Pictures - September 2, 2013

SAENZ PEÑA! 

 

Elder Massey. Other AP. 

 

Elder Garcia! From Spain. One of Asistentes

 

...one last photo with Elder Ortiz!

 

the family. Elder Ortiz. Elder Truman. Elder Craven. Yo. 

 

 

Elder Craven!

 

took this one for dad! You have your own reastraunt here haha.

 

I bought some leather scripture cases. They crave into the leather to design them. One for my bible and one for my book of mormon. 

 

 

Temple de San Diego

 

 

un libro de mormón bien grande!

August 12, 2013

23 freshman in Seminary? Have a good time with that! haha. Conner is already a freshman, crazy. I thought he was younger. I don`t remember what year Bro. Decocq taught us seminary, he was a good teacher though. Along with Bro Nay. Good times for sure.

Tanner has written one time since he`s been home! So I`m sure he`s doing just fine haha. 

I did take out that money and it will be put to good use. I already purchased a good pair of slack and will be returning today to purchase another. With that I should be good. I am very grateful and will make sure to tell them thanks!

Stocked to get another package! I ran out of deodorant a couple weeks back and had to make the switch again to Argentine deodorant. So please send some more again, that would be highly appreciated. Old Spice Denali Dry. And I can`t really think of anything else I absolutely need, so surprise me! You`re always welcome to send dollars also haha. The dollar is worth 9 pesos here right now, but the bank only exchanges 5 pesos per dollar. So the value almost doubles if you have the actual dollar.

This week has been a little crazy because the entire world is talking Politics. Argentina voted for something important yesterday. It wasn`t for President, but for something else important.  I`m not sure exactly. But the two big candidates were Cipolini and Carim and all of Saenz Peña was decked out with posters, signs, stickers, banners, shirts, and campain buses that were driving around with a campaign song for each candidate blasting in the streets. The Argentines are crazy about there Politics. Election day was yesterday and I was scarred that our investigators weren`t going to come to church because they had to vote. But we still had some show up so all was well. It`s a law that each citizen has to vote or your receive a fine for not voting. So everyone was talking all about the election this week. Glad it`s over haha.

We had a really successful week last week and are hoping to start off this week the same. I`m excited because this week Norma will be getting married which is something we`ve been waiting a long time for. She is excited for her marriage and for her baptism next week. That`s the most exciting news. As for our other investigatores they are progressing well and if all goes asl planned there will be more baptism`s the end of this month in Saenz Peña. We still haven`t been able to travel to Pampas Del Infiero to visit the Perez family because Hno. y Hna. Perez traveled again to Buenos Aires this week. So are visit was postponed again. We will see if we will be going this week. I hope so, that is if I`m here!

Transfers are tomorrow and I honestly have no idea what is going to happen. I could be leaving, could be staying and I dont really have a strong feeling that one or the other will happen. So we will see! I`ll be happy with whatever to tell the truth. I just want to keep working well, the place isn`t really important for me. Our Zone Leaders and some of the other missionaries in our zone think that I will be leaving. But only time will tell! You guys will know what happened next Monday. 

Nothing to out of the ordinary happened this week. The only thing that is kind of crazy that I can think off is Wednesday or Thursday we had some crazy wind storms. Really, really strong winds. Combined with dirt and trash it isn`t the best combination. Other then that, nothing to note worthy haha.

Bueno, going to wrap this up and send some photos over! Have a good week. Love you all. :)

Chau!

Elder Deniston.  

August 12, 2013 - Pictures

 

 

another shot of the chapel. It`s a really nice chapel. 

 

Our Pepsi advertisement

A fire broke out in front of one of investigadores house yesterday. They just let it burn. 

 

 

a little bit of Catholic culture. 

July 29, 2013

Glad to hear everything is well at home! Happy Anniversary! 33 years and going strong. Congratulations! Funny you brought up the whole sacrament talk thing again because I had to speak last minute again this Sunday haha. I will make sure to keep grandma in my prayers. Hope all is well with her! 

Bueno, I have a lot to write and little time. So I am going to try to write this fast. A lot of stuff happened this last week. 

First, we had interviews with President Haymen last Friday. They went really well and I was happy to have an interview with him. He came here to Saenz Peña with Hermana Haymen and we had a conference with them as well as with the AP's, and then interviews. He talked alot of the need to prepare for people for an ordinance and not just an event. A lot of missionaries are focused on getting the person baptized that it`s not really important to them if they have a testimony of the gospel. They meet the requirements for baptism and baptism them, but they aren`t really converted. So he spoke about that and the AP`s also gave some good lessons. July wasn`t the most successful month for the mission so they are lightening a fire with all the missionary to help them meet there goal and work to there full potencial. It went really well. 

