Dear family and friends,
Another week gone by here in El Cruce. The news about transfers today is that there is no news. Elder Castro Peña y I will be staying together another transfer. This last transfer was pretty rough with all the moving so we are looking forward to a nice tranquilo transfer y hoping to have some success! We are still having some HOT summer weather, it has been super humid lately. Hope you are all still enjoying the snow! I would love to have some of that down here!
This week I had my second EVER baptism interview that went really well. It was a lady that the Zone Leaders had been teaching named Lucy. We spent 15 min talking with everyone in her 1 bedroom apartment, then headed up to the roof to have a private place to do the interview. It was amazing to see how well prepared she was and how excited she was about her baptism and the gospel. During the interview however something came up about something she had done in the past that she felt she hadn´t truly repented of. I knew that in the case that something like that came up... Pres. Stapley had to do the interview y I couldn´t make any promises as to whether she would be able to get baptized that Saturday or not, which I knew would be very disappointing for her. From that moment on I was praying very hard to know what to say. I don´t remember exactly what we talked about but everything turned out really well and I felt that she had truly repented of what she had done. She told me several times that she had never told ANYONE in her whole life, and it suprised me to see for one that she trusted me, and 2 that she recognized the importance of being honest y prepared for the covenant she was about to make with God. Long story short, she was able to have an interview with Pres. Stapley the next day and got baptized on Saturday!!
Also some very sad news this week that I want to be brief about... but Monday night I got a call at around 230 in the morning from an Elder in my district who was spending the night with 2 other Elders while his comp went to Capital to do documents. He said that one of the Elders had left around 11 to "go to the plaza to sleep" (weird) y that he still hadn´t returned. Even weirder was that his companion let him go like it was nothing bad at all. I called the Zone Leaders several times with no response so I eventually ended up calling the Assistants (felt bad waking them up, but when it´s an EMERGENCY) who in turn called Pres. Stapley. Around 330 the Elder showed up again at the pension, so I was able to get back to sleep at least... but I know there were several people that weren´t so lucky and didn´t sleep at all that night. The next day I got a call saying that the 2 Elders that were involved were on a plane home... which was actually a big shock because one of them was one of my companions several transfers ago.
Anyways, don´t want to end on a sad note.... Yesterday we also had a cool experience. Before leaving the pension to go to church, my companion y I said a prayer that our investigators, by some MIRACLE, would be able to make it to church that day. When we got to the bus stop we were only there a couple minutes before we saw what we thought was an answer to our prayers. A returned sister missionary walking towards the stop with her inactive brother y her non member mom who is a SUPER evangelist! We had a cita with them the night before and we were thinking MAYBE something we had shared had her interested in coming to church with us. Turns out she was actually headed to a conference at her church... Little disappointing, but we didn´t give up hope. As we were greeting everyone arriving to Sacrament meeting we found that an Hermana had brought one of her friends to church that day, so we were able to talk with her a bit, as well as the daughter of another family who brought her boyfriend who we have recently started to teach! Truly an answer to our prayers. They both enjoyed the church y couldn´t have been a more perfect topic on the talks talking about the Family y preparing for the future.
Anyways, that´s all for this week. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Thank you for all your prayers and support!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Buenas Tardes de "la Plaza de Miserere"
Dear family and friends,
Ok so if the title made you think we already had transfers... SUPRISE! Actually transfers are not till next week. But today I am writing from downtown Buenos Aires from the train station "el Once"! I actually spent the day in the Buenos Aires West mission boundaries with Elder Jeldes from Chile. He is going home next week and got permission from Pres. Stapley to make a trip to "Ituzaingo" to visit his grandpa y for some reason Pres. didn´t want him to go with his companion... so he invited me! We left early this morning y had a long trip in bus, subway, and train, in areas that neither of us knew anything about. Luckily we arrived ok y had a great visit with his Grandpa and Aunt who aren´t members y ate some very tasty Asado for lunch. I´m pretty sure we were offered just about every drink that is against the word of wisdom.... but ended up enjoying a nice bottle of lemon lime soda. :) Great people!
This week has been very complicated, but the good news is we FINALLY got moved in to our new Pension! It is the nicest one I have lived in yet y hopefully I will be able to stick around to enjoy it for a while! We did meet a couple of our "neighbors" y could possibly have some opportunities to teach them. Our new address for those who want to look it up on google maps... Dardo Rocha 548, Berazategui, Buenos Aires. Very clean, great shower :), we have a great super market across the street and we live very close to the majority of our members y investigators! My companion is very content to finally be moved into the new place after all the work he has done the last 4 months, but a little bummed to realize that next week he could get transferred to a different area!
Overall pretty rough week. We were both pretty discouraged y EXHAUSTED from the moving. Luckily we have some great investigators that kept us motivated to leave each day to work! Yesterday we had Dario in church again. This time he stayed for ALL the meetings. We went with him to the Young Single Adults class. (A girl in our ward actually just got back from spending the last 3 months or so with her sister in Salt Lake, so it was fun to talk to someone in English first of all, but also being able to talk about Utah! I´m not homesick I promise!) But Dario really seemed to enjoy the classes and participated a lot. I think everyone was suprised to discover that he wasn´t a member. We had a lesson about miracles y he shared that it was a miracle that he was there in the church after finding his family who he hadn´t seen for 24 years and how everything worked out perfectly for him to be there. His original baptism date was for this Saturday... 26 Febrero, but he wants a little more time y we still have a lot we need to teach him.
Anyways family, good to hear from all of you this week. Keeping plenty busy as usual y being GREAT at all you do! Hope you all have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Ok so if the title made you think we already had transfers... SUPRISE! Actually transfers are not till next week. But today I am writing from downtown Buenos Aires from the train station "el Once"! I actually spent the day in the Buenos Aires West mission boundaries with Elder Jeldes from Chile. He is going home next week and got permission from Pres. Stapley to make a trip to "Ituzaingo" to visit his grandpa y for some reason Pres. didn´t want him to go with his companion... so he invited me! We left early this morning y had a long trip in bus, subway, and train, in areas that neither of us knew anything about. Luckily we arrived ok y had a great visit with his Grandpa and Aunt who aren´t members y ate some very tasty Asado for lunch. I´m pretty sure we were offered just about every drink that is against the word of wisdom.... but ended up enjoying a nice bottle of lemon lime soda. :) Great people!
