setbacks, miracles and the 2 Nefites?!

¡Hola Todos!

This first week start to the new transfer was one crazy and hard one! It didnt goes exactly as we had planned and a lot of challenges and opposition. But in the end, we came out strong! To start, we had planned the baptism of Irene and Mario for this past Saturday. Unfortunately, it didnt go through and things didnt work out:( Both had already recieve their interviews and were ready to go. So on Friday we passed by both of them to plan all the final touches and make sure everything was all ready to go. First we past by Irene and she wasnt there. We were a little confused, but decided to come back a little later. When we passed by this time, her exhusband came out(who by the way doesnt like us very much) and said she had left to Capital until Monday to her daughters house! Apparently, he was there taking care of the other kids. At first, we didnt believe him because he doesnt like the church so we thought he was lying to us. Because it was her baptism that she was going to miss! But it turned out as we tried again to pass on Saturday morning that everything was closed up still. We were so worried about her and didnt understand why she would leave. Then, on Saturday we were faced with another problem. There wasnt any gas in the chapel to heat up the water in the font! So we were running around pretty hecticly trying to fix everything. But in the end, Mario didnt want to get baptized in cold water as he had gotten a little sick. So our weekend was pretty crazy and nothing wanting to work out, but we are hopeful everything will work out in the future with their baptisms!

Scripture of the Week: 2 Nephi 2:11. So true there is opposition is everything, but its necessary and helps us learn, grow, and appreciate the good! We had a great experience of this with the baptisms haha.

New Investigators of the Week: So awhile back, my last comp and I, Elder McDonald had come across a woman from Peru that told us she got baptized in our church there when we was like 9 and went until she was 16 and then moved here to Argentina. We havent been able to teach her until now as we lost contact. She said she had always had the desires to return but had forgotten a lot about it. She is now 26 and living with a man and their two young kids. We are not teaching them both. Her name is Astril and his is Julio. She is obviously interesting in listening to us as she had pretty much forgotten everything about the church. She also expressed to her husband her desire to return. He was pretty chill about it and said he would support her! And now he is actually pretty interested! He had a ton of weird questions and has some of his own interesting beliefs but we feel like they can progress well! We were able to have two lessons with them last week and one today we will have!

...Funny Experience of the Week: I dont know if this qualifies as "funny" more of interesting and mysterious but oh well. But this week we encountered ourselves with two of the three nefites! haha no just kidding but ya never know. We found one of them in the bus stop at about 8.30 at night in a dark and sketchy area. He had a big beard and scruffy clothing. He kept on looking over at us. Eventfully, he calls us over, "hey, we´re brothers" and shows us his consecrated oil and thens gets on his bus and on he goes. Next we do a contact of an old man and he just said to us, thanks anyways kids, but I already have the true and smiles. Then starts walking away. We also start walking in a different direction and then look back and he had disappeared haha! Anyways, those are my crazy stories of the week...

Miracle of the Week: Despite all the hard challenges of the week, we were able to have a great miracle on sunday with one of our investigators coming! His name is Victor Laurenco. He is the father of a member family who was inactive, but we helped them come back to church as they have been assisting the past three sundays. They are a pretty poor family and got offended by some members of the ward or something. But we were able to go with the bishop here and fix things up with them and they were able to get help from the bishops store house which we believe was their issue. So the family started coming again, but not Victor. He had attended before a long time again but didnt like the members for something that happened and didnt want to go for the longest time. But we have been working with him a lot and he finally musttered up the courage to come! He was pretty nervous the whole time and looked uncomfortable so we´ll see how it went for him when we visit again, but he came!

I´ll keep you all updated on with our investigators, Irene and Mario next week. As of now, we still dont know what happened to Irene but planned to pass by again today.

Have a great week! Love you all!

-- 

Elder Trent

Hey Im here a little erlier today! hows it going?

We usually go and buy food first, but we came to write first because I wanted to download some recipes from our missions president wife that she put up. Ive put the goal to start to learn how to cook! what!? crazy right!? wish me luck! hopefully by the time I get home, ill be an argentine chef haha!

