October 26, 2009

Oct. 26, 2009

Hey Everyone!!!
What´s up? Things going well? I surely hope so. Anyway, life is interesting here. The rumors have calmed down quite a bit but the damage has already been done. From the looks of it I´m going to be leaving 9 de Julio sooner than I thought. I don´t know but it could happen. President told me that if it´s just too much to handle than he´ll get me out of here. It´s ridiculous if you ask me. Our second counselor, who was doing all the rumoring, was released on Thursday by the District Presidency. I feel so bad for our poor branch and for our recent converts. They have so much faith to stay in such a mediocre church. Working hard helps me forget all the problems that I´m facing right now. Elder Gomez and I are great. We have bike races a lot and have almost died several times racing in the park. It´s pretty funny to watch to missionaries booking it down the road and then suddenly braking and almost falling. I can only imagine what the missionaries in the States are doing with their cars!
Well, keep the faith and never give up. Have an awesome week!!!
Later,
Elder Page

October 22, 2009

Oct. 19, 2009

Hey Everyone!!!
Gosh time is going by pretty quick. October is more than half-way over. Soon it will be time to make a call for Christmas. Just so you know yesterday was Mother´s Day here in Argentina. I thought about calling my mom but that just wouldn´t be right. I would feel too bad doing that. So we had a bunch of rumors start up again in our branch. They were bad, really bad. There is one member who is talking to all of our recent converts and get this, he told them to not let us in nor talk with us. He also told them they could have the triple combination scriptures because they were new and should only have the Book of Mormon. It´s a big fat mess. What´s even worse is that the District President is thinking about taking him to disciplinary council. I know he´s going to be released from our branch presidency too. It´s terrible. All the rumors are really hurting our poor little branch. Also, we had the 1st counselor of the mission come and do visits with us. He told us that we should STOP baptizing people here even though Pres. Benton is against it. I´m confused that´s all. Our president and zone leaders want us to baptize, I want to baptize, and then we get told not to. BLAH!!! Yeah, that´s just a little tast of the church in Argentina. Nothing can go right.
But hey, life isn´t that bad. I´ll only be here for 4 1/2 more months. I have a suspicion that we might get flashed out of here with all the problems that are going on.
So yeah life is just fine. The mission is always good. I´m a little frustrated because there just isn´t enough time to do everything. We need to do visits in the branch to keep everyone unified and our mission leaders hound us for good numbers. Right now I haven´t found out how to do both really well but it will come around soon.
Well, that´s all from me. Have a wonderful week!
Later,
Elder Page

October 6, 2009

Oct. 5, 2009

Hey Everyone,
Who all loved conference?? ME!!! I will agree with you all and say that it was certainly the bomb! The speakers threw down hard core on everyone. I was lucky enough to see the Saturday sessions in English. I wasn´t able to see Priesthood Session, yes I´m still bumbed about it, because of traveling circumstances. Conference is Spanish is weird because I understand everything they say but it just doesn´t hit me as hard. I think that I still receive revelation in English which made it hard to take good notes. But, the messages where absolutely awesome!!! They really stepped up the spirituality level.
Sadly, there is no Halloween celebration here. The people sort of know what Halloween is but don´t do anything about it. How lame huh? What´s even more ridiculous is that they have holidays for just about everything...but don´t celebrate the American favorites like Halloween and Thanksgiving. Oh well...
So the mission life is good. We had some more rumors and back-biting in church so we had even more interviews with the District Presidency. Of course everyone is on our side, minus the rumor-spreaders. Anyway, after several cane droppings we received apologies from those members and hopefully all will come out well. Today we had our Zone activity. We have 2 missionary couples in our zone and they made us a classic "Sunday Dinner" which consisted of roast beef, Idaho mashed potatos and gravy, and ice cream. It was delicious!! We also got to watch "The Other Side of Heaven" while eating. It was definitely what I needed to keep me going. At least some people want to give us food here. Also, on Wednesday we have interviews with our dear President Benton. He is so cool and an inspiration to me.
Well, I hope you all really enjoyed conference. Now, let´s put it into practice and share the gospel with EVERYONE!!!
Later,
Elder Page