This week has been very complicated, but the good news is we FINALLY got moved in to our new Pension! It is the nicest one I have lived in yet y hopefully I will be able to stick around to enjoy it for a while! We did meet a couple of our "neighbors" y could possibly have some opportunities to teach them. Our new address for those who want to look it up on google maps... Dardo Rocha 548, Berazategui, Buenos Aires. Very clean, great shower :), we have a great super market across the street and we live very close to the majority of our members y investigators! My companion is very content to finally be moved into the new place after all the work he has done the last 4 months, but a little bummed to realize that next week he could get transferred to a different area!
Overall pretty rough week. We were both pretty discouraged y EXHAUSTED from the moving. Luckily we have some great investigators that kept us motivated to leave each day to work! Yesterday we had Dario in church again. This time he stayed for ALL the meetings. We went with him to the Young Single Adults class. (A girl in our ward actually just got back from spending the last 3 months or so with her sister in Salt Lake, so it was fun to talk to someone in English first of all, but also being able to talk about Utah! I´m not homesick I promise!) But Dario really seemed to enjoy the classes and participated a lot. I think everyone was suprised to discover that he wasn´t a member. We had a lesson about miracles y he shared that it was a miracle that he was there in the church after finding his family who he hadn´t seen for 24 years and how everything worked out perfectly for him to be there. His original baptism date was for this Saturday... 26 Febrero, but he wants a little more time y we still have a lot we need to teach him.
Anyways family, good to hear from all of you this week. Keeping plenty busy as usual y being GREAT at all you do! Hope you all have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, February 14, 2011
¡Feliz día de los enamorados! pobres misioneros...
Dear family and friends,
Well... the summer heat is back unfortunately, at least for a couple more weeks. I guess I will just have to try to enjoy it while I can. Still not moved into our new place yet either but we got a call from the offices this week saying the papers finally went through and we should be moving in in the next couple of days. How FUN! We recently got back from our Zone Activity today. We had planned to play some sports on the "beach" a.k.a. the shores of Rio de la Plata (I could almost see Uruguay) but we got there to find that it was high tide and the beach was full of water (and DISGUSTING WATER at that). BUMMER!
This week started off GREAT. Monday night we had a great appointment with Dario. We talked about the Restoration y Baptism and invited him to be baptized on the 26th of February. We have a lot to teach in that period of time, but he is very prepared y understands really well the importance of recieving an answer from God for himself if the things that we teach are true. At the end of the lesson he told us that it is not just coincidence that he found his family y we found him at the same time. We are keeping frequent contact with him y were a little sad when we found out he would be staying with his adopted family in Quilmes for the weekend and wouldn´t be able to make it to church Sunday. But to our suprise on our way to the church that morning we saw him with his family just getting off the bus.
Tuesday and Wednesday morning I spent in "Platanos" again doing an intercambio with Elder Sanchez. He and his companion are still not getting along, and everything I had heard told me Elder Sanchez was causing the problems. Tuesday morning after district meeting the zone leaders and I had a little sit down with him to hear his side of the story. The intercambio was also a great opportunity to see how well he works in his area and to get to know him a little better. We actually had a really successful day, and I enjoyed working with him. I found that he is a really good Elder who is trying to do what he is supposed to. At the same time he does have several issues that make it a little hard for him to get along with people... We talked a little more about the situation with his companion and I tried to help him figure out a way that he could finish off the transfer in the best way possible. Hopefully things will get a little better! On top of that today I found out that one of the other companionships in my district is having some major problems y almost got into a fight last night... so on top of moving this week I imagine I will have to do something about that. I am sure there is plenty to learn from all of this, but it can sure be discouraging sometimes!
Saturday we had a nice long service project. A week or so ago we were walking down the street when a guy out in front of his house painting some boards called us over to talk to him. He said "Finally the Elders came to my house to visit me!" After talking a little bit we found out that his mom is a member in a different Stake. We offered to help him with the painting or if he needed help with anything else and he told us that if we wanted to do some work we could come back on Saturday to help him build something. We set an appointment for Saturday morning bright and early y showed up right on time to find that he was still sleeping! After about 45 min of waiting for him to wake up y get dressed y drink his mate, we got to work. I got my hands all blistered up pretty good swinging a pick around y shoveling dirt to poor a big concrete pad in front of their house. We had a great chat getting to know him and he had several questions about the church as well. He has his wife y 4 kids... a 7 month old baby, 2 year old daughter, 4 year old son, and a 10 year old daughter. (See foto) Apart from his family, almost the whole family of his wife lives in the same house (parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, etc.) y we are looking forward to passing by again soon y having a good chat with them!
Yesterday we had Stake Conference which was fantastic. We had 3 investigators show up that we weren´t expecting at all! Dario, the father of a girl who sings in the stake choir who we have been working with, and an investigator that I still dont know who recently returned from vacation in the coast. There were some great investigator friendly messages talking about Testimony y about how the Gospel blesses families. I think just about every single person there got up to go to the bathroom at least once at some point during the 2 hour conference. A little distracting... but we were able to talk with our investigators afterwards and they all said they had really enjoyed the messages that were shared y the music.
Well, thank you to all of you who wrote me this week! and as always to all of you for your prayers! Hope you all have a fantastic week and a happy Valentines day!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Well... the summer heat is back unfortunately, at least for a couple more weeks. I guess I will just have to try to enjoy it while I can. Still not moved into our new place yet either but we got a call from the offices this week saying the papers finally went through and we should be moving in in the next couple of days. How FUN! We recently got back from our Zone Activity today. We had planned to play some sports on the "beach" a.k.a. the shores of Rio de la Plata (I could almost see Uruguay) but we got there to find that it was high tide and the beach was full of water (and DISGUSTING WATER at that). BUMMER!
