Week 18

Well I am now done with my training. I just got my new companion and he is from Paraguay but he lived in Buenos Aries before he came here. This week was really good. Everyone in the ward was super sad that he (Elder Barboza) was leaving. This week was interesting I ate the best tacos ever in our district meeting. I also ate giant sandwiches again and this time I have a picture.  We had a fun service project where we weed whacked a hill for a member using machetes. After that he cooked us an Asado which is just barbecued meat that is really good. Yesterday, Elder Barboza and I tried to visit as many members as possible to say good bye. That night we had a water balloon fight in the house and all of our beds and sheets were wet so we ended up just sleeping really wet and cold. My new companion seems to be pretty cool but we will see more I guess this week. Sorry this is so short but I have lots of pictures to make up for it. These are frorm the past 3 weeks or so.

Love and miss you lots 

Elder Black

Week 17

Well another week has past and I am on the last week of my training. Next week at this time I will have a new companion and possibly a new area. But this past week has been pretty good. This week I had to give a capacitación or a lesson thingy in our district meeting so I had to talk for 10 minutes straight in Spanish. That day for lunch we had some of the biggest sandwiches I have ever seen. They were the size of my head and really good. I had splits again this Wednesday and that was a lot of fun. Elder Fuentes and I walked up to what I think is the highest house in all of Salta. The view is really pretty from there. On Thursday they cut all of the power to all of our area at the night so we were without power again for part of a day. It was really hot in our house. This week on Saturday we had another baptism. We were really worried that it wasn't going to happen because we couldn't meet with her 3 times in a row but it ended up all working out in the end. I got to baptize her and on Sunday I also confirmed her in Spanish and that was really hard and scary.

Well that is my week. I miss you all a lot.

Elder Black

 

In letter to his mom this week:  Well mission life is pretty great at times but it can be really hard as well I only send the good stuff.  I saw a car racing on the autodromo and I thought it was going to crash and wreck. That was pretty cool. I was also the only blonde person to get my hair cut in this barber shop I went to in his 2 year working there.

Week 16

Well another week has passed and this one was pretty interesting. We had divisions one day and my companion and the leader of the district were walking and they got robbed. Someone reached into my companions front pocket and stole our cellphone so they then had to go to the police and sort it out but now we have a new phone because they couldn't find it. I was with Elder Mejia. We had interviews with the mission president this week and I did it all in Spanish. YAyyyyyyyyyyyy. But  I have finally gotten sick. I think I am running a bit of a fever and I have a runny nose and my throat hurts but it is all right because the mission is the only place where hard work actually makes you feel better. It rained a whole bunch again this week but we managed to avoid the most of it. Well freak my weeks are starting to blur together and I can't tell the difference between them. But we have another baptism this Saturday and that is going to be great. I am sorry I forgot my camera today and don't have any pictures but I promise I will try to bring it the next time.

Love you all lots

Elder Black

Week 15???

Well I am beginning to forget how many week I have here. This week went by super fast. I feel like I was just writing. I closed my eyes and now I am here. My companion only has 3 weeks before he goes home and he is both really sad and really excited. I have been doing really well this week. It rained really hard two days here and I got super wet. I can tell that it is changing to fall because it has started to rain 2 times every week. This week I went to a new part of the area that I have never been to before and it was really high and I could look down and see all of my area. It was super pretty. I actually saw the autodromo, Car race track, but there was no one on it besides some horses. I learned how to make empanadas today and they are super delicious. Elder Fuentes the other elder in our house had his one year anniversary and he burned a shirt for that and I have a video but I can't get my SD card to work again because I am in a different lugar because it is carneval and everything is closed today. Well I miss you all so much.

Con Amor

Elder Black

Week 14

Hola todos,

I once again forgot my paper and I will have to try to remember what happened. This P-Day we didn't do much because Elder Barboza had medical and the doctor wasn't even there. This week went by really fast. Our recently baptized covert Luis has made friends with his neighbor who is a inactive and Luis brought him to church. I was really happy this week because we had almost 10 inactives and less actives come to church. I had a zone conference where the president of the mission came and talked to us and this is my second one in the mission and the difference in what I could understand was amazing. I could basically understand all of what was being said and the last time I barely understood the prayer. We had service this week at our ward mission leaders house and he told us that he just finished putting in his paper to go on his mission. He is 24 and a convert of 1 year 3 months. There was a huge rain storm that flooded all of the streets that was super awesome and we were walking down the street in the middle of a lightning storm. Also we had to move our new fridge and oven into our house so I can cook again YAHHH.... Food. Hmmm What else..... I got my camera memory to work again so I will try to send as many pictures as possible. It is amazing here and I miss you all so much.

Love Elder Black

My District

Salta

Salta

Elder Barboza and friend

Baptism Day

This is me and Elder Fuentes moving our kitchen in the back of a truck going really fast and it almost fell out a lot of times.

My trip to McDonald's and the best McFlurry I have ever eaten.

McDonald's

Baptism Day

Moving

My 3 kilos of dulce de leche.

The best meal I have had so far in Argentina.

The Hospital

Moving

The member that we did service for.

Week 13

Well I accidentally lost the paper with what happened this week so I will try to make it up by memory.

This week was pretty good. We didn't have a lot of time to work because we changed houses and that took up almost 2 days of the week. But this Saturday we had a baptism which is super awesome. I got to baptize him because Elder Barbozas arm still isn't functioning 100%. Lets see. We were actually early to church on Sunday because all of our investigators besides 3 couldn't make it.  I visited a McDonald today and had one of the best McFlurries ever. I also cut my hair because it was realllllyyyy long. Hmmmmmm I don´t remember too much but I learned how to solve a rubix cube and I cut my finger with my knife already. The youth here have the oportunidad to serve a mini mission for 2 to 3 weeks where they live and are the companion to a real missionary. I know that this work is so important and I know that there are so many people just waiting to here the gospel. It is something really special to watch the change in a persons life as they come to accept the gospel of Christ in their life. I helped contact our baptism, Luis, and watched him grow in the gospel that I know is true. Well I miss and love you all lots.

Elder Black

Week 12

Well I am really short on time and I might not have time to write everyone but here was my week. I made it through my first transfer in the field and it was much faster than in the MTC.

Tuesday

Now we can't use bikes anymore and we use buses called collectivos and they are so slow.  Today was the last district meeting with this district but I can't upload pictures because the computers here suck. 

Wednesday

We had a really good and busy day today with 6 lessons and one really serious one about baptism. I heard the song Big in Japan today and Alphaville was so out of place here. 

Thursday

I still haven't grown to like planning but it went well. I got to plan in my new planner and Elder Barboza planned in his last planner. One of our investigators got married today and he is now ready to be baptized. 

Friday

We had service where we moved a bunch of dirt again but we found a new house and we move in there on Monday. I met another drunk man that I couldn't understand and when I was watching the district today it switched to Spanish and it took me almost 30 seconds to realize it switched languages.

Saturday

I cleaned the baptism font and one of our investigators gained a testimony of the prophet which is awesome, but he was worried he had to cut his hair to be a member. 

Sunday

 Elder Dobson is leaving and I am super sad about that because he was awesome but he is going to be zone leader in Tucuman. We had 7 investigators come to church which is crazy and it was raining today and that was really nice and refreshing.

I know that the gospel blesses families and that our families are bound for eternity. 

Miss you all so much 

Love 

Elder Black 

P.S. I still can't get my pictures to upload sorry