Week 037 - Do You Realize What Happened Last Night?

Hey fellas!

Hows it going? That looks like a crazy cool trip. Thanks for the pics! 

It’s been another fantastic week here in beautiful downtown Galvez. The people here are on fire. Especially the members. We have emphasized the importance of member missionary work. 

Mirta gave us a call the other day saying she set up a meeting for us and and a family; the Family Ramero. So we walk with Mirta to the meeting and as we are walking, a man standing on top of his car says “hi”, and we say “hi” back, and keep walking, and then Mirta decides to stop and talk to this man. His name is Christian Borda. And Mirta says, "Whats your name? Where do you live? Do you realize who these boys are? They changed my life." Then she goes on, and keeps talking and says, “When can they go over to your house to change your life?" So right then we were given the address of Christian; and we should be heading over there soon. As we walked away Mirta says, "Did you see the way he looked at us, I had to stop." Right on! 

So we go to the meeting and meet Suley Ramero. And once again Mirta is on fire. She usually has a hard time not talking, but this time it was good, and we explained the church to this mom, and Mirta explains some life changing moments, then she says, “Alright, you are coming to church, right?" the mom says, “Yes.” “Alright, so you’ll be baptized, right?" Once again, "Yes". We were there for literally 20 minutes. Awesome. She has a husband, and a daughter that is 9 years old; we were able to talk to the father on Saturday, after we set up a meeting. We showed up, having not even met the guy, with him yelling at us saying, “I’ve been waiting for you two all day. Do you realize what happen last night? I read the book. I felt sooooooo much peace, so much peace, so much peace." He (Daniel) said that like 40 times. He went on, "I felt so much peace that I got the kids around, and we said a prayer for the first time in my life." Sick! This guy was so pumped and he loves Jesus so much. He even has a church shirt. I know; because he said it 50 times. He was like,"Man I’m freaking pumped! I’ve been drinking green tea all day!" (Rico quote). It was awesome, and the dad and the daughter both want to be baptized.

Later we had a member lesson with Dario. We invited brother Pujol to come; and really, I love this man. We show up at Dario´s house. Dario comes to the door. He says we need to talk. He explains he doesn’t want to go any further with this. He’s been feeling a lot of pain, and he is very angry with God. Hermano Pujol starts some small talk, "How’s it going?" "Who are you?" "Where do you work?" Dario totally chills out and then we say a prayer. Pujol continues sharing a fantastic experience where he was in a lot of pain physically and mentally and he went to 10 different churches and found no help. He found the Church of Jesus Christ and told God that when he comes out of the baptismal water that he wanted to be healed of all his pains. He said right when he came out he felt no pain anymore. Now he plays soccer. He was very excited about that. We left and Dario asked us to come back. 

Galvez kills it man! 

Ebelie made us an awesome birthday lunch this week, with cake and everything. She’s one of the oldest members in Galvez! We actually had a bunch of lunches this week, which is totally crazy because we never get lunches. But we got invited over by a less active women who Ii didn’t even know. She just found us off the street and invited us over. 

I found my first Buddhist this week. He is a totally fake Buddhist though. But he loves the lifestyle. He also loves Bob Marley, dreads, and weed. He’s cool though, and he wants us to come back. 

We went to Santa Fe again this week, because Elder Mckell had some passport business. So I was on divisions with Elder Llanos all day. He´s one of the coolest guys I know. He works in the offices and he had to go to the bank. I went with him and he shows up with a big jacket. We talk to the bank lady and elder llanos takes 50,000 pesos from his account and just starts shoving it all in his jacket pockets, and then asks, "Where’s the next macro bank?"....king! He knows very little English, and as we are leaving he turns to me and says, "Money rule!" Right on. 

Man I’m super jealous of your cool trip. Tell all the family they are super great! I hope you've learned a good bit of Shakespeare!

I love you guys!

Elder Greene!

Week 036 - A Whole Colony of Yasucks

Wowzers! Thanks for all the Birthday good times. It’s really crazy that I’ll be 20 years old! Nutz! And in Argentina. Too legit...to quit!

I loved the birthday video. It was so awesome… that when it showed up on the screen, it was upside down. Still super awesome!

And I can’t believe that the excursion is totally gone. I didn’t realize how old it was until you sent those pics, and seeing us from like 10 years ago! Incredible!

And Katie, the world is totally in your favor. You and the groove cats are looking too fresh for picture day. Fantastic!

It is really crazy to have a birthday here. I had to be reminded by a member yesterday that my birthday is tomorrow. She invited us over for some good meats…. Sick!

We actually have a ton of lunches this week with members. Especially Donato. I guess he found a ton of money in his bank account, and he doesn’t really know what saving is, and he keeps buying us cokes. That dude’s got to chill! Ha! Vamos!

Check it… so last week we had to change cybers because it was "closed for the duel." At first, I thought it was some kind of funny video game event, until I walked by the Kodak store and also saw a sign that said "closed for duel.” I realized there is something more going on than meets the eye. In fact, I believe there must be a family feud between the owners of the cyber and the owners of the camera store... and there’s a duel going on!  I just tried asking him, “what’s the deal with the duel?” But they’re keeping quiet... go figure.

This week was great… we headed our way on Saturday to the Costernera. It’s in Santa Fe on the coast of the river. Really nice area with the first chapel of Santa Fe. I was told that about 20 times, so I’m pretty sure it’s the first chapel of Santa Fe. But we were there for an open chapel and it was great. Costanera is one of the most difficult areas, so not too many people came, but it was still a fantastic event for those who did. So Elder House and I, went around the coast, trying to get people to come to the event. People were more focused on their mate (drink); but still, it’s cool to meet random people. We did get a couple of younger guys to go, which was cool, and I found this churro guy, and he asked what I was doing (oldest trick in the book). So we explained, and we gave him like 100 invitations to the event, that he passed out and explained to whoever bought churros! Clutch city!

That morning we were supposed to find a less active woman, and we spent like 2 hours looking for this woman with the last name Yasuck . We learned there is apparently a whole colony of Yasucks, and every time you ask where this woman is living, people just pointed in some random direction. We finally found her, and she wanted nothing to do with us. But her 3 year old son liked us, so we gave him an invitation.

Man, we spent a lot of this week trying to find some of our investigators that totally disappeared. But we’ve mostly been teaching Dario. He’s awesome. I was actually kind of concerned, and wanted to drop everything else, because he realized how real this got, and if he were baptized he would have to really commit. Apparently he likes his free time. But we shared with him some personal experiences, and he realized how much we were alike; except for the fact that we’re not fifty. But no, he really wants to commit and change his life, because he feels like he's been in the dark for a long time. He came to church this Sunday and really enjoyed it. So much so, that he fell asleep the last hour. He said it was very peaceful. There was a member of the stake presidency who came and was getting some alone time with Dario, and apparently they were getting into some deep stuff, because Dario came back asking all about how the earth will become the celestial kingdom, once it transforms and become celestialized. They came out saying "THE CELSTIAL KINGDOM IS HERE!"

Ahh… anyways…

We tried getting Daniel Catalino to come to church, because he really promised us that he would come, and we made it to his house, and he opens the door and he realized what was about to happen... he just starts repeating, "QUE HAGO, QUE HAGO, QUE HAGO!"… looking back at the clock, and back at us, over and over again. The guy was so stuck, he had no idea what to say, but talk out loud repeating what I was saying… “you come to church man.” Funny people.

But yeah, not a ton happened this week.

Always, there are dogs... It’s funny… some dogs are always with each other wherever they go. So its hard not to start singing the fox and the hound song, "when you’re the best of friends." Then you realize that singer pulls out some serious jive. And you can’t help but talking all day like that. "Ey comp, cop me a sice dat boof jaunt" when all your asking for is a cookie.

Man I love it here. And it’s super great to be here for my birthday.

Dad that’s an incredible picture of you and the fellas back in the day. Broncos are life.

I love you guys and I hope grandma and grandpa have a fantastic Anniversary trip. Seems like that will be a fantastic event!

I really loved the video guys, really.

Pictures:

Super cool package. Maybe the coolest of packages. And me eating skittles.

3 dollars for 32 eggs from my hook up spot. Eggs for days.

Week 035 - Living In the Moment. It's Fantastic!

Wow! That’s a cake! I totally miss the good ole German chocolateness. Another really happy birthday for you day; you are really killing that 45! I totally forgot about Labor Day, and so did everyone else in Argentina. I’ll make the announcement to everyone.

I guess our family totally failed on living the SpongeBob life. No, we have just been quoting SpongeBob a lot, and especially when we have weird moments here in Galvez! So I thought every great show needed a special at one point!

We are in a new cyber today, trying it out! (the rich cyber) It’s actual an underground casino but shhhh, don’t tell the cops! No, they already know, the cops took their computers twice already and they just buy new ones right after. I guess they are doing well!

It is incredible to be here in Galvez for a whole 7 months! That’s longer than I lived in Texas and Utah. Galvez Argentina, my new home. Of course, I have no idea what it’s like to change areas. Same with Elder Hill, because we came to Galvez the same time. But it’s been incredible to know the people, and through all their good times and bad times.

We just had a wonderful testimony meeting, where the president and his secretaries couldn’t come, so... you’re looking at the new ELDER GALVENSE! I totally got to preside. It was sick! And it was testimony meeting, so I got to say the old, "the time is now yours brothers and sisters," in castellano (“the old Spanish") of course. It was a great meeting. We´ve had a few members going through a few terrible events, and it’s amazing to be able to talk to them and watch their faith grow, and to listen to testimonies of the comfort of the spirit and the reality of atonement in their lives. The first hour of church was also awesome because only Donato showed up. Stud. And so it was all Donato time. He was pumped. We asked him, "What is the plan of salvation?" and he said, “the truth, the bible" and he holds up his Book of Mormon. Exactly! It’s all in the Book of Mormon.

I decided that the Argentinian life... is the life. If I was to choose the chillest life I’ve ever seen, it’s here. People just live in the moment. Working crazy long hours (6), crazy expensive food (two large steaks= $3), and take super short naps (3 hours); it’s rough. No, it’s so funny, it’s the chillest life, and everyone I meet complains about it. By “in the moment”… here is an example. I’ll call one of our investigators to get a cita with him for tomorrow. Why? So he can plan for it, and we can too! So I’ll call, and say "hey, can we go to your house tomorrow?" And they’ll reply, "TOMMOROW! I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow! Call me tomorrow and I’ll let you know!" Living in the moment. It’s fantastic!

I was talking to Electra yesterday and she´s awesome; talking about how Argentina is going haywire! And she asks, "Is the rest of the world like this?" I replied, “Yes, it’s the last days.” She asks, "Even Venezuela?" Yes. "Even Colombia?" Yes. "Oh no oh no oh no VENZUELA! COLOMBIA! What has happened to the world! Why? What is coming to the Americas?" Well, I don’t just think it’s the Americas Electra. "Oh Colombia!” Funny lady.

We’ve been meeting a lot of new investigators with really good understanding of authority and the feelings of the spirit. We met a women, Valedia, and we asked her what she was thinking about the restoration, and she replied saying, “It was true.” And we asked, “Why?” And she said it was, “because I’ve never felt so calm on my own before." It was a fantastic lesson where she listened intently and could feel the Holy Spirit. And I really appreciated that; her listening. And the lord allowed us to have the spirit in that lesson.

It’s sometimes hard to have people pay attention to this kind of stuff, when they think they are having their "bible class." But no, this is not just a lesson. I realized this a while ago; that this is an incredible, important, and sacred work that’s going on in the mission field; that it is not just a feel good message; but that Jesus Christ has sent us to bring more people unto him; because he leads this church.

