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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HI PEOPLES!

So last night we got transfers... and I'm going to a new area called Los Pinos! Im going to be

companions with Elder Toone, who has literally been in the same district as me in every area 

so far.  Elder Ruiz Diaz and I are pretty sad, because the mission is closing our area. We were 

making such great progress there, and now all that we worked for is for nothing... we have 3 

investigators that have accepted the baptism invitation, but watev.  Ah well, if its the will of the 

Lord so be it, I'm not going to fight it.  My comp was so angry, this morning, he called up the 

president while I was in the shower.  But anyway, I'm going to a new area and I am super excited!

This last week we ate with the family Kim.  The father and almost all of the kids are from Korea, 

so we had a great time eating KIM CHI (I don't know how to spell it) and BEE BIM BOP?  Also 

everything was super spicy, which was a change, because NÖTHING is spicy here.  When you 

buy something that says "picante" (spicy) it just has the flavor of spicy, and is really sweet.  So 

Yeah! Dinner with the Kims was way cool, but it really made me miss home (I miss you Ali).

Today for our last pday in Rivadavia, we went to the mountains with our convert, Roberto 

(Robertito)! It was super fun, we felt like part of their family.  While we were there, we found 

some cool caves, took some cool pictures, and ate the pie my comp and I made last night.  

It was all spectacular.  I am going to miss these guys here - I definitely want to visit Rivadavia 

again after my mission, mostly so I can visit with the family Martinez some more.

I'll try to send as many photos as possible this week, i'm looking into maybe putting the photos 

on google drive to make it faster.

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Hey y'all!

I'm sorry that was gross...

Hi Family!

This week was super fun, Elder Chamberlain and I are trying to get new investigators, because 

things were slowing down a bit here in La Consulta.  This week we knocked so many doors and 

it worked! We have like three more people interested in the gospel!  It is starting to get cold here, 

but it is a weird, different kind of cold.  Because it is so humid, the cold seeps into your bones 

and makes me cold for hours after I'm back under blankets and stuff.  I guess I'll just have to get 

used to it though, I'm here for a year and a half more.  Today is my cumplemes, so today marks 

my five month mark in the mission! Holy cow that went fast! 

Since the bikes have been out of commission for a while, we have been walking everywhere 

(like an everage of 6 miles sometimes) and everyone lives super far apart, so I'm getting some 

good leg exercises! These last few weeks have been different for me, because I can talk in English

again (I don't have a comp from Chile anymore), but now I have to hunker down and study a lot 

more Spanish.  But anyway, things are super cool here right now (literally and metiphorically, 

because it is cold), and people are starting to listen to us more.  We finally got a whole menos 

activo family to agree to do a noche hogar with us! I'm really excited! I miss you guys, but I love it 

here! Sorry I can't do fotos this week, this computer does not have a working usb port... BYE!

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Thanks for the beefy email, I loved all of the info!  I can't believe James is 
going on a mission! I'm so excited for him! I'm still in La Consulta, but I got 
a new comp. Elder Chamberlain is from Gilbert AZ, and he is super muscly, 
and he is having me do workouts with him, so when I get back, get ready 
for a new buff son.  Anyway, I cant believe it is almost summer there, it is 
only really cold here.  I haven't seen the sun in two weeks, and there is a 
constant misty drizzle in the air, so we get wet and cold super fast outside.  
We are getting a lot more done here with Elder Chamberlain, he is an 
awesome missionary (he's almost done with his mission).  Ana Polla is the 
wife of our branch president, and she is really cool.  She told me she 
friended you, and she said you look really pretty... This week I learned how 
to make milenasa (chicken fried steak) and we are making more asado this 
p-day.  Also, apparently siesta gets longer and more extreme in the winters 
here, only the missionaries are not allowed to do it, so we just walk around 
for like two hours talking to anyone who isn't asleep.  Usually there are only 
about one or two people doing anything besides sleeping during siesta now... 

This week was one of the most rewarding on the mission so far! We got a really inactive family to all 

come to church again! They are literally the funnest family to talk with, and we have a family home 

evening planned with them tonight (where I am going to make eggnog, so cool).  When you guys 

come to pick me up, for sure we have to stop by to visit them on your tour of Argentina.  We also 

taught a huge family who live on a plantation.  They love listening to us (even though my Spanish 

isn't perfect) and they make it a huge event when we visit.  We got just about everyone in the family 

to want to be baptized, but they are all moving to another part of Argentina in a week, so we won't 

get to do it here.  Ah well, at least we got them started on the great and awesome path to celestial 

glory! Hopefully the missionaries in the other mission can find where they live and help them along.  

