Dear family and friends,
"The end is near", a title inspired by the hymn we sang in Elders quorum yesterday... a bit of a shocking realization! I enjoyed your emails today and the several letters I have recieved these last several weeks. A special shoutout to cousin Jared! Thanks so much for your letter buddy y hope all is going well and that you are enjoying your summer! Thanks to all of you for your prayers y support! Looking forward to seeing you all!
Forgot to wish you all a feliz "Dia del amigo" last week. Came by suprise to me as well as we were walking around to several of our citas and people would shout out "feliz dia". Good to know we have friends in the neighborhood! :)
It has been a pretty busy but good week here in El Cruce, although we have been without electricity in the pension for the last 4 DAYS!!! Not a big deal, at least we still have hot water, but we have suffered a bit with no light, no heater, y no microwave. The Refridgerator has undertaken a well needed DEFROST y I somehow was able to resist the urge to make a snow ball with the melting ice to throw at my companion. Hopefully they will have it all hooked back up this afternoon. Apparently there was a problem with a bill that never got paid... we have had some interesting issues with bills in this pension but we have everything figured out now!
Friday I had my LAST "normal" interview with Pres. Stapley which went really well. He shared several thoughts about "enduring to the end" y also shared some great insight on the story of the Brother of Jared about how the Lord sometimes requires us to get creative y do HARD things to overcome our challenges. Very inspired man! Also enjoyed talking a bit with Hermana Stapley who is always anxious to share her new favorite scriptures with us. (Funny one concering "long meetings" see Acts 20:7-12)
Saturday we had the baptism of Fabricio y Ezequiel which went GREAT! We had a lot of support from the ward (they actually planned the primary y young mens activities for the day so that they would finish just in time to all be there for the baptism) y luckily there werent any unexpected problems which seem to usually occur the day of the baptism! Actually... I did have a bit of an accident trying to be heroic by eliminating some spiders from the baptismal font that were floating in the water y ended up falling into the water... luckily only completely submerging ONE of my legs up to the knee, shoe y everything. Our ward mission leader was right there watching and had a good laugh. Luckily after laying out my stuff in front of one of the heaters in the church my things were MOSTLY dry by the end of the baptismal service. Fabrico asked me to baptize him, and Elder Martinez baptised Ezequiel. The water was a bit chilly due to filling up the font extra early y letting the water sit. The Confirmation also went great Sunday y Ezequiel is excited to receive the Aaronic Priesthood y start passing the sacrament. Both were very happy y expressed desires to serve missions in the future! :)
Anyways, that’s all for this week! Love you all!
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
4 Weeks!
Dear family y friends,
Hard to believe another week has flown by! I am feeling a lot better, although I still have a pretty bad cold y cough! The weather hasnt been helping much either. We have had several really nice days intermixed with several very cold rainy days like today. Right now we are here in the centro of Quilmes hoping to do some shopping. Bit of a rough start to the day waiting for a bus in the rain... y even worse is that several passed by without stopping! But, overall things are going pretty well!
Not a whole lot of news this week. Wednesday y Thursday we had another one of those Leadership Training meetings in Adrogue. Spent the 2 days with Elder Camey from my district who is training this transfer. We both suffered a bit with this nasty cold/flu going around. Not quite sure why I had to go since I will only be here a couple more weeks... but I enjoyed it anyways! It was a little different than usual, but it is always great just to hear from Pres. y Hermana Stapley! At the end of the trainings Hermana Stapley shared a movie with us about her parents y their story in Brasil. (Her father served a mission then returned several times with his wife as "senior" missionaries) Focused a lot in the love and appreciation they had for the people of Brasil. Of course it also made me think a lot of the love I have felt y recieved from the people here in Argentina! I feel like I will be leaving behind more loved ones than I will be coming home to! ("more" in quantity not necesarily quality!) I think as the time continues to go by I am realizing more and more how much I will miss this place and these people!
Saturday we were supposed to have a Ward Activity which only us y 3 sisters from the relief society showed up to. The activity was planned several weeks ago... but the Argentina - Uruguay game of Copa America just happened to fall that day. We ate some of the goodies the hermanas brought... some tasty orange rolls, homemade bread etc. then it was back to work! To end the night we did visit an inactive family who just happened to be watching the end of the soccer game. Poor Argentina! :(
Good day in church yesterday, although there were very few people. (I think probably like 75% of Argentina is sick with the flu right now!) On top of that "Winter Vacations" recently started, so surely there are at least several people who took advantage of having the kids out of school to take a trip! Maria came with her mom y 2 sons, who are very excited for their baptism this week! Oscar also showed up all on his own... gotta get that guy baptised! No sign of Noelia. When we saw her Thursday she was complaining a lot about a bad headache... so I assume she is probably sick with what I had! :S Her daughters LOVE church y are always asking when it will be sunday again! We also had several inactive families show up that we have been teaching for a while. One of them who has actually been going to church for the last 3 weeks (Gaston y Nadie) gave a talk in Sacrament meeting, and another one gave the closing prayer! I think everyone gets a little discouraged when they show up after not going for a while and seeing how FEW people there are in the church. I think there are around 700 members on our ward list... and there are only about 70-80 in church each week.