(Send recipes if you´d like to)

a few small news.

im no longer the district leader :/ Im not sure why it just came up suddenly, when the new transfer started they also texted us that a new elder, elder soto, was going to be the new district leader for us. Its weird cuz i stayed in my area but i got downgraded. I know its not a down grade but it left me a little confused, thinking I did something wrong or something like that. but the zone leaders said I did a really great job and that we dont understand all the time why the Lord does things. but im ok with it now, it was a really great experience and I learnd and served well! Elder Soto, the new district leader I can tell will do really great, he is a stud.

Second, we didnt have the baptism of Irene of Mario this week:( its a long story and Ill explain it in my mass email...

¡Hola Todos!

Well this week we finished the transfer and I got the news that Elder Huber and I will be sticking together in Rivadavia for this next transfer as well! Its the first time that in my whole mission that I have been with a companion for more than one transfer, crazy right? So we´ll see how it all goes! I´m excited to be able to continue working here in Rivadavia and see a ton more miracles! This saturday we also have plans for the baptisms of Irene and Mario, so we hope everything works out for them as well! Other than that great miracle, we dont have a whole lot of other investigators we are working with so were in the search!

Miracle of the Week: So this last week, we were working with Irene to help her be ready for her baptism the following week. As I have said, she smokes and was still smoking a few cigarrettes every day. We were thinking on what we could teach her and felt strongly to teach about fasting. We went and were able to have a great lesson with her about it and inviting her to fast with us to be able to quit smoking. She accepted! So we were able to have a really awesome experience, being able to do a fast with her. And she did it! She fasted with us and didnt even smoke once! It was a cool experience and definitely a miracle!

Scripture of the Week: I had planned to look for a Father´s day scripture or something like that, but I totally forget, oh well. But I would like to share the first scripture in the BoM. 1 Nephi 1:1. Its the best I got, but shout out to all the great fathers out there!

Funny Experience of the Week: So this last pday Elder Huber needed a haircut like any missionary needs to do regularly to keep everything good and missionary professional. So we went to a haircut place and the guy went to work. When he was done his haircut was less missionary approved than it was before! He got a tradicional argentine style cut which is super short on the sides and then long on top. haha he said it looked fine but then we went to our district meeting the next day and everyone asked him what happened to his hair! So I decided to take matters into my own hands, while also practicing my haircut skills, and cut his hair again for him during our lunch break. I didnt tell him it was my first time doing it so he let me, hehe. All I had were paper scissors and a comb...

The end result looked pretty good to me, but once again we got a few outside opinions and it looked terrible apparently haha! 

So this week I ruined my comps hair, but luckily it´ll grow back, right? I guess cutting hair isnt my profession...

Thats all folks! Til next week!

-- Things are good, im at a point in my mission where everything is starting to seem the same and in a way is getting boring some things we do. So right now im just working on making every moment count and enjoying every aspect of the work. But im doing very well other than that and loving my time here!

I still good and dont need anything for now, thanks! I´ll let you know

this is kind of what im feeling now haha!

(excerpt from the best two years)

Another great month and I am still loving mission. Things in Mpumalanga are kind of staying the same I am hitting what we call out here the 12-14 month blues. Nothing crazy but it just seems like stuff is slowing down. I am doing all I can to stay on top of it. The one thing that has kept me going is the awesome blessing of teaching lessons. It really is the only remedy for the tough times. You feel tired and feel like the week was pretty tough but then you get into the lesson you feel the spirit and it just turns the day around. 

me_ Thats hysterical! Maybe youll be a barber on the side!

Tyler-Haha now I know how to do it though!! I cut his hair against the grain if that makes sense so there were lines on the top and it just looked like a rat at bit into it a few times that all! hahaha

Next time ill do it the other way around

Me- was he mad?

tyler-No, because he didnt think it looked that bad either. but the closer you look the worst it is. He wasnt mad becuase I got most of the beef from it from everyone else. Elder huber just tells everyone I cut it and they make fun of me haha. 

Elder Trent

We have two peruvians sister missionaries in our district. and after our last district meeting we ate peruvian food that they had made us! I love peruvian food sooo much haha! I dont remember whats its called, but its sort of like a fried rice thing.

¡Hola Todos!

