Hey family. Just writing to let you know that I wont be writing much today. (actually just this!) but that I will be calling home this Saturday 25 Deciembre 2010 at 10 or 11am in the morning for you. Hope that works with your schedules... if not guess I will have to somehow survive til may! :P Just kidding! Cant wait to talk to you! Have a great week!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
PS Baptism went great on Saturday... but Emanuel decided he wanted to wait and get baptized with his mom.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
¿Winter Weather in Argentina?
Dear family and friends!
Sounds like we had a change of weather this week! You all had some warmer weather y things got COLD y rainy here the last several days! Still lacking in Christmas Spirit here in Argentina, but what can ya do? It has been a pretty busy week for us and here are a couple things that happened.
We got news from Soledad y her family that Carmen (her mother in law we gave a blessing to several weeks ago) passed away last weekend. The family was very sad, but were all grateful that she was able to recover y make the trip to Jujuy to be with her family there for the last weeks of her life here on earth y that she felt COMFORTABLE. It truly was a miracle how it all worked out. Soledads "husband" Marcos made the trip to Jujuy for the funeral of his mother y was gone for a week or so. Their 2 sons Emanuel y Lautaro are going to get baptized this Saturday y Soledad really wants to get baptized as well but needs to get married first! We had a really good lesson with Marcos y Soledad about eternal marriage. Poor Marcos had just gotten back several hours earlier from the 24 hour bus trip from Jujuy y was very tired. So we left them to talk and pray about what we talked about. Hoping to hear some positive news soon!
This week we also met an awesome guy named "Frank". He came up to us in the street as we were leaving our lunch cita carrying a big table by himself y said "Good afternoon gentleman!". Of course we were both very surprised that someone would seem so happy to see us... and also that he was talking in English! I offered to carry the table which he gratefully accepted y we had a great conversation on the way to his house. Apparently since he was a kid he LOVED listening to Frank Sinatra y gained a great love for the English language which inspired him to learn. (He speaks really well). He also has a daughter who lives in California y will be traveling to visit her in July. We were able to talk with him a little bit about the Church y he didn't seem terribly interested but thanked us for the message of love we are sharing with the world.
Some last bits of news... Our dueños (landlords?) finally called somebody to come fix the problems in our pension y they are in the process of replacing all the water lines inside. Very MESSY! But luckily they were able to leave the old ones in place for now so we arent left without water! Progress at least! About time too... I am still suffering from the same cough I have had for almost 2 months now it seems. Pretty sure its not JUST allergies. Also, still not terribly sure about what is going to happen for Christmas. I think our P day will be changed to Saturday the 25th, but I should have some time next Monday to let you know what is going on.
Hope you all have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Sounds like we had a change of weather this week! You all had some warmer weather y things got COLD y rainy here the last several days! Still lacking in Christmas Spirit here in Argentina, but what can ya do? It has been a pretty busy week for us and here are a couple things that happened.
We got news from Soledad y her family that Carmen (her mother in law we gave a blessing to several weeks ago) passed away last weekend. The family was very sad, but were all grateful that she was able to recover y make the trip to Jujuy to be with her family there for the last weeks of her life here on earth y that she felt COMFORTABLE. It truly was a miracle how it all worked out. Soledads "husband" Marcos made the trip to Jujuy for the funeral of his mother y was gone for a week or so. Their 2 sons Emanuel y Lautaro are going to get baptized this Saturday y Soledad really wants to get baptized as well but needs to get married first! We had a really good lesson with Marcos y Soledad about eternal marriage. Poor Marcos had just gotten back several hours earlier from the 24 hour bus trip from Jujuy y was very tired. So we left them to talk and pray about what we talked about. Hoping to hear some positive news soon!
This week we also met an awesome guy named "Frank". He came up to us in the street as we were leaving our lunch cita carrying a big table by himself y said "Good afternoon gentleman!". Of course we were both very surprised that someone would seem so happy to see us... and also that he was talking in English! I offered to carry the table which he gratefully accepted y we had a great conversation on the way to his house. Apparently since he was a kid he LOVED listening to Frank Sinatra y gained a great love for the English language which inspired him to learn. (He speaks really well). He also has a daughter who lives in California y will be traveling to visit her in July. We were able to talk with him a little bit about the Church y he didn't seem terribly interested but thanked us for the message of love we are sharing with the world.
Some last bits of news... Our dueños (landlords?) finally called somebody to come fix the problems in our pension y they are in the process of replacing all the water lines inside. Very MESSY! But luckily they were able to leave the old ones in place for now so we arent left without water! Progress at least! About time too... I am still suffering from the same cough I have had for almost 2 months now it seems. Pretty sure its not JUST allergies. Also, still not terribly sure about what is going to happen for Christmas. I think our P day will be changed to Saturday the 25th, but I should have some time next Monday to let you know what is going on.
Hope you all have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, December 6, 2010
Where's the Christmas Spirit?
Dear family and friends,
Hard to believe Christmas will be here in 3 weeks. Where is the Christmas Spirit?! I have hardly seen any decorations, havent heard any Christmas songs... and still find it weird feeling the hot sun beating down on me in December. Besides being able to look at a calendar and knowing Christmas is coming soon... the only other clue here in Argentina has been the ever present explosions of little kids throwing fireworks in the streets. Hope to see some REAL Christmas spirit soon!
Today we had transfer meeting. No changes here... staying at least another 6 weeks here in Wilde with Elder Alvarez! I am happy to be staying, but I think by next transfer he will be MORE than ready to take over the area with a new companion! I was in a different area 4 days this week for a leadership meeting with Pres. Stapley and he seemed to run the area well with the other missonary and they got some good stuff done! It was tough being away from my area for such a long time... but I did get to enjoy some hot showers and AIR CONDITIONING in the other Elders Pension.
The leadership conference went really well... but 4 VERY LONG days! The focus was in the new 8 lessons called Fundamental principles of Preach my Gospel that we learn/teach in our District and Zone Meetings. (The Doctrine of Christ, The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion, Revelation through Scripture Study, Revelation through Prayer, Revelation through going to Church, "We invite, they commit, we verify", and How to begin teaching) These lessons were put together by the first presidency to help us to focus better in our purpose as missionaries to "Invite others to come unto Christ by recieving the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ y His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, reception of the Holy Ghost y endure to the end. As a mission we are hoping to meet the challenge Pres. Hinckley extended several years ago to double the baptisms in all the church, a goal which to this point has not been met!
This weekend we FINALLY performed the song I was practicing back in October to accompany several hermanas in the ward. We ended up doing it for a Relief Society activity which went really well! (I got a video even so I will do my best to get that sent home soon!) We got to stay for the rest of the meeting as well (ended up with a big bag of homemade goodies and a 2 liter bottle of pepsi. They felt bad they had all that delicious food in front of us when we had already started our fast. :)) They shared some awesome messages, experiences, and testimonies about the focus they had this year in developing and sharing their talents!
Sunday was fast sunday. Always great! This weeks lesson depended on what the Elder Quorum presidency determined was the need of the quorum. Well he decided that since we were few in numbers... what we needed was more people! He paired us up in 2 and had each of us think of an inactive member family who could use a visit... and then sent us to visit them! I think it was successful overall. Even if we didnt bring many people back to the church at least they know we were thinking of them! Testimony meeting went really well. One 15 year old girl in our ward shared her testimony about how at the beginning of the year she had set a goal to bear here testimony every month... and that this month she completed her goal! That over this time her testimony has grown and it has helped her overcome her fear of public speaking. As we approach the end of this year I hope we can all look back on the goals we set this past year and evaluate our effort... and if needed revise and set some new goals for next year that require us to exercise some FAITH to achieve!
I love you all and hope you start off your Christmas season well! STill enjoying some snow?
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Hard to believe Christmas will be here in 3 weeks. Where is the Christmas Spirit?! I have hardly seen any decorations, havent heard any Christmas songs... and still find it weird feeling the hot sun beating down on me in December. Besides being able to look at a calendar and knowing Christmas is coming soon... the only other clue here in Argentina has been the ever present explosions of little kids throwing fireworks in the streets. Hope to see some REAL Christmas spirit soon!
Today we had transfer meeting. No changes here... staying at least another 6 weeks here in Wilde with Elder Alvarez! I am happy to be staying, but I think by next transfer he will be MORE than ready to take over the area with a new companion! I was in a different area 4 days this week for a leadership meeting with Pres. Stapley and he seemed to run the area well with the other missonary and they got some good stuff done! It was tough being away from my area for such a long time... but I did get to enjoy some hot showers and AIR CONDITIONING in the other Elders Pension.
The leadership conference went really well... but 4 VERY LONG days! The focus was in the new 8 lessons called Fundamental principles of Preach my Gospel that we learn/teach in our District and Zone Meetings. (The Doctrine of Christ, The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion, Revelation through Scripture Study, Revelation through Prayer, Revelation through going to Church, "We invite, they commit, we verify", and How to begin teaching) These lessons were put together by the first presidency to help us to focus better in our purpose as missionaries to "Invite others to come unto Christ by recieving the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ y His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, reception of the Holy Ghost y endure to the end. As a mission we are hoping to meet the challenge Pres. Hinckley extended several years ago to double the baptisms in all the church, a goal which to this point has not been met!
This weekend we FINALLY performed the song I was practicing back in October to accompany several hermanas in the ward. We ended up doing it for a Relief Society activity which went really well! (I got a video even so I will do my best to get that sent home soon!) We got to stay for the rest of the meeting as well (ended up with a big bag of homemade goodies and a 2 liter bottle of pepsi. They felt bad they had all that delicious food in front of us when we had already started our fast. :)) They shared some awesome messages, experiences, and testimonies about the focus they had this year in developing and sharing their talents!
Sunday was fast sunday. Always great! This weeks lesson depended on what the Elder Quorum presidency determined was the need of the quorum. Well he decided that since we were few in numbers... what we needed was more people! He paired us up in 2 and had each of us think of an inactive member family who could use a visit... and then sent us to visit them! I think it was successful overall. Even if we didnt bring many people back to the church at least they know we were thinking of them! Testimony meeting went really well. One 15 year old girl in our ward shared her testimony about how at the beginning of the year she had set a goal to bear here testimony every month... and that this month she completed her goal! That over this time her testimony has grown and it has helped her overcome her fear of public speaking. As we approach the end of this year I hope we can all look back on the goals we set this past year and evaluate our effort... and if needed revise and set some new goals for next year that require us to exercise some FAITH to achieve!
I love you all and hope you start off your Christmas season well! STill enjoying some snow?
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, November 29, 2010
Diciembre ya! [December already!]
¡Buen dia!
Good to hear from you all! Hope you all enjoyed a fantastic week and a nice break from school. I am a bit jealous of the snow as we have been having some HOT weather lately. At least it makes the cold showers every morning not seem so bad! I am still suffering a bit from this awful cold! I finally gave in to my companion and all the members that kept telling me I needed to see the doctor or go to the hospital (people go to the hospital for EVERYTHING here, it is quite funny) so I called up the mission doctor and told him my symptoms. He basically told me if I dont have a fever then it is just allergies... so he just recommended some medicine for allegies y left it at that. Looks like I just gotta tough it out!
Tuesday morning we found an awesome new investigator named Alba while we were doing contacts. She answered in the window shaking her finger at us like she didnt want anything to do with us... and I felt that I should just ask her "why not?" She went on to explain to us that the missionaries had passed by her house several times in the past and always invited her to church, etc. and that she felt bad because she never did what they invited her to. We asked if we could come in and share a message with her and she accepted. She said she had never let the missionaries in before. As we started to talk about the Book of Mormon... she told us she already HAD a book like that, and went and pulled a Triple of her book shelf that she said she recovered from the street after some missionaries had gotten robbed y that she never had the chance to give it back to them. Apparently her sister is going in for cancer treatment this week y she was really preoccupied thinking about her. We taught her about prayer y the blessings that come from talking out our worries/desires with our Heavenly Father y she gave a great prayer at the end of the lesson!
Wednesday we had our interviews with Pres. Stapley. Our district was the first up for interviews and while we were waiting we all enjoyed eating some tasty facturas y chocolate-covered, dulce-de-leche-filled CHURROS while talking with Hna. Stapley. She has learned spanish super fast y is always studying y learning new words/expressions. She already speaks portuguese... and as we talked she was making a list of all the words that trip her up because of their similarities to portuguese. My interview with President went really well. He shared a scripture in Jacob 1:19 that talks about the responsibility that Jacob felt as a prophet to teach the people.. to the point that if he didnt do his job well that he felt accountable for the sins of his people. He also talked about preparing NOW to report my mission when I finish y to make the most of the time I have left. He asked what the most important thing I have learned in the mission is which I quickly responded was OBEDIENCE. Looking back now, it is definitely a principle I wish I would have understood better before the mission. The Lord is always willing to strengthen and bless us and only asks for us to be obedient in return. Lots of great examples of obedience in the scriptures!
Sounds like you all enjoyed a great Thanksgiving! I cant say we did much to celebrate here... however on Saturday we enjoyed a great lunch with Soledad y her family. We had pollo al horno (baked chicken) y a variety of salads with peaches for desert. Besides the FANTASTIC food it was great to be there with all the family including her husband y her sister y several of her neices who were visiting from Capital. After the meal we read "the family proclamation" with them which they all agreed was a perfect explanation of how a family should work. It has been a WHILE since I have read it, but I am always amazed how inspired Pres. Hinckley y the other apostles and prophets were in writing this declaration to the world over 15 years ago!
Well everyone thats it for now! Hope you all have a great week back in school! I have got a 3 day training with Pres. Stapley for all the leaders in the mission Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday... so hopefully my comp will have a good experience running the area all on his own for a couple days! Looking forward to hearing from you all next week!
les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Good to hear from you all! Hope you all enjoyed a fantastic week and a nice break from school. I am a bit jealous of the snow as we have been having some HOT weather lately. At least it makes the cold showers every morning not seem so bad! I am still suffering a bit from this awful cold! I finally gave in to my companion and all the members that kept telling me I needed to see the doctor or go to the hospital (people go to the hospital for EVERYTHING here, it is quite funny) so I called up the mission doctor and told him my symptoms. He basically told me if I dont have a fever then it is just allergies... so he just recommended some medicine for allegies y left it at that. Looks like I just gotta tough it out!
Tuesday morning we found an awesome new investigator named Alba while we were doing contacts. She answered in the window shaking her finger at us like she didnt want anything to do with us... and I felt that I should just ask her "why not?" She went on to explain to us that the missionaries had passed by her house several times in the past and always invited her to church, etc. and that she felt bad because she never did what they invited her to. We asked if we could come in and share a message with her and she accepted. She said she had never let the missionaries in before. As we started to talk about the Book of Mormon... she told us she already HAD a book like that, and went and pulled a Triple of her book shelf that she said she recovered from the street after some missionaries had gotten robbed y that she never had the chance to give it back to them. Apparently her sister is going in for cancer treatment this week y she was really preoccupied thinking about her. We taught her about prayer y the blessings that come from talking out our worries/desires with our Heavenly Father y she gave a great prayer at the end of the lesson!
Wednesday we had our interviews with Pres. Stapley. Our district was the first up for interviews and while we were waiting we all enjoyed eating some tasty facturas y chocolate-covered, dulce-de-leche-filled CHURROS while talking with Hna. Stapley. She has learned spanish super fast y is always studying y learning new words/expressions. She already speaks portuguese... and as we talked she was making a list of all the words that trip her up because of their similarities to portuguese. My interview with President went really well. He shared a scripture in Jacob 1:19 that talks about the responsibility that Jacob felt as a prophet to teach the people.. to the point that if he didnt do his job well that he felt accountable for the sins of his people. He also talked about preparing NOW to report my mission when I finish y to make the most of the time I have left. He asked what the most important thing I have learned in the mission is which I quickly responded was OBEDIENCE. Looking back now, it is definitely a principle I wish I would have understood better before the mission. The Lord is always willing to strengthen and bless us and only asks for us to be obedient in return. Lots of great examples of obedience in the scriptures!
Sounds like you all enjoyed a great Thanksgiving! I cant say we did much to celebrate here... however on Saturday we enjoyed a great lunch with Soledad y her family. We had pollo al horno (baked chicken) y a variety of salads with peaches for desert. Besides the FANTASTIC food it was great to be there with all the family including her husband y her sister y several of her neices who were visiting from Capital. After the meal we read "the family proclamation" with them which they all agreed was a perfect explanation of how a family should work. It has been a WHILE since I have read it, but I am always amazed how inspired Pres. Hinckley y the other apostles and prophets were in writing this declaration to the world over 15 years ago!
Well everyone thats it for now! Hope you all have a great week back in school! I have got a 3 day training with Pres. Stapley for all the leaders in the mission Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday... so hopefully my comp will have a good experience running the area all on his own for a couple days! Looking forward to hearing from you all next week!
les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, November 22, 2010
Feliz dia de Gracias!
Hola familia!
Wow another week gone by here in Wilde. We have had some HOT weather lately, but are enjoying a bit of a rainstorm right now to hopefully cool things down a bit. I am still sick with this terrible cough and cold... and my companion and I are convinced it is because of our pension. (We have a lot of humidity in the walls and there is a lot of mold) On top of that we´ve been taking cold showers for the last 2 weeks now (which I have actually gotten used to and learned to enjoy even, especially with the hotter weather.) We are trying to get these problems along with a handfull of others worked out with the landlords and the mission office. Just frustrating that the landlords have known about the problem with the humidity in the walls for several months and havent done anything....
We enjoyed a great primary program yesterday. Had several problems with the microphones, but they were able to work things out. A lot of the kids were very shy... and some of them didnt even get up to the microphone to say their part. Doesn´t help that the members would laugh histarically every time someone messed up, but that´s just kind of how the culture here is. A couple kids that caught my attention... one kid who had problems with the microphone y ended up saying his part 3 times before it finally caught in the microphone. Another girl who had obviously worked hard to memorize her part and messed up y got very embarassed. But started over and finished great! Also our investigators son did great on his part and his mom seemed to enjoy the whole program. Our bishop gave some great comments at the end and asked for all of us to stand up who had been in the same situation, giving a part in the primary program. Proud to be one of the few that stood up! He pointed out that even with all the nervousness and mistakes and funny things that happened it is the fulfillment of a scripture in the bible that talks about how in the last days children shall prophecy. (not sure on the wording in English...) I of course loved the whole program and enjoyed listening to music and singing a long quietly to some of the songs.
This week we also said good bye to Carmen, the lady we gave a blessing to several weeks ago. Now that she is feeling better she felt that she needed to go back to the place she calls home in Jujuy, Argentina to be with her children that live out there. We have had some great talks with her and she asked us to please send the missionaries to her at her house in Jujuy!