Anyways, thats it for this week! Love you all!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Hard to believe another week has flown by! I am feeling a lot better, although I still have a pretty bad cold y cough! The weather hasnt been helping much either. We have had several really nice days intermixed with several very cold rainy days like today. Right now we are here in the centro of Quilmes hoping to do some shopping. Bit of a rough start to the day waiting for a bus in the rain... y even worse is that several passed by without stopping! But, overall things are going pretty well!
Not a whole lot of news this week. Wednesday y Thursday we had another one of those Leadership Training meetings in Adrogue. Spent the 2 days with Elder Camey from my district who is training this transfer. We both suffered a bit with this nasty cold/flu going around. Not quite sure why I had to go since I will only be here a couple more weeks... but I enjoyed it anyways! It was a little different than usual, but it is always great just to hear from Pres. y Hermana Stapley! At the end of the trainings Hermana Stapley shared a movie with us about her parents y their story in Brasil. (Her father served a mission then returned several times with his wife as "senior" missionaries) Focused a lot in the love and appreciation they had for the people of Brasil. Of course it also made me think a lot of the love I have felt y recieved from the people here in Argentina! I feel like I will be leaving behind more loved ones than I will be coming home to! ("more" in quantity not necesarily quality!) I think as the time continues to go by I am realizing more and more how much I will miss this place and these people!
Saturday we were supposed to have a Ward Activity which only us y 3 sisters from the relief society showed up to. The activity was planned several weeks ago... but the Argentina - Uruguay game of Copa America just happened to fall that day. We ate some of the goodies the hermanas brought... some tasty orange rolls, homemade bread etc. then it was back to work! To end the night we did visit an inactive family who just happened to be watching the end of the soccer game. Poor Argentina! :(
Good day in church yesterday, although there were very few people. (I think probably like 75% of Argentina is sick with the flu right now!) On top of that "Winter Vacations" recently started, so surely there are at least several people who took advantage of having the kids out of school to take a trip! Maria came with her mom y 2 sons, who are very excited for their baptism this week! Oscar also showed up all on his own... gotta get that guy baptised! No sign of Noelia. When we saw her Thursday she was complaining a lot about a bad headache... so I assume she is probably sick with what I had! :S Her daughters LOVE church y are always asking when it will be sunday again! We also had several inactive families show up that we have been teaching for a while. One of them who has actually been going to church for the last 3 weeks (Gaston y Nadie) gave a talk in Sacrament meeting, and another one gave the closing prayer! I think everyone gets a little discouraged when they show up after not going for a while and seeing how FEW people there are in the church. I think there are around 700 members on our ward list... and there are only about 70-80 in church each week.
Anyways, thats it for this week! Love you all!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, July 11, 2011
enfermo otra vez [sick again]
Dear family y friends,
First off, Happy Birthday Dad y Rebecca! Forgot to tell you all last week, but sounds like it went well! Hope you all had a great 4th of July as well!
Kind of a rough week... at least the last part. I was sick in bed mostly for the whole weekend y thinking it might be Bronchitis. Not fun! Feeling a bit better today, no fever at least, but still have a nasty cough/cold. If things don´t get better soon I think I´ll be going to the doctor.
Saturday besides being Dads birthday was Independence day here in Argentina. I was at least able to get up y make it to the citas we had that morning including lunch. On our way back to the pension we stopped by a big celebration they were having and took some pics. That morning we had seen lots of "gauchos" pass by our pension with their horses y carts. All of them got together at the celebration y there was music, asado, etc. I wish I could send the pictures but the computer is not letting me upload them right now! Next week! Great Cultural experience...
Church went great yesterday. Noelia y her daughters came again!!! :) We had 2 great lessons with her this week and she had lots of great questions. She asked about baptism as well but she will need to get married first y her marido is always working so we never get to talk to him. Had a pretty POWERFUL experience answering some of her questions about the Plan of Salvation. She apparently lost a couple children (difficulties in pregnancy, etc.) y wanted to know why God would allow that to happen.