This week started off GREAT. Monday night we had a great appointment with Dario. We talked about the Restoration y Baptism and invited him to be baptized on the 26th of February. We have a lot to teach in that period of time, but he is very prepared y understands really well the importance of recieving an answer from God for himself if the things that we teach are true. At the end of the lesson he told us that it is not just coincidence that he found his family y we found him at the same time. We are keeping frequent contact with him y were a little sad when we found out he would be staying with his adopted family in Quilmes for the weekend and wouldn´t be able to make it to church Sunday. But to our suprise on our way to the church that morning we saw him with his family just getting off the bus.
Tuesday and Wednesday morning I spent in "Platanos" again doing an intercambio with Elder Sanchez. He and his companion are still not getting along, and everything I had heard told me Elder Sanchez was causing the problems. Tuesday morning after district meeting the zone leaders and I had a little sit down with him to hear his side of the story. The intercambio was also a great opportunity to see how well he works in his area and to get to know him a little better. We actually had a really successful day, and I enjoyed working with him. I found that he is a really good Elder who is trying to do what he is supposed to. At the same time he does have several issues that make it a little hard for him to get along with people... We talked a little more about the situation with his companion and I tried to help him figure out a way that he could finish off the transfer in the best way possible. Hopefully things will get a little better! On top of that today I found out that one of the other companionships in my district is having some major problems y almost got into a fight last night... so on top of moving this week I imagine I will have to do something about that. I am sure there is plenty to learn from all of this, but it can sure be discouraging sometimes!
Saturday we had a nice long service project. A week or so ago we were walking down the street when a guy out in front of his house painting some boards called us over to talk to him. He said "Finally the Elders came to my house to visit me!" After talking a little bit we found out that his mom is a member in a different Stake. We offered to help him with the painting or if he needed help with anything else and he told us that if we wanted to do some work we could come back on Saturday to help him build something. We set an appointment for Saturday morning bright and early y showed up right on time to find that he was still sleeping! After about 45 min of waiting for him to wake up y get dressed y drink his mate, we got to work. I got my hands all blistered up pretty good swinging a pick around y shoveling dirt to poor a big concrete pad in front of their house. We had a great chat getting to know him and he had several questions about the church as well. He has his wife y 4 kids... a 7 month old baby, 2 year old daughter, 4 year old son, and a 10 year old daughter. (See foto) Apart from his family, almost the whole family of his wife lives in the same house (parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, etc.) y we are looking forward to passing by again soon y having a good chat with them!
Yesterday we had Stake Conference which was fantastic. We had 3 investigators show up that we weren´t expecting at all! Dario, the father of a girl who sings in the stake choir who we have been working with, and an investigator that I still dont know who recently returned from vacation in the coast. There were some great investigator friendly messages talking about Testimony y about how the Gospel blesses families. I think just about every single person there got up to go to the bathroom at least once at some point during the 2 hour conference. A little distracting... but we were able to talk with our investigators afterwards and they all said they had really enjoyed the messages that were shared y the music.
Well, thank you to all of you who wrote me this week! and as always to all of you for your prayers! Hope you all have a fantastic week and a happy Valentines day!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, February 7, 2011
18 meces (18 months)
Dear family and friends,
Sounds like some exciting stuff happened this last week! I continue to hear stories from everyone here about how much it has been snowing in the United States.... any of that happening in Utah? We have enjoyed some cooler weather here these last couple days and it seems like the hot summer weather should be coming to an end pretty soon. The mornings and evenings are nice and cool but it can still get pretty hot during the day. Another week gone by with no place to call home! Still no news on when we will be able to move into our new pension.
This week we had interviews with Pres. Stapley. The mission is focusing a lot in Obedience right now and he shared some great scriptures with us. Romans 5:19 y 1 Timothy 3:12-16. We also actually spent a good part of time in my interview talking about a companionship issue in my district that is getting out of control. :S Tomorrow afternoon Pres. asked that the Zone Leaders and I have a chat with this particular Elder to try to understand better why he is doing the things he is doing. I have never been one that likes to correct people, but I think the most important will just be to listen y try to understand his point of view and offer some counsels in a kind, loving way. Apparently he didn´t respond well even to Pres. Stapley, so hopefully we will be inspired to find the best way to help him enjoy and have success in the mission.
We also had some pretty interesting teaching experiences this week. We visited an inactive member family who absolutely LOVES the missionaries y is always talking about how Missionary Work is the best thing the church has. The father has some SERIOUS word of wisdom problems. I´m pretty sure he smoked a whole box of cigarettes just in the hour or so we were visiting with them as well as downing a bottle of beer. He doesn´t want anything to do with the church and told us we could pass by to visit but that he doesn´t want us sharing ANYTHING or inviting them to do anything with the church. They actually invited us to stay for dinner y he actually didn´t have any problem with us blessing the food and he even said the closing prayer. He has 2 daughters who aren´t members y they seem to get along really well as a family, but could be doing SO MUCH better with the gospel in their lives. I imagine we will pass by one or 2 more times to see if there is any chance of possibly sharing a message with them, but if not we can´t afford to continue passing by.
On Tuesday we contacted a reference we recieved last week of a guy named Marcelo who apparently gave the other missionaries the address to his work. We got to the work site y someone must have a) seen how confused we looked and b) known exactly what we wanted, because they came up and asked if we were looking for Marcelo. Not at all what I was expecting, a big 6´4¨guy who looks like he could be a professional football player y who speaks really well in english. They called him over and we talked for a minute before he excused himself to finish loading up a big dump truck with sand before his lunch break. We had a good talk with him and got to know him a little bit, and he even drove us in his car to our lunch cita that we were running late for. He seems more interested in practicing English with us than anything else (he is planning to go to the UK to study) but apparently he is married y sounds like he has a great family! We set a cita with him to have an English discussion in the church on Saturday which ended up falling through, but we have been in contact and he gaves us his address and invited us over to his house this week.
