January 27, 2009

Jan. 27, 2009

Things are going pretty swell. I´m still doing just fine, working hard, and having fun. I don´t have anything to complain about. This is the last week for my companion and it´s just about driving the both of us mad! Gosh! I didn´t know how hard it was to kill an Elder. But the good news is that I´m going to get all of the stuff that he´s leaving behind!! I´ve given him suggestions about what he should and shouldn´t take. We´ve spent a little bit of time getting his "coming-home" suit ready. I´ve spent the last couple of days missing home with him.
The work is good. Our ward is a little bit ragged and so I´ve been spending a lot of time patching up relationships and ridiculous stuff like that. The good news, we had a family come to church on Sunday!!! They have 5 kids and 2 of them are over the age of eight. They really liked church and so we´re going to see what comes out of this one. I had my interview with the Mission President last week. He flat-out told me that I´m going to stay one more transfer in La Perlita and that I need to get things ready to really work hard. I´ve done almost everything that he asked me to do, I just need to get the list of Part-Member families done. So, I´m going to spend 6 months in my area and the only surprise will be who my next companion is.
I don´t have anything super crazy to tell this week. I´ll see if I can change that next week. Remember to stay strong and keep the faith!!
Later,
Elder Page

January 20, 2009

Jan. 20, 2009

Hey everyone!!
Everything is going just fine here in Argentina! Elder Rupp and I are still working hard. Our dream of a "White Saturday" has kind of been impided as the people who were receiving our message just kind of stopped listening...It´s a bummer but we still have one baptismal date for the 31st! Hopefully we can get that baptism done (he´s a really old investigator who just needs to get baptized). Anyway, I am still really enjoying my time here!! And guess what?! Come January 30 I officially have 6 months under my belt! I don´t know where the time has gone...it´s really crazy! I´m going to have to find a way to celebrate it. Maybe with a really successful week and some baptismal dates! That would be sweet!
I feel that I have a good grasp on the basic gospel principles now and I absolutely love to teach!!! Sometimes I won´t leave a contact unless I can get a lesson in. I feel a little bit like Alma when he said that he wished he could preach the gospel to everyone. I´m even thinking of putting in a request in order to be the 4th Nephite Elder teaching people!!! Who knows, it could happen!
The language is coming. I speak better everyday but I still don´t understand very much. That´s why I have a companion. I just ask him what they tell me so I can respond. Eventually I´ll get this language down!!!
I have a pretty interesting story for ya too! So I was in Divisions with an Elder in his area. We contacted this guy who was trying to put his key in a door. I went up and asked him if it was his house. He told me no, but that we could go around the corner with him to teach a lesson. As we were walking around the corner, a man whacked our contact over the head with a broomstick and then shouted some mean words. Anyway, turns out that our contact got pretty drunk in the morning and didn´t show up to work. The guy who whacked him on the head had some reason to do it I guess. Well, we taught the man anyway and left him to sleep off the wine. It was a little interesting to say the least.
Well, things are swell! I´m loving the mission more everyday. A lot of times I wish I had more hours in the day to work. It´s a shame that I have to sleep and it´s ALMOST a shame that I have to eat! But anyway, things are just moving right along and I´m having a blast!
Chao,
Elder Page.

January 13, 2009

Jan. 13, 2009

Hello everyone!!
I hope everything is just fine at home. I´m doing great. Nothing much has really changed. The time still moves and I just work work work!! I don´t have any problem with that though. I love the work and I´m just glad to be here.
Hmmm, I really don´t have too much to say. Nothing changes on the mission. I´m glad that you are all receiving such awesome blessings!! That´s pretty sweet!
I do have a pretty funny story though. So Elder Rupp and I were talking to a 7th Day Evangelist the other day. We got on the subject of the Book of Mormon and why he didn´t believe there were other scriptures in the earth. It was funny because he said that he believes in the Bible and that his church is based partly on the book of Revelations. We showed him where it says that an angel came out of the heavens and brought forth another set of scriptures (book of mormon). Guess what his answer was to this? He tolds us that his church "doesn´t accept that teaching in the Bible." He said it without any shame or anything. We were like, Freak, you guys don´t believe in the Bible? Well he didn´t have an answer. People here really like to pick and choose what they want to believe from the Bible. I´ve learned a lot about the other churches here. What they do and don´t believe and stuff like that. It just strengthens my testimony about our church because everything that´s in the Bible we believe. We don´t pick or choose what we want to follow, we just do it!
Oh, my companion and I got challenged by some members in a game of basketball today. The bet was if we won, they had to buy us a kilo of icecream and do divisions with us for 5 days. If we lost, we would´ve had to make them breakfast American-style and buy them icecream. Well, we played today and we won 21-4!!! It was a blast and now I´ve got divisions with members!! It´s pretty sweet!
Anyway, I´m having a blast and I´m loving the mission!!!
Later,
Elder Page

January 6, 2009

Jan. 6, 2009

Well Hello Everyone!
This week was a decent one, full of meetings, and good stuff. Elder Rupp and I are working really hard. The time is still going by quickly, almost too quick. Elder Rupp is getting trunkier every day but we try and keep each other in line.
After we taught one of our investigators, we built a mini-house for him. It took us about 6 hours but now I can build a house if I need to! Okay that was kind of a joke, but still.
We are trying to change our area but it´s really hard. We´ve got some major problems in the ward and our investigators still aren´t going to church. However, we´re still keeping a good attitude and we have our hopes up for a lot of baptisms this transfer! It´s going to happen if it´s the last thing I do!!
Stories...well Elder Rupp and I we taught the first lesson to a bunch of girls (mistake). All they wanted to do was flirt and find out about America. I swear, if you´re white here your social status is automatically bumped up with the women. They just love to talk and flirt and crap like that. Well, we challenged them to go to church but they wouldn´t say yes. Long story short, they didn´t show up but we saw them the next day while walking down the street and one of them said "I love you Page." FREAK!!! The girls here are sneaky snakes...it´s ridiculous. Anyway, that´s all I have.
Things are just fine. The work is good. Life is great!!! I love to work and work and work!!! Remember you´re nothing without God.
Later,
Elder Page