Ezequiel y Fabricio also came with their mom y step father Christian which was a huge surprise. He says he doesn´t believe in God, y didn´t want to participate at all, but he came along anyways y seemed to feel comfortable. Speaking of Ezequiel y Fabricio we moved their Baptism back another week because we still have a LOT to teach them. They are excited to be baptized but its hard to keep their attention to be able to teach them! :S
Anyways, thats all for this week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
First off, Happy Birthday Dad y Rebecca! Forgot to tell you all last week, but sounds like it went well! Hope you all had a great 4th of July as well!
Kind of a rough week... at least the last part. I was sick in bed mostly for the whole weekend y thinking it might be Bronchitis. Not fun! Feeling a bit better today, no fever at least, but still have a nasty cough/cold. If things don´t get better soon I think I´ll be going to the doctor.
Saturday besides being Dads birthday was Independence day here in Argentina. I was at least able to get up y make it to the citas we had that morning including lunch. On our way back to the pension we stopped by a big celebration they were having and took some pics. That morning we had seen lots of "gauchos" pass by our pension with their horses y carts. All of them got together at the celebration y there was music, asado, etc. I wish I could send the pictures but the computer is not letting me upload them right now! Next week! Great Cultural experience...
Church went great yesterday. Noelia y her daughters came again!!! :) We had 2 great lessons with her this week and she had lots of great questions. She asked about baptism as well but she will need to get married first y her marido is always working so we never get to talk to him. Had a pretty POWERFUL experience answering some of her questions about the Plan of Salvation. She apparently lost a couple children (difficulties in pregnancy, etc.) y wanted to know why God would allow that to happen.
Ezequiel y Fabricio also came with their mom y step father Christian which was a huge surprise. He says he doesn´t believe in God, y didn´t want to participate at all, but he came along anyways y seemed to feel comfortable. Speaking of Ezequiel y Fabricio we moved their Baptism back another week because we still have a LOT to teach them. They are excited to be baptized but its hard to keep their attention to be able to teach them! :S
Anyways, thats all for this week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, July 4, 2011
Traslado #16 (Transfer #16)
Dear family y friends,
Happy 4th of July!! I am thinking this letter will be rather short... not because I don´t have much to say, but because my hands are frozen and its hard to type!!! Very few places here where you can actually escape from the COLD! Today is transfer day... y no news is good news! Elder Martinez and I will be staying together for my last transfer! Overall GOOD week!
Tuesday we had a great district meeting with a suprise visit at the end from Pres. Stapley. He talked about how our attitude will have the greatest impact on the success we have as missionaries. As a zone we also set the goal to baptize 18 people in the month of July.... a number that has not been reached in a very long time in the zone. That evening we enjoyed a tasty dinner with the Familia Kiss. (asado al horno with lots of salads y Homemade cookies one of their daughters made for us :)!!!) We had a good time talking and they gave me some pictures they took with you on their trip to Utah.
Wednesday nothing big happened.... but that evening we visited a family that has been inactive for YEARS. First the hermana offered us a nice hot Cappuccino she had prepared y when her husband reminded her that we don´t drink coffee she immediately prepared us a cup of tea that we had to politely reject as well. :P We all had a good laugh...
Thursday we had a great lesson with Maria y her 2 sons Ezequiel (12) y Fabricio (11). Both really good kids y when we got to their house they were all reading the Book of Mormon / singing hymns together as a family. We talked a bit about baptism and invited them to be baptized. They are both very excited for their baptism on July 15th!
Friday was Fabricios birthday, so we bought a Pasta Frola y some drinks to take to celebrate his birthday. I also gave him the frisbee you sent me last year for Christmas when I was in the coast.... hope you don´t mind! Very COLD night! Their mom was sick y the family doesn´t have much money, so it was fun to be able to have atleast a bit of a birthday party with them! After eating the "cake" we taught a little lesson trying to speak about the shouting, drumming, y singing of the Evangelist church next door. Probably one of the most INTERESTING lessons I have ever been in. (They have actually had lots of serious problems with their neighbors... not just the noise. Apparently Marias boyfriend Cristian, who says he is athiest, got so mad one night (most likely in addition to being drunk) that he went and set their church on fire.... I´m sure we will be having a lesson about Love y Patience with him shortly.
