Week 050 - The Best Nativity I've Ever Seen

HEY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

Woah Woah Woah! It’s the holliest and jolliest week, am I right! Just one more week and Santa’s coming to town. Nice. 

We just had a pretty jolly week ourselves. On Thursday we had the Missionary Christmas Conference. So we headed our way over to Santa Fe, with anticipation for festivities! It was a great conference with some fantastic testimony, including a sister missionary who has been out on the mission for quite some time now. And I really appreciated her words. She said if there was anything she was going to testify about, it would be about Christ. And it was really a great testimony of Christ, which made way for the rest of the talks that were given after. I really do believe the words of John, when he said in Revelations that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." And I want to make it clear that the most important testimony you can have is of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Our mission president gave some great words about work in the mission field, and I am always appreciative of the words he gives because they seem to give answer when I need them. As missionaries we teach the plan of salvation to people, and President Perez challenged if we truly believed in that plan. Because if we believe in His plan, we know that Christ’s atonement is central to the plan, and that Christ came because there was going to be pain and hardship in the world. And so as missionaries if we have hardships, or pain, and if we have a testimony in Christ, then worrying about our pains shouldn’t be a problem, and we then focus on bringing others the remedy of Christ. It was very good. And I got a kick out of it when he said, "So if you’re hurting, should you keep working? Yes. Foot pain? Yes. Arm? Clearly. Back? Obviously. Head? Clearly yes! Of course get some medical attention, then get over it."

Then we listened to some words from the Area Seventy, and he was really focused on being a consecrated missionary. So I thought it was kind of funny when he said, "Your parents should call you Elder, and you should call your parents Hermano ‘something’. I have a daughter and she calls me Papi. She obviously has not figured out missionary work yet."

We ended the conference with a great meal; having an awesome chicken breast and some really weird mint flavored juice. I guess you can quench your thirst while having minty fresh breath. We had a great little gift exchange, where I got a super cool watch; gold with diamonds on the rim byy Michael Kors. And I met up with all the buds from Galvez, and the MTC fellas. So that was neat.

I love these conferences, because it totally becomes segregated with English white kids talking to each other, and the Spanish Latinos. So I thought… hey let’s reunite everyone with a great Spanish song. What’s a Spanish Christmas song I know? Obviously it’s time for some Jose Feliciano. Well… turns out all the white missionaries know "Feliz Navidad" and not a single Latino knows that song. Back to segregation. 

We had another pretty awesome Christmas party with the ward too. And the Hermanas kept bugging us about being in the nativity. So half the actors in the nativity were missionaries because none of the kids wanted to do it. So I got to be the roman soldier. NICE. But this was the best nativity I’ve ever seen. First off, it was in Spanish, but none of it was scripted from the bible, it was all made up dialog. For example, "Hey Mary, we should go find a bed to sleep in. It’s getting cold out. Are you cold?"- Jose, "Yes Jose, I’m very cold" - Mary. The best part is that at the end they wanted us to sing jingle bells. But we only knew how to sing it in English. So after Jesus was born and gifts given, we began to sing, "Dashing through the snow"...."jingle bells jingle bells." It was awesome. Apparently the Spanish version is completely different and talks about Christmas, but no one had any idea. So we just got tons of complements on how beautiful the song was at the end.

We have been showing this Christmas video the church made, with everyone we see in the streets, and everyone is just down to pull out their phones right in the middle of the street and start watching it. It’s super awesome because now people are just psyched for Jesus and get out and serve.

We´ve been teaching this awesome dude Ignacio and his wife. And Ignacio is totally into it all, he came to church, but was crazy nervous. We had got on the ward´s case last week about saying hi to the investigators and when Ignacio came, every person went nuts saying hi to him, it was pretty awesome. We had a really great lesson yesterday with him, where I felt the spirit pretty powerfully, and I hoped he did too because he was really up for the challenge of finding out if this is the true church.

I went to the apartment of the other missionaries and found the ensign with all the conference talks, which I hadn’t seen yet, so I got pretty pumped to read it, and I was reading for like 10 minutes until I realized that it was in English, that’s a plus. Apparently Elder Gardner’s mom sent it to him. So I enjoyed rereading some of the talks. Especially, Elder Ballard’s and Elder Cook´s. Elder Ballard talks about how there is no other path in this life except through Jesus and his church. And if we ever think that we can leave that path we have nowhere else to go.

