Hello family!!!

Zone Activity



This week was so great! We had divisions with the Hermanas from Ciudad Evita! I was with an Hermana from Paraguay who has an amazing story of how she was converted…she was attending seminary for a couple of years before she was baptized because her parents didn’t want her to be involved in the church until one day she saw the elders after seminary and she went up and told them she wanted to be baptized! At first her parents were not happy but after they warmed up to the church they allowed her to get baptized... then years passed and when her parents moved here to Argentina they started to receive the elders after a stake conference meeting. 3 years ago they were able to enter into the temple together with her whole family!

We had the baptism of Maria last Sunday right after church, she was soo happy! She’s a little grandma that works so much and loves to learn! She received the lessons from the elders a long time ago but couldn’t be baptized cause she wasn’t married. Now we are working with her grandson Leandro. He will be baptized in a couple of weeks! Alejandro will baptize his two sons on Saturday! We have had lunch at their house every Sunday this month. I love how the people get so excited after church sharing what they have learned! haha... i feel like I’m at home with all of you when we talk about our Sunday School or Primary lessons. I love to see their desire to learn more and to purify their ways. Leandro and his little sister came to church to watch the baptism of Maria and they were so excited after church to read the Book of Mormon and study more! That is how it should be for all of us!

Well i love you all! it sounded like you have been enjoying the pioneer days! Here we have friend day - dia del amigo - so we were giving treats out! It’s always good to hear that my family is waxing strong in the gospel! I love Proverbs25:25 where it says "As cold waters are to a thirsty soul," so is good news from a far country!

Matias & Gabby on their wedding day. And the family of Alejandro & Beatrice. Alejandro will receive the priesthood soon and be able to baptize their sons. Miracles of the mission!

Rain again!!!

Oh it sounds like you had a wonderful week with everything! I love those parts from Tuckers talk. I didn’t recognize Jake with Jacee!! he´s huge!! and cut his hair... how crazy!! and maisie is as gorgeous as ever! I love my crazy family.. haha. This week flew by fast! At the beginning we had a conference for the whole mission. They were announcing some changes that will take place so that we may focus more on the work and that the president will be more involved in leaving and teaching with the elders. We will be having our zone conferences every other transfer and so will our interviews with president Benton.

That same day we found two boys that were recently baptized with Hermana Gurr and Hermana Carrasco in Haedo, but now they live in our area. Their parents are not members and they have a little brother so we are excited to start working with them as well!
We had a great baptism of Alejandro on Saturday! He had chosen our mission leader Emmanuel to baptize him cause he is in charge of filling up the water as well... Alejandro wanted to be for sure that he wasn’t going to have freezing cold water like his wife! haha He received the gift of the holy ghost on Sunday and Maria was able to fill the spirit strongly. Then he had us over for this delicious pasta. He makes the noodles homemade and the salsa... We found a frame in the street last week so we sanded it down and put shoe shine on it to make it all shiny. Then it was all ready for a picture of Christ. It was our gift for the family of Alejandro! He received the Aaronic priesthood as well and now is preparing to baptize his two sons next week!

We have postponed Maria´s baptism for this Sunday! She has loved the church so much and we want to set a date with her little grandson that lives with her! It is amazing to me how these people are just so prepared to have the missing pieces of the gospel revealed to them in the fullest! This weekend ended with a lot of rain.. its raining today as well.
I love you all and hope you have a great safe week! Tomorrow is el dia del amigo here! and happy 24th of july!!

Hola Familia

Happy July!!
We had a week of divisions with Aldo Bonzi... again! ahaha. But Hermana Lewis came here and my comp there! It was fun to have a day full with her, she´s from Arizona and it was different actually talking in English with someone! haha.. weird. The next day was full of experiences. The morning my comp and I helped with a wedding in the ward of this family that we´ve grown to love. I did the hair of the bride and Hermana Salazar made this cute bouquet of flowers made out of the ribbon fabric. It was so cute! They had a little civil wedding but it was special to be a part of it. The family is all members but some of them were inactive for awhile, however they have all been coming to church!

