we were walking around in central and we came upon this guy sitting on the ground finger painting... he's a funny guy who goes around and finger paints these UNBELIEVABLE  paintings in less than two minutes... I have videos to show when I get home but they're too big to send.  It's the most impressive thing I have ever seen.  I had him paint Harding in the heavens and I was blown away! I can't wait for you guys to see it. I had him paint another one as well but it's a surprise. 

OK the AP's left to go out of town with the president and we knew they had food in their pension so we have been sleeping in their pension the past couple days and yesterday I was sitting their and was looking at the cereal so unbelievably happy and said..."gosh, it's so nice being able to look at food and knowing you will be able to get full after.. :) " haha it's such a battle out here for food!

Then there's the slide picture with Elder Nelson and Elder Hodgson... we went to this less active family and taught them a lesson and saw this slide and you can't pass up a slide like this here!!!

FYI- Argentine members take the Sabbath day to a whole new level here... I saw a soccer ball outside and starting dribbling it with my feet and got scolded by a member... ha the member kids here literally can't do ANYTHING on sundays... I'm just like where´s the wiffle ball bat let's get a game going!! haha It´s insane.. gotta love'em though!!!

November 10, 2014-AN EXTRA POST!

ASADOS

Almost forgot...yesterday we had an amazing asado!! Asados are the best thing that has hit Argentina.  They just throw a ton of meat over the fire and call it good.  We ate so much!! It's family Tapia! They are less active and they have a daughter on the mission.  The dad is not a member so we're working with him.  We ate cow, chicken, sausages, pig, and lamb!!! Lamb might be my favorite meat now! Nothing better than some cordero de la patagonia! It was unreal...

November 10, 2014- Don't stop ….Believin!

Don't stop...believin!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REEGS!!!!!!!!! but hold on a second...15 is wayyyyyyy to old!

Same here mom...Reegs will always be 11 for me.

That's awesome you were able to head down to St. George this weekend.  I could just see Reegs tearin up those base paths;) 

This week has been AMAZING and super stressful at the same time.  So we have Elder Christofferson coming to the end of the world on Wednesday!!!! Everyone is so excited!!! But me...kinda...haha I am in charge of getting all 200 missionaries to the same place..showing up at the same time...in a corrupted government...I can't wait till this week is over!!! It's so crazy!! It makes me realize how stress-free life is being a normal missionary.  I am learning a ton but I can't even sleep at night with everything going on! Then you get missionaries losing their passports and DNI's to make it even better..

Anyways!! We actually had something amazing happen this week!! So we had to go rent a car in central and we were walking and in the plaza there was an outdoor concert going on.. and to give you some background...it's now me, Elder Nelson, and Elder Hodgson in the office.  Elder Nelson is training Elder Hodgson to be the new financer of the mission.  Kinda crazy..Elder Hodgson and I showed up on the same day to Argentina from the MTC but we didn´t see each other till this week 8 months later! Well Elder Hodgson has a scholarship with BYU to play piano and he wants to be a professor.....the kid is unnnnnreal!!!!!!! 

Anyway we see this outdoor concert and we're like... Hodgy...you gotta play!!! He was kinda timid at first but we went and talked to some of the homies standing by the stage and they were obviously interested why three big white homies were there.  We talked Hodgy up and told them he is a professional piano player and they jumped all over it.  SO they threw him up on stage and he started killin it!! The speakers were super loud and the people were cheerin! He started out kinda playing jazz type music and then he played some Piano Man! Everyones gettin pumped now and clappin along and then guess what happens...He starts playing some Journey!! Don't Stop Believin was on full blast!! Elder Nelson and I were leading the crowd and getting everyone pumped up!  AND then this homey from a rock band gets on stage and joins in with the drums!! I'm getting chills just thinking about it!! The people were going crazy!!! It was probably the coolest experience I've had on the mission because after that we were famous just because we were with Hodgy! haha There was a time when all three of us were a talking to three different groups of people teaching them about our savior and why we are here!!! They were astonished to hear about the things we left behind to come out here on the mission.  We were able to share our invitation for everyone to come closer to Christ and learn of Him. We took down all their names and directions and we are going to be passing by.  We asked someone to take a picture of just us three with the stage behind us and before we could even get a picture random poeple just jumped in!! Sickest night ever!! 

Oh and I got a video of this guy yelling at us for 20 minutes telling us why the Post Roman Catholic church is right... We were contacting this wealthy house and this old man came out and came up to the fence and started spitting on us he was so mad.  We just smiled and let him rant and said sorry for bothering him.  I asked him if i could cut his grass and pull his weeds and he yelled at me for trying to take away money from his landscaping people... it's so reassuring knowing that the Church of Jesus Christ is once again established on the earth and it doesn't matter what anyone tells you because you KNOW thats this is the true church restored in these latter days! 

I love you all!!

Goodluck with the wedding planning and everything!!!!

Feel free to send me pictures of St. George or just any pics to see what everyone's up to!!! 

Have a great week!! 

Elder Lamb

November 3, 2014- SNOW

SNOW!!!

So guess what happened this week??? It snowed!!!!! So much!! Friday morning Elder Nelson and I woke up and looked out the window to see so much white!!  We are practically in summer here and it just snowed! We took some pictures and then by the afternoon it was completely gone as if it had never happened.

So this week has been INSANE! Buying over 100 bus tickets in a corrupt government with corrupt businesses in a different language is not easy... but we got'er done.  Today is transfers and it's just hectic trying to get everyone where they need to be and making sure everyone is legal to cross the border in chile down south and deal with the tools that work for the bus companies..absolutely insane. The good part is that miracles and the Lord are on our side so we're winning as of right now.  

That's CRAZY that Guthrie pitched in game 7!  And that he won game 3!  Whatta stud! I loved the article you sent me.  I remember how pumped he was when he heard i was serving.  He wanted to talk about his mission forever and the whole country can see what a great guy he is and he devotes it to his mission.  Stud. 

President was in Iguazu this week in a conference for all the mission presidents in south and he brought back some powerful stuff.  He talked a lot about how we need to have a relationship with our converts forever and it'll help them so I'm trying to contact my homies in Rio Grande and constituyentes.  I really hope to talk to them forever!

We got ourselves here some pictures in the snow:)

We made  a little Olaf:)

We went to lunch at this man's little chinese restaurant.  His name is Q and he escaped from China many years ago with his wife.  The first time he tried to escape China he was caught and he went to jail for 20 years!!  We were just chillin in Comodoro Rivadavia Argentina with this old chinese homie that was telling us all these stories about all the places he has been in the world.  SO CRAZY!!! We would say our orders in spanish then he would write it in characters!

I love that our responsibility is to talk with people! All we do is invite people to come to Christ!! So many ways to do it though....I love it:) So much:)

Thank you for everything.

Almost forgot!! WE HAVE AN APOSTLE COMING HERE NEXT WEEK!!!!!!! ELDER CHRISTOFFERSON!!!!!!!!  THIS IS FARTHEST SOUTH AN APOSTLE HAS BEEN AND WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!! HE IS GOING TO TALK  WITH THE MEMBERS AND THEN HE IS GOING TO TALK TO JUST THE MISSIONARIES!!!!!!