2019-02-11 Catching up on emails and pictures from Elder Vincent

02/04/19 Email

01/29/19, Tuesday: Today was good. We had the plan of salvation lesson with M I. She is a nuevo we made last week and she is related to a lot of members of the church. Her grandmother past away recently and her grandma was a member. We taught her and it went well. We were talking about the spirit world and about to go into the 3 kingdoms of glory and then she shared a dream she had.  In her dream, she saw something I do not remember well but she said that there was just a really bright light that would be kind of like the glory of Christ after he was resurrected and it was great! We used that to tell her about the kingdoms of glory and how our decisions allow us to obtain a kind of body and glory and if we want to live with our families, we need to do all we can to accept the gospel and do the things to enter the kingdom of God. We put a baptismal date with her and it was good. She then prayed and she sounded just like a member praying and it was just great!

01/30/19, Wednesday: Today we had a lesson with a couple people but we visited M and she is an old lady that lives across from President Llanos house. She recently lost her son 3 months ago and we talked with her and we taught lesson 2. She cried and sobbed but she was happy we told her that. The spirit was really strong and I can tell she wants to learn more. Hopefully we can keep teaching her!

01/31/19, Thursday: Today was normal, we had weekly planning and not much after that.

02/01/19, Friday: Today was good. We visited familia C and it was good but they just live so far! out in the middle of no where. We visited a couple people and more so members because we are trying to work with the members more and strengthen them in the church.   We visited Hna M and it was good. Then we talked with the parents of President L. We talked and she told us about her daughter going through surgery and hard things and then she shared a scripture in Alma 31:38 I think and it is a really good verse to give us hope and strength to do all things! She then told us something that has always gone over my head but it hit me this time. She said "Estas donde tienes que estar, no se desanime" (Be not discouraged). It was really touching because she told us we get the doors slammed in our faces and rejected but we are bringing blessings to our families while we are here. We may not know the blessings but our families do know and it is great for us to serve especially serving our Father in Heaven and our families.

02/02/19, Saturday: We went to Loberia to do a baptismal interview and it was good. Then we came back and visited more people to continue with teaching members

02/03/19, Sunday: We did not do much today, we had church and then we went to make arroz con leche or rice with milk with a member and it was good

02/11/19 Email

02/05/19, Tuesday: We had a district meeting and it was good. I made an apple pie for everyone and then my comp made some no bake cookies for everyone. Everyone liked the apple pie and cookies!   It was good but we did not do much.

02/06/19, Wednesday: We did not do much, found more Tetigos!  For some reason there’s a ton of them in Quequen.

02/07/19, Thursday: Today we had weekly planning and it went well. A lot of our citas fell through. We visited A and her brother was there. The mom wants him to serve a mission so we were trying to talk to him about serving a mission and I can see he might want to but he is a little scared. We will try to help him but he does not live there so it may be hard.

02/08/19, Friday: We did not do much but we worked hard. We visited with the C family but they are just hard to find but we will keep trying with them. It was not a long visit but it was good. We then tried to visit other people and it is just funny and sad when you see the person you talked to the day before and set up a cita with them and then you see them in the backyard and you ask the parents or the neighbors that live in front and they say they are not home.  It is sad that they need to lie to us but it is okay, it is normal.

02/09/19, Saturday: We got a call last night that we need to go to Loberia to do a baptism because they do not have enough priesthood so we did not do much in the morning because the collectivo (taxi) left at 12:30.  We got there early and waited for a little bit, we went to fill up the font and then my comp baptized the kid named A. It was a great baptism and hopefully he stays active but he is really smart and a really cool kid.  We also got transfers aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand me quedo (I stay)… jaja I am staying in Quequen for another transfer!

