ARG - Elder Gillett 6.16.14

Things are going pretty good! At the beginning of this week I was pretty homesick but I am doing a ton better now! Yeah we are going to keep doing as much as we can but it is only going to get more hard as the world cup goes on! We did hear people screaming when they scored the second goal but it wasn´t everyone going crazy! I am sure it will be worse when it gets further into the World Cup! another thing is if there is a chance I want skittles :) i miss them and they are expensive here in argentina for a tiny bag! hahaha 

Our president hasn´t said anything about the rules so far so we have no idea! It really is impossible to not watch the games here! We are still able to go and visit members and investigators and everyone but they almost always have the game on! We always at least try to share a good short message though so that we at least let them know still about the gospel and everything but yeah we have ended up seeing a lot of the games! Sunday nights we have to return to the pension by 8pmthough so we only got to see the first half of the argentina game so we saw the own goal and how bad argentina was sucking. We even have a little tournament going on between us as elders in the pension like march madness but for the world cup! 

Yeah I withdrew the money from the bank account because my ipod was just completly toast! Stupid walmart brand! Luckily most of my music was on the little card so I still have a lot of it but not all of it! I emailed her this week so she said she was doing pretty good to me! (Sister Paige Eastwood) I will make sure to respond to her and give her some help if she needs some! I am so pumped for Brad! I know if I was in his shoes I wouldn´t have been able to do it! But now he is headed off! 

Thats really cool to hear about the missionaries coming over for dinner! I forgot to mention this last week but when I saw that you were having dinner with the missionaries and everything that I was going to tell you 2 weeks ago you need to start having them over for dinner and stuff! It is seriously the most amazing thing to have these super amazing families who are always so willing to accept you into their house and give you food and talk with you and everything! SO I was super excited to hear that the Lord was working out my words for you to give them dinner with out me having to say anything! Just love that missionary thats struggling! There has been times that I have been struggling but it is crazy that as soon as I go to anywhere to eat with members, teach investigators, and just kinda forget about myself is when I have the most fun and forget about how hard of a time I was having or anything! hahaha Colton chose right! Argentina! Hahah (Colton, a cousin wore his Argentina Messi jersey to our house to watch the game with us yesterday)  but yeah that sounds fun for them to be working together in J-Dawgs! (a friend of Tanner's will be working with Colton)
 

So yeah as for me with week we really didn´t have any success with investigators until this morning! It was super cool to hear this! But thats for in a second! So we didn´t have any success with investigators this week because they were all busy and not home and stuff and we really can only be in one of 4 areas during each day in the field because the area is pretty big! But yeah we visited a lot of menos activo members and it turned out really good! We got a lot of them there for class and to take the sacrament and stuff but it was super funny because the second we were done with the sacrament there was like 20 people that got up and left church! hahahah not good but it was just funny because of how intense everyone was for getting ready for the game sunday night that argentina was playing! hahaha but yeah

saturday we went and visited Ruben with our ward mission Leader Hermano Galvan! And he used to have smoking and drinking problems like Ruben does! So it was super cool to have him there testifying of the power of overcoming these with the help of the gospel! Ruben is a stud to but sometimes has a really hard time understanding the principals of the gospel so we have to help him a couple times to understand it because he barely has a concept of God! Super funny though because one time we were talking to him about Noah and the Ark and at first he said Yeah I don´t know that story... But we talked more and more about it and so he said, "OHHHHH yeah i know that story! I watched a movie about it one time! There was a guy building a boat or something and he was growing his beard really long and stuff!" Steve Almighty the movie is what he was talking about.... hahahhaha super funny! but yeah this morning we got a call from him after he didn´t come to church yesterday and he said yeah sorry i didn´t come to church yesterday I was stuck in Quilmes (another city close to Berazetegui) and he said that he started talking and sharing the gospel with his girlfriend and she was really interested in the church too! FUAAAAAAAAAAAAA (Fua is like wow, or dangit, or anything in english like that haha) It was super cool to hear! And he also told us that during the Argentina game last night he didn´t drink or smoke anything! And normally in the mornings when he wakes up he smokes but he didn´t this morning so he called us to tell us this! Super awesome!

Love you all! Its crazy how specifically and specially the Lord works to help us in his work with experiences like this! I have a really strong testimony of this! Love you all! love you tons!