Later that night we were able to find this lady that we contacted last transfer who received the elders in another area where she lived with her daughter for some time. We found out that she was to the point of baptism with these elders but she couldn’t because she wasn’t married to her spouse. Her husband died1 and a half years ago... and we had an amazing lesson about the plan of salvation. So we invited her to baptism and she was so excited and said she was grateful for a second opportunity! Her and her grandson that lives with her came to church on Sunday and she will be baptized this Saturday with Alejandro, who is amazing just as well! He has been faithful and not smoking and loves the church.. he always participates in the class. Last week he had a dream that he was with our mission leader saying a prayer with his hands upon the child’s head... he asked us what it meant and we told him it is because he is preparing to receive the priesthood. They are an amazing family. This past Sunday I was thinking of what I heard this week in our zone conference that we work hard and some day we may all be together again and enjoy those blessings of all our hard work in the eternities. I am blessed to be here to help them in their first steps of growing testimonies and following the path of our savior, that they may have those sweet rich blessings that I have had in my life. Sometimes its difficult to see that with the little things we do each day turn into great and wonderful things, but once I look ahead and remember it gives me faith and hope to move on. We should never doubt the lord and what he has sent for us to do. Through our prophet, leaders, parents, loved ones, Wthat his parents were able to find a rest home for his grandma! so they were able to have a calm weekend.. so we have big plans to pass for her this week and help her. Thank you for praying for her! We had a great zone conference week with new ideas to help our investigators.. on Tues we have a special conference as well to help improve everything on the mission! love you all!!

July 5th

This week has been great with members helping in the lessons and the progression of the investigators. We found this lady who loves to talk.. she is one to know what is going on in the neighborhood. She was a contact in the street that at first didn’t want to know anything but somehow we got on the topic of family history, so we told her a little bit about it and set a day that we could go check it out with her. The day came and she was able to fill out some of her info with the member helping us. In the end she was really impressed with the family history and told us she felt the love she has needed for awhile. She has come a couple other times to church in the past but stopped investigating because she had her doubts about tithing. We were able to help her understand more clearly what it is and where the money goes.

Another day we went to teach where Lucas lives. He came with us and we found a family of 8 kids! We have taught the father a couple of times but this day we found 4 of the daughters all together.. recently their cousin, a friend of Lucas, passed away. So we shared the plan of salvation with them.. we want to work with them more but we can’t see them as often as we would like cause they live in the area where we can only visit when Lucas is with us. We didn’t have the baptism of his mom after all. She had some struggles this week but we are going to wait and see what happens with her. Their family is really struggling right now.. but I know they will make it through.

It has been a great week with little miracles here and there. We are fasting right now for Alejandro to stop smoking completely so he can be ready to his baptism! We had baptisms in the ward on Saturday. We were able to receive some references who were a grandma who was Catholic, and a little family of four. The dad was very interested in everything that happened!

Thanks to Connie (Saren’s piano teacher) being so patient with me I’ve been playing the piano in church for sacrament and relief society... but I’m being pushed to learn more cause every Sunday they don’t want to sing the same three songs that I know... haha.. so its good for me... I get nervous but in the end they keep on singing whether I mess up or pause a little bit.. haha. its all a learning experience!
i hope you are all doing good. I love you all and read your scriptures and start the promise of 21 days!!

Ciudad de Famoso Ramos!!

