Cací...

Well, it´s P-day once again folks! So... here I am!!! Well, this has been quite a week, and it was a pretty good one over all.  This week, we had interviews with the president of the mission, and that was fantastic! I feel rejuvenated!!! Seriously, it´s nice to have a conversation (in English) with someone, just about the mission and what to improve on. Also, we had divisions this week! I went with Elder Jamaica (from Colombia) to his zone, and worked with him for the day, Friday.  That was a fantastic learning experience outside of Munro! At one point, we were teaching this family in a store, and I was having a conversation with them.  Like, completely understanding and responding! Now, there are still people with accents that I can´t understand here, but I can gradually still feel progress.

Oh, last week on P-day, we went to Chinatown and walked around and ate at an all you can eat restaurant.  I ate a LOT and it hurt a bit after... worth it.  Also, there was a little miracle there.  It was 130 pesos, and I had the EXACT amount that I needed.  Didn´t have a single peso on/with me after that (chuckles).  

Speaking of miracles, I had one the other day.  Well, Saturday, we were sitting in the train station, and I was a little bummed out. I said a prayer, asking what I need to do, and felt the impression that in order to earn a miracle, I needed to contact 5 people alone.  Well, usually Elder Cedeño starts the conversation, and I throw in bits and chunks throughout, but I said "Alrighty, here we go!" So, I put my soul into it, and contacted those 5 people throughout the day.  The next morning, we were walking to a less active´s house before church, and we contacted a man (This is a funny story, more or less).  We talked with him; he said that he was trying to overcome alcohol right now.  We told him that the way he could do this was applying the gospel of Jesus Christ to his life.  We invited him to church, and he said ok.  We were super psyched! We walked to his house so that he could change and get ready.  We waited after he entered for about 20 minutes, then he came out waved us off, and said he wasn´t going! hahaha! Well, his loss. Anyways, the miracle came when we arrived at church. A less active member that we´ve been working with, Francisco Perez, attended, and also brought his son, who hasn´t been baptized! So, we´re teaching him right now. A scripture that I like with this is Ether 12:6, which says that We don´t receive a witness until after the trial of our Faith. (That probably isn´t exact, I haven´t read a scripture in English in a while). But anyways, milagros son reales! Estoy todavía agradecido a estar aquí, y gracias a ustedes por su amor y apoyo! 
Translation: (Miracles are real! I am still grateful to be here and thank you for your love and support!)

-Elder Holtry 

Zona Norte

Got this photo from Elder Holtry's mission presidents wife today! This is his Zone.

¡Que Facha!

First things first, Dulce de Leche es increíble!  Also, I've forgotten more or less what the American dollar is worth, but I know it´s about 10 pesos.  I love the amount of bread that I can get for those 10 pesos! Again, I don´t remember exactly, but I can get a bag full of bread for 10 pesos, which I’m not sure I can do with a dollar... Espero que ese tiene sentido. Now, there´s that, and a short update on the language.  It´s coming a little more easily, for example, there´s this one guy in our ward, and I’ve pretty much never been able to understand him.  Well, the other day, he was accompanying us on visits, and I was able to understand him a bit and talk with him also, so, maybe there´s hope... :) 

There´s really not a whole lot to report from this week.  The district is progressing well, and overall we have some baptisms coming up.  We´re working pretty hard in Munro right now in order to get a baptism here as well.  We can usually get our investigators reading the Book of Mormon and praying, but the attendance of church is always difficult.  People are always making excuses about why they can´t attend.  Well, I was thinking about this, and really, we all need to ask the question of "Am I making enough time for God in my life?" This is a question of grand importance, and I can testify from experience here in the mission and before, that if we make sacrifices and dedicate time and effort to the Lord, He will in turn make time for us. 

Ésta es la obra del Señor.  Yo sé que ésta iglesia es de Jesucristo.  Hermanos, a través de su fe, ustedes pueden obrar milagros, y recibir respuestas a sus oraciones.  Gracias por todo.  