We have been teaching a couple recently, and it has really turned into a sad situation. They had a child die a couple years ago and they haven’t received peace from the situation yet. She has tried to overcome it her own way, and not through the Church of Jesus Christ. Why? Because they are catholic, and that is who their parents were, and that is just who they are. "Que se you" the husband kept saying … “I’m catholic, what do I know?" They weren’t listening or looking for help from the church, and in the end they were not able to receive all the blessing of the gospel and atonement of Jesus Christ. Because they wouldn’t listen for the Spirit to tell them they are on the path.

So yeah, I’m grateful for those who do take the time to listen, and to know, through the Holy Spirit.

Or… you can teach a guy that just straight up understands the importance of authority in the church, like Dario Boreto. The guy is hilarious because we´ll explain something and he’ll stop us and say, "because of authority right?" Exactly. Vamos Dario. We asked him to be baptized and he said he was already baptized in the Catholic Church. I said they don’t have authority to do that. He replies "Oh yeah, that make sense, they don’t really have authority to do anything." Right on!

The Popes is a cool guy though. Man, people love the Pope here! Apparently he’s from Santa Fe. Cool.

I got accused of being an FBI agent. We were having a great lesson with this other lady, Alejandra; when her son, or her husband, came in and just went off on the bible. It kind of turned into a bible bash, which shouldn’t have been the case, but he got destroyed. VAMOS PERSONAL STUDY! But he finally realized… "Whoa what are you wearing? You aren’t men of god. You are men of the FBI! Where’s your cameras?" He totally went nuts searching through all our stuff and finally was just like, "You guys are good. I didn’t find anything." We said, “Alright. Thanks for the good times.” And we left.

I totally got called to cast out a demon. Some random guy off the street; we kind of knew him; but he wanted us to come over to get rid of the spirit. So we did… if there was one. Apparently it was a normal white guy with a sombrero. That’s how he described it.

I love Galvez!

I love you guys and hope you are all having a great time with just two in the house! And I totally received your package! It was fantastic, it’s an incredible moment when you realize how good skittles are. It was really awesome! And my companero received the same kind of package also. I totally forgot my camera to send you guys the pictures but I’ll send some next week. It will also more legitimately be my birthday. But you know it’s the birthday month. I love you guys and thank you guys so much for your emails and good times!

Week 034 - Train Town Has Officially Been Shut Down

I’m glad you guys liked my letters. For reals though, there is one heading for Emma too. 

The first week of school is always great, especially because you know you’ve got straight A´s. it’s such a relief that first week! 

That’s an awesome project the church puts together, and it’s super cool that dad and others from the ward were able to go and help those effected by the flooding in Louisiana.

[Editors Note: I've underlined what I believe are SpongeBob references from Holden.  See if you can find more.]

Alright... A one, a two, a sciddly-diddly-doo!

Hey all you people, Hey all you people.

Won’t you listen to me?

I just had a sandwich, no ordinary sandwich,

Filled with jelly fish jelly.

Hey you man, you’ve got to try this sandwich.

It’s no ordinary sandwich,

It’s the best sandwich in all the sea.

 

Elder Mckell and I were walking to a new part of Galvez when we found our newest sandwich shop. We get the best sandwiches at a place called "Sandwich"... Bueno.  Also every time we called the pizza place, asking for "pizza palace", they would just reply with, "No this is Patrick."

So train town has officially been shut down. The new paint job couldn’t keep train town going. Sad in fact… the train station owner showed up and everyone went hiding under the rocks. Too bad their eyes were showing, so the inspector dropped everything he had, yelling "WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE!"

I totally found a pigeon and it was the first time one didn’t fly away when I grabbed for it. I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s a giraffe pigeon, and I got a picture. I think I’ll name it Mystery... or Debbie.

We are still killing it with the door-to-door strategy. But you can tell everyone has been contacted before, when you show up at their house and they already have a Book of Mormon sitting on top of their mantel. We were out in the middle of nowhere, because we were following the map, and we were supposed to go east, but we thought it meant west.  So we got lost. When all of a sudden, we found a wanderer… He asked what we’ve been doing out here? We told him about our magic Book of Mormon.  He replied saying "YOU MEAN LIKE THIS!" pulling out his magic Book of Mormon.

