Benjamin's Baptism!!! Such a cute little boy!!

 

Cuz work´s gonna fix what don´t work anymore

This is such a great letter this week from Taylor!!!  He sounds so happy!!!

 

 

Dear Family,

 

So this last week has been absolutely bomb!!!! My new comp is named Elder Valero and hes a freakin stud.  Hes basically changed this entire area around, and were already seeing success from it.  We´ve found a ton of new people, and with most of them, we already have at least another appointment and some of them we have a baptism date! I thought that me and Elder Mori worked hard, and its not like we were lazy or anything, but we just werent effective.  Elder Valero came in and changed a lot of stuff, and now were working super hard AND effective, which is the best combination ever haha He´s emphasized to me a lot the importance of teaching people, not lessons, and weve been doing that in every single one of our lessons, and the Spirit is SOOOOOOO much stronger.  When you teach to peoples needs instead of just teaching the lesson you had planned, it makes it a lot easier for the Spirit to testify through us and our investigators feel that witness even stronger.  We´ve had some really awesome lessons in the past week.

 

Like everyone, there are some bad things about my comp.  Hes SUPER cocky and prideful, because he has had a lot of success on the mission.  A lot of time when he talks, its about what HE did and about how many baptisms HE has right now, etc. So thats kind of annoying.  But im hoping that seeing this cocky person will make me realize all the pride that i have in me, and i know its a lot, and hopefully by the end of this i will be a lot more humble to make up for his cockiness. Also, he LOVES to fight with the Bible.  We were in a lesson the other day and he literally used the Bible for an hour and half to destroy every single belief that the Catholics have because we were teaching a catholic lady.  I was kinda pissed cuz i just sat there the whole time and listened to him. Also, we went to the house of a less active the other day and one of their friends there started questioning us about our beliefs and all this stuff and he basically started bashing on the Mormons saying that we worship the prophets and all this stuff and my comp got super pissed and was almost yelling with this guy in front of this less active and his daughter.  I was kinda embarassed and the daughter just kept looking at me like, both of these guys are idiots, why are they fighting.

 

Elder Valero also hates my old comp Elder Mori because he taught me basically nothing.....and looking at my comp and what ive learned during comp study with him, im kind of inclined to agree that Elder Mori was a horrible trainer.  But i was with him for a reason, so hopefully i learned what i was supposed to learn.

 

And now on to the happiest news of the week......Benjamin´s baptism!!!! Yes, benjamin did get baptized on Saturday and it was awesome! His whole family is now active, and his dad Martin got to baptize him.  It was a really cool experience to see, and the picture that i took of them is just amazing.  When i took it, it just hit me how much more complete this photo was instead of the other photos of my baptisms because this time the whole family is there and all of them are members.  It just made me think how the gospel really is made for families and they really are so much happier when everyone is in it together. But we invited a bunch of people to his baptism, members, investigators, friends, and a lot of people showed up.  It was good, because the Gimenez family (Benjamins family) were able to make a lot of friends with members in the ward and it was just one big bonding experience of goodness! A few people brought soda and treats and we were all able to enjoy it after his baptism.

 

On a side note, we had to go to San Andres, that little pueblito, where that family lives to teach benjamin throughout the week before his baptism.  We were there for a lesson, and the little girl went to go get her scriptures and a frog had gotten in their house somehow.  So she started screaming, the mom Alejandra went in and started screaming, and then i ended up jumping around on their bed trying to grab the fast little bugger to throw it out of the house.  Kinda funny haha But yeah, make sure you guys all check out the photo of them that i uploaded on picasaweb, cuz its just awesome!

 

Oh and for your questions, nobody else got transferred, just my comp.  Elder Lindsey was pretty disappointed because he doesnt like his companion very much.  Also, i still have not received my packets from the offices, but the zone leaders are going there next week and they said that they will bring them back for me.  So theyre there, just not in my hands haha And no, grandma eborn still has not emailed me or sent me a letter, but i figured i would at least do my part and i wrote her a letter last week.  So we´ll see what happens.

 

But thats about it for now, just know that im super happy cuz the work has absolutely been turned around here and we are doing awesome! We should have a lot of baptisms in the coming weeks, so ill keep you updated! Thanks for all the support and i love and miss you all! Talk to you soon!

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine

Random Pics

                                          view from Taylor's apartment at night

                                           Taylor and his comp at a members house

                                                Eating some kind of dried fish????