Sunday was our biggest success... blessings of fasting! We arrived a little later than usual 930 (we missed the earlier bus we usually take) and were suprised to find one of our investigators, Noelia, already there with her 3 children (Florencia 6, Adriana 5, y Rodrigo 1) talking with some of the members! Apparently she has lots of family who are members of the church, which made for a great conversation starter! Maria also came with her mom who hasn´t been to church in a very long time, as well as Ezequiel y Fabricio. It was also a miracle that a young inactive couple we have been working with (Gaston y Nadia) also came to church y stayed for all the meetings! It has been a looong time, y before they would come y argue with all the members. Gaston once told me he would NEVER go back to church in this ward. I was very happy to see them there y just another testimony of how the Lord can change peoples hearts!
Well that is all for this week! I love you all! Hope you have a great Independence Day!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Happy 4th of July!! I am thinking this letter will be rather short... not because I don´t have much to say, but because my hands are frozen and its hard to type!!! Very few places here where you can actually escape from the COLD! Today is transfer day... y no news is good news! Elder Martinez and I will be staying together for my last transfer! Overall GOOD week!
Tuesday we had a great district meeting with a suprise visit at the end from Pres. Stapley. He talked about how our attitude will have the greatest impact on the success we have as missionaries. As a zone we also set the goal to baptize 18 people in the month of July.... a number that has not been reached in a very long time in the zone. That evening we enjoyed a tasty dinner with the Familia Kiss. (asado al horno with lots of salads y Homemade cookies one of their daughters made for us :)!!!) We had a good time talking and they gave me some pictures they took with you on their trip to Utah.
Wednesday nothing big happened.... but that evening we visited a family that has been inactive for YEARS. First the hermana offered us a nice hot Cappuccino she had prepared y when her husband reminded her that we don´t drink coffee she immediately prepared us a cup of tea that we had to politely reject as well. :P We all had a good laugh...
Thursday we had a great lesson with Maria y her 2 sons Ezequiel (12) y Fabricio (11). Both really good kids y when we got to their house they were all reading the Book of Mormon / singing hymns together as a family. We talked a bit about baptism and invited them to be baptized. They are both very excited for their baptism on July 15th!
Friday was Fabricios birthday, so we bought a Pasta Frola y some drinks to take to celebrate his birthday. I also gave him the frisbee you sent me last year for Christmas when I was in the coast.... hope you don´t mind! Very COLD night! Their mom was sick y the family doesn´t have much money, so it was fun to be able to have atleast a bit of a birthday party with them! After eating the "cake" we taught a little lesson trying to speak about the shouting, drumming, y singing of the Evangelist church next door. Probably one of the most INTERESTING lessons I have ever been in. (They have actually had lots of serious problems with their neighbors... not just the noise. Apparently Marias boyfriend Cristian, who says he is athiest, got so mad one night (most likely in addition to being drunk) that he went and set their church on fire.... I´m sure we will be having a lesson about Love y Patience with him shortly.
Sunday was our biggest success... blessings of fasting! We arrived a little later than usual 930 (we missed the earlier bus we usually take) and were suprised to find one of our investigators, Noelia, already there with her 3 children (Florencia 6, Adriana 5, y Rodrigo 1) talking with some of the members! Apparently she has lots of family who are members of the church, which made for a great conversation starter! Maria also came with her mom who hasn´t been to church in a very long time, as well as Ezequiel y Fabricio. It was also a miracle that a young inactive couple we have been working with (Gaston y Nadia) also came to church y stayed for all the meetings! It has been a looong time, y before they would come y argue with all the members. Gaston once told me he would NEVER go back to church in this ward. I was very happy to see them there y just another testimony of how the Lord can change peoples hearts!
Well that is all for this week! I love you all! Hope you have a great Independence Day!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, June 27, 2011
Clock keeps ticking . . .
Dear family y friends,
It has been an interesting week with lots of ups and downs. I am getting used to being cold all the time y even though its not THAT cold (35-40 degrees) the cold, humid wind sure chills the bones!
Started off the week GREAT! On Tuesday I did an intercambio with Elder Chavez from Texas, who has been in the mission about 5 weeks. Everything went FANTASTIC which is exactly what I was hoping y praying for because apparently he has been having a hard time. All the people we planned to visit were home y all the lessons we went were PERFECT. We get along really well so we had a lot more unity teaching which makes a HUGE difference... even with the little spanish he can speak. We had a GREAT lesson with the Familia Mercado that we found last week talking about The Restoration. We did a contact y were able to teach an awesome kid named Jonathan y talked about the Book of Mormon y Prayer. We had a delicious dinner y great chat with a VERY INACTIVE family in our ward y had a great discussion about the Atonement which was very powerful! Honestly it was probably one of the best days of my whole mission. That night we were up a bit late talking, then the following morning we had to switch back with our companions EARLY because President Stapley y one of the assistants also wanted to do intercambios with them that day.
