Elder Neciosup is hilarious!

Hows it going? Dad how was your b-day? Not much happened this week. My new companion Elder Neciosup is hilarious. He is always making me laugh. He laughs at everything. I am really enjoying my time with him. We are working a lot more with our ward and it is helping a ton. We got more referrals this week and it helped us out a ton! We do everything we can to get referrals from the members. There are not a lot of members here, but the members we have are awesome! This week the weather was super good. It's been really hot but the nights get pretty cold. Earlier this week one of the dogs in our yard ran out of the gate and then came back like 5 minutes later and fell down and died. I am pretty sure it got hit by a car because I have seen it run around in the streets before, but the owners think it had a heart attack. They left it in the yard for a few days but yesterday we helped them dig a grave. My back is so sore.  That's awesome you guys are in a tennis tournament! I want to hear how it goes? And I took out 500 pesos from my credit card and it worked! I took it out of my savings but I haven't tried to use it as a credit card. Thanks for the pictures! Love you guys a ton!

Argentina made it to the World Cup!

Argentina made it to the finals of the World Cup!

Happy Birthday dad! How old are you? I think your almost at 50 and that's so weird for me to think. Have a great day! Welp today was transfers and I am staying in Pablo Nogues but Elder Damitz left. My new companion is Elder Neciosup from Chiclayo - La Victoria, Peru! He is awesome. He is a super funny kid. I will send you pictures of him next week. This week was pretty good. The bummer thing is that Argentina lost in the finals of the World Cup. I got to watch the semifinal game against Holland with members. It was awesome. Argentina won in a shoot out! Everyone was going nuts after the game. I have never seen anything like it. It was so crazy! Since they lost the finals everyone is a little depressed. In the city I heard everyone was going crazy and it was super dangerous. Sunday we had to be in our apartment from 4 until the rest of the night. The work here is going alright. We dropped a ton of our investigators so we are focusing a ton in finding. We are still working with Estela and Mariano. They are doing pretty good but are searching for an answer about the church. It is starting to rain a lot here and I love it! The only problem is it is so humid so my shoes and clothes don't dry. It is horrible. That's awesome about grandma and grandpa's mission call!!! I am super excited about that. Keep going to cove! Keep playing tennis! I want to hear how the tennis camp went? Thanks for everything! I love you guys so much! Remember Elder Ballard's conference talk- it's the least we can do as members of the church is invite at least 4 people to talk with the missionaries every year. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel. 

The countryside

This dog reminds me of JR - he is so skinny and his ribs are sticking out!

Soccer!

Hows it going? How was Boise?  This week was pretty fun. Tuesday, Argentina had a world cup game and we got to watch it as a mission! We had a devotional and then watched the whole game. Argentina won in double overtime! It was super fun to watch. And this Wednesday Argentina has a game against Holland and we have permission to watch it in the house of a member! If they win Wednesday, they go to the finals! Right now they are in the semifinals and they haven't made it this far in like 20 years. It is huge here! This week I passed my year mark and I can't believe it. Time goes by so fast. This week we found a few good investigators. We found a man that is 85 yrs old named and isn't a member and his son served a mission. We had a really good lesson with him and we are working hard with him. He is pretty lonely but he loves when we visit him. We got a hold of his son that served a mission and he is helping us out with him. I just got dad's letter about Grandma and Grandpa's mission call!!! That's so awesome!!!! The food from Peru is the best thing I have ever had! There are a lot of Peruvians in this mission here in Argentina and they are hilarious. Yesterday in church we only had 44 people come. It was not a lot. I think it was the smallest Sacrament meeting I have been to. The hermana in my ward that is going to Chile still comes out with us every single day for hours. She helps us out a ton. We are starting to find a lot more and its helping us out a ton. Pray for Mariano that he can receive an answer. Thanks for the pictures mom they are super funny! I love and miss you all!

PS The picture of Grandpa on the diving board- That's the funniest thing I have ever seen. That's awesome!

The death of our Stake President

Hola. This week went pretty well. We are starting to work with the ward a lot more. Some Active members are starting to work a lot more with us. This will help us out a ton. This week our stake president passed away. I never met him but everyone is super sad. He is only 40 something years old and has like 4 or 5 kids. He got sick really fast and they couldn't do much to help him. We have a member in this ward that works with us every single day. After lunch we go to her house everyday to pick her up and then she stays with us until 8 or 9pm. Yesterday she got her mission call to Concepcion Chile! She leaves in November but I am sure Sam will meet her! She is so awesome! Right now we are working hard to find people that are going to progress. Every person we talk with we teach them the lesson right there on the spot to see if they will progress. We find a lot doing this but we really need to find more. That's about it for this week. Pray for Vanessa. She is a single mom with 3 young kids and is super lonely. We have a lesson with her tonight so we are super excited. I just got a letter from president saying that tomorrow the mission is having a cultural event. I have no idea what we will do but i am excited. I am loving it here. There is nothing funner than missionary work. I love you all!