Wednesday we were able to help a member David with a pretty "crappy" project. Basically we dug a hole y built a brick box so they have access to thier sewage pipe that runs to sewage system under the street. Needless to say... a pretty smelly dirty job. It was nice to be able to help him out a bit since it was something he wasn´t able to do for himself with a broken arm. He has struggled with addiction to drugs for over half his life and is making great progress recently. He has a wife and 2 kids who have obviously suffered a lot. He says leaving with us helps him a lot, and it helps us a lot as well making visits to our investigators!
This week we also started teaching another great family. The son Adán has a friend who was baptized recently in a different ward here in Avellaneda and he is really interested in the church! His mom and sisters also are great! He came to play soccer with us Thurday night (we had 10 investigators come play with us!) y is excited to come to church with us in the near future. The several times we have passed by they have kept their commitments to read y pray and always have great questions!
Anyways, thats all for this week. Hope you all have a great thanksgiving!
les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Wow another week gone by here in Wilde. We have had some HOT weather lately, but are enjoying a bit of a rainstorm right now to hopefully cool things down a bit. I am still sick with this terrible cough and cold... and my companion and I are convinced it is because of our pension. (We have a lot of humidity in the walls and there is a lot of mold) On top of that we´ve been taking cold showers for the last 2 weeks now (which I have actually gotten used to and learned to enjoy even, especially with the hotter weather.) We are trying to get these problems along with a handfull of others worked out with the landlords and the mission office. Just frustrating that the landlords have known about the problem with the humidity in the walls for several months and havent done anything....
We enjoyed a great primary program yesterday. Had several problems with the microphones, but they were able to work things out. A lot of the kids were very shy... and some of them didnt even get up to the microphone to say their part. Doesn´t help that the members would laugh histarically every time someone messed up, but that´s just kind of how the culture here is. A couple kids that caught my attention... one kid who had problems with the microphone y ended up saying his part 3 times before it finally caught in the microphone. Another girl who had obviously worked hard to memorize her part and messed up y got very embarassed. But started over and finished great! Also our investigators son did great on his part and his mom seemed to enjoy the whole program. Our bishop gave some great comments at the end and asked for all of us to stand up who had been in the same situation, giving a part in the primary program. Proud to be one of the few that stood up! He pointed out that even with all the nervousness and mistakes and funny things that happened it is the fulfillment of a scripture in the bible that talks about how in the last days children shall prophecy. (not sure on the wording in English...) I of course loved the whole program and enjoyed listening to music and singing a long quietly to some of the songs.
This week we also said good bye to Carmen, the lady we gave a blessing to several weeks ago. Now that she is feeling better she felt that she needed to go back to the place she calls home in Jujuy, Argentina to be with her children that live out there. We have had some great talks with her and she asked us to please send the missionaries to her at her house in Jujuy!
Wednesday we were able to help a member David with a pretty "crappy" project. Basically we dug a hole y built a brick box so they have access to thier sewage pipe that runs to sewage system under the street. Needless to say... a pretty smelly dirty job. It was nice to be able to help him out a bit since it was something he wasn´t able to do for himself with a broken arm. He has struggled with addiction to drugs for over half his life and is making great progress recently. He has a wife and 2 kids who have obviously suffered a lot. He says leaving with us helps him a lot, and it helps us a lot as well making visits to our investigators!
This week we also started teaching another great family. The son Adán has a friend who was baptized recently in a different ward here in Avellaneda and he is really interested in the church! His mom and sisters also are great! He came to play soccer with us Thurday night (we had 10 investigators come play with us!) y is excited to come to church with us in the near future. The several times we have passed by they have kept their commitments to read y pray and always have great questions!
Anyways, thats all for this week. Hope you all have a great thanksgiving!
les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, November 15, 2010
FW: ¡Feliz Dia de los Abuelos! [Happy Grandparents Day!]
Dear family and friends,
Another rainy Pday here in Wilde! Good to hear from all of you this week! Sounds like you are enjoying some nice wintery weather! Hope you all enjoyed a Happy Grandparents day on Sunday! I am sure I missed a fantastic primary program, we will also be having our Primary Program this coming Sunday. The ward has been great in making sure all the kids have a part... even one of our investigators children will be participating which is AWESOME! Overall we have had a very successful week!
This week we had the opportunity to do 2 "intercambios" with our leaders. On Tuesday night my companion went to Quilmes III to spend the day with our district leader, and his companion Elder Britez came to Wilde to spend the day with me! He is an awesome Elder! He is from Paraguay and has the same time in the mission as my companion. Living near the border of Paraguay and Brazil he was raised tri-lingual... Guarani, Spanish, and Portuguese. Several of the people we visited that afternoon were also from Paraguay and I felt like I was the new missionary as they talked in Guarani and I just sat with a confused smile on my face. Very happy, friendly guy and all the people we visited really liked him.
The second intercambio we did was with our zone leaders who called us Friday morning during weekly planning and asked if we could meet up in Avellaneda train station in 3 hours to change companions... Once again my companion ended up leaving to go to Avellaneda I for the day with Elder Patiño from Peru, and I stayed in Wilde with Elder Bushman from Spanish Fork, Utah! Needless to say it was a nice break to be able to speak a bit of english. :) Elder Bushman is in his last transfer and I learned a ton in our time together. In our intercambio we were able to visit Roberto and we had a great talk with him about Baptism. He knows he needs to get baptized and told us that he doesn´t want to get baptized right now just to get baptized and then go inactive later on down the road... but that he wants a little bit more time to be sure that it is what he wants to do. Good to know he takes it very seriously. We taught the importance of baptism, but that baptism was still just another step in the life long gospel path. Talking with Elder Bushman we decided he is very spiritually mature and that we could probably talk with him about eternal families/temples to have that goal set for further on down the road. His family still listens every once in a while, but I think it is going to come down to him setting the example for his family and later on he will be able to baptize the rest of them! After calling him Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to remind him about church... he finally showed up and enjoyed it a lot! He was suprised by how friendly the members were with him and he said he wished he would have shown up on time. (He came half way through second hour and stayed for Sacrament meeting as well... a blessing of having Sacrament meeting the final hour I suppose :)) He joked with us when we met him outside the door that he completed with what he said he would do in coming to the church and that NEXT WEEK he would actually go inside. His 3 year old son came with him and although he was very shy at first, by the end he made some friends and left the church saying it was the best ever!!!
We visited the family of Soledad twice this week and had some great lessons! She is reading and praying everyday and is always happy whenever we see her. She always prays to be able to keep learning more and expresses her gratitude for the happiness it has brought in her life. We set a baptism date for her and 2 of her sons for December 18, but could be delayed due to the fact that she is not married. The 2 kids have been ready to get baptized for MONTHS now and may or may not get baptized before the mom. The 3 of them made it to church this Sunday and Lautaro (9) was very excited about his part that he will get to share in the primary program on Sunday. We have had great support from the Familia Espinola who have been able to bring them to church every week and sit with them in the meetings, as well as making extra visits during the week since they are neighbors. Still looking for an opportunity to talk with Marcos, the father of the family.
Anyways, that’s all for this week! Gotta run! Hope you all have a great week! Les amo!!!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
PS ¿Whens Thanksgivin´?
Another rainy Pday here in Wilde! Good to hear from all of you this week! Sounds like you are enjoying some nice wintery weather! Hope you all enjoyed a Happy Grandparents day on Sunday! I am sure I missed a fantastic primary program, we will also be having our Primary Program this coming Sunday. The ward has been great in making sure all the kids have a part... even one of our investigators children will be participating which is AWESOME! Overall we have had a very successful week!
This week we had the opportunity to do 2 "intercambios" with our leaders. On Tuesday night my companion went to Quilmes III to spend the day with our district leader, and his companion Elder Britez came to Wilde to spend the day with me! He is an awesome Elder! He is from Paraguay and has the same time in the mission as my companion. Living near the border of Paraguay and Brazil he was raised tri-lingual... Guarani, Spanish, and Portuguese. Several of the people we visited that afternoon were also from Paraguay and I felt like I was the new missionary as they talked in Guarani and I just sat with a confused smile on my face. Very happy, friendly guy and all the people we visited really liked him.
The second intercambio we did was with our zone leaders who called us Friday morning during weekly planning and asked if we could meet up in Avellaneda train station in 3 hours to change companions... Once again my companion ended up leaving to go to Avellaneda I for the day with Elder Patiño from Peru, and I stayed in Wilde with Elder Bushman from Spanish Fork, Utah! Needless to say it was a nice break to be able to speak a bit of english. :) Elder Bushman is in his last transfer and I learned a ton in our time together. In our intercambio we were able to visit Roberto and we had a great talk with him about Baptism. He knows he needs to get baptized and told us that he doesn´t want to get baptized right now just to get baptized and then go inactive later on down the road... but that he wants a little bit more time to be sure that it is what he wants to do. Good to know he takes it very seriously. We taught the importance of baptism, but that baptism was still just another step in the life long gospel path. Talking with Elder Bushman we decided he is very spiritually mature and that we could probably talk with him about eternal families/temples to have that goal set for further on down the road. His family still listens every once in a while, but I think it is going to come down to him setting the example for his family and later on he will be able to baptize the rest of them! After calling him Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to remind him about church... he finally showed up and enjoyed it a lot! He was suprised by how friendly the members were with him and he said he wished he would have shown up on time. (He came half way through second hour and stayed for Sacrament meeting as well... a blessing of having Sacrament meeting the final hour I suppose :)) He joked with us when we met him outside the door that he completed with what he said he would do in coming to the church and that NEXT WEEK he would actually go inside. His 3 year old son came with him and although he was very shy at first, by the end he made some friends and left the church saying it was the best ever!!!
We visited the family of Soledad twice this week and had some great lessons! She is reading and praying everyday and is always happy whenever we see her. She always prays to be able to keep learning more and expresses her gratitude for the happiness it has brought in her life. We set a baptism date for her and 2 of her sons for December 18, but could be delayed due to the fact that she is not married. The 2 kids have been ready to get baptized for MONTHS now and may or may not get baptized before the mom. The 3 of them made it to church this Sunday and Lautaro (9) was very excited about his part that he will get to share in the primary program on Sunday. We have had great support from the Familia Espinola who have been able to bring them to church every week and sit with them in the meetings, as well as making extra visits during the week since they are neighbors. Still looking for an opportunity to talk with Marcos, the father of the family.
Anyways, that’s all for this week! Gotta run! Hope you all have a great week! Les amo!!!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
PS ¿Whens Thanksgivin´?
Monday, November 8, 2010
Milagros in Wilde! [Miracles in Wilde!]
Dear family and friends,
It has been a fantastic week here in Wilde! After a hot week today is nice and cloudy with a bit of rain to cool things down! I have been a bit sick all week with a cough... but hopefully I am just about over it. Hard to believe we are already a week into November! Lots has happened this week... and I hope the stories make sense because there are so many details I want to include, but even then I know it just wont be the same as living it!
This week we had a couple really awesome experiences. Wednesday started off as a not so great day... I was sick in the morning and a member kid that was supposed to accompany us to some citas ended up not being able to go. We ate a decent lunch in the pension and I was able to take some medicine and rest for a min which helped, then it was off to work again for the afternoon. Very hot humid day. All our plans fell through and we recieved a call from a family we were supposed to have a Noche de Hogar with that night saying they would have to reschedule it for another day. We eventually ended up at the house of a member whose grand daughter is one of our investigators and had a good visit with them. As we finished up talking outside and as we were about to leave... out of nowhere it got super dark and cloudy and started raining on us. I told my comp we had 2 options... we could run back to the pension (15 blocks) to get our umbrellas/rain stuff... or we could run 5 blocks to the house of a member and visit them and hope for the rain to pass. We started heading for the pension but right then the rain started pouring hard and we decided to make the shorter trip to the members house. Apparently that morning the mom of the family (Hna Espinola) had talked with one of their neighbors whose kids Emanuel 12 y Lautaro 9 have been listening to the lessons and coming to church for several months and want to get baptized, but the parents arent sure if they want to let them get baptized y in the past havent shown much interest in coming to church y finding out WHY their kids want to get baptized. Anyways, that morning apparently Hermana Espinola had talked to the mom of the family (Soledad) and felt something was wrong and after talkin for a while Soledad asked if the hermana could say a prayer for her. Apparenlty her mother in law (Carmen) has been very sick and she was having a really hard time. After saying the prayer she felt to tell her about priesthood blessings of comfort and asked if she would like to recieve one when Hno Espinola got home later that night. She accepted and the Hermano ended up getting home earlier that night than usual because they had several cancelations of trucks they were supposed to recieve at work that day. As the Hermano got home apparently they said... "too bad the missionaries arent here right now to go over and give the blessing to Soledad". We happened to show up several minutes later thanks to the rain and we had a great lesson with the mother, Emanuel, Lautaro, y oldest daughter Miriam (18) before giving the blessings to Soledad y Miriam. (Miriam has been helping take care of her grandma Carmen who is sick who lives across the street) The Spirit was very strong and Soledad asked if we could come back the next day to go give a blessing to Carmen as well. We made plans to pass by the next day as well and Soledad said she was feeling much better. We went over to give the blessing to Carmen who was laying in bed and apparently hasnt been able to eat or sleep or anything lately y isnt able to get up and do things for herself. Hermano Espinola gave the blessing and blessed her that the sun would come up the next day and she would be able to recover her strength to be able to sit up on her own and start eating food that she needs to be able to recover. Great people with great faith! After giving the blessing to Carmen we were able to have a great lesson with Soledad y her family and she told us that she was going to come to church this Sunday (her y Lautaro came, hope to see the rest of the family next week!). We were able to pass by Saturday night to visit Carmen and sure enough she was sat up in her bed and told us that she had been able to eat and sleep and was feeling a lot better! She also asked if we could share a message with her and her husband Antonio... who actually turned 65 that day! We talked briefly about the Restoration and Prayer y invited them to start praying together. I am still amazed to see how everything worked out so perfectly that we were able to be there for that family right when they needed us. We had gotten to the point where we didnt know what to do with the family because if the parents dont want the kids to get baptized there isnt much we can do... but I have come to realize that God is aware of the needs of all his children y knows just what it takes to open their hearts to recieve His gospel!
Also this week we got back to the pension one night and a neighbor lady we have never talked to before called me over to ask us a question. She asked "What happens to our children when they die?" and went on to tell us that on Nov 1 her son was robbed and thrown in front of a train and killed, and that her husband had died 2 years ago as well. Very sad situation, and you could tell that she had suffered a lot from not knowing what really happened to her loved ones who had passed away. As my companion and I taught and testified of the Plan of Salvation and that she could see her family again one day y be with them forever, the Spirit really hit me and it is always amazing to feel the love that our Heavenly Father has for each of His children. She thanked us for the comfort and told us she would be talking to us again soon.
This week we were also able to find the rest of the family of Roberto. He seems to be doing really well and is content that his family is listening to us now as well! Apparently this week he recieved news that his son that is in prison will probably be released soon and be able to come home. (Not sure about the whole story still... but apparently he is innocent.) We still havent seen any of them in church yet... his older daughters apparently like to go out dancing Saturday nights and dont get home until 10 in the morning on Sunday and obviously sleep all day. They were a little harder to teach... and didnt seem really interested in talking about God with us... but by the end of the lesson one of them told us that she was interested y had lots of questions. We told Roberto that they were all invited to church, y he promised they would all be there one day. We asked about his daughters who always go dancing and he told us... "they will only go dancing if I SAY they can go dancing". Great man, and always fun to visit his family. Also his son Facundo is learning to cut hair and I took advantage of the opportunity y got a free haircut one night after our visit! He actually did a really good job. I only had 10 pesos on me which he wouldnt even accept but eventually he took the money and went and bought a coke to share with everyone.
Anyways, I think thats about it for this week! Things are going really well and we are hoping to be able to set some Baptismal dates with some of these FAMILIES here in the near future!!! Hope I can be around to see their baptisms! We are hoping to see 10+ people in church this next week!!! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
It has been a fantastic week here in Wilde! After a hot week today is nice and cloudy with a bit of rain to cool things down! I have been a bit sick all week with a cough... but hopefully I am just about over it. Hard to believe we are already a week into November! Lots has happened this week... and I hope the stories make sense because there are so many details I want to include, but even then I know it just wont be the same as living it!
This week we had a couple really awesome experiences. Wednesday started off as a not so great day... I was sick in the morning and a member kid that was supposed to accompany us to some citas ended up not being able to go. We ate a decent lunch in the pension and I was able to take some medicine and rest for a min which helped, then it was off to work again for the afternoon. Very hot humid day. All our plans fell through and we recieved a call from a family we were supposed to have a Noche de Hogar with that night saying they would have to reschedule it for another day. We eventually ended up at the house of a member whose grand daughter is one of our investigators and had a good visit with them. As we finished up talking outside and as we were about to leave... out of nowhere it got super dark and cloudy and started raining on us. I told my comp we had 2 options... we could run back to the pension (15 blocks) to get our umbrellas/rain stuff... or we could run 5 blocks to the house of a member and visit them and hope for the rain to pass. We started heading for the pension but right then the rain started pouring hard and we decided to make the shorter trip to the members house. Apparently that morning the mom of the family (Hna Espinola) had talked with one of their neighbors whose kids Emanuel 12 y Lautaro 9 have been listening to the lessons and coming to church for several months and want to get baptized, but the parents arent sure if they want to let them get baptized y in the past havent shown much interest in coming to church y finding out WHY their kids want to get baptized. Anyways, that morning apparently Hermana Espinola had talked to the mom of the family (Soledad) and felt something was wrong and after talkin for a while Soledad asked if the hermana could say a prayer for her. Apparenlty her mother in law (Carmen) has been very sick and she was having a really hard time. After saying the prayer she felt to tell her about priesthood blessings of comfort and asked if she would like to recieve one when Hno Espinola got home later that night. She accepted and the Hermano ended up getting home earlier that night than usual because they had several cancelations of trucks they were supposed to recieve at work that day. As the Hermano got home apparently they said... "too bad the missionaries arent here right now to go over and give the blessing to Soledad". We happened to show up several minutes later thanks to the rain and we had a great lesson with the mother, Emanuel, Lautaro, y oldest daughter Miriam (18) before giving the blessings to Soledad y Miriam. (Miriam has been helping take care of her grandma Carmen who is sick who lives across the street) The Spirit was very strong and Soledad asked if we could come back the next day to go give a blessing to Carmen as well. We made plans to pass by the next day as well and Soledad said she was feeling much better. We went over to give the blessing to Carmen who was laying in bed and apparently hasnt been able to eat or sleep or anything lately y isnt able to get up and do things for herself. Hermano Espinola gave the blessing and blessed her that the sun would come up the next day and she would be able to recover her strength to be able to sit up on her own and start eating food that she needs to be able to recover. Great people with great faith! After giving the blessing to Carmen we were able to have a great lesson with Soledad y her family and she told us that she was going to come to church this Sunday (her y Lautaro came, hope to see the rest of the family next week!). We were able to pass by Saturday night to visit Carmen and sure enough she was sat up in her bed and told us that she had been able to eat and sleep and was feeling a lot better! She also asked if we could share a message with her and her husband Antonio... who actually turned 65 that day! We talked briefly about the Restoration and Prayer y invited them to start praying together. I am still amazed to see how everything worked out so perfectly that we were able to be there for that family right when they needed us. We had gotten to the point where we didnt know what to do with the family because if the parents dont want the kids to get baptized there isnt much we can do... but I have come to realize that God is aware of the needs of all his children y knows just what it takes to open their hearts to recieve His gospel!
Also this week we got back to the pension one night and a neighbor lady we have never talked to before called me over to ask us a question. She asked "What happens to our children when they die?" and went on to tell us that on Nov 1 her son was robbed and thrown in front of a train and killed, and that her husband had died 2 years ago as well. Very sad situation, and you could tell that she had suffered a lot from not knowing what really happened to her loved ones who had passed away. As my companion and I taught and testified of the Plan of Salvation and that she could see her family again one day y be with them forever, the Spirit really hit me and it is always amazing to feel the love that our Heavenly Father has for each of His children. She thanked us for the comfort and told us she would be talking to us again soon.
This week we were also able to find the rest of the family of Roberto. He seems to be doing really well and is content that his family is listening to us now as well! Apparently this week he recieved news that his son that is in prison will probably be released soon and be able to come home. (Not sure about the whole story still... but apparently he is innocent.) We still havent seen any of them in church yet... his older daughters apparently like to go out dancing Saturday nights and dont get home until 10 in the morning on Sunday and obviously sleep all day. They were a little harder to teach... and didnt seem really interested in talking about God with us... but by the end of the lesson one of them told us that she was interested y had lots of questions. We told Roberto that they were all invited to church, y he promised they would all be there one day. We asked about his daughters who always go dancing and he told us... "they will only go dancing if I SAY they can go dancing". Great man, and always fun to visit his family. Also his son Facundo is learning to cut hair and I took advantage of the opportunity y got a free haircut one night after our visit! He actually did a really good job. I only had 10 pesos on me which he wouldnt even accept but eventually he took the money and went and bought a coke to share with everyone.
Anyways, I think thats about it for this week! Things are going really well and we are hoping to be able to set some Baptismal dates with some of these FAMILIES here in the near future!!! Hope I can be around to see their baptisms! We are hoping to see 10+ people in church this next week!!! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, November 1, 2010
Feliz Halloween!
Dear family and friends,
Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween! I think it is really starting to catch on here. They sell Halloween stuff at Walmart and I actually saw several "Halloween Parties" with kids dressed up... but theres nothing like Halloween at home and "Feliz Halloween" and "dulce o truco" (trick or treat) just sound weird! We actually had a really great week here in Wilde and are having more success in finding people to teach!
Wednesday was a pretty interesting day. We had the National Census here in Argentina and we had to stay in our pension until they came around to the house where we live. I used the time to clean up the Area Book a bit and enjoyed some extra study time. They finally showed up around 4 in the afternoon so we were able to leave and make some visits. I find it AMAZING that they are able to pass by every house in one day! The majority of the afternoon was pretty unsuccessful, but we were able to pass by an old investigator (Nora) and actually find her in her house (since everyone had to stay home anyways) and had a great chat with her.
We continue to teach Luisa but she hasnt made it to church again since we went with her several weeks ago. Lessons are very difficult with her and she struggles a lot with the reading, so we are still trying to figure out the best way that we can help her. She has a lot of problems in her family and is always wanting to talk about how miserable she is in her house... but says she feels good when we are there and when she reads and prays.
This week we made several visits to an investigator who we hadnt seen in several weeks who the missionaries have been teaching forever. His name is Roberto, he is about 50 years old, is actually married to his wife and they have 8 kids! We basically started all over with him talking about the Book of Mormon and the importance of receiving an answer from God. He admitted that in all his time meeting with the missionaries he had never been really consistent in asking for an answer and commited to start reading more often with that purpose in mind. He also expressed desires for his family to be there with him but that he didnt want to FORCE them to do anything, so we asked if it would be ok if we invited them to watch a movie for our next visit, which he seemed excited about. We talked to his wife and she of course accepted. One of his sons Facundo almost always is there for the lessons as well and we are hoping to start teaching ALL of them soon! Unfortunately Roberto couldnt make it to church this weekend and he is starting up a new job, so please pray that he will still be able to meet with us during the week and not have to work on Sundays!!!
This week we also found another great father of a family of 4 named Julio who actually stopped us in the street a week ago when we were doing contacts. He told us that he has several friends who are LDS and knows quite a bit. We showed up at his house Saturday morning without having a cita... and apparently we woke him up, but he invited us in anyways and we had a great chat with him. He actually has a very nice house, car, giant plasma TV, etc., not the class of people we are used to teaching, but the lesson went really well. He alraedy had a Book of Mormon that his friend had given him and he actually had some really good questions as we were teaching. We left him with the invitation to read and pray to gain an answer if it is really the word of God and if it is something that will be a blessing to his family. I think he feels that he needs to read the whole book and asked if we could pass by again in 2 weeks, but said it would be ok if we passed by before then to check up with him how the reading was going.
Well I think that is about it for now! Hope you all have a great week and cant wait to here from you all soon! Say hola to everyone and please inform Bro. Weight that the church is still true in Buenos Aires Argentina too!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween! I think it is really starting to catch on here. They sell Halloween stuff at Walmart and I actually saw several "Halloween Parties" with kids dressed up... but theres nothing like Halloween at home and "Feliz Halloween" and "dulce o truco" (trick or treat) just sound weird! We actually had a really great week here in Wilde and are having more success in finding people to teach!
Wednesday was a pretty interesting day. We had the National Census here in Argentina and we had to stay in our pension until they came around to the house where we live. I used the time to clean up the Area Book a bit and enjoyed some extra study time. They finally showed up around 4 in the afternoon so we were able to leave and make some visits. I find it AMAZING that they are able to pass by every house in one day! The majority of the afternoon was pretty unsuccessful, but we were able to pass by an old investigator (Nora) and actually find her in her house (since everyone had to stay home anyways) and had a great chat with her.
We continue to teach Luisa but she hasnt made it to church again since we went with her several weeks ago. Lessons are very difficult with her and she struggles a lot with the reading, so we are still trying to figure out the best way that we can help her. She has a lot of problems in her family and is always wanting to talk about how miserable she is in her house... but says she feels good when we are there and when she reads and prays.
This week we made several visits to an investigator who we hadnt seen in several weeks who the missionaries have been teaching forever. His name is Roberto, he is about 50 years old, is actually married to his wife and they have 8 kids! We basically started all over with him talking about the Book of Mormon and the importance of receiving an answer from God. He admitted that in all his time meeting with the missionaries he had never been really consistent in asking for an answer and commited to start reading more often with that purpose in mind. He also expressed desires for his family to be there with him but that he didnt want to FORCE them to do anything, so we asked if it would be ok if we invited them to watch a movie for our next visit, which he seemed excited about. We talked to his wife and she of course accepted. One of his sons Facundo almost always is there for the lessons as well and we are hoping to start teaching ALL of them soon! Unfortunately Roberto couldnt make it to church this weekend and he is starting up a new job, so please pray that he will still be able to meet with us during the week and not have to work on Sundays!!!
This week we also found another great father of a family of 4 named Julio who actually stopped us in the street a week ago when we were doing contacts. He told us that he has several friends who are LDS and knows quite a bit. We showed up at his house Saturday morning without having a cita... and apparently we woke him up, but he invited us in anyways and we had a great chat with him. He actually has a very nice house, car, giant plasma TV, etc., not the class of people we are used to teaching, but the lesson went really well. He alraedy had a Book of Mormon that his friend had given him and he actually had some really good questions as we were teaching. We left him with the invitation to read and pray to gain an answer if it is really the word of God and if it is something that will be a blessing to his family. I think he feels that he needs to read the whole book and asked if we could pass by again in 2 weeks, but said it would be ok if we passed by before then to check up with him how the reading was going.
Well I think that is about it for now! Hope you all have a great week and cant wait to here from you all soon! Say hola to everyone and please inform Bro. Weight that the church is still true in Buenos Aires Argentina too!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, October 25, 2010
Elder Alvarez again!
Dear family and friends,
Wow what a week! We have had beautiful weather lately but it has been a little bit cooler the last couple days. I guess I just need to enjoy it while I can before the overwhelming heat comes. Amazingly we havent seen too many mosquitos yet either! This week school was cancelled several times for all the kids here for who knows what reason. I honestly dont know how the kids even learn here with how often they have vacations. Aparently this Wednesday is the national census which should be interesting. We have to stay in our pension until they come to our house, and then after that we can leave but it is a law that we aren’t allowed to knock doors... so not quite sure what we will do!
This week I received my new companion... another Elder Alvarez from Santa Fe, Santa Fe, Argentina! Elder Alvarez said his final goodbyes the first part of this week y Wednesday I was left with Elder Nalder in Quilmes who was also waiting for his new companion to get here the next day. As tradition goes... all the missionaries in the mission went to Burger King after transfer meeting and I enjoyed a tasty meal (only thing I ate all day). We spent the evening working in Quilmes y apparently the Burger King didn’t sit well in my stomach and I started to feel really sick. We had just finished teaching a lesson to some of their investigators who got baptized this Saturday and were about to leave when I started to feel really sick and ended up throwing up several times. Talk about embarassing!!! Luckily they had a cement floor... They were very nice about it and took good care of me. I felt much better afterwards but we still ended up heading back to the pension which was a good thing because I was up sick most of the night.
The next day wasn’t much better. I was at least done with the throwing up part... but I still didn’t feel good, hadn’t gotten much sleep, and had nothing in my stomache and no desires to eat anything. I decided I felt good enough to go to a cita that morning with the people who were going to get baptized at the church to make sure they had clothes for everyone... and I made it through that OK. We went back to the pension and I rested for a min, drank a bit of Sprite and ate some crackers before it was time for us to leave for Banfield to pick up our new companions. We got to the train station to find that the trains weren’t running because someone was killed in a protest in Avellaneda... so luckily I knew how to get there in buses.
Our first bus ride was very packed (had to stand the whole trip)... and very warm. Bad conditions for someone feeling like I did. I was praying the whole time that my life wouldn’t end on a bus in Argentina. I started feeling really weird several blocks from where we needed to get off and everything went white and I couldnt see or hear anything. I knew the stop was coming up soon and somehow I was able to make my way to the door and push the button just in time. I stumbled off the bus and found somewhere to sit down and drank the rest of my sprite. Luckily the 2nd looong bus ride I was able to sit next to an open window. We got to the station in Lanus and found out the trains werent running there either... so we ended up taking a short taxi ride and we made it to the church in Banfield just in time. We had a little meeting with all the trainers and of course they asked me to lead the music. Finally we went to the mission home and met up with the group of new missionaries. We all sang Llamados a Servir walking into the mission home which was kind of cool. Pres. assigned us our companions and we all went outside to take pictures. I was very blessed to have the strength y energy to help my companion with his luggage on the trip home despite a train mix-up and 8 block walk from the train station to our pension.
Things have been going really well with Elder Alvarez. Its a huge boost being with someone straight out of the MTC who is super excited about the work and has all kinds of great ideas. He speaks really really fast which makes it hard to understand sometimes... but we get along really well! Everyone in the ward thought it was pretty funny that I was still with "Elder Alvarez" and that he had grown a little bit since the last time they saw him. Ever since he got here we have had some great success doing contacs and have really been guided to the people who would actually give us the time of day and listen to us! I am learning a lot and of course feel a bit inadequate on my own but I am trying my best and learning a great lesson on relying on the Lord and qualifying/seeking his help. Hope to have a very successful transfer!
Hope you are all doing well and have a great week and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Wow what a week! We have had beautiful weather lately but it has been a little bit cooler the last couple days. I guess I just need to enjoy it while I can before the overwhelming heat comes. Amazingly we havent seen too many mosquitos yet either! This week school was cancelled several times for all the kids here for who knows what reason. I honestly dont know how the kids even learn here with how often they have vacations. Aparently this Wednesday is the national census which should be interesting. We have to stay in our pension until they come to our house, and then after that we can leave but it is a law that we aren’t allowed to knock doors... so not quite sure what we will do!
This week I received my new companion... another Elder Alvarez from Santa Fe, Santa Fe, Argentina! Elder Alvarez said his final goodbyes the first part of this week y Wednesday I was left with Elder Nalder in Quilmes who was also waiting for his new companion to get here the next day. As tradition goes... all the missionaries in the mission went to Burger King after transfer meeting and I enjoyed a tasty meal (only thing I ate all day). We spent the evening working in Quilmes y apparently the Burger King didn’t sit well in my stomach and I started to feel really sick. We had just finished teaching a lesson to some of their investigators who got baptized this Saturday and were about to leave when I started to feel really sick and ended up throwing up several times. Talk about embarassing!!! Luckily they had a cement floor... They were very nice about it and took good care of me. I felt much better afterwards but we still ended up heading back to the pension which was a good thing because I was up sick most of the night.
The next day wasn’t much better. I was at least done with the throwing up part... but I still didn’t feel good, hadn’t gotten much sleep, and had nothing in my stomache and no desires to eat anything. I decided I felt good enough to go to a cita that morning with the people who were going to get baptized at the church to make sure they had clothes for everyone... and I made it through that OK. We went back to the pension and I rested for a min, drank a bit of Sprite and ate some crackers before it was time for us to leave for Banfield to pick up our new companions. We got to the train station to find that the trains weren’t running because someone was killed in a protest in Avellaneda... so luckily I knew how to get there in buses.
Our first bus ride was very packed (had to stand the whole trip)... and very warm. Bad conditions for someone feeling like I did. I was praying the whole time that my life wouldn’t end on a bus in Argentina. I started feeling really weird several blocks from where we needed to get off and everything went white and I couldnt see or hear anything. I knew the stop was coming up soon and somehow I was able to make my way to the door and push the button just in time. I stumbled off the bus and found somewhere to sit down and drank the rest of my sprite. Luckily the 2nd looong bus ride I was able to sit next to an open window. We got to the station in Lanus and found out the trains werent running there either... so we ended up taking a short taxi ride and we made it to the church in Banfield just in time. We had a little meeting with all the trainers and of course they asked me to lead the music. Finally we went to the mission home and met up with the group of new missionaries. We all sang Llamados a Servir walking into the mission home which was kind of cool. Pres. assigned us our companions and we all went outside to take pictures. I was very blessed to have the strength y energy to help my companion with his luggage on the trip home despite a train mix-up and 8 block walk from the train station to our pension.
Things have been going really well with Elder Alvarez. Its a huge boost being with someone straight out of the MTC who is super excited about the work and has all kinds of great ideas. He speaks really really fast which makes it hard to understand sometimes... but we get along really well! Everyone in the ward thought it was pretty funny that I was still with "Elder Alvarez" and that he had grown a little bit since the last time they saw him. Ever since he got here we have had some great success doing contacs and have really been guided to the people who would actually give us the time of day and listen to us! I am learning a lot and of course feel a bit inadequate on my own but I am trying my best and learning a great lesson on relying on the Lord and qualifying/seeking his help. Hope to have a very successful transfer!
Hope you are all doing well and have a great week and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Thursday, October 21, 2010
¡Me quedo en Wilde! I'm staying in Wilde
Dear family and friends,
OK so I am in a bit of a hurry as always... but as you all know today was transfer meeting so here is whats new. This transfer I will be staying in Wilde training a new missionary again! Very excited for the great opportunity. Originally Pres. Stapley called me to be a district leader as well but called me yesterday to let me know there had been a mistake and that he wouldn't need me for this transfer, but next transfer for sure. Not a big deal, actually a bit of a relief. :) Elder Hinton my MTC comp moved up this transfer as Zone Leader in Banfield... what a stud. Elder McClurg and Elder Henrie from my MTC group are also training this transfer which will be fun. Elder Alvarez was sad to leave the area, but is headed to Glew in Longchamps and will be companions with one of his buddies from the MTC. Also this transfer two of my companions went home. Elder Gonzalez y Elder Adair. I was with both of them in the Coast. Both gave great testimonies in the transfer meeting. (see fotos de la semana)
Highlight of this last week was for sure the Baptism of Sofia y Tomas this Saturday. As always, there were a couple last minute complications. The baptism was supposed to start at 4 pm, and the majority of the people didnt show up until 430. We ended up waiting an additional hour + for Tomas who was supposed to get baptised to arrive with his Dad. My comp and I were left to stall for time and we showed the Restoration video and shared our testimonies (quite a few family members, etc. came who arent members of the church). Around 6 we were told to go ahead and start with out them. About 20 min after baptizing Sofia, Tomas showed up with his dad, so we went ahead and baptized him as well. The service went really well and the kids uncle baptized both of them. Because Tomas is 8, we were able to comfirm him right there and he asked me to do it which was pretty cool. :) With all the craziness we werent able to get a lot of pictures before the baptism unfortunately... but afterwards we had some great cake and were able to take some pictures.
Anyways, thats all for this week! Hope you all enjoyed Argentine Mothers day this last Sunday! Super jealous listening to my comp talk to his family! Happy Birthday to Trevor tomorrow. Cant wait to hear from you all next week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
OK so I am in a bit of a hurry as always... but as you all know today was transfer meeting so here is whats new. This transfer I will be staying in Wilde training a new missionary again! Very excited for the great opportunity. Originally Pres. Stapley called me to be a district leader as well but called me yesterday to let me know there had been a mistake and that he wouldn't need me for this transfer, but next transfer for sure. Not a big deal, actually a bit of a relief. :) Elder Hinton my MTC comp moved up this transfer as Zone Leader in Banfield... what a stud. Elder McClurg and Elder Henrie from my MTC group are also training this transfer which will be fun. Elder Alvarez was sad to leave the area, but is headed to Glew in Longchamps and will be companions with one of his buddies from the MTC. Also this transfer two of my companions went home. Elder Gonzalez y Elder Adair. I was with both of them in the Coast. Both gave great testimonies in the transfer meeting. (see fotos de la semana)
Highlight of this last week was for sure the Baptism of Sofia y Tomas this Saturday. As always, there were a couple last minute complications. The baptism was supposed to start at 4 pm, and the majority of the people didnt show up until 430. We ended up waiting an additional hour + for Tomas who was supposed to get baptised to arrive with his Dad. My comp and I were left to stall for time and we showed the Restoration video and shared our testimonies (quite a few family members, etc. came who arent members of the church). Around 6 we were told to go ahead and start with out them. About 20 min after baptizing Sofia, Tomas showed up with his dad, so we went ahead and baptized him as well. The service went really well and the kids uncle baptized both of them. Because Tomas is 8, we were able to comfirm him right there and he asked me to do it which was pretty cool. :) With all the craziness we werent able to get a lot of pictures before the baptism unfortunately... but afterwards we had some great cake and were able to take some pictures.
