Masterchef Junior

 I just wanted to start off my telling you guys about this crazy miracle we have seen in our area. About a month ago me and my comp passed by this family of inactive members. The parents had both been inactive for about 13 years, and when we passed by I remember the first thing I heard out of their mouths was "we aren't going back so don't try", i hit them with the heheheha emote from Clash Royale. But as we were getting to know the family we met Rubí, their daughter, and she accepted to be baptized! This was the 4th sunday in a row they've come to church, and the dad, Ivan, just got tje priesthood and is baptizing his daughter this week or next week It has definitely been one of the most rewarding feelings helping this family especially after the Dad told us how grateful he was that we kept comimg by and helping them return to church, and now they're planning to get sealed a as family in the temple.

Definitely been one of the highlights of my time here, but this week was roughhhhh to start, the people did not want to learn about Jesus Christ haha. But it was a good humbling process, i think what started to happen was we got a little prideful of the success we were seeing and we just needed a little humble check and a little reminder that everything we have accomplished is thanks to the Lord! So even though we didn't see a lot of success, it helped us become more humble and humility leads to success in life so vamo rejection!

Also I am officially started a cooking tv show! Basically this family of converts in our area, basically my 2nd family here, "los cracks" we call him, I've decided that every Thursday night, i'm gonna bake them one my favorite desserts, last Thursday night we made Brownies, added nuts on one side of it, and if you know Elder Clouse he LOVES his brownies, so its definitely been a fun expeience. This week we got pazookies sheeeshhhhh, so if anyone has some good dessert ideas hit me up.

Haha last story, so basically the area i'm in is NOTORIOUS for missionaries having problems with the leaders of the ward. And well yesterday we had Ward Counsil and we were invited to participate and wow, it was a battle royale out there. It was literally the 15 leaders versus us 4 missionaries. I'm not even kidding you they just basically ripped into us missionaries the entire time and then when we tried to respond they got upset, they basically are mad that we are baptizing and then they don't stay active, and we were trying to explain that half of the time we can't even control that, and that maybe if we got some help it would be easier, for example, we have a family that got baptized a YEAR ago and they go to church EVERY week and haven't got visited a single time by members, just missionaries. So ya safe to it was interesting. I didn't say a word haha I just listened but I kept getting the nasty eye from the relief society president haha. Then after they were like "but hey we just love you guys so much you guys are just the best" i'm like bruh i know you don't love me, a person feels love, i felt a lot of contention but hey, it is what it is, VAMOS EL CRUCE

But also just know we are soooo closeee to just breaking througggghhhh, we have like 4 people that could be baptized in the next 2 weeks, we just gotta help them resolve their doubts!!!! Pray for Rubì, Agustin, Ivana, y Mateo

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WvF1yDF9QnZbX6KA7

Remember Him

This week was just a rollarcoaster of emotions ya know, there was some SUPER good days and them 

some days where u you just wish you skipped over and never want to remember

That being said Tuesday was one of those NUTTY days, it was one of those days where everyone

 you contacted just wanted to get baptized, literally no idea what happened but we put 4 people on

 date on Tuesday and we were cruising to have one of the best weeks of my life. But like they said

 theres an opposition in all things and Wednesday and Thursday were just days where NO ONE 

wanted to listen, the people we had progressing like slowed down progressing, idk I was just really

 tired and without a lot of motivation to keep working 

I remember while I was feeling in a big slump spiritually, I think it was Friday morning, me and my 

comp decided to read a talk during comp study. It was a talk by Pres. Eyring and its called "Act in all 

diligence" and Pres. Eyring said something that changed my attitude for the rest of the week, he said 

"When I find myself drawn away from my priesthood duties by other interests and when my body begs

 for rest, I give to myself this rallying cry: “Remember Him.” The Lord is our perfect example of diligence

 in priesthood service." This quote really hit me, because I felt how Pres. Eyring felt, I just wanted a break 

of missionary work, I felt exhausted, but when Pres. Eyring invited me to "remember him", it changed 

my attitude on the week. Because I'm pretty sure Christ wanted a break as well after suffering in 

Gethsemane and on the Cross, but instead of resting, he went and preached in the spirit world. 

