Holy Flip...I'm 20!

Hey fam!

So this last week was pretty good as well, we are still having a lot
of success here in our area, and i love it! We didnt have any baptisms
last week, but we´re hoping for like 5 this week :) Juana and her
whole family are going to get baptized this week! Im so freakin
excited for them.  Juana has quit smoking and drinking and all of them
are ridiculously excited for their baptism on Saturday.  We announced
it yesterday at church and were getting everything ready for them so
it will just be the most awesome experience of their life.

So a little update on Luis, the kid that was going to get baptized.  I
think hes embarassed now because of his mom, cuz he answers our phone
calls, but when we went there the other night, his little sister came
out and told us he wasnt there, then said he was in the bed, and so we
told her to go tell him to come out.  She ran in and told him, and
then came out again and said he wasnt there.....so we´re not sure
exactly what is going on with him.  But the branch president went to
see him yesterday and hopefully that will help.  Ill let you know if
anything changes.

Also that less active family that we found with the kid who was going
to get baptized sucks a lot too.  We couldnt find them almost at all
last week, and then we passed by sunday morning to wake them up for
church and the girl came out.  She told us they were all going to go,
and then nobody showed up......we´re quite frustrated with them.
Hopefully we can get him baptized soon.

But last week on monday was my comps birthday, and we went to the
family home evening with the Urzagaste family.  He just got WRECKED
with flour and eggs, and i thought i would be safe filming everything
with my camera.......wrongly assumed.  I took a couple of eggs and a
ton of flour too......luckily the camera came away mostly unhurt.  But
it still works and takes pictures and videos, so we cant complain :)
we´ve already planned my birthday party for next monday in the
afternoon haha super stoked!

Also, we werent too sure with juana, cuz last week on monday we had a
lesson with her and her family, and her and her mom got in a fight.
they were both screaming at each other, and then juana started a fight
with her neighbor because her neighbor was spreading rumors about her
and stuff.....it was like a 10 minute scream battle.  she came back
bawling and said that life was better drunk because nothing matters to
her when shes drunk and then she said she was just going to kill
everyone, family, neighbors, you name it, and then everything would
end and be easier for her.  but we helped her out, and when we went
back the next day, she told us after we left and we had given her some
advice, she just shut herself in her house, prayed, and then went to
bed and woke up good the next morning.  Super awesome.  Shes so solid.

Juana is also sharing the gospel with other people too, she made her
neighbor and her kids come over and listen to us, and then she went
and woke them all up on sunday in the morning and got to church with
them there before we did haha now in all the lessons she like gives
her testimony and is telling her friend she needs to get baptized.
She also had a problem with saying "oh my god" and stuff like that
before, and then we taught her about the 3rd commandment.  well her
neighbor friend says it a lot too and juana yelled at her the other
day for it and told her to stop disrespecting God. So funny haha every
time she almost says it now she like screams and claps her hand over
her mouth.  her kids help her out with that one too, so its really
cool to see.

also, her little baby daughter guadalupe absolutely loves us now.
every time we leave, she just throws her little head back and almost
throws herself over and just bawls her eyes out.  so we bring her
little chewy candies every time haha also the other night, it was
hilarious cuz we would ask, wheres the boogeyman?! and then she would
point, stare for a while, and then start crying and duck her head into
her moms chest. super funny.

We were also able to find some more families to teach this week, so
that should be good.  they seem like really good people, and hopefully
theyre interested.  the one lady gave us this homemade tortilla thing
that was really good when we left, and supposedly the ones who give
you food on the first visit are the chosen ones haha we´ll see what
happens.