Elder Weelson 6/16

Before I start.... HAPPY FATHERS DAY YESTERDAY DAD!!!:) I love you so much. 

Greetings from the greatest city in all of Spain... Fuenla!  Things are going so great out here!  Elder Bohne and I are lovin life, and workin so hard together.  Its amazing... after 5 weeks with him, I am still learning so much from him.  Every single day he teaches me something new, and helps me become a better servant of our Lord.  We are so happy together, and TONS happened this week!  I'll try to get ya'll updated in a quick, specific good manner.  hahaha.

So first off we had our Leadership Council this week in the Mission Home. It was INCREDIBLE! I liked it this time more than the last time.  This time was just incredible and so spiritual.  Probably because I wasnt freaking out, being super nervous the whole time.  It was a blast though.  I got to see Elder Smith!!!! My long lost companion.  It was so great to see him.  He had changed so much, but at the same time was the same exact funny Elder Smith.  Love that guy so much. I also so many other missionary friends that I havnt seen since the beginning of the mission or the MTC.  It was great to see them.  The 2 office Elders are now Elders from my group.  All the missionaries in my group are just incerdible.  They are all so spiritual and just on a whole other level.  It was great to see them.  We ate the famous Hermana Jackson food.  We had chicken enchaladas... SO GOOD! It was good to eat some good home cookin food. haha!  So the very next day Elder Bohne and I gave the Zone Training to our zone of what we had learned.

We have been working so hard here in fuenlabrada.  Were really working with the members.  More than anything, just loving them.  Helping them feel the Love of the Lord in their lives.  Its kinda tough.... Fast and Testimony meetings members just get up and call other members out...... The Gospel Principles teacher kinda just throws out false doctrine..... and in Presithood people just try to show how much knowledge they have, and that they are the most faithful preisthood holder.... its always interesting on Sunday.  You never know what your going to see.  hahaha.  But I love them.  I spoke this past sunday. They let me know the morning of the Sacrament meeting, so I had about 45 minutes to prepare a 15 minute talk.  I spoke a lot about Gratitude.  I thought it turned out really good.  I really felt the spirit.  Its incredible how easy it is to speak for 15 minutes now.... I remember freaking out before the mission trying to speak for 7 minutes.... hahaha.  I love the Branch here so much.  Everyone has such strong desires to follow Christ.  They are a ton of fun.  Im really really grateful for the chance to be here in Fuenla.  Its the greatest.  

So we have a new investigator named Mariela.  Please pray for her family.  She is incredible.  Shes from Peru, and her whole family is back in Peru.  She has such strong desires to know the truth and to find the truth in her life.  We have had some incredible lessons with her, and she is progressing so well.  She is such a blessing.  I feel really blessed to be able to teach her.  So updates: Saady and Mabel moved to Germany.  Luis.... fell of the map.  Marcos and the Colombians... same goes.  Since the World Cup started we havent heard from him.  Victor... I think were gonna drop him for a bit.  Juan Carlos and Estela are passivly progressing.  Please pray for all those people.  We are trying to exersice so much faith.  They need it.  The work here in Fuenlabrada is going so well.  We hit the streets every single day SO EXCITED!  I love to work.  I just love being tired, and realizing that I can, and need to work even harder if Im realizing that Im tired. If you TRULY WORK, with a focused mind and a heart set on the Lord, You wont be tired until you hit your bed.... then you just pass out. hahahaha. I really have learned that. 

I love my Savior. He knows me.  He understands me.  I know that He will carry me every where I need to go, as long as Im willing to follow.  I know without a doubt that this church is true.  I have really been realizing this past week that our Savior more than anything wants us HAPPY... and I truly am happy.  He has blessed me so much. Im happy to be tired.  Im happy to wake up every morning.  I truly just am so happy.  The Lord is my best friend.  He loves us all so much.  I know this is HIS work, not MY work.  

Love you all so much.  You all are the best.  Thanks for the love and support.  

Elder Weeeeeelson

Jarrett Weekly Letter 6.15.2014

Wow it has been raining all week, and to be honest I am not a big fan of dendoing in the rain that is for sure. It really takes your dendo fire away, but our numbers this week weren't too bad. We were still able to get out and work everyday. This week was all finding again because we only have one investigator right now, so we made about 15 appointments, but the problem with the appointments sometimes, is we normally make them when people are busy and so they aren't very strong appointments. But the investigator we have now was a "weak appointment", but she was home when we told her we would come back and now she is our investigator so that is really nice when we see "weak appointments" into good investigators.