02/10/19, Sunday: We had church and then we gave a blessing to a lady that takes care of a special needs kid. It was my first blessing in Spanish or Castellano ;) but before we went to the blessing, the family, friends of her told us to not talk about the lessons and take it slow with her but we got there and after the blessing, she kept dropping hints that she is not baptized. Nothing impedes her from being baptized and she has been to the temple and she loved it so I know she is ready.  We wont take it slow, we have the keys to do this and we will teach her. She is really great! Then we went to a lesson with Hna Garcia. We are teaching this lady and her family.  Her name is C and she talked to the missionaries when she was younger but she is really receptive! She had a good lesson with us and she really loved it. It was great having hermana Garcia with us, it was 100 times better and it just built my testimony that working with members makes it so much better! She then told us her husband wanted to be in the lesson because he had some questions for us so he sounds really cool and hopefully we can work with him!  Super excited with these new people we are teaching.

2019-01-28

 Finally got some more pictures (could not upload before).  Should have another update soon.

2019-01-14 Raining, but things are sunny.

01/08/19, Tuesday: So today was good. We walked the street after our district meeting and we had a lot of citas fall through.  So me and my comp had a lot of time to walk around and then we talked about life and the mission and things after and it showed me how much the mission helps with everything that will come in life. The mission president before said that the mission was a school of life and it truly is. I have only been here for almost 6 months and the amount of marriage, school and other types off advice I have received is amazing. I am always learning and preparing. My comp elder Moote told me the teachings from the presidents books are really good and they help a lot.



01/09/19, Wednesday: Today, it rained a lot and the dirt streets suck when it rains. Not too many people are outside but we tried our best to find people. Too bad the Argentine people don’t like the rain and water so we went back to the house and made some torta fritas and then we put queso cremoso with jam inside them so it was really good. Then we went to visit H and E and it was good. We made pizzas with them.   They are evangelicos and they are all about the youtube videos and "Prophets".  It was different seeing the videos of their prophets because they don’t really know much, they talk about nonsense and the gospel subjects are just extended simple subjects for the people who do not want to read the gospel and to understand the deep doctrines. And then they speak in “tongues" jaja it is weird. We hope they can come to church and find that our church is so much better. Elijah the prophet did not find the voice in the lightning, the earthquakes or in loud places, but it was in the quiet places with reverence that you can find revelations. 



01/10/19, Thursday: We found a lot of Testigos de Jehovah in the past 2 days. We found 3 just clapping at their houses jaja but we met one today and he was crazy.  It was a normal conversation, no fighting or anything and it was nice, but when they squeeze in at the end right before you say bye, they say "hope you find the truth" but we need to love them all, jaja It is interesting talking with them though because it helps you to learn where they come from and it just strengthens your testimony about our church because you realize our church really is the true church of Jesus and it is nice to know that we have the promises and blessings of this gospel. We met a guy named A and he told us he talked with the missionaries before but he couldn’t get baptize because he could not say Joseph Smith was a prophet so he started to say things but just reading saints, it has strengthened my testimony of Joseph Smith. It helps me to know yes, prophets are not perfect, like us they have faults too but it does not mean that they are not called of god. When we receive callings, we are called to serve and even if we do not fulfill everyone's needs or mess up on one thing, it does not mean we were not called to serve in that capacity. 



01/11/19, Friday: So today, one of the Testigos asked us to return and talk with her about our beliefs.  It was a nice, calm conversation and it was good.  We talked with her and it just continued to build my testimony. My comp asked her "We do not really know your church or its origins but where does your authority come from, because we know where ours does" and the Testigos can’t answer it.  It is nice to learn about that to combat them... jaja nah we do not fight or argue with them.

We tried to find a referral and the address we got apparently live in a house where someone just died.  Silvina told us that the guy there just died a week ago but we passed by and I remembered the house. We thought the person who gave the reference did not know their dad or whoever it was died but we called the person and asked and we told them maybe he is at the store because no one is here but she told us he was with her so its good he is not dead.



01/12/19, Saturday: We did not do much. We cleaned the chapel and then it was raining so not very many people were outside.



01/13/19, Sunday: Church was good.   Tried to find people but not very many people were out. It’s hard living in a beach town because when things are nice, no one is out in the streets.

2018-12-10 Christmas Conference and an Exciting Week.

12/04/18, Tuesday: Hey guys so this week was great. Today, we had the Christmas conference with President Haymas and it was in Mar Del Plata. It was really fun. Elder Anderson and I made brownies for our zone and they were really good. We had a couple talks and teachings from president and the assistants.

