3-14-16

Hello family how is it going?  My name is Elder Simmons and I'm here to tell you what I did this week. 

The investigators are doing good.  D and C are our best investigators.  They've been to church 3 or 4 times but D doesn't feel ready yet because she's not very good at praying and she doesn't want to get baptized yet until she is ready.  She knows it's a big responsibility and she doesn't want to mess up.  I think she will get baptized very soon.  C she really wants to get baptized but she isn't married.  C had us over for dinner this week.  We'll see what happens.

B is sweet but she's having a hard time waking up and coming to church so I'm not sure what we are going to do there.  We found some part member families this week.  We found P who is a member and met with his wife M.  M is evangelist.  We also found this guy named M and E.  M has been a member since he was 8 but E is not.  We taught her the restoration and is was great.  Right as we got to the end we gave them the invitation to read the Book of Mormon.  She said "look I'm Catholic and that's not going to change."  I've been reading the New Testament and how Jesus invited everyone to follow Him and not everyone followed Him because of the pharisees or for whatever reason.  I can relate to Jesus Christ in the mission which is a good thing.  I'm learning a lot. 

We found a less active lady named E.  My last companion had told me where she lived so it was about 8:30 and we were headed back to the pension and I said let's go see these less actives and so we did.  We set a lesson for 2 days later. On Saturday we were talking with them and after we shared  prayer  E told me that whenever she is super sad the missionaries seem to show up so you showing up I take as a sign that I need to go back to church.  Sweet!  She has a lot of grandchildren that live with her.  She owns a restaurant which she works at on Sunday but she said she'd figure some way to go to church on Sunday with the grandchildren. 

We met this girl named N.  She is from Mendoza, far from here.  N has about a week and then she goes home.  She said she has a cousin that is serving an LDS mission in Mexico.  She showed us a picture.  So that's pretty crazy, she has a lot of family and friends that are members.  She was pretty open to learning so we are referring her to the missionaries in Mendoza.  We also found this girl named E but she doesn't want to get baptized but I'm not sure why.  Her dad is catholic and her mom is Mormon but she doesn't want to be baptized in either church so she doesn't disappoint her parents.   We taught them last week and they came to church.  G and N, They are really good people.   We sat down and asked him if we could share something and G said no I want to share something with you.    So we said sure and they shared a scripture with us.  They want to get married so she can get baptized.  They went to do paperwork in Formosa but they've disappeared so we don't know where they've gone. 

We got a reference from a member named B, this is kind of funny.  He's an older guy, he didn't understand much but he listened and then we set an appointment for 2 days later.  When we went back he asked us if we were Catholic and when we told him we were Mormons he said he couldn't listen to us anymore.  That same day in the afternoon the same thing happened, they thought we were Catholic.  I'm not sure how.  What I've heard is that there are some famous Catholic missionaries that came here to preach in Las Lomitas so a lot of people think we are Catholic.

It's been a lot cooler here lately but something happened with our air conditioner.    It's pretty nice but when it's cooler our air conditioner drips a ton of water.  I fall asleep to the sound of dripping water.  You know that music dad would put on that had the sound of waves crashing or rain falling.  I honestly feel like that.  I'm falling asleep to the water dripping of the air conditioner and all sorts of bugs making noise outside and the AC makes a humming sound.  All of that together says Argentina to me and it puts me to sleep so fast.  I might record it and take it home with me so when I have trouble falling asleep in college I'll just put on my Argentina noises and fall right to sleep.

I have 2 pair of shoes left.  I have the ones Elder Harris, my trainer gave to me and they are pretty beat up.  The other pair are some dad gave me a long time ago.  I replaced the bottoms on already.  They will last me to the end.  The others are a little shaky and my companions shoes were shaky too so we took them to a shoe fixer.  He fixed them up and shined them up.  So now I'm pretty sure I'll make it to the end with the shoes I have.  I'll just be able to endure to the end.  The shoe fixer we contacted him first and then we couldn't find him again.   We then were referred to the shoe store and it was the guy we'd contacted previously.  He really wanted a dollar so I gave him a dollar bill.