This week we also visited Darío a couple times, y he is turning out to be one of the best/most prepared investigators I have seen in my whole mission! He told us a bit more of his story, how he had been living with an adopted family his whole life and recently made contact with his biological father who lives in our ward. It is very obvious that his adopted family is very well off, y he told us that he never felt like he fit in with his adopted family y never felt loved. His fathers family is almost the complete opposite, a very large, humble family, but he said that in these 3 weeks that he has known them, even though a bit awkward at first, he has felt accepted and loved more than any other time in his life. Almost the whole family are members of the church y even though they are less active, he has seen first hands the blessings of having a family who lives and follows gospel principles. He has already picked up the habit of praying and everything we teach he understands perfectly. He is already making good progress on the Book of Mormon y well on his way to recieving a testimony! The only downside is that he is only at their house on the weekends y he is planning to go study to be a policeman starting in March. This evening we are hoping to visit him and set a baptismal date for the end of this month!
Delio also is doing really well. Still working on the whole marriage issue. He is from Paraguay and doesn´t have Argentine documents so it could be a little harder than we had thought originally. He continues to come to church and is more than ready to be baptized. Yesterday he even got up and bore his testimony about prayer in Sacrament meeting! Noemi also finally came (his member girlfriend) as well as their 3 kids Cristian (7), Juakin (4) y Milagros (5 months). Sure a handfull!
Last night I also talked with Elder Alvarez and got some news from Wilde! Apparently they had an emegency transfer y he has been with his new companion for about a week now. They are also looking for a new pension (finally!) but are finding that everything in Wilde is VERY EXPENSIVE, suprise surpise. Apparently a lot of the members are on vacation... but some exciting news... Marcos y Soledad are planning to get married on February 28th!!!! I imagine they will be baptized that following weekend and I am hoping to get permission to go to their baptism considering it is relatively close (7 train stations, we also have several buses that go to Wilde!) He seems to be happy and having some success in the area which of course left me feeling pretty content as well.
Anyways family, thats all for this week! Hope you all have a Happy Valentines day and I am looking forward to hearing from you all next week! As always thank you for your prayers in behalf of all of us here in Argentina!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Sounds like some exciting stuff happened this last week! I continue to hear stories from everyone here about how much it has been snowing in the United States.... any of that happening in Utah? We have enjoyed some cooler weather here these last couple days and it seems like the hot summer weather should be coming to an end pretty soon. The mornings and evenings are nice and cool but it can still get pretty hot during the day. Another week gone by with no place to call home! Still no news on when we will be able to move into our new pension.
This week we had interviews with Pres. Stapley. The mission is focusing a lot in Obedience right now and he shared some great scriptures with us. Romans 5:19 y 1 Timothy 3:12-16. We also actually spent a good part of time in my interview talking about a companionship issue in my district that is getting out of control. :S Tomorrow afternoon Pres. asked that the Zone Leaders and I have a chat with this particular Elder to try to understand better why he is doing the things he is doing. I have never been one that likes to correct people, but I think the most important will just be to listen y try to understand his point of view and offer some counsels in a kind, loving way. Apparently he didn´t respond well even to Pres. Stapley, so hopefully we will be inspired to find the best way to help him enjoy and have success in the mission.
We also had some pretty interesting teaching experiences this week. We visited an inactive member family who absolutely LOVES the missionaries y is always talking about how Missionary Work is the best thing the church has. The father has some SERIOUS word of wisdom problems. I´m pretty sure he smoked a whole box of cigarettes just in the hour or so we were visiting with them as well as downing a bottle of beer. He doesn´t want anything to do with the church and told us we could pass by to visit but that he doesn´t want us sharing ANYTHING or inviting them to do anything with the church. They actually invited us to stay for dinner y he actually didn´t have any problem with us blessing the food and he even said the closing prayer. He has 2 daughters who aren´t members y they seem to get along really well as a family, but could be doing SO MUCH better with the gospel in their lives. I imagine we will pass by one or 2 more times to see if there is any chance of possibly sharing a message with them, but if not we can´t afford to continue passing by.
On Tuesday we contacted a reference we recieved last week of a guy named Marcelo who apparently gave the other missionaries the address to his work. We got to the work site y someone must have a) seen how confused we looked and b) known exactly what we wanted, because they came up and asked if we were looking for Marcelo. Not at all what I was expecting, a big 6´4¨guy who looks like he could be a professional football player y who speaks really well in english. They called him over and we talked for a minute before he excused himself to finish loading up a big dump truck with sand before his lunch break. We had a good talk with him and got to know him a little bit, and he even drove us in his car to our lunch cita that we were running late for. He seems more interested in practicing English with us than anything else (he is planning to go to the UK to study) but apparently he is married y sounds like he has a great family! We set a cita with him to have an English discussion in the church on Saturday which ended up falling through, but we have been in contact and he gaves us his address and invited us over to his house this week.
This week we also visited Darío a couple times, y he is turning out to be one of the best/most prepared investigators I have seen in my whole mission! He told us a bit more of his story, how he had been living with an adopted family his whole life and recently made contact with his biological father who lives in our ward. It is very obvious that his adopted family is very well off, y he told us that he never felt like he fit in with his adopted family y never felt loved. His fathers family is almost the complete opposite, a very large, humble family, but he said that in these 3 weeks that he has known them, even though a bit awkward at first, he has felt accepted and loved more than any other time in his life. Almost the whole family are members of the church y even though they are less active, he has seen first hands the blessings of having a family who lives and follows gospel principles. He has already picked up the habit of praying and everything we teach he understands perfectly. He is already making good progress on the Book of Mormon y well on his way to recieving a testimony! The only downside is that he is only at their house on the weekends y he is planning to go study to be a policeman starting in March. This evening we are hoping to visit him and set a baptismal date for the end of this month!
Delio also is doing really well. Still working on the whole marriage issue. He is from Paraguay and doesn´t have Argentine documents so it could be a little harder than we had thought originally. He continues to come to church and is more than ready to be baptized. Yesterday he even got up and bore his testimony about prayer in Sacrament meeting! Noemi also finally came (his member girlfriend) as well as their 3 kids Cristian (7), Juakin (4) y Milagros (5 months). Sure a handfull!
Last night I also talked with Elder Alvarez and got some news from Wilde! Apparently they had an emegency transfer y he has been with his new companion for about a week now. They are also looking for a new pension (finally!) but are finding that everything in Wilde is VERY EXPENSIVE, suprise surpise. Apparently a lot of the members are on vacation... but some exciting news... Marcos y Soledad are planning to get married on February 28th!!!! I imagine they will be baptized that following weekend and I am hoping to get permission to go to their baptism considering it is relatively close (7 train stations, we also have several buses that go to Wilde!) He seems to be happy and having some success in the area which of course left me feeling pretty content as well.