Remember the less active lady Marina that i was telling you about? The
one with the cigarettes? Well its totally been two sundays in a row
now that shes coming to church with her whole family, and this week
she came all dressed up in a skirt and everything! she was lookin HOT!
haha just kidding, lie, dont panic.  i mean that in a spiritual sense
:)

And today, we totally went and played tennis on a clay court in
oran!!! It was way fun.  Apparently my comp met this guy named ricardo
a long time ago, and ricardo was super good friends with the elders
when they were there in oran.  so he gave my comp his number, and told
him we could come play tennis in his private club any time.  so we
called him yesterday, told him we were coming, and we met up today!
the guy is ridiculously good, and just destroyed me, but said that i
play good haha hes way cool though, cuz then he took us to his house
afterwards, introduced us to his mom and little sisters, and we had a
huge family lunch with them.....and theyre not even members!!! but
they are super good people, and it makes me happy to know there are
good people like that outside of the mormon bubble.....so needless to
say, we´re going to be going back there in a couple weeks to play
again and have lunch with his family.  hes gone to the states a ton
too and is familiar with utah.  said hes gonna come visit after i get
home, and we´ll have an argentine food night at the house with
everybody haha so maybe you guys will get to meet him too!!!

But yeah, thats about it! we´re working hard, and hopefully ill be
reporting on five baptisms this next week! love you all, and thanks
for the support!

Con amor,

Elder Sirrine

Brick Oven Pizza

Hey fam!

So this last week sounds like it was pretty awesome for you guys, and
im stoked for you! haha Pretty jealous that you got to go to Lake
Powell again, but i sure hope you enjoyed it. As for next year, is it
now a tradition to go there every year with the Bastians and
Andersons?! if so, im super pumped for next year! haha but make sure
we all go AFTER i get home from the mission, so i can get good and
sunburnt too :)

This last week for us was absolutely awesome for us as well, but at
first it looked to me like it was going to suck terribly.  At first,
we went and played volleyball last week right after cyber time, and i
totally was DISCRIMINATED.  I totally got to know a little bit of what
racism is haha They were all making fun of the white kid for sucking
so bad, cuz i was just playing horribly last week, and then no one
wanted to take to me or help me out with my form.  I sat alone on the
sidelines in between games, and even though i spoke to them in perfect
spanish, they all acted like i didnt speak spanish and just completely
ignored me.   Super embarassing kinda....i left feeling pretty down
and just like that was a waste of time.  And then on top of all that,
after our first lesson that night, a flippin dog bit me out of nowhere
in the street and left me bleeding pretty bad without ripping my pants
somehow.....so the rest of the night was spent trying to take out
money for medication and finding the medication in the pharmacy.
Sucked.  And then on Tuesday, we only had one lesson all day long, and
it was just ridiculous.  Every one was fodging us, we had a lot of
appointments, but no one was there, so we were feeling pretty
depressed.

Then tuesday night, the zone leaders called us, and told us they were
going to do divisions with another area, and that the mini
missionaries who were with them were going to come to our area with us
all day long on Wednesday.  Totally saved us.  So we did divisiones
with them all day long, and me and my mini ended up finding a family
thats absolutely awesome.  The moms name is Juana, and shes kind of a
drunk and has been it for a long time, but she wants to change, and
her kids absolutely love the gospel.  We got them to come to 2
activities at the church last week, one for the youth and the other
one a family night, and they just loved it.  The whole family is
reading like crazy, and they want to get baptized.  All the kids came
to church on Sunday, and the mom always prays in her prayers while
were there that we keep coming by to teach them.  So that was a really
cool part of our week.

Also, not really sure why, but friday in the morning one of the zone
leaders and a mini missionary came to our area and worked with us in
divisiones all morning long.  My comp and the zl ended up finding a
less active family that live like right around the corner with a kid
whos not baptized named Marcos.  They were really excited when my comp
passed by and they want to come back to church.  So this week, we are
going to baptize their kid Marcos! Super sweet haha Theyre a pretty
cool family, but they didnt come to church on Sunday.  I think theyre
relatives of the Branch Presidents wife.