Jesus is the subject guys, let’s get that through our heads. I love my savior and exemplar and leader. It’s a great time of the year.

I love you guys, and I can’t wait to talk to you on Christmas. Everything should be all good and set up. We are getting some laptops in the church building to use the church Wi-Fi. And we should be getting on about 3-4 o clock your time. 7 o clock my time. I’m making a Skype account right now and you should receive some kind of friend request or something.

Week 049 - We Found The "Apartment Complex"

I’m glad that the world outside of Santa Fe is getting pumped and decorated for Christmas, because Argentina is being very lame right now. But I guess that’s because America is so dang awesome. How Christmas works here apparently is that everyone parties all night Christmas Eve and once the clock strikes twelve, the fireworks go off, ball drops, everyone gets drunk, and sleeps in the next day. Kind of reminds me of something that happens 7 days after. Yeah… New Year’s. But hey guess what, they still do that too. So it’s pretty much celebrating New Year’s twice! Pretty great!

What a great time of the year though. I do not get to wake up to an elf on my shelf, but me and the other Elders talk about the good ole times with the elves that hang on the shelves. So that’s great! Elder Andrew and I have been talking about our favorite Christmas movies and it came to a unanimous 1. Christmas Vacation, 2. Christmas Story, 3. Mr. Krueger’s Christmas. The classic.

I’ve been showing people the church’s new Christmas video. Ever wondered where all the 90’s kids that flunked out of class went? They are down here. One lady is watching this video, and Jesus comes on and she says "Hey I think that’s Jesus."  Wow, thanks captain obvious, "Hey look, that’s San Pablo." Nope, that’s Jesus still. "Oh hey that’s San Juan." Nope, still Jesus. Man people crack me up here. But that’s a great video to share. Most people have the internet on their phones, and you can just watch it with people right on the street or in front of their house, and everyone gets pumped. Mostly because it’s about Jesus.

So we have a ton a people who are following along each day doing the church’s ideas for acts of service. If you haven’t seen already, they church has suggested acts of service for each day of the month of December. Super cool, and they made videos with it; but really they are just 20 sec ads.

I mentioned the other week that we have been finding a bunch of young couples who are interested in the church. It awesome, and most of them are part of the same family, because check this. A while back a mom and a dad decided they were going to have a lot of kids, and they should build an entire apartment complex, so they can all live with their grandchildren and stuff. We found that "apartment complex" and everyone there is just awesome. And totally down to receive the gospel. Pretty neat. One of the brothers really wanted us to come see his church and meet his pastor, so we had plans to come with him for like 5 minutes, but we ended up sitting through an entire prayer session in an evangelical church. Pretty neat. I enjoyed it, with people yelling Gloria to Jesus every 10 seconds. Also I left with a greater testimony of the apostasy.

There is a video that one of the missionaries’ girlfriends sent, and it’s a video of a large congregation of a black evangelical church and there is a man on the stand with a microphone yelling, "YOU WANT THE HOLY GHOST.....TAKE IT!" And he throws the Holy Ghost at certain parts of the crowd, knocking people over and going nutz. It’s pretty great. You should look it up.

Lately Elder Andrew and I have been on the topic of our future homes, and it’s been a pretty big dilemma whether or not you have a house with second floor or a basement. It was concluded that the second floor was more important because of the essential need of a zip line that goes from the second floor to the pool. It’s an economically friendly home with only the essential items.

Not a ton happened this week, but I am super pumped for Christmas, and am getting Skype all situated. This time everything should be all in order. By next Monday, I need your Skype username, and the time you guys will be in church. Because I’m thinking that we will Skype in the late afternoon my time, which would be during the afternoon your time.

I’m super pumped. I love you guys. Christmas is great.

Elder Greene

We have been taking runs to the river on Monday mornings. Like 7 kilometers. At least that’s what they tell me.

