LAST EMAIL!!! aHHHH!

Hello Everyone!

Looks like Im going to have to get used to speaking in English again! Yep its pretty crazy, Im coming home next week! A lot of mixed emotions! I gave a nice long email last week, because I knew I would be lost for words this week to send out my final email haha. The nerves kick in sometimes, but im really excited to apply everything ive learned in the mission and to see you all again! I just want you all to know, im coming back a changed man and it was only possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. For his love, charity, faith, obedience, humility and all of the other Christlike attributes I strived and continue striving to develop.  Everyone says the mission is the best two years of your life. i dont agree. Its the first best two years to a new and improved life that hopefully, if done right continues getting better and improves after every year. 

I love my Savior, I love his Gospel, and I loved being a fulltime emissary and representative of Him for these past two years. The Church is true! The Book of Mormon is the Word of God! Sometimes i have the urge to shout it from the rooftops(done that).

I highly exhort anyone who is doubting about serving a mission or not, to DO IT! Pray about it and GO! Its the best! 

Thank you to everyone who has wrote to me at any point of my mission, even though to some I wasnt able to respond, due to shortage of time on the Internet, but just know, its a big support and help to any missionary when they recieve emails from people they know and love back home! So I encourage you all to keep doing it to all the missionaries you know that are serving now.

I love you all and will see you soon!

-- 

Elder Trent

ya im here. I did all my souvineer shoping first and I also had my final interview with President Robertson, i did it today because he had meeting during the week. 

It sounds like a lot  happened this week! Wow what a great miracle with teegan getting her associates degree! Thats awesome! 

ah I dont know what to write ive got a lot of nerves write now, so I can remember much Ill tell it all in person next week!

the week flew by as usual. Though it was p retty normal , I did some divisions, I did contacting, taught new people, and had a few in church. Really a solid week! I h ave to go now, Ill gi ve  all the detail you want though next week!!! I will go to the mision home Sunday afternoon.

second to last email!!

¡Hola Todos!

Well it was the first week we worked with the new division splits of Villa Tesei and it went really well! (Before our area was split in the shape of Chile, but now they gave us a part of the other Elders and us to them to make things more effective) The other Elders didnt pass us over many investigators, from the part of their area they gave us, so we spent the week getting to know the members on the ward list(Active and Inactive), and contacting plenty of course. The new area is amazing! It looks small on a map, but its huge! There´s a lot of hidden places and houses very compacted together, people always moving in and out of the town. So thats good theres a lot of motion, always new people to find. There are neighborhoods, which are called "Villas" here in the area, or "slums" i think youd say it in English. Which are very poor neighborhoods, with all the houses on top of eachother, in the back, on the side, everywhere in all directions. Real promising!

This week we found a few great families we´ve started to work with, one of them is Marcela and her son, Leandro, another is Luis and Viviana. You can tell they are very prepared to accept the restored Gospel. It seems that way for many of the contacts we do, many people are very receptive and Elder Meyers and I feel very blessed. 

One thing Ive learned while being in Villa Tesei for so long is patience. Ive been here for six months and things never really got going, with the ward, with investigators, or the area in general. Its been a process, but really we are starting to see the blessings flow in now. Even though I may not be here to participate in most of them, Im grateful for the opportunities the Lord has given me to a part of His work here. 
A little bit of investigators updats: Veronica dropped us. She was so great! and still is, it was her daughters that wouldnt let her continue talking with us. Even though she has her agency and wants to talk to us, go to church, get baptized, everything, veronica is depent on her kids for paying for her medicine and werent going to do it if she was "became a mormon". So its really sad, but there wasnt much we could do about it.

But on the very bright side, we saw two great miracles here specifically this week. We couldnt get in contact with one of our investigators, Andres, the whole week. But Sunday morning he shows up at 9 ready for church! it gave us a scare for awhile there but in the end it was nothing, and he continues progressing rapidly. He is the one that has his date to get married the 15 of June. Another huge miracle we saw was with Lucas and Rocio that I have been working with on and off my whole time here. We had a lesson with them on Friday and a member friend of theirs came on Sunday to pick them up to take them to church and they were all ready to go! Lucas came in a white shirt and tie, after not sleeping the whole night because he works the night shifts in a bar. He got home at 7 in the morning sunday, got ready, and went to church! Rocio is 8 months pregnant and came as well. it was the second time they both came to church while Ive been here, the last being general conference. It was really incredible to see the sacrifice they made to come. They also will get married this week!