How´s everybody enjoying their summer? Mines pretty cold actually, but couldn´t be better! This week was awesome! We finished out the week with the baptism of Iara! We are also working a lot with Irene still and Mario Ramirez, both of them were able to come to church this past Sunday and are progressing for their baptisms on the 25 of June! We also had an amazing week with our general weekly goals so this week couldnt have gone better! In times like this on my mission, I also am grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord. Gratitude is an extremely important principle to remember in our lives! 

Scripture of the Week: Moroni 7:45-47. Super well known scripture but one that is very important! I was observing and noticing my comp a lot this week in the way he acts and converses with the people. He is super interested in them and their lives and justs shows his love for them well, always friendly. Not that Im not friendly with everyone, but seeing his example this week has made me have more of a desire to show my love for the people. I would challenge you all to do the same!

New Investigators of the Week: Last wedsnday I believe, we were going to try and contact a members house from the ward list that we didnt know. Turned out she wasnt there, but right next door we two guys leaning up against their car soaking in the little sun there was. So we decided to give them a card and we start talking with them. They were super chill guys and very interested! First with us and our lives as missionaries. So we get talking and start explaining who we are and what we do as missionaries. They were pretty curious as they always see missionaries walking down the streets and wanted to know more about us. So we took advantage and asked if we could share the message we share with everyone about Jesus Christ. They said, "Ya no problem" As we shared it they got even more interested and understood very well!

It was really great the whole thing, because it was just natural. Thats sometimes something hard to do in contacts with people, but when we can things usually turn out well! There names are Oscar and Diego. Hopefully we see some progress with them!

Well thats it for this week, love you all and have a great week!
--

Elder Trent

I asked about their baptism this week:

Theres  not much to tell. It was of a eight year old girl whose grandpa is a member but not her parents so it counted as a convert baptism for us haha. The baptism went well. The only complication was with the bishopric and the not many people showed up to it. The sad thing was that none of the bishopric said they could come when I called them. Then we went to the bishops house really quick to ask his wife for keys to the church and the bishop was there! He told me he couldnt come because he was "far away" but that wasnt the case, and then the second counselor drove up to the bishops house as we were leaving for some reason as well. So we were a little upset of the lack of responsibility and help from them, but oh well.

Diligence

¡Hola Todos!

This week was great! We started the week with a special zone conference with the assistents to President, President and his wife. The focus was a lot on accomplishing goals. It was one of the best meetings I´ve had! I was able to recieve a lot of helpful personal revelation to apply! After the meeting, we got to work and headed off into the week determined to accomplish our goals. It was raining and pretty cold for a good part of the week, which slowed things down a little bit, but it started to pick up by the end when I went on divisions with Elder Alvarez from Chile. But by the end of the week, our goals were looking pretty glim. So Saturday night, we decided to really kick it into high gear to be able to complete them. We were able to do divisions with members of the ward for the first time here and split off to have lessons. And the rest that happened was a lot of miracles! We were able to have a ton of lessons and even find new people to teach in one day! We were´nt able to complete every one of our weekly goals but got sure close! It just shows the importance of diligence in this work always! Diligence is faith in action so miracles can happen! <-(Hey it rhymes, kind of)

Scripture of the Week: Man! I always forget the scripture I want to share, but I think it is in Doctrine and Covenants 75:2-5 or something like that, where it talks a lot about diligence. Like I mentioned this week, it was a big focus of mine. I like in verse 3 where it talks about not tarrying. To me, that means not wasting time and making the most of every moment. In the mission, sometimes i do that with out even realizing! But its important to remember that this is the Lords time so I want to make the most our of this time, as its already flying by!

Investigator Progress Update. So I think I mentioned in my other emails about Iara the 8 year old girl. Well, we talked to our President of the Mission and he said ya of course she can get baptized! (As her Grandpa is a member and going to church) So we have the miracle baptism of her this saturday!

Also we had another miracle of a less active family coming to church this Sunday! They are the family Ramirez that have a son who is 9 and not baptized so hopefully we will continue having them in church so Mario can get baptized to complete the family!

Sadly, Irene didnt make it to church this week. We´re not sure why yet as we went to her house and she wasnt there. But she had a lot of progress with her smoking as she is only smoking around 5 a day! Great progress for her! I know she will be able to quit smoking and get baptized soon!

Love you all and hope you continue to have a great summer!

-- 

Elder Trent

I got shot!

¡Hola Todos!