Unfortunately from that point on things started to go down hill for the rest of the week. Wednesday, Pablo cancelled our appointment that I was super excited about that we were planning to invite him to be baptised. Thursday I got news from the Zone Leaders that after talking with President Stapley, Elder Chavez would be going home on Monday. Saturday all of our plans cancelled on us... and the Familia Mercado that I was super excited about teaching basically told us that they didn´t want to talk with us anymore out of nowhere. It is very frustrating when things aren´t going the way you want them too... and luckily my companion and I are able to keep our heads up and keep working with the hope that there are people that the Lord has prepared for us to teach out there SOMEWHERE!
Apart from all that, we did have some success with one of the people we are visiting. I think a couple weeks ago I told you about an Hermana María who came back to church after many years after she started reading the Book of Mormon again. We had also talked a little bit a couple weeks ago with her boyfriend who she is living with named Cristian, who said he doesn´t believe in ANYTHING. I don´t know if its a good or bad thing but apparently he had a pretty frightenin/life changing experience this last week with a vision/dream of the devil or something and now he is scared and wants to learn more about God. On top of that we talked a bit with Marías 2 kids that are living with her now who both want to be baptized! Hope to see some progress with the whole family in these next couple weeks!
Anyways, thats all for this week. Hope you all have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
It has been an interesting week with lots of ups and downs. I am getting used to being cold all the time y even though its not THAT cold (35-40 degrees) the cold, humid wind sure chills the bones!
Started off the week GREAT! On Tuesday I did an intercambio with Elder Chavez from Texas, who has been in the mission about 5 weeks. Everything went FANTASTIC which is exactly what I was hoping y praying for because apparently he has been having a hard time. All the people we planned to visit were home y all the lessons we went were PERFECT. We get along really well so we had a lot more unity teaching which makes a HUGE difference... even with the little spanish he can speak. We had a GREAT lesson with the Familia Mercado that we found last week talking about The Restoration. We did a contact y were able to teach an awesome kid named Jonathan y talked about the Book of Mormon y Prayer. We had a delicious dinner y great chat with a VERY INACTIVE family in our ward y had a great discussion about the Atonement which was very powerful! Honestly it was probably one of the best days of my whole mission. That night we were up a bit late talking, then the following morning we had to switch back with our companions EARLY because President Stapley y one of the assistants also wanted to do intercambios with them that day.
Unfortunately from that point on things started to go down hill for the rest of the week. Wednesday, Pablo cancelled our appointment that I was super excited about that we were planning to invite him to be baptised. Thursday I got news from the Zone Leaders that after talking with President Stapley, Elder Chavez would be going home on Monday. Saturday all of our plans cancelled on us... and the Familia Mercado that I was super excited about teaching basically told us that they didn´t want to talk with us anymore out of nowhere. It is very frustrating when things aren´t going the way you want them too... and luckily my companion and I are able to keep our heads up and keep working with the hope that there are people that the Lord has prepared for us to teach out there SOMEWHERE!
Apart from all that, we did have some success with one of the people we are visiting. I think a couple weeks ago I told you about an Hermana María who came back to church after many years after she started reading the Book of Mormon again. We had also talked a little bit a couple weeks ago with her boyfriend who she is living with named Cristian, who said he doesn´t believe in ANYTHING. I don´t know if its a good or bad thing but apparently he had a pretty frightenin/life changing experience this last week with a vision/dream of the devil or something and now he is scared and wants to learn more about God. On top of that we talked a bit with Marías 2 kids that are living with her now who both want to be baptized! Hope to see some progress with the whole family in these next couple weeks!
Anyways, thats all for this week. Hope you all have a great week!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, June 20, 2011
Feliz día de la bandera! [Happy Flag Day!]
Dear family and friends!
Yes today IS Flag Day here in Argentina as well, although I have only seen 1 flag all day. Even though there isn´t much "celebration" happening... everything is closed down y we find ourselves without much to do! (The cold rainy weather doesn´t help either!) Hope you all had a great Fathers Day yesterday! Fathers sure are great people and of course I thought a lot about how grateful I am for my dad as well as my Heavenly Father.
It has actually been a really good week here even with the yucky weather. We are STARTING to see some progress in the area and found some great new people we are excited to keep working with!