We still get the usually slammed door in the face. For example, we went to find an old investigator, Catalina. She was blasting music when we rang the doorbell. She has one of those windows that you can’t see through, but can still see the figure of the person. So we saw her look through the peep hole, wave her hand up like "toma te la," and walk away to turn off the music. I guess she thought if she did that we wouldn’t think anyone was home. So we waited in front of the house, thinking of what we were going to do next. After about 5 minutes, I guess she thought we had left and she opened the door screeching, "Oh whoa uh... what do you want?" Apparently she had people over and we should come back in a couple months. She closes the door, and we laughed over what happened. Then she opens the door again 1 minute later, once again thinking we were gone, and says… "Oh uh my gosh... which one of you is Dirty Dan?"

So we’ve been trying to figure out what we can do better while contacting, and Elder Mckell suggested we Wombo. And I didn’t know what that was, and he was a little surprised like, "Wombology? The study of Wombo?... This is first grade Elder Greene!" We concluded that it was Elder Mckell’s appearance that was distracting, and we were fed up with that. So I grabbed Elder Mckell, showing him to everyone saying "LOOK AT IT... LOOK AT IT…LOOK AT IT!" Everyone then left running. We stopped, and I said, "Look Elder Mckell, you’ve got to get this thing off your chest." And so he took the squid off his chest.

After, Elder Mckell said he had the Meet the Mormons movie, and suggested having a family home evening. I told him "Elder Mckell your genius is showing!" A couple families came, and we had popcorn, and it was sick! Sure there was some disputes over one of the member’s "Big Meaty Claws.” And "someone leaving the lights on in the white sedan." But it was a great activity.

The way people live here is crazy, especially the kids. On the weekends we can’t find anyone, but I can see they are probably at Glove World or something. But during the day kids run everywhere, throughout the week. It’s like they don’t have school. Playing hooky every day. I finally had to say, “Look… if they catch you, they’ll turn you into mayonnaise.”

We went over to Ebelia´s house and Sonia, our newest member was there, they have become the best of friends, they say it’s because they are practically the same age. One is 80 and the other is 55, so yeah… practically. It was crazy scripture time with Ebelia and Sonia. Sonia kept going off about her husband who goes to work every day with a suitcase of doughnuts, while she’s at home taking care of the clan. But in reality, he’s not even going to work, but going to watch t.v.

We now have the newest and coolest investigator; Dario Boreto. I really feel he’s like Donato, except younger. We taught him three times this week and he came to our bible class and church. The bible class kind of became his class, because he would answer everything and anything event though he didn’t know the answer, he would say, "oh yeah, I don’t know the answer to that, yup no answer." But he’s a tan 50 year old, who is always killing it with the Canadian tuxedo. Man he’s cool. We are trying to live our days living like Dario. "Living like Dario"

Here’s a super happy birthday for Dad; who´s birthday is this week. You’re super awesome… for reals. It’s also Elder Mckell’s birthday, so we kind of celebrated Elder Mckell, Dad, and an early birthday for me. Cool! I’ll make sure to send you a Spot Master 6000...WITH A LASER! I love you Dad. And have a super great birthday, especially after that crazy work you and the others were doing in Louisiana! In reality Dad, the inner machinations of your mind are an enigma. I love you!

Finally, for the most sophisticated minded, and the real SpongeBob fans…

Anyways it’s time to "Rev up those fryers cause I sure am hungry!"

Closing Song

The winner takes all,

It's the thrill of one more kill,

The last one to fall,

Will never sacrifice their will,

Don't ever look back,

On the world closing in,

Be in attack,

With your wings in the wind,

Oh the games will begin,

And it's sweet, sweet, sweet victory yeah,

And it's ours for the taking,

It's ours for the fight,

And it's sweet, sweet, sweet victory yeah,

And the world is ours to follow,

Sweet sweet sweet victory. 

Once there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died. The end.