We were also talking with Sergio, that golden investigator, and it
turns out that all those problems have supposedly been solved, and
their family is good now! We went there on Saturday in the morning,
and he introduced us to his mom, and we had a lesson with all of them.
Sergio, his mom, and his little sister all accepted a baptismal date.
But they didnt come to church on sunday :( But i have faith, and they
will get baptized! haha

We havent been able to find our one investigator luis for all of last
week, but he came to church on sunday, and skipped work to do it again
:) We ended up having a lesson with him last night, and hes ready to
be baptized this week!!!! He wanted to be baptized with his friend
Sergio, but Sergio still hasnt come to church, and we told him it
would be better if he gets baptized right now so that he can get the
priesthood the week after his baptism and then be able to baptized
Sergio himself! He got super excited and immediately agreed to it.  So
hopefully we have two baptisms this week!

Sunday was one of the best sundays i have had in my whole mission cuz
we had a total of......wait for it......10 investigators show up for
church!!!! We were super excited.  Its been almost a year here in the
colonia that more than 2 have showed up to church, and it was the all
time high for both my comp and me in investigators in church for one
sunday.  So were super excited for everybody who came, and we have a
TON of prospective baptisms.  So ill keep you all updated on
everything!

Also before i go, i dont remember if i told you guys about that one
less active lady Marina that we´ve been talking to.  Well anyways,
shes still super embarassed cuz she smokes a lot, and my comp has
heard of this one trick where you dip the cigarettes in milk and then
let them dry.  Then you have to person smoke them, and apparently the
taste is just horrid.  So we did it and tried it with marina, and she
just about threw up on the second puff.  Me and my comp were laughing
our heads off and she was screaming at us in between retches about how
mean we were and how much she hated us haha SOOOOO funny.

But yeah, thats about it for this week, its been awesome, and
hopefully this week will be the same!!!! We have zone conference
tomorrow, and it should be pretty good.  But thanks for everything you
guys do for me, hope to hear from you soon, and love you all!!!! Put
pictures of the lake up!

Con amor,

Elder Sirrine

P.S.  We went to a members house today and totally made mud brick oven
pizza......delicious!

Tearin' up the Colonia

Hey fam,

So this last week was way good! I actually like it a lot here in the
Colonia, its super chill and the people are really nice and willing to
listen.  Last week, we actually had a baptism of a less actives
daughter.  it was really cool, especially cuz we had to do it in an
erectable baptismal font made out of pipes and a tarp haha our church
is so ghetto!!!! we´re in an old bread factory, and they built like
little shacks of wood inside for the individual classrooms and such.
i took pictures, but this computer sucks and is old and wont read my
usb thing.  so youre all gonna have to wait! haha But yeah the little
girl that got baptized was named Cristina Soledad Vaca.  Really cool.
And we´re going to baptize the Branch President´s little brother this
week!

Also, i have a new comp here and his name is Elder Lessing.  He´s
originally from Utah, but his dad is military so they are currently
living in Pennsylvania.  Really cool guy, and he actually reminds me a
lot of elder inman, so we get along great.  its just the two of us
that live together in the apartment, and thats super different.  the
apartment is really small too.  But one good thing about it is that it
has air conditioning!!!! We live in a sub tropical zone, so even
though we´re in "winter" its still freakin hot here.  We experienced
that today haha There is actually a sports complex close to where we
live, and its totally free, so me and my comp went and played
basketball this morning.  hes pretty good, so he was teaching me how
to shoot and whatnot.  but we went back in the afternoon and there
were games going on, and just anyone can play, so we joined in and
played for a while! latins suck so bad at basketball, and because they
suck so bad they play super dirty.....on top of that they have a latin
temper, so if you stuff them youre likely to hear a lot of bad words
and maybe a hard shove in the back next time you go up for a lay up.
one older guy like raped me from behind when someone passed me the
ball under the hoop and i was gonna turn around for a bank shot.  he
basically hugged me from behind, and he had a giant wad of nasty
tabacco coke stuff in his mouth and smelled horrible.  but us white
kids dominated all them latins haha i had 7 points!

Also this last week, i finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish for the
first time, and it was sick!!!! I guess according to that one promise
by a prophet im fluent in spanish now cuz i read the book of mormon
completely? pretty cool huh?

Ummm......what else. i wrote a little paper with all the stuff, but i
forgot it in the pension, so youll probably have a lot more info next
week.  oh yeah, one thing! the people here are super poor, but this is
the first place in my whole mission where i have seen wooden houses!
they are like halfway nice too! haha but there is also the super poor
part of the area too where the houses are a bunch of sticks and
plastic tarps tied together, and its super sad.  even more so because
the streets there just suck, cuz there are just ruts everywhere and
more often than not those ruts are filled with sewage.....nasty.  but
there are a ton of members there, and we found a super good
investigator there last saturday night as well.  His name is Carlos,
and we found him because we needed a guy to come with us to an
appointment because it was a woman and we cant enter with her there
alone.  so we knocked his door, asked if he could come with us, and he
actually did! apparently he liked it cuz he told us to come by the
next day and he introduced us to his wife and family and theyre super
solid.  we taught him saturday night and he came to church the next
day! also said he was going to come back the next week cuz he liked it
so much.

Speaking of church, like 50 people came to church on Sunday, so that
was cool.  Apparently thats a pretty good number.  But there are like
300 somethin members here in la colonia, so that kinda sucks
comparatively.  So we´re going to be working a freaking ton with the
less actives i think.  Also here, we are clear out in the freaking
middle of nowhere and have to travel so much!!!! our district meetings
on tuesdays are like almost an hour away from us and its like 30 pesos
to get out there and 30 to get back.  we spend a freakin ton
travelling, and the guy who reimbolses everything in the office is
super slow at doing them, so my comp and his old comp told me they
went without eating a lot, cuz they spent all their money travelling
and had to wait for the reimbursals to get back.  The reason why it
costs so much is cuz we also have to travel almost every weekend to do
baptismal interviews cuz my comp is district leader, and we baptize a
lot here in the zone......except for our area.  the one last week was
the first one in 3 months. but we´re going to change that!!!!

and mom as for your question if i got to say goodbye to anyone.....the
answer is no haha luckily my convert juan was there at the church with
us and i could hug him and tell him goodbye.  but they called at like
9 o clock sunday night and told us and we actually had to evacuate
perico that night at like 12 because a bunch of pissed off tobacco
farmers were going to cut off all travel routes in and out of perico
the next morning.....talk about sketchy.  that was fun travelling to
the zone leaders house in juuy centro. and it sucks not saying
goodbye!!!! but i left a journal back there for all my converts to
sign and for a few members, so hopefully ill at least have that.

i feel like i had so much more to tell you guys, but i dont
remember.....i think i wrote a lot already though, right? i promise i
wont forget next week, and ill tell you even more! haha but thanks for
writing me every week and all the support, have fun at the 4th of july
without me!!!! dominate some little kids in volleyball at the park for
me! love you all, and hope to hear from you next week!

Con amor,

Elder Sirrine

Transfers

Hey fam,

So this last week was pretty crazy, and it all ended with a huge
surprise.  I got freakin transferred clear out in the boondocks and it
doesnt even exist on google maps!!!! haha its so freaking tiny out
here, and its only me and my comp in the pension.  its called la
colonia santa rosa, and its in northern salta, almost in bolivia.
super cool and out in the middle of nowhere, or otherwise known as
BFE.  also, we are serving in a branch, and the average is like 33
members a week......balls.  This area is going to be a little tough i
think.  But yeah, the zone leaders told me president sent me out here
because this area needs some fixing up like my last area did, and
apparently i did a good enough job on the last one that the president
trusts me.  So that makes me feel super good.  But ive got a lot of
work ahead of me, and no more time in the cyber, so it looks like im
going to have to talk to you all next week! I really appreciated all
the letters from you guys, mom and dad, you both made me freakin cry
and all the bolivians here were looking at me weird haha sounds like
girls camp was a huge success, and im glad everything went well!!!!
youll have to let me know when the video gets put online so i can show
it to everyone and brag about my awesome mom haha but yeah, thanks for
all the support, i love you all, and ill talk to you next week with
some more details about my new area!!!! Wish me luck!!!