So I got a new English class person who loves me. This lady gave me hand made roses and then some snacks and a little letter saying how her week was and how see thinks I am cute. The only probably is this lady is like in her 30s or 40s really nice lady, but like I said before I am a missionary, and I don't even want to talk to her anymore.

Well that is about it love you guys!

Love, Jarrett

P.S. Mom I love the package and the letter, I will send you a letter soon!

ARG - Elder Gillett 6.9.14

No i have only been using the one pair! I figured I will run these down until they are toast and then one day maybe when argentina plays or something and we can´t go teach i will pull them apart and super glue them really well! :) We haven´t heard what is going to happen with argentina and the world cup if we are allowed to go out during argentina games or what! Another crazy thing here is everybody looks like people from home! There was a picture in one of our investigators house of a girl that looks EXACTLY like you from one of the pictures we have down stairs of when you were like 5 or 6 or something like that! I mean EXACTLY like you too! hahaha they said it was their granddaughter or something!

Yeah it is really sad to see the health problems here! And a lot of it is with stuff that if they were in the United States they could have had it fixed when they were born or when it happened but now they are paralyzed in some way because of it and stuff! So it doesn´t surprise me about the girl who couldn´t talk here! (Madi is to give a youth talk in Sacrament this coming Sunday & she chose a GC talk about a young Buenos Aires, Argentina girl who couldn't speak, so she drew her testimony for Sister Wixom of Jesus Christ kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane)  talks are fun! She will do an awesome job! I gave a talk in spanish like the 2nd or 3rd week I was here though so it actually came out a lot better than I thought! but yeah!

Sorry I don´t have a ton of time and its hard to think of what happened sometimes! Yeah that part of the BOM has been scary for me to think too! I haven´t since she is on the mission (Paige) but i will try and email her! I am pumped for Brad! He will love Peru! I don´t like spicy food that much either but the food some of the peruvian missioanries make us is really really good!

Sooooooo for this week we had a lot of success! Seriously! Not with people we had taught with before like Ruben and Guillermo! We weren´t able to visit those too! But we are hoping to sometime early this week! We found 4 new investigators this week! Which is really good especially since we usually get only 1 or 2 a week!

Primero! There was Jose and Nelli! They are a really old couple that live together in a really poor area of our mission and we walk past their house a lot and almost always Jose is outside sitting in his wheel chair (he had a stroke and the right side of his body is paralyzed but he is starting to get feeling and being able to walk little by little!) But yeah anyways we always go and talk to him and stuff and he is super nice and funny but is super hard to understand because he cant even use all of his tongue to pronounce the words he is trying to say! Then we saw Nelli sitting and looking out her window one time so we went up and talked to her too and told us a little bit about us and she invited us over another time and we taught them both about the plan of salvation! They were super touched you could tell and they offered the prayer to finish the lesson and everything! IT was super awesome! And after they accepted a baptismal date after for the 28th of June so hopefully we can get them prepared in time!

And then also this week we taught a friend of one of the ward members and his nickname is Hueso (which means bone) no idea why he is named that but everyone knows him by that! He is a stud! Likes soccer, motorcycles, and cars. Sounds a little bit like someone you know right ;) hahah me but yeah we talked about all that for awhile and then we taught him about the restoration of the gospel! He doesn´t understand a lot of the words but he really likes what we do have to say so we will see how it goes with him here soon this next week!

Then this next week coming up is transfers already! Elder Santos has been here in this area for 5 months already so odds are is he willing be headed to somewhere else after this week! But we will see! WE are actually getting along a lot better now too so it will be a little tough to leave him because he helped a ton with spanish! But yeah also if he leaves I will have to lead my area already and I am only 6 weeks in! Pretty crazy! hahah anyways!

I love you all so much! Thanks for the emails and everything! It tops the week off every monday when I get on and have 20 to 30 emails from you all!

elder Weelson (6-9)

Family!!!