Pictures: Grido, pizza, cake, Gaucho's house:

Week 033 - Paint It So The Police Don't Shut it Down

Woahoahoah! How goes it fam!

Super pumped you guys got my letter. I totally timed it wrong when I sent it. I didn’t think Emma would be there, so there should be one heading to Provo for Emma as well.

Man… school. I remember that… "Back to school, back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool, I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, Hope I don't get in a fight, Ohhhhhhh, back to school, back to school". You guys sure look too excited!

So check it… transfers just happened, and Elder Greene has another 6 weeks in the too cool Galvez.

Like always, it’s too cool here. Especially with the dogs, I think the dogs are too funny.  Living in Argentina is just like that time you looked up "funny dogs" on YouTube and watched a bunch of dogs for three hours, except I’m living in it. Some are so funny… like the greyhounds. I mean, no one really likes greyhounds, and you can tell even the dogs don’t like greyhounds. There will be two dogs playing, and then one greyhound wants to join in, and in the end... the playing stops, and no one is having fun. We had a greyhound following us yesterday, and it thought it was sooooo sneaky. Every time we turned around it would instantly walk off in the other direction, like, "whoa what is over there?" When in fact, I knew he were just following me two seconds ago. Anyways, I was petting a pit-bull the other day too. I get sucked into that too often. But it was getting a little excited as I did so and it ended up taking a jump and ramming my face. At least it wasn’t one of those Dogos; those things are nutz, and they are kept here as pets everywhere.

Somehow I’ve made this connection with Pablo, and he shows up to church at random times every Sunday. He´s totally fried his brain … he comes in sits down next to me and then starts going off about one of the members who is apparently his aunt, when she actually isn’t. Oh Pablo.

So check it… I don’t know if this is just something America hasn’t learned yet, or if the eggs here are different, but no one puts the eggs in the fridge here. People keep them in the cupboards for like weeks, and that’s what I know… and there are no issues. So I think someone has made up some kind of lie saying that we have to put eggs in the fridge. I go to this sort of secret storage unit to get my eggs and they are just chillin… piles and piles high of eggs in these garages. I don’t think they were ever refrigerated.

I have recently found the best churro place ever. I don’t know if this place has been my entire mission, but it’s by far the best churros I’ve had. They’ve got chocolate churros, they’ve got another kind of chocolate, and another kind. So you get the gist.

I don’t know if I’ve told you about the train town yet? But anyways… the police are trying to SHUT IT DOWN. In the middle of the city the train passes through, and by the train there is an abandoned train station, and a ton of people have just built Train City there. They get free housing, electricity, and water. And they steal it all, it’s awesome. If you look at the electrical lines, there’s just a random one going off to Train City. And I have no idea where the water comes from, because there’s just a foot of hose sticking out of the ground flowing with water forever. Who knows where that water comes from? So… a lot of our investigators are kind of freaking out because they are living in train town. They’ve invited us to come by and help them fix it up and paint it so the police don’t shut it down.

I’ve told you about the "When are we going to eat asado guy?" right? Maybe. But we are too tight right now. His name is Brian. And he gets pumped when he sees us. But it so funny because we see him almost 3 times a day, because he works at this mechanic shop that we have to pass by to get to our investigators. But around here you have to choose your favorite mechanic shop, because there’s like a thousand. It’s just a bunch of old guys that decide, oh hey, let’s make a mechanic shop in my garage, and they drink mate and wait for someone to come by. I love how jobs work here, like if you need work and don’t want to leave the house, you just make a store in your garage. It’s awesome, because if I get hungry I just look over and there’s a kiosk in someone’s garage.

Anyways you guys are great. I love you. I hope you like my letters!

Week 032 - A Branch Conference To Remember

Hey Cool Capos!

Presidente Ojera keeps telling me Capo is Spanglish, and that I get too much of it from Elder Ricra. Son… I know I pull the best Spanglish around. Argentina is totally Spanglish though. You can say bottle, and people know what bottles are.