                                          Looks a little tough!!!

Drinking with publicans and sinners......

Dear family,

Another week has come and by, and we are that much closer to transfers and a full 6 months out here in the mission! Crazy!!!! And i actually have a shift key this week, so hopefully you can look forward to some punctuation that is at least a little bit better. We are still in the middle of a baptism drought, and it doesnt look like its going to end soon....we are working as hard as we can, but we still cant get our freaking investigators to come to church, and its so frustrating!!! We even had like a whole training about it the last conference that takes away every single excuse you could have not to come to church and only leaves you with the fact that you dont want to partake of the sacrament and be clean. Weve been teaching that all this week and our investigators should understand so much better, and we had 0 investigators in church on sunday! I was super disappointed and a little bit angry too. I feel like were doing the best that we can and things still arent working when they should be. Or maybe our investigators just want to go to hell, and we keep managing to find all the people who dont care about their personal salvation. Freakin come to church!!! And all you who are reading go to church! There is no excuse not to go, unless you are dying and vomiting all over the place youre so sick. Get to that building!

So now that ive got that rant out of me, we can continue :) We didnt have very much success this week, but were still going along. We went to that little town of San Andres again and we actually managed to find some members who were home. 2 of them said they would never come back to church again because they were in need when they went to church, and they talked to the bishop, and he refused to help either of them. So they both got super pissed and have decided not to come back....looks like weve got a hefty lesson on pardon coming up. But we did find one who only doesnt go because the street in front of the chapel is sketchy and shes scared cuz she doesnt have anyone to go with. But we got her hooked up with another family who lives there and goes, so she should be there next week! Also, while we were walking back to ride the bus back into downtown, a lady called us over to her door. She was like hey come here! So we went and turns out it was a transvestite.....commonly known as the Goddess of San Andres. She/He started flirting with me and saying how pretty i was, if i wanted to come over to her house for a beer and she promised to give me dessert, and then she said im a little lost sheep, can you take me into your flock? All of this was very provocative and hilarious. We went away from the house laughing our heads off. Argentina is insane!

Another crazy thing that happened. We had to take a taxi home the other night cuz we were gonna be late, and so we were about to contact this taxi driver. We started talking to him and he just kinda grunted at us and didnt seem interested.....then we noticed a little white bag of powder that he had in his left hand. He kept sticking his finger in it and then wiping it on the inside of his mouth. And then at every stoplight, he would stick some up his nose and sniff it. He was totally drugging himself up while he was driving us around! haha We kind of left him alone after that...

Speaking of people like that, the one thief overlord boss guy talked to us in the street the other day and wants us to come to his house cuz he wants to stop drinking and stuff. So we went and he wasnt there, but were gonna keep passing by to see if we can get in. Also we walked past some of his minions the other day and they were eating sandwiches and drinking water on top of this bridge. They were like hey, want some water?! it was super hot, so we were like alright, and went and talked with them for a while haha They gave us some of their water and it was all good! Were literally following Jesus´s example there and drinking with the publicans and sinners! haha

We visited a lady the other day who we thought was less active, but turns out shes super active, but is like 90 years old and goes to another ward with her kids cuz they take her there. All of her kids are members, but none of her grandkids are.....not really sure how that happens. But she had a piano in her house and i played it, and i guess one of her grand daughters recently started playing, and this lady called her so she could hear me play. She wanted the name of the song so she could find it and she said she would probly need my help. So looks like ill be going back to teach her lessons, and pretty soon were gonna start learning church hymns! haha

Elder Lindsey have recently started dream logs, cuz we both started dreaming a ton when we got here to Argentina....its super hard to remember, but when we were talking about it with another missionary, he said its smart to do that cuz you can look back on the dreams you wrote down that maybe didnt mean anything then, but now they have significance and theyre revelatory dreams! So were doing that now......so far, its all just kinda been a bunch of garbage, but im gonna keep doin it!

We went to Suzanas house last night and shes having a ton of problems. Shes fighting with all of her daughters except for 2, her one grandkid has diabetes now out of nowhere and theyre in Buenos Aires trying to get it all treated up, and Suzana has to give them money because they dont have any. The thing is that Suzana doesnt have any either, and shes in debt up to her eyeballs now because of all of this. Her godson recently got in an accident and is in a coma, and just all this bad crap is happening. So she told us last night that she thinks its because she ditched the virgin and now the virgin is mad at her and cursing her. She said if all this bad stuff keeps happening shes gonna quit going to church. We basically told her she was retarded and quitting church was the last thing she should ever do. Hopefully we got to her, cuz just the fact that she said that is kinda scary.....pray for her and her family!

