HEY MOM!!!

I got to drive this week!   PEOPLE ARE INSANE HERE!!! the roads remind me a lot of driving

late at night when there are drunk people on the road.  only it's the middle of the day, and 

everyone is drunk off their minds.  At first, it was really hard to drive, people kept cutting me off, 

one lane became three lanes, neighborhood roads were faster than the highway; but I've gotten 

used to it.  I just had to learn the argentine ways.  Apparently, sticking your arm out the window 

works better than a blinker!  But there's no need to worry, I'm driving safe.  I've been trying to 

only drive during the more calm hours, like during siesta.  

How is life going with you guys?  What's the news with the grandchildren? Is 

June walking yet? 

is she talking? what about Leo? and Broo?  How's Jordan doing with work? do they live close?

There's not too much news on what's going on here. . . I've been working on the Mission newsletter 

(Aguas De Cuyo) this whole week.  It's really fun, I get to finally use all that I learned how to do in 

photoshop class!  I'll send last transfers Aguas De Cuyo so you can see what I'm doing.

I might finally get my DNI (ID card) so I can be a legal Argentine citizen soon.  This week at church 
was a little tough: we invited so many investigators, but they all live too far away, so they couldn't 
go and we couldn't get them...  So none of our investigators showed up, but we already have plans 
to pass by them all this week, so it should go better next week.  I might be transferred in two week,
but there is also a huge chance that I'm going to stay here and train a new missionary!  Only 8 
missionaries (besides leaders) are NOT going to train this next transfer.  That means all but 4 
companionships aren't going to be training next transfers! Also, there's a weirdly huge chance I will 
be going to the offices as well.  Someone in my group is going to be in there, and there are only 
3 of us... But I wouldn't mind, the offices sound cool, and I would love to learn more about how 
the mission works there.  My clothes are (mas o menos) holding up fine! Whenever my pants rip, 
or my shirts get stained, which is sadly often, we have a cool member here who washes and mends
perfectly.  And she is way awesome to the missionaries.  The weather has been fine here for the 
most part: it's starting to get warmer, which I hate -- its already warm here... San Juan is famous for 
being WAY SUPER hot, like an average of 105 daily, and we are just starting to get there.  It's been 
pulling like 80 or 90 degrees lately.  

I'm loving it here in the offices! I have a really cool job.  I'm the "historiador", so I receive all of 

the references from members and missionaries worldwide (sent to our mission) then I get to find

which area the person lives and send it to those missionaries.  Also, I collect and put all of the 

baptismal records into the church system, so new members can be members.  The mission 

offices are smack dab in the middle (mas o menos) of Mendoza, Mendoza (the capital).  It's 

really cool here, but way different.  I've been in poor, wildernessy areas my whole mission, and

now I'm surrounded by huge rich people houses.  Our pench used to be famous for being the 

most disgusting in the mission, but not while I've been here!  Thank you so much for teaching 

me how to clean stuff, the pench was a disaster!  When things stop working, missionaries for 

some reason just leave it be until someone comes and repairs it... So I ended up fixing three

different toilets (and bidets) and a shower.  Little by little, the office pench is getting better.  I 

can't believe people used to live in such gross conditions here...  I've come to realize that I kind

of like cleaning.  It's necessary, so I might as well like doing it.

In the offices, we do have the opportunity to leave and work after 4 every day if we have all of our 

stuff done, but we have a lot of stuff to do, so we don't get out much.  Also, there's this weird 

"tradition" sort of deal here, where they don't go out to work, even when they can... I'm trying to 

change that, so this week, we've already left to work more times than my comp has for three 

transfers!  We don't end up seeing President Goates very much, he's mostly out and about doing 

stuff.  Its really interesting having a computer to work on 24-7.  I think I've seen just about all of 

the mormon messages by now. Have you guys been watching the cool new bible videos? they 

are really well made (a little stiff, but after a while, they get to you).  

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HEY FAMILY!!! 

I'm super happy things there are going well! The puppy looks adorable, and it sounds like you guys 

are having a lot of fun there at home.  I cannot believe you have not been to the lake yet.  It's like halfway 

through July--what is going on?  Mom, have you found any new bike riding trails or other fun things?

Now to answer your questions:

Baptism challenges? This week we had a ton of success with almost all of our investigators, except none

of them went to church... So we have to move all of their baptism dates so they can come to church three 

times. But besides that, everything with our investigators is going well. The members here are interesting: 

they always tell us to call them up so we can go teach with them, but when we do call, they never can 

(or they don't answer).  But thats ok, we are going to keep trying to teach with members whenever we can.  

The members give us lunch everyday though, so I'm cool with them. The only problem is they like to give us

A TON of food, and sometimes get offended when we don't eat two servings. Lately, I've been feeling 

healthy, except for last night: I had really bad diarrhea and vomiting.  At about 3 in the morning, I experienced 

what is called a "Double Dragon", which is when the two happen at the same time...so that hurt.  But right 

now I feel way better, I'm just scared I will have to go do an emergency bathroom break at some point.  Wish 

me luck.  We do not have bikes in this area (they are apparently very rare) so we pretty much just walk 

everywhere.  But I don't mind, the area isn't too big.  Last night we had a VERY spiritual experience: we went 

against plans and visited a menos activo, part member family just because we felt we should.  When were 

outside their door, I felt that we should watch a certain mormon message video (Mens Hearts Shall Fail Them. 

It's my favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMwKxmTLaCs. When we walked in, they immediately 

asked for a blessing for their sick baby, then went on to tell us about a large numbers of problems and trials 

they are currently passing through. Then we watched the video, and literally every point of the video had to 

do with what they were feeling.  After a quick discussion, we ended up doing a really spiritual prayer with 

everyone, and even got a nonmember involved with everything.  In the end, we got to set up a future visit 

with just the nonmembers because they saw the effect the blessing and the video had on the family.  It was 

way cool! 

HEY FAMILY!!!

Everything here in Argentina is going well! These last few weeks have been really cold, but today, 

it is crazy warm.  Right now a "Zonda", basically a huge hot dust storm (with very little dust), is 

passing through the area, making the temperature skyrocket.  Because of the weird weather, we 

should be expecting a super cold week after the Zonda. For everyone here, this is normal I guess,

but for me, it is weird.  My comp, Elder Toone, and I are getting along really well: he really likes 

music, Starwars, and the ninja turtles, so we click well.  This week my comp and I tried hitting 

people up with the baptismal invitation right in the first visit, and now we have a bunch of new 

investigators who are getting ready to be baptized on the 30th of July! We are so pumped!

This last week we had the 4th of July, which just so happened to be a p-day, so we did some fun 

stuffs. I'll send pictures.  To answer your question, the only thing that happened here because 

Argentina won against the US in football: everyone in church brought it up for the whole week.  

I was kind of hoping for more action, but whatever.

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