Con amor,

Elder Sirrine

6 Weeks to Sexy!

Hey fam,
 
So i still cant believe another week has gone by, i barely even
noticed the last week haha and now ive officially been out in the
field for 10 months! Sweet! Happy fathers day dad, hope it was a good
one! haha And before i start, i just had some questions for you guys.
Are you all studying the scriptures every day? mom and dad, thats
probably more for you, i dont think i ever asked you before if you
did.  Also, what has become of that magical creation i bought called a
morphsuit? just wondering haha Another request for the next
packet.....mac n cheese!!!! i miss that stuff so much! haha and
speaking of packets, i got your last packet with the gravy and it was
awesome! Thanks! We already had a formal sunday dinner with one of the
gravy packets, so it was awesome to have a little taste of home again
haha
 
So now for the week. First of all, last week during district meeting,
we learned how the presidency of the area wants us to work differently
now.  instead of going house by house and teaching one or two people
in each house, they want us to start forming groups that consist of
members, less actives, recent converts, and of course the most
important the investigators.  This way, all the members can get to
know the investigators, and the investigators can form friendships
with the members and it just works better.  I guess 2 elders tried it,
just on a whim, and it took forever to set these groups up, but after
2 transfers of work i think, they got groups up and running and are
just having an incredible amount of success.  One week, they had 7
baptisms, and they have enough lessons, people in church, baptismal
dates, etc for 2 areas.  the numbers and amount of people you teach
just absolutely shoots through the roof.  and within these groups, you
get the members to go look for the investigators sunday morning for
church, and after every lesson, you invite everyone to invite their
own friends and family to come and listen. this way, the group just
keeps growing and growing, and we start baptizing a lot more than we
are now.  so im super pumped to start working like this and form some
groups, even though it might take forever.  ill keep you updated on
the groups.
 
Last week, we went back to that one evangelical guy, and he basically
just ended up pissing us off.  He just already has like a predecision
made up in his head and wasnt interested in the answer god was going
to give him.  He had been reading the book of mormon, and basically
told us it sucked and lacked "exhortation" in his words.  he also told
us that we talk too much about Joseph Smith, and we need to talk about
Jesus more.  So we tried committing him to pray to God again, but its
very doubtful, and i dont think were going back.  He basically just
ends up trying to teach us whenever we go there.
 
We are still teaching Anahi´s mom, and we had an awesome lesson with
her last week.  It was basically a group like we´re supposed to be
working in right now, and we got a little taste of how a group works
and how awesome it is.  Basically, we didnt even have to teach
anything, cuz everyone else who was there did the teaching.  It might
have helped that they were all family, like kids, aunts, cousins, etc,
that are all members or recent converts, but still, by the end every
single one of them was bawling and silvina is going to get baptized on
June 30th!!!! Super sweet :) She also came to church on Sunday, and is
really excited about the gospel.
 
We are still talking with Alejandro, who has all the assistances and
stuff to get baptized, but we´re not really sure whats going to happen
with him now.  It kind of looks like hes lost interest, even though he
came to church on Sunday with his family.  We went there last Tuesday,
we had a set appointment and everything, and when we got there, he was
waiting outside on the sidewalk and told us he didnt have time cuz he
was going to his grandmas house.  We asked if he could wait, and the
bus passed by, and he just hopped on it without a word basically and
just went away.  So we´re going to be passig by this week, and we´ll
see wht happens.
 
We kind of were forced to waste a lot of time last week, because Elder
Cancapa had training all day wednesday, and my comp had to go to salta
to do imigration papers on wednesday night.  So wednesday morning, we
had to walk like half an hour to the highway so Prez could pick him
up, and then we had to walk back there in the afternoon to pick him
up.  Then we also had to go to Jujuy centro that night to drop my comp
off with a whole bunch of other missionaries, and it was just kind of
ridiculous.  Then we had to go back to jujuy on thursday to pick my
comp up, and me and him werent able to do our weekly planning.....so
that was a kind of irritating part of my week. But we pulled through
anyways.
 