Tuesday after District Meeting I had to go to Gutierrez to do a baptismal interview for some of the Elders in my district... which meant leaving my companion to run the area for the first time ever! Apparently they got lost pretty bad, but luckily were able to get some good stuff done and EVENTUALLY made it back to the apartment that night. I spent the day with Elder Camey who is also from Guatemala... AWESOME Elder. He told me his story about how he got recruited y played professional soccer in Europe for several years and how he decided to serve a mission. Pretty amazing story! It was fun getting to know him and work with him a bit. The Baptismal Interview went great y Miguel was baptised yesterday! That night we had a Noche de Hogar with a family that I just happened to know from Wilde (David y Maryanel) who are now living with Maryanels mom. (see fotos) Great people y we had a good time doing some catching up.
Friday we had Zone Conference in Adrogue which was fantastic as always... but makes for a VERY LONG DAY traveling etc. (1 bus y 2 trains. We left at 8 that morning y didn´t get back to our area until 730). I got volunteered to play the piano... which went well even though we sang a hymn I had never heard of before "Cuando enseñe a tus hijos" ("Help Me Teach With Inspiration" #281) y the piano itself was awkward to play with a combination of a super high pedal y my long legs. The theme of the Conference was The Importance of the Holy Ghost in recieving Revelation y was based on Elder Bednars talk from the last Conference as well as Elder Scotts talk from the October 2009 conference. We also watched an AWESOME talk that Elder Holland gave at the MTC at the beginning of this year... very powerful!
Saturday we found a great family... the Familia Mercado. It was actually a contact we did last week. We clapped the house y they looked at us through the window until finally Gimena, the 17 year old daughter came out to talk to us. We talked with her a little bit and she told us she had gone to several churches before but didn´t believe much in God. We left her a pamphlet and asked if we could pass by another day and she said it would be ok but wouldn´t commit to a time. We left thinking she wasn´t that interested y that MAYBE we would pass by another day if we worked close by. Well Saturday we worked in that area and just as we were leaving to work in a different area I felt we needed to go back and talk to Gimena again. On my way to the house I was thinking about... OK well what are we going to teach to this girl that hardly believes in God. We clapped the house y asked for Gimena... who came out and we talked for a min at the door y she asked if we wanted to come in. We got in the house y had a great conversation with MOST of the family, the dad y mom y 3 of the 6 children. They are great people! The father had lots to say y says he belives a lot in God but doesn´t believe in the Religions. To me it seems like a family who has been "kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." Gimena was excited to go to church with her Boyfriend on Sunday... but they didn´t end up making it with the rain y the fact that it was Fathers Day. We left them a Book of Mormon y will be going back on Saturday to talk with the whole family!
That night we had a ward activity... unfortunately not much of a turnout. We watched the RM which the Bishop was nice enough to "dedicate to me". We had a good time y some good laughs (it was all in english with spanish subtitles... the subtitled translation was AWFUL! but somehow they still got some of the jokes). One of the members brought along her non member husband, so we were able to get to know him a bit as well. Right as we were leaving there was a HUGE rainstorm, y luckily the bishop was nice enough to take us home in his car. :)
We were also very blessed yesterday to have a couple investigators show up to church... even though the assistence in general was WAY down because of Fathers day y the bad weather. I got to play the piano in sacrament meeting since one of the songs they wanted to sing isn´t programmed in the piano. Oscar of course was there, luckily with his family this week. The best of all was that Pablo (24 year old boyfriend of a member) showed up again after 3 or 4 weeks of not seeing him! He seemed to be doing really well y I think the Elders Quorum lesson on Eternal Families had him thinking a bit! I talked with him a bit after the meeting y FINALLY got his phone number y address. We set an appointment for this Wednesday y we are planning to invite him to be baptised! We still have a lot to teach him, but I think he is one of the people the Lord has prepared for us. Now we just need to help HIM recognize that! O YA, also in church yesterday there was a guy visiting from good old Orem Utah!! His last name is Bishop y he is from South Orem close to UVU. He is down here for a Law convention y also visiting his wifes family who lives in Usuaia, Argentina (Spelling?) way down south! He speaks really good spanish... served his mission in Meza, Arizona spanish speaking.
Anyways, thats all for this week! Hope you all have a great week! Only 8 more to go... can´t believe it!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Yes today IS Flag Day here in Argentina as well, although I have only seen 1 flag all day. Even though there isn´t much "celebration" happening... everything is closed down y we find ourselves without much to do! (The cold rainy weather doesn´t help either!) Hope you all had a great Fathers Day yesterday! Fathers sure are great people and of course I thought a lot about how grateful I am for my dad as well as my Heavenly Father.
It has actually been a really good week here even with the yucky weather. We are STARTING to see some progress in the area and found some great new people we are excited to keep working with!
