Feliz Navidad!!

Dear family,

 

So the first thing i realized when i got off the phone with you guys this afternoon is that i am a terrible son and didnt even say i love you i dont think! so....I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! hope your christmas was great and you all had fun :) you already know what happened with my christmas, so ill just skip that part haha feel free to share with everyone how we almost died on our balcony from the fireworks from below!

 

so we did end up having another baptism last week so that was way awesome.  her son lives in utah like i said and she is going to give me his address today so i can hit him up after the mish! haha but it was really cool, and her daughter was way happy too cuz shes a member already and has been waiting for her mom to get baptized for forever. 

 

christmas was good too, but its definitely not the same as the united states.  its super loud and not reverent or peaceful or at all.  so when we went to the church, it was good to finally feel a little bit of that peace there.  the four of us missionaries in my apartment sang silent night in sacrament meeting and then i got to play that one christmas medley by john schmidt on the piano.  that brought the spirit super strong and i had a bunch of people come up to me after sacrament meeting telling me how awesome it was.  one lady was crying when she came and told me it affected her that much.  but yeah, i definitely prefer christmas in the united states, cuz its just so much more peaceful! haha but yeah, thats how my christmas went :)

 

one thing thats weird here too about christmas is that no one here knows the christmas hymns like everyone does in the united states.  we sang them a lot on saturday when we went out.  that was our lesson on saturday was a scripture and a hymn for christmas.  that actually was way spiritual too.

 

on to the stuff thats not so spiritual, but still pertinent.  i went and weighed myself the other day and i have lost another 2 kilos, or about 15 pounds in all.   when we were at the zone conference the other day, i was talking to this guy from kansas named elder adams.  he asked me if i knew the grants in monroe and apparently he dated amy for 3 years! how crazy is that! haha so we talked for a while about that and it was cool. also, another elder told me that his mom and been talking with my mom and that his mom wanted him to look for me just to say we know each other haha i laughed at that.

 

also, just a side note, if anyone here from argentina adds me on facebook, just accept their invitation, ill sort it through or delete them or whatever when i get back haha

 

but yeah, that is all for this week, it was awesome to talk to you guys this morning! thanks for all the support you give me, and i hope you all have a very happy new years!!! were gonna try not to die next week in our apartment, cuz the fireworks are supposed to be worse for new years eve.  so i love you and hope to hear from you all next week!!!

 

Con Amor

 

Elder Sirrine

 

Side Note:  Taylor said his apartment is on the 8th floor and huge fireworks were going off about 5 feet from their balcony...he said it was really scary because they were so close.  Also, he told us today that summer officially started on the 21st...it was 116* this past week!!  WOW!   So hard to imagine!

Merry "Late" Christmas!!

We waited all day on Christmas to get our phone call from Taylor, but to no avail...  I went to bed last night and said a prayer that he was safe...that is my biggest worry for him is his safety.  This morning he sent us a txt saying that he would call at 10a.m.  We got his call and he said that a member had offered them their phone so that it wouldn't cost them anything to call.  When they tried to call, the phone wouldn't authorize it.  He said they tried for a long time and it just wouldn't go through.  He said he felt terrible when he went to bed last night because he knew we would be worried. 

He sounds great and his Spanish is amazing!  He ended up getting all of our packages except the letters from all of our Stake missionaires and the big Christmas banner from the ward...hopefully those will be there tomorrow he said. 

We asked him lots of questions and one thing he mentioned is that no matter how poor or rich people are in Argentina, they don't have carpet.  Either dirt floors or tile or nice tile!  He said he feels bad that people don't get the opportunity to walk barefoot on carpet!  He had another baptism on Friday and said it was great.
Also, just a follow up on the "murder at the church."  He said the member was a 19 year old boy getting ready to go serve a mission.  Now that he has committed murder (self-defense) he has to talk to the Prophet to get permission to still go. 

Thank you for all of your prayers for our missionaries!  May they all be safe and successful as they serve the Lord all over the world.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Gift of Tongues

Hey family,

So this last week has been really good.  The work is going strong again and we have a bunch of people to teach.  I also can pretty much understand everything now, so im feelin awesome! haha we were at a meeting for the district leaders last week cuz my comp is district leader and one of the guys from my district was there.  we were talking to these 2 guys from mexico and listening to how the other guy from my district speaks, i realized ive been EXTREMELY blessed with the gift of tongues.  so im super grateful for that.

also, something that will probably never happen again in the mission, happened this week.  me and my comp were sitting there studying last tuesday and we got a call from one of the ward members.  her name is mariela and she called saying that her mom wanted to get baptized.  i guess all of her kids are members and both of her sons served missions, but the mom herself isnt a member.  so we went out to her house to talk with her and she is so solid!!! we went out there thursday and she wanted to get baptized the saturday that was coming, so like 3 days haha but it just wasnt possible to get everything together that fast, so she is going to be getting baptized this friday the 23rd! were pretty excited.  and i guess one of her sons lives in utah in west valley, and shes gonna give me his name so hopefully i can look him up after the mission :)

but about christmas....it kinda sounds like its gonna suck! they told us we have the exact same work schedule, and thats its just like any other day! at the least we should be in the pension early cuz everyone is going to be plastered by 4 o clock in the afternoon, but they said 930 like usual! so im a little sketched out...hopefully the president will tell us exactly what were going to do tomorrow in the zone conference.  and from what ive heard we can use skype but only the call function, and not the video, so that sucks! im definitely just going to call, cuz its much less likely to fail on us i think...but i dont know what schedule for calling we´ll have either.  just be ready all day after sacrament meeting! haha im gonna call the house phone, so be ready for it!

but yeah, were just working hard down here in the blazing heat, so dont worry about us! haha also tell everyone on facebook or something that we havent received the bolsa with our mail in it for like 3 weeks so i will be writing them, but it just wont come for a while haha tell ray and rebecca cuz i got a letter from them.  still no word on those other 2 packets, im hopin the president brings them tomorrow! but yeah, thats all for this week, so i love you and cant wait to talk to you guys on sunday! love you all!!!

Con Amor

Elder Sirrine

"Mormon Kills Thief".....soo sad

Hey family,

 

So i actually have stuff to write this week! Awesome!!! haha but some of it kinda sucks and is really depressing :( so well start with that stuff first so we can slowly move on to happier topics.

 

So remember how i said that we were going to have 3 baptisms last week? well everything was completely on track, they were totally prepared and then we went to their house last monday night after i got dont emailing you guys.  turns out the old lady, catalina, who is 81 years old, had a freaking cardiac attack that sunday after church and now she cant be baptized cuz shell die if she does! and every time we go to her house now she doesnt want us to give her a blessing and she wont even let us pray there! it sucks! especially cuz the other 2 said last night that they wont get baptized unless she is there, and she is absolutely confined to the house.  so we really have no idea what to do now.

 

also, something else kinda sketchy.  last sunday night, there was a member waiting outside of the church for choir practice, but practice had been delayed without him knowing so he went there early.  well this thief came up and tried to rob him, his cellphone or something.  so this member was defending himself and the thief pulled out his knife.  i guess the members hands got kind of cut up, but he managed to push this thief or something and the thief fell down on top of his knife, got stabbed in the chest, and freakin died!!! so of course the next day in the newspapers it was something like, mormon kills thief in front of church house.  crazy!

 

but tuesday night, we experienced our first real rainstorm.  turns out my amazing jacket couldnt even stand up to the ferocity of the storm.  my chest and upper legs were dryer than everywhere else, but still pretty wet haha and waterproof shoes do not help at all when there are lakes in the streets! it was insane!  we didnt end up going to our last appointment cuz it was in kind of a sketchy area and our visibility was pretty limited with all that rain and i felt like we shouldnt go, so we ended up just going back to the apartment.

 

So more that happened.  we went back to susannas house and her daughters friend maria from buenos aires came and is staying until like after new years.  so we snagged her up and were teaching her now! haha and were also teaching the other daughter of susanna and one of her granddaughters now too! they all 3 have a baptismal date for the 30th of december, so were pretty pumped.  susanna is seriously like a fountain of references for us and its awesome!

 

we also had a stake conference this week and it was way awesome.  i think its the first stake conference ive ever been to in my life to be honest haha but the mission president ended up coming out to speak at it with his wife and i got all 3 of those packages you sent me! i had to pay like 16 dollars to get them though, so that kinda sucked.  oh, and i read the first scripture today 1 corinthians 13:11 and i kinda have mixed feelings about it and am not quite sure how to intrepret it haha are you saying i should put away my childish things like those dart guns or enjoy them to their fullest? cuz i plan on doing the second! haha

 

we have walked so much here that my feet are just a wreck.  theyre basically one giant callus and its kinda nasty! haha if you thought they were worse before mom, you should see them now! and imagine them in 2 years!  and i am slowly becoming more and more argentinian too.  people here eat super small breakfasts and its always of like a little roll/biscuit thing with a cup of chamomile tea.  when i first got here, i absolutely hated the tea and the biscuit thing, but now i love them both!  i actually went and bought me a package of that tea today when we went shopping haha.

 

something that ive noticed here is that ill learn a new phrase or concept or whatever in spanish and wheras i had never heard it before, now that ive learned it i hear it all the time!  i guess i just never realized what they were saying before. its kinda weird actually, cuz it makes me think what else theyre always saying that i still havent realized.

 

but yeah, thats about it for now i think! so i hope to hear from you guys next week and i love and miss you! we still havent heard if we can use skype or not, so were gonna call the president and see what he says.  i should know by next week! love you!!!

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine

P-Day Empanadas

Thanksgiving Day Baptisms

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey family,

 

so glad to hear that thanksgiving and all went well, i hope you had fun! and tell susan sorry that she puked so much haha that sucks! not gonna lie, i looked at the clock every once in a while on thursday and was imagining whose house you guys were at and what you guys were doing....i got a little homesick haha and that REALLY sucks that ripley died :( to be honest i wasnt really expecting to come back to him alive, i was expecting him to die while i was out here on the mish....maybe not so soon, but still.  i was reading dads letter this morning when we were walking in the street and i freakin started crying because of dads story.  what really got me was when dad said that ripley had followed neccia with his head when she was parking the car and that was why his head was all weird. i told the texan who was with us this morning what had happened and he was just like i have absolutely no feelings for animals because my dad killed 2 of our dogs for pooping on the carpet....it was so terrible i started laughing and it kinda lightened it a little. but seriously, the situation has to be so much worse there, just cuz you guys can all feel that missing part :( but things will get better!

 

so we had another baptism this week!!! it was susanna´s grand daughter and it was way cool.  2 of her grand daughters actually got baptized on that same day, so we all went to their house afterwards for a little party/our own thanksgiving here haha but dont worry! we were doing missionary work while we were there, because we are now going to teach karen´s mom. (karen is our baptism) and also her other sister too! so we are seriously going to baptize like the entire family of susanna and its gonna be awesome! oh yeah, and i had to direct that whole baptismal service too, like giving little speeches and all that.  kinda nervewracking! but good haha and i also confirmed someone for the first time on sunday! way cool :)

 

so the work is kind of slowing down now....all the people we were talking to kind of fell through and like hide when they see us coming and dont want to talk to us.  really the only investigators we have right now are those super old people who dont understand very much and they are going to be baptized the 9th of december, so we kind of have to find a ton of new people.  also, i found out the other day that we dont work in like 3/4 of our area.  the majority of our area is actually in the city and we have never even gone there before.  so the other day we went and its basically like opening up a new area cuz we have absolutely nothing there.  its gonna be kinda hard to get stuff started i think.  we have only been working in the super dangerous part of our mission i guess.

 

speaking of dangerous part, the other day, my comp and i were walking in san cayetano city and 2 girls came around the corner in front of us.  they werent carrying anything, and i think one maybe had a cellphone.  but anyways, this guy came around the corner behind them on a bike and rode up and like jumped off his bike and put one of the girls in a headlock.  at first she just looked at him and so we assumed it was her boyfriend or something.  but then he like started grabbing at her and her friend booked it and the both of them were screaming like crazy.  this is all taking place about 3 feet away from us, mind you.  i froze, cuz i didnt know what to do, if i should help this girl or just stand by.  but this girl finally got away and the guy took off after them and im pretty sure he was about to pull a knife.  so we quickly put distance between us and this guy, and the guy gave up the chase and got back on his bike and drove away.  SO scary.  we were talking to elder ruiz and he said you just have to keep walking and if they come for you to run.  he said he was in an area one time and across the street from them a guy had a gun to another guys head and was robbing him....and you just have to keep walking.  so yeah, thats my scary story for the week!

 

this week, ive been able to understand spanish a lot better....im slowly getting my feet underneath me with everything.  but there are some days where i can understand everything and then days where i cant understand at all cuz my brain is just fried! but its slowly coming along :)

 

also, we had to take some things from investigators this week.  i took my first piercing, a bracelet with all the catholic saints on it, and a pack of cigarettes.  the cigarettes came from the old grandpa, and we saw him the next day smoking.  he saw us and was like absolutely terrified haha he had a bottle of coke in his hand and he started shaking and dropped his lid and was like trying to hide his cigarette from us and stuff...but now he says hes quit and doesnt even feel like it anymore, so we are right on track for baptism!

 

i actually cleaned the war zone that is our bathroom today and it was just nasty! remember how i spent like 4 hours cleaning my bathroom in cedar? well this one was like 50 times worse! so you can only imagine! haha

 

so yes, transfers were actually today and elder ruiz went to salta.  but since im a newbie, my papi and i have to stay in our area together for at least 2 transfers, so that means that ill be here at least until the first of january.  but ill probly be here for like 6 months cuz theyve been doing that a lot lately. 

 

but yeah, thats about it for this week! i love and miss you guys and cant wait to hear from you next week!  and i know its a little early, but happy birthday neccia! ill be thinkin about you on friday! love you guys!

 

Con amor.

 

Elder Sirrine