Anyways, thats all for this week! Hope you all enjoyed Argentine Mothers day this last Sunday! Super jealous listening to my comp talk to his family! Happy Birthday to Trevor tomorrow. Cant wait to hear from you all next week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, October 11, 2010
Allergies :(
Dear family and friends,
The spring here is beautiful... nice weather, beautiful flowers, fresh air... all until the pollen gets in the air and allergies smack you in the face! Not feeling good at all and it´s been a rough couple days! Aside from feeling terrible physically... everything else is going pretty well here in Wilde! Just a heads up before I forget... I won´t have another pday until Wednesday, so when you don´t hear from me next Monday don´t be suprised! I don´t know exactly why but they moved transfers ahead 5 days. Rumor has it that Elder Andersen may be coming to visit the mission...
Just got done with a great zone activity. Cooked a tasty Asado and watched Meet the Robinsons. Luckily I had a bit of time to practice the song I will be playing next week in Sacrament meeting for several Hermanas in our Ward to sing. Coming along nicely... but I still need to learn MY part! Always fun to get together with the other missionaries and get to know them better.
This week I finally had my first interview with President Stapley (I think I was the very last missionary in the mission to get an interview with him.) It went really well! For our first interview he just spent some time getting to know me. He was pretty excited to hear that in our family we have 5 boys and 3 girls... same as his family. It was fun getting to know him and I could feel the love that he has for each of the missionaries in this mission. Very grateful to be able to serve with him and learn from him. I think he will have great success in his time here and has already made some big improvements to the mission!
It has been a good week here in Wilde. Elder Alvarez is basically a stud. We have gotten to the point in our time together where we start to find little things that annoy us... but we have been able to talk things out and resolve problems that would keep us from having unity as a companionship! Not sure what is going to happen for this next transfer... He has almost 6 months here in the area so chances are pretty good that he will be going to a new area and I will be recieving a new comp... Exciting news to look forward to for next week, who knows I could even end up in a new area.
We had several investigators in church yesterday including Louisa. We passed by her house yesterday morning and took a taxi with her to the church. She has been looking for the "one true church" and during sacrament meeting turned to us and told us that she has found what she has been looking for. Great lady! We just have a really hard time teaching her because she LOOOVES to talk and get off topic. My comp and I are trying to figure out the best way to be able to help her learn the things she needs to learn in preperation for Baptism... but we both have faith she will make it there sooner or later! She´s already committed herself to continue going to church!
We found an awesome kid this week named Braian (14). Very intelligent kid... I think he is a bit autistic actually. Basically he reads the Bible for fun and he has a great knowledge about spiritual things. He has been going to an Evangelist church for the last several years with some other people in his neighborhood... but he loves to talk about God with people and seemed very interested in what we do as missionaries. We taught him the Restoration and shared the Book of Mormon with him and at first he was very hesitant to accept it saying that his whole life he hadn´t known anything but the Bible... But we explained to him that he could recieve an answer from God if what we shared was true which he agreed with and accepted the invitation to read it. We all knelt down together and he said the prayer at the end of the lesson and it was one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard... obviously he spends a lot of time praying and speaking with our Heavenly Father. Said he will continue to think and pray about if this is the path that God wnats him to follow.
That´s all for this week! Time to get back to work already! Happy Argentine Mothers Day to all you Mothers this Sunday! Too bad we don´t get to make an extra call home ;) but I think my companion has gotten special permission to call home that day... Not too much longer til Christmas!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
The spring here is beautiful... nice weather, beautiful flowers, fresh air... all until the pollen gets in the air and allergies smack you in the face! Not feeling good at all and it´s been a rough couple days! Aside from feeling terrible physically... everything else is going pretty well here in Wilde! Just a heads up before I forget... I won´t have another pday until Wednesday, so when you don´t hear from me next Monday don´t be suprised! I don´t know exactly why but they moved transfers ahead 5 days. Rumor has it that Elder Andersen may be coming to visit the mission...
Just got done with a great zone activity. Cooked a tasty Asado and watched Meet the Robinsons. Luckily I had a bit of time to practice the song I will be playing next week in Sacrament meeting for several Hermanas in our Ward to sing. Coming along nicely... but I still need to learn MY part! Always fun to get together with the other missionaries and get to know them better.
This week I finally had my first interview with President Stapley (I think I was the very last missionary in the mission to get an interview with him.) It went really well! For our first interview he just spent some time getting to know me. He was pretty excited to hear that in our family we have 5 boys and 3 girls... same as his family. It was fun getting to know him and I could feel the love that he has for each of the missionaries in this mission. Very grateful to be able to serve with him and learn from him. I think he will have great success in his time here and has already made some big improvements to the mission!
It has been a good week here in Wilde. Elder Alvarez is basically a stud. We have gotten to the point in our time together where we start to find little things that annoy us... but we have been able to talk things out and resolve problems that would keep us from having unity as a companionship! Not sure what is going to happen for this next transfer... He has almost 6 months here in the area so chances are pretty good that he will be going to a new area and I will be recieving a new comp... Exciting news to look forward to for next week, who knows I could even end up in a new area.
We had several investigators in church yesterday including Louisa. We passed by her house yesterday morning and took a taxi with her to the church. She has been looking for the "one true church" and during sacrament meeting turned to us and told us that she has found what she has been looking for. Great lady! We just have a really hard time teaching her because she LOOOVES to talk and get off topic. My comp and I are trying to figure out the best way to be able to help her learn the things she needs to learn in preperation for Baptism... but we both have faith she will make it there sooner or later! She´s already committed herself to continue going to church!
We found an awesome kid this week named Braian (14). Very intelligent kid... I think he is a bit autistic actually. Basically he reads the Bible for fun and he has a great knowledge about spiritual things. He has been going to an Evangelist church for the last several years with some other people in his neighborhood... but he loves to talk about God with people and seemed very interested in what we do as missionaries. We taught him the Restoration and shared the Book of Mormon with him and at first he was very hesitant to accept it saying that his whole life he hadn´t known anything but the Bible... But we explained to him that he could recieve an answer from God if what we shared was true which he agreed with and accepted the invitation to read it. We all knelt down together and he said the prayer at the end of the lesson and it was one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard... obviously he spends a lot of time praying and speaking with our Heavenly Father. Said he will continue to think and pray about if this is the path that God wnats him to follow.
That´s all for this week! Time to get back to work already! Happy Argentine Mothers Day to all you Mothers this Sunday! Too bad we don´t get to make an extra call home ;) but I think my companion has gotten special permission to call home that day... Not too much longer til Christmas!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, October 4, 2010
General Conference #3
Dear family and friends,
Another BEAUTIFUL p-day here in Wilde! Last week the nice weather didn´t last too long and had cold/rain for most of the week but cleared up nicely for Conference this weekend! Good to hear from all of you this week! Congratulations on the marathon dad! Also everyone here was pretty excited to hear that you spent some time in Spain. Our 1st counselor in our bishopric has been in Spain/Europe for the last 3 or 4 months (I still don´t even know the guy) and several people here have family that live there! Also just an FYI I did recieve the package this week with 2 pairs of garments, Peanut Butter and Rootbeer concentrate... so if that is everything you sent it all got here safely! (The package was ripped open in transit apparently and "Correo Argentina" shrink wrapped it back together)
Started off the week great last Monday with an awesome Noche de Hogar with the family Romero. Mariana gave a great lesson about facing trials with hope and keeping a positive attitude. Shared a story and bore powerful testimony about losing her first son and how she has been able to overcome the hurt that she felt through much faith and prayer.
Wednesday we set another baptismal date with the kids of a less active family member in our ward for October 16. Sofia (10) y Tomás (8). They are very excited to be baptized and we are hoping that their older brother can work with the bishop and prepare to do those baptisms! We also have an elderly lady we are teaching named Louisa that could be baptized in the next several weeks. She is searching for the "one true church" and wasn´t able to make it to conference this weekend in Avellaneda due to transportation issues, but is very excited to go to church next week here in Wilde!
Conference this weekend was fantastic! I don´t think I have ever enjoyed conference so much as I have here in the mission! The stake was nice enough to set up a TV in a room for the 10 of us "Yankees" so we could watch the conference in English. :) We were all talking about how when we were younger we couldn´t believe how long the conference dragged out... every talk felt like FOREVER! But here in the mission we are always left wanting MORE! There were many fantastic messages shared... a couple of my favorites were the talk by Elder Oaks about our Personal and Priesthood lines of revelation, Pres. Uchtdorfs talk about priorities, Elder Hollands talk about being Helpful, Pres. Monsons message on Gratitude, Elder Bednars talk about recieving the Holy Ghost, Elder Eyering about Trusting in God, and several talks about Agency. Very excited to be able to share some of these messages with investigators and members who for one reason or another weren´t able to make it to the conference... Of course we paid extra special attention to what was said about missionary work and especially the call to all young men to prepare for a mission. A couple of the commentaries of the other missionaries in the room... "all our moms just started crying right now" and "Wow I would sure feel bad if I was sitting at home right now". Hard to believe I will only have 1 more conference here in the mission!
After the Saturday afternoon session (here it finished at 7 pm, we don´t even get to go to the Priesthood session from 9-11) we were headed back to our area to work, and one broken down bus and a 20 block walk later we arrived to an area where several members/contacts lived. During the conference I had names of people going through my head the whole time... I wish I would have written down more of the names as I heard the messages that could be shared with them... but I had especially on my mind 2 families we had done contacts with in the past several weeks. That night we just happened to be close to one of them so we decided to pass by and to our suprise the father (Wenceslau) answered the door and invited us in. Apparentely he never lets ANYONE in his house, even his friends, but he said he knows that we walk all day long and that we were probably very thirsty (which we were) and he had us sit down and drink some water while we had a little chat. He had gone to the Mormon church when he was 17 years old and turns out his Mom was actually baptized 4 years ago. He remembers feeling really good when he went, but for one reason or another stopped going and hasn´t had any contact with the church since. He lives with his wife and kids and it´s very apparent the love he has for them and the desire he has to be the best he can for them. He has some interesting beliefs and believes strongly in San la Muerte (very creepy... grim reaper type character, how he is a Saint is WAAAY beyond my knowledge.) and has 2 giant tattoos on both of his arms. His wife showed up near the end of our visit and we were able to share a bit with them about the importance of prophets in guiding the family (very rushed on time... we got back to the pension VERY LATE) and set a cita for the next (this) week, and through in a last minute invitation for the conference tomorrow. He has some great questions and they both seem very interested in the idea of having a Prophet to guide us.
Well that´s about it for now! Headed off to Alto Avellaneda for lunch at McDonalds and shopping at Walmart. :) I´ll be practicing some piano in the next couple weeks to prepare to accompany the relief society or young women who will be singing in Sacrament meeting on October 17 for Mothers Day. Have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Another BEAUTIFUL p-day here in Wilde! Last week the nice weather didn´t last too long and had cold/rain for most of the week but cleared up nicely for Conference this weekend! Good to hear from all of you this week! Congratulations on the marathon dad! Also everyone here was pretty excited to hear that you spent some time in Spain. Our 1st counselor in our bishopric has been in Spain/Europe for the last 3 or 4 months (I still don´t even know the guy) and several people here have family that live there! Also just an FYI I did recieve the package this week with 2 pairs of garments, Peanut Butter and Rootbeer concentrate... so if that is everything you sent it all got here safely! (The package was ripped open in transit apparently and "Correo Argentina" shrink wrapped it back together)
Started off the week great last Monday with an awesome Noche de Hogar with the family Romero. Mariana gave a great lesson about facing trials with hope and keeping a positive attitude. Shared a story and bore powerful testimony about losing her first son and how she has been able to overcome the hurt that she felt through much faith and prayer.
Wednesday we set another baptismal date with the kids of a less active family member in our ward for October 16. Sofia (10) y Tomás (8). They are very excited to be baptized and we are hoping that their older brother can work with the bishop and prepare to do those baptisms! We also have an elderly lady we are teaching named Louisa that could be baptized in the next several weeks. She is searching for the "one true church" and wasn´t able to make it to conference this weekend in Avellaneda due to transportation issues, but is very excited to go to church next week here in Wilde!
Conference this weekend was fantastic! I don´t think I have ever enjoyed conference so much as I have here in the mission! The stake was nice enough to set up a TV in a room for the 10 of us "Yankees" so we could watch the conference in English. :) We were all talking about how when we were younger we couldn´t believe how long the conference dragged out... every talk felt like FOREVER! But here in the mission we are always left wanting MORE! There were many fantastic messages shared... a couple of my favorites were the talk by Elder Oaks about our Personal and Priesthood lines of revelation, Pres. Uchtdorfs talk about priorities, Elder Hollands talk about being Helpful, Pres. Monsons message on Gratitude, Elder Bednars talk about recieving the Holy Ghost, Elder Eyering about Trusting in God, and several talks about Agency. Very excited to be able to share some of these messages with investigators and members who for one reason or another weren´t able to make it to the conference... Of course we paid extra special attention to what was said about missionary work and especially the call to all young men to prepare for a mission. A couple of the commentaries of the other missionaries in the room... "all our moms just started crying right now" and "Wow I would sure feel bad if I was sitting at home right now". Hard to believe I will only have 1 more conference here in the mission!
After the Saturday afternoon session (here it finished at 7 pm, we don´t even get to go to the Priesthood session from 9-11) we were headed back to our area to work, and one broken down bus and a 20 block walk later we arrived to an area where several members/contacts lived. During the conference I had names of people going through my head the whole time... I wish I would have written down more of the names as I heard the messages that could be shared with them... but I had especially on my mind 2 families we had done contacts with in the past several weeks. That night we just happened to be close to one of them so we decided to pass by and to our suprise the father (Wenceslau) answered the door and invited us in. Apparentely he never lets ANYONE in his house, even his friends, but he said he knows that we walk all day long and that we were probably very thirsty (which we were) and he had us sit down and drink some water while we had a little chat. He had gone to the Mormon church when he was 17 years old and turns out his Mom was actually baptized 4 years ago. He remembers feeling really good when he went, but for one reason or another stopped going and hasn´t had any contact with the church since. He lives with his wife and kids and it´s very apparent the love he has for them and the desire he has to be the best he can for them. He has some interesting beliefs and believes strongly in San la Muerte (very creepy... grim reaper type character, how he is a Saint is WAAAY beyond my knowledge.) and has 2 giant tattoos on both of his arms. His wife showed up near the end of our visit and we were able to share a bit with them about the importance of prophets in guiding the family (very rushed on time... we got back to the pension VERY LATE) and set a cita for the next (this) week, and through in a last minute invitation for the conference tomorrow. He has some great questions and they both seem very interested in the idea of having a Prophet to guide us.
Well that´s about it for now! Headed off to Alto Avellaneda for lunch at McDonalds and shopping at Walmart. :) I´ll be practicing some piano in the next couple weeks to prepare to accompany the relief society or young women who will be singing in Sacrament meeting on October 17 for Mothers Day. Have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, September 27, 2010
La Hermosa Primavera
Dear family and friends,
Good to hear from you all this week! I´m not sure what happened last week but I did end up recieving the email the second time dad sent it before I got off. Still enjoying the beautiful weather here! I don´t know what it is here but I can smell the blooming flowers EVERYWHERE. Luckily my allergies haven´t gotten too bad yet so I can keep enjoying the sunshine y fresh air without having the sniffles! Yes mom the package is here... but the office Elders haven´t gone to capital to pick it up yet. :S Hope dad had a great trip to Spain and that Brian had a great 15th birthday! What´s the car situation like? :P Kristen has her car, and Kyle has MINE, then the big van... what does dad drive?
Really interesting week. ´We started off the week great with an awesome Zone Conference. Pres. Stapley is focusing a lot in the importance that obedience has in qualifying ourselves to be worthy of the guidance of the Spirit. Almost everything he teaches us revolves around the "5 values of how we work" (which he came up with in his time as CEO of ¿Deseret Mutual?) and the "5 focuses of the mission" he shared with us in his first meeting with the missionaries. I don´t know if I´ve shared them with you yet or not... but the 5 values are 1. Be Happy, 2. Have Passion, 3. Help others have success, 4. Improve Continually, and 5. Be a hard worker! The 5 focuses of the mission are 1. Preach my Gospel (the Doctrine of Christ), 2. Baptism, 3. Love, 4. Obedience, and 5. The Spirit. Great principles and counsel that have helped me a lot to not only improve myself as a missionary, but that apply to all of us and will help me through the rest of my life.
Also this week we have seen some very sad family situations. I don´t want to go into any details... but one has to do with drugs, and the other has to do with abuse and an aborted pregnancy. It´s amazing the effect that the bad choices of one person has on the rest of the family. I´ve been amazed to see the great faith and patience that both families have had in dealing with the problems and hope all turns out well with them. Not quite sure what I am supposed to learn from seeing so much suffering, but it has really given me a greater appreciation and love for my family and my Heavenly Father who has blessed me so much. It has also strengthened my testimony greatly to see the blessing that gospel knowledge has in facing situations like that, that even in the worst situations we can recieve the strength and comfort if we turn to Him.
Yesterday in Church we had a great lesson in Priesthood meeting about our responsiblities as members of the church. The teacher focused in the 3 fold mission of the church. Perfect the Saints, Redeem our Dead, Preach the Gospel, and talked about the important responsibility that each of us has to work in each of these 3 areas. During the whole lesson I was thinking a lot about our responsiblities as members of the church to be obedient, etc. and I came to the conclusion that the most important responsibility we have as members of the church is to learn to Love as God loves us. Love is the key point in the 2 commandments Jesus Christ gave as well as being an important factore of Charity... the greatest of all the gifts of God. God himself is LOVE and our whole purpose being here in the earth is to gain experience in our body to one day become even as He is. If we have true love for God and for all mankind, we will be driven by the desire to share that love with all others... through missionary work, service to members, and temple work. I think all the problems in the world could be resolved if we all just learned to love a little more!