On saturday, we also had a big ward activity at the church and it was
the yearly fathers day lunch.  We ate the traditional soup of Jujuy
called Locro, and it was delicious.  Its basically a soup for winter,
weighted with super heavy stuff like beans, meat, and tons of fat, and
its basically made to fatten you up so you can survive the winter haha
ill see if i can learn how to make it so we can have it when i come
home.
 
Also, we went to Kikos house last week, the productor, and it turns
out he got a huge job offer in buenos aires and might be moving there
soon.  he´ll be going there to work for a huge famous news channel,
and i guess thats where a lot of stars from the united states go to
make their music videos cuz its cheaper here in argentina.  so he´ll
be there making music videos for people like ricky martin, enrique
iglesias, and maybe jennifer lopez haha So we´re super pumped for him,
and helped him pray to know if that was the right dcision to make.
before he goes, he wants to help this one website called
playingforchange.com make a video of all the cultural music here in
northern argentina.  he wants us to help him as like his film crew on
a monday if he can get things organized.  he made me write the people
at playingforchange.com a message in english because their whole
website is in english and he wants to get their support.  So we might
get to help him film some stuff one p-day!!!
 
Also the last thing, last monday, i was bored and i wrote myself up a
workout calendar and what im going to do each day for the next 6
weeks.  i actually was able to follow it every day last week, and im
gonna keep it up! I took a picture of myself with my shirt off last
week at the start of it, and we´ll see if this 6 week program bullcrap
is really true haha maybe ill send you the pictures of before and
after!
 
But yeah, thats about it for now, hope everyones alright, and
everythings goin good at home! love you all, and hope to hear from you
next week!!!
 
Con amor,
 
Elder Sirrine
 
 
 

Soiled Soldiers Club

Hey fam,

So its been another week, and time is flying by even faster it seems
like haha last week was good, but had its disappointments as well.
But overall, good :) And happy birthday dad!!!! How óld are you now?
First of all, before i start, i just wanted to ask some questions.
Can you get on facebook for me and find out Whitney Holdings address?
shes a girl i worked with down at college.  also, do we have a few
volumes of the history of the church in the house? and can you look at
how much articles of faith by james e talmage costs? those books are
cited a lot in all the stuff that we talk about, and i would be
interested in reading them when i get back.

This last week was freaking COLD.  It wouldnt be that bad if argentina
knew what a ventilation system for houses was, but that doesnt exist
here, so we have to close ourselves in our bedrooms with crappy little
electric heaters to avoid dying of cold.  And the mornings suck even
worse haha It got so cold some of the nights, that all 4 of us moved
into one room, closed the door, and turned the heater on full blast,
and we managed to keep the room warm haha but it looks as of now that
the cold wave is over and this week is going to be hot again.

I dont think i mentioned this, but our ward here recently started
doing something called Noche de Barrio, or Ward Night.  Its basically
family home evening, but its for the whole ward so that we can get
everyone more united and involved together.  Its also an awesome
activity for our investigators to come to.  Were doing it every
Wednesday night now at 7.

Also, we talked with the evangelical guy again last week, and he has
some doubts.....but they are super stupid doubts. The first one is hy
we use the baptismal prayer that we use.  He thinks we should baptise
just in the name of Jesus Christ, because thats supposedly what it
says in Acts 2:38.  He told us if we went to israel right now and
tried baptizing in the name of the father, son, and the holy ghost we
would get stoned by the people of israel.  but if we went there and
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, they would be completely fine.
Me and my comp almost busted up laughing, because first of all, Jews
dont believe in Jesus, nor do they believe in the doctrine of baptism.
So we would all just gét stoned to death there for tring to baptize.
but his other doubts are why we use wine instead of water in the
sacrament, and he said its not a real church unless we wash each
others feet in church like jesus did with his apostles.  he told us he
wont believe us unless we convince him why we use the baptismal prayer
we do......were gonna tell him to pray about joseph smith, cuz thats
the real issue at hand.  ill tell you how it goes.

We started teaching Silvina, our recent convert anahis mom.  shes the
last member of her family who isnt baptized and shes finally decided
that its time for her to start coming to church and join.  shes super
interested and fulfilling all of her committments, like reading,
praying and whatnot, so i think shes a baptism for sure, here in the
next few weeks.  im really excited to keep teaching her and completing
their family.

We also decided to go back to anabels house last week, cuz we havent
passed by for almost a month.  we actually managed to find her, and i
think we may have got her back. and her daughter ariadna recently
turned 8, so now we can baptize her as well! i really hope that we can
get her to church and to baptism.  were also teaching anabels mom, ana
maria, so ill keep you guys updated on them.

Turns out that Alejandro did not get baptized last weekend.  We had
everything scheduled and ready and then we called him Friday at night
and asked him how he was for the baptism the next day.  He told us
that he had a soccer game and that he wasnt going to be able to get
baptized......we were pissed.  apparently we fodged in something,
because he didnt understand that his baptism was more important than a
freaking soccer game.  and he didnt come to church on sunday either,
so i think were going to wait until next week to baptize him.  Also,
Juana and Fabiana, our potential baptisms for this week, both fodged
us and didnt come to church either.  So i was quite pissed off Sunday
in the morning.

All that anger, i kindly let off in a controlled way during sacrament
meeting, because it just so happened to be missionary sunday, and i
just so happened to go first.  I dont remember if last week i told you
how me and my comp left church just absolutely pissed off because
everyone there is absolutely irreverent and its kind of a madhouse
during sacrament meeting? well anyways, my talk was on reverence haha
and i dropped CANE on that ward.  and they totally listened!
afterwards, everyone was quiet and you could actually feel the spirit
in there.  i basically told them they suck at reverence and made them
feel bad, and then gave them the vision of what church could be if we
were all just a little quieter and tried controlling our kids.  they
were all actually listening attentatively.  afterwards in ward
council, we talked about what we can do to help those families who
have trouble controlling their little kids and whatnot, and we came up
with the idea that the primary is now going to supply coloring sheets
and colored pencils so kids are coloring quietly instead of running
around and playing with little cars or whatever.  i really hope next
week sees improvement.

so i saved the best, least spiritual part for last haha here in
argentina you never know when the food is going to hit you wrong, and
it just does it at unexpected times.  theres also a thing among
missionaries called the soiled soldiers club, and i almost joined it
last wednesday after lunch.  we left the house, and all of a sudden i
just had like the biggest bowel movement and had to go to the bathroom
desperately bad.  it was like a 15 minute walk back to the pension,
and we went as fast as we could.  i was holdin on like crazy, and of
course my comp just thought it was hilarious, and so he was thinking
up every single funny thing he could think of to try and make me laugh
and lose control of my bowels.  he almost succeeded like four times in
making me poop on the way back to the pension.  i wanted to kill him.
but my superior control over my bodily functions ended up winning, and
we made it safely to the pension.  so i still have not joined the
soiled soldiers club :)

But yeah, thats about it for now! thanks for writing me and hope to
hear from you all soon! love ya!

Con amor,

Elder Sirrine

Answer to Prayer

Hey family!

So this last week was pretty good, the weekend kind of sucked though cuz it was like independence day here and absolutely EVERYONE was drunk out of their minds and the streets were kind of sketchy and we didnt end up getting into too many houses on Saturday.  Sunday was also kind of lame too, cuz a lot of our investigators fodged us and we only had 1 person come to church.  So our next baptisms have all kind of fallen for at least this week.  But its all good! We´ll recover and help those people to church this week! oh yeah, and there was this white dude and his kid that came down here and theyre both from Logan utah.  Apparently the dad, Brother Parkinson, served here in Perico 24 years ago, and his son is about to go on the mission in 3 weeks to nicaragua, so hes showing him around and kind of getting him adapted to Spanish.  Turns out brother parkinsons wife is from aurora and he knows exactly where monroe is and stuff, so it was kind of cool talking to him.  Small world huh?

