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

Lesbians!!

Hey family!

 

 

So this last week was dang good!!! We managed to get 31 lessons, 2 baptisms, and 3 confirmations!!! So super good week for us. but ill get into the good stuff later! haha before i start, my comp was looking through my book of friends and kind of creeped on annie knight, and he wants her address. So mom, if you could call clark or becky and ask for her address and get it to me,that would be great! haha Also, i have another thing to ask from you.  In the next packet, can you put some taco seasoning as well? thanks!

 

Alright, so last week Ubi (Carlos) got baptized on Tuesday, because one of his friends he made in the ward was going to leave on the mission on thursday, so he wanted him to baptize him before he left.  So he got baptized and it was really awesome! Ricardo, the guy whos going onhis mission, got his first baptism before he even started! STUD! And then Juan Chavez got baptized on Saturday, and his baptism was just spectacular.  But for both of the baptisms this week, wwe had to go to their houses and fight a little bit with both of the parents to get permission for them to get baptized.  We went to Ubis house and his momjust thought that it was too soonfor him to get baptized, and that he should wait a little bitlonger,because she expectedhim to followthat religion forthe rest ofhis life if he chooses to get baptized.  So he said he was ready,and then we used somemissionary persuasion, or the holy ghost, and wefinally got her permission for him to get baptized. On thursday in the night, we went to juans house, and his mom said she wasnt against him getting baptized, but thought he needed like 6 or 7more months to study to really know if it was true.  So we argued for like an hour, and made juan answer all the stuff that she wanted him to know and wegot himpermission to get baptized next week. so then we went back on friday night and did all of the baptismal questions with juan so that his mom couldsee that he knew everything necessary to get baptized.  the only thing he lacked was tithing and fasts,and so we taught that to him.  After we got done teaching, out of all the things to get nitpicky on, his mom flipped and said that he wasntready to get baptized because he had neverfasted before and needed to do that before he could get baptized. So for a mintue we were thinking all was lost, and then i got a prompting.  So i toldhis mom, how bout if all 3of us (me andmy comp and juan) start fasting right now, and we can end it tomorrow right after his baptism? she sat there for a second......and then was like alright, hes going tofast before his baptism! So we totally got permission, and he got baptizedthe next day after our fast! After his baptism, i was talking to him and asked How do you feel? He just looked at me, speechless for a few seconds, and then with tears in his eyes, he said he just felt really happy.  Awesome baptism!!! His whole family came too, and they all enjoyed it a lot.  Wereteaching his family now too.

 

Not much else happened this week, we did have an awesome steak lunch on sunday with one of our investigators family.  it was super tasty!!! butthe girl, noelia, came to church kind of dressed like a prostituteand i was kind of embarassed to claimher as our investigator.....i think she thinks its like the catholic church and whoever dresses the sluttiest wins! haha looks like weregoing to talk aboutthe law of chastity soon....  oh yeah, and i was gonna tell you momand dad, thanksfornever letting us leave the sacrament hall during sacrament. i never realizedbefore what a distraction it isand how much it takesthe spirit away fromeverything. here, peopleandthere kids are walkingin and out all the time and i just want to strangleeveryone sometimes during church. were gonna talk tothe bishop about having a reverence talk with everyone too i think. This last sunday, we had 3confirmations in church, because franco wasnt able to getconfirmedlast week.  but he got therethis week and is now officially a member!!!

 

The other night, we were walking and a drunk came stumbling down the street and he startedyelling at us.  he was like who are you?! who are you?! are you lesbians?! you guys are lesbians! yeah, LESBIANS!!!!! andthen he startedcalling us not so nice names afterthat that have to do with women as well,and meand my comp were just dying of laughter.....apparently were pretty attractive (or manly) women to people who are drunk.

 

And lastly, we got a call lastnight from our zoneleaders congratulating us on our fine work.  apparently my comp and i havethe highest, most consistent numbers in the entire zone,and wehave to do divisions with another companionship to help them with their work tomorrow and wednesday.  the funny thing is that the companionship is my papi (trainer) and his current companion! haha so my comp is going to be doing divisions with my first comp elder mori, and ill be going to elder moris area to help them boost up their work a little bit.  oh,and we haveinterviews with the president tomorrow! so im pretty excited haha

 

But yeah, thats about it! thanks for writing to me every week,andlove you all! hope to hear from you next week!!!!

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine

Happy Mother's Day

Hey fam,
 
So it was bomb being able to talk to you guys yesterday, and i didnt
forget to tell you i love you this time! haha im not a horrible
worthless son! You guys are awesome and i really do miss you! But i
know im supposed to be here doin what im doin and we´ll just have to
wait for another year and 3 months to be able to talk good :) crazy
ive been out that long huh?
 
So this last week was awesome, we actually started seeing fruits of
our hard work!!! But im gonna start from the first so we can save the
best part for last :)  So i think i said this last night, but the
gypsies have all loaded up and gone.....at least in that one house.
When we were in the feria this morning there was one gypsy lady
prowling around and asked if we would like to try our hand at luck, or
buy some incense from her.....we basically ran away.  So did everyone
else around us haha
 
Also, we had zone conference on tuesday! it was super awesome, and i
left feeling excited and ready to work.  We did some really cool live
exercises where the president sent out 2 companionships to find people
off the street to come in and sit in front of 25 ish missionaries so
that companionship could introduce the book of mormon to them and
committ them to reading it and having the missionaries pass by their
house later.  it was a really cool exercise, especially cuz the prez
used it afterwards to show us really how easy it is to find new people
to teach if we really put our minds to it.  both companionships found
people in under 20 minutes, right during the lunch hour, which is one
of the hardest hours of the day, and they had to come in front of a
ton of missionaries, which is terrifying.  so we can find these people
to teach! haha
 
The next day, we went to one of our investigators house and the
daughter asked us if it was really a sin to drink coffee.  So we ended
up teaching the word of wisdom and it was probably the best lesson
ever.  Im almost positive the daughter set us up, because she doesnt
do any of the five things: drugs, coffee, tea, alcohol, and tobacco,
but her dad does all of them except for drugs.  So we dropped cane on
him....lightly though, and right when we were about to end the lesson,
his wife came in, heard what we were teaching, and joined right in and
just chewed him out for like a half an hour about how disgusting his
habits were, and how he should listen to us, and how she cant even
kiss him anymore because its like kissing a horse.  i was trying
REALLY hard not to laugh haha so well see how hes doing later :)
 
We keep going to Alexs house to teach juan and ubi, and when we went
there the other night, alex and his brother hector played the guitar
again together and this time were singing wicked harmony! i think
theyre getting along a lot better, and it just makes me happy to see
how the gospel helps people, even in little stuff like that
 
While we were visiting less actives last week, we found the dad of a
family thats not baptized.  His wife, whos a member, recently got sick
and is interned in the hospital.  I guess that was the thing he needed
to make him decide he needs the gospel.  Hes already gone to church
twice before, and we just have to teach him what he lacks! he accepted
his baptismal date, and wants to get baptized! His name is René
Choque, so ill keep you updated on him too :)
 
And now the best for last! On Saturady, we had 2 baptisms! Franco
Salazar, and Anahi Gerez.  Apparently theyve tried to baptize Anahi
like twice before, but both times she got terrified of the water and
latched onto the metal bar leading into the font and wouldnt let go.
this time the bishop wouldnt let her out until she got baptized....he
was standing there and basically yelling at her to get into the water
haha And franco! Hes 16 and is the boyfriend of Anahi´s sister.  On
Sunday, only Anahi got confirmed though, cuz i guess in the morning
francos dad hit his mom and the police were at his house and all this
stuff and he got to church super late cuz of all these problems.  The
bishop wouldnt let him get confirmed because he got there after the
sacrament and after all the ward business.....the Zone leaders dropped
cane on me and my comp cuz we didnt make the bishop confirm him
because he was already there.....but oh well, he´ll get confirmed this
sunday and everything will be fine!
 
But yeah, thats about it for this week! Thanks for writing, and again
it was great to talk to you all last night! Love you all!!! Hope to
hear from you next week :)
 
Con amor,
 
Elder Sirrine

Rollin' in the Deep

Dear Family,

So first of all, i was thinking about trying to save some face and say that the reason we basically gave up our money and stuff to the gypsy last week was because we were trying to be meek and try not to cause contention, but i decided to own up to the fact that were pretty much idiots with no common sense haha but i still claim im less of an idiot than my comp cuz i only gave up 15 pesos.....so you guys can take it or leave it :)

So everything went well this last week, we actually had another encounter with the gypsy lady as we were leaving a members house and i found out her name is Marisol.  I kind of want a picture with her, but i dont trust her gypsy magical ways.  So youre gonna have to settle with her name i guess.  But im pretty sure the gypsies arent dangerous here, theyre all pretty chill.....they just prey on retarded gringos and yankees like us.

Also....i got both of your packets last week!!! Greatest things ever! Tell susan thanks and theres a letter coming her way (in spanish) and that i love the flip flops and hat.  The squirt guns were probably the best thing ever to send, weve already had one major battle with them.  The gringos won, and i think all of us fell victim to our slippery tile floor covered in water at least one time.  I was the first to find out how unmerciful the floor was when i went running down the hall in my newly received brasilian flip flops and i encountered a nice little puddle on the floor.  Lets just say i did a mean flying two-footed kick into our bottom cupboard.  Dont tell president! haha but no one got hurt and it was a very welcome break from the norm.

This last week, we went to Alex´s house again to teach our recent convert Carlos.  When we got there, they had invited one of their friends, juan, there to listen to the missionary lessons and it was literally the best lesson/testifying moment of the Spirit i have had in my entire mission.  We taught him the restoration and gave him a book of mormon and at the end of the lesson, we invited him to kneel down and ask God if what we taught was true.  He agreed and started praying.  he asked to know if it was true and there was silence for like 30 seconds....he finally said in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  I looked up and there were tears streaming down his face and he had a huge smile on.  I asked him how he felt and he said different than he ever had before and that he didnt have words to explain it.  Needless to say, hes getting baptized the 19th of May :D

We went to Alex´s house the next night to teach Juan and when we got there, Alex and Carlos had the entire 2nd lesson prepared.  So we had them teach it, and i just thought it was cool to see how much they loved their friend and how much they wanted to help him know what they know by teaching him.  Alex´s brother hector came in and we talked with him too and the lesson ended up being a giant counseling session for alex and hector cuz i guess they hate each other.  So we talked for a while and got them to say they were going to try to talk to each other and when we went back a few days later they were playing the guitar together and singing! super sweet!!!! 

Alex and Carlos also invited another one of their friends to come to the English class that we had on Saturday night.  His name is Ui (Carlos) and i think he liked us and is interested in the gospel as well, because he ended up coming to Stake conference with us the next day.  Speaking of english class, i had to teach it solo cuz my comp went on divisions with the other elder and my new comp was latino and doesnt know english. but it was actually super fun teaching and i like it a lot! it would be fun to come back and just teach english here or in a different country i think.

Also, this last week we had an appointment with a members friend who went to general conference with her.  His name is Franco, and apparently hes already been to church a lot, but the elders have never talked to him.  Hes super awesome and is really interested in the church.  He already has a baptism date for next week the 12th, and i think we´ll be able to get him there to baptism! Im really excited for him.

Like i said earlier, we had stake conference and us as a ward had to take a bus again to go to Jujuy, but this time to a different building where they decided to transmit the conference by satellite.  it was really good, except for the satellite connection got lost twice.  it cut off right in the end of the last speakers talk, and came back on in time to see  the AMEN of the last prayer.  kinda funny.

Also, an update on Melani.  Turns out our president told us that tecnically she can get baptized and then do the confirmation after in the catholic church, but if she does that she´ll offend God.  But if she does the confirmation first and then baptism she wont offend him because shes not making the choice to do the confirmation herself, its her mom.  So we told her and shes made the decision to wait until after the confirmation.....which is in like 3 years.  So i told her i expect a photo of her baptism and that she has to keep coming to church haha

But yeah, were doing way good down here, we should start to have some baptisms rolling in here pretty quick, and ill be sure to keep you all updated! love you all and hope to hear from you next week!

Con amor,

Elder Sirrine

Robbed by a gypsy ladies love......

To preface this week's letter, let me start off by sharing the text that I got early on Monday morning from Taylor:

"Mom and Neccia...whoever gets this text first.  My companion and I were robbed by gypsies this week and my comp needs money.  Can you please put some into my account."

 

Needless to say, we worried all day wondering what had happened and if it was really real.  The following explains how brilliant Taylor and his companion are!!  Still little boys!!

 

 

 

 

Hey family!

 

So this last week was good, and i gained one of the greatest mission stories ever as you all know! haha But ill go into that later.  This last week was good, except for the weekend :( Turns out that melanis mom wont give her permission to get baptized until after she completes the catholic confirmation, and that wont be for like 3 years.  I guess when her older brother alez got baptized, he had already done all that, so that was why his mom was cool with him getting baptized.  We just learned last night that her mom said she can get baptized now if she still does the Confirmation in the Catholic church later, but we dont know if thats possible, so well see what happens.

 

Other than that, the week was way good! We found some way awesome people and one family that is amazing! They are the Padilla family. The first time, we knocked their door and the dad let us in and we just taught him.  We invited him to invite his family to the next lesson and he totally did! His wife and 2 daughters actually participated and his son was there, but ran off somewhere.  His daughter in an inactive evangelical, but still has the mentality of an active one, cuz we had to defend a lot of our doctrine against her and answer a lot of her questions.  it was pretty fun.  So yeah, the dad loves us, and if we can get him to get baptized, the rest of the family will follow suit!

 

The other guy we found last week, his name is Kiko! Hes kind of a recluse, but he wasnt that way before.  He has his own producing/editing company and apparently he does/has done some pretty big stuff down here in argentina! hes way cool and we had a good lesson with him.  When we explained about the book of mormon, he said that he had always wondered what had happened with the people from america and why jesus was only in jerusalem and what not.  So that was a way cool spiritual moment, and hes super interested in the Book of Mormon now.  Also, he had found this one video thats a documentary of this guy going around the world asking everyone what they think god is.  in spanish its called what is god, but english its oh my god.  he burned us a copy of it and we got permission from the mission president to watch it during the next few days if we have time.  im pretty curious as to what the people are going to say.

 

That was really all of the spiritual stuff, so nows here for the not so spiritual.  First, on thursday we went to go buy some ground meat for lunch and my comp bought vegetables while i was buying the meat.  Apparently, i didnt know how to buy or ask for the meat in the right way, cuz youre supposed to ask how much it is a kilo, then watch them weigh it carefully to make sure they dont screw you, cuz they like doing that to americans a lot cuz they think we have lots of money and theyre very dishonest. So yeah, i didnt know any of that, and the guy ended up giving me about 3 pesos worth of meat and made me pay 10.  My comp was TORQUED.  so yeah, watch your meats in south america.

 

And now the most anticipated part of all, the infamous robbing by gypsies!!!!  So my comp and i were walking along and this gypsy woman sitting in front of her house waved us over.  So we went over with the intentions of teaching the gospel.  When we get there, she starts going off about how handsome we are and how she was going to read our palms for free cuz we were so handsome.   So she makes us sit down and starts going off about our hands and then asks us if we want luck in work or in love.  My comp says work, i say love to be different.  So then she was like to my comp take out your money that you have right now and well bless it so that you will receive like a billion times more! so he takes out a 50 cuz that was the smallest he had at the time.  she puts it in the middle where our hands our and then asks if he has more money on him and if he does he needs to put it in there too so it can be blessed.  She makes him take out his wallet and she find the 100 in there and puts it in with the rest.  she told me to take out my money too so it could be blessed.  i luckily only had 15 pesos.  so i put it there, she crumples it all together, and then she tells her son to get a glass of water.  She takes the money and then her son dumps all this water all over it! i dont know if she like swiped the 100 out of there first or no, but she totally destroyed all the money and said that even though that hurt, he would gain much much much more in the future. So then with the crumpled mass of shredded bills in her hands, she tells me to take off the ring so we can bless it for love.  So taking it off, i put it in the money and then she has us blow on it and what not so its blessed and ill have lots of luck in love.  Then she says for the blessing to be complete, the ring has to stay with her, and i would have the love i wanted and my comp would have the work and the money.  So i left it there so i could say i got robbed by gypsies and we went on our way! haha my comp was pretty pissed after that cuz that 150 pesos was what was left of his monthly asignation.  I literally laughed my head off for 20 minutes because we got screwed by this gypsy lady, and then realized that i would probly have to pay for my comps food for the rest of the month.  so yeah, there you go! haha we got robbed by gypsies!

 

But thats about it for the week! lov you all and hope to hear from you next week! STAY AWAY FROM GYPSIES!!!!

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Sirrine