Tuesday after District Meeting I had to go to Gutierrez to do a baptismal interview for some of the Elders in my district... which meant leaving my companion to run the area for the first time ever! Apparently they got lost pretty bad, but luckily were able to get some good stuff done and EVENTUALLY made it back to the apartment that night. I spent the day with Elder Camey who is also from Guatemala... AWESOME Elder. He told me his story about how he got recruited y played professional soccer in Europe for several years and how he decided to serve a mission. Pretty amazing story! It was fun getting to know him and work with him a bit. The Baptismal Interview went great y Miguel was baptised yesterday! That night we had a Noche de Hogar with a family that I just happened to know from Wilde (David y Maryanel) who are now living with Maryanels mom. (see fotos) Great people y we had a good time doing some catching up.
Friday we had Zone Conference in Adrogue which was fantastic as always... but makes for a VERY LONG DAY traveling etc. (1 bus y 2 trains. We left at 8 that morning y didn´t get back to our area until 730). I got volunteered to play the piano... which went well even though we sang a hymn I had never heard of before "Cuando enseñe a tus hijos" ("Help Me Teach With Inspiration" #281) y the piano itself was awkward to play with a combination of a super high pedal y my long legs. The theme of the Conference was The Importance of the Holy Ghost in recieving Revelation y was based on Elder Bednars talk from the last Conference as well as Elder Scotts talk from the October 2009 conference. We also watched an AWESOME talk that Elder Holland gave at the MTC at the beginning of this year... very powerful!
Saturday we found a great family... the Familia Mercado. It was actually a contact we did last week. We clapped the house y they looked at us through the window until finally Gimena, the 17 year old daughter came out to talk to us. We talked with her a little bit and she told us she had gone to several churches before but didn´t believe much in God. We left her a pamphlet and asked if we could pass by another day and she said it would be ok but wouldn´t commit to a time. We left thinking she wasn´t that interested y that MAYBE we would pass by another day if we worked close by. Well Saturday we worked in that area and just as we were leaving to work in a different area I felt we needed to go back and talk to Gimena again. On my way to the house I was thinking about... OK well what are we going to teach to this girl that hardly believes in God. We clapped the house y asked for Gimena... who came out and we talked for a min at the door y she asked if we wanted to come in. We got in the house y had a great conversation with MOST of the family, the dad y mom y 3 of the 6 children. They are great people! The father had lots to say y says he belives a lot in God but doesn´t believe in the Religions. To me it seems like a family who has been "kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." Gimena was excited to go to church with her Boyfriend on Sunday... but they didn´t end up making it with the rain y the fact that it was Fathers Day. We left them a Book of Mormon y will be going back on Saturday to talk with the whole family!
That night we had a ward activity... unfortunately not much of a turnout. We watched the RM which the Bishop was nice enough to "dedicate to me". We had a good time y some good laughs (it was all in english with spanish subtitles... the subtitled translation was AWFUL! but somehow they still got some of the jokes). One of the members brought along her non member husband, so we were able to get to know him a bit as well. Right as we were leaving there was a HUGE rainstorm, y luckily the bishop was nice enough to take us home in his car. :)
We were also very blessed yesterday to have a couple investigators show up to church... even though the assistence in general was WAY down because of Fathers day y the bad weather. I got to play the piano in sacrament meeting since one of the songs they wanted to sing isn´t programmed in the piano. Oscar of course was there, luckily with his family this week. The best of all was that Pablo (24 year old boyfriend of a member) showed up again after 3 or 4 weeks of not seeing him! He seemed to be doing really well y I think the Elders Quorum lesson on Eternal Families had him thinking a bit! I talked with him a bit after the meeting y FINALLY got his phone number y address. We set an appointment for this Wednesday y we are planning to invite him to be baptised! We still have a lot to teach him, but I think he is one of the people the Lord has prepared for us. Now we just need to help HIM recognize that! O YA, also in church yesterday there was a guy visiting from good old Orem Utah!! His last name is Bishop y he is from South Orem close to UVU. He is down here for a Law convention y also visiting his wifes family who lives in Usuaia, Argentina (Spelling?) way down south! He speaks really good spanish... served his mission in Meza, Arizona spanish speaking.