I feel super blessed and happy with the way things are going as I finish out my mission. I look forward to these next two weeks, working with diligence and urgency!

Love you all!

-- 

Elder Trent

¡Hola Todos!

Today we were all able to finish the Book of Mormon together as a mission, with many families at home participating as well. It was somethin! The Spirit was flowing here. Our mission president had us share a one minute testimony of the Book of Mormon at the beginning of every companionship study. I can honestly say my testimony has grown so much from the experience. The Spirit is strong, personal revelation is real, and the Book of Mormon is true!

This past Sunday we had stake conference here. It was a cool set up. They had banners all over in the entry way of Christ and other banners they use here for activities that are called Chapel Open Houses for tours of the chapel. Andres couldnt come to it for some lame excuse and we think Veronica was out of town, so thats a bummer. But we did our part. At least me and my companion were able to enjoy it!

So tomorrow is transfers here. I didnt expect to get changed having little time left...and I wasnt but looks like they are going to change the boundaries/divisions of the two areas here in Villa Tesei. Now the two areas are shaped like Chile and theyre going to change it into two squares to make the word a little more efficient with travel and time. So i´ll have have of my old area and half of it will be new. We´ll see what it brings.

Love you all, Have a great week!

-- 

Elder Trent

this is our investigator andres house

some houses of the neighborhood. 

the one of us infront of the house is veronicas house

¡Hola Todos!

Great week! Full of baptisms for the zone which is great of course! So Elder Meyers and I are enjoying the success thats our zones having. This week for our area was pretty good too. We found this lady contacting, Veronica that was super enthusiastic, she felt a huge wave of the Spirit as we taught her, she couldnt handle it! During the lesson she asked us where the church was a committed to go with her granddaughters before we even talked about it! At the end she also accepted a baptismal date for the 10th of June! She was loving it, super prepared to hear Gods special message to everyone! In the end, she didnt go to church, we dont know why yet, but we have faith she will next week! Andres is doing really great! He´s praying, reading, and coming to church every week. Just yesterday he came at 9 to come to the classes before Sacrament meeting for the first time! He loved it as well! He´s really started to gain a testimony. So right now he´s just working on getting married which is turning in to quite the process, but before no time, he´s in the water!

This week we also had interviews with President Robertson, it was my second to last interview with him until he and I go home as we are finishing our missions together. So solid week, love you all, have a great week!

-- 

Elder Trent

this is another church. it literally says "this is getting good" underneath the name of the church hahaha.

This is what I was talking about, what we ate last saturday.

Baked Chicken, squash and rice

And these are the empanadas I made.

l

ast pday we ate asado and potatoes. we went to another elders area to visit.

this is the university of moron. "UM" haha get it get it?

Mosquito Plague

¡Hola Todos!

This week was pretty normal other than the fact that there is now a mosquito plague here in Buenos Aires. There´s been floodings in other provinces of the country and all the mosquitoes from there decided to come closer to the coast I guess. So now there are mosquitoes everywhere and theyre huge! Ive already made it through my first bottle of Off Spray haha. But anyways Andres came to church again this week and is progressing well. He already started finding out how to start the marriage process(Its a little complicated here). Hopefully he can get married before I leave in June so he can get baptized! Ah I want to baptize! We also started doing visits with the Bishop here in the ward every Thursday which is a HUGE step to getting more member missionary help here. This last Thursday we went to our investigator Juan with the Bishop, who we found the other week. He lives right off the edge of this small river in humble house. He´s about 50 yrs old and has a lot of trials and problems in his life. Hes got great desires and said we changed his life after visiting him the first time! He accepted baptism and coming to church in the first visit. So far hes not fufilling with any of these commitments, but after a visit with the Bishop it was a boost. We went to go look for him to go to church and was asleep. Here its aparently terrible if someone is sleeply and you wake him up, so his family wouldnt wake him up for us, but next Sunday we´ll get him there for sure!

Til next week amigos! Have a great Mothers Day next Sunday!

Elder Trent

bad picture of me, but its the only one I got for this week. yes im bald, my companions cut my hair to short.

everythings good. Im not really nervous about coming home or focusing on it. I already know whats waiting for me and what Im going to do. So im more stressed now about baptizing before I go home, since Ive only baptized once in the past six months of my mission and we dont have any solid options for the upcoming weeks. And also of trying to make the most of my time here to progress as an individual. not just changing my behavior but my nature and who I am and who I want to be.

But im being patient and understand that its Gods will not me. So we see how these next few weeks play out.