Earlier this week we made our way to Santa Fe again for some passport shindig times. On the way, I had to stop by my favorite factura shop at the terminal. They’ve got churros with dulce de leche in them. I’ve decided when we go to Santa Fe it’s like going on vacation, and the number of facturas you get doesn’t really matter. Elder butler was there so we were catching up on all the good times.

The next day we went to Rosario.  Good times in Rosario… waiting around and getting more facturas (Rosario style). But of course we hit my favorite sandwich stop and... MILTONS! So lomitos on Elder Clayton! Vamos Rosario! Once again I totally forgot my camera. But the memories are still in my heart.

Sometimes it’s kind of lame having a English speaking companion because it’s too tempting to talk in English. And if you do, you forget sometimes you’re a missionary. Like when a whole car of ladies drives by screaming Hola, and you reply with a Hello. I totally did, and turned to my companion like, "uh yeah, I probably shouldn’t have done that."  Que va hacer. Es la vida.

It’s so funny when you have moments like this Rosario trip, when you get to talk to other missionaries about their great insights from their personal study. You know everyone’s personal study consists of, "What time it is in Kolob?" And, "The signs of the coming of Christ". Vamos personal study!

Another great day on Thursday with the old DO-NA-TO! He made us the dankest meal. The man starts going off on things, totally correct, that I never taught him. The power of actually reading the Book of Mormon.

This week I had one of those moments when you realize you are totally guided by the spirit. We tend to now have a lot of citas in our plans, so we'll make a list of people to go see in the morning, and on Friday we put Sandra Frutos (Mirta’s daughter) on the bottom of the list. Everyone else on the list fell through, and we went to Sandra’s house at 11:30, with her being the last on the list. She wasn’t home, but her son was, and he said he was taking care of the house. And so we talked to him about the Book of Mormon until we had to leave to get back to our apartment for lunch. As we were leaving, Mirta arrived with Sandra, who was having some serious stomach issues. They came to get her into her bed, and since we were there, we gave her a priesthood blessing. I have come to the conclusion that if we hadn’t put Sandra on the last of that list, she would not have received that blessing. And I told her that. And I hope she takes that as something important. Mirta is so funny… she was like, “I wasn’t too surprised when I saw the missionaries at the door waiting for us. It usually happens." So that was neat!

This last Saturday we spent the whole day inviting people, with invitations, to the branch conference we had on Sunday. All the members came with us, and members from Santa Tome. It was a good time. So we had the branch conference yesterday, and I think it was a conference to remember for the 4 members that came… how awesome they are! But there was like 20 people in total, with all the members from Santa Fe and Santa Tome. Sonia was confirmed as a member of the church, and it was a little bit of a surprise for the other members… but whatever.  Great lessons and talks were given especially by President Carlota, the Stake President. He gave a brief history of Galvez and all the work that has been put into the town in the last 10 years since it was reopened. But I was too happy to hear that he announced three other Open Chapels in the Santa Fe mission (reference the Rincon Open Chapel experience from last week), including the little garage chapel in Galvez. There is an incredible amount of hope for the Rama de Galvez right now. So the missionaries will be in charge of this next month. They haven’t really told us what plans need to be done, but it will be happening. Too neat… for real.

So mom… I need to figure this out… I have eaten too many pancakes here on the mission without syrup. Now maple doesn’t exist here… so…  Is there a way to make buttermilk syrup? That’s the question. I’m literally going to be the guy at the father and sons outings who is always making the pancakes. Everyone knows the pancake guy. And I’m proud to say that will be me. I TAKE MY PLACE AS PANCAKE GUY!

Dad I would love to read that autobiography of Parley P Pratt, if you can send that.

I love you guys, Houston is life!

Week 031 - 12 Alfajors, 2 Liters of Chocolate Milk, and 2000 Pesos

FAMILY - WHAT IS UP!

Man I am too jealous… alone time with the Claire has got to be the greatest time! Also look at all those cool cats at the Kingwood 3^rd ward. I didn’t realize how many youth we had in that ward.