And we laid down a concrete floor for the Carbones

Week 048 - Lessons With Young Couples That Actually Give A Crap

Whoa. It’s totally Christmas time! Time to bring out the Frank Sinatra! At least we have, my leader de zone came over and he is from Paraguay and he couldn’t get enough of that stuff.

So I’ve heard Katie’s taken over my room now, nice bed huh, it’s the secret that none of you knew about, that I always had the most comfortable bed in the house.

We are going to have the hap hap happiest Christmas - Clark Griswold.

This week was fantastic, packed with tons of new investigators. It was awesome because we’ve been having so many lessons with young couples that actually give a crap. You know! Super awesome young families, who are all interested in the lessons and asks questions, and you can have a great conversation with. So I’ve been really thankful for that, because we’ve been having so many flojo investigators that I feel like I’m just talking to a brick wall. So it’s been a good week.

We had divisions this week with the zone leaders and I might have had the most awkward and funniest time of my mission, during this split with my zone leader. I guess he was on splits with some of the Assistants and with one of their investigators sang a hymn at the end, which is actually normal and really brings in the spirit. But my zone leader was so hyped about it that he no joke wanted to sing with every person we came in contact with. In one afternoon I sang hymns to 14 people. And first off I don’t have a good accent (I pull off a nice American accent cha ching), second this kid is really not known for his singing, and of course he knows that. We sang to my 17 year-old investigator Rodrigo, in front of his house, and Rodrigo was so funny because he just kept looking off into the road to see if anyone was coming.

Fun fact, Argentinians don’t know how to say no. It’s just not in their gene system. So when you ask a guy who is cutting his grass if you can sing him a song, he will always say yes, “but make it quick, my wife could come out of the house any second now". He totally said that. Anyways, it was good ole fun times. Good memories for the books.

So I think I’ve told you a lot of stories about drunk guys in my mission. It’s quite common, on the daily, and they usually come in twos. And I have made the conclusion that there is a fine relationship between two drunk guys in Argentina, and the two Canadian moose in the movie "brother bear". For example, “Hey, hey, how’s it going gringos. Ey you guys headin out to the town...ey, you bout killed that dog there you were walking so fast... ey. Bought myself a brewsky....ey. How bout ya come over here and give me a bible...ey.  Ey go on and get outta here you messenger gringo Yankees..............ey”. It’s practically the same.

I have also concluded my top Argentine excuses for not coming to church: 1. Birthday  2. Yesterday’s birthday  3. Family coming into town......at five. Got to love these kids right.

Have I ever told you guys about Bebe Gonzales? This guys is the champ of the ages. Right. this guy is a member, is practically homeless, loves the missionaries, doesn’t stop talking, and wears the same Canadian tuxedo every day. On the topic of Canadian tuxedo, was there a time when McDonalds workers were all pulling off the jean jacket, jeans hat, and jean look? Because I just went to McDonalds today, totally great, and they all pull it off here, and I can’t tell if it’s a new thing or the Argentines didn’t get the memo about the McCafe look. Who knows, thought I should put that one out there. Anyways Bebe Gonzales rents out a tiny garage to live in, and all it has is a bed. Totally nuts, but he just keeps kicking it and comes to church almost every Sunday. In the past 4 months he has had 8 heart attacks, and about 4 heart attacks ago they said he should be dead. Every time we pass by his place he is either at the hospital or coming back, but he still makes it to church. Dedication right there for all you slackers out there.

Yesterday we had one of the greatest testimony meetings I think I have ever been to. One of the great things about being in a ward out here in Argentina is that almost every person in the ward is a convert to the church, and each have a story. So yesterday Alturo Pui gave his testimony on missionary work because he leaves on a mission in two days. Awesome testimony about how important he thinks it is to answer the call to serve, even though his family is barely getting by. Anyways, after he gave his testimony it kind of sparked every member to bear their testimony and stories of how the missionaries came to their home, and how appreciative they are for the missionaries to give that message. And I really realized the importance of the message we bring to each of these family’s home. And there are so many that don’t accept it, but the ones who do, and act on it, receive the greatest reward, and it’s shown in these families, and it’s shown in their love for the gospel.