On my way to Pablo Nogues

Me and Elder Damitz

This week was a little crazy. President Ayre called me Tuesday night and told me I am going to Pablo Nogues. Its the area right next to La Cabaña. My companion is Elder Damitz from Huntington Beach California. He is super cool. He reminds me a lot of Jimmy Carter. Its kind of funny. He is my first companion from the states.  My ward has like 40 to 50 members every week. It is really similar to La Cabaña but with not a lot of active members. Also Austin Collie served his mission here in this mission and this was one of his wards. I live with a family of members and they had a byu hat signed  by Austin collie and they told me all about him. There is a hermana in this ward that works with us every single day from like 2pm to 9pm. She is waiting for her mission call and loves helping us out. She is awesome. Saturday Argentina had another game in the world cup. The streets go empty during the games. They only scored one goal but it was super quiet and when they scored I felt like I was in the stadium. It is so crazy. The work is doing good in this area. We worked a lot with the members this week and we received quite a bit a referrals. Your summer sounds awesome. Trek sounded fun. This ward has horrible luck with trek weather. Thanks for the letters and pictures. Love you all!

My Shower!!!

The River between Argentina and Uruguay

Happy Father's Day

Happy Fathers day Dad!!!! Yesterday was a huge day here in Argentina.
It was fathers day and Argentina had there first game in the world
cup. The world cup is huge here. During the game the streets were
empty and quiet but when Argentina made a goal every one went crazy.
Every house would start screaming GOAL and then they would all light off
these fire works that just make super loud sounds. It was super fun.
And Argentina won so that's pretty good. Yesterday was stake conference
and it was really good. Elder Viñas of the seventy came and talked to
us. Something that I really liked is he said in all things we do,
without real intent, it doesn't work out for the lord. I loved that. I
love being in la cabaña! The work here is doing pretty good. We are
finding a lot of people but not a lot are progressing much. We are
working really hard with the less actives and recent converts and
finding through them and we are finding people but not a lot of them
have progressed. We are trying to get the ward more involved.
President Ayre talked in our stake conference and he talked a lot
about the members visiting people with the missionaries. President
wants that we have a member with us from 11 in the morning to 9 o
clock when we go home. Its so much better when we have members with us
so we working a lot more with the ward. Have fun at trek. Enjoy the
summer. Enjoy the weather because here its pretty dang cold at times.
I miss and love you all!

Transferred to La Cabana

Today was transfers and  I got transferred to la cabaña! Its it provincia and its super different than capital. I am with elder Martinez from Mexico! He is super cool. His older brother served his mission in Guadalajara Mexico like 10 years ago. I will miss my old area a bit but I am excited to be here. I loved being with Elder Florez! I had a blast with him. Sunday they divided my old stake. President Gonzalez and another member from the Seventy came to do it. The church was full of people! They had to put a TV in every room in the church so everyone could watch. The new Stake President is Chinese! Its kind of cool. President Gonzalez talked a lot about the Book of Mormon. He said we need to always read this book even if we don't understand it. He said we need to pay attention how we feel when we read it. 

Is school out there? I am all backwards right now. It is pretty cold here and all the members are giving us hot chocolate when we visit them. I feel like its Christmas sometimes. My new area is so different from where I have been. La Cabaña means the cabin in English. There are like two log cabins in my area also. Sometimes I feel like I am in the mountains. There are pretty much only dirt streets and and little houses every where. Every night people put little fires in front of their houses and burn there garbage or yard work stuff. I come home at night smelling like camp fire. My ward has like 70 active members. In the chapel there is only like 8 rows of benches. Its super small. There is a member here that lived in Utah for about ten years and was a member in the branch where I served in Kearns! It was super funny talking to him about that. My companion is awesome. He is from Chalco, Mexico. He doesn't have a lot of time in this area so we are working on getting to know the area and more people. I already love the area. I feel like there is a ton of potential here so I am super excited to be here. Pray that we can find families here in this la cabaña. Thanks for everything. I love you all!