Anyways family, thats all for this week! Hope you all have a Happy Valentines day and I am looking forward to hearing from you all next week! As always thank you for your prayers in behalf of all of us here in Argentina!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, January 31, 2011
La Primera Mudanza (the first move)
Dear family and friends,
Wow another week gone by, and a very BUSY one at that! The good news is that we finally got moved into a new place that has running water y a roof without holes! Unfortunately... it will only be a temporary fix. We got a call on Thursday from the Elder in charge of all the apartments y contracts, etc. who told us we would need to move out immediately because the contract expires TODAY. He told us we would need to move in with the Elders from Berazategui who live about 30 blocks away, which is nice because it is about 3 blocks from the church! But at the same time it will be tough y expensive having to take buses just to get to our area every day! We spent the rest of the weekend packing everything up, cleaning, and unfortunately wasting a lot of time WAITING for the moving truck to come. We did have some help from a couple members, but it was a lot of work and a BIG distraction from our investigators y everything. Hopefully the contract goes through for our new pension soon so we can move again and not have to worry so much about things that arent important to the work!
Things are really good in the new pension, a bit crowded, but it is nice being able to shower, wash dishes, etc. without any problems! We only set up 1 bed for lack of space y I just throw the other mattress on the ground at night and sleep on the floor. We live with 2 other Elders. Elder Jeldes from Chile y Elder Monsalva from San Luis, Argentina. Elder Jeldes goes home this transfer and Elder Monsalva is actually a new Elder who is serving here in this mission while he waits for his passport to go to the Tijuana, Mexico Mission. It is a bit of a challenge living with 4 elders in a pension... mornings are super crazy with everyone trying to get showered y ready to study y nights are crazy because we start talking y don´t get to sleep until very late. But it has overall been a good experience y I am learning a lot from all of them!
We lost a lot of working time this week, I hardly had ANY working time in my area because I had to do an "intercambio" with some Elders in my district who are having companionship issues. I spent most of Tuesday y Wednesday in "Platanos" with Elder Atwood from Idaho who also goes home this transfer. Monday we had a Noche de Hogar (FHE) with a less active family in our ward who is starting to come back to church.
Things were pretty crazy from the very beginning. The 2 older kids came late because their dad forgot to pick them up from the pool so they had to walk y were a little angry about that. My comp and I had prepared a lesson about love in the home which almost back fired completely! We had them all write "nice letters" to each other, which ended up being not so nice, but they all ended up laughing about it at least... I could tell the mom was getting really frustrated because the kids and the dad were not behaving at all. Luckily I was able to relate with her a little bit and told her that I felt very at home with them because things got pretty crazy sometimes in our Family Home Evenings but the most important was that we were together as a family and that with time they would get better. We assigned the oldest son to prepare the lesson for next week (today) y we will see how it turns out! Hopefully we can help them get in the habit of doing it every week!
Anyways, sorry that is all for this week... I am getting a headache from breathing in the smoke of the guy sitting next to me.... that's 2 weeks in a row! :S Hope you all have a great week! Love you!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Wow another week gone by, and a very BUSY one at that! The good news is that we finally got moved into a new place that has running water y a roof without holes! Unfortunately... it will only be a temporary fix. We got a call on Thursday from the Elder in charge of all the apartments y contracts, etc. who told us we would need to move out immediately because the contract expires TODAY. He told us we would need to move in with the Elders from Berazategui who live about 30 blocks away, which is nice because it is about 3 blocks from the church! But at the same time it will be tough y expensive having to take buses just to get to our area every day! We spent the rest of the weekend packing everything up, cleaning, and unfortunately wasting a lot of time WAITING for the moving truck to come. We did have some help from a couple members, but it was a lot of work and a BIG distraction from our investigators y everything. Hopefully the contract goes through for our new pension soon so we can move again and not have to worry so much about things that arent important to the work!
Things are really good in the new pension, a bit crowded, but it is nice being able to shower, wash dishes, etc. without any problems! We only set up 1 bed for lack of space y I just throw the other mattress on the ground at night and sleep on the floor. We live with 2 other Elders. Elder Jeldes from Chile y Elder Monsalva from San Luis, Argentina. Elder Jeldes goes home this transfer and Elder Monsalva is actually a new Elder who is serving here in this mission while he waits for his passport to go to the Tijuana, Mexico Mission. It is a bit of a challenge living with 4 elders in a pension... mornings are super crazy with everyone trying to get showered y ready to study y nights are crazy because we start talking y don´t get to sleep until very late. But it has overall been a good experience y I am learning a lot from all of them!
We lost a lot of working time this week, I hardly had ANY working time in my area because I had to do an "intercambio" with some Elders in my district who are having companionship issues. I spent most of Tuesday y Wednesday in "Platanos" with Elder Atwood from Idaho who also goes home this transfer. Monday we had a Noche de Hogar (FHE) with a less active family in our ward who is starting to come back to church.
Things were pretty crazy from the very beginning. The 2 older kids came late because their dad forgot to pick them up from the pool so they had to walk y were a little angry about that. My comp and I had prepared a lesson about love in the home which almost back fired completely! We had them all write "nice letters" to each other, which ended up being not so nice, but they all ended up laughing about it at least... I could tell the mom was getting really frustrated because the kids and the dad were not behaving at all. Luckily I was able to relate with her a little bit and told her that I felt very at home with them because things got pretty crazy sometimes in our Family Home Evenings but the most important was that we were together as a family and that with time they would get better. We assigned the oldest son to prepare the lesson for next week (today) y we will see how it turns out! Hopefully we can help them get in the habit of doing it every week!