Hope you all have a great week and take good notes in General Conference this weekend! Looking forward to hearing some of your remarks next week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Good to hear from you all this week! I´m not sure what happened last week but I did end up recieving the email the second time dad sent it before I got off. Still enjoying the beautiful weather here! I don´t know what it is here but I can smell the blooming flowers EVERYWHERE. Luckily my allergies haven´t gotten too bad yet so I can keep enjoying the sunshine y fresh air without having the sniffles! Yes mom the package is here... but the office Elders haven´t gone to capital to pick it up yet. :S Hope dad had a great trip to Spain and that Brian had a great 15th birthday! What´s the car situation like? :P Kristen has her car, and Kyle has MINE, then the big van... what does dad drive?
Really interesting week. ´We started off the week great with an awesome Zone Conference. Pres. Stapley is focusing a lot in the importance that obedience has in qualifying ourselves to be worthy of the guidance of the Spirit. Almost everything he teaches us revolves around the "5 values of how we work" (which he came up with in his time as CEO of ¿Deseret Mutual?) and the "5 focuses of the mission" he shared with us in his first meeting with the missionaries. I don´t know if I´ve shared them with you yet or not... but the 5 values are 1. Be Happy, 2. Have Passion, 3. Help others have success, 4. Improve Continually, and 5. Be a hard worker! The 5 focuses of the mission are 1. Preach my Gospel (the Doctrine of Christ), 2. Baptism, 3. Love, 4. Obedience, and 5. The Spirit. Great principles and counsel that have helped me a lot to not only improve myself as a missionary, but that apply to all of us and will help me through the rest of my life.
Also this week we have seen some very sad family situations. I don´t want to go into any details... but one has to do with drugs, and the other has to do with abuse and an aborted pregnancy. It´s amazing the effect that the bad choices of one person has on the rest of the family. I´ve been amazed to see the great faith and patience that both families have had in dealing with the problems and hope all turns out well with them. Not quite sure what I am supposed to learn from seeing so much suffering, but it has really given me a greater appreciation and love for my family and my Heavenly Father who has blessed me so much. It has also strengthened my testimony greatly to see the blessing that gospel knowledge has in facing situations like that, that even in the worst situations we can recieve the strength and comfort if we turn to Him.
Yesterday in Church we had a great lesson in Priesthood meeting about our responsiblities as members of the church. The teacher focused in the 3 fold mission of the church. Perfect the Saints, Redeem our Dead, Preach the Gospel, and talked about the important responsibility that each of us has to work in each of these 3 areas. During the whole lesson I was thinking a lot about our responsiblities as members of the church to be obedient, etc. and I came to the conclusion that the most important responsibility we have as members of the church is to learn to Love as God loves us. Love is the key point in the 2 commandments Jesus Christ gave as well as being an important factore of Charity... the greatest of all the gifts of God. God himself is LOVE and our whole purpose being here in the earth is to gain experience in our body to one day become even as He is. If we have true love for God and for all mankind, we will be driven by the desire to share that love with all others... through missionary work, service to members, and temple work. I think all the problems in the world could be resolved if we all just learned to love a little more!
Hope you all have a great week and take good notes in General Conference this weekend! Looking forward to hearing some of your remarks next week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, September 20, 2010
Hello Sunshine
Dear family and friends,
Good to hear from you Kristine! Maybe next week I´ll hear from the rest of you. :P Hope you all had a good week and are enjoying the fall time colors... one thing they don´t have here in Argentina! Today I finally busted out the short sleeve shirts and have been enjoying some nice sun/warmer temperatures/blossoming flowers etc. The spring here is Beautiful!
Nothing super exciting or new from me this week. We did have some success finding some new people to teach this week. Monday evening we always have a Noche de Hogar (FHE) with a family in our ward and usually being right after Pday we are always rushed for time. This Monday on our way to the Noche de Hogar my comp and I felt like we needed to pass by a contact we had done several weeks before and never been able to find. We had passed by her house several times, and always talked with her Grandma Isabel. We were very suprised to hear from her grandma that she had told her that we would be coming to her house and told her who we are and everything. Doesn´t happen too often! Her name is Yesica and she works all night on top of studying during the day and sleeping when she can, but Monday night we finally found her at home and they invited us in. She was just sitting down to eat, getting ready to go to work, but we were able to sit down and have a great chat with her and her grandma about the Book of Mormon etc. They both seemed really interesting and Isabel even went so far as to say... "my whole life I have been raised Catholic and I have a lot of faith in the Virgin Mary... but people can change". Unfortunately they weren´t there when we went back the next time (always frustrating!) so now we are praying to be able to catch them at a good moment again.
We also were able to get into the house and teach a family who we helped carry a mattress several blocks to their house last week. German y Catalina y several grandchildren who they have taken in and raised like their children because their parents apparently didn´t want them. Catalinas sister was also there visiting from Chaco, so it was nice of them to let us in to talk for a little while. They are very active in their church and have great faith in Jesus Christ and believe very strongly in the Bible. At the same time they were very open when we talked about the Book of Mormon y accepted the invitation to read and pray.
Saturday we had a Zone Activity called "Tormenta Blanca" where all the elders in our Zone go to one companionships area and do a bunch of contacts to give references to the elders in that area. This week we worked in Fabian Onsari... but we did something a little bit different. Instead of doing contacts the Ward had organized for us to pass by all the inactive members that are on the registros to see if the families still lived at the adress, if someone had passed away, etc. It was fun to work in a different area y we found some great people that for some reason or another just haven´t been to church in a while. We were told to keep things very brief.... but hopefully down the road our efforts will make a difference in helping some of those lost sheep come back to the fold. Our Stake here in Avellaneda is pushing a lot the counsel of Pres. Monson to seek out those who should be at church but aren´t. Probably one of the defining counsels that Pres. Monson has taught us. Evidence of the love that Heavenly Father has for ALL of his children.
Well that´s about it for this week! Hope you all have a great week and a Happy Birthday to Brian! Looking forward to General conference in the next couple weeks! My second to last general conference in the mission... unbelievable!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Good to hear from you Kristine! Maybe next week I´ll hear from the rest of you. :P Hope you all had a good week and are enjoying the fall time colors... one thing they don´t have here in Argentina! Today I finally busted out the short sleeve shirts and have been enjoying some nice sun/warmer temperatures/blossoming flowers etc. The spring here is Beautiful!
Nothing super exciting or new from me this week. We did have some success finding some new people to teach this week. Monday evening we always have a Noche de Hogar (FHE) with a family in our ward and usually being right after Pday we are always rushed for time. This Monday on our way to the Noche de Hogar my comp and I felt like we needed to pass by a contact we had done several weeks before and never been able to find. We had passed by her house several times, and always talked with her Grandma Isabel. We were very suprised to hear from her grandma that she had told her that we would be coming to her house and told her who we are and everything. Doesn´t happen too often! Her name is Yesica and she works all night on top of studying during the day and sleeping when she can, but Monday night we finally found her at home and they invited us in. She was just sitting down to eat, getting ready to go to work, but we were able to sit down and have a great chat with her and her grandma about the Book of Mormon etc. They both seemed really interesting and Isabel even went so far as to say... "my whole life I have been raised Catholic and I have a lot of faith in the Virgin Mary... but people can change". Unfortunately they weren´t there when we went back the next time (always frustrating!) so now we are praying to be able to catch them at a good moment again.
We also were able to get into the house and teach a family who we helped carry a mattress several blocks to their house last week. German y Catalina y several grandchildren who they have taken in and raised like their children because their parents apparently didn´t want them. Catalinas sister was also there visiting from Chaco, so it was nice of them to let us in to talk for a little while. They are very active in their church and have great faith in Jesus Christ and believe very strongly in the Bible. At the same time they were very open when we talked about the Book of Mormon y accepted the invitation to read and pray.
Saturday we had a Zone Activity called "Tormenta Blanca" where all the elders in our Zone go to one companionships area and do a bunch of contacts to give references to the elders in that area. This week we worked in Fabian Onsari... but we did something a little bit different. Instead of doing contacts the Ward had organized for us to pass by all the inactive members that are on the registros to see if the families still lived at the adress, if someone had passed away, etc. It was fun to work in a different area y we found some great people that for some reason or another just haven´t been to church in a while. We were told to keep things very brief.... but hopefully down the road our efforts will make a difference in helping some of those lost sheep come back to the fold. Our Stake here in Avellaneda is pushing a lot the counsel of Pres. Monson to seek out those who should be at church but aren´t. Probably one of the defining counsels that Pres. Monson has taught us. Evidence of the love that Heavenly Father has for ALL of his children.
Well that´s about it for this week! Hope you all have a great week and a Happy Birthday to Brian! Looking forward to General conference in the next couple weeks! My second to last general conference in the mission... unbelievable!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, September 13, 2010
¡Bautismo de Fabian, Agustina y Milena!
Dear family and friends!
Good to hear from everyone this week! Sounds like things are going well at home with some exciting things happening and as always staying plenty busy all of you!
This week is transfers for us and Elder Alvarez and I will be together for another 6 weeks (assuming we´re not victims of another emergency transfer). Looking for another transfer with him and hopefully we will see some more success here in Wilde! Today we had transfer meeting which is always fantastic. Fun to see other missionaries and listen to the testimonies of the Elders who are going home as well as being able to listen to Pres. Stapley and his wife. This transfer my trainer Elder Spence goes home, very weird feeling when your companions start to go home! Amazing how time flies in the mission.
Last Monday we had a pretty cool experience. We had just finished shopping at Walmart :) and we were trying to figure out which bus to take to get back to our area. We stopped a bus that we knew passed through our area... but didn´t bother asking which direction it was going. Needless to say... it happened to be going the WRONG direction and we ended up at the train station in Lanús (not terribly far but we took the train to get back). However, on the bus ride... a guy came up to us and started talking to us and asking lots of questions about the church. He said he has been looking for some guidance in his life for quite a while and knows that God is the answer but that he feels that religion is something created by man and that to find the truth one would have to ask God directly. GOLDEN! He said he had never spoken to anyone from our church before and we were able to share some things with him which he found very interesting and got his address, phone number, etc. Unfortunately he doesn´t live in our area... but looking forward to hearing from the Elders what happens. Interesting that the Lord finds ways to put people in our path even when we are on the wrong bus! ;)
Wow it has been a great week here in Wilde! We have had some rain the last couple days... but luckily Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL day perfect for the baptism of Fabian Agustina y Milena (Bro. y Sis y a cousin)! Very special day for all of us here! Obviously for the 3 of them, but also it was my companions first baptism in his mission! My first time baptizing as senior companion... and I was a little stressed out with organizing everything and remembering all the things we have to do. Baptism days are always hectic! Fabian y Agustina showed up late, the bishop ended up having to work so we had to call the first counselor to come and conduct the service, but everything turned out great! Probably the highlight of the whole service was being able to see Milenas dad baptize her! Their whole family has been inactive for quite a while, but the bishop felt that it was very important for the father to be able to do the baptism (in accordance with the cousel of Pres. Packer in the last conference? slips my mind at the moment) Very sweet moment to see them come out of the water together and hopefully it will be an experience that will help the whole family come back to church! Elder Alvarez baptized Fabian y Agustina asked me to baptize her! I also had my first chance to confirm both Milena and Agustina in Sacrament meeting on Sunday which was a cool experience! Always amazing to feel a little bit of the love that our Heavenly Father has for all of his children.
Hope you all have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Good to hear from everyone this week! Sounds like things are going well at home with some exciting things happening and as always staying plenty busy all of you!
This week is transfers for us and Elder Alvarez and I will be together for another 6 weeks (assuming we´re not victims of another emergency transfer). Looking for another transfer with him and hopefully we will see some more success here in Wilde! Today we had transfer meeting which is always fantastic. Fun to see other missionaries and listen to the testimonies of the Elders who are going home as well as being able to listen to Pres. Stapley and his wife. This transfer my trainer Elder Spence goes home, very weird feeling when your companions start to go home! Amazing how time flies in the mission.
Last Monday we had a pretty cool experience. We had just finished shopping at Walmart :) and we were trying to figure out which bus to take to get back to our area. We stopped a bus that we knew passed through our area... but didn´t bother asking which direction it was going. Needless to say... it happened to be going the WRONG direction and we ended up at the train station in Lanús (not terribly far but we took the train to get back). However, on the bus ride... a guy came up to us and started talking to us and asking lots of questions about the church. He said he has been looking for some guidance in his life for quite a while and knows that God is the answer but that he feels that religion is something created by man and that to find the truth one would have to ask God directly. GOLDEN! He said he had never spoken to anyone from our church before and we were able to share some things with him which he found very interesting and got his address, phone number, etc. Unfortunately he doesn´t live in our area... but looking forward to hearing from the Elders what happens. Interesting that the Lord finds ways to put people in our path even when we are on the wrong bus! ;)
Wow it has been a great week here in Wilde! We have had some rain the last couple days... but luckily Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL day perfect for the baptism of Fabian Agustina y Milena (Bro. y Sis y a cousin)! Very special day for all of us here! Obviously for the 3 of them, but also it was my companions first baptism in his mission! My first time baptizing as senior companion... and I was a little stressed out with organizing everything and remembering all the things we have to do. Baptism days are always hectic! Fabian y Agustina showed up late, the bishop ended up having to work so we had to call the first counselor to come and conduct the service, but everything turned out great! Probably the highlight of the whole service was being able to see Milenas dad baptize her! Their whole family has been inactive for quite a while, but the bishop felt that it was very important for the father to be able to do the baptism (in accordance with the cousel of Pres. Packer in the last conference? slips my mind at the moment) Very sweet moment to see them come out of the water together and hopefully it will be an experience that will help the whole family come back to church! Elder Alvarez baptized Fabian y Agustina asked me to baptize her! I also had my first chance to confirm both Milena and Agustina in Sacrament meeting on Sunday which was a cool experience! Always amazing to feel a little bit of the love that our Heavenly Father has for all of his children.
Hope you all have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, September 6, 2010
"Out Came the Sun and Dried Up all the Rain..."
Dear family and friends,
Sounds like you all enjoyed your Labor day and hopefully some nice weather! A very wet week here in Wilde! Cold, rainy, and windy for 3 or 4 days straight! Not a whole lot of success working in the rain... very few people who even answered their doors, but it was worth it just to know that we were doing what we were supposed to! Supposedly this was the storm that changes the seasons... and we have been enjoying some BEAUTIFUL spring weather these last 2 days. Hopefully it stays nice for a couple weeks before it gets too hot!
Started off the week GREAT finding an awesome new investigator who was a reference from a member in our ward who is VERY missionary oriented! Her name is Sandra and she had been looking for a church to go to these last several weeks when she came in contact with the Hermana. She has been having a lot of problems with the guy she is living with and wants out of the relationship... very common situation here. She has great desires to do what is right but feels she is unworthy to pray. We will keep working with her on that, but is really excited to come to church and to read the Book of Mormon.
Another investigator we are teaching who also happens to be a reference from a member (Melany) is already excited to be baptized. We had a great lesson with her this week talking about the Restoration. We played a little game before starting the lesson to see who would say the opening prayer and she was chosen 3 times in a row... she said she didn’t want to do it and that she didn’t feel comfortable yet, so Hermana Sanchez ended up saying it. At the end of the lesson to everyone’s surprise she asked if she could say the closing prayer! We all knelt down together and she gave one of the best prayers I have ever heard! Very thoughtful and sincere... probably one of my favorite things in the mission, hearing investigators pray out loud for the first time. Very cool to see how the Spirit was able to touch her in such a way that she felt the desire to pray, much better situation than being obligated to pray from a silly game.
Yesterday we had Stake Conference. We left early in the morning to pick up some investigators (the family of Fabian y Agustina) and were surprised that their grandma decided at the last minute to come with us as well! (She is a member but hasn’t been to church in several months.) The messages that were shared I think were especially meaningful for her. Almost all the speakers spoke about the importance of families in the gospel. Elder Foster from the Quorum of the 70 and Area Presidency of the South America South area presided y him and his wife both spoke. For only being in Argentina for 4 weeks they spoke really good Spanish with very little help from the translator. He talked a lot about the importance of the youth of the church and how Satan is trying to win them over at all cost. He talked about the important role parents have in the gospel to teach their children about true principles so that they truly UNDERSTAND.
Yesterday we also had a very interesting experience. During the week we did a contact with a guy named Juan who seemed to have lots of interest in the church... had lots of good questions about the church from things he had heard from other people. He asked if we could pass by Sunday at 2 (very difficult time because we had stake conference that day and our lunch citas usually take FOREVER) but we agreed to the cita. SOMEHOW we were actually able to make it right on time after waiting 30 min for a bus after Stake Conference y having our lunch cita cancel on us... leaving us on our own to throw something together for lunch. We basically ran the 15-20 blocks to his house. He told us he had 45 min and we took extra care to be very respectful of his time limitation. Our lesson couldn’t have gone more perfectly... I felt the Spirit was really guiding us in what we should say and we were teaching together really well. We were able to help him answer his own questions and doubts. At the end of the lesson we offered to leave him the Book of Mormon y invited him to read and pray about it to know if it is true, and to our surprise he turned it down. When we asked if we could say a prayer before we left... he also said no. We left the cita a little confused and talked a lot about how the lesson went. We both felt that we did all that we could and that he just wasn’t prepared at this time to receive the truth. Agency is a great gift that God has given ... but very frustrating sometimes! I can’t even imagine how our Heavenly Father feels to see the choices we make sometimes.
Anyways, that’s all for this week! Looking forward to hearing from you again soon! Amazing how the times flies! Thank you so much for your prayers!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Sounds like you all enjoyed your Labor day and hopefully some nice weather! A very wet week here in Wilde! Cold, rainy, and windy for 3 or 4 days straight! Not a whole lot of success working in the rain... very few people who even answered their doors, but it was worth it just to know that we were doing what we were supposed to! Supposedly this was the storm that changes the seasons... and we have been enjoying some BEAUTIFUL spring weather these last 2 days. Hopefully it stays nice for a couple weeks before it gets too hot!
Started off the week GREAT finding an awesome new investigator who was a reference from a member in our ward who is VERY missionary oriented! Her name is Sandra and she had been looking for a church to go to these last several weeks when she came in contact with the Hermana. She has been having a lot of problems with the guy she is living with and wants out of the relationship... very common situation here. She has great desires to do what is right but feels she is unworthy to pray. We will keep working with her on that, but is really excited to come to church and to read the Book of Mormon.