Second, I had my first dog attack this week haha. I`ve always heard story's of missionary that had problems with dog but I guess I`ve been lucky because I have never had any problems until now. I was walking with Elder Ortiz and out of nowhere a dog leaves his yard and bites my left leg, at the same time his owner, who happened to be drinking, leaves his yard to start talking with me and was rambling on about Germany or Europe or something, I scarred the dog away and he goes to Elder Ortiz and does the same the thing, except he only got a hold of pant leg and tore it apart, he didn`t bit him. The entire thing happened in about 5 seconds and I was furiously mad and almost punted the dog to the other side of the street, but after the dog attacked Elder Ortiz I kind of just laughed it off and we returned to the apartment to change. Because usually only one companion is attacked, not both. The dog ripped Elder Ortiz`s paint leg all the way to his knee and left a fairly large teeth mark in my leg. I`ll send a photo over. I think that maybe the man had said something to the dogs to attack us, because I`ve never had a problem with dogs before, and he had been drinking. He also was rambling on about Europe or something and a lot of the Argentines have a problem with England because of the battle they had over the Malvina`s Islands years back. I`m not sure, all I know is that I had my first dog attack in the mission this week haha. 

Other then that the week was really well. We had a lot of investigatores in church this week and they were all people that we found during the week, so we are really happy for that. The Perez family is traveling back from BA today and we will be talking with them to plan when we will be traveling out there to teach them. So as for now things are looking really good for August. We have a lot of people that are progressing well and should be getting baptized soon. So pray for all of them and that all goes well. 

Today all of the new missionary had to travel to Resistencia and all the trainers stayed here in Saenz Peña and President Haymen gave us permission to get together to have lunch together. We all chipped in some money and I made everyone tacos! They turned out really well and we had a good time. 

This week it warmed up quite a bit, today is actually fairly hot. So I`m not to happy about that. Usually this time of year here the weather is really nice. So I`m hoping we have good weather  for August.

Also, I`m in need of new slacks. I only left with a few pairs and the pairs that I have a pretty jacked up and one of them got destroyed the other night boy the dog. So it would be nice to be able to purchase some new ones. I really have no idea how much they cost but it would be a blessing if you guys could send some money for that. I would like to get at least 2, maybe 3 pairs. I also need some money for a few other things. Let me know if that is possible. Gracias!

Alright, going to wrap this up and send some photos over! I love you and will write more next week! Que tenga una buena semana. :)

Elder Deniston. 

July 29, 2013 - Pictures

snapped this with some farmer that lives out in the fields. If you love me feed my sheep. 

 

this is the house of a member haha. He has paintings that he has painted with scenes from the Book of Mormon all over his house. 

 

 

dog bite along with some blisters. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace haha. 

July 22, 2013

Looks like everyone is still having a good time for summer! Love getting the photos from everyone. Otto looks like he enjoying the beach! Slowly taking the "rock" out of him with some good California fun haha.

Things are good here in Saenz Peña. The only thing that I`m not to happy about is that the school`s are out here for summer and that has effected the missionary work. The Perez family left for Buenos Aireas for an entire week which means we wont be able to teach at all this week and prepare them for baptism this month. We`re going to have to wait a little longer. I was kind of upset because Brother Perez never really informed us that they were leaving for vacation until right before they were leaving. We do have good news with them though, after talking well with the zone leaders and the assistants we got permission from President Haymen to travel there to teach them personally. So that is going to help there progression a lot and they should get baptized shortly after they return. The situation has been a little difficult and frustrating for me because we`ve been doing all we can to help this past few weeks, but it`s not the easiest thing to do when we can`t go and visit them. They`ve been coming to church and already have enough church attendance to get baptized, they just need to be taught from the missionary. Our zone leader`s said that the Assistants want to drive out there with us, so I think after we have a good lesson with them they`ll be excited to enter the baptismal font. The only thing is now is that we have to wait a little longer. 

Other then that our other investigatores are really good. Norma, who has already scheduled her wedding date came to church this last Sunday and is super excited for everything. We are going to talk with President Avalos, our branch president, about a celebration in the chapel for her wedding the same day of her baptism. The Chapel here in Saenz Peña is one of the nicest buildings in the city, so it would be really nice. We`ll see if it all works out. 

I`m sure it`s super hot back home but this last week here has been cold! Argentina has cold winters but they only last for a couple weeks. So I`m hoping the cold passes soon, because it`s been pretty chilly here.  