Anyways, sorry that is all for this week... I am getting a headache from breathing in the smoke of the guy sitting next to me.... that's 2 weeks in a row! :S Hope you all have a great week! Love you!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, January 24, 2011
Barrio "El Cruce"
Dear Family y Friends,
It has been a great first week here in El Cruce. For those who are interested in finding me on google maps... the city we live in is called Berazategui, Buenos Aires y our direction is Calle 14 #1435 for now. As you can see it isn´t too far from Wilde! Berazategui is actually a pretty nice place, not as rich as Wilde. However, unlike Wilde the authorities have been able to restrict the construction of Villas leaving nicer neighborhoods with paved streets almost everywhere. Luckily it is very tranquilo y it seems to be a very successful area! I have pretty much learned the area already, what a genius idea and truly a blessing to have NUMBERED STREETS! We share a church with the ward of Berazategui which happens to be the Stake Center. VERY NICE building! Also has a center for institute, church history, employment services, etc.! The ward is similar in size to Wilde as far as I could see yesterday and there were about 90-100 people there in total. Meetings start at 10 in the morning y we are back to what for me is a "normal" schedule with Sacrament meeting first just like at home!
We are still waiting on some papers to go through to move into our new pension. I really like where we live, its close to everything and it is a very BIG apartment for the 2 of us. We have 3 bedrooms a big living room where we have weights a big kitchen y dining area y a nice balcony out back. A couple adventures from this week as far as the pension... We have been without running water all week long. The only water we have is from a faucet we have downstairs at the entrance where we fill up buckets of water to meet all our water needs. I have mastered the art of showering with cup fulls of water from a pot of water heated on the stove. Believe it or not it actually beats the shower we had in Wilde. Also this week I humbled myself enough to wash my own clothes by hand y enjoyed it so much I did another load this morning before leaving the pension! It actually doesn´t take much work (except for hauling buckets of water up the stairs!) or time y should save me a couple bucks as well! We also enjoyed a big rainstorm this week and like I said there is a hole in the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. What I failed to express is the SIZE of the hole because it honestly looks like a full grown man fell from the sky and through our roof (it actually doesnt go all the way through the roof however, so I have to think up some other theory for how it got there). When the storm hit it was basically raining inside as well, but luckily we have a good sized swimming pool strategically placed to catch the water y debree that continues to fall... We have basically abandoned that room y luckily it doesnt even effect us.
My companion is AWESOME! It has been a big blessing having 3 Argentine companions in a row y yes it has helped my spanish y learning about the culture a lot! He actually speaks very good english which he has mostly learned in the 4 months he has been in the mission. I think he will have it mastered by the end of his mission because he is not afraid to talk y is always practicing every where we go! He is pretty much a genius too y comes from a well educated family. His father is a psychologist y his mom is a psychiatrist. He has a great way of talking with people y is a great teacher! I am looking forward to learning a LOT this transfer! It is amazing how well he knows the doctrine after only 2 years of being a member. I admire him a lot for the faith he has in being the only member of his family, with parents who didn´t want him to come in the first place, all because he has a testimony that the church is true. It is always nice to have a companion who is a convert as well because they are able to relate so well with the investigators! He has a great conversion story as well I will have to tell you all later!
My new district is very awesome as well. It is a bit harder being district leader of a large district (4 companionships) y takes a lot of time each night doing verifications and checking in with them and even LONGER on Sundays passing all the numbers. In my district I have the Zone Leaders from "Quilmes II" - Elder Nalder from Washington (my old district leader in Wilde, STUD!) and Elder Mortensen from my MTC district. Also in "Platanos" Elder Atwood from Idaho who goes home this transfer with Elder Sanchez from Peru. Also "Quilmes IV" Elder Pulgar from Chile y Elder Bica/Prantl from Uruguay! Great group of Elders! This week I am looking forward to doing 2 intercambios... one with Platanos tomorrow and then on Thursday with the Zone leaders to do another baptismal interview. Could be a very interesting week because I imagine we will be moving sometime this week as well!
The work here is going really well also. The ward is great y it seems like the majority of the members are very involved in missionary work here. We have a GREAT ward mission leader y GREAT bishopric who help us a lot which makes a huge difference. This week I was able to meet the majority of our investigators as well as several member families (inactive y active). We set a solid baptismal date with one of our investigators named Delio who FINALLY went this week to set a marriage date with his girlfriend Noemi who is a member. He is very ready to be baptized y we are excited to keep working with him as well as the family of Noemi who are all members who have been inactive for a long time. He came to church alone yesterday even after taking a wrong bus y having to take a weird route to get there... luckily he left PLENTY early y got to church only 10 minutes late. We also found a new investigator in church yesterday named Dario. Very interesting story, he is actually the son of a member family in our ward but somehow was abandoned or adopted when he was a baby y hadnt ever met his real family before. He was living in Quilmes with an adopted family I assume. But this last week he decided he wanted to find his real family y showed up at their house one day. He is 24 years old y actually pretty much lives by the standards of the church without ever having heard anything about our church before! He doesn´t smoke, drink, go dancing, rob, or anything! We were very excited to talk with him and are looking forward to having a FHE with the family this Wednesday. The other success this week is an all to rare occurance. We had 3 inactive families that we visited this week who came back to church for the first time in months yesterday! What a great feeling to see them all there! Hopefully that step of faith will give them the boost they need to become active again! This ward, like all wards has its share of problems, etc. y yesterday in Sacrament meeting an Ex Bishop of the ward who also went inactive for a while gave a great talk about the importance of not getting offended. Great message which was perfect for the families who were there that really helped them realize that when they go inactive because they are offended the only people they really punish are themselves y God. Of course being my first Sunday in the ward I also got a chance to present myself y bear my testimony which I always enjoy!
Well everyone thats it for this week! Hope it fills you in a bit about my new area! Cant wait to hear from you all soon! les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
It has been a great first week here in El Cruce. For those who are interested in finding me on google maps... the city we live in is called Berazategui, Buenos Aires y our direction is Calle 14 #1435 for now. As you can see it isn´t too far from Wilde! Berazategui is actually a pretty nice place, not as rich as Wilde. However, unlike Wilde the authorities have been able to restrict the construction of Villas leaving nicer neighborhoods with paved streets almost everywhere. Luckily it is very tranquilo y it seems to be a very successful area! I have pretty much learned the area already, what a genius idea and truly a blessing to have NUMBERED STREETS! We share a church with the ward of Berazategui which happens to be the Stake Center. VERY NICE building! Also has a center for institute, church history, employment services, etc.! The ward is similar in size to Wilde as far as I could see yesterday and there were about 90-100 people there in total. Meetings start at 10 in the morning y we are back to what for me is a "normal" schedule with Sacrament meeting first just like at home!