But i think thats about all for this week......thanks for all the support and thanks for writing me! I hope to hear from everybody next week! Love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Sirrine

Preaching Repentance Unto the People

Hey family,

 

So another week has come and go, and its still flippin hot here in tucuman.  also, the keyboard im using is missing the shift key, so look forward to punctuation and grammar that is even worse than usual haha nothing terribly spiritual has happened this week, of course we feel it all the time during lessons and stuff, but nothing like a wow! moment.  but were still working hard and trying to get us out of this dry spell of baptisms.....dry spells arent fun! we still have a lot of good prospective baptisms, but they all suck at coming to church and were doing everything we can to get them there, but were still struggling really hard. i think what we need is a little bit of a switch up, and im hopin either me or my comp are transferred out of this area.  the next transfer is the 19th of february, so its coming up quick! only 2 weeks. cross your fingers for me!

 

so about the really old lady named catalina.  last week, she was doing good, but shes kind of had some more bumps this week and wasnt feeling very good.  but were still gonna have faith that her and her whole family will be baptized so we have been reviewing the lessons with her. were hoping and praying for her!!!

 

there have been a few different novel experiences this week haha the first is we had lunch with a member this week and they live kind of far away from us, so we have to take a bus to their house every week.  well instead of just contacting like 1 or 2 people on the bus, we decided to get up in front of everyone and share a little something, and then pass by everyone in the bus and get their directions from them.  so i got up in front of the bus chuck full of people and start off by yelling ATTENTION everyone attention! haha so then i start going off and i felt like i was one of the prophets of old preaching repentance unto the people.  it was actually way fun and we got a few addresses from it.

 

2nd novel experience.  saturday in the morning, the four missionaries in my area, we all had to go to this little teeny pueblito thats about the equivalent of paris idaho.  there used to be a branch there, but the president died and after his death no one else got called and they all just kind of stopped going to church haha so one of the goals of the stake president here is to reactivate it so we can send another pair of missionaries there.  right now its kind of a gray zone that us four missionaries have to work on together.  but we went and its super teeny, and seriously like paris idaho.....except it has a lot of palm trees haha there is absolutely nothing there! but were gonna keep going back until we can start activating some people again.  so that will be a pretty cool experience i think.

 

3rd novel experience.  this week i think is the first week that weve had little kids throw rocks at us for no apparent reason.  and not pebbles, like freaking jagged rocks.  this little 10 year old kid almost drilled me in the head with one from across the street.  i was quite impressed with his arm strength to get that size of rock across the distance that he threw.

 

4th novel experience.  one of our investigators is confined to a hospital because hes had like 3 leg surgeries and it refuses to heal. but we gave him a blessing and now hes listening to us.  anyways, we went there the other day and they have to put a lot of blood in him cuz i guess he loses a lot or something.  but i dont know if the hospitals in the united states do this or not, but for every bag of blood that they put in you down here, you have to find a donor to replace it or they wont give you more.  so his wife like begged and begged us to donate blood for him, so thats what we did. me and my comp went and donated and i was terrified for my life because the medical system down here in argentina is absolutely horrid.  its all free, so it all sucks.  i was expecting like used equipment and stuff for donating blood, but it went good, and im pretty sure everything was sanitary.  missionaries have donated before without getting sick or dying so i figured im pretty safe haha but you have to have your DNI which is basically your documentation here in argentina to donate, and me and my comp have ours, but not elder lindsey.  we accidentally mentioned that he didnt have a DNI there in the offices and i guess the doctor was like interrogating him while me and my comp were donating about why he didnt have documentation and such.  so we almost got him deported! haha

 

5th novel experience.  me and my comp were super far away from the church, like a half an hours walk and the bishop called us and no one had filled the baptismal font for the ward baptism.  its not our responsibility to do that, so something went wrong with the ward that they didnt do it.  so anyways, he calls us and says he needs our help and we kind of basically had to do it, because he didnt have witnesses or anything for the baptism.  so we had to fill the font and we filled it in a record amount of time: 1 hour.  usually it takes 5.  not quite sure how it happened, but hey, looks like god was helping us out haha we were still kind of a little irritated because of his unorganization, we lost a lot of teaching time and lost a lot of lesson opportunities.

