Pictures!

Statue of San Martin in Alta Gracia

Hno. Barrosa, aka stud

Jesus Statue

JOSE!!!!

Graffiti

Graffiti

Abril hiding fromt he camera

A collage we made.

Elder Marchant

Elder Bryant

Elder Holtby and Me in the background

Some graffiti by our pension

Our pension last transfer. (Elder Marchant, Me, Elder Bryant, and elder Holtby)

BOUWER, an area in my area

More photos:

These Pictures are right before they were about to play football!

Photos!

Sorry everyone! These are the pictures he was talking about a little bit ago! Finally came through and now I have the time to put them up! =)

Letter #28

Galations 6:11

  11 Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.

That scripture will sum up about all that I am going to write you..... A LOT!! because a lot has happened since the last time i wrote you.

1. Hna Lopez. this week we had the opportunity to meet Hermana Lopez.  she is the mom of an inactive member in our ward that we have been trying to reactivate. So we started talking to her and she invited us in. so we sat down, and started talking about her life and such. she told us all about all the misisonaries that have visited her throughout her life and she remembers all of their names. She told us two stories in particular that I thought were really cool.....

a. One day about 20 years ago, they were eating dinner as a family and they didnt have much to eat, just a couple slices of bread. And it was two days before Christmas. There was a knock at the door and it was one of her favorite elders in the ward. She invited him in, and she invited him to eat. He said ok, and sat down. she gave him some of the bread that her kids were going to eat. the elder said to give the bread to her kids so that they could eat and be filled. The he asked them if he could give the blessing on the food. she said of course and so he gave the blessing. During the blessing he asked that the lord would provide enough food so that every person could be filled for christmas. then after the blessing they started eating. The elder stopped, looked at the kitchen table and said, hermana, give some of those Papas Fritas to the kids. The hermana was like what? what papas fritas? she turned around and saw that there were french fries made on the kitchen table. so she went and got them all and they started eating. then they finished and the elder said, hermana, go get the french fries and bring them. the hermana turned around, confused by what she saw, and saw that there were more french fries than before and she served them. After about 2 mores times of doing this, they finished eating, and the elder said his goodbyes and left..... The next day, Christmas eve, she had an interview with the bishop. She told the bishop this story, and the bishop said.... hmmmm.... who came with the elder? The hermana, realizing now, looking back tot he day before, that the elder did not have his companion with him.... The bishop said that was interesting, and grabbed a letter out of his desk and gave it to her.... The Hermana opened it up and started reading. It was from the Elder who she had been visited. It said that he was sorry that he could not visit her before he left but he had to be emergancy transfered. It was dated the 22nd of December....                   So yeah, I just thought that was a cool story.

2. Hna Lopez. The second story

One day, she invited the elders over for dinner. They came and started eating. Once again not having much to eat. so after the prayer, they started eating... One of the elders smelt something, *sniff*, he said, wht is that? It smells like my moms homemade bread that she always makes. then there was a knock at the door. There was a old man, holding a large bag. the man gave the bag to her, and said that he hopes that she has a great christmas! then he went and walked away. She brought the bag to the table and opened it up. At once, the elder started to cry and realized that it was the exact same bread that his mom makes to give out for christmas, with the same wrapping and everything. They ate it all and left. then the elder got to call home for Christmas. He started telling his mom this story when his mom stopped him, and told him a story. she hadd been making the Christmas bread for everyone to give out when there came a knock at the door. It was an old man. He asked if he could have one of the breads, and she, feeling that she needed to do it, said of course and gave it to him. He then left....               Another really cool story that I thought was cool. Just to let you know, the Elder was from the US too.

3. Dario. We had been contacting a lot, like usual, when elder montalban and i had the feeling that we needed to go see a man named Dario. So we went to his house. He was there, let us in, and we started talking. He kept asking us if someone sent us.... liek his mom or someone. we just said no, and that we had a feeling that we needed to come see him. He then started crying and telling about how his wife left him and his daughter and he was praying to god that us missionaries would come by and help him. BOOM. The spirit was so strong. Oh man, So yeah, we have him getting baptized the 24th! :)

4. Pie de E Montalban. We were playing soccer on thursday and elder montalban kicked a pole with all of his strength (the ball was there too), and needless to say, his foot is huge!! :) its cool looking.

5. Hna Lopez after. Hna Lopez also got robbed this week.... But she said that the only thing that they left was her triplet and it fell open to DC 122(i think) where it talks about Joseph smith and peace be unto thy soul. she is full of cool experiences!!

6. Pension. We are moving!! we found a pension tht is reallllllly nice and cheap. so were moving this week!!  woohoo.

7. Contactos. me and my comp made our goal of contacts!!

8. Reading. Im in Omni is my personal reading and its cool to see what is going on in there :)

9. Servicio con el auto. Yesterday, edler m and i were walking back to our pension where we stopped and helped a bunch of guys lift a car on the back of a trailer..... Priesthood Power Baby!! :)

10. Last thoughts. I love you all!, and i hope you have a great week :)

Letter #26

Hola Familia, y los otros Choros que estan mirando a mi carta semanal.

Whats up.

first of all, like usual, i love you all. thanks for all your prayers and support from home!

second of all.... the top ten weekly things

1. 91% I am at 91% of the stuff that im trying to give up!!! it was a really good week, and i think the lord knows of my work trying to leave this stuff behind. so he blessed us with a couple more people that we are going to pass by and teach! love it :)

2. Talk. I gave a talk about the Commandments in Sacrament yesterday. The best part about it, is taht it rained that morning, so NOONE came to church. there were probably 15 people in the sacrament meeting. so giving a talk wasnt to bad, it reminded me of some of my lessons in my old area with the huge families that they have.

3. My Blister. OOOOOO my blister.... I had a HUGE blood blister on my foot this week, so basically the whole week, i was walking like a we-tawd trying to avoid walking on my foot. So my ankle hurts now... but whatev, its the life of a missionary.

But yeah, back to the blister. I popped it yesterday!!! woo. It reminded me of that youtube video tiff showed me that one time of some guy popping a huge zit on his back that kept pussing for like 30 minutes.... and it was all gooey and chunky and stuff.... good times. (now you all have a nice image in your head :) youre welcome)

4. My watch. I bought a watch from elder Bryant!! guess how much it cost me...... youre all wrong. i got it for free :) boo yeah. "patrick star, you are one smart shopper". Its actually really legit, its all white and i love it. maybe ill send a picture of it home right now.

5. My ipod. I am probably goiung to buy an ipod from elder bryant too.... (in case you havent already sent me mine)..... so yeah, let me know. beacuse he has taylor swifts christmas album on it, and it is REALLLY tempting to buy.

6. T-swift. Like i said, i found out that his ipod had taylor swift on it... so its been a really good taylor swift christmas this last week :)

7. Maxi. We had another lesson with MAxi, and hes oging to give up on drinking!! woo!! but then he asked us a lot of deeper questions... that i wont go into with you all. but yeah, hes going to buenos aires for his vacations for two weeks so we wont be able to talk to him for a while. hopefully he keeps it all clean!

8. Jose. he also, gave up on drinking!! and we found out for sure his age, 78..... he is the most in shape dude i ahve met and hes 4 times as old as me! i love this man. but he is taking his vacations at his daughters house so we wont be able to teach him for a week or so.... keep Jose and Maxi in your prayers!!

9. Got rained on. "I look like i just got rained on."-Julian Smith. If you havent heard of this quote, go to youtube and search Julian Smith, expensive haircut, and the watch the video. That will explain everything.

But yeah. We sleep outside because one of our fans is broken..... Pucha! So yeah, we were sleeping outside when we woke up in the middle of the night because we were getting wet.... but me, in my still sleeping mode (mom knows what im talking about), didnt realize that it was raining. So yeah, i wake up, look around, realize that the other elders are running inside screaming like little girls, and elder montalban is screaming and saying something in spanish, and then i go back to sleep. then i wake up in probably half a minute and realize that i am getting rained on. i grab my mattress, run inside with the others, and then we continue to sleep inside.

10. Got rained on. Yeah, like the one before, i got rained on. But this time I was sleeping INSIDE!!! I woke up, felt wet, looked down to see if i peed my pants, confirmed that i didnt, then felt water drip on my head.... yeah, our roof is leaking ....so i got rained on outside, and inside in the same night. Welcome to Argentina :)

11. OH, and i started to read the scriptures out loud again.... I think this will help a lot with my accent and with my speaking abilities, and its also good to go throught the book of mormon again :)

I hope you are all counting your many blessings! Remember when you have a bad day, turn to christ, because he literally SUFFERED everything that we haves suffered/are suffering.

love you all, be safe, read the scrips, search for ways to better your life!

Mosiah 28:3
 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not ^abear that any human ^bsoul should ^cperish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure ^dendless torment did cause them to quake and ^etremble.

Sorry this picture is from a week ago. He sent it later in the day so I forgot to put it up. This is Collin and Natalia the girl he baptized.

Letter #23

Mom!!! and family. crazy stuff happened this week.

1. My dear friend Zachary Buttie Rasmussen is now home because he has to get knee surgery. be sure to tell him Te qiuero mucho and that i can´t wait to seem him back with his plack on. this really is the best place to be.

2. I was transferred to my second area. I am here in Barrio Jardín with elder Maltaban. He is from Chile and we haven´t gotten to talk much because today has been crazy!! (this is why the letter is so late).

3. It rained like crazy today! I got to this new area and I guess god was a little sad that I left 20 de Junio/La Madrid, because it poured like a mad-man! It was fun to be knee deep in water walking down the street after playing a good game of soccer. but all the day we couldn´t leave the pension because of the other elders that were there.

4. Like i said, im here in Barrio Jardín. which means garden... and the people here are sooooo rich!!! and there is a soccer stadium 6 cuadras (dont know how to say it in english) from our pension.... and of course it has to be of the ugliest team in Córdoba.... freaking Talleres! I am from the team called Belgrano and we hate the Talleres!! God is funny. first he puts me in the zone that has the stadium of Belgrano... and i learn to love the celeste shirts and such.... then he sends me to the heart of Talleres, their rivals.....

5. My second counselor gave me a Argentina jersey before i left!! legit... speaking of which, do you still have all my jerseys? if you could send them in my next package, that would be AMAZING!!! everyone makes fun of me because i only wear my germany jersey.... but whatever! Gotta Represent!!

6. Les pido que pueda enviar mis cd´s. the one that has all the talks of that one guy... cant remember his name.... but its the talks with garbage digger.... and the mission i missed... life is a rollercoaster etc.

7. I can actually talk pretty good! I can hold on to a conversation for about 15-20 minutes now.... and if its about the gospel, then more! The only thing i lack is the slang here in Córdoba... there is a lot!! and "thats not the language they taught me at the MTC" -The best two years. so yeah, im just starting to learn all the slang with my new comp!

8. I am on day.... 13 of my fast!! I am close to completing my second week and its crazy how much more is happening in 20 de Junio right now.

9. We live with 3 old ladies... so it is kinda like what that website said. you have a lady who lives with you.... but she doesn´t cook or clean for us.... PUCHA!

10. I can feel a big ol chest cold/cough coming on.... boozer.

11. I complete 6 months in March!! not february. I think the fumes from the maté were getting to me last week....

Moroni 9:6..... and Mosiah 28:3...? i think. These are some scriptures that really impacted me this week. I still need to learn how to be good with the scrips though...

I hope everyone is amazing! I know that there will be hard times... but if you just work and work and work, you will get through it.

Tell the ward i said hi and that i miss them! Thanks for all their love and their prayers!

And cassie, Cuidate con este chango. Vos sos mi mejor amiga!

ps... what is the address for Shayla?

 

Moroni 9:6  

       And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor ^adiligently; for if we should cease to ^blabor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.

 

Mosiah 28:3

      Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not ^abear that any human ^bsoul should ^cperish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure ^dendless torment did cause them to quake and ^etremble.

Letter #16

6. We have three people being baptized this week!
7. The christmas devotional happened, and i didn´t get to see it yet :P
8. I had an intercambio with Elder Monzon
9. I told an investigator that i thought the girls here in Argentina are pretty without realizing it....
10. I found out why god put me in Argentina


6. I lied, i thought we had three but that is this week!!! Mauro, Amanda, and Lautero.
7. Yeah, that part sucked :P
8. I went to the area called Parque Capital (my teacher in the MTC went here too), and i got to spend the whole day with a latin who doesn´t speak english at all. such an amazing experience. we met a couple of people who were amazing. this one lady said she was a catholic and she believed in the bible and god, but then she said that she doesn´t believe that God could´ve created the earth..... I was like, " Lady, you do realize that the creation is the first book in the Bible, its called Genesis..." people these days. haha i love it.
9. yeah, that was just embarrasing, i thought she asked if i thought argentina was pretty and so i said yeah... then elder thomson told me i said the girls here are pretty.
10. God is amazing. He really knows where im supposed to be. I love the argentina people. they are obsessed with Messi, Barcelona, Boca, Belgrano, Good bread, sleeping in till 12, going to bed past midnight, eating sweets, playing soccer, making jokes, and lots of other stuff. I know that I am supposed to be here. the people are just like me.






this week:

So a lot of miracles happened this week. We had a baptism!!!!! Her name is Ninet. She is the daughter of our ward mission leader. she is from bolivia and we have been teaching her for about a month now. she said that one day she wants to be baptised and we put a fecha with her for the 24 of december. then we found out that she was leaving the 16. so we were like, crap... she needs to come to church another time before she can get baptized. so we lost all hope of baptizing her before she left. so we put her out of our minds.  we went throughout the week kinda bummed that we weren´t going to get to baptize her. but then, this last saturday she called us at 10:00 pm and was like, elders, i need you to come over so i can tell you something. so elder ferreira and elder larson went over. they came back and said that she said that god told her that she needed to be baptized before she left to bolivia....... HECK YEAH!!!!...... so yeah, the next morning, (with permission from the zone leaders), she had her interview at 7:00, and her baptism was at 8:30 (an hour before church started).

God is amazing.... This last month of november we didn´t have any baptisms. and it is soly (dont know how to spell that) due to our pride. The month before the elders had 6 baptisms and so they were way stoked, and so was i. but then my first week here, if you remember, we had a huge rainstorm and no one came to church. this set us off our plans for our next couple of baptisms. later we found out that we were the only place in Córdoba that had a rainstorm that day, and every other district had a lot of people show up to church that day.

So we repented. and God accepted our repentance with a baptism. "Oh how lovely was the morning, when Elder Gray had his first Baptism!". And hopefully this week all of our investigators this week will be baptized as well. :)

We visited Luis, the man who´s wife died, and he´s awesome!!! He really loves the hyms and so he went and pulled out his old organ that he has, and i played and sang him hyms for about a half an hour. Then after we shared about how god has a plan for us. I feel like i have known Luis for forever!! now every time we go over there, we play a couple of hymns, share a spiritual thought, then he gives us his "besos", the argentine kiss thing, then we leave.

Mom, i can testify, that playing the organ is a lot harder than playing the piano. but its awesome. We´ll have to continue playing/learning when i get back. Good luck with it!

This week we had our mission conference! it was super fun. President salas dressed up as santa clause and gave us all our packages. I got one!! legit!! thanks fam. i can´t wait to open it!

At the conference, Pres talked about how we need to do better. He dropped some "Cain" on us! he sounded like a little Elder Holland. He said that we had a goal of improving 33% from last year and right now, if we are to make it, we need to baptise about 100 mor people as a mission. And he said that if we dont do it, he´s not going to go to the area president with his "blood stained hands"..... it was legit. i actually understood him a lot.

I went on another intercambio with Elder Jones, the zone leader,.... dun dun dun.... but it was really good. he is a contacting machine!!!! we had a funny experience with this one lady we tried to contact. she opened her window and asked us what we wanted, then i was like, we have a message for you. Then she said that they were Catholic. elder Jones said, "oh, so you believe in God and Jesus Christ?" she said yes. Then he said, " well good, we´d like to share a message about Christ and how through his Gospel..." then the lady cut him off and said, "im Catholic, and we have a different belief than you." so he said, "oh , so you don´t believe in God and Jesus Christ." .... she paused.... and then she let us in... it was legit. haha  Edler jones is legit. when we´d contact one door, then we´d get rejected, heéd be at the next door before i could turn around. I learned a lot about contacting that day. He said, "we´re either bringing salvation or damnation to their souls." hahahahahahaha so we just need to contact everyone!

So yeah, this week we have three baptisms planned. Mauro and Amanda. they´re married, have two kids, and they are amazing! every tuesday, we play basquet with Mauro and his friends, and we´ve received a couple of references from him. Then we have Lautaro, who is their nephew, the Son of Pablo and Alejandra, (who can´t get baptized yet because they have to wait for their marriage papers) and he is a freaking capo!! he´s so strong in the gospela nd he´s only 11. i love that kid. so hopefully after this week i´ll have 4 baptisms total!

I hope everyone is doing good! Dad, you need to see the doctor, its better that you get better right now than suffering for forever! Have fun in Florida! Have a fun Christmas! its weird that i´ll get to talk to you guys in 13 days!! :)

Love you all, have a great week!

2 Nephi 31:20

Elder Gray

 20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a ^asteadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of ^bhope, and a ^clove of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and ^dendure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have ^eeternal life.

Pictures!