Then after, we all changed into P-day clothes and then we played games. We played hillbilly horseshoes, made cookies, and beanbag toss kind of thing. We all made and ate the cookies with frosting and everything and then we played minute to win it games with the others. After that, we cleaned up and watched Coco for Christmas and it went really good. I have no idea if I like it in Spanish or English but it was good. After awhile we were waiting for our convery, we played soccer in la cancha and it was fun. A little crazy when we tried to play with different teams made up of 3 different zones jaja but it was fun!

12/05/18, Wednesday: So today was good. We had a lesson with Familia O and it was good. A little weird but we were going to teach L about the commandments but for some reason the dad L who is not really interested in anything or doesn’t believe in god, started getting curious. We taught him the restoration and it was good! We even asked him if he would read and he said maybe.

12/06/18, Thursday: We had weekly planning and then I was a little sick but not too bad. I had a runny nose and sore throat. We tried to find the reference from President Hymas but he can’t be found. WE NEED TO FIND HIM!!!!!!

12/07/18, Friday: We did not do much because we had the leader council in the morning but in the afternoon, from the first day I arrived here in Quequen, we finally found M!!! She is really crazy but were put a fecha with her so hopefully she can get baptized this month! She is ready but I do not think she knows or thinks she is.

12/08/18, Saturday: Today we had a competition with the Hermanas from Necochea. We had to have 3 lessons, 10 contacts, and 5 of them had to be street contacts. We had to work hard because no one was outside! It was hard but we beat them! We won! Now that we won, we get bread pudding from the hermanas. Hopefully it will be good. We went to visit familia O and they were there but then a friend came over and she is a boxing champ but she brought the O’s to her church and I guess her church is one of the ones where people fall on the ground after being touched on the head. She is the typical evangelico and she knows nothing about the bible but we tried to talk to her and she just did not want to listen or anything but were polite and good.

12/09/18, Sunday: So today was good. We went to church and then after, we had an asado with Familia G. He runs a delivery restaurant so he cooks good. We had fried empanadas which are way better than the oven and I finally ate morcilla which is a blood sausage jaja. I do not have an opinion on it right now but it is decent. I ate kidneys also and it was good jaja.

Then the Boca Juniors and River Plate played soccer this afternoon, the biggest rivalry match in Argentina. So there was no one outside. They played in the cancha of Real Madrid and I guess River Plate won (3 – 1) jaja. Dang it! (Soy de Boca!!!) Then we went to Guemes to stay the night.

I have tramites in Bahìa to process my paperwork and to get my DNI card so I can stay here. Hopefully, it works out. So I will be going there Monday night.

2018-12-03: Never get the Sister Missionaries Mad

So this week was good. 

11/27/18, Tuesday: Today we had our district meeting and it was good. I have a new district and they are all Hermanas and they all roast Elder Anderson! It is always funny.  Every small thing, they roast him.  They are a good district.

We talked with M and we got him to start to quit smoking. We set him up with a calendar to see if he can stop smoking by December.  Everyday he reads the scripture that we send him and prays and does not smoke, he gets a point. Then if he comes to church, he gets 2 points. At the end of the month, if he wins and he stops smoking, we will have an asado with him and we will buy the meat.  Hopefully he will quit!

11/28/18, Wednesday: So today was really crazy!  So we were in the house and an Hermana in the district calls. We ask if they took out sig and they said they didn’t have a bank in their area so we started laughing.  I guess it got her mad so when we said bye and to have a good day, but then the hermana said that to us, you should not have a good day jaja so that started it.

We were walking in the bajo (a village and municipal) and a girl walked past us and she had bottles in her hands. Then we saw a guy on a moto pass us.  He was just cruising and then maybe 5 seconds after, we hear the girl yell after us. She asked if we saw the license plate and we said no. She said he stole her phone.  I guess the guy on the moto yanked it out of her pocket and then drove off!  She left and that was really crazy! 