Another investigator we are teaching who also happens to be a reference from a member (Melany) is already excited to be baptized. We had a great lesson with her this week talking about the Restoration. We played a little game before starting the lesson to see who would say the opening prayer and she was chosen 3 times in a row... she said she didn’t want to do it and that she didn’t feel comfortable yet, so Hermana Sanchez ended up saying it. At the end of the lesson to everyone’s surprise she asked if she could say the closing prayer! We all knelt down together and she gave one of the best prayers I have ever heard! Very thoughtful and sincere... probably one of my favorite things in the mission, hearing investigators pray out loud for the first time. Very cool to see how the Spirit was able to touch her in such a way that she felt the desire to pray, much better situation than being obligated to pray from a silly game.
Yesterday we had Stake Conference. We left early in the morning to pick up some investigators (the family of Fabian y Agustina) and were surprised that their grandma decided at the last minute to come with us as well! (She is a member but hasn’t been to church in several months.) The messages that were shared I think were especially meaningful for her. Almost all the speakers spoke about the importance of families in the gospel. Elder Foster from the Quorum of the 70 and Area Presidency of the South America South area presided y him and his wife both spoke. For only being in Argentina for 4 weeks they spoke really good Spanish with very little help from the translator. He talked a lot about the importance of the youth of the church and how Satan is trying to win them over at all cost. He talked about the important role parents have in the gospel to teach their children about true principles so that they truly UNDERSTAND.
Yesterday we also had a very interesting experience. During the week we did a contact with a guy named Juan who seemed to have lots of interest in the church... had lots of good questions about the church from things he had heard from other people. He asked if we could pass by Sunday at 2 (very difficult time because we had stake conference that day and our lunch citas usually take FOREVER) but we agreed to the cita. SOMEHOW we were actually able to make it right on time after waiting 30 min for a bus after Stake Conference y having our lunch cita cancel on us... leaving us on our own to throw something together for lunch. We basically ran the 15-20 blocks to his house. He told us he had 45 min and we took extra care to be very respectful of his time limitation. Our lesson couldn’t have gone more perfectly... I felt the Spirit was really guiding us in what we should say and we were teaching together really well. We were able to help him answer his own questions and doubts. At the end of the lesson we offered to leave him the Book of Mormon y invited him to read and pray about it to know if it is true, and to our surprise he turned it down. When we asked if we could say a prayer before we left... he also said no. We left the cita a little confused and talked a lot about how the lesson went. We both felt that we did all that we could and that he just wasn’t prepared at this time to receive the truth. Agency is a great gift that God has given ... but very frustrating sometimes! I can’t even imagine how our Heavenly Father feels to see the choices we make sometimes.
Anyways, that’s all for this week! Looking forward to hearing from you again soon! Amazing how the times flies! Thank you so much for your prayers!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, August 30, 2010
O Family Where Art Thou? (Our e-mail to him was late)
Dear Family and Friends,
First of all I want to apologize for any confusion caused by this email for possible missing letters... the keyboard I am using doesn’t seem to pick up everything I type. Hope you are all enjoying your first week back at school, etc. I assume all is well but I guess I will just have to wait for that reaffirmation. Overall we have had a great week here in Wilde.
We have had a lot of success finding some new people to teach this week! Saturday we found a lady named Nora who Elder Alvarez first came in contact with one of his other companions knocking doors. In the last year she has lost her husband and a sister in law to cancer, and seems to be handling it all really well. Saturday apparently was a particularly hard day for her but she said for some reason she felt inspired to let us in to her house. She seemed very grateful for our visit, even just having someone to talk to, but also was very interested in what we told her about the Book of Mormon and the promise that she can find many answers to the questions she has. She was also very excited to learn how to pray and gave a very sincere prayer at the end of our visit expressing gratitude for our visit and promised to follow in this path that has been laid before her.
Yesterday we found the friend of a member, Hna Sanchez y her daughters, who has been going to church the last several weeks but we have never been able to find them at home. Her name is Melany and she is 12 years old. She already has desires to be baptized and Hna Sanchez has already talked to and gotten permission from her parents. She also has 8 brothers and sisters (5 girls 3 boys). Apparently her dad is really into drugs, etc. and hasnt been doing good lately. Very sad to see some of the family situations here, it has really been an eye opener and I now understand why missionaries are asked to prepare and be healthy EMOTIONALLY in addition to Physically and Spiritually. I am confident the Lord gives us the additional strength we need to continue day to day.
Church yesterday was fantastic as well. We had a great Ward Counsel Meeting in the morning and it was truly amazing to see the love and dedication that the leaders here, especially the bishop, have for the work. He committed to pass by every single one of the people we had mentioned on the record we filled out in the next 3 weeks. In the classes/sacrament meeting we had some great messages about the importance of sustaining our leaders (in preparation for Stake Conference next week.) The Bishop compared our leaders who are called to someone running a race. The Lord has called them to be in that race, and we can’t replace them to run for them. What we can do is be there to encourage/give water/etc. to them all along the way. He also shared the example of Moses leading the children of Israel having to raise his arms up and used me to illustrate the example having me stand in front of everybody and hold my arms up for what seemed like forever before having several Hermanos come and support my arms. Another Hno also made some great comments of the importance of conferences. He brought up the point that a lot of times we hear about the same old things that we are already doing... but that we can always improve and that we should use those moments to reflect on the blessings we have received through obedience to that principle which brings greater strength of testimony. Fantastic Ward!
Hope you all have a great week, that all is well and that you haven’t forgotten me already!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
First of all I want to apologize for any confusion caused by this email for possible missing letters... the keyboard I am using doesn’t seem to pick up everything I type. Hope you are all enjoying your first week back at school, etc. I assume all is well but I guess I will just have to wait for that reaffirmation. Overall we have had a great week here in Wilde.
We have had a lot of success finding some new people to teach this week! Saturday we found a lady named Nora who Elder Alvarez first came in contact with one of his other companions knocking doors. In the last year she has lost her husband and a sister in law to cancer, and seems to be handling it all really well. Saturday apparently was a particularly hard day for her but she said for some reason she felt inspired to let us in to her house. She seemed very grateful for our visit, even just having someone to talk to, but also was very interested in what we told her about the Book of Mormon and the promise that she can find many answers to the questions she has. She was also very excited to learn how to pray and gave a very sincere prayer at the end of our visit expressing gratitude for our visit and promised to follow in this path that has been laid before her.
Yesterday we found the friend of a member, Hna Sanchez y her daughters, who has been going to church the last several weeks but we have never been able to find them at home. Her name is Melany and she is 12 years old. She already has desires to be baptized and Hna Sanchez has already talked to and gotten permission from her parents. She also has 8 brothers and sisters (5 girls 3 boys). Apparently her dad is really into drugs, etc. and hasnt been doing good lately. Very sad to see some of the family situations here, it has really been an eye opener and I now understand why missionaries are asked to prepare and be healthy EMOTIONALLY in addition to Physically and Spiritually. I am confident the Lord gives us the additional strength we need to continue day to day.
Church yesterday was fantastic as well. We had a great Ward Counsel Meeting in the morning and it was truly amazing to see the love and dedication that the leaders here, especially the bishop, have for the work. He committed to pass by every single one of the people we had mentioned on the record we filled out in the next 3 weeks. In the classes/sacrament meeting we had some great messages about the importance of sustaining our leaders (in preparation for Stake Conference next week.) The Bishop compared our leaders who are called to someone running a race. The Lord has called them to be in that race, and we can’t replace them to run for them. What we can do is be there to encourage/give water/etc. to them all along the way. He also shared the example of Moses leading the children of Israel having to raise his arms up and used me to illustrate the example having me stand in front of everybody and hold my arms up for what seemed like forever before having several Hermanos come and support my arms. Another Hno also made some great comments of the importance of conferences. He brought up the point that a lot of times we hear about the same old things that we are already doing... but that we can always improve and that we should use those moments to reflect on the blessings we have received through obedience to that principle which brings greater strength of testimony. Fantastic Ward!
Hope you all have a great week, that all is well and that you haven’t forgotten me already!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, August 23, 2010
¡Yo amo a Wilde! [I love Wilde!]
Dear Family and Friends,
A fantastic first full week here in Wilde! The weather has been beautiful and Elder Alvarez and I have been working hard trying to find more people to teach. We have very few people that we are actually teaching, so we have been doing a lot of contacts and as of now haven’t had much success with the people actually being there when they say they will. The people we are teaching are FANTASTIC and we have had several investigators in church the last couple weeks!
I was surprised when I got to the area that most of the investigators we have here are little kids from part member families. Fabian (10) y Agustina (9) are the 2 oldest children of a less active member who the missionaries have been teaching for quite a while. Last week we passed by their house early in the morning to go with them to church which was their first time going in several years! Then yesterday I cant even explain how happy I was to see that they all showed up all on their own! :) This week we set a date with them for their baptism and they are very excited to be baptised on September 4th. (We may have to move the date to either this Saturday or September 11 because we just found out we have Stake Conference that week). We always have a fun time teaching them w/games y activities to help them understand better!
The ward here is great! Yesterday we had a Ward Conference, lots of great messages! The focus of the meeting was about having more unity, something that is a big problem in the church here and I imagine in most parts of the world. There were some great scriptures shared. The bishop shared his dream of filling the chapel and the overflow with people and testified that we can only have that kind of success if we unify ourselves as families and as a ward. A couple things I love about this ward... there are a lot of younger families, which = an awesome primary! Having a lot of youth just adds energy to the whole ward and its something a lot of wards and branches here lack! Also, we have a Ward Choir with 20 people or so that participate! Can you imagine if a 4th of the congregation participated in choir in the Timpview 6th ward? They sang at Ward Conference and actually sounded REALLY GOOD! Wish our Domingos werent so busy so we could participate!
Monday we have a family home evening with a family in our ward with several other families that come as well as any investigators we want to bring. Last week we had a great lesson given by an RM who served in Mendoza who also talked about Unity and related it to the Human body how all the parts need to work together even though some may do more than others, they are all important. We also made a big mess of the house playing with Newtonian Jelly? and finished off the night with home made empanadas! :) Looking forward to tonight!
In Pres. Stapleys emails to all the missionaries lately he has been writing a short little message. Ever since he has been here he has really been stressing the importance of "the doctrine of Christ" as taught in 2 Ne 31. Todays message was about the importance of speaking by the tongues of angels:
"The Doctrine of Christ teaches us that after baptism we can speak with the tongue of angels. I believe that missionaries have a special dispensation that requires them to speak with the tongue of angels. You may remember that Alma the younger was called to repentance by an angel?. Later in his ministry when he was rejected by the people of Ammoniah an angel appeared to him and said (see Alma Chapter 8):
Blessed art though, Alma; therefore lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold I am he that delivered it unto you.
This angel was the same angel that called Alma to repentance. He was then ever present to help Alma in his time of need. It was as though the Angel was always watching over him. If we are worthy we have angels that watch over each of us individually. Also, not only can we as missionaries speak with the tongue of angels, we can also be angels to preach to and care for those who live in our mission. I hope each of us can be diligent in fulfilling this sacred responsibility."
I hope we can all be worthy and seek for the company of angels as we strive to have more unity in our families and in the church!
les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
A fantastic first full week here in Wilde! The weather has been beautiful and Elder Alvarez and I have been working hard trying to find more people to teach. We have very few people that we are actually teaching, so we have been doing a lot of contacts and as of now haven’t had much success with the people actually being there when they say they will. The people we are teaching are FANTASTIC and we have had several investigators in church the last couple weeks!
I was surprised when I got to the area that most of the investigators we have here are little kids from part member families. Fabian (10) y Agustina (9) are the 2 oldest children of a less active member who the missionaries have been teaching for quite a while. Last week we passed by their house early in the morning to go with them to church which was their first time going in several years! Then yesterday I cant even explain how happy I was to see that they all showed up all on their own! :) This week we set a date with them for their baptism and they are very excited to be baptised on September 4th. (We may have to move the date to either this Saturday or September 11 because we just found out we have Stake Conference that week). We always have a fun time teaching them w/games y activities to help them understand better!
The ward here is great! Yesterday we had a Ward Conference, lots of great messages! The focus of the meeting was about having more unity, something that is a big problem in the church here and I imagine in most parts of the world. There were some great scriptures shared. The bishop shared his dream of filling the chapel and the overflow with people and testified that we can only have that kind of success if we unify ourselves as families and as a ward. A couple things I love about this ward... there are a lot of younger families, which = an awesome primary! Having a lot of youth just adds energy to the whole ward and its something a lot of wards and branches here lack! Also, we have a Ward Choir with 20 people or so that participate! Can you imagine if a 4th of the congregation participated in choir in the Timpview 6th ward? They sang at Ward Conference and actually sounded REALLY GOOD! Wish our Domingos werent so busy so we could participate!
Monday we have a family home evening with a family in our ward with several other families that come as well as any investigators we want to bring. Last week we had a great lesson given by an RM who served in Mendoza who also talked about Unity and related it to the Human body how all the parts need to work together even though some may do more than others, they are all important. We also made a big mess of the house playing with Newtonian Jelly? and finished off the night with home made empanadas! :) Looking forward to tonight!
In Pres. Stapleys emails to all the missionaries lately he has been writing a short little message. Ever since he has been here he has really been stressing the importance of "the doctrine of Christ" as taught in 2 Ne 31. Todays message was about the importance of speaking by the tongues of angels:
"The Doctrine of Christ teaches us that after baptism we can speak with the tongue of angels. I believe that missionaries have a special dispensation that requires them to speak with the tongue of angels. You may remember that Alma the younger was called to repentance by an angel?. Later in his ministry when he was rejected by the people of Ammoniah an angel appeared to him and said (see Alma Chapter 8):
Blessed art though, Alma; therefore lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold I am he that delivered it unto you.
This angel was the same angel that called Alma to repentance. He was then ever present to help Alma in his time of need. It was as though the Angel was always watching over him. If we are worthy we have angels that watch over each of us individually. Also, not only can we as missionaries speak with the tongue of angels, we can also be angels to preach to and care for those who live in our mission. I hope each of us can be diligent in fulfilling this sacred responsibility."
I hope we can all be worthy and seek for the company of angels as we strive to have more unity in our families and in the church!
les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, August 16, 2010
¡Sorpresa! [Surprise!]
Dear Family and Friends
Looks like we have arrived to the final week of summer vacation! Hope you all have enjoyed the warm weather... I am looking forward to some warmer temperatures coming up soon hopefully. It has been an interesting week! I know your all anxious about the surprise but you are just going to have to wait. :)
Elder "Gundy" and I started off the week fantastic and are working hard to meet some high goals that we set. One morning doing contacts we clapped a house that my companion convinced belonged to a drug dealer... when a nice old lady (Ines) answered the door and warmly greeted us "ELDERES!". Thinking we had tracted our way into another inactive member we were a little taken aback but she went on to tell us that it had been 10 years since she had talked with the missionaries and that she always wondered when we would show up at her house again. She told us that she had never gotten baptized (her daughter was) because her husband didnt want her to and that he had passed away several years ago. She was very excited to see us and we set another cita for the next day to meet with her and had a great lesson talking about the Book of Mormon. She has quite a collection of church books and LOVES the hymns. (She actually sang one to us at the door when we first found her). Very neat lady and she seemed very excited to come back to church!
Hump day was fantastic. We had a great morning doing some more contacts as well as the cita with Ines, and in the afternoon we had a Joven in our ward named Martin come with us to several citas. He has his mission call and leaves for Chihuahua Mexico in November... CAPO! We had a good lesson with an "eternal investigator" that the missionaries have been teaching for a long time, then he had to leave to go to school. That evening a member invited us over and made a cake for us for Hump Day and we played a card game with them. We got back to the pension and planned. Talked with the other Elders a bit and got all ready for bed. Around 10:20 we got a call from Pres. Stapley... SURPRISE! He said he needed to do an emergency transfer that affected us and informed me that I would be transfered to Wilde in Avellaneda to be with an Elder Alvarez who has 3 months in the mission. Apparently his companion has had some problems with his knee... but since then I have heard they hadnt gotten along well with each other. Anyways, I spent a good part of the night packing and got very little sleep before we had to be in Banfield to make the change at 10 the next morning. It is hard enough leaving an area for a normal transfer when you have time to say goodbye to people, take pictures, exchange information, etc. but I didnt get to do ANY of that and admittedly I was a pretty sad/frustrated with the change.
So now I am here in Wilde... and I actually like it a lot! My companion is awesome. He is from Neuquen Argentina (down south in the Patagonia). He is the only member in his family, but since he has been in the mission his parents have started going to church. He was baptized 8 years ago when he was 12 years old and I guess has been really active ever since! I am learning a ton about the culture from him and all kinds of nifty new words. :) Our area is FANTASTIC. The members here are great and our lunch citas every day are fantastic. Everyone has been really suprised about the chance but they have been very welcoming. In church this Sunday I got the good old welcome to the ward/bear your testimony deal! We had 5 investigators in church... and should be baptizing 2 of them in the next couple weeks! We are very close to Capital Federal so our area is in the Big City. Today for Pday we played some soccer then went to a NICE mall close to our area to eat lunch. It seems to be a nicer area and for the most part very clean... but we still have some CRAZY villa to keep things interesting. My only complaint is not having hot water to shower the last 2 days... brrrr.
Anyways, short on time again.... enjoy your last week of summer vacation and hope to hear from you all soon!
les amo,
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Looks like we have arrived to the final week of summer vacation! Hope you all have enjoyed the warm weather... I am looking forward to some warmer temperatures coming up soon hopefully. It has been an interesting week! I know your all anxious about the surprise but you are just going to have to wait. :)
Elder "Gundy" and I started off the week fantastic and are working hard to meet some high goals that we set. One morning doing contacts we clapped a house that my companion convinced belonged to a drug dealer... when a nice old lady (Ines) answered the door and warmly greeted us "ELDERES!". Thinking we had tracted our way into another inactive member we were a little taken aback but she went on to tell us that it had been 10 years since she had talked with the missionaries and that she always wondered when we would show up at her house again. She told us that she had never gotten baptized (her daughter was) because her husband didnt want her to and that he had passed away several years ago. She was very excited to see us and we set another cita for the next day to meet with her and had a great lesson talking about the Book of Mormon. She has quite a collection of church books and LOVES the hymns. (She actually sang one to us at the door when we first found her). Very neat lady and she seemed very excited to come back to church!