Hope yall havin a great week.... I honestly dont know my identity with english anymore.... It seems like im starting to say yall a lot more... hahaha.  I dont know whats goin on.  One of those phases:)  But this week was amazing!!! So much happened this week, it was seriously an amazing week, life just keeps getting better and better!  

So this week, I did exchanges with the assistants.  This time I did it with Elder Merriman.  And wow... that guy is incredible.  We had tons of fun together and worked so hard!  I learned soooo much from him.  I cant even put into words what I learned from him.  He is just incredible. As you all know... I always expect a lot out of myself.  Too much a lot of the times.  And Elder Merriman is exactly like that as well he said.  He gave me the advice to never let your expectations of yourself to stress you out.  But to only let it drive you.  He is so incredible.  We had such a great exchange!  So to switch back with our companions Elder Merriman and I went to Atocha... which is really really close to downtown madrid.  so we arrived like almost an hour early.... well Elder Blanchard and Bohne were runnin late as well... so it turned out bein an hour early.  So we decided to go eat some breakfast while we waited for them.  So we walk to down town madrid (this was my first time there since the mtc) and bought some dunkin doughnuts (first time ever eating dunkin doughnuts) in downtown madrid in Plaza Mayor.  It was so awesome! Seriously something I will never forget.  hahaha.  

Man, Elder Bohne and I are just having so much fun together and working so hard!!! We have so many investigators right now with soooo much potential.  The work here in fuenlabrada is going so well, and progressing so much!  We have our big activity coming up that we planned the 21st of June.  It should turn out awesome!  I am really excited to see how it turns out.  

The colombians are doing great.  They are incredible.  Its really hard to teach them all... Because its either they are all together or none of them are together, its weird how that works.  But one of them is named Marcos.  He is super super awesome, and has a baptismal date for the 5th of July.  We are really excited for him, and seems to be progressing super well.  

We also found a family this week.  Saady and Mabel.  Saady is bolivian and Mabel is Spaniard.  Mabel is the girl just in case your wondering. hahaha:)  They are so amazing and also have a baptismal date for the5th of July.  They seem so prepared, and I couldnt be more excited about them.  They have such a beautiful and united family.  They have 3 little children.  They make me so happy, and I feel such a love for them.  Whenever I pray for them, or visit them I just feel an overwhelming love for them.  And mom, I loved what you said about that, Its the love that we feel that God has for them.  And that is SO true.  I love them so much, and it has only been 1 week.  There are so many prepared people here in Fuenlabrada! 

so.... were pullin out all stops to try to help out this branch.......... we sang.  We sang a special musical number in church on sunday. hahahaha.  We sang... uhhhh... La Oracion del Profeta.... A Prophets Prayer...?  is that what its called?  But we sang that, but to the toon of Come thou Fount.  It was super awesome actually.  I thought it turned out super well.  DIdnt think Id get nervous up there.... but I did.  I just got the Wilson beautiful singing voice... thats why.  hahahaha.  Man I am just so happy out  here in paradise!  Sorry this was short... and kinda boring.  We played soccer for like 3 hours today... and I can really only think about food right now.  Im STARVIN.  hahahaha. 

Love you all so much, I get yall a better letter next week! hahaha my stomach is just eating my ribs right now... i cant focus. hahaha, love you all! I GOT ALL THE PICTURES!!!! that was my favorite ever.  I love the pics!! Thanks so much!  

Elder Weeeeeeelson.

Jarrett Weekly Letter 6.8.2014

Yo YO Yo

It was a pretty sick we that is for sure!!

Well to start off the week we had transfers well I found out that I am staying here in Odori and I am staying with my companion again how freakin crazy is that! I am actually way stoked he is a way cool guy I for sure love him a lot! So it is basically one long transfer with us together! It doesn't feel like a transfer passed by, things are just so fun! 

We found a investigator this week it was awesome it felt really good! Her name is Suehiro San and we met with her yesterday she is the nicest lady ever. I am not sure if she has much interests but she is for sure listening and feeling the spirit so she says.  Heavenly Father is for sure working with us. 

This week there was this unreal festival called Yosakoi, I am speechless even talking about it. So look it up first off. Well it was about 4 days long and we actually would take our lunch and dinner time and would go and watch it and it was just so unbelievable. I took a bunch of videos but they are all about 5 minutes long. So it is like colleges and just random groups dancing, either on stage or the street it was freakin legit. Everyone was in sync  but the costumes and music were unbelievable -  lets just say LOOK IT UP!!