I especially appreciated Hermana Lincina’s testimony, because she gave a story that really touched me. About a three weeks ago the mission opened a new area in Entre Rios, and Hermana Lincina has a sister that lives there. The sister and her family a few years ago went to church with Hermana Lincina, and the sister and her family were touched, but they never had a church building closer than 3 hours away from their house, or something like that. And so the mission opened up in that town where the sister lives just a few weeks ago. Anyway, this family didn’t know that the mission opened up in their town, but just a few days ago Hermana Lincina’s sister saw the missionaries in the street and ran to them getting them to stop, falling into tears she asked them to come over to their house to teach them. She told this story and I just thought of the hope the gospel brings to people, and it also strengthened my testimony of what we do as missionaries. It is to gather the faithful and those prepared by the lord.

I so love the work that goes on, I love our heavenly father and the strength he gives in times of difficulty. He always seems to remind me why we are really here. And I’m thankful for that.

It’s such a great time of the year to be here, it should be fantastic summer, at least for me, my golden glow is coming along nicely.

Elder Greene

Week 047 - Is This Normal?

Hey Guys!

Though your thanksgiving looked "spectacular" ( I have an investigator that always says "spectacular"), I had a pretty great Thanksgiving as well, with a lot of gratitude, and good feasting in all. We had the old traditional Argentinean Thanksgiving; we decided to eat by ourselves with just the missionaries, because for reals guys... only Americans can pull off Thanksgiving. So we pulled out some real nice steaks with some, salads, and some potatoes, and bread, creamy corn shin digs, and of course the Pepsi.. It was real nice, and we talked about some real good Thanksgiving stories, and just regular stories, because there are only so many Thanksgiving stories. 

So everyone tells me that our new president is going to put up two walls, one in Mexico that is red, and one in Canada that is blue. My bishop here is pretty sure that it’s true. So I kinda want to get the real news on that. 

I’m starting to see that, according to the Argentinians, it’s ok to burn down whatever you want. For example, we went to do some service for a family in the ward, and what they have us doing (first of all… is totally ridiculous, right), is they wanted us to dig up piles of bricks that had been buried in their back yard, because I guess they once had a brick house back there, and they tore it down and thought it would be easier to bury all the bricks. Now they want it all out. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is while we were digging, the father of the house wanted a huge tree out of his back yard. So we are thinking of ideas of how to get rid of it, and while we are doing that, he has the idea to just burn it down, but he doesn’t just suggest the idea to us. No. He just comes back with a bunch of paper that he lights on fire to then burn down this tree. So now the problem isn’t that you have a tree in your back yard, but that you have a burning tree in your yard. So yeah, while we are digging all of this brick, there’s this forest fire going on behind us. Great.

Life goes on, and I’m on divisions with some other missionaries in Ayacucho, and weird stuff kind of goes on in Ayacucho, and so I’m asking my companion, “Hey is this normal?” And he’s all like, “Yeah, yeah.” Alright, we go to a future investigators house, and we clap our hands to get them to come out of their house. An old women comes out, but she comes out with a torch, right. Completely ignores us, and walks to her neighbors house and attempts to burn her neighbors house down. My companion turns to me and says "Yeah, that’s not normal." So we left. 

Anyways, what an awesome weekend we had here in Recreo. On Saturday, Alejo Nini was able to be baptized. Alejo is the brother of Kevin Nini. These kids are such champs. We had to schedule the baptism during siesta so his mom could see the baptism; so not a lot of people came. But it was a great experience for Alejo. And it was very emotional for Kevin. Kevin was able to share his testimony on baptism, and he gave an awesome testimony of how happy he is that he will be able to go to the celestial kingdom with his brother, and how he is waiting for his mom and his sisters to be baptized as well, so that they can be as happy as he is. These two brothers are some really cool kids. 

We showed the new church Christmas video, and if you guys haven’t seen it, it’s pretty awsome. My companion turns over to me during the video to say, "So I guess there’s a new iPhone then," and then looked at me with a smirk. It was kind of funny that he noticed that in the video. It is really great to be here during the holidays, even though it’s not as well celebrated here. But, we can always make it pretty great! 

I love you guys a ton, and I really do appreciate all your emails, its great!

Elder Greene