Anyways, thats all for this week! Hope you all have a great week! Only 8 more to go... can´t believe it!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Monday, June 13, 2011
Conferencia de Estaca
Dear family y friend,
Another fabulous week gone by here in Argentina! We enjoyed several warmer days this week... but it´s nice and cold again today! Amazing how the time is flying by! Weird thinking you should be recieving my release letter anytime now... I have had my travel plans for several weeks now, can´t remember if I mentioned that! I leave here around 8 pm on 15 August y get to Salt Lake around 5 pm on 16 August. There have been lots of flights here cancelled due to the volcano in Chile... there has been a little bit of ash on the cars, but luckily it hasn´t been TOO much like some other parts of the country. Should be cleared up in plenty of time for me to make it home without problems in August! :)
Tuesday we had a service project with an hermano in our ward. We helped him put in another concrete cross beam in his house... pretty fun and learned a lot! He has done a lot of work in his house by himself... which I don´t know how it is possible because it is a LOT of work y he can hardly use one of his arms! They always give us lunch, so it was nice being able to give back a little and help them out! :)
Another week of hard work without seeing much progress. We have found some good people at least in some areas we haven´t worked in before. We did a contact with a lady named Noemi last week y finally went back on Saturday to talk to her again y she told us she had been waiting all week for us to come back, but she was just leaving the house, so we set an appointment for Tuesday. Also found an awesome inactive member named Marcelo... who has been inactive for about 10 years. He was very excited to see us... y we are hoping to start working with his family (he is the only member...). Great people!
Yesterday we had a special "Stake Conference" satelitte transmission from Salt Lake for all of Argentina! I had never heard of them doing a conference like that before... but it was pretty cool! We started with a song y prayer in our church, then the transmission came on... with 4 speakers y an intermediate hymn, then the transmission shut off and we finished with another song y prayer. Pretty sad turnout... unfortunately pretty typical of conferences here. Oscar was there at least! Went all by himself. Can´t imagine what is holding him back from getting baptised. Great messages! Felt the love of each of the speakers for the people here y it was amazing to see how they really understand y know their needs. Elder Claudio Zivic spoke first about the importance of "The Words of Christ" in our lives. Next Sister Wixom... president of Primary taled about the youth y the important role parents have in being examples for them and teaching them the gospel. Elder Neil L Anderson gave his whole talk in SPANISH y focused on the strength that comes through obedience to the commandments (especially tithing y missionary service). The last speaker was Pres. Packer who talked about the importance of following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
Anyways, thats all for this week! Hope you all are enjoying your summer y keeping plenty busy! Love you all!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
Another fabulous week gone by here in Argentina! We enjoyed several warmer days this week... but it´s nice and cold again today! Amazing how the time is flying by! Weird thinking you should be recieving my release letter anytime now... I have had my travel plans for several weeks now, can´t remember if I mentioned that! I leave here around 8 pm on 15 August y get to Salt Lake around 5 pm on 16 August. There have been lots of flights here cancelled due to the volcano in Chile... there has been a little bit of ash on the cars, but luckily it hasn´t been TOO much like some other parts of the country. Should be cleared up in plenty of time for me to make it home without problems in August! :)
Tuesday we had a service project with an hermano in our ward. We helped him put in another concrete cross beam in his house... pretty fun and learned a lot! He has done a lot of work in his house by himself... which I don´t know how it is possible because it is a LOT of work y he can hardly use one of his arms! They always give us lunch, so it was nice being able to give back a little and help them out! :)
Another week of hard work without seeing much progress. We have found some good people at least in some areas we haven´t worked in before. We did a contact with a lady named Noemi last week y finally went back on Saturday to talk to her again y she told us she had been waiting all week for us to come back, but she was just leaving the house, so we set an appointment for Tuesday. Also found an awesome inactive member named Marcelo... who has been inactive for about 10 years. He was very excited to see us... y we are hoping to start working with his family (he is the only member...). Great people!
Yesterday we had a special "Stake Conference" satelitte transmission from Salt Lake for all of Argentina! I had never heard of them doing a conference like that before... but it was pretty cool! We started with a song y prayer in our church, then the transmission came on... with 4 speakers y an intermediate hymn, then the transmission shut off and we finished with another song y prayer. Pretty sad turnout... unfortunately pretty typical of conferences here. Oscar was there at least! Went all by himself. Can´t imagine what is holding him back from getting baptised. Great messages! Felt the love of each of the speakers for the people here y it was amazing to see how they really understand y know their needs. Elder Claudio Zivic spoke first about the importance of "The Words of Christ" in our lives. Next Sister Wixom... president of Primary taled about the youth y the important role parents have in being examples for them and teaching them the gospel. Elder Neil L Anderson gave his whole talk in SPANISH y focused on the strength that comes through obedience to the commandments (especially tithing y missionary service). The last speaker was Pres. Packer who talked about the importance of following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
Anyways, thats all for this week! Hope you all are enjoying your summer y keeping plenty busy! Love you all!
les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse
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