Hump day was fantastic. We had a great morning doing some more contacts as well as the cita with Ines, and in the afternoon we had a Joven in our ward named Martin come with us to several citas. He has his mission call and leaves for Chihuahua Mexico in November... CAPO! We had a good lesson with an "eternal investigator" that the missionaries have been teaching for a long time, then he had to leave to go to school. That evening a member invited us over and made a cake for us for Hump Day and we played a card game with them. We got back to the pension and planned. Talked with the other Elders a bit and got all ready for bed. Around 10:20 we got a call from Pres. Stapley... SURPRISE! He said he needed to do an emergency transfer that affected us and informed me that I would be transfered to Wilde in Avellaneda to be with an Elder Alvarez who has 3 months in the mission. Apparently his companion has had some problems with his knee... but since then I have heard they hadnt gotten along well with each other. Anyways, I spent a good part of the night packing and got very little sleep before we had to be in Banfield to make the change at 10 the next morning. It is hard enough leaving an area for a normal transfer when you have time to say goodbye to people, take pictures, exchange information, etc. but I didnt get to do ANY of that and admittedly I was a pretty sad/frustrated with the change.
So now I am here in Wilde... and I actually like it a lot! My companion is awesome. He is from Neuquen Argentina (down south in the Patagonia). He is the only member in his family, but since he has been in the mission his parents have started going to church. He was baptized 8 years ago when he was 12 years old and I guess has been really active ever since! I am learning a ton about the culture from him and all kinds of nifty new words. :) Our area is FANTASTIC. The members here are great and our lunch citas every day are fantastic. Everyone has been really suprised about the chance but they have been very welcoming. In church this Sunday I got the good old welcome to the ward/bear your testimony deal! We had 5 investigators in church... and should be baptizing 2 of them in the next couple weeks! We are very close to Capital Federal so our area is in the Big City. Today for Pday we played some soccer then went to a NICE mall close to our area to eat lunch. It seems to be a nicer area and for the most part very clean... but we still have some CRAZY villa to keep things interesting. My only complaint is not having hot water to shower the last 2 days... brrrr.
Anyways, short on time again.... enjoy your last week of summer vacation and hope to hear from you all soon!
les amo,
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, August 9, 2010
¡1 AÑO YA! [One Year Already!]
Dear family and friends,
Good to hear from you this week Mom and Kristine! Exciting news hearing about my new cousin Marissa! ... would love to see some pictures! :) I´m sure it was nice being able to get away to be able to help and spend some time with family. Tell everyone hello for me! The lightning storms also sound like fun, I saw some pretty spectacular ones in the Coast.
It´s hard to believe a year ago today we were all together preparing my stuff to leave... and on Thursday it will have been exactly 1 year from the MTC curbside drop-off! The time is truly flying and I´m trying to make the most of every minute I have left! This past week I have been able to spend some time looking over my goals and revising/setting new ones. It´s always hard to recognize the change that happens in oneself, but I can definitely say I have had experiences and learned lessons that I will treasure for the rest of my life! Hopefully between my journal and pictures I can have some good recuerdos of life in the mission. There´s certaintly nothing else like it.
This week was full of some success and some disappointments. (what week isn´t?) We lost a couple really good investigators this week, one is going back to Paraguay to take care of her sister, and another basically confessed her love for my companion and... we´ll leave it at that. On the bright side of things we found some great people this week and are having to have a schedule full of citas!
Our first Zone Meeting for this transfer on Thursday went really well and we focused on 4 principles that Pres. Stapley has promised that in turn will help us be more successful missonaries. Understanding the Doctrine of Christ (see 2 Ne. 31), Charity, Obedience, Following and working with the Holy Ghost. The focus of this week was Charity. Loving others as Christ loves them is critical for us as missionaries, but is also a commandment for all of us as members of the church. Moroni 7:43-48 teaches us some great lessons about Charity. Charity, is the greatest of all the spiritual gifts given by our Heavenly Father, and Moroni invites us to ask Him for more charity with all the energy of our souls. Our Branch Pres. in the MTC always talked to us of the importance to pray for Charity every day. There are also great blessings promised to those who develop this gift of Charity and all of us will always have space to improve.
Spent the morning doing some much needed cleaning. I think I swept up a whole kilo of dirt throughout the whole pension. It will be nice to enjoy the cleanliness for a bit, but I don´t imagine it will last too long. Highlight of today: Elder Gundestrup and I made a trip to a store called Makro in our area about 10 blocks from where we live. It´s basically just like Costco, a wholesale type store, a little smaller, with a lot less selection, and of course spanish music playing throughout the store. A member in our ward let us borrow her membership card and I found a couple "treasures" that made it worth the trip. (including 100% juice of Orange and Grapefruit, Big box of TRIX).
Anyways, looks like I´m out of time once again and my stomache is telling me I´m running a bit behind on getting some lunch. Looking forward to hearing from you all next week! Be careful and enjoy your last couple weeks of summer!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Good to hear from you this week Mom and Kristine! Exciting news hearing about my new cousin Marissa! ... would love to see some pictures! :) I´m sure it was nice being able to get away to be able to help and spend some time with family. Tell everyone hello for me! The lightning storms also sound like fun, I saw some pretty spectacular ones in the Coast.
It´s hard to believe a year ago today we were all together preparing my stuff to leave... and on Thursday it will have been exactly 1 year from the MTC curbside drop-off! The time is truly flying and I´m trying to make the most of every minute I have left! This past week I have been able to spend some time looking over my goals and revising/setting new ones. It´s always hard to recognize the change that happens in oneself, but I can definitely say I have had experiences and learned lessons that I will treasure for the rest of my life! Hopefully between my journal and pictures I can have some good recuerdos of life in the mission. There´s certaintly nothing else like it.
This week was full of some success and some disappointments. (what week isn´t?) We lost a couple really good investigators this week, one is going back to Paraguay to take care of her sister, and another basically confessed her love for my companion and... we´ll leave it at that. On the bright side of things we found some great people this week and are having to have a schedule full of citas!
Our first Zone Meeting for this transfer on Thursday went really well and we focused on 4 principles that Pres. Stapley has promised that in turn will help us be more successful missonaries. Understanding the Doctrine of Christ (see 2 Ne. 31), Charity, Obedience, Following and working with the Holy Ghost. The focus of this week was Charity. Loving others as Christ loves them is critical for us as missionaries, but is also a commandment for all of us as members of the church. Moroni 7:43-48 teaches us some great lessons about Charity. Charity, is the greatest of all the spiritual gifts given by our Heavenly Father, and Moroni invites us to ask Him for more charity with all the energy of our souls. Our Branch Pres. in the MTC always talked to us of the importance to pray for Charity every day. There are also great blessings promised to those who develop this gift of Charity and all of us will always have space to improve.
Spent the morning doing some much needed cleaning. I think I swept up a whole kilo of dirt throughout the whole pension. It will be nice to enjoy the cleanliness for a bit, but I don´t imagine it will last too long. Highlight of today: Elder Gundestrup and I made a trip to a store called Makro in our area about 10 blocks from where we live. It´s basically just like Costco, a wholesale type store, a little smaller, with a lot less selection, and of course spanish music playing throughout the store. A member in our ward let us borrow her membership card and I found a couple "treasures" that made it worth the trip. (including 100% juice of Orange and Grapefruit, Big box of TRIX).
Anyways, looks like I´m out of time once again and my stomache is telling me I´m running a bit behind on getting some lunch. Looking forward to hearing from you all next week! Be careful and enjoy your last couple weeks of summer!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, August 2, 2010
No hay ningun cambio [No changes]
Queridos amigos,
Somehow another transfer has passed me by and it looks like Elder Gundestrup and I will stay together another transfer here in Parque Barón. I think he is a little frustrated to be staying in the zone another transfer seeing as he has been here since January. At least it should be fun to be able to celebrate our "hump day" together next Thursday.
Today we had a great transfer meeting here in Banfield and as always it´s fun to see old companions and friends I´ve made in the mission. Elder Day came up from the coast to receive a greenie and will be spending the evening working with us in our area. I always love hearing the testimonies of the Elders that are going home, and this time around 2 of the Elders that were Zone leaders when I was in the coast are headed home. Filling all the tables upstairs at Burger King with over 100 missionaries is another highlight of transfer meetings.
This week we found a great couple that we had done a contact with the wife several weeks ago. We were working in the area near their house and felt that we should pass by and see if they were home. The husband (Santos) who we hadn´t talked to before answered the door and seemed really confused when we asked if Maria was home. He asked us what we wanted and when we told him that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ his attitude completely changed and to our surprise invited us into their house. He told us they never let any one into their house and that they had spoken to people from all different churches before, but that they had seen us around before and always wanted to know what we believed in. We had a great chat with them and they had some really good questions. They seemed really excited about the Book of Mormon and we left a chapter for them to read that hopefully they will be able to find the answers to a lot of the questions they have.
I was able to finish the Book of Mormon again this week and it was amazing as I read it this time to focus in the things that it teaches us about Jesus Christ, and especially the Atonement. I am convinced there is no better way to get to know Him better than by reading His words and following His example.
Hope you all have a great week and enjoy your last couple weeks of summer! (I can´t believe it´s over already, seems like just yesterday I was hearing about Kristens graduation)
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Somehow another transfer has passed me by and it looks like Elder Gundestrup and I will stay together another transfer here in Parque Barón. I think he is a little frustrated to be staying in the zone another transfer seeing as he has been here since January. At least it should be fun to be able to celebrate our "hump day" together next Thursday.
Today we had a great transfer meeting here in Banfield and as always it´s fun to see old companions and friends I´ve made in the mission. Elder Day came up from the coast to receive a greenie and will be spending the evening working with us in our area. I always love hearing the testimonies of the Elders that are going home, and this time around 2 of the Elders that were Zone leaders when I was in the coast are headed home. Filling all the tables upstairs at Burger King with over 100 missionaries is another highlight of transfer meetings.
This week we found a great couple that we had done a contact with the wife several weeks ago. We were working in the area near their house and felt that we should pass by and see if they were home. The husband (Santos) who we hadn´t talked to before answered the door and seemed really confused when we asked if Maria was home. He asked us what we wanted and when we told him that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ his attitude completely changed and to our surprise invited us into their house. He told us they never let any one into their house and that they had spoken to people from all different churches before, but that they had seen us around before and always wanted to know what we believed in. We had a great chat with them and they had some really good questions. They seemed really excited about the Book of Mormon and we left a chapter for them to read that hopefully they will be able to find the answers to a lot of the questions they have.
I was able to finish the Book of Mormon again this week and it was amazing as I read it this time to focus in the things that it teaches us about Jesus Christ, and especially the Atonement. I am convinced there is no better way to get to know Him better than by reading His words and following His example.
Hope you all have a great week and enjoy your last couple weeks of summer! (I can´t believe it´s over already, seems like just yesterday I was hearing about Kristens graduation)
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, July 26, 2010
¡Volví a Fiorito!
Dear Family and Friends,
Hope you all enjoyed your Pioneer Day weekend and have made a good start on another great week! I can hardly believe that it is the last week of transfers again and in a little over 2 weeks I will complete 1 year in the mission! Crazy how the time flies. I am hoping to have another transfer with Elder Gundestrup but he has been in the zone since January so it´s pretty likely he will be transfered.
This week was pretty exciting. I spent Tuesday afternoon and night as well as half the day Wednesday working in my first area in Fiorito on intercambios with Elder Connolley. It was crazy to see all the familiar places. Not much has really changed in the last 7 months that I was away. We were lucky enough to have the assignment of passing out invitations for Branch Conference, so it was fun to get to see and visit with a lot of the members and actually be able to talk with and understand them! We also passed by several families I had taught when I was there but they weren´t home. :(
Thursday morning we got to go do service for some members, which is always a nice change of pace and they fed us lunch. :) In the afternoon my companion was sick in bed so I was able to make some good progress on my Book of Mormon reading and finished it the next day! My testimony is strengthened each day that I read from it and there is always so much more to learn! I have also begun to study Preach My Gospel again from the beginning and am always excited to be learning and improving myself and my abilities to be a more effective instrument in the Lord´s hands.
Anyways, sorry this is short. My comp is already out the door.... Hope you all have a great week!
Les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Hope you all enjoyed your Pioneer Day weekend and have made a good start on another great week! I can hardly believe that it is the last week of transfers again and in a little over 2 weeks I will complete 1 year in the mission! Crazy how the time flies. I am hoping to have another transfer with Elder Gundestrup but he has been in the zone since January so it´s pretty likely he will be transfered.
This week was pretty exciting. I spent Tuesday afternoon and night as well as half the day Wednesday working in my first area in Fiorito on intercambios with Elder Connolley. It was crazy to see all the familiar places. Not much has really changed in the last 7 months that I was away. We were lucky enough to have the assignment of passing out invitations for Branch Conference, so it was fun to get to see and visit with a lot of the members and actually be able to talk with and understand them! We also passed by several families I had taught when I was there but they weren´t home. :(
Thursday morning we got to go do service for some members, which is always a nice change of pace and they fed us lunch. :) In the afternoon my companion was sick in bed so I was able to make some good progress on my Book of Mormon reading and finished it the next day! My testimony is strengthened each day that I read from it and there is always so much more to learn! I have also begun to study Preach My Gospel again from the beginning and am always excited to be learning and improving myself and my abilities to be a more effective instrument in the Lord´s hands.
Anyways, sorry this is short. My comp is already out the door.... Hope you all have a great week!
Les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, July 19, 2010
Nuevo Pres. Stapley
Dear family and friends,
Another cold rainy week and as always I am rushed to write this and get back to my area to go to work! With the rain the last couple days we have discovered some new holes in the roof of our pension and I got a nice cold shower this morning while I was cooking my oatmeal in the kitchen. Luckily it hasn´t rained enough to flood the streets, but from what I have heard the city I am in (Lomas de Zamora) is famous in Argentina for their flooded streets.
The highlight of this week was definitely our Zone Conference Tuesday morning with Pres. Stapley. Before the meeting started he and his wife went around to each missionary from the 4 zones that were there (40-50 missionaries) and briefly got to know us! Embarassing story... his wife got to me before he did and asked me what my name was, which i thought was odd since we all wear name tags. I must have had a really confused look on my face because she didn´t give me too long to react before she asked "where is your plack elder?" Then I realized I had taken my coat off with my name tag still on it. I guess I should consider myself lucky to have her notice before President! They are great people and his wife actually speaks really good spanish and I imagine will learn quickily seeing as she already speaks 2 other languages besides english (one being portugues helps too).
There were several great messages shared and all of Pres Stapleys presentations were very business man like (HE was the CEO of Deseret Mutual for 12 years or so). He gave us 2 spider web charts... the 5 focuses of the mission and the 5 principles to be more effective missionaries. (Maybe you´ve already seen them dad in La Estrella). He also commited us all to read 2 Nephi 31 five times during the week and that the principles in that chapter are what we need to improve as a mission. Very inspired and inspiring message! There were also some interesting changes made... such as Zone Conferences and Interviews will now be held once every 3 months instead of once a transfer cycle. Also the first presidency wants us to be focusing even more in Preach My Gospel and they have come up with 8 new Workshops for missionaries to apply the principles taught in the book that we will be doing in Zone meetings, District meetings etc.
Overall it was great getting to know Pres. y Hna Stapley a little bit and I am looking forward to the many things that I will be able to learn from both of them!
Anyways other than that it´s been a pretty normal week! Hope you are enjoying the busy summer and keeping nice and warm for me!
Les amo,
Elder Wheelhouse
Another cold rainy week and as always I am rushed to write this and get back to my area to go to work! With the rain the last couple days we have discovered some new holes in the roof of our pension and I got a nice cold shower this morning while I was cooking my oatmeal in the kitchen. Luckily it hasn´t rained enough to flood the streets, but from what I have heard the city I am in (Lomas de Zamora) is famous in Argentina for their flooded streets.
The highlight of this week was definitely our Zone Conference Tuesday morning with Pres. Stapley. Before the meeting started he and his wife went around to each missionary from the 4 zones that were there (40-50 missionaries) and briefly got to know us! Embarassing story... his wife got to me before he did and asked me what my name was, which i thought was odd since we all wear name tags. I must have had a really confused look on my face because she didn´t give me too long to react before she asked "where is your plack elder?" Then I realized I had taken my coat off with my name tag still on it. I guess I should consider myself lucky to have her notice before President! They are great people and his wife actually speaks really good spanish and I imagine will learn quickily seeing as she already speaks 2 other languages besides english (one being portugues helps too).
There were several great messages shared and all of Pres Stapleys presentations were very business man like (HE was the CEO of Deseret Mutual for 12 years or so). He gave us 2 spider web charts... the 5 focuses of the mission and the 5 principles to be more effective missionaries. (Maybe you´ve already seen them dad in La Estrella). He also commited us all to read 2 Nephi 31 five times during the week and that the principles in that chapter are what we need to improve as a mission. Very inspired and inspiring message! There were also some interesting changes made... such as Zone Conferences and Interviews will now be held once every 3 months instead of once a transfer cycle. Also the first presidency wants us to be focusing even more in Preach My Gospel and they have come up with 8 new Workshops for missionaries to apply the principles taught in the book that we will be doing in Zone meetings, District meetings etc.
Overall it was great getting to know Pres. y Hna Stapley a little bit and I am looking forward to the many things that I will be able to learn from both of them!
Anyways other than that it´s been a pretty normal week! Hope you are enjoying the busy summer and keeping nice and warm for me!
Les amo,
Elder Wheelhouse
Monday, July 12, 2010
¡11 meces en las misión!
Hello family and friends,
Another cold week here in Argentina with several small (thankfully) rain storms. We are thinking of moving our study desk into our bedroom because it is the only warm room in our pension and the rest of the rooms are somehow colder than it is outside. Still haven´t brought myself to buy gloves, a beanie, or a scarf... because it still hasn´t gotten "that cold". I suppose I am better off being prepared than finding myself without when that day comes.
This week we actually had a service activity... it´s been way too long! I always try to offer to help with stuff but usually people just turn it down. We didn´t have a lot of time to help (a little over an hour before lunch) but we were able to get quite a bit done helping them get a couple rooms in their house ready to paint. All that experience from working at home helped pay off and it felt good that I actually knew what I was doing!
This Sunday Norma came to church again (the one that came with her friend last week). She was actually a little angry because we didn´t show up for our cita... but here is what happened. She lives in an apartment building in our area on the 8th floor. Apartment buildings here are always locked, so you have to ring a bell/intercom thing at the building entrance to have them unlock the door for you. We showed up to the cita on time and with a member y rang the bell several times with no answer. We even went by her friends house to get her phone number but she wasn´t home either. So we ended up just going on with our day assuming that she wasn´t home and forgot about our cita. Luckily she was understanding and so we got her phone number and hopefully we won´t have the same problem again!