We grabbed sig and then went back out to find people. We found a menos activo and his name is F.  He lives with his mom but we just talked.  Later the mom came out mad and yelling "I am hungry, F, go buy me some butter!"  so that was weird.  She went back in and then we started to talk with him about his family. Then his mom came out again and said some weird stuff about a member that is an "Uncle" but then the mom said that he is the dad of F and that he has a drinking problem and he indulges in infant porn. It was really weird and we talked with the kid more and we will set up a futbol activity weekly so he can get some time away from his house.  We felt so bad and went home.  And to top it all off, Elder Anderson pointed at a dog that had its head mutated and then its legs were in the air. He said it was dead but I thought he was joking. Then I tried to call after it and it did not move a muscle so to top it all off, the dog was dead!  All this happened because a Hermana said don’t have a good day!  Que Loco!!!!

11/29/18, Thursday: We had weekly planning and then we saw S and J. They are in the process of getting married but the judge here is taking his time to sign the papers so they need to wait a little longer.  Hopefully she can get baptize this month!

11/30/18, Friday: So there was a leader meeting so I had to go with my comp to the counsel meeting. On the way, the old dog that lives in front of our neighbor's house we looked and it was upside down and then the head was twisted weird.  Then we saw the eye ball and it stuck out so there was another dead dog!  It was weird.  We got back home during lunch and it was a rainy day.  We smelled really bad smoke and the dog was gone.  The neighbors were having an asado but it was weird. The dog was gone, it smelled bad, no one has asado on Fridays and in the rain. Argentines don’t like the rain so I think they ate their dog!!!

12/01/18, Saturday: So we visited Familia C. They are super cool but a little weird. They asked to see Elder Andersons photos and they saw them. Then the mom started to ask questions about his dad and how he would like a Latina mom instead of his mom now and it was weird but they were just joking. Then they asked about sports and I told them about wrestling and they joked and thought it was sumo and started to tease me.  They are cool!

12/02/18, Sunday: Today was good, we had district conference and then we made a big batch of "Bentley Brownies" for the Zone on Tuesday when we go to Mar Del Plata for the Christmas conference!.  Hopefully the brownies are good!

2018-11-26: Arrived in Quequen

11/20/18, Tuesday: So today we had transfers. I went to the mission home in Bahìa Blanca and we got to the terminal at 6am and we waited until 11am for the AP’s to get there to do the transfers and to tell us where you’re going.  I will be going to Quequen.  It is an area in Necochea.  I then waited until about 1pm and then we left for Necochea.  I got there and met up with my new companion.  His name is Elder Anderson.  He is from Draper Utah and he is pretty cool and like baseball too.  It seems fun herein Quequen.  I unpacked and did all that and then we crashed.  It was such a long day!

 

11/21/18, Wednesday: So today was good.  We went to a lot of people but all the citas fell through. We later went in the afternoon to a family.  They are J and S.  J needs to get married to her and he is a member and she is not. We are teaching S and she should be getting baptized after they get married.  They are super cool!

 

11/22/18, Thursday: Today was a normal day but we went to visit another family.  The mom and the daughter have fechas to be baptized but the husband does not.  He is super crazy but funny.  He looks at us weird and then smiles and that’s when you know he is about to give us a hard time for something jaja.  He is super cool and he calls Elder Anderson La Plaga jaja! It means the plague and apparently a lot of people here call him that.

 

11/23/18, Friday: So today we are with the Elder Garcia because his companion had to go to Bahìa for training because he just got called as a Zone Leader.  We were in his area and the first cita, we went and talked with this crazy dude.  He was speaking gibberish.  He first tried talking to me and then I couldn’t understand him and I thought my Spanish all went to crap and I couldn’t understand.  But then I watched as he talked with Elder Anderson and Elder Garcia that they couldn’t understand him either.  I got my bearings and realized he was not talking anything that made sense.  We talked more and he even tried talking Portuguese.  We later went out and it was just fun.  We confided in a phone.  We would go through it and then which ever direction it pointed, we would go that way and through that, we made 5 friends.  That is crazy.  It even pointed in a kiosk and we found and Antigo in there.

 

11/24/18, Saturday: So today we got authorization that we could watch the Boca and River partido with an amigo but something happened.  The fans of River threw rocks, sticks, and gas bombs at the Boca bus and the people from Boca could not play so they postponed it to Sunday.  We were excited to watch it but the fans are crazy!