This week I did divisions with Elder Kinneard from Canada! I chose a good day to do divisions to because we landed to large, back-to-back dinners. They had two Family Night`s planned with some members and they both cooked us some really good food haha. It was pretty funny because Elder Kinneard didn`t know they were going to make us dinner, so we ate a lot at the first Family Night and then went to the next one and entered the house to a table full of food for us haha. Needless to say, I was pretty full by the end of the night. 

This last week we did a fast a mission because with two weeks into the month we were pretty far from our baptismal goal as a mission. We usually always complete it, or come close to completing it, but the zone leaders gave us a call to tell us we were doing a mission wide fast to complete the goal for July. We`ll see how it went at the end of the month. As for now keep all of our investigadores in your prayers so that they can get baptized. 

Other then that the week was pretty normal! Just working a ton and keeping my head up. The month hasn`t gone as I planned it but we just have to keep pushing along and keep working. We`ve been working hard, so I know we will see the blessings soon enough. 

Bueno, voy a terminar esta carta y tratar a mandar algunas fotos. Les quiero mucho y voy a escribir mas la semana que viene! Chau! :)

Elder Deniston.

July 1, 2013

Mom I am proud of  your technology skills haha. You have progressed! I remember when you didn`t know how to send a text message haha. 

Glad to hear the good news from home. Looks like everyone is enjoying summer! Paul Bunyan Music Festival, Fishing in Montana, Disney Aladdin, family reunions. Glad to hear everyone is doing something fun!

Funny you mentioned the elder that had to give talks last minute haha. It happened to me again this Sunday haha. I`ve gotten use to it now. I am thinking about writing a few talks just to have ready when I am asked, would probably be a good idea. 

Exciting about Dad`s new job! I want to see the truck! Does Dad have his own building? Where he stores his truck and works? Something like that. Let me know. 

Send me a photo of Tyler`s scar! I want to see it!

Bueno, voy a decirles un poco sobre lo que esta pasando con nosotros! Tuvimos una semana muy buena esta semana. Uno de mis semanas mas exitoso que he tenido en la misión. 

This last week was really good for us! We had a lot of success. I was super happy because after a long week of preparing everyone to come to church we had 8 investigators at church!  This is a high number of attendance for our mission! So I was super happy for that. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we are preparing a lot of people for baptism in July. It`s building up to be a successful month. So I am excited. We just have to keep working with the diligence we have now. 

I will share some cool experience that happened this last week. 

We decided to do a fast as a zone. We fasted Thursday after lunch until Friday and fasted to find more people that are prepared to receive the gospel now. It worked haha. Friday Elder Ortix and I had our most successful day yet here in Saenz Peña. We received a reference from a member to visit a family and I`m really hoping they progress! So far everything is going really well them. There last name is Martinez and they are a family of 10, I believe, total. They recently moved here and Brother Martinez told us that he wanted to start going to a church when they arrived. His wife we haven`t met yet because she had a baby last week and has been in the hospital recovering. He went and talked with her and told her we passed by and told us that she wants to listen and they both want the kids to learn about God. They weren`t able to come to church because they had to go to the hospital but said they are going to come next week. So pray for them that everything works out. I am excited to start teaching them. We`ve already talked about baptism and they have the desire but want to learn about the Church first. 

The same day we had a lesson with one of investigadores named Marcelino. His son is the second counselor in the branch presidency. He has cancer and has been traveling back and forth to Resistencia to have operations so he has been progressing, but slowly. We taught him the Book of Mormon and it went really well. But, the coolest part of the lesson was the prayer. He has said prayers before in our lessons but this time he had a very strong experience with the Spirit. When we finished the lesson we asked him to end with the prayer and he kept refusing and didn`t want to do. But we kept persisting until he did. He offered a very short, simple, but sincere prayer and it was like God shot an arrow of the Spirit right through his heart haha. He said, "Heavenly Father, I thank thee for my family, I ask thee that I can help them, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." When he said "I ask thee that I can help them" he wept. It was difficult for him to finish. It was literally like if there is an on/off switch for the Spirit and someone flicked it on. He seemed kind of frightened or overwhelmed but what happened, he didn`t know how to react or he didn`t know what it was. His son was with us and he helped him to understand that it was the Spirit. Was a really good lesson and he came to church Sunday for the first time in a long time. So we are really content with that. His wife came as well. 

Those are a few cool stories from the week I thought I would share!

This week is transfers but nothing is going to happen with us because I have to finish training Elder Ortiz. I am excited because this Friday we have another multi-zone conference in Resistencia. Will be a good learning experience. I will let you know how it goes. 

Going to finish this up and get photos over! Thanks for the 50.00 bucks! Will be put to good us. :) Love you all and will write more next week! Que tenga una buena semana. 

Elder Deniston. :)