This week was also Independence Day here... but I was suprised they didn´t really do anything to celebrate. Just another day to get off work and relax and drink mate. Luckily the World Cup is now officially over so the work should pick up a bit this week! ¡Aguante España! The people here seem pretty content that at least a spanish speaking country won. Also everyone was impressed by "el pulpo" in Germany that guessed so many games right. (I dont know if you´ve heard much about that in the states but it´s BIG NEWS here)
Anyways, short email this week but it was good to hear from all of you and looking forward to hearing from you again next week! Should have some news about our new mission president and I´m looking forward to meeting him tomorrow at Zone Conference!
¡Les amo!
Elder Wheelhouse
Another cold week here in Argentina with several small (thankfully) rain storms. We are thinking of moving our study desk into our bedroom because it is the only warm room in our pension and the rest of the rooms are somehow colder than it is outside. Still haven´t brought myself to buy gloves, a beanie, or a scarf... because it still hasn´t gotten "that cold". I suppose I am better off being prepared than finding myself without when that day comes.
This week we actually had a service activity... it´s been way too long! I always try to offer to help with stuff but usually people just turn it down. We didn´t have a lot of time to help (a little over an hour before lunch) but we were able to get quite a bit done helping them get a couple rooms in their house ready to paint. All that experience from working at home helped pay off and it felt good that I actually knew what I was doing!
This Sunday Norma came to church again (the one that came with her friend last week). She was actually a little angry because we didn´t show up for our cita... but here is what happened. She lives in an apartment building in our area on the 8th floor. Apartment buildings here are always locked, so you have to ring a bell/intercom thing at the building entrance to have them unlock the door for you. We showed up to the cita on time and with a member y rang the bell several times with no answer. We even went by her friends house to get her phone number but she wasn´t home either. So we ended up just going on with our day assuming that she wasn´t home and forgot about our cita. Luckily she was understanding and so we got her phone number and hopefully we won´t have the same problem again!
This week was also Independence Day here... but I was suprised they didn´t really do anything to celebrate. Just another day to get off work and relax and drink mate. Luckily the World Cup is now officially over so the work should pick up a bit this week! ¡Aguante España! The people here seem pretty content that at least a spanish speaking country won. Also everyone was impressed by "el pulpo" in Germany that guessed so many games right. (I dont know if you´ve heard much about that in the states but it´s BIG NEWS here)
Anyways, short email this week but it was good to hear from all of you and looking forward to hearing from you again next week! Should have some news about our new mission president and I´m looking forward to meeting him tomorrow at Zone Conference!
¡Les amo!
Elder Wheelhouse
Monday, July 5, 2010
FW: ¡Feliz 9 de Julio!
Dear family and friends,
Hope you all enjoyed a fantastic 4th of July and all the festivities that come with it! This week Argentina also celebrates 200 years of independence from Spain on the 9th of July. Somehow I think the celebration just won´t be quite the same. The people of Argentina are very prideful of their country, but patriotic... not exactly. I could sure go for a nice firework show and a good american barbeque right now!
Weather wise this past week has actually been very warm, to the point that I had to dig out my short sleeve shirts. A couple overcast days but luckily no rain. (The streets in our area flood really bad when it rains, i´m sure I will get some pictures of it at some point.) I must say the weather here is just as unpredictable as Utah. It´s looking like it will be a pretty mild winter!
Pres. Asay has been home for almost a week now, and Pres. Stapley won´t get here until Thursday due to visa problems. Next week we will be the first zone to have Zone Conference with the new President, so I´m looking forward to getting to know him.
Pretty interesting weekend with Argentina getting eliminated from the World Cup by Germany 4-0. As you can imagine the people were not very happy, and there was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Luckily the drunk people were nice enough to ask us if we were Germans, being American just happened to save my life this week! We still had some people yell some pretty nasty stuff at us in English... which makes me think that a lot of the people here think that Germans speak English. I have no doubt the Lord watches over and protects us here each day and I´m grateful for your prayers in our behalf!
We have had some successes in the work this week. One day working in the richer part of our area we were walking down the street and we saw a really cool japanese carving in the door. We decided to "clap it" and talked with an elderly lady who said she had a dream of 2 young men coming to her house to talk to her about God. She has a lot of questions and we are looking forward to meeting with her again this Wednesday. Also this Sunday we had the all to rare occurance of a member actually bringing a friend to church!! (I still don´t know all the members so I had no idea she was even there at first). Luckily another member pointed her out to us and we were able to talk to her and had a great lesson with her on Prayer in Sunday School. We gave her her own Book of Mormon to use during the class which she was pretty excited about, and set a cita to go meet with her and her daughter this Friday. She has already made some other friends in the church as well who offered to come with us to the cita!
In my personal study on Wednesday I started reading through a fresh paperback copy of the Book of Mormon and marking all the names and references of Jesus Christ. From the very first page to the beginning of Mosiah I have only found 1 page that didn´t have a single one. It has really opened my eyes to realize that the book really contains the words of God as given to his prophets, and that they were obedient in writing the things that HE taught them although they didn´t always understand the reason. I have gained a strong testimony and love for the Book of Mormon and hope to continue to "master" it throughout my mission and throughout my life.
Hope you all have a great week!
Les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Hope you all enjoyed a fantastic 4th of July and all the festivities that come with it! This week Argentina also celebrates 200 years of independence from Spain on the 9th of July. Somehow I think the celebration just won´t be quite the same. The people of Argentina are very prideful of their country, but patriotic... not exactly. I could sure go for a nice firework show and a good american barbeque right now!
Weather wise this past week has actually been very warm, to the point that I had to dig out my short sleeve shirts. A couple overcast days but luckily no rain. (The streets in our area flood really bad when it rains, i´m sure I will get some pictures of it at some point.) I must say the weather here is just as unpredictable as Utah. It´s looking like it will be a pretty mild winter!
Pres. Asay has been home for almost a week now, and Pres. Stapley won´t get here until Thursday due to visa problems. Next week we will be the first zone to have Zone Conference with the new President, so I´m looking forward to getting to know him.
Pretty interesting weekend with Argentina getting eliminated from the World Cup by Germany 4-0. As you can imagine the people were not very happy, and there was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Luckily the drunk people were nice enough to ask us if we were Germans, being American just happened to save my life this week! We still had some people yell some pretty nasty stuff at us in English... which makes me think that a lot of the people here think that Germans speak English. I have no doubt the Lord watches over and protects us here each day and I´m grateful for your prayers in our behalf!
We have had some successes in the work this week. One day working in the richer part of our area we were walking down the street and we saw a really cool japanese carving in the door. We decided to "clap it" and talked with an elderly lady who said she had a dream of 2 young men coming to her house to talk to her about God. She has a lot of questions and we are looking forward to meeting with her again this Wednesday. Also this Sunday we had the all to rare occurance of a member actually bringing a friend to church!! (I still don´t know all the members so I had no idea she was even there at first). Luckily another member pointed her out to us and we were able to talk to her and had a great lesson with her on Prayer in Sunday School. We gave her her own Book of Mormon to use during the class which she was pretty excited about, and set a cita to go meet with her and her daughter this Friday. She has already made some other friends in the church as well who offered to come with us to the cita!
In my personal study on Wednesday I started reading through a fresh paperback copy of the Book of Mormon and marking all the names and references of Jesus Christ. From the very first page to the beginning of Mosiah I have only found 1 page that didn´t have a single one. It has really opened my eyes to realize that the book really contains the words of God as given to his prophets, and that they were obedient in writing the things that HE taught them although they didn´t always understand the reason. I have gained a strong testimony and love for the Book of Mormon and hope to continue to "master" it throughout my mission and throughout my life.
Hope you all have a great week!
Les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Sorry!
Hey family and friends. I am alive and doing well. We just had a crazy day yesterday and weren't able to make it to do internet before it was time to go out to work, so i have just a minute right now to let you all know nothing happened! I love my new area! It is a mix of really rich and really poor areas, but the people are super friendly and its nice having lunch citas every day! And no we weren't really dying of hunger in my last area, Elder McClurg is just getting used to the new meal schedule of eating a somewhat big lunch and then not having dinner... after being accustomed to having food whenever he wanted in the Provo mission. Everyone goes through it, just a little bit bigger adjustment for him. My new companion is awesome! We are having fun in our pension of 4 elders. The other companionship is a brand new elder and his companion is a district leader in our zone. Our pension is HUGE and very dirty (We will see what i can do about that) and luckily our bedroom is the warmest room in the whole place. :) The rest of the pension is very cold, usually colder than it is outside... The last 2 days we have had activities in Lanus, and on the bus ride there we pass through Fiorito, so it was pretty crazy passing by all the places where I used to work! Looking forward to doing intercambios with my district leader in that area and being able to pass by some of those families now that I can actually talk to them. :) Anyways, I was really hoping to write more and to send some pictures home this week but I guess it will have to wait again. I love you all!
Les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, June 21, 2010
Back to the mainland!
Hello family and friends!
Hope you all had a great fathers day and what sounds like another busy week! Here in Argentina we are celebrating the first day as winter as well as Flag Day, which was supposed to be yesterday but got moved to today to not conflict with fathers day. I guess the biggest news for this week is transfers. I said goodbye to Santa Teresita yesterday, and will likely never enjoy living so close to a beach ever again in my whole life! I am in a new area called Parque Baron in the zone of Banfield (my first zone) with Elder Gundestrup from Riverton, Utah. I will likely get to do "intercambios" in Fiorito from time to time, and am very much looking forward to that. :) I haven´t been to my area yet, so can´t really tell you much about how it is, but I will definitely have to adapt to the busy/upbeat/crowded lifestyle of Buenos Aires again. It has really been a shock seeing so many people in the streets!
This last week with Elder McClurg has been great. It really was such a blessing and privilege to get to serve with him. We had 3 investigators at church yesterday, Julio y Carolina came with their family, and I gave my 5th and final talk in the area. Of course it was tough to say goodbye to the families and investigators I have come to love in the last 6 months, but it is good to know that they are in good hands with Elder McClurg! We have had some success in the area but it definitely has not come easily. We have several investigators who could be ready for baptism next transfer and it has been a great strength to me to be able to find and teach these people who the Lord has prepared.
We stayed in the mission home again last night and enjoyed tasty homemade cinnamon rolls Hna. Asay made for us. We spent the night in an apartment they have behind the mission home y thoroughly enjoyed walking around on CARPET. One of my zone leaders from the coast also stayed with us who is going home today and it was fun talking to him and hearing some of his experiences and wisdom he has gained in the mission. Woke up to a nice HOT shower and Oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. Hermana Asay takes good care of us. :)
Today we had transfer meeting, the first one I have been to since I went down to the coast. It was great to see all my buddies from the MTC and my old companions. There is always a great spirit their hearing from all the missionaries who are going home and to hear from Pres. y Hna. Asay. It was extra special this time since it is their "farewell" as well as another couple from Orem who has been serving in the offices. Hna Asay also gave out hugs to every missionary. They will definitely be grately missed. It is weird to think that the President I will have for the majority of my mission isn´t even here yet!
Have a great week! Thank you for your prayers!
Les amo,
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
PS I got my package today and am looking forward very much to make some hot chocolate tonight. :)
Hope you all had a great fathers day and what sounds like another busy week! Here in Argentina we are celebrating the first day as winter as well as Flag Day, which was supposed to be yesterday but got moved to today to not conflict with fathers day. I guess the biggest news for this week is transfers. I said goodbye to Santa Teresita yesterday, and will likely never enjoy living so close to a beach ever again in my whole life! I am in a new area called Parque Baron in the zone of Banfield (my first zone) with Elder Gundestrup from Riverton, Utah. I will likely get to do "intercambios" in Fiorito from time to time, and am very much looking forward to that. :) I haven´t been to my area yet, so can´t really tell you much about how it is, but I will definitely have to adapt to the busy/upbeat/crowded lifestyle of Buenos Aires again. It has really been a shock seeing so many people in the streets!
This last week with Elder McClurg has been great. It really was such a blessing and privilege to get to serve with him. We had 3 investigators at church yesterday, Julio y Carolina came with their family, and I gave my 5th and final talk in the area. Of course it was tough to say goodbye to the families and investigators I have come to love in the last 6 months, but it is good to know that they are in good hands with Elder McClurg! We have had some success in the area but it definitely has not come easily. We have several investigators who could be ready for baptism next transfer and it has been a great strength to me to be able to find and teach these people who the Lord has prepared.
We stayed in the mission home again last night and enjoyed tasty homemade cinnamon rolls Hna. Asay made for us. We spent the night in an apartment they have behind the mission home y thoroughly enjoyed walking around on CARPET. One of my zone leaders from the coast also stayed with us who is going home today and it was fun talking to him and hearing some of his experiences and wisdom he has gained in the mission. Woke up to a nice HOT shower and Oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. Hermana Asay takes good care of us. :)
Today we had transfer meeting, the first one I have been to since I went down to the coast. It was great to see all my buddies from the MTC and my old companions. There is always a great spirit their hearing from all the missionaries who are going home and to hear from Pres. y Hna. Asay. It was extra special this time since it is their "farewell" as well as another couple from Orem who has been serving in the offices. Hna Asay also gave out hugs to every missionary. They will definitely be grately missed. It is weird to think that the President I will have for the majority of my mission isn´t even here yet!
Have a great week! Thank you for your prayers!
Les amo,
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
PS I got my package today and am looking forward very much to make some hot chocolate tonight. :)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Rain rain go away!
Hello Family and Friends!
Sounds like we have had some similar weather this week! We´ve had a lot of rain these last several days but somehow i´ve managed to keep at least one of my pairs of dress shoes nice and dry thank goodness. I figure I´m a bit overdue for the colder weather and it was nice enjoying 2 summers in a row. (Elder McClurg has had 2 winters in a row, poor guy) Luckily I´ve got some good gear and when I´m all bundled up I stay good and warm. :) With transfers coming up this weekend, this could be my last week writing to you from the Coast!
This week we had to make yet ANOTHER trip to capital. Luckily we got to make the trip up there in a car with Elder y Hna Fitch who came down to the coast this week to inspect all the pensions. Mom you would be very proud, they even said we had the cleanest one! It was fun getting to know them and they even took us out for McDonalds, which after 6 months of not having any, tasted REALLY GOOD. They had some great stories and have a strong testimony of the importance of doing what you know is right even when you may not want to do it. They have a great missionary family, both of them having served missions in addition to this one, and 7 kids, 6 of which served missions. All 7 have been married in the temple and they are excited to be going home this next week with Pres. y Hna. Asay to be with their families again. That night we ended up staying with a couple of the office elders again and worked with them in their area for a bit. After we had a little pizza party before going to bed.
The next day we woke up bright and early to make the trip to capital so Elder McClurg could get finger printed again. There is a member who lives close to the offices that the mission always calls to run the missionaries around whenever we need to go to downtown (the driving here is INSANE). We went to the Church Offices of all of South America I think which is in Palermo (Very nice part of capital). We met some awesome Senior Couples, one of which teaches piano for their mission. We also found out that Elder Neil A Andersen happened to be there that same day, but we never did see him. We also had the lovely experience of going to an Argentine jail in downtown Buenos Aires where we had his fingerprints done. Definitely not a place I would ever like to visit again, but the officer who helped us was very friendly. One building we went to our Taxi driver parked his car in the far right lane of the street with his emergency flashers on because there was no where to park. He told me to sit in the drivers seat while they ran inside and told me if the police came to just say "ya me voy" and nothing else. Luckily the police never came!
Even with the rain and losing a lot of working time due to travel we had a pretty good week. The families we are teaching are continuing to progress but unfortunately still haven´t made it to church. Church this week was great. We had 2 great talks in sacrament meeting, one about controlling our Anger and the other about Fasting and Prayer. We hope to see some of our investigators in church next week for what could be my last Sunday here! Also we have the assignment to speak next week for Fathers Day. I´m assuming it´s Father´s day there as well? If it is, hope you all have a Happy Fathers Day!
¡Les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Sounds like we have had some similar weather this week! We´ve had a lot of rain these last several days but somehow i´ve managed to keep at least one of my pairs of dress shoes nice and dry thank goodness. I figure I´m a bit overdue for the colder weather and it was nice enjoying 2 summers in a row. (Elder McClurg has had 2 winters in a row, poor guy) Luckily I´ve got some good gear and when I´m all bundled up I stay good and warm. :) With transfers coming up this weekend, this could be my last week writing to you from the Coast!
This week we had to make yet ANOTHER trip to capital. Luckily we got to make the trip up there in a car with Elder y Hna Fitch who came down to the coast this week to inspect all the pensions. Mom you would be very proud, they even said we had the cleanest one! It was fun getting to know them and they even took us out for McDonalds, which after 6 months of not having any, tasted REALLY GOOD. They had some great stories and have a strong testimony of the importance of doing what you know is right even when you may not want to do it. They have a great missionary family, both of them having served missions in addition to this one, and 7 kids, 6 of which served missions. All 7 have been married in the temple and they are excited to be going home this next week with Pres. y Hna. Asay to be with their families again. That night we ended up staying with a couple of the office elders again and worked with them in their area for a bit. After we had a little pizza party before going to bed.
The next day we woke up bright and early to make the trip to capital so Elder McClurg could get finger printed again. There is a member who lives close to the offices that the mission always calls to run the missionaries around whenever we need to go to downtown (the driving here is INSANE). We went to the Church Offices of all of South America I think which is in Palermo (Very nice part of capital). We met some awesome Senior Couples, one of which teaches piano for their mission. We also found out that Elder Neil A Andersen happened to be there that same day, but we never did see him. We also had the lovely experience of going to an Argentine jail in downtown Buenos Aires where we had his fingerprints done. Definitely not a place I would ever like to visit again, but the officer who helped us was very friendly. One building we went to our Taxi driver parked his car in the far right lane of the street with his emergency flashers on because there was no where to park. He told me to sit in the drivers seat while they ran inside and told me if the police came to just say "ya me voy" and nothing else. Luckily the police never came!
Even with the rain and losing a lot of working time due to travel we had a pretty good week. The families we are teaching are continuing to progress but unfortunately still haven´t made it to church. Church this week was great. We had 2 great talks in sacrament meeting, one about controlling our Anger and the other about Fasting and Prayer. We hope to see some of our investigators in church next week for what could be my last Sunday here! Also we have the assignment to speak next week for Fathers Day. I´m assuming it´s Father´s day there as well? If it is, hope you all have a Happy Fathers Day!
¡Les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
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