This week I learned "Galvez is something!" Usually if we are missing people at church, we grab Presidente Ohera to take us around to the member’s homes to go find people. And so I had a ride with Presidente Ohera to go find Electra (one of the oldest members in Galvez; 40 years in the church), and I’m talking to him about this woman Sonia, who will be baptized this Saturday, but she only wants the two missionaries and Presidente to be there. It will be kind of weird when she gets confirmed the next day, and the whole ward didn’t know she was baptized. But he turns to me and just starts laughing and says, "Galvez is something!" And then after we bring Electra to church, she starts sniffing rubbing alcohol right next me during the sacrament, and then 5 min later she dipps out. I had to go running after her in the street to see what’s going on, and she was just heading to the hospital and she doesn’t want help. Yep... Galvez is something!

It was a fantastic day at church. For reals, because it was testimony meeting and we had enough members who bore their testimonies, and the missionaries didn’t have to share theirs. Long testimonies, but really good ones. Even Sonia who will be baptized on Saturday shared her testimony. She’s a bit of a wild card too, but it was actually a fantastic testimony, and she shared that she had found the truth, when two Sundays before she was saying things like, "no one knows the truth.” That mindset has changed, and she even paid her tithing, even though she is not yet a member. She was actually kind of upset last week because we were talking about tithing in church and the missionaries hadn’t taught her that yet. She had no idea about tithing and was very upset that she hadn’t paid her tithing yet.

There was a fantastic activity in Rincon on Friday. All the missionaries of Santa Fe went to the chapel in Rincon for an "Open Chapel." It’s a really awesome program the church puts on, and opens the chapel up all afternoon for people to come and hear the testimonies of missionaries, and see the beliefs of the church. We first had to get up at 4 in the morning on Saturday to get there at like 9 AM. Long day. But that whole morning we were sent with a companion to a certain area in Rincon to invite people to the activity. I was put with old Mr. Elder Hopkins, my comp from the MTC... pretty neat. He totally rigged the system. But this other senior missionary from Buenos Aires, Elder Pina, who was in charge of the whole thing came with us too. It was awesome because he had a car.

We went looking for less active members, and we found a man, and here’s what happened… Elder Pina has some sort of magic talk. He goes up to the man after we have already invited him. Elder Pina – “So you going to come?” Man – “Maybe, I’m kind of busy.” Elder Pina – “Your wife going to come?” Man – “She’s really busy.” Elder Pina – “Where’s your wife from?” Man – “Paraguay.” Elder Pina - I’m from Paraguay, we need to talk.” Wife comes out. Elder Pina – “Are you coming?” Wife – “I can’t. I’m busy.” Elder Pina – “Here, let’s take a picture.” I take a picture. Elder Pina – “Wow! What a nice patio… Wow. Look at these bushes… These flowers… That wall. Wow! Let’s take a picture”… (He is putting all these on Facebook at the same time). “Look Facebook… Wow! Look at this house”… (takes a picture in the house). “Are you feeling okay Senora? Let’s have these missionaries give you a blessing”… (We gave her a blessing).

The man, the wife, the son, and his kids all came to the activity that night, all who are less active. How cool is that!

We got to listen to the Hermanas practice what they were going to say for the activity (because they were the ones that were going to talk). It was incredibly spiritual, and it was going to be incredibly spiritual for the people who would be coming that night.

So at 4 PM the activity started, and me and Elder Mckell were sent off to the plaza to invite people from the plaza to this activity for the next 4 hours. It was awesome! And we were able to walk 5 people over to the church, to go to the Open Chapel. 11 nonmembers who showed up accepted to be baptized with a date, including the women who lived across the street from the church. Including the entire family of a less active woman. Including the 20 year old that we were able to invite and walk with from the plaza. Super neat Open Chapel.

At the end of the night there were no more buses to get home and we needed to be at church the next day. We went to Presidente Perez (Not what his plan was, but it was so on point), and he pulls out 12 alfajors, 2 liters of chocolate milk, and 2000 pesos for the taxi home. It made the taxi guy’s day when we said, "Take us to Galvez, son!”

It was a great day.

I love you guys. I want to let you know I love the work. This is for real!