 

11/25/18, Sunday: So today was decent.  We travelled to the Zone Leader’s house to spend P day with them.

 

11/26/18, Monday: We started the morning off playing a couple games of Magic.  I just learned and it is fun!  We will go to a pizzas libre after we write.

 

2018-11-19 Trying to Help People and Meeting Elder Gong

 

11/13/18, Tuesday: we did not do much but we were on divisiones for today. I was with Elder Francom and we were good in my area. we made 5 new friends and it was really fun. We were walking to centro to meet up with the other elders to make the change and we found a lady. She was really sad and she had a box in her arms and she stopped us. She asked if we were people of faith and that we were from a church and we said yes and talked. She started to breakdown and it was sad. She told us her story. She asked us why does God allow us to suffer and then she told us what happened. Her 3 kids died in an accident and then because of the accident, her husband committed suicide. She got pregnant after and then she had abortion done just because she did not want to have her kid suffer as the others suffered. We talked and she wanted to know how she can live with them forever or again and we tried explaining but she was too broken down and she then asked if we could tell her how she can commit suicide "without going to hell" we tried to talk to her but she said thanks anyways and then left us. She told us that she could just kill herself at the moment because she had a knife but she wasn’t going to do it just yet. Me and Francom were destroyed and we felt so bad that we let her walk away. We walked over to the sidewalk after she went away and we said a prayer for her. When we finished, he asked me what we should do and I felt we needed to talk to her again. We turned the corner and we went walking after her. We found her at a kiosco and we talked as she was asking people to light her cigarette. We talked a little more and she gave us her directions to visit and talk more. I hope the hermanas can help her because it is not in our area but I know they can help her.

11/14/18, Wednesday: I went in divisiones with Elder Taylor in his area and we had a lot of citas fall through.

11/15/18, Thursday: Today was good. We worked hard and at the end, it was Gappy's last night with us so we made a fire on the roof of their apartment building and we cooked s’mores and hotdogs and it was super fun. The other elders shared a story and they had such weird ideas of what to do if you need to cast a devil out... I thought you could always cast one out if you do it in the name of Christ and all that but they went on talking about how we need to call the stake president or our mission president. The story was that the elders in san antonio oeste had problems and called the mission president. He was scared and he could not cast the devil out.

11/16/18, Friday:  Today all we did was prepare for our meeting with Elder Gong.

11/17/18, Saturday: We woke up at 3 to leave for Bahía and to see Elder Gong. We traveled for 4 hours and we got there at 8 so there was a lot of time. I was super excited to see others from my group! We got to see others and it was really fun! Then we met Elder Gong. He walked in during our mission picture and then we all got the chance to shake his hand and then we all got to tell him who we were and where we are from and it was super cool. He talked to us and he talked about 3 things. Prophecy, our call, and the doctrine of Christ. He talked about our call and how we  are called specifically to Argentina to bless certain people whether it be our comp, our family, the members or anyone we find. It is true because everyone we meet, there is always some way that you can help them and even do something to teach them or to learn something from them. I liked a story he shared about Elder Cook. He said he only liked football and when he went on his mission, his comp only liked music so he learned to like music. He then met his wife because she liked music and it helped him to find his eternal companion and it is true. We may be here to learn things to help us and to help others. He quoted "You will not marry your comp, but you will learn things from them that will help you when you find the person you are going to marry" everything helps so much! It was super cool and then he talked about prophecy. He talked about the prophecy given in Buenos Aires to bless the lands of South America and Argentina. This blessing gave a certain promise to us - the missionaries of Argentina and it is super cool. Every day we fulfill this promise and we learn to fulfill the prophecies of the Lord. The doctrine of Christ, he urged us to study 2 Nephi 31 and it contains the doctrine of Christ and everything. I urge everyone to study it because it is really cool. He even shared jokes! jaja it was really fun. We left and we got transfers. I guess me and my comp are leaving and they will put hermanas in our area again.

11/18/18, Sunday: Not much, just said bye to people and had a great day

11/19/18, Monday: We went to eat at a buffet with other missionaries and we will have dinner with a member tonight. We will be leaving at 1 in the morning on Tuesday.