Yesterday  church was good, we had 19 people.   I gave a talk on prayer.  I still have my little in grown toe nail, it's not that bad.  Not like it's anything new.  We are going over to Iberetta as we have district meeting and we'll stay the night there and go back to Las Lomitas in the morning.  I really like Las Lomitas.  We are doing everything we can right now.  There are some great people we're teaching we just have to be patience.  You can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink it.  It's the same thing with the investigators.  We can bring them to the water but they have to drink it.  We are doing our best to teach and baptize but sometimes we just have to wait.  Every missionary wants to baptize the whole world but it doesn't always work like that.  Speaking of that a family that we found in Formosa, we taught them for about a month.  She had come to church the week before I left and they got married and then got baptized this last week.  I was really excited for that.

I just love the mission, it's sweet.  I love you guys, have a good week and bye!

3-7-2016

Hello family how is it going?  I'm just sitting here giving my weekly report so I hope you like it.  Let's get started.  We've been teaching a lot this week.   Last transfer we found a girl named E who is a daughter of a member and she is handicapped in the sense that she can't walk very well.  They went on vacation to Paraguay and now they are back so we are teaching her again.   She is progressing very well.  She got sick so she didn't come to church. 

We are also teaching B and L.  They are a couple that isn't married.  It is kind of sad because this week we taught them the plan of salvation.  They seem to like it but at the end of the lesson they told us they are breaking up which is so sad because they have a child together.  We also had to drop an investigator named L this week.    She told us she really likes the Book of Mormon and is going to keep reading it but she's Catholic and she told us that no one will ever convince her to change religions.  We were also were walking in our area this week and this guy was going by on his bike and started talking to us.  He said that his wife was really sick and he asked us to give her a blessing.  Every time that we are asked to give a blessing we have to get permission from the mission president  because he holds the keys.  I called him and he said to just say a prayer and bless her through the prayer.  She has this big ulcer, scab thing on her leg that eats away at it.  It started to heal and get better but the scabbing causes a ton of pain.  She wants to itch it really bad but it's all over her leg.  It's really gross.  We went back and she was crying the whole time we were there and it was really sad.  That experience helped me learn even more about the atonement of Jesus Christ.  Even though I'm not the one suffering it taught me a lot.  

We are also teaching B.  B is soldid, she is awesome.  She reads a lot of books and is really smart.  She understands the Book of Mormon very well.  She understands and feels this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  She's been praying to find the church to join.  The only problem is we can't seem to get her to come to church.  She has an ex-brother-in law that gets drunk every night and he brings his kids to her house in the middle of the night so she's taking care of the kids and doesn't get any sleep.   Hopefully she'll get baptized, patience.  Also this week we started with another couple, M and E.  M is a member.  His mom is a member as of 23 years ago , one of the first members here in Las Lomitas.  She's been less active for the past year.  When I first got here she was really hard hearted but now she is a lot more open and humble and I think she's trying to set an example for her son.  We are teaching E today to see if she wants to be sealed in the temple. 

A and D are doing good but D is leaving a lot and A doesn't know what to do.  She really wants to go to church and get baptized but she's sort of stopped.  C and D are doing really well.  D has almost stopped smoking, she's down to 2 cigarettes a day.  C stopped drinking her tea and is going to obey the word of wisdom.  She has a boyfriend but she doesn't know if he wants to get married.  We invited her to pray with him and start reading the Book of Mormon with him.  I think D will get baptized in the next few weeks. 

There was a member that used to live here named G.   He has a girlfriend who isn't a member.  She is really solid and has been to church about 7 times.  She needs to get married.    We are trying to do the paperwork for their marriage.  That's about it for investigators.  Kind of crazy this week. 

I have another ingrown toenail.  Number 7 or 8 I don't remember, just way too many.  There's no Dr here so I called the medical missionary and in 2 weeks we have a multi zone conference in Formosa so I'm going to see if I can make it until then.  

The Zone leaders this week gave me some peanut butter and I had a peanut butter sandwich so that was good!  Also this week some gypsies asked me to dance.  I didn't dance with them of course.  