We are still waiting on some papers to go through to move into our new pension. I really like where we live, its close to everything and it is a very BIG apartment for the 2 of us. We have 3 bedrooms a big living room where we have weights a big kitchen y dining area y a nice balcony out back. A couple adventures from this week as far as the pension... We have been without running water all week long. The only water we have is from a faucet we have downstairs at the entrance where we fill up buckets of water to meet all our water needs. I have mastered the art of showering with cup fulls of water from a pot of water heated on the stove. Believe it or not it actually beats the shower we had in Wilde. Also this week I humbled myself enough to wash my own clothes by hand y enjoyed it so much I did another load this morning before leaving the pension! It actually doesn´t take much work (except for hauling buckets of water up the stairs!) or time y should save me a couple bucks as well! We also enjoyed a big rainstorm this week and like I said there is a hole in the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. What I failed to express is the SIZE of the hole because it honestly looks like a full grown man fell from the sky and through our roof (it actually doesnt go all the way through the roof however, so I have to think up some other theory for how it got there). When the storm hit it was basically raining inside as well, but luckily we have a good sized swimming pool strategically placed to catch the water y debree that continues to fall... We have basically abandoned that room y luckily it doesnt even effect us.
My companion is AWESOME! It has been a big blessing having 3 Argentine companions in a row y yes it has helped my spanish y learning about the culture a lot! He actually speaks very good english which he has mostly learned in the 4 months he has been in the mission. I think he will have it mastered by the end of his mission because he is not afraid to talk y is always practicing every where we go! He is pretty much a genius too y comes from a well educated family. His father is a psychologist y his mom is a psychiatrist. He has a great way of talking with people y is a great teacher! I am looking forward to learning a LOT this transfer! It is amazing how well he knows the doctrine after only 2 years of being a member. I admire him a lot for the faith he has in being the only member of his family, with parents who didn´t want him to come in the first place, all because he has a testimony that the church is true. It is always nice to have a companion who is a convert as well because they are able to relate so well with the investigators! He has a great conversion story as well I will have to tell you all later!
My new district is very awesome as well. It is a bit harder being district leader of a large district (4 companionships) y takes a lot of time each night doing verifications and checking in with them and even LONGER on Sundays passing all the numbers. In my district I have the Zone Leaders from "Quilmes II" - Elder Nalder from Washington (my old district leader in Wilde, STUD!) and Elder Mortensen from my MTC district. Also in "Platanos" Elder Atwood from Idaho who goes home this transfer with Elder Sanchez from Peru. Also "Quilmes IV" Elder Pulgar from Chile y Elder Bica/Prantl from Uruguay! Great group of Elders! This week I am looking forward to doing 2 intercambios... one with Platanos tomorrow and then on Thursday with the Zone leaders to do another baptismal interview. Could be a very interesting week because I imagine we will be moving sometime this week as well!
The work here is going really well also. The ward is great y it seems like the majority of the members are very involved in missionary work here. We have a GREAT ward mission leader y GREAT bishopric who help us a lot which makes a huge difference. This week I was able to meet the majority of our investigators as well as several member families (inactive y active). We set a solid baptismal date with one of our investigators named Delio who FINALLY went this week to set a marriage date with his girlfriend Noemi who is a member. He is very ready to be baptized y we are excited to keep working with him as well as the family of Noemi who are all members who have been inactive for a long time. He came to church alone yesterday even after taking a wrong bus y having to take a weird route to get there... luckily he left PLENTY early y got to church only 10 minutes late. We also found a new investigator in church yesterday named Dario. Very interesting story, he is actually the son of a member family in our ward but somehow was abandoned or adopted when he was a baby y hadnt ever met his real family before. He was living in Quilmes with an adopted family I assume. But this last week he decided he wanted to find his real family y showed up at their house one day. He is 24 years old y actually pretty much lives by the standards of the church without ever having heard anything about our church before! He doesn´t smoke, drink, go dancing, rob, or anything! We were very excited to talk with him and are looking forward to having a FHE with the family this Wednesday. The other success this week is an all to rare occurance. We had 3 inactive families that we visited this week who came back to church for the first time in months yesterday! What a great feeling to see them all there! Hopefully that step of faith will give them the boost they need to become active again! This ward, like all wards has its share of problems, etc. y yesterday in Sacrament meeting an Ex Bishop of the ward who also went inactive for a while gave a great talk about the importance of not getting offended. Great message which was perfect for the families who were there that really helped them realize that when they go inactive because they are offended the only people they really punish are themselves y God. Of course being my first Sunday in the ward I also got a chance to present myself y bear my testimony which I always enjoy!
Well everyone thats it for this week! Hope it fills you in a bit about my new area! Cant wait to hear from you all soon! les amo!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
¡Hasta Luego Wilde!
Dear family and friends,
The time has finally come to say goodbye to Wilde y I must admit I am sad to be leaving! At the same time I am very excited to be going to my new area "El Cruce" (Cruz Varela) in the Stake of Quilmes with my new companion Elder Castro Peña from Cordoba, Argentina! How lucky to have 3 Argentine companions in a row! He is the only member in his family y was baptized almost 2 years ago. Seems like a GREAT missionary y has the same time in the mission as Elder Alvarez. Also speaks quite a bit of english so it will be fun to practice y help him with that! Also looking forward to an AWESOME new district. We will be 4 companionships total including the Zone Leaders... fun fun! Apparently the pension in our area has some problems (hole in the roof... no water) but we will be moving to a new pension sometime this week. Looks like I wont even get to do much unpacking today! Bummer!