Well I love you guys! By the way I only have like 30 minutes to write today because we have a zone activity, with President Evans...

Love you guys!

Elder Nielsen

Jarrett Weekly Letter 6.1.2014

Dear Family,

 

I am sorry I don't have much time to write this week but it was a pretty dang good week.

 

So to start of Elder Christofferson of the quorum of the 12 apostles came and visited our mission. We were privileged to hear from him Wednesday morning, and he was absolutely amazing. He asked if we had any questions and he freakin used the spirit for every question as he answered them and he used the scriptures for every answer that was really cool.  Then for the last part he told us that we really need to work with NA and that will help us boost up our numbers. He said in Hokkaido over 70 percent of the members are NA and not coming to church. That really struck a cord with me and how I really haven't been focusing on them at all so I really want to start changing that. So that was a really cool experience.

 

Then next was yesterday. SO it was the last day of the week and our numbers were really bad. We didn't have one lesson to count for the week and really  just wanted to teach a lesson. Well within the first 20 minutes we taught one lesson. Then also another miracle, we housed about 4 apartment complexes. And after the 3rd one nobody in all of the apartments didn't answer their door. Well we get to this next one and me and my companion were both saying how we should be just skip it because it is a waste of our time, because nobody is home. Well we both had the feeling that we needed to do it. Well the LAST apartment door we pinged a guy came out and we taught him a really good lesson that was a really cool experience and he really wants us to come back next week. After that we went streeting at the park. The a last contact of the night we talked to was a 19 year old kid who wants to be a professional photographer and it was so sick to talk to him! He is going to Tokyo to go take some pictures for a couple of weeks and then he is coming back! So that is going to be so dope to teach him he is pretty interested and totally got is phone number and everything! So a couple of miracles for the last day of the week which really felt nice!

 

Well that is all from me!

 

Love you guys!

 

Love, Elder Nielsen

Elder Weelson 6-2

Wow, what an incredible week!!!  This email is going to be a little bit shorter.  I'm just gonna let y ou know right now.  hahaha.  I have tons of pictures to send, so Im gonna send a little more time doing that today.  Its kinda a process on this dang computer, and we had a zone activity today for Pday.  We went to this awesome park, had a HUGE picnic, and played capture the flag.  It was so much fun.  The zone is so awesome! 

But this week was seriously the greatest!! I am so happy, and having so much fun, but have never been so focussed in my life!  Elder Bohne and I still havent spoken in english together.  Its awesome.  Im seriously loving it!  I want to take advantage of every single second I have being emersed in the spanish language.  I got a long ways to go though.  Ive reached a point, where I could just settle, and be totally fine.  Say and understand basically everything.  But there is still so much to learn, and so much I need to learn to reach that next level!  So that is going great. 

Man, I just couldnt be more grateful to be here in Fuenlabrada, with Elder Bohne.  He's such a stud.  I'll try to make sure to actually tell you how the week was, instead of just worshipping elder bohne this week!  hahaha, he's just the man.  So we had such an amazing week!!  We have so many investigators that are soooo close.  This week about 15 people had committed to coming to church, and a few others were a little shaky... there are so many prepared people!!... but yeah, 15 for sure didnt make it to church this week, sadly.  The Colombians, Edith, Marcos, Guadalupe, Gentiel, and Elizabeth are doing so amazing.  They are really falling into place in the branch.  We havent really even taught them that much, because they have just been coming to the weekly branch activities and stuff!  hahaha, they are loving it, and such incredible people.  We haven't visited them once, without them giving us some sort of food.  They have so much faith and are doing so great.  Please pray for them!  

I just want to finish by saying how grateful I am to be a servant of the Lord and for prayer.  Prayer is the key to everything.  With a faithful prayer in your heart ALWAYS, and taking time to stop, think, meditate and pray is so so so so powerful.  I know our Father in Heaven listens.  He activiley listens.  And is so anxious to bless us.  I am so happy.  I feel so grateful to be able to give EVERYTHING I have to help just a little bit with this great work.  I love the people here in Spain.  I love you guys so much.  If I have learned anything these past few weeks, its Love.  I seriously feel such a love in my heart.  I am so thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ.  He always turned outward, and loved.  I feel such a passion in my heart for this work.  I have never felt something this strong in my entire life.  A love so strong for these people.  A desire so strong to serve the Lord.  A faith so strong, that Elder Bohne and I can be insruments in the Lords hands to bring forth His will.  I love you all so much.  Hope you have an amazing week, thanks for the emails and letters! I appreciate them tons!  Life couldnt get better!!!!! I'm so dang happy.  

till next week, signing out,

Elder Weeeeeelson.

haha

ARG - Elder Gillett 6.2.14

Ehhh it was just a one day thing! (being sick) Seems to happen a lot down here but oh well! I am doing perfectly fine now! But now Elder Santos says he has "bronchitis". ugh...  We found some good deals on jerseys and stuff this week so I bought a few things with the money I got from trading with one of the members! Got some FC Barcelona socks, a banner thing of BOCA juniors, and a jersey of River Plate! The champions of the league in Argentina! I will make sure to send pictures next week! But yeah my ipod thing is already not working... No idea whats going on with it! 
So this week was another slow week! We have a couple new investigators and they are doing good! We visited Ruben and he has stopped smoking a ton but hasn´t completely quit but he is going to try to this week! And we couldn´t get him to say his first prayer with us the other day when we talked to him! So we will see how it goes with him this week! 

We taught a lot of less active because they have changed our mission to a pilot program to only focus on the recent converts, menos activo members, and the investigators! So that has been really cool! Supposedly we have a member of the 70 going on tour of our mission this week and he will be visiting our district! I don´t know for sure but thats what we heard! 

Then with one of our new investigators Rosa who lives in a really nice house! hahah anyways she is catholic but doesn´t go to church and doesn´t read the bible (like everybody in Argentina) haha They all say "Yeah I am Catholic but I never go to church or read the bible" So basically they aren´t :) haha but she told us before we taught that she didn´t have much time but when she let us in we talked for like a little more than an hour! She was really interested and wants us to come back to teach this thursday! So we will see how that goes! 

Then we have another investigator who had a baptismal date with some missionaries before but never ended up getting baptized! He is SUPER knowledgeable about the bible and if the bible doesn´t say it, he won´t do it! HE really likes everything about our church though but because of the fact that nobody sees god in the bible, he doesn´t believe in the restoration! So we try to talk to him about it and explain it and everything so he promised us he will read the book of mormon with real intent and see what he actually thinks about it! And then it sounds like this saturday we are going to have a party of some sort with the ward and play soccer all together and everything so we are hoping for some of the ward members to invite some friends and we can all play soccer and get some new investigators and everything too! But thats all for this week! Love you all! 

This week (Elder Frampton 6-2)

Dear Family and Friends,

 

How Is everyone? Is everything going good at home or on the mission?

 

So this week we went and just visited our lists. I could honestly end my email at that ha ha. its getting a little bit picked up here with the work. The more I hear the ward talk about the last two missionaries it makes me sad that their conduct would be like it was in this area. But people come on missions to change and so they will get there.

 

So one of the days this week we were out trying to meet all these people on our lists and its like 8:15and we had no success all day and were close to home. I had written down one more name and we both were on the edge of going or just calling it but we decided to check it out. We knock on the door and this Egyptian man with no shirt on opens the door and he tells us to come in. So we went in. We sat down as he finished up on his phone call. He then he looked at us and asked us what we are doing. We start to explain he was on one of our lists and ask what he remembers about the last missionaries. he cant remember when they last visited but he asks what makes our religion different. It starts to turn into a small "Bible Bash" until he asks us to read something from our Book. We open up and read a little and he starts asking questions about the Book of Mormon. So like every missionary knows we turn to the introduction to help explain the book. We ask him to read the last two paragraphs and he starts reading but has a hard time with the words. In the last paragragh he stops for a little and we think he is struggling with the words but he looks up and says "I know this book is true, I can feel it even before I finish it. You knew to have me read this? how did you know I would feel this way?" It was soooooooo awesome! We testified of it and e wants us to come back and teach more. It was amazing to see how the spirit touches those who are ready and how the lord expects you to work all the way till your last stride.

 

So It ended up being an awesome week and I am really learning how to love the mission out here. I am greatfull for all of the support and love! It really means a lot. I love you all!

 

-Elder Frampton