elder weelson (5/26)

Hello Family!

This week was so incredible.  Even better than the last week!  Life could not get better out here in Fuenlabrada with Elder Bohne.  This place is incredible.  Each day I am growing to love this city more and more.  I don't know what it is.... this City doesnt really have any huge cool things... but there is something about this place.... I dont know what it is... but I just love it.  Elder Bohne is the MAN.  That guy is such a stud, and we are enjoying every single second together. 

So this week I am going to start off with some funny things that happened this week. Its weird... I feel like Im laughing the entire day... but I can never remember stories.  But anyways.... Last monday for Pday we went to the Chinese Buffet Wok... and wow did I pound the food.... never have I eaten that much at a buffet in my entire life..... just pounded it.  Well... the very next day I just felt awful when I woke up, and had a bad case of the runs.  But no worries, It all turned out okay, and we didnt lose a single minute of proselyting time.  I dont know how I servived without bathrooms, but I did! And no worries, It was just that 1 day.  I just needed to flush all that chinese food out of my system.  

Okay, now Im serious.  You can never be too serious in life, ya know?:)  Right Kdub?  hahaha.  But this week we had an AMAZING zone conference with President and the Assistants. They spoke a ton about Love.  Love for our Savior, Jesus Christ.  And how our love for Him, should carry us.  Our love for Him should give us the desires to work hard, to be exactly obedient and to do EVERYTHING possible to do the work of the Lord.  It was an incredible conference.  Presidnet talked a lot about how this work isn't about us.  Way too often we focus on ourselves. And its so true.  That really touched my heart, because I realized Im focusing way to much on myself. Everything should be for the investigators and members.  I loved it so much, and Im really excited to just forget myself and get to work.  The conference was amazing, and I couldnt be more excited to work every single day to Love the Lord more and more, and to forget myself more and more.  

This week was also the finals of the Champions League.  Atlético Madrid x Real Madrid.  We didnt see any part of the game... but boy did we hear it.  It was crazy.  There was NO ONE out on the streets.  Everyone was in the bars and just screaming, chanting and going crazy.  Lets just say it took a long time to get to bed that night because of all the city just going crazy.  Real Madrid I guess won in Extra Time, is the word on the street.  It was so crazy, and an awesome experience to be there for for the finals with two clubs from Madrid!  

The Lord truly is hastening His work. Its incredible.  He is just putting people in our path.  2 weeks ago we found a brother and sister from Colombia named Marcos and Edith.  They are like there 40s now.  Well it was really hard to get into contact with them, and we almost forgot about them.  Well one day we just decided to pass by their home.  They  were there but just leaving, so we set up a time and day to meet.  Well at the end, Marcos and Edith ended up coming to play soccer with us, and they brought 3 friends! It was awesome.  So we rolled up to the church saturday morning with 5 colombians.  We gave them a tour of the chapel and they loved it, and had tons of amazing questions.  We are beginning to teach the 5, and they all came to church the next day! Such a miracle.  Please pray for Marcos, Edith, Elizabeth, Guadalupe, and Emilio.  

As well we are teaching a family from Ecuador.  Juan Carlos and Estela. They came to church this past week as well!  They are doing amazing, are very quiet, humble people.  I love them so much, and are both very new as well!  Please pray for them! A nigerian brotha named Kency also came to church and loved it!  Hes such a bro, and really wants to get baptized.  We just gotta make sure he understands, and knows how serious this covenant is.  

Also we found a man named Luis this week.  Truly a miracle.  He is from the Dominican Republic, and super awesome!  He came to church this week... well kinda.  He got there late, got to the door of the church, and didnt see anyone.  So he felt a little embarassed and left.  But he is incredible.  He accepted to be baptized the 14th of June.  So we'll see how it turns out.  I really have faith that he will.  He LOVED the plan of salvacion, and loved learning all those "new things".  He is progressing amazingly.  The Lord is truly blessing the people here in Fuenlabrada.  I feel so blessed to be able to be here.  

Family, I want your advice!  I want an email from each one of you this coming week.  It can be just 1 sentence thats fine.  But I need advice.  how can I forget myself, and come to love the Lord even more?

I love you all so much.  Thank you so much for your love and support.  I know my Savior lives.  I know he died for me.  And more than anything, I know that he is activley in each one of our lives.  He knows us.  He loves us.  And knows EXACTLY what He's doing.  I love Him with all my heart.  I have the strongest desires to truly come to know Him.  Thank you all for everything! 

Elder Wilson

*Ps.... Elder Bohne and I are moving into a brand new piso!!! Super nice.  Ill send pics next week.

*Ps2.... hahahaa ps2.  We getta go to the temple on wednesday!!

Jarrett Weekly Letter 5.25.2014

Dear family and friends

I want to start off with Machida Kun so you know how the lesson went this last Sunday and how he got depressed over coffee and tea. Well we got a email from him on Tuesday and he basically said he wants to stop meeting with us. And basically said that he can't get baptized because he can't stop drinking. We are like bro come on!! You  haven't even tried stopping!! So we emailed him back and said we would still love to meet and talk and just hang out and stuff like that. But no reply as of now. 

 

Because of him dropping our numbers this week have honestly been struggling! One night I just wanted to cry it was so hard. We were only able to teach two lessons this week and that is just terrible... It is hard... It isn't fun when you teach someone on the streets or in front of their house and then at the end they say they are not interested it is just heart breaking. I just want to see- these people come closer to our God our Loving Heavenly Father. Like it stinks not seeing success but the worse is seeing them not giving this gospel a try. It is the mission life, and that is why I am here. Because I know the Lord has prepared people for me to teach, and they need to hear the gospel from me. 

I have been able to get to know this guy in our ward Brother Baker. He is American. But he is the sickest guy ever. He is from St. George, and we were able to talk a lot this last Sunday. And we have a lot of the same interests. He lives here with his Japanese wife and has some really cute kids, he served in Tokyo on his mission. It is really nice getting to know the members, I finally had time to get to know some more of them today which was nice. I haven't been able to meet and talk with a lot of them because we have had Machida kun come every Sunday and we would basically teach him right after church. I really love this ward and this area, so I hope I stay here for awhile.

Well that is about all for the week!!

Love, Elder Nielsen

Elder Frampton 5/19

Dear Family and Friends,

It sounds like everyone is doing awesome! How are all of your testimonies doing? I would love to hear them. 

So this week was hard and crazy and all the good stuff from a mission. So we had the chance to go and help with baptisms for the dead this week. The ward doesn't have a whole lot of Melchizedek priesthood holders and so we went and helped with the temple work. I was a witness and that was the first time i had ever done that so it was pretty cool. I love the temple there is such a sweet spirit in there. We also meeting like everyday with the two boys who are getting baptized this weekend. Its been an adventure here trying to get everywhere on time and all the people rejecting our message ha ha just missionary work i guess. One day here was especially irritating. We are teaching and talking to a lot of people who are going to Bible School here. We find out that they have felt the spirit before in there life but they say that they aren't able to discern feelings because that doesn't speak of truth. In other words Satan is now attacking at people and how they view there very own feelings! Its so frustrating. But even through all of that it was a good week still. We got transfers just yesterday and  . . . . . I am leaving! ha ha. i am going to be Sweeping with an Elder Ebmeyer in Schadle park. Always moving and going on all types of adventures! 

But the whole mission is going through a lot of sweeps. So there were a ton of changes in the mission this transfer. And then this picture is us just messing around at the thrift store here. I love you all and pray for you every day. 

- Elder Frampton

Week 4 in ARG- Elder Gillett 5.19.14

Thanks for that email! It was really good to hear about stuff going on
outside where I am at again! I have been emailing shel a ton lately!
Make sure to let him know I miss him! Can´t wait to chill with him
again soon! And That´s so crazy about Andrew and Shelby! hahah I knew
the day was coming but never thought about it coming this fast!
hahahah i don´t know who the girl would have been! I will have to
start asking around about Javier! (Javier Morales who is on Real SL 
Soccer team is from Buenos Aires, Argentina) I would think somebody 
would know him because I think that place is in our mission! Thats 
exciting for Colton! He is a stud!

Nope not any service yet! We have been asking around trying to find
any opportunities but none have come up yet! Hopefully they will soon!
Companionship is going good! No problems there! Yeah we are going to
Quilmes with the whole zone(like 25 people) for an activity to watch a
disney movie, eat tacos, and play soccer at the chapel! hahaha i will
try to get some pictures but i won´t be able to send them until next
week... the computers we use here are ancient sometimes so it doesn´t
have a USB easily accesible!

Sooo this week went pretty good! First we taught Omar one of our
investigators who is a super cool guy and stuff but definitely
different! He believes in UFO´s and aliens and all that so he had a
really easy time with believing the Joesph Smith vision story but he
is having a hard time understanding how WE have the proper authority
to baptize and to act in the Lord´s name and stuff like that! So we
are trying to help him understand! He said he will think about baptism
but isn´t sure! Then we have Martha! She was doing really good until
this week we visited like 4 times and she was always cooking or doing
something or gone so out of the 4 times we didn´t teach her once!
Really crazy but then we went back there yesterday after saying
alright we are coming sunday at 5pm and be ready. We made sure she
didn´t having anything going on or anything.. And then we got there
and clapped and her son or someone like that came out and said that
she left back to Paraguay.... Really weird story but we don´t
know what really happened with her or what but she lives close to some
members and investigators so we will see if she did leave or not! haha
Now on a more positive note we met with our investigator Ruben! This
guy is a CAPO (stud) hahaha after everytime we teach him, he sets the
appointments with us! haha we don´t even have to ask him! He makes
sure we are coming again! super awesome! But he is trying to quit
smoking and drinking and this last time we went and visited he said he
went to the doctor for a liver or lung problem and the doctor told him
he needs to quit! (thank you doctor!!) haha so he quit smoking for a
whole day! but is smoking again... (its progress though) And we
haven´t even told him of the word of wisdom yet! Crazy how the Lord
works! We followed up and talked to him more about The restoration and
the gospel. We answered a bunch of questions and then we got him to
pray at the end of the lesson! And he also accepted a date for
baptism!!! There is a lot of things riding on whether he can get
baptized or not but at least we know he wants it! Super excited for
him and we know he can do it! He already has the desire to learn more
and to quit smoking and stuff so it is a little easier for us to help
him now! hahah anyways it has been an interesting week! I really
understand almost everything we talk about in spanish unless we start
talking about mermaids or something like one of our members did. Then
I just get really lost... hahha Argentina is so much fun though! Last
night was the finals of Argentina soccer league! River Plate beat
Quilmes 5-0 so that was pretty crazy and after the game we had to walk
home through the strip mall thing that everyone was driving through
cheering for River and celebrating in the streets. Shooting off
fireworks and guns and everything! It was pretty weird but super
awesome experience! hahahah I loved it too because people like soccer
here in Argentina! hahah anyways love you all! Until next week!
Les Quiero- Elder Gillett


PS I remembered I had $60 in American dollars so I found out that the
family who let us skype at their house has a son on a mission in
Ecuador where they use American money or something so I traded that
money with her! So now I have like 600 pesos and we found some
Argentina jerseys for 120 pesos! Which is super cheap like 10 dollars
and I bought a jersey! I will make sure to send a picture next week!

Elder Weelson (5/19)

CARLITOS........ HAPPY BIRTHDAY YA FELLER(tomorrow)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow...... where to start this week.  I'll just start off by saying.... ELDER BOHNE IS THE MAN!!!! Man, I am so thankful for that guy.  He is such a stud.  He is an incredible missionary.  I learn so much from him every single day.  I've never seen a missionary with such strong desires to preach the gospel, and to do it with all the love in his heart.  Its truly incredible, he has such a love for these people in his heart.  I am learning so much from him every single day.  He is incredible.  Our first three days together were just an explosion!!  It was so awesome!  We had an incredible week, although we are having many struggles with investigators right now, we are still seeing so many miracles.  I am just as happy as ever right now!  Seriously I have never worked with so much unity and love.  I have grown so much in these 7 days I've been with Elder Bohne.  I know for a fact that I'm going to grow so much, and learn so much every single day.

So this week Elder Bohne and I have been findnig tons of new investigators.  And have lost quite a few as well.  Victor has kinda fallen away.... and same with Juanfran:(  He went on vacation for the weekend, and came back and just wasn't the same... made me super sad, but we'll see!  I'll keep you guys updated on him.  He is the man, and I really hope he continues to progress! We visited a less active member named Aldo, and we met him and his family.  He's the only member in the family.... but..... they aren't married..... and they don't get along.... like at all.  But there raising a family together, so they are just kinda dealing with each other for the family's sake.... but they are just incredible.  We have grown so close to them this past week.  And sunday they ended up coming to church!  It was great!  The counselor that was... uh dirigiendo (I dont remember the english word).... gave a public welcome to them at the pulpit, it was awesome and they loved it!  The branch here is doing great.  Still have tons of room to grow, but they have so much potential as a branch.  Something I just love are the hymns we sing.... #1 just imagine a bunch of spaniards singing..... #2 imagine spaniards singing without a pianist..... #3 imagine us all singing along to the hymn playing on the ipad hooked up to the sound system... I just die... .its the funniest thing ever.  And every single time without fail the counselor forgets the push pause when we finish the hymn, so the following him just blasts and totally just creates an uncomfortable situation all around. hahahahaha.  Its so great.  I love it so much.  

 We are only speaking spanish, and I dunno.... I have super strong desires to just speak spanish for the rest of the mission.  I love the language so much, and I need to get much better!  At least with elder bohne, were probably never going to speak another word in inglish again to each other! haha:)  But its been incredilbe.  Its amazing how much a united companionship that loves and trusts each other 100% invites the spirit to lessons.  We have had so many amazing experiences already, with some of the most powerful lessons I have ever been in.  Its so incredible, Im so thankful for that guy!

So funny story:  We went and visited a less active member named Angel.  Hes awesome, and his mom was there.  Shes really mentally sick, and just isnt really there.  She has had such a hard life.  Well when we were leaving she just all of a sudden throws her arms around my neck around pulls me in tight....... I froze...... I went stiff as a board.  hahahaha I seriosly didnt know what to do.  I couldnt move my body, its like I was in shock... hahahaha.  All I could manage to do was give her two little pats on the shoulder, smile and say thanks.  hahahaha.  And while this is going on, Elder Bohne is just there in the background dying of laughter.  hahahaha.  So funny.  Such a nice lady. 

Zone Conference is coming up this week on thursday!!!!!    Its gonna be so great, and I couldnt be more excited!  Everything is going amazing, and I couldnt be happier.  Its like Im on a vacation.  I'm with my best buddy 24/7, on the Lord's Errand.  Nothing better than that.  I love ya'll so much.   I love the people here so much. 

Have an amazing week!

Elder Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelson

*Joy is having some crazy doubts..... thinks we get iniciated into the FBI when we get baptized.  Thinks all missionaries recieve CTR rings so they are iniciated into the program...... hahaha so crazy.  She's going to get baptized.  I know it:)

Jarrett Weekly 5.18.2014

Not a lot went down this week to be honest just the normal missionary life, besides that fact that it was pouring raining really hard this week which wasn't too much fun to dendo in. 

We had a priesthood activity and we went bowling and  three of our investigators came which was way cool that was way fun, and then we had two of them came to sports night and played basketball with us. 

We also met with our investigator M. K. twice this week. We taught him all of lesson two and he understood all of it, which was really cool. And then today after he came to church today we taught him some of the commandments. We taught him about the word of wisdom and we totally freaked out which was really weird. He said he couldn't stop drinking coffee or tea; but like alcohol and smoking is not a problem (in japan a lot of people have a problem with alcohol and stuff like that). So that is that, and just he really had a hard time trying to process that, and he got really depressed for some reason. We emailed him tonight saying thank you and haven't heard anything back from him, which sucks. But then I just barely over heard my companion say that he probably wants to drop him. I am just sitting here writing this and thinking are you FREAKIN SERIOUS, you are giving up on someone that fast!! Sorry for the language but it is freakin true you can't just give up on someone that fast!! 

We also were able to play basketball again this week and we met a lot of Chinese people and just really wanting build relationships and then try and push the message. I love basketball dendo!

Well that is all that went down I love you guys! It was so nice hearing from you guys last week! 

Love, Elder N

Week 3 in ARG- Elder Gillett 5.11.14

I just read Bambi´s email to me.... Holy Cow! Thats the craziest thing that happened all week! Perfect with the Skype thing! I am excited for talking to you guys tonight too! :) Love you all! And holy crap! I just read Bree´s email for this week as well! Sounds like tons of stuff happened outside of Argentina and nothing much happened with me here!

Thanks for the email mom! It was really good and its funny that is where I am in the Book of Mormon right now too! I read that this week! Thats so crazy for Andrew and Shelby! Time goes by fast! Both Brad and Bree having major changes like that was crazy to hear because this week felt pretty normal! I am so excited for Brad! That is seriously the coolest thing to hear and he will have a lot more fun and an easier time learning Spanish! And we will be able to use it more! But thats sad about Bree too! I´m sure she is really bummed to have to end her mission but it sounds like she had some life changing experiences this week! Which is awesome for her! The Lord only needed her to serve for a couple months it sounds like! 

So this week honestly really nothing happened! We kept working and its been raining a lot here but we haven´t had much success with anything! Our investigators never answered the door or anything but We did get one new investigator named Joel who was an old investigator! His wife was baptized in the church and then they moved in together a few years later and she has been inactive ever since but the lesson went really good with them! This week we focused on all the menos activo(inactive) members! and it was really good because we got a lot of them to come back but it seems like everybody here is sick right now! Including me, my comp, and now the two other elders we are living with are starting to get it! uh oh! But I was the first to get it and it only lasted about 3 days so I am pretty much all better now! Just a really week flu virus or something! But yeah anyways we got a lot of the menos activo miembros back to church but there is still a lot more work we can do to get everyone coming weekly! There is still tons of families here who are super close to getting baptized but first they have to be married and it is not common to be married here in Argentina! So people have a hard time getting up and doing it which doesn´t help because then the people don´t have covenants that they can follow to help lead them to God! So we are still trying to figure out a way to motivate people to be married and support their families!  

Went and bought a ton of food today so I am excited to have food again because it always gets to the end of the week and we don´t have a ton to eat sometimes! but its all good! PS I got your letter you sent on the 21st of March i think is when it was! I got it about last week on tuesday so it doesn´t take too long to get here it seems like! Probably 4 or 5 weeks! And here in a bit we might go get a haircut and then play soccer and basketball at the church! The new Elder Martinez we are living with now reminds me of Colton a ton! Acts exactly like him but he plays basketball and is from El Salvador! Super cool Elder! He only has 3 or 4 months left on the mission and he is a super good example so its been nice to be living with him! 

Todo bien conmigo ahora! (all good with me right now) only my nose is a little stuffy sometimes but feel completely fine! I wore the Suit rain coat that I have and that works really well but I will be looking around for a cheap jacket that I can buy for the rain that is a little smaller cuz that jacket is huge and I don´t like ponchos! Cuz i look like a goober! haha There is lots of stores that are kinda like market style but there is a bunch that are like kohlers or something but tons smaller! No walmarts or anything close! At least in this part! I talked to Elder Martinez though and he has a ton of jerseys of soccer and basketball from here and he is going to try and help me get some like them because they are the fake ones and are super cheap! Only like 200 pesos! I didn´t bring my camera with me today since it has been raining really hard but next week I will bag the camera and bring it so its doesn´t get wet! Elder James Bavela from California! Pretty cool kid too! We get along pretty well! Don´t know a ton about him but I don´t recognize him from the MTC!

So we went to a inactive members house yesterday and we watched the BOCA juniors game yesterday which is the favorite team in Argentina! Then I talked to their dad about the NFL and everything! We didn´t have a ton of time but he is also an investgator of the chruch that they haven´t visited in a long time but we are going back on thursday to talk to him more! :) so that is exciting! Now hopefully we can find somebody in the ward to click with him so he feels welcomed to the ward! There is another husband as well of a member who is really active! and he owns a car shop and a bunch of motorcycles! We had lunch with him the other week and he had never wanted to have lunch until I came here and I hadn´t even met him yet but we had lunch with him and so I tried to talk to him about motorcycles and stuff to be his friend so we will probably visit him again this week if he will take discussions or talk to us! 

No DI that i know of but everything is usually pretty cheap here! I´ll probably give all my shirts and stuff away when I leave and only come home with jerseys and soccer balls and stuff! :)  Yeah we probably won´t be able to go in the streets (World Cup) if Argentina wins because of the parties! But we might go and visit some members and "teach" them during the games if you know what I mean! hahaha Thats crazy! RSL is doing amazing!
(Photo album of family, quads, riding, Razor, Sand Dunes, Mtns. etc.) I have been carrying them around and everything so it has been awesome because all the members think we are a cute family and everything! And they all say that I look like Ronaldo in my soccer pictures with my hair in the feuhawk! hahaha

I need to go! We are going to play soccer and stuff right now so i will talk to you more tonight! Love you! 

Les Quiero, Elder Gillett