¡Hola Todos!

Wah what a crazy week! To make a loong story short, on Tuesday we get a call from the office elder in charge of the apartments saying our contract is going to expire by the end of the month so we had to find a new one in our area. By the end of the week we still hadnt found one! So we were going to have to live an hour an a half away from our area until we could find a new one. Last minute a member says hes got a half finished apartment we could stay in so thats where we ended up going. Its has an unfinished kitchen and no hot water, but its got a roof! Haha so now we have all our stuff in the backyard of a members and spent all night packing and unpacking. We werent able to get much work done this week, but all good. 

Oh and we also found a hippy comunity that invited us in. Quite the interesting set up they got there, homemade instrument workshop, hanging herbs and spices in the kitchen, marihuana everywhere, and about 14 residents. Really nice people, although one girl got pretty mad we didnt give her a hug. We´ll see if we can help anyone of them out with the Gospel.

But ya quite the eventful week!

Andres came to church again this Sunday so we just need to get him married and into the water. We keep working with Katherine and Hernan, but their progress is slow, we´ll see why they didnt come to church later today. We continue finding some new investigators, so far no one is progressing but we are working hard and having fun while doing it!

Love you all, shout out to my sister Tori, Its her Birthday wahoo!

--

Elder Trent

Soccer last monday. man im so small compared to them haha

As zone leaders we go to the distrct meetings in the zone to "supervise"

Divisions in sketchy neighborhoods, good thing im not there!

Last minute packing up, movin out!

Member lunch in the church. Milanesa and mashed potatoes, classic

Visits with members, the best!

unfinished new pench. Ill tell this story in the mass email.

random picture

we had a breakfast with the zone sunday morning done by the stke pres. got there a little early, had to wake up at 5 to get there!

Fall

searching and Teaching

¡Hola Todos!

Another normal week, searching and teaching people to baptize! Right now we´re working with a ton of people that need to get married so they are a work in process, like Lucas and Rocio, Catherine and Hernan, Andres and Andrea, Famila Veron. But its good, we´ll be helping a lot of families become stronger and firmer! Not much else new is happening here, we continue finding new investigators, so far no one is progressing, but Im as excited as ever to keep going and baptize! 

Sorry for the short email, not much to saw, love you all!

--

Elder Trent

Terrible pictures of me, but President Nelson siting in front of me listen to a missinoary choir. I got to shake his hand, and some got pictures of that, but I didnt recieve it. 

I havent been cooking really anything lately. in this area we have lunch pretty much everyday. i have made stew that was really good, noodles with a garlic white sauce, hamburgers, and maybe today we are doing to make oatmeal cake a recipe from Elder Meyers.

Meeting with elder Russel M Nelson!

¡Hola Todos!

What an incredible week! This first week with Elder Meyers was great! We are really starting to blow up the area! We got along from the begininng! Hes from California but more of the northern country side. Hes got a ranch and good at doing anything hands on. We saw great miracles! He came to the area with a fire to work! So we got started! Our faith and excitement together really brought great blessings. We found a ton of new investigators, a few accepting baptismal dates! The best part though was on Sunday when we taught Lucas and Rocio. Ive been teaching them the whole time ive been in this area. They would progress on and off, but their biggest challenge was that they needed to get married and didnt want to. But after a great spiritual lesson when the Spirit could work through them, they finally decided to start the process to get married! Ive never had the opportunity yet to help investigators get married so itll be an awesome experience! ive learned, its the Lords time not ours! Just got to be patient AND consistent in obeying with diligence all the Lord requires of us.

And to top of the week we were able to have a meeting with President Russell M. Nelson of the Twelve this morning! It was just our mission, the north mission, and the MTC. Super spiritual! Man that guy knows his doctrine, he shared about very interesting topics, about the Abrahamic Covanent and how we all come from his line, the goes through, Ephraim and Menases. Anyways, it was a great testimony builder! This church is true! And is lead by Jesus Christ himself, with his prophets and apostles!

Love you all!

Elder Trent

big city in downtown Buenos Aires, thats in a different mission

My companion Elder Meyers

my last two comps! Elder Dye and now Elder meyers

Went to an area on divisions thats pretty famous in Argentina and i think the world too for being dangerous. it basically a big group of houses slash apartments together that forms a neighborhood. these are fews from the top floor of one of the buildings. if you want to look it up its called Fuerte Apachi.

an awesome member missionary named Yolanda. Always helps us with lunch and references.

This is what the trains look like here. Waiting to go to the stake center chapel.

