¡Hola Todos!

Well I got the news that I will be transfered from Arco Iris after being here for almost five months! I will be headed to a place called Castelar in the area of Rividavia with my new companion whos name is Elder McDonald, from California. I will let you all know more about my new area and companion when I start this next adventure of my mission Tuesday morning when I head out! I really enjoyed this area and all the experiences that I was able to have and all the people I was able to help. 

This last week with Elder Lopez was pretty good! We were able to have a lot of lessons and see a little progress with some of our investigators. We are still working on getting investigators to church, our biggest struggle, but are seeing great potencial with our investigator Erica. Who says this week she will do everything possible to go. It will be hard to leave all of the investigators and members we having been working with, but I hope to see them progress in the future with the other Elders!

Spiritual Experience of the Week: Well this week we were having a lot of lessons, but they just werent that great. One day we got out of a lesson after she let us in for the first time. After the lesson, my companion said he wanted to go to the chapel early and talk to me, as we were going to meet a member there to have a lesson later. The first thing I think is uh oh what did I do to make him upset, is he okay, you know the normal things that runs through trainers head when something like that happens, worrying about his companion. We get in there and he tells begins to tell me how we needed to step it up basically. How even though we were having a lot of lessons, we werent treating those opportunities has best as we could. That we needed to love these people, because they need this in their lifes. All of them having their own stories and problems, but all of them able to be helped through the Gospel. So having hear all that, we were able to recommit ourselves to helping these people through the Gospel and just giving a lesson. It was a humbling experience for me hearing it from him as I was supposed to be the example. But I was very grateful for his courage to set me down and talk about what we needed to change as a companionship.

Scripture of the Week: Honestly, I forgot about a scripture for this week and nothing came to mind. But I really like the scripture is 2 Nephi 28:30, which i dont know if I already shared, how at times we learn this little by little. In life, and a lot in the mission as well. we need to recognize that we are not going to learn everything all at once. But with our efforts, it comes with time. So be patient, keep learning and progressing and thats what matters the most. 

Fact of the Week: So  Easter  not much of a holiday here, all I saw was people selling chocolate eggs on the streets. And most people had work off on Friday. But anyways, Happy Easter!

Well, thats about it for next week,

Chao!

--

Elder Trent

playing soccer early in the morning

Happy Fall!

¡Hola Todos!

So today marks the first day of Fall here, and Id imagine its the first day of Spring over there! Which means I will be finally heading into colder weather wahoo! This week was great! Lots of miracles and progress, between my comp and I and our investigators! Something changed this week, not exactly sure still what we were did different, but we were able to have a very spiritual filled week. We have been having that goal for a few weeks now and started seeing great success last Sunday. It continued into this week as well. Our lessons are a lot better and the Spirit is teaching. We are able to descern the needs of our investigators and recieve more revelation on what we should say. It resulted in a great week with a lot of lessons and twelve new investigators with the majority of them likely to progress! We are very grateful to finally start seeing success. 

We were also able to committ a lot more people to be baptized and right now we are working with Erika, her friend Alicia, Lazaro, Kevin and Antonio, and Ariel who have dates in April. Our biggest struggle is getting them to come to church! They all committ to go and we do all we can to help them come, but have yet to see success. So right now they are not progressing, but are still hopeful every week for them.

Also, this week we were able to attend the baptism of one of the investigators that I was teaching when the area was one big area. And then the other Elders that came in started teaching him, Ruben Anaquin. I was very happy to see that he had finally gotten baptismed after working with him for awhile. But he finally made the decision and it happened. 

(So this coming week, would have been transfers but this transfer is extended one week so its a seven week transfers. I have been here now in Arco Iris for four and a half months now.)

Spiritual Experience of the Week: This week we had a great experience with a member and his friend. There is a member here, Leo, that is always willing and excited to help in missionary work here. He is a convert of two years and has a strong testimony. We invite him often to go with us and proselyte. He is really great to leave and his one of those people that every one knows in the neighborhood. One day this week we went out with him and came across one of his many friends that before didnt want to talk to the missionaries. We stopped and talked for a minute with him. At the end, Mariano his name, asked Leo why he doesnt just come by his house and bring his two friends here with him! Leo was super happy and we set a date to pass by on Saturday. We went with Leo and had a very good lesson with him and hope to see progress for his sake and for Leo as well.

Scripture of the Week: The scripture that I would like to share is Jarom 1: 11-12. I like the part in this scripture where it talks about "looking forward to Christ" and they did this by doing something. Excersing their faith, obeying the commandments, repenting. Looking forward for them put them to action. We all need to do the same and look forward to the coming of Christ

Fact of the Week: So I heard it was St. Patricks Day about three days after it happened. But the funny part is on St. Patricks Day, which i dont think they celebrate here, an inactive member has four leaf clovers in his yard and gave us one. So thats cool.

Love you all and have a happy Spring!

--

Elder Trent

¡Hola Todos!

This email will be a little short this week, sorry I didnt have a lot of time to write the computer is having troubles. But all is well.

Spiritual Experience of the Week: This week the experience that I want to share this week is actually with an inactive family. They are a family that the missionaries have passed by for a while and they dont really do much. But yesterday we went and had a very spiritual experience with them. The Spirit was able to touch their hearts through what we were saying and was a very cool experience. Elder Lopez was able to share is testimony. We talked a lot about the family and the love of family and how it has to do with Christ, which was the thing that got them the most. That is what I have seen a lot on my mission, how the gospel helps families and also how the love of families, brings people to the gospel.

Scripture of the Week: 2 Nephi 26:24. I read this scripture this week and have been thinking a lot about the love that JesuCristo has for us. It is great.

Sorry for the short message this week, I will write more next week. Love you all!

p.s.I still have like 20 minutes, but the computer is having troubles with the mouse, so thats one of the reasons i sent the mass email so quick and short, but now its fine. 

So I wanted to write a little more of whats going on and what happend this week if I can remember.

Im just going to write what ever comes to my mind now. So me and my comp Elder Lopez are getting along well. He is talking a lot more and is already a stud missionary. I was really blessed to recieve him as a comp. He has a strong testimony of the gospel. This week he has really stepped it up in the lessons and sometimes suprises me how well he does. he is training me! haha. But this week in our area we some good progress. Found a few people that have potencial to be baptized that we have been working with and who we have found this week. Mainly Diego and Erika are our two strongests. Please pray for them. Erika that she can have the will to quit smoking and come to church. and that diego will pray about the Book of Mormon! at the begining of my mission i didnt have much love or charity for these people here. But now I am finally starting to see them as God sees them and their potencial. It has made all the difference in my desires to help these people and find new people to help. It was something that I thought i would never develop, but now it is coming. 

Anyways, we have started playing soccer a few time a week in the morning for excerciese and that has been really fun. Also the weather is cooling down now so its actually really nice weather right now to be outside. aaaahhh finally! I hate humidity. 

In general, Im just happy where im happy, its hard to explain, im just content. No worries, going through the motions but still with continual desires to improve and progress. Im just...good.

--

Elder Trent

Happy March

¡Hola Todos!

Happy March! This week in Arco Iris, we were able to see a lot of progress and potencial success. Two things we improved on were inviting and getting investigators to church and working with members. We havent been having any success with investigators in church so we made an effort this week to improve it! We were able to have a lot more people commit to come and one of those came! So we are excited to continue improving this as well as getting the members here involved in the work. Our investigators that we are working with that have good potencial are Fani, Diego, Erica, Ariel, and Julieta. Of few of these had dates to be baptized, but havent come to church, so that is a challenge we are working on and improving. 

Spiritual Experience of the Week: The experience that I want to share this we was with our investigator Erica. Yesterday on Sunday, we had plans to go teach a woman that we had contacted who said we could come by. So we went by on Sunday with a member to get to know her and teach her. She wasnt there, be we decided to go with the member to Ericas house who lives two doors down. Erica is an investigator that we had taught twice. We taught her the Restauration and she was interested but had troubles accepting the Book of Mormon when we came back the second time. She was pretty stubborn with us and the second lesson didnt go very well. But we decided to go with the member who was a return missionary, who lives really close to Erica as well. Turned out they knew eachother a little bit. Also, Erica said she had read half the Book of Mormon! The lesson was completely different than the others and we were able to teach her with her needs and she accepted to be baptized! The member also helped her to know she needs to go to church and will go with her next sunday! it was a very spiritual lesson and a testimony builder with the importance of working with members.

Scripture of the Week: I like this scripture in Alma 26:22. its a pretty famous missionary chapter, but I like what it talks about.

Funny of the Week: Here in church for Gospel Principles class, its a whole different experience. Its for new members and investigators who are still learning. But the people in there are so funny. Its like a preschool class mixed with a bad comedy show. Everyone shouting out answers or making comments that dont have to do with anything. Its quite the unique expeience every week. It always keeps me on my toes haha. But Ive got to give credit to the teacher who does a great job of keeping it under control. The converts may not know a lot better but they have strong testimonies of what they do know and a very humble, always wanting to continue learning.

Fact of the Week: Weather Update: Its finally starting to cool down a little bit. Its really only a change of a little bit, but the people here say they are freezing in the mornings and nights haha. I think it feels perfect!

Well hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

-- 

Elder Trent

My District

Elder Jarrin and Elder Lopez

This is Elder Ramirez from Salta Argentina. I did divisions with him while my companion did it with our district leader

We found a praying mantus.

Close up haha

Practing my camera skills

Elder Ramirez and I.

I dont know what it is, but my face is permanently red now!