Elder Chamberlain and I had a weird experience last night: in the house of a menos activo, we got 

talking about why he doesn't come to church, and this guy started talking really weird. He eventually 

told us that he had tried to kill someone with a machete, but he played it off like it was nothing.  then 

his son said it too.  So apparently, this guy gets annoyed easily, and when someone is particularly 

annoying to him, he gets a little bit murderous. So yeah we will not try to get on his bad side... I love 

his family, they are really cool members, they make literally everything in their house from scratch, 

and they absolutely love doing service with other members.  So anyway, we are trying to reactivate 

them and others, and we are making some real progress here in Consulta.  Wish us luck here!

Gringos with jackets and lots of asada!

 Today at 8:50 AM

Hey Mother! I finally got your Dear Elder letter! So good news, Dear Elder works (with a two 
month delay)! Sorry I haven't written much these past few weeks--my P days have been loco.  
Last P day, we went toAconcagua, the highest mountain in the world (outside of the Andes).  
It was really fun, and I got to spend a little of my 60 American dollars I brought with me to 
Argentina (they took us dollars there because there are tons of tourists who visit the mountain).  
I'm sorry I write with so many (of these), I like them.  Anyway, the day I got your Dear Elder, I 
used the scripture you sent me to help out a menos activo! She was really into music, so when 
we read this scripture, she almost started crying.  In the end, she didn't come to church, but 
hey! She is that much closer to being active again.  I have some pictures from Aconcaqua, 

I'll try to attach them.  Also, the matrimonio couple here just went home, so I guess I'm not 
going to be speaking Engles for a while (they were my only American friends in Consulta).  
Because they were leaving, they gave us all of their food, I'll send a picture, its hard to describe.  
To put it simply, Elder Vega and I do not have to buy food for the next month.  Also, we have 
more butter than we will ever use, but hey! Butter is food too! We had a talent show in our barrio 
two weeks back, I don't know if I wrote about it, but Elder Vega and I performed a song from 
Nacho Libre! It was terrible, but fun.  

I have a fun story to tell!  Here it goes wooooooo!

Last night Elder Vega and I were walking down the infiniroad to one of our member's house. She
actually isn't a member yet, but she has been waiting to be baptized for two years, she comes to 
church weekly, and doeseverything a member does, so yeah she's a member. This road is usually 
really tranquilo, meaning no one has died on it.  We walk down this 5 kilometer road close to 3 
times every week, and almost always it gets dark when we are walking back. This time was 
different--it was already dark when we started down the road.  Well anyway, we were walking 
along, when we heard gunshots in the house ahead of us.  Following the gunshots, a car flew out 
from the road to the house and rocketed past us at like a thousand miles an hour. Elder Vega took 
note to memorize the license plate.  After the car came past us, it slid to a stop, and started to 
come towards us again. This time, it veered off the road when it got to us, and a man jumped out 
with a huge revolver. I was scared out of my mind... Anyway, the man got out of the car with his 
massive gun, and ran past us into the plantation at the side of the road.  Elder Vega and I were 
literally frozen where we were standing (because of fear and stuff).  Next, a woman got out of the 
car, and Elder Vega said, "Is there anything we can help you with?".  His question seemed so 
strange at the time, but the woman answered, "No thanks, we had a man try to rob our house, so 
we are trying to kill him, but thanks for asking."  With that, we continued on our way down the 
infiniroad. When we had to pass by the house again (on the return trip down the road), the woman 
was outside her house with the gun and a huge flashlight.  She gave us a little wave (with the gun) 

and we waved back and all was well.  

This week was really strange, almost nobody was in their homes... so we just ended up
walking to and from tons of houses.  But hey! my legs are super strong now!

¡Hola!   This week was especially difficult, but also very rewarding! The 18th was a pretty big day for me.  

All in one day, it was my three month "cumplemes" (month birthday), one year without Loche, and we had

some really big lessons to teach. The whole day, I was trying not to be sad, and to "forget myself and go 

to work".  We had two investigators we were talking with, and both had really bad depression problems, 

so that made it a bunch more difficult.  Anyway, we taught them both as best as we could, and in the end, 

one wants to hear more, and the other wants to be baptized! (She can't right now, she needs to get 

divorced first.) Not much else happened this week, but I just want to remind everyone the lessons taught 

in 3 Nephi chapter 12, 3 through 10: 

3 Yea, blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 And again, blessed are all they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. 

5 And blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6 And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the 

Holy Ghost.

7 And blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

8 And blessed are all the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 And blessed are all the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

10 And blessed are all they who are persecuted for my name’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I love these scriptures, they are great for when you're thinking about those who have passed on.

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