Pictures

We think this is the Buenos Aires temple under renovation, not positive though.

Mission President & wife, Collin, and guessing companion again.

Mission President & Wife and Collin

His living quarters.

Mosiah 2:41

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and ^ahappy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are ^bblessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out ^cfaithful to the end they are received into ^dheaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

Poem

The alarm rings at 6:30; I stumble to my feet
I grab my companion's bedding and pull off his sheet.
A groan fills the room. It's already time to arise?"
It seems like just a second ago I was able to shut my eyes.

The morning activities follow: study, prayer and such
When its time to leave the apartment, you feel haven't accomplished much
"We have a super day planned," my Companion says with a grin.
I lowly utter a faithless breath, Yea, if anyone lets us in.

With the word of God and my faithful schwinn, we ride off in the street.
Prepared to face another day of humidity and heat
It's 9:30 in the evening, the day is almost through.
My companion and I are riding home, not accomplishing what we thought we'd do.

We ride up to the mail box hoping to receive a lot.
Only to look inside and hear my echo reverberate "AIRBOX"
We go up to our apartment; the day is now complete
the only thing to show for our work is a case of blistery feet

It's past 10:30 Pm, my companion is fast asleep.
Silence engulfs me all about and I begin to weep.
In the midst of sadness I kneel down to pray;
I need to talk to my Father, but I'm not sure what to say.

"Oh Father," I begin, "What happened to us today?
I thought we'd teach somebody, but everyone was away.
My hands, my aching hands worn, hurt and beat,
If our area was any smaller,we'd have knocked on every street.

Why on missions are the days so much alike?
The only difference about today was the flat tire on my bike.
Will you send some cooler weather? the heat is killing me!
I sweat so bad, it gets in my eyes. Its very hard to see.

Why do I have to wear a helmet, isn't your protection enough?
People always laugh at me and call me stupid stuff.
Please send us investigators so I may give them what they lack;
I want to give them Book Of Mormon, the weight of them hurts my back.

And what about my Family? They don't have much to say.
I'm sick of not hearing from home day after day.
Oh Father,why am I here, Am I just wasting my time?
Sometimes I just want to go home, I'm sorry but that's on my mind.

My Companion, Heavenly Father, who are you giving me?
The way he rides his bicycle I don't know if he can even see!
Now you have it, I can't go on. I DON'T KNOW what to do!
That, my Father in Heaven, is the prayer I leave you."

My prayer now finished I stand up, then jump right into bed.
I need my feet for tomorrow; we have another long day ahead
Sleep starts to overtake me, I seem to drift away.
Then it seems a vision takes me to another time in another day.

I'm standing alone on the hill, the view is very nice.
A man walks towards me and says, "My name is Jesus Christ."
Tears of joy well up inside, I fall down to His feet.
"Arise he states, follow me to the shade, you and I need to speak."

My attention towards my Savior, total and complete
He says, "Your Mission is similar of what happened to me.
I understand how you feel, I know what your going through;
In fact, it would be fair to say I've felt the same as you.

Even know how you felt when no one listened to you
At times I felt not quite sure what else that I could do.
I know you don't like to ride a bicycle, for a car would be sweet.
Just remember the donkey I rode I was not equipped with 21 speed.

I understand you don't like sweating, in fact it's something to hate.
I remember when I sweat blood from every pore, Oh, the agony was great.
I see you don't like your companion you would rather have someone else.
I once had a companion named Judas who sold my life for wealth.

It's hard to wear a helmet and have people make fun of you.
I remember when they put thorns in my head and called me King of the Jews.
So you feel burdened down by the weight of your pack.
I recall how heavy the cross was when they slammed it on my back.

Your hands hurt from tracking and knocking on doors all day
I guess when they pounded nails into mine, I ache in a similar way.
It's hard not to hear from home when your family was not there to see.
I lost communication on the cross and cried, "Father, why has though forsaken me?"

We have a lot in common, but there is a difference between us you see.
I endured to the end and finished my mission, so follow and do like me."
He embraced me with his arms, His light filled me with His love.
With tears in my eyes, I watched as he went back to the Father above.

I stood with awe and wonder when a beep rang in my head.
I listened and heard the alarm, when I realized I was in my bed.
My companion let's out a groan, "6:30 already, no way!"
I sat up and said. "Come on, I'll even carry your scriptures today!"

No matter what we go through when we feel we can't take more,
Just stop and think about Jesus Christ, He's been there before

By Troy Whittle