Yesterday we were at lunch just minding our own business and we hear an ambulance.  Right before the ambulance came J had left to go pick up his mom.   The ambulance came and then there were police in front of the house and people yelling.  J comes back and tells us that an older lady just stabbed her boyfriend to death in the street about a block away from where we were.  Not sure what that story is but pretty crazy. 

That's about it, I'm learning a lot about patience in this area.  Great investigators but they have a lot of obstacles.  For example we have a water filter and it's worn out so every second it drops a drop of water.  We stick a Gatorade bottle under it and it drips all day and all night long and then once it's full we can drink the water.  The work is like that here.  We have to work little by little. 

It's fun, I like it.  

It was really cool this week about 90 degrees maximum.  Here's a story, G wanted to give us some cheese, so he pulls it out of his bag.  This doesn't look like any type of cheese that I've ever seen before.  It was this little white frozen thing.  I didn't really want to eat it so we took it and said thanks and said we'd take it home and eat it for lunch.  But G was like "no eat it now it's good".  He started eating it and it was kind of like a YOLO moment.  So I took a bite and it was the most disgusting thing I've ever put in my mouth.  It tasted like vomit and had the texture of frozen Styrofoam.  I almost threw up and I walked off and spit it out.  I had to walk home with that taste in my mouth.  It was the most disgusting thing that I've ever eaten.  I'd rather lick the bottom of my shoe than eat that cheese again.  I don't even know what it was.  Our guess is that it was fat but we're not actually sure what it was.  So that was fun, don't worry I'm still alive and well.

 This is where church is in Las Lomitas in a member's house

Love you guys have a great week.  Bye bye

2-29-16

Hello family how is it going?  I don't know why but the last two weeks I've forgot to record something so I stepped outside the cyber and am sitting on the grass making this recording.  It's a pretty day here in Argentina, not too hot and it may rain.  It's probably about 80 degrees and beautiful.  This week went really good and we've been teaching a lot.  We didn't find anyone new this week but the investigators are doing good.  The only person that came to church was D.  What happened is this last weekend was the carnival in Las Lomitas.  The carnival here is a little different than it is in Payson.  What I've heard is it is like Mardi Gras..  So we went back to the pension early Friday and Saturday early for obvious reasons.  But the carnival is over now and I think that is why a lot of people didn't go to church because they went to watch worldly things. 

This last Tuesday we had a missionary transmission and Elder Bednar taught it and it was sooooo good. He was in Buenos Ares and he did a transmission for all of the south America south area.  Also I made some root bear this week.  A missionary gave me some root beer extract so I bought some "gasified" soda and I put the extract in it and it was good.  It wasn't as good as home.  It was kind of like a flat soda that's been in the fridge for 2 weeks but it was good. 

J is doing good, she hasn't been to church but we'll see how it goes with her.  A and D, we had a really good week.  They are still talking about the whole marriage thing but they didn't come to church.  I'm not sure why, we'll go by tonight and see.  C and D are doing good too.  Yesterday we taught them the law of chastity and the word of wisdom.  Poor C wants to get baptized so bad but she feels it's impossible for her but we explained it to her, read some scriptures, and bore testimony.  She says it might take her a little bit of time but she's going to start trying.  

I did get a new comp.  His name is Elder Carrizales, he's from Wyoming.  He's a good guy.  He's got the same amount of time in the mission as my last companion.  He tries really hard to be a good missionary which I like.  He is a good missionary.

Last Monday there was this drunk guy and he came up to us and threatened our lives.  He grabbed us by the ties and we started talking to him trying to get him to calm down a little bit.  I told him I liked his shirt, just shooting the breeze trying to become friends with this drunk guy.  He said I really like your belt.  It was a belt I think that we bought in TJ Maxx for like $8.  It was a Donald Trump belt.  It was really beat up.  He said I'll trade you my shirt for your belt.  So I got this new shirt, it's kind of gross.  I tried to clean it off but I'm going to bring it back to the states as a memory.  The drunk guy that gave me a shirt.

Here's a tick that we had to burn out so I didn't get lime disease :)

A huge tree that the wind knocked over in to the road.

Love you guys tons, I hope you have a great week.  Bye.