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Dear Family,

It has been a pretty uneventful week to be honest. Overall things are going well and I am happy as can be. Holding up well in the cold weather... but doing laundry is becoming more and more of a burden. 3 more months til Washer y Dryer!!!

Monday - enjoyed playing some Basketball with the Elders in my district as well as some kids from their ward. I was the only "norteamericano" in the group so everyone looked to me expecting me to know how to play, call all the fouls, etc. We had a good time and by the end everyone was playing really well. That night we had the Noche de Hogar with the Familia Silva which went really well. One of the daughters taught the lesson on the Word of Wisdom which I know she did with the intent to try to help her older brothers/sisters who have some problems. Everything went really well and even though they already know that what they are doing is wrong its always good to have that reminder of the many promised blessings that one can only hope to achieve through obedience.

Tuesday turned out to be a very LONG day. We found a great old investigator named María who seemed excited to see us. We taught about the Book of Mormon and about the many answers one can find through prayerfully studying it. She has a son in prison and her daughter is divorced and living with her at home. Very nice lady and she is excited to pick up reading again. That afternoon most of our plans fell through until our Mission Correlation meeting with the Ward Mission Leader that evening. Still working on getting the new "15 Families" program going here in the ward.

Wednesday I woke up early in the morning very sick and spent the day sick in bed. It is flu season here and it seems to be making its way around, but I think what I had was something food related because luckily it was just a one day thing.

Thursday we had Zone meeting y interviews with President Stapley. My companions 2nd interview this transfer since they had interviews in his other area several weeks ago. The Zone Leaders y the Assistants both taught classes that were really good. The Assistants talked about the importance of Time... which I have really started to understand as I come closer and closer to the END of my mission. Great talking to President as well. He let me know that Elder Mendez is doing well at home and that he is going to have his operation soon and hopefully be back in the mission in 6 months or so. Finished late that evening. Got back to our are in time to pay our rent and make several photocopies of papers that we took to Executive Commitee meeting that night.

Friday - Another LONG rough day. Had a great weekly planning in the morning and made plans to start working in several areas that I have hardly worked in during my time here. Hope to see some success. Once again almost all our plans failed us in the evening which is never fun. We decided to pass by several inactive families that I have never met before. One of them apparently doesn´t want anything to do with the church... one of the daughters was leaving the house with her boyfriend just as we showed up... we asked if the Familia San Martin lived there (even though we already knew that they did)... and she lied to our face and walked off. We visited another inactive family who gave us the reference of another Hermano who was very sick and needing a priesthood blessing. We went to the house y the Hermano and his wife both went off talking about how the church doesn´t do anything to help them and no one visits them, although the hermana assured us it was nothing to do with us. We talked about the Atonement a little bit (as much as we could since they didn´t let us talk much) y left 2 chapters in the Book of Mormon for them to read. They were grateful for the visit, but I left the house with a headache. :S

Saturday we had service planned in the morning to help a family in our ward move... who were also going to give us lunch. About 20 min before we were ready to leave they called us letting us know they wouldn´t be moving until next week. Luckily we were able to find things to do to keep us busy in the morning. Visited la Familia Barrios... and inactive family and had a great visit with them. An added blessing... they invited us to stay and eat lunch with them as well y they just happened to be eating a tasty asado. :)

Sunday was OK. Had good turn out for Ward Conference although only 1 investigator came. It was great seeing 2 less active families that we have been working with (Barrios y Insauralde) at church, and Richard Silva was there again. Had some good visits in the afternoon, but not much luck finding new people to teach. The biggest soccer game in Argentina was going on in the afternoon (El Superclasico Boca Juniors vs. River Plate) so people don´t even answer their doors. Highlight of the day was talking to Elder Castro Peña y Elder Alvarez last night on the phone. Both of them seem to be doing really well. Hard to believe they both have 7 months in the mission now!

Anyways, thats all for now. Have a great week! Last week of school right?

les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse