HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FELÍZ CUMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is so sad that the died in the ward. That has to be so hard to deal with. It is just a death trap having a pool with little kids. Good thing we know about the Plan of Salvation. It is still one of the hardest things I can imagine but atleast it makes it a little easier. We just found a lady that her kid committed suicide. She didn´t think she could ever be happy again. We taught her the plan of salvation and I hpe she feels a little better.
So everyone here in Argentina is really happy today and yesterday. ARGENTINA BEAT MEXICO!!!!!!!! It was a really good game. Messi still hasn´t made a goal yet but he sure does help them out a lot. Tevez is on fire. The Mexicans were really mad on tv. Reading their mouths and seeing what they were saying I could tell. It was pretty funny. Sorry Irma that Argentina beat you 3 to 1.
Thanks for putting some money in my account. I needed it. I had to spend a lot of money this last week in traveling. My area is a pretty expensive area. Thanks for that.
Alright, so about my new area and my new companion. So I got to come back to the promised land of the mission SAN JUAN. I love this place. But, I left Villa Mercedes at about 7 on wednesday morning. As I was traveling the bus broke down and it woke me up. A belt broke and they had to change it. But as we were waiting I looked out to the left and there was a huge cloud of smoke of something that just kept getting closer and closer. Then I could tell that it was dust. But it wasn´t windy at all. Well by the time we started up again the cloud got really close. It got so windy and so dusty that I could hardly see the side of the road. The bus driver was going so slow because he couldn´t see anything. I really don´t get how all the mud brick houses stayed standing up. It was crazy how strong the wind was. The wind is called Viento Zonda. It would be nice if someone could look that up for me. All argentines tell us a different story. But suposefully the wind comes from Chile and when it come above the Andes it picks up a lot of speed. As it starts dropping from the Andes it starts gettin into a warm/hot wind. So as it comes into san juan it is just really hot. There was so much dust and hot wind. It is horrible. We are in winter right now too so it is weird. A lot of people get sick from it too. It always gives me a headache. So that was my first day in San Juan.
So my area is called Zonda. I am the 6th missionary to be there. It was opened just recently. There are about 15 members and about 10 active. There is one priesthood holder there. He is so awesome. He was baptized in Febuary and has already read the whole triple and two book about the teaching of the prophets. He goes with us every saturday to help us teach. It is a really differnt area. There are not any members with a lot of experience, so everyone depends on the missionaries. It is about 45 minutes from the city and it is inbetween two mountains. We are in a vally that is why it is called Valle de Zonda. It is really small. Just a small city where everyone knows everyone. There are about a grand total of like 10 cars that pass us in the road in the whole day. So every morning we take a bus at 9 30 and come back at 930 pm. We have a lot of people to teach right now. A lot of people are interested in us because we are still new. And being Sanjuaninos or those of san juan they just let us right in. It is really easy to get into a house. The hard thing is to get them to progress. So we have to filter out the people we have. Something I have noticed is that for some reason there are a lot of problems with families here. Every person we are teaching has a problem with their family. Suicide, leaving children becuase they dont want them, abuse and a lot more. It is so sad. One family we are teaching just this last week came home and was beating her daughter and so the mom jumped in and he hit her too and gave her a concussion. He is in jail now and she says that he is not coming back (which is good because now she can get baptized, she wasnt married). But it is just really sad. So we meet in a members house 3 sundays out of the month and on fast sunday we have to go the the state center. It is part of that ward. I havnt gone to a meeting there yet, because it was stake conference yesterday but I can imaging it is going to be way different with only like 10 or 15 people there. I can´t imagine listening to the hymns. No one knows the melody because they are all new. I am excited.
So my companions name is Elder Vazquez. He was born in Los Angeles and now lives in Provo, Utah. His parents were born in san jose iturbide, guanajuato, mexico. I don´t know where that is but that is where they are from. I don´t know if Irma would know where that is. We have about the same time in the mission. He has one less transfer than I do. That makes it nice and easy to have him. He is really cool. He worked at a car dealership giving trucks lifts and tuning them up. He was really sad that mexico lost yesterday. Every one in Zonda knows he is mexican and they are goint to be making fun of him like crazy tommorrow. I am excited!!!! :).
So about some of our investigators. We have a girl that is going to be getting baptized on the 4th of July. A great way to celebrate it in the mission. There are still more to baptize in that family so we are working really hard with them. The are the Morales Family. We are also going to baptize Mitilda and Soledad on the 10th. If the husband gives us permission. Then we have a lady and her son that went to church on sunday that are sweet and that are going to get baptized.
On saturday we went with Julio Luque (the priesthood holder) to teach our investigators. When we were walking down the road he was teaching us how the grape fines work. It is pretty interesting. He was been working with them his whole life. He is from Tucumán (another providence). He is such a stud. We were going by all the members and investigators to tell them that the church rented out like 4 taxis to take them all to stake confernce. So we have like 18 people going. Then we get a text message from his saturday night at 10 that the taxis couldnt go anymore. So we had to figure some thing out. So we called some of them and a lot of them couldnt go because it is expensive. They are really poor. So sunday morning we went to go get our investigators atleast. We got a partmember family and another lady and her kid. We paid for their bus tickets because we told them they didnt have to pay for the taxi and we felt bad telling them they had to pay. It wasnt too bad. Sunday mornings buses are really bad. They dont pass by that much. But we got on a bus and we started for the stake center. Everything was going good. We got three people that were investigators. We were on time and everything and then the bus broke down. It broke down right in the middle of the canyon. So we had to wait like an hour for the next bus. We got to stake confernce an hour and ten minutes late. We missed President Lindahls talk but we got there for Elder Ávilas talk. He was the old mission president and now he is a seventy. it was such a great talk. He talked about Christ´s life and the Holy Ghost. He had all the missionaries stand up. The then talked to all the people that were not members of the church to listen to us and do what we are teaching them and he talked about the blessing they will have. It was so awesome. He then ivited everyone of them to get baptized. It was good that he did it. There were 32 people that we not members. It was such a great confernce. There were so many people. There were not enough chairs for everyone so a lot of people were standing in the eilse and sitting in them too. It was amazing. It was really good for Mirta and her kid Romiro to see all those people too. President Lindahl then talked to all the people from Zonda. He talked to Mirta (not member) he took her hand and looked her in the eyes talking to her for like a minute about how she would be blessed by this church. He said to us. Call me when she gets baptized. After he left she asked us if we told him the problems she was having in her family. (she is the one that her husband is in jail for beating them). We told her no. She than said that she felt like he new about her problems and that she felt like he knew her. We talked to her about the Holy Ghost and how it works and who Presidnt is. It was so awesome. She for sure is getting baptized. It was so awesome. One of the best days that I have had in a long time.
After church we went to the Family Millans house for an asadazo or bbq. It was so good. They are a really cool family. It was a really good week. I am really excited for the next coulple of months. I have to work really hard. I dont have many more weeks to baptize but I have to baptize some more people. Elder Vazquez and I are going to have a lot of success. But have a good week. I love you all.
Con cariño
Elder B. Smith
these are of the valle family, when i make my cake and the villa mercedes zone
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