After pondering on Christ's example, the spirit hit me and changed my attitude for the rest of the

 week because it helped me remember who I was serving and why I was here, as we "remember him"

 it helps us to remember his example well

But Sunday, was one of those NUTTY days! We had the baptism of this girl named Mia, its the daughter 

of a mom we've been teaching, and the mom should get baptized this week if she can drop cigarettes ! 

So we planned that baptism for after church on Sunday, organized everything with the ward, everything 

was lit, but me and my comp for the last 2 weeks have also been trying to get our friend Cesar baptized,

 and the last 2 weeks we planned everything with the ward and he slept through church both times

So basically me and my comp decided we were gonna try one last time, but we weren't gonna tell the

 ward in case he slept through again lol because we thought psh we already have a bappty we can just 

throw him in the program haha, but sure enough we called him Sunday morning and bro was awake!!!

 Haha so we brought our own clothes for him to use and we got to church and told our ward mission l

eader that Cesar was getting baptized as well it was hilarious. The bishop may have gotten a bit upset 

at us haha but hes a stud, it was one of those don't ask for permission ask for forgiveness type beat, but 

hey Cesar got baptized as well!!!

Also found out im finishing elder smarts training so 6 more weeks of bappys

Love yall! Sí Se Puede

 

Jordan Flu Game

 The week started out like this.. driving back from zone counsel on Monday and my body starts to get really weak. Got back to house felt like poop, asked for a Priesthood blessing, and I kid you not after the blessing felt amazing. Fast forward to the next day, we worked all morning I felt fine, we get back for lunch and my body just gave out. So Tuesday afternoon consisted of an Elder Clouse passed out on the couch dying, we left for like an hour and than I had to come back because my body was giving out on me. First time in my mission I was too sick to work it was a bummer, I lost 5 pounds this week so thats cool

But you think my sickness stopped us from having an amazing week...pshhhh. We got right back to work Wednesday afternoon right after zone conference, and we got in our baggggg. It was Michael Jordan flu game type beat, felt mas o menos but hey we started working and the people started listening. This week we were just finding ELECT after ELECT it was nuttyyyyy. We put 6 people on date for baptism it was nuttyyyyy anddddd we got 6 people to church it was such a fat dub. 9 am church in Argentina is definitely a grind haha but hey with the help of God nothing is impossible. After 3 months of straight GRINDING in this area we finally saw some fruit, its gonna be sad if I get transferred out of here next week right before all our friends get baptized, but hey the seeder and harverster get the same reward in heaven

Something that helped me a TON this week as far as the work goes was one thing...listening. When I went to talk to people and when I asked them some questions, instead of thinking about what I needed to say, I gave them my FULL attention and then the SPIRIT helped me know what to say. It was quite amazing to see how such a small detail in missionary work can change someones life. I found as I understood and listened to the people I was teaching, I felt more love for them, I felt more spiritual impressions for them, and I found that it didn't matter what they said, the spirit gave me something of value to offer them. The key in missionary work is not teaching, its listening, then acting on spiritual impressions you recieve

So it was a good week, despite being sick and not being able to work the first half of the week, God blessed out efforts and we were able to see some fruits it was pretty amazing!

Also I have officially been in Argentina for a full year of my life, how nuts. I'm basically Argentine, but wow how much I LOVE the people here, would I live here, haha absolutely not, but man I sure to love being here serving the Lord! Its literally the promised land

Love y'all

Mentalidad De Águilas

 Something that ive learned from my zone leaders this transfer is that if you want to find success in life, you gotta put HIGH goals for yourself, so as a zone of just 6 companionships (the smallest zone in the mish) we put a goal of 20 baptisms this month, for context last month we baptized 10, the faith is there people, we call it the eagles mentality, dont know why but thats just what we call it haha, so this week I decided to give myself a high goal... to not complain once

Now this is something I've been trying to devolop as a missionary, the gift of trusting in the Lord. I've learned that trusting in the lord meanings not complaining when things don't go your way. Because the minute we start complaining is the minute we stop trusting. So as this week began, not gonna lie we saw a lot of opposition. We really weren't seeing too much success, we had found like 2 new people going Thursday. But hey "hay que confiar un poco", I dont really know what changed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday but finding just became easy, we put 6 people on date for baptism those days and we had like a good 10 people COMMITTED to comimg to church on Sunday

Then Sunday morning came, all those elect people we found just didn't wake up, not gonna like I started to complain a little bit haha, we were supposed to have a baptism yesterday but our dude slept through church, we did get these 2 members to church who hadn't been in like 10 years, and they brought there 10 year old daughter, so that was lit. But ya, it was a lot of hard work Tuesday through Saturday and just not a lot of fruits on Sunday. A disappointing way to end such a good week, but hey I made a goal to not complain so we just gotta keep working, trusting

In other news, I helped these recent converts put a cabinet up in their house. So safe to say might be going into carpentry after the mish, what can i say

Can't think of any funny stories that happened this week which is sad, in other news I made a goal at the start of the year to do 100 pushups everyday and I have slowly increased overtime and now im doing 300 pushups everyday, basically transformed into The Rock , so theres that

Love yall

Spiritual Impressions

 

This week, me and my comp put a goal, we decided that EVERY 30 minutes we were going to say a prayer in the street for guidance, I will now tell you guys a few miracles we found...

On Tuesday, it was around 4 oclock in the afternoon so me and my comp decided it was prayer time. We said a prayer and asked God to guide us to someone who was waiting to recieve us. I then felt the need to knock on this one house, we knocked it and out came this old lady. As we began to talk to her I heard a voice tell me "give her a book of mormon", I kinda brushed off the impression and kept talking to her, and then she turns to me and goes "I hear you guys have a book about Christ's ministry in the Americas, i've always wanted that book, can I have it?", i was so stunned, I then told her that I had an impression to give her a book of mormon 5 minutes ago, and she then pauses and goes "I just felt something powerful", it indeed was the spirit, a very powerful experience

This next experience was a life changing experience for me. It was Wednesday night at 8 pm, me and my comp had just left a super spiritual lesson and we were heading back to the house. I told him we needed to find a miracle before we went back because I was on a spiritual high. We prayed, and after the prayer I sat listening and I had all these thoughts in my mind and then my mind locked on 1 thought, "go to street 112 and turn left", so I told my comp what we had to do, it was about 2 blocks away so we started walking, got to street 112 and as we turned left there was a lady on the corner. Don't really know what she was doing, but we felt strongly to talk to her, as we began talking to her she began to tell us how she was very upset at God and didn't believed he cared about her because in the last 5 months she had lost both her parents, her husband, and her bestfriend. And I remember when she told me that, I started crying because I knew God needed to talk to this lady THROUGH us, and I explained to her how we had just prayed and we were GUIDED to her, and then she started crying, and we were able to testify to her that God loved her, and that we were guided to her to say that. It was a very powerful experience for me, and the truth is we never found that women again, but I know God guided us to that women because he needed us to tell her that "hey im still here, I still love you"

On Saturday we had a powerful experience too, there was a bad storm on Friday and Saturday, like it didn't stop raining for 2 days straight. But on Saturday me and my comp left determined to find our friends in the rain. We said a prayer and then we saw a guy standing outside, we went and talked to her, he was a young guy, 21 years old, his name was Elian, and he said he literally woke up that morning and was thinking about going to a church and he was battling depression. We told him God sent us to tell him that he loves him and wants him to come to his restored church. He began to cry and then said "I will be there tmr", then Elian's brother, Agustin, came out and we invited him too and they agreed to go together. Then Saturday night and sunday morning he didn't reply to our texts and we were like noooooo, but sure enough 9 am they come walking through the doors to the church. It was an experience of a lot of joy

I testify that as we turn to God, we can recieve the guidance we need

Also on a funny note, I was walking next to a gate with my book of mormon in my hand and then a dog jumped out and snatched my book of mormon from me and pulled it into the gate. I was so stunned it was hilarious. First time i've been robbed here in Argentina and it was by a dog, who would've guessed?

Love yall!