Oh it is crazy how time flies by and everything that changes! It was a great week full of miracles here and there. It is amazing how diligence and obedience make such a difference in the work here. Even the smallest little rules make such a difference and what we are really working for. We had a meeting about how we are the ones that put the goals and show if we are searching for those who are ready to be baptized and the importance of praying for this in every prayer. We didn’t have a baptism on Sunday but the ones we have been struggling with like the mother of Lucas has her date set for next Sunday and has stopped smoking for a week. Last night we had one of the members of the bishopric come and bless their house. Most of the family was there and it was so spiritual, he blessed each person that was there individually. Before he started the blessing he explained about the priesthood and a little more of the restoration cause there were some brothers of Lucas that we have never been able to teach or were kind of cold with us and one of Lucas´ friends was there as well. While waiting for the bus afterwards we talked with him about what he had thought of the blessing and the church he started saying he wanted to change his life. His grandpa just recently passed away and his family is falling apart he smokes a lot cause he gets so discouraged... he is Jake’s age. I was able to talk to him about grandpa and the plan of salvation and baptism. He was crying and I was as well it made me think of Jake and how it would be so hard for a 16 year old to go through such difficulties.

Earlier this week the husband of Beatriz has decreased his smoking a LOT!! Last week President Benton gave us money to buy him the nicotine gum and when we went in to the pharmacy there was some other gum called chicle laxante and so before I took a moment to think what laxante meant I asked my comp what is chicle laxante with a voice that everyone could hear in the small store and she replied with a big grin its what you need to go.... hahahha my face went bright red from the realization of what it was... oops

Yesterday the whole family came to church and Beatriz received the gift of the holy ghost. The mother of Lucas came as well and another investigator.... who is eternal... haha but he hasn’t attended for a long time.
So last night we invited Alejandro to be prepared on the 17 of July for his baptism and the next week he will be able to baptize his two boys! This family is so amazing!! I can’t get over how prepared they were to receive the gospel in their lives... They are all like little children after each Sunday wanting to share what they each learned....ya Alejandro has his challenge with smoking but he has shown us his willingness to stop and nothing is impossible with the lord! It truly is amazing to see these people change and start to be enlightened with the truth in their lives... the view becomes clear of why we are here and what we are doing with our lives as - clear as daytime!

Sam will set up his email in the MTC... it’s one of the first things he will do when he goes! Good luck with everything Sam! Do what I said and you will be happy... hahaha. I love you all and have a great week saying your farewells to your future Spanish speaking Hobbs! Hey Sam, Argentina recently won Mexico in the Copa Mundial!!! woo hoo!

FELIZ DIA DE PADRES!!!!

Oh what a great letter to read of my family!!! ... people look at me weird cause we come to local stores that have computers and I sometimes laugh outloud at the stuff thats going on.. haha . Oh we ended this transfer amazingly well! Beatriz was baptized last night at 5:30 in freezing ice cold water in the church. We had the water running right after church and the mission leader had left the pump on to drain the water cause there was old water and he is new. So when he showed up at 4 he saw it was all empty. Luckily we showed up at the same time and then others to start pouring in water. We were in the women’s bathroom filling up buckets of water and so was our ward missionaries in the other but it was all good in the end. It was perfect for her kids to see and her husband since we´ve been working with them as well. Before her baptism we went over to their house and had a delicious barbeque for fathers day and for her big day!

Hermana Salazar and I are together another transfer!! with new goals and a new view thanks to our president and Elder Aidukaitis. Something that I remember from general conference... I was questioning before was how can I gain more faith or strengthen it.. someone had said that it is through obedience and righteousness. It is so true in this life... the more willing we are to give our time and everything that we have, the lord is more willing to bless us and strengthen us into what we can be what He sees in each of us. We have a view high and it is all possible with our savior.

The mother of Lucas is good. We are learning patience with her but she is still in the progress. Its interesting how many difficulties a family can have but I know someday this family is going to be eternal. His brother could be baptized this transfer as well he has been going to seminary with Lucas! Today there were tons of elders that left for home... half of them were from the mission. It makes me feel old! This week I’m going to have 9 months in the mission! How crazy to look back on what has all happened. I’m so grateful for my companion and feel so blessed to work in this area.

Wish Sam good luck for me and that I need his address for the MTC and his mission.. that would be nice! I love you all and are so grateful for your examples! It’s sad we don’t get to call our fathers on fathers day but how I love my dad with all my heart!
I love you all have a great week! Que Dios les Bendiga!!

Saren and Beatrice
Beatrice's kids
Hermana Salazar