It’s autumn here and it has been really cold, at least for me. I’ve gained a new found appreciation for insulation in housing from how chilly it has been inside of our apartment. One afternoon this week we went to visit people who live a little bit further away from where we normally work. We had questionable success, but we were able to see some of the cool scenery that Jujuy is famous for. The Salta, Argentina temple was announced in 2018 and recently finished construction. The church is having an open house for the next couple of weeks and we’ve been inviting everyone we talk to to go and see it. It has been […]
Zone Conference and Baptism
This week was very busy for a lot of different reasons. The first was that we had a big conference with my zone and 3 others, comprising a total of around 80 missionaries. Over the past several weeks, Elder Eyre and I have been conducting interviews with the missionaries in our zone to prepare a presentation on the things we need to improve on and our plans to do so. Despite mixed responses to some of our brilliant plans, I learned a lot about working efficiently on big projects and about presenting to groups. On Sunday our friend Cecilia got baptized! We have been helping her learn about the gospel for the past month or […]
Being Changed
I didn’t come on the mission for the right reasons. I came for good reasons, but they weren’t the right ones. I thought it would be cool to go learn another language, live in another country for two years, and to share the gospel, although my desire to share the gospel was a little bit lower than it should have been. As I have given up my will to the Lord’s will, and put my whole heart, might, mind, and soul into serving, I have been changed. Before my mission, God was important to me, but I wasn’t living in the way I needed to or giving the importance that I needed to to my […]
Getting Robbed (Again) & Hobbit Meals
I got robbed again this week! At least it was in person this time… We were teaching a lesson at someone’s door and a very drunk dude who was walking up the street stopped and stood by us. We were continuing with our lesson when the drunk guy grabbed my water bottle out of my bag and then stumbled off. It wasn’t worth getting into a fight with drunk guy over a cheap water bottle so we just went on teaching our lesson🤷 On the broad spectrum of encounters with drunk people, I would consider this experience a win. The traditional meal times are really interesting. It’s like the meal schedule that the hobbits follow […]
Lots of Adventures and Not a Lot of Work
So much happened this week, and so little of it was working in our area like we needed to. On Tuesday we helped the 30 missionaries in our zone get vaccinated against rabies and the flu. We had to leave that early to go help another missionary with Dengue Fever navigate the hospital system. On Wednesday we went back to the hospital with the same missionary, then we waited most of the day to have interviews with the Mission President. We visited with other missionaries and leaders throughout the day. Elder Eyre and I then had a 3-hour bus ride to the mission offices in Salta for a series of leadership meetings. Thursday we attended […]
Remembering Christ & Scenic Views
We’ve been working our tails off this week. Our area includes the main downtown, but almost all of our work is done on a lower shelf, closer to the banks of the river that runs through San Salvador. It makes a very abrupt distinction between the wealthier people and the poorer people. You can look up from the lower neighborhoods where we are working and see the nice buildings downtown. It’s a really weird mix. There are also a lot of awesome views of the mountains because San Salvador is situated in foothills of the Andes Mountains. Some of them even have snow caps right now! It was awesome to be able to share so […]
Crazy Week in Jujuy
This week was super crazy. I started off in Tartagal, finishing of my time with Elder Barney before getting on a bus to San Salvador, the capital of Jujuy province. I arrived and started learning how to be a zone leader with my companion Elder Eyre in Palpalá. Being zone leaders means that we are responsible for our teaching area and those of the 14 other companionships in the province. It feels like we basically just go to a couple of extra meetings during the week and make some slideshows. On Thursday we got a surprise phone call saying that we needed to switch apartments and teaching areas with some sister missionaries by that afternoon. […]
I’m Leaving
After just shy of 6 months in Tartagal, I’m leaving to go work in another area. I’m about to hop on a bus to Jujuy province where I’ll work in an area called Palpalá, which is a suburb of the main city, San Salvador. It is still hot in Tartagal and is going to be for another couple of months, so going to the cooler climate in Jujuy is like escaping the death sentence. Here are some photos of me with some of the members here:
On Weeding Onion Patches and Mate with Monster
After five and a half months of working in a relatively slow area of the mission, at least numbers wise, it has been pretty easy to get a little discouraged. When it’s 95 degrees outside with 90 percent humidity, it’s easy to think of all of the other areas in the mission that I could be in that have nicer climates and that baptize all the time. I was listening to a BYU devotional from President Eyring this week that helped me change and refocus my perspective. He tells the story of his dad helping with a ward assignment to weed a church onion field and having to drag himself along the ground due to […]
Not Too Much To Say
Nothing super noticeable happened this week, just more of trying not to die in the oppressive heat/humidity or dengue. I’ve come to the realization this week that I know Spanish now. I know that I’m very far from having a perfect knowledge of Spanish and my pronunciation still sucks, but I understand enough to just do stuff in Spanish. In the evenings I’ve been reading the book Saints in Spanish and have only had to look up some of the more obscure words. It’s a big moments when you live in a country that only speaks Spanish. I focused my personal study this week on the nature of the Godhead. I gained such a deeper […]