 

ive seen that ive changed a lot in a worldly aspect too.  last week we were in the bus terminal and there was a direcTV booth and the newest saw movie was playing.  me and elder lindsey were kind of idly watching from across the terminal and we both saw a girl get chopped in half.  before it probably wouldnt have bothered me and i would have just laughed and moved on.  and i still laughed, but then i felt like i was going to throw up for about a half and hour afterwards.  so i think its gonna be a shock adjusting to real life when i get back.

 

but yeah, i think thats about all thats happened this week, i forgot my little flash drive thing to upload more pictures, so youll have to wait until next week! hha but thanks for all your support, i love you guys! cant wait to hear from you next week!

 

con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine

Miracles Happen

Dear Family,

 

So i realized that what you said mom really is kind of true haha my letters keep getting shorter and shorter every week!  so i figured i wouldnt break the trend cuz this letter will probably be pretty short too.  We still havent found that one family with the kid that was seeing stuff, so thats super disappointing.  we managed to run into the dad one day and he said we probably wouldnt ever find everyone home at the same time like we found them the first time.  so that sucks!!!! but were gonna keep passing by and hopefully we can start teaching them again soon.  this week was really slow for us on the numbers side of things because we had so many meetings and service and stuff, so we didnt really do that great.  we didnt even find that many new people.

 

We did have the zone conference this week though, and that was absolutely awesome.  it was an all day thing and we talked about some good stuff.  the thing that probably stuck out to me the most was when we talked about how we as missionaries need to talk to everyone we can.  the presidents wife told us to start keeping count of all the people that we pass by without talking to them and putting in our agendas every day that we let X amount of people die because we didnt give them the opportunity for their salvation.  that kind of hit me hard.....so we are now talking with more people haha its still super hard because the majority of them are just going to tell us no, but we open our mouths anyways to give them the chance.  if we keep doing that, god is going to put his chosen children who are ready in front of us and we´ll be rollin in the baptisms! haha also, i got beckys package that day and it was free!!! so i was pretty happy haha tell her thanks for me!

 

 mom to answer your question, my spanish is coming along really well, i can basically understand everything that people say to me now.  and yes i can hold a conversation with them haha  but i did play the piano in church for a couple weeks, but the girl who was playing it before came back from vacations and is playing again.  its actually kind of a relief for me, because now i can sit with my investigators without having to worry about playing the hymn and prelude and stuff like that.  but now elder lindsey, the guy in my apartment, wants me to teach him to read sheet music, so im gonna start teaching him.  and dad, to answer yours, we have seen that thief guy again, but we havent taught him or anything.  now its kinda like we say hi to him and his minions in the street and they say hi back and tell us to come drink beer with them haha we told them we dont drink that, so theyve been offering us soda water lately.  and i have no idea if he went and killed that guy that one day, he never told us....im sure if he did, no one did anything about it because the police here in argentina basically do nothing.  weve walked past people who are smoking like marijuana in broad daylight and theres like pipes and spoons and stuff out and nothings happened with them haha the police are like super lazy and dont do anything.

 

but on to the good stuff thats happened this week. we went to the house of those 3 really old people last night, the one old lady that had a heart attack or whatever and shes doing so much better!!!! she can walk now and we actually have lessons with them and stuff, and we set a new baptismal date for all of them plus their other daughter who wasnt listening to us before.  so thats super exciting.  it looks like she had enough faith to recover!!!  we also went and gave a blessing at one of the hospitals yesterday and it was really cool.  the guy is super humble and him and his wife are going to start listening to us and when he gets better theyre gonna start coming to church. so we´ll see how that goes!

 

ummmm......im trying to see of what else to say.  i was gonna tell you about summer vacation here, which is going on right now.  not only do the kids have school off, but like half the businesses take the summer off too and the city is super empty.  its really weird.....the people of argentina are kind of lazy in general and theyll do anything to get work off, so of course they take the summer off with the kids too haha.

 

but yeah, i think thats all for this week!!! the picasa thing was being stupid this week and i couldnt upload like anything, so ill try again next week.  thanks for all the support you guys give me, and i hope to hear from you next week!!!  love and miss you all!!!

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine