Week 69: Posadas, Argentina

Well it's December 18th, but it doesn´t really feel like it's Christmas time. It's hard to feel the Christmas spririt when it's hot.. even though we listen to Christmas music pretty much every day and there are actually quite a bit of decorations for Christmas around the city. I think I'm actually getting used to the heat though, I'm not sure if I'll be ready for winters in the States.  

One of the missionaries got a package and opened up here and it had a pine smell and it smelled super good, exactly like Christmas. Our zone activity is next Tuesday for Christmas which should be fun. This week we made a short video for Christmas which kinda turned out not too spiritual at all, but pretty funny. We went all out, haha, but it turned out pretty well I think. 

The finances... are going. I think there is a lot of end of the year stuff to do.. but I'm not exactly sure what. So I'll probably be pretty busy the next two weeks. President's card is almost finished... I have to balance it out to zero for dollars, guanines, and pesos which is the tough part. The pesos are finished and the dollars are finished and I thought I had finished the guanines, but there are a few mistakes... so I have to go back and correct it again. But other than that I think the finances are going pretty well. It's kind of weird, I haven't been audited yet and I'm not sure if I will be, but I feel like I'm just doing my thing and hopefully I'm doing it correctly. 

We can Skype anytime on Christmas Eve or Christmas day.  On Monday I'll get back on the email and verify the time with you. I think its 45 minutes for Skype. 

The work is going pretty well, I feel like there's lots more activity around Christmas time and we haven't been able to work as much as we usually do, but it's going well. We are trying to teach people how to have a Family Home Evening and kind of setting it up for them and then letting them do it on their own. So hopefully it goes well... we´ll see if they do it, haha. 

We are pretty excited though for the Christmas concert this Saturday.  We practiced on Monday and it actually sounded a lot better than what I thought it would. There are 28 missionaries in total that are going to particpate and we are going to sing 8 songs from the hymn book. We invited lots of members and had it announced in all the sacrament meetings in the stake. I think it's a really good way to spread the gospel because it is a lot more innocent than knocking on someone's door or trying to stop someone in the street.  Hopefully people will be able to catch the spirit and have a better image about the church. I think music is a good way to make things different. It always helps in the lessons, and special musical numbers in sacrament meeting are always good. It's weird how music can have such a powerful effect on people, but it happens. 

I got Grandmom´s Christmas card and the Harrast´s as well. You´ll have to thank them for me. And thank you for the email! Have a great week and see you on Christmas ;)... in Skype!

Love, Elder Roberts

Week 68: Posadas, Argentina

Hey! This week was good, flying by super fast as usual, but so far enjoyable. It´s actually kind of weird serving in the office because it's just really different from what i did before as a regular missionary. But it's cool. There are definitely ups and downs.

My responsiblity in the office is to organize the payments of the mission and pay for things. All the paperwork and all the travels are the other secretaries' responsibilities, so luckily i usually don't get blamed for problems when missionaries come on days they shouldn't, haha. Though we are all a team and i would like to help, it's really every man for himself because everyone has never ending tasks to do. So it's tough to help other people when you can never finish what you're doing. For the more urgent stuff we usually all get together and go at it. We do have a planning meeting every Sunday night which helps a lot. I think i definitely learned the importance of planning things well here in the mission; I am definitely a better planner than i was before. 

Our ward Christmas party is this weekendt which should be pretty sweet, I'm excited to eat grilled Argentinian meat. I think the 6 of us missionaries are putting on a play-or something like that, we are going to practice tonight after our correlation meeting, should be interesting. And we already have members that invited us for Christmas dinner and New year's dinner, the nice thing about being in a ward. It's funny though, lots of the less actives, or people that sometimes dont even go to church, love having the missionaries over to eat at their house. It's actually a really good way to activate people or help them progress. They might recognize the blessings of giving us food, haha, becuase people that feed the missionaries are definitely blessed. A lady in my last area told us that she gave us food every week to be blessed and that we had to go to her house every week, or she wouldn't be blessed and she would have a bad week, haha. Pretty funny. 

Here in the mission we get 161 dollars a month, the people in Paraguay get a little bit more, I think the food is a little bit cheaper here than it is in the States. Paraguay is nice in that the money usually is enough, but here in Argentina there's lots of inflation and the money isn't really worth very much, so sometimes it's hard to get by. 

For Christmas we are trying to plan a concert in the plaza in Posadas, we'll see how that goes. There are also Christmas devotional zone conferences which should be good. I'm not sure exactly what's planned, but they are usually pretty nice and I'm sure we will eat a lot of good food. 

Tell Liam that he might be able to dunk on me this summer because he's actually really tall, but that I'll still beat him 1 on 1.  We actually do play basketball sometimes on pday, we played this morning. It's pretty funny because there aren't that many Latin American kids that play basketball, they all play soccer.  So when i play with them i actually feel like I'm kinda good, but then when I go play with Americans i feel like I'm not that great again. We do play half court, just because it's too hot to play full court. There aren't any indoor courts, they are all outside. 

We have been having lots of success recently with some less actives that we are working with. There is a family that has come back into activity and they have the goal of going to the temple in March. Also, our ward mission leader is going to go to the temple Friday for the first time, and then will baptize his little brother the next day. There is also another lady that went to church that is in a pretty bad situation, her husband drinks a lot and is actually a cool guy, until he drinks. But he said after the holidays are over he´ll be done drinking and he´ll go to church, we´ll see. But we were teaching her brother as well, and he went to church twice and was coming along pretty well.  It turns out he has a drug problem and robs a lot of the neighbors.  They got together and tried to beat him up because they thought he robbed them and they kicked him out of the neighborhood and told him to not come back... so i dont think he´ll get baptized anytime soon. But he was a nice kid from what we saw of him.

I got the Christmas package though, thanks for the candy and the letters and toothbrushes, haha. I already ate all the chocolate covered blueberries... in one day.. they were really good, but i think the rest of the candy will last a little longer. Thanks for everything and have a great week!!!

Love, Elder Roberts

Week 67: Posadas, Argentina

Thanksgiving went pretty well, as good as it can be in a country that doesn´t celebrate Thanksgiving I guess. The food was really good, I stuffed myself on pie, it was pretty great eating homemade pie after like a year and a half. And my companion is really nice, he's interesting but he's nice, and he likes working and doing his part. We will be together I think for this change and then he is going to train someone here in the office probably, so we´ll be together probably a change and a half or two changes more.

I can´t say that I miss dark, cold rainy evenings; I might actually prefer the blazing heat.  They are making a big deal about the He is the Gift video here, i'm not sure if you've seen it but they put it on Times Square and Youtube and we are supposed to share it with everyone. So if you are reading this and haven't seen it yet... http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529 Pretty good. 

Christmas is the best time to do nice stuff for people. Well I guess all the time is a good time to do nice stuff for people, but to really enjoy Christmas you gotta get the service stuff down. I think we are going to sing in the plaza of Posadas for Christmas so that should be fun, we need to get organizing. 

Sister Murphy, who is in my zone, was really good friends with Katie and Rachel (Ben's cousins) and Uncle John was her dentist haha. And the funny thing is, Josh, whose serving a mission now, as in my cousin, was her Sunday School teacher at BYUI. So Sister Murphy officially knows our whole family haha. Super small Mormon world. 

The office is going pretty well. There is a lot to do and there were transfers this week, so that was messy. But now I kind of have to organize a bunch and see what got spent where and try to put all the reciepts together, make sure everyone has their money for this month... and finish President's card.  Then I need to fix a bunch of errors that were made these past few months with money that was spent that got put in the wrong category so that at the end of the year the money spent in 2014 gets put into all the right categories. So sometimes if we spend money on gas and it accidently gets put under the furniture category I have to go back and correct it. So that is super fun. But it actually is cool sometimes, well basically cool when you finish something and it comes out correctly. Which is rare, haha but it happens. 

I do think it is really cool though to be able to plan out things to do for other people. Sometimes we wait and say, Ahh man I would totally help someone or do something nice for someone if the oppurtunity presented itself.  But if we think ahead and plan out nice things we can do it.  The results are cool, we feel good and the person we served feels good as well. There was a lady in the ward doing a sewing project for someone and they asked if they could pay her and she said you can, but then the money will just get spent and we´ll forget it ever happened... or I can do it for free and we can all remember it for the rest of our lives. So that was cool and I guess that is the Christmas spirit. 

Thanks for everything, I love you, have a great week!!!

Elder Roberts

This was Ben's trainer.  He went home yesterday.

Week 66: Posadas, Argentina

Happy Thanksgiving!!! It doesn´t really feel like Thanksgiving because it's like 95 degrees out.  We had a big lunch today with a few members that invited us all over, but tonight we are eating Thanksgiving dinner haha, I´m making scalloped potatoes and my companion is making a Peruvian dish, so not too Thanksgivingish, but it works.

I also need to go on a diet, but I think I'll wait till new years ;) that's always a good time to start... haha. But I think I lost a little bit of weight, but I'm still not down to what I was when I started the mission. I got kinda fat when I became a pancake addict and ate pancakes every monring and night for about a month straight, but now I'm trying to eat a little bit more healthier.

This week has been pretty good though, still moving along, almost done the big project I have to do here in the office, and then life will be a little bit more relaxed, well not really but I won't feel like I have 10 different things to do at the same time. But the work is going well. 

My companion and I decided that knocking doors just wasn't really a good way to do missionary work anymore… haha, so we are trying to work a little more with members, and strengthen some of the recent converts and less actives and it's actually paying off. There were 6 investigators in church Sunday and about 10 less actives that went, and the family we are teaching that is coming back to activity has a goal to go to the temple in March. And they are progressing pretty well. So life is good, I can't complain, especially on Thanksgiving when I need to be grateful for everything! 

Anyway, next week is tranfers, lots of work and lots of fun, and usually lots of problems, but that's what makes the mission exciting! 

Hasta luegooooo.

Elder Roberts

Week 65: Posadas, Argentina

Sounds like its pretty chilly up there, it's been hot, but I don't think the real heat has gotten here yet.

My toe is better now, i think the nail just has to grow back, its not swollen or infected anymore so we all good. 

For thanksgiving we might be having a little dinner with the office peoples, I'm hoping. We are going to look for as many traditional Thanksgiving foods as possible, but I don't think there are too many. Plus right now I'm the only American in the office, besides President and Hermana LaPierre,… so I guess I will have to look, haha. 

And financial secretary... I guess it's a pretty good experience, it's tough sometimes because there's lots to do. There is a big problem with President´s credit card, so Elder Parks has been working on it since August, and I picked up and I'm almost done, so once that is finished I think there be a little less stress and work. 

This week was pretty enjoyable though. Today we went and ate at Burger King on the beach in Paraguay and played ping pong, so that was fun, relaxing and stress relieving. 

Other than that it wasn't too eventful this week. We went and cut a tree down with a machete for a lady in the ward and did a bunch of paperwork for some missionaries. Pretty exciting stuff, haha. The next time I'll write will be Thanksgiving, so enjoy the last few days of school until the break!!

Love, Elder Roberts

Week 64: Posadas, Argentina

HEYYY,

This week has been pretty exciting, passed by super fast, everytime i write here i feel like i had just done it yesterday, but it was pretty eventful. There were zone conferences and lots of movement and lots of stuff to do here in the office. But its always fun, sometimes pretty stressful just because the whole mission kind of depends on us for the temporal stuff, so it's like eat, sleep, drink, and talk money and numbers. But its cool, i feel like the stuff i'm learning will help me later on in life.

The missionary work here is going really well, we really haven't had a lot of time to get out and work a lot in the field, but with the time we have had it's been pretty succesful. The recent converts are coming along and the less active families are as well. There are a lot of good things about being here in Posadas, as in the city Posadas because there is a lot of movement and you are usually around the action and there are activities.  Also, i think the ward i'm in, Lavalle, is great. There are  alot of good members that help.  The couple we are teaching went to church again and really like it, their daughter and grandson went and really enjoyed it as well. They are progressing pretty well and understanding a lot.  

The spanish is actually pretty good. I can understand pretty much everything and i can always get my point across. Sometimes there are technical words, or stuff like that i don't understand, but for the most part i think i have it down. I would like to keep studying more, but the schedule i have now doesn't give too much time. 

For Thanksgiving..... im not sure what we are going to do. They dont celebrate it here but i'm definetely planning on celebrating one way or another. Apple pie would be pretty sweet with some mashed potatoes and gravy, but we´ll see what happens.  

Anyway, this past Saturday there was a stake service activity that was organized and we all went and cleaned up a park that was in really bad shape. We cut some grass, with machetes.... pulled weeds, destroyed massive termite hills, and cleaned up some trash. It was actually really fun, and everyone that went really enjoyed it. It wasn't really taken as a service activity, more like get together and have fun doing something for other people which was great because there really isn't a lot of that here. But all the members that went left really happy and i think the neighborhood appreciated it as well. I got pretty sun burnt and my arm was super sore from using the machete, but it was totally worth it. 

Also, it was Hermana LaPierre´s birthday so we decided to be a marachi band and we went and looked for sombreros, but they were pretty expensive so we bought some party hats and some fake mustaches and went and practiced a Mexican birthday song and went to her house.  President took her out on the balcony and we sang to her. It was pretty funny. I think she has a Facebook that she updates quite often if you want to look for it it has the video.  (Dottie LaPierre) But it was pretty fun.

And also, my toenail................... So since probably January it's been on and off ingrown, i think it got infected once but then went away, but it finally came back to bite me, pretty hard. So it got infected again and i had to get it taken out so i went to the doctor and he gave me anesthia, (i asked for laughing gas but they didnt have any) so he numbed it up really well - my big toe and i couldnt really watch, but from my comp told me it was pretty crazy. He shoved a knife sort of thing under my toenail and lifted it all up and then cut like a fourth it out. It was pretty crazy. Now it's like all swollen up because i wasnt supposed to walk on it, but had some important lessons to go to.. so i tried to drive but we had to walk a little and now im on bed rest apparently. I have to travel in like and hour and half to Corrientes which is another province of Argentina to go do some paperwork. So that should be fun. Im going to wear sandals... with missionary clothes. haha. But its cool, doesn't hurt too bad. (That was Friday morning at midnight that he was traveling to Corrientes….I got his email at 10:30pm Thursday night.)

But anyway today we had a Zone conference and we talked a lot about the first vision and teaching the restoration, and it was pretty cool. We talked about treating the first vision with reverence and taking it more seriously than just ¨sharing lesson one¨ and kind of going through the routine. But if you really prepare, and do it well and teach it with sincerity, it really gets to the person. And its cool, because that is the message that changes everything. There were tons of churches on the earth and how could they all be true? Joseph Smith asked God and if he really got the answer, if God and Jesus Christ really appeared to him, then that changes everything. There is only one church that contains the whole truth. God has only put one church on the earth. It's crazy that for as many times as I watch the restoration video, or share the message, there is still a feeling that just says its true, and every single time the understanding becomes more complete. Cool stuff. 

Anyway, i hope everyone has a great week and ill be sure to write again next week. 

Love, Elder Roberts

Week 63:Posadas, Argentina

The mission does fly by pretty fast, but the office does make it go by faster. It's pretty crazy that it's already November, almost Thanksgiving and then it's almost Christmas. And then 2015. That´s weird, I feel like Christmas wasn´t too long ago and that we haven´t been in 2014 for too long.

But the food I eat now is pretty normal, we don't eat with members a lot so we can usually choose what we eat, which is pretty nice. But I did have some octopus the other day which was suprisingly good. It was covered in vinegar I think and it looked like it was raw and kind of just cut straight off the octopus, but I thought it was pretty tasty. I´m looking to try cow tongue soon and crocodile, but it's hard to get around here. We ate burritos the other day for a conference we had, which was awesome. But other than that, pretty normal food. We don't really have a lot of time to eat breakfast or dinner so I don't eat a lot.  But I've really gotten into arroz con leche, it's super delicious. And the fruit salad here is awesomeee. They basically cut up fruit: apples, oranges, bananas, kiwis, and pears, and throw it in a bowl and pour a liter of orange fanta soda in, it's sooo good. It's like a fruit soup cause its really liquidy, but it's awesome. 

What are my plans for college? I'm not really sure... I mean I'm headed to BYU but I really have no idea what I'm going to be studying. I will maybe think a little bit about that. I think computers actually might be cool. But it's weird, I feel like I can't think about that in the mission, it's just so different that my mind blocks it out. But President LaPierre told a cool story about how when he was working he had gotten a contract for a big company and it was a project that was going to last like 5 or 6 years.  When he was on the plane after he found out about it he just had like a huge brainstorm and planned everything out in a notebook within an hour. And he explained about covanents and keeping our covenants and that when we are truly making the effort to fulfill the promises we made, that the Lord really does bless us spiritually and temporally... and it's cool how the spirit could help you in your job, or with basically anything that's a worthy cause.

The evenings have been going well, there are some days we have to come back early to finish stuff and some days like conferences where we can't leave at all, but it's good for the most part. We have more than enough people to visit with the limited time we have, so I can't complain. And for Christmas... I dont think I need anything. The 2 package limit is a rule from he church, and it's not because they'll reject our package or anything, it's just the mission ends up paying a little more for it than we do and I don't think they want missionaries receiving too many. So I mean you could send one, but it wouldn't really be fair because I already got two this year, actually more than two I think. But just put it towards the Chipotle fund, it's fine. 

But I read that pride talk that you always talked about, I think it's from President Benson that's called Beware of Pride. And it was pretty sweet.  I never thought of myself as a super humble person, but neither a prideful person either, but that talk made me second guess myself, haha it's pretty crazy. It seems like every sin comes from pride, but it's crazy how pride can just stop progress, or make relationships not work and block out the spirit. I think a big problem missionaries have sometimes is a routine where they fall into the trap of doing the same thing all the time, or teaching the same way all the time - for example going out and contacting every single door there is and having 10 lessons a day, which isn't bad but it's really not too effective. But sometimes the pride lets us think that it's okay to do that because we have lots of good numbers and we don't want to do something different because our numbers will drop down and we won't be on the top anymore. Or our pride tells us that everything is okay and we dont need to change or switch things up, but there's really always room for progress and becoming better. So I'm trying to become a more humble person, haha we´ll see how it goes. But thanks for everything and I hope everyone has a great week!!!

Love, Elder Roberts