So yeah, last monday, we went to this less active familys house and one of their daughters told us a really cool story about prayer.  She said she was sitting there reading the scriptures one day and just wondering if she did the right thing getting baptized and all that and she decided to ask heavenly father for a sign.  We hadnt been by their house in a long time, and so in her prayer she told God if the church was true, that she wanted us to come to her house a certain day at a certain time.  So that day came, and lo and behold, we showed up on her porch at 8 o clock sharp! It was super cool to hear that, cuz i remember me and my comp talking about whether we should go to their house, or a different house at that time, and we just kinda felt like we should visit them.  So We were able to help answer a girls prayer!

We had interviews with the President the next day and they went really well.  He said that hes really satisfied with the work me and my comp are doing here in Perico and that he trusts me a lot, so that made me feel awesome. I also asked him about the whole coming and looking for me thing, and he said the thing on the website is the church putting something on there so that families dont feel like theyre obligated to come and look for their child at the end of their mission.  They know its a huge expense, and said if you can afford it, youre more than welcome to do it, but its in no way an obligation.  So you guys are free to come and get me if you can make the funds meet! President said that he loves meeting the parents, and that at least one time a transfer kids parents will come to get them.  The only thing he doesnt like is when parents try to come to church on the last sunday of their kids mission to see them in action or whatever, so if you come, just know you cant see me until that monday haha

So after interviews, i got to go and do divisions with my papis current companion in his area, and it was pretty fun.  It was good to take a break from my comp, and i got to go there and help them out with their current work situation.  it sounds like they kept going back to investigators who werent progressing and kind of beating a dead horse with a stick.  so we found some new people while i was there, and hopefully everythings better over there now! haha sounds like my comp worked Elder Mori to death here in our area too, so hopefully he takes back a better work ethic. Also while i was there, i got to help one of their investigators get permission from her mom to get baptized last weekend.  Im getting dang good at fighting with parents haha.

I also got a letter last week from Ashley Smart!!! Long story short, shes had some awesome experiences at Ephraim and has decided to get baptized into the church! Can you please get on Facebook for me and tell her congratulations and that i wrote her a letter and its on its way? She was supposed to get baptized the 19th of may, so tell her congrats for me!!!

Right now, were also teaching a less active ladys kids and theyre awesome.  Their names are Mauricio and Agustin.  They both love church cuz they came yesterday, and want to get baptized, but were gonna have problems with the dad.  We learned yesterday that they told him they want to get baptized, and he got super pissed and left the house.  His main concern is that them going to church every week takes away from his father son time taking them to their weekly soccer matches.  So we´ll see how it goes with him. 

And lastly, we went back to the Choque Family again, the less actives, on Friday, and we watched Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration with them.  We also brought one of our recent converts along, Juan Chavez.  The Spirit was INCREDIBLY strong, and i loved it so much! It made me miss home, cuz as soon as we stepped outside of that house we got hit in the face with the real world, with everyone drinking and partying right outside.  I definitely miss the Utah bubble, and i realized why i always had trouble recognizing the spirit before.  Its because our house really is like a temple and we can always feel the spirit there, and thats why going to the temple wasnt that much different for me.  So that made me a little trunky, but i know i gotta be here to make that sacrifice so other peoples homes can feel like that too! Thanks mom and dad for keeping a home like that where the Spirit really can be there, and its about as close to a temple as you can get without actually going to one. 

But yeah, those were my experiences for the week! I hope to hear from you soon, and love you all! Your in my thoughts and prayers always! Love you!!!

Con amor,

Elder Sirrine