Adiós, Hola, and the miracles from our loving Heavenly Father

¡BUEN DÍA TODOS! Sorry that I did not email yesterday. It was because we had TRANSLADOS (transfers)! Every 6 weeks missionaries rotate around the mission; some stay in their area, others move. While I am staying in San Cristóbal for now, yesterday I had to go to Santa Fe because I was receiving a new companion! My old companion, Élder Marcos got moved to the mission office to work as a Historador, and I received my new companion, Élder Fowles! He is from Boulder, Colorado and his first name is Ian too! Crazy haha. He loves to draw and we listen to a lot of the same music, so we are getting along great. It feels like he is my long lost brother or something! He has been on his mission here for 15 months and is a former Zone Leader. He came all the way from Concordia for the transfers, which is close to Uruguay and on the opposite side of the mission boundaries. Now he´s on the other side with me and we are working hard to see the miracles Heavenly Father has in store for the people here in San Cristóbal! Everyone sees my last name and thinks I´m from Germany, which is pretty funny. Now they really are going to think that Élder Fowles and I are from Europe haha.

Also I found out that all the rain we have been getting is even worse in the northern part of Argentina, with many places being completely underwater and flooded. Because of this, one of our investigator´s family is living with her here as they get everything sorted out in the north. They were over at her house when we stopped by, and we decided to teach them all about the Restoration. It went really well! We all could feel the Spirit and they said they would read and pray to know from God if the Book of Mormon is true. Although sometimes life gets really tough and bad things happen, our Father in Heaven knows us, and will help us along our path, and bless us with opportunities we may not know are blessings at the time. I like to think that this family, despite the flooding, can see that our message is true and recognize the blessings of God in their lives from meeting with us that day.

Also, we had another lesson with Mabel, and it was the most spiritual experience I have had as a missionary yet! We were teaching her the Gospel of Jesus Christ when during the lesson, she randomly interrupts us and says that she really has the desire to quit smoking for good. We hadn´t mentioned anything about that but the Spirit was really working her heart to come closer to Christ! We invited her to be baptized on the 9th of February and she said she would prepare for that day. ¡Milagro! The Spirit was so strong in that lesson and it further testifies to me that what I am doing is the Will of God, and is HIS plan for all of us to listen, read, pray, and ask Him if it is really true. I promise that if you do, the windows of Heaven will be open and you will receive answers, blessings, and more. 

And the work overall is so fun! More people are coming to church, and more people are talking to us and wanting to learn more about us "chonkies" (Americans lol). The youth here are so special, and they have helped us out with lessons and just being a great blessing to us and the branch as of late. They truly are converted and love to help others come unto Christ like we do! This work is hard, but everyday I get stronger and I feel so much love being able to declare (in castellano) that God is our loving Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ lives, and we can have eternal life through Him. 

Well, that is all I have from this week. I thank you all for your prayers for me and for the people here in Argentina. Please pray for the people here that are affected by the flooding, as well as the ability and desire to hear us and listen to what we, as servants and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, have to share. I love you all sooooooooooo much and I can´t wait to keep you updated on the Lord´s work in this blessed part of His viña.

Milagros, Trámites, y Pirámides

BUEN LUNES MI FAMILA Y AMIGOS! I hope you all had a great week and are doing well physically, mentally, and spiritually :)

This week has been great for many reasons. Firstly, the weather has been cool and rainy everyday. Like legit everyday it has rained and since some of the streets aren´t paved, that means we have some muddy days haha. One day it actually got cold, it felt like it was in the 50´s, which is really rare for this time of year in Argentina. Normally it is 90-100 with killer humidity, but it has been in the 60´s and 70´s with rain. I´m not complaining I´ll take this type of weather everyday!

This week I had trámites (visa stuff) in Santa Fe so I spent a day doing that, but I got to see other missionaries, including some from the group that I came out with. It was so good to catch up with them and to hang out while we waited in lines and such.

Work wise, I have seen the tender mercies that our Heavenly Father has provided to the people here in San Cristóbal. Tuesday I felt prompted to visit a less active member of the church named Hermana Perales. She told us that she likes to remember how she felt at her baptism and that she has been in a lot of pain, which caused her to tear up a little bit. We gave her a blessing and are trying to help her come back to Church. I´m glad we stopped by that day.

On Saturday the sister missionaries had a baptism for their investigator, Soledad! She is such a positive and gospel-smart person. She comes to church every week with her cute baby, Francisco. We had some banana cake afterwards and it was GOOOOD WOW! The best part was the person who baptized her, Hermano Mercado, is someone who we have been working with trying to get active in the church again. Not only was it great to see him baptize her and be active again, but on Sunday he brought his whole family to church, who we have been praying for to come back and be active again. It was so great to see them all there in the chapel.