It has been a good last week here in Wilde. We have had some pretty crazy weather y a couple disappointments, but overall it went really well. Monday night was my last Noche de Hogar with the Familia Romero... y they ended up not even being there! bummer! Tuesday we had our last district meeting y took a Zone Picture. That night we had a cita with a member family that is passing through some tough times. The mom y 3 daughters left the house and have been living with one of her sisters in Avellaneda for the last month or so y wont even talk to the father. The father isnt great healthwise y is out of work y his son Facundo (17) cant find work either. His other daughter Pamela (20) who is also living with him is the only one who has a job, but just recently started working again after a break for the holidays y wont have money for several weeks. He told us they had nothing y that they hadnt eaten anything but mate cocido for 2 days, y that they didnt even have gas anymore to run the stove. My companion y I were suprised that the ward hadnt done anything, because he had come to us before telling us his problems and we told him that there isnt much we can do as missionaries to offer temporal help. After leaving my companion and I talked about the situation y decided to help a little bit and at least give them a days worth of good sustaining food... rice, floud to make tortas fritas, etc. It felt good to be able to help them but at the same time it is a complicated situation y after talking with some ward leaders realized that maybe its better to let them "learn how to fish instead of just giving them the fish when they want it." Apparently the Hermano has a bit of a history but hopefully we were able to help in some way.
Friday we had a Ward Activity y had several investigators come with us (Soledad y familia, Adan, etc.). It was a great opportunity for them to see that in the church we do fun things too and are normal people! There was food (pizza) y we watched Toy Story 3 outside on a projector. (It was sure fun setting up the projector and everything.) Earlier in the day there was some rain y wind but that evening was PERFECT to be outside y enjoy the nice summer air. It even was nice and COOL with a fresh breeze once the sun went down.
Saturday night we got the transfer call around 1130 y I spent most of the evening organizing my things to make it easier to pack the next day. Church went great on Sunday. Marcos came with Soledad y kids for the 2nd time in a row! I am sure going to miss them! The meetings all went great. Elder Alvarez taught a great class on Sacrifice in Priesthood y we had a great lesson about Jesus Christs role as our Savior in principles of the gospel. Sacrament meeting was very interesting with several changes in the bishopric y elders quorum presidency... several changes that I think will make a BIG difference in the work in Wilde for the better! Very grateful to meet so many great people here y learn from their examples y for the opportunity I have had as well to share my testimony y the happiness the gospel has brought in my life! Took LOTS of pictures with everyone at church and made several visits in the afternoon to say goodbye. Sad to leave but hope to see everyone here in Wilde again before going home... and if not there is always facebook. :)
Anyways, it is time for me to finally leave Wilde, we spent the afternoon here because it wasnt worth it to haul my luggage around all day when we have to pass through here to get to my new area anyways. Looking forward to hearing from you all next week y cant wait to tell you all about my new area!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
The time has finally come to say goodbye to Wilde y I must admit I am sad to be leaving! At the same time I am very excited to be going to my new area "El Cruce" (Cruz Varela) in the Stake of Quilmes with my new companion Elder Castro Peña from Cordoba, Argentina! How lucky to have 3 Argentine companions in a row! He is the only member in his family y was baptized almost 2 years ago. Seems like a GREAT missionary y has the same time in the mission as Elder Alvarez. Also speaks quite a bit of english so it will be fun to practice y help him with that! Also looking forward to an AWESOME new district. We will be 4 companionships total including the Zone Leaders... fun fun! Apparently the pension in our area has some problems (hole in the roof... no water) but we will be moving to a new pension sometime this week. Looks like I wont even get to do much unpacking today! Bummer!
It has been a good last week here in Wilde. We have had some pretty crazy weather y a couple disappointments, but overall it went really well. Monday night was my last Noche de Hogar with the Familia Romero... y they ended up not even being there! bummer! Tuesday we had our last district meeting y took a Zone Picture. That night we had a cita with a member family that is passing through some tough times. The mom y 3 daughters left the house and have been living with one of her sisters in Avellaneda for the last month or so y wont even talk to the father. The father isnt great healthwise y is out of work y his son Facundo (17) cant find work either. His other daughter Pamela (20) who is also living with him is the only one who has a job, but just recently started working again after a break for the holidays y wont have money for several weeks. He told us they had nothing y that they hadnt eaten anything but mate cocido for 2 days, y that they didnt even have gas anymore to run the stove. My companion y I were suprised that the ward hadnt done anything, because he had come to us before telling us his problems and we told him that there isnt much we can do as missionaries to offer temporal help. After leaving my companion and I talked about the situation y decided to help a little bit and at least give them a days worth of good sustaining food... rice, floud to make tortas fritas, etc. It felt good to be able to help them but at the same time it is a complicated situation y after talking with some ward leaders realized that maybe its better to let them "learn how to fish instead of just giving them the fish when they want it." Apparently the Hermano has a bit of a history but hopefully we were able to help in some way.
Friday we had a Ward Activity y had several investigators come with us (Soledad y familia, Adan, etc.). It was a great opportunity for them to see that in the church we do fun things too and are normal people! There was food (pizza) y we watched Toy Story 3 outside on a projector. (It was sure fun setting up the projector and everything.) Earlier in the day there was some rain y wind but that evening was PERFECT to be outside y enjoy the nice summer air. It even was nice and COOL with a fresh breeze once the sun went down.
Saturday night we got the transfer call around 1130 y I spent most of the evening organizing my things to make it easier to pack the next day. Church went great on Sunday. Marcos came with Soledad y kids for the 2nd time in a row! I am sure going to miss them! The meetings all went great. Elder Alvarez taught a great class on Sacrifice in Priesthood y we had a great lesson about Jesus Christs role as our Savior in principles of the gospel. Sacrament meeting was very interesting with several changes in the bishopric y elders quorum presidency... several changes that I think will make a BIG difference in the work in Wilde for the better! Very grateful to meet so many great people here y learn from their examples y for the opportunity I have had as well to share my testimony y the happiness the gospel has brought in my life! Took LOTS of pictures with everyone at church and made several visits in the afternoon to say goodbye. Sad to leave but hope to see everyone here in Wilde again before going home... and if not there is always facebook. :)
Anyways, it is time for me to finally leave Wilde, we spent the afternoon here because it wasnt worth it to haul my luggage around all day when we have to pass through here to get to my new area anyways. Looking forward to hearing from you all next week y cant wait to tell you all about my new area!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
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