Hey how´s everyone doing? This week for me went well as always! I seem to respond more and more that my weeks are going well even though maybe what really happened would say otherwise. But I dont know, I just have learned to always have a good week no matter what happens! Im so grateful that I have learned to be happy no matter what, as this week was filled with a few challenges but also some good small miracles!

This week Elder Huber and I worked hard to complete our goals. We were determined and dedicated in reaching our weekly goals.  And we had quite a few challenges to do it too. To start, the zone leaders called us with little advance notice that we were both going to work in their area for the day on Tuesday! So we weren´t able to work in our area at all on Tuesday, but the exchanges turned out very well with the zone leaders and I learned a lot! So by the end of the week, we were getting close and had a few great days of work. But apparently I had eaten something bad on Saturday that did not go well with me. So I spent all Saturday night and Sunday in the pench, super sick! So we weren´t able to finish the week like we had hoped. 

So this week, I learned a lot about opposition, but gratefully I was able to keep my spirits up through the whole thing!

Scripture of the Week: I like the scripture in 1 Nephi 6 where it talks about how Nefis purpose is to persuade men to come unto God and how he only writes things that are pleasing unto God and not the world. Its so true for missionaries as well. That is our purpose, we preach confidently of Christ in his way. 

Miracle of the Week: So what we have been doing lately in our mission, is passing by all the members that are on the member list in the ward. With the goal to find long lost inactive members, and also possibilities of finding part member families to complete! It has been working pretty well! A few weeks ago we found Lucas Mansilla, who is a member for about 5 years. But went inactive about a year after being baptized. So most members dont know him either. We have been going by teaching him and he has seen so much growth! He is now reading and praying again! Coming back to church was a little harder for him, but after three weeks of inviting him, he finally made it! So even though we are having a harder time getting investigators to church, we are seeing small miracles with members like Lucas who as well are in need of the Gospel in their lives-always.

Investigators Update: So this week with our investigators it has been slow progress. As I have told you all, we are working with Irene. She, right now, is working on quiting smoking still to be able to get baptized! She is struggling with it but we know she can do it! Sadly, this week she didnt come to church either, so we are going to pass by today to see whats up. Hopefully, all is well and she´ll get baptized on the 18th! We are still working on Mario, a nine year old from a inactive family, to try and get them all to church so Mario can get baptized. As well as Iara from another part member family.

Other than that, we have taught a quite a few other people, bu only once, so I will let you all know more about them later when we do as well!

....Experience of the Week: So this last Wedsnday was the 25 of May which is a holiday here. I think the day they signed their independence. So we had a tradicional soup called Locro at the ward activity for it. But the crazy part was after. We worked walking going a house to visit when a guy smoking outside of his house calls us over. He talks to us for a while about who we are and stuff. He was overly expressive and had quite the loud personality. All of a sudden, he tells us to come in and have empanadas with him. We said sure, hopefully being able to teach him as well. We walk in to find his family there as well, but nothing of empanadas in sight. He starts going off and off talking about a ton of different things. We asked if we can share a message with him and he says yes, but just keeps talking and talking very animated. Finally we realize he is drunk, so we tell him we have to go. But he doesnt let us and says he is going to make the empanadas now. We keep trying to leave but he wouldnt let us, saying we were guests. He finally finishes the empanadas after about an hour but still doesnt let us leave. Miracously we get out of there haha! IT was quite the experience!

Well thats about it, love you all! Til next week!

-- 

Elder Trent

So I dont have much time left but I wanted to share a few things that happened this week to me!

I shared in my mass email that I got sick! I dont know what I ate, but on saturday my stomach started to feel weird and I woke up in the night and threw up! And all night long about every hour i threw up. It was same on sunday! I felt terrible! I wanted to go to church so bad but I felt terrible, but I managed to change and walk over to the church for the sacrament meeting. The rest of the day I was sleeping or on the toilet. Today I feel a lot better, but still not a 100 percent.

On Friday I did divisions with an Elder in my District (As a  district leader, I do divisions with the all the Elders in my District) That day, we were walking and all of the sudden I got shot! it was from like an air compressed gun or something, it hurt pretty bad. But it was fine, we went back and contacted the street kids that did it. But nothing came out of it. 

A lot of discrimination this week, but Im all good! Gratefully things like that dont affect me anymore.