And the best thing that happened this week was Mabel. We stopped by her place on Monday to read the Book of Mormon with her and to teach her about how to know it is true. We told her to read and pray, and ask God if it is His word. Well, a few days later we stopped by her again to see if she was reading and praying and she told us that the day after we visited her, she woke up in the morning and had a strong desire to read the Book of Mormon. She thought about why she was receiving that prompting and she realized that it was coming from God, which meant that it was true! and that our message was true! ¡Milagro! It was so amazing to have her share that with us! Now we need her to come to Church and learn more about God´s plan for her. Please pray for her yall!

Also today we visited the "legendary" pirámide (pyramid) of San Cristóbal with our district. I know Giza is great and all but I´m telling you, Argentine pyramids are where it´s at haha.

Well, that´s all I have to report on this week. I hope you all are doing well and I appreciate your emails and prayers. I love you all so much, and GO CHIEFS :))))))

(Fotos aren´t working right now but I will try to get them out asap or next week. Sorry!)

Thunderbolts and lightning, screaming toads are frightning (Oh Mama Mía!)

¡SALUDOS TODOS! I am really excited to email you all this week! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the new year!

This week has been reeeallly good! We have been working hard visiting less active families and our investigators. If anything, this week was a testimony builder of the power of Hope, especially with miracles in the work. Currently, we have 5 investigators, including Mabel. She is a woman we met outside of her house a couple of weeks ago, chilling outside on the sidewalk with her german shephard Matías and enjoying the summer evening. We chatted with her for a few minutes and gave her a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation and set a day when we would return. We came back later that week and she had read it and liked it! She told us she has heard our messge and other church´s messages before, but she was down to keep meeting with us and do the things we invite her to do to strengthen her faith in Christ and she does them! I love visitng her because she loves to read and has a good spirit about her.

We also had lessons with Norberto, the sweetest old man who broke his hip a few weeks before his baptism. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and the 10 commandments. He is solid and loves to meet with us, even if he is bed-ridden while he recovers. He is legit the sweetest man ever! We have to re-teach him a lot of stuff since his memory is not good, but that means I get to practice my teaching skills more. 

We also had a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with a less active family, Familia Mercado. The Dad, Luís is my favorite member to visit becasue he is just so chill and loves to practice his english with me haha. His family is awesome too, including his pet loros he let me hold a few weeks ago lol. We have been going to families like him and teaching out of the new Come, follow me (Ven, Sígueme en castellano) manual and we have had some great experiences teaching out of it, especially since this week was about Jesus teaching parables about forgiveness. The manual is over the new testament and if you haven´t read it yet, DO IT! It will be a great blessing to you I promise.

Weather wise, we are in the dog days of summer. It is either so hot and humid (it was 102 one day...we ended up taking a taxi back to our pensión lol) or it rains. And when it rains in Argentina, it POURS. Which means all the frogs and toads come out and go crazy, including one species that legit has a high pitch scream like it saw a ghost! The insects and cicaidas and frogs here make the evenings sound like a rock concert! (If you get the reference to the subject title of this email, you are my favorite)

This week was really special to me because my testimony of this work, this gospel, and my love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ was strengthened tremendously. I was fasting this week and praying for our investigators and less actives and for them to come to church, and there were times where a voice in my head would say, "They aren´t going to come, you´re trying too hard. Just quit" But everytime that negative voice popped up, a positive one would chime in and say "They will come. Keep praying and working hard!" It was amazing to be filled with so much hope! And on Sunday just when I was about to lose hope because no one was answering their phones, 2 less actives that I was praying for came, and it was great to see Heavenly Father answer my prayers. Although I wanted more people to come, I was happy for the two less actives who did come. It was a testimony that if I keep hope, then I will have success in what Heavenly Father needs me to do in Argentina.

And the highlight of the week was Sunday, when we got caught in a thunderstorm. We had just finished a lesson with Norberto and trying to contact people and hit our daily goal when the sky turned super dark, the wind picked up and we were in the middle of a summer downpour. We took shelter underneath an overhang in front of someone´s garage and decided to wait out the storm. We waited and waited, and watched the street literally turn into a river when, after about 20 minutes being cuddle in a corner, the people whose garage were camping in front of let us in their house, gave us coca cola and some bread, and tried to get their power turned on and clean all the water that was soaking in. We offered to help, but they insisted we relax and just enjoy the soda and bread. We ended up talking to a 5 year girl named Sofía who was super smart for her age and really chatty lol. After about 45 minutes the rain let up and their power came back on and we got to know them. The grandpa is from Perú like my companion Élder Marcos and they knew a little about missionaries and the church and agreed that we could come back and teach them! And when we were counting our numbers at the end of the day, we realized that the family helped us reach our contact goal!!! Milagro!!! The best part was trying to navigate our way home, becasue every street became a flooded river that we had to cross. We stayed mostly dry when we came to our street, which was the worst flooded of them all. We said forget it and just waded our way through the water, and it didn´t help that Élder Marcos´ umbrella broke during the storm LOL

Anyways, this week has been filled with miracles and great experiences with the people here in Argentina. I am filled with so much hope and love and compassion for this work, for these people, for this language! And it makes me so happy to know from the Spirit that I am doing a good job. Family and friends, read and pray everyday. Look to have hope in Christ during your struggles and during your blessings. I testify that you will feel so full of the Spirit that the problems you once had will no longer exist as you look to serve and glorify our Heavenly Father and his Son. I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH!!!

T´was the night before Christmas at Abuela Argentina´s house...

¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! I hope everyone had a great 2018 and are ready and excited to have an even better 2019!!!

Another week in Argentina, another week in paraíso!!! This country, it´s people and culture, everything is so awesome and unique, and I wake up everyday looking forward to walking the streets of San Cristóbal and helping as many people as I can come a little closer to our Savior.

On Monday we had a Christmas Eve (Nochebuena) dinner with Hermana Gloria, aka "Abuela Argentina"! She is like the branch grandma, especially to us missionaries. She is always cooking and spreading good vibes in the branch, and is always fun to talk to her (even if she can only hear about 20% of what I say LOL). The dinner was great! Lamb, cool tomatoes filled with meat paste and mayo, turrón (frosted nut candy thing) for dessert, it was delicious! The only problem was that we didn´t eat until nearly 10:00 at night! That is how the culture is here, dinner is super late. We got back a *little* bit later than usual, but we were able to hear the midnight Christmas fireworks!! Felt like the 4th of July, summertime fireworks and all LOL.

We also had divisiones with our zone leaders, Élder Solomon and Élder Shaw. They are missionaries in a town 2 hours away called Rafaela, and they help missionaries as leaders acheive goals, improve the work, and more. They came into town and we swiched companions for the day and did 2 days of work in one! We had lots of lessons, contacts, and fun! We met our goals and even exceeded them for that day! It felt great to see our progress improve over the past few weeks.

Weather wise, it has been pretty hot most days. But a couple of times a week, a thunderstorm rolls in & cools everything off, just like in Kansas summers! It is tough at times to work in this weather, but I know that Heavenly Father is always looking out for me and His missionaries. I also have Grido ice cream and milanesa (baked chicken, kind of like parmesean chicken it is sooooo goood!) to get me through the heat waves haha.

We have also had a lot of great lessons with our investigators and less active members. I am getting better and better at listening and teaching in español (or castellano as they call it here lol) and I am having fun sitting out on the porches, eating pan dulce or budín (sweet bread desert) and getting to know God´s children in this part of the world. However, the biggest obstacle we have is that no one wants to come to church! It is tough because there are so many blessings that come from attending church on Sundays, but when people do not come, they starve themselves spiritually :( Oh well, I think the new schedule change starting next week will improve our attendence. Also, I have been made a branch counselor along with  my compañero Élder Marcos! I also helped ordain a young man named Xuan (pronounced like Swan) to the Melchezidek Priesthood and gave a blessing to a member as well! It is so amazing to use the Holy Priesthood to help people!!

On Christmas I had the opportunity to facetime my dad and talk to him! It was so great to see him and catch him up on all the experiences I have had as a missionary. While I was telling him about some of the things I have been struggling and facing as a missionary, he told me "You don´t have to be perfect, you just have to try your best". I have been thinking of that everyday, and it is true! That is all the Savior asks me as a missioanry and for all of us in our lives; to try our best, and lean on Him and use the Atonement to get better and better each day. I know that this is possible for all of us, and it has helped me feel better and more confident in my abilities as a servant of the Lord.

Everyone, keep working hard and trusting in the Lord, and I promise you that 2019 will be your best year yet! I know that it is tough at times, but that is why we have the Savior, someone who loves us and will help us 24/7/365. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I read all your emails, even if I don´t always respond. It means so much to see a little something from my friends and family. Keep being awesome, read your scriptures, and love yourself!