One of my responsabilities as zone leader is to give baptism interviews, They are really cool experiences! This is Matias who I did the interview for the APs in the mission.

Bus ride to president nelson

The Blessings are flowing

¡Hola Todos!

What a great week! First off transfer are tomorrow and looks like Im staying here in Villa Tesei to finish out my mission! My new companion will be Elder Meyers from California. I know him a little bit but not very well. He was comps with me companion I have now, Elder Dye. I thinks hes got around 18 months. 

This week we found a lot of great new investigators! On Tuesday we found a family! So far weve only taught the mom, Silvia and her two teenage kids, Juan and Abigail. They are awesome! They accepted everything so well. They were going to a different church as a family but having been in a long time. They are reading the Book of Mormon and want to go to church together! Another family we found we contacted and they let us in right away. They are a young couple named Hernan and Catherine. Catherine was super interested and was paying attention so well. At the end she said the prayer asking forgiveness and started crying. It was a really spiritual lesson. When I shared the First Vision part, like I have so many times, i almost got emotional. Such a good lesson! Catherine recently lost a baby and we testified to her that she can raise him again in the next life.

The blessings are flowing in here and im loving serving so much!

Love you all!

-- 

Elder Trent

WhAT A GREAT WEEK TO BE A mORMON!

¡Hola Todos!

What a great week it was to be a Mormon! Conference was soo good! I know that the Prophet Thomas S. Monson and his apostles are called of God and recieve revelation for us today! I was able to recieve my own spiritual strength and help from it, and I hope all of you as well! We were able to see our investigator Juliana come to one of the sessions! Shes great, she was taking notes and everything nice! We can only teach her once a week, so time is basically the only thing now stopping her from getting baptized! Hopefully before April ends!

As I talked last week, as a mission, we are reading the Book of Mormon together in 60 days, and wow what a testimony and faith builder it has been for me! I can honestly say that I have felt and seen a difference in my day to day life by reading, pondering and studying the Book of Mormon everyday. The Book is true people! It gives me such great joy in giving my testimony of it to everyone here in Argentina! Me and my comp have seen a difference in our area and in a few of our investigators by focusing more on helping them recieve a testimony of it. Just yesterday, we were teaching a couple, Juan and Adriana, who weve taught about three times now. After having taught the Plan of Salvation, Juan kept asking a lot of questions, which were good questions, but we reminded him that he can find his answers and know if its true by reading and praying to know the Book of Mormon is true. It all comes down to it! It finally clicked for him, and he said he would read it with more intent and pray to know its true!

Love you all! Have a great week!

-- 

Elder Trent

¡Hola Todos!

Sorry for not writing last week! Lost track of time. But update of the past two weeks-We saw some great progress this 2 weeks! 

First off, we were able to go to the temple last week on Thursday wahoo! A huge blessing! We also started a Book of Mormon challenge as a mission to finish it in 60 days. So weve started things off good!

Right now we are working with two really awesome investigators! Things started to pick up two fridays ago during divisions when I was with Elder Alvarez from Chile. Our appointment at the end of the day fell at 8 oclock, so we start heading to the back up plan. And then I remember I contacted somebody at a house we passed in front of. So we stopped to see if they were home. They werent but a guy taking care of the house came out and talked to us. His name is Nahuel. he is 24 yrs old and has a month yr old daugther and is married. Whaaat. We taught him outside because it wasnt his house to let him in. It was the most spiritual lesson Ive ever had outside! So good! The whole time, I was like wait is thisguy for real? can he really be that great? Hes an active member from a cristian church. But commented how he doesnt feel that theres a set doctrine there, or anywhere, that everyones so different in what they belief. He understood so well and was interested about the authority you need to have to be baptized, since he was already baptized in that other church. He accepted the BoM so well and wanted to know if it was true. The next time, he shared more of his experience reading and how he can recognize his answer. Tonight we plan to teach the Plan of Salvation and hopefully with his wife too!

Our other investigator we´re working with, her name is Juliana. She is 12 yrs old. She was a reference, that I recieved like two months ago here, but we could never find her, until last week! We endured to the end and finally found her! Her grandma is actually a member too! So we taught her, she accepted a baptismal date and came to church!

So we´re pretty excited to see the progress of them!

Til next week! Enjoy Conference! Wahoo!

Elder Trent

he caught me off guard on that last pic hahaha

This is Juliana our investigator. and her grandma and a lot of other grandkids. 

Old cars

Street...art

Great Pic huh?