--

-Elder Holtry

Un poco mas cómodo

Aloooooooooha! Well, there goes another week.  So, here´s a fun fact.  We as a zone play fútbol every week, usually gringos against latinos.  The latinos usually barely beat us by one point, but we finally won with a 3 point lead! So ya, there´s that.  Also, i bought an original jersey of Argentina, which flippin´rocks! I haven´t had a conversation in English for weeks, so i´m going insane a little bit, but that´s ok! I´m to the point where, obviously i´m not fluent, but i can hold a conversation in Spanish for a little bit.  It´s just hard, since there´s, you know, a whole language of words that i need to know! But, I can function here, so that´s good.  I´m used to the swing of things here, so life´s a bit smoother.

As I've said before, the people here are super humble and awesome.  One of the people in our ward, Hermano Cruz, he´s having trouble with one of his legs right now (He can´t move it well, because it´s stiff and painful).  He uses an old shopping cart to get around when he goes to the store.  Elder Cedeño and I ran into him on our way to an appointment, trudging along with his cart.  We helped him back to his house, and he informed us that he´d left for the store at around 12 (It was then 4 or so).  Holy cow! 

Well, there´s no doubt in my mind of the truth of this Gospel.  Through our fasting and praying, we have been blessed to see miracles.  The Lord hardly ever works in the way we think he will! This Sunday, I was thinking that we were going to maybe have some random people arrive at the church or something like that, but instead, we were blessed with the opportunity to teach lessons to the friends of church members, which lessons were not planned for.  There´s just things like that, where we´re blessed with opportunities to share the gospel to people who are ready to hear it.  

Como siempre, yo realmente se que esta es la iglesia de Jesucristo, la cual ha sido restaurado a la iglesia por medio de un profeta de Dios.  Esta es un gran oportunidad que tenemos aquí, a compartir a verdad.  Hay oposición constantemente, pero sabemos porque estamos aquí. y sabemos que esta verdad puede bendecir vidas- sí, cada persona puede encontrar mas gozo y consuelo a través de estas cosas.  Yo quiero compartir este testimonio en el sagrado nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

(editors note- I translated for you through google J ) - 

As always, I really think this is the church of Jesus Christ, which has been restored to the church through a prophet of God. This is a great opportunity we have here, to share truth. There is opposition constantly, but we know why we are here. and we know that this truth can bless lives-yes, everyone can find more joy and comfort through these things. I want to share this testimony in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

As for the title of the e-mail: Un poco mas cómodo - means "A little more comfortable"

-Elder Holtry 

Today, we went to a pizza place, all you can eat.  I had 15 pieces, but i think I could have downed a couple more... we played soccer after, and a couple of people threw up!

 Tally marks are for numbers of pieces of pizza eaten! 

¿Me Doy Cuenta?

Well, first off, one funny thing this week was during a lesson. We were teaching this lesson in the street with a member and his friend.  While Elder Cedeño was talking, this drunk guy (named Pocho) came up to me and started telling me about his life, how it was a mess, and asked if i had any advice for him.  So, i told him a little bit about how it´s important that we establish goals in the future, and follow guidlines in order to obtain these goals.  We then obtained his contact info and that was that.  Fun stuff! I´m hoping his address is correct, because he didn´t seem to sure at the time... jajaja!

Well, we´ve taught some pretty good lessons this week, and i´m grateful for those.  Oh! One small thing to mention is transfers! Neither me or Elder Cedeño were transfered, but our zone has been moved around a bit.  

One fun thing about Argentina is the police force here.  They´re always patrolling and flashing lights, and the other day, some drove past us on motorcycles, in all black, with shotguns in hand. Fun fun!  

oh, another thing I want to mention is that it´s super annoying when these people try to talk to me in English.  I´m trying to learn the language, so i really don´t want much English interference... plus they don´t know enough to actually explain anything, so it´s just all around better if the speak to me only in Spanish... ergh... but, oh well!

Oh, the title of this email is "Do I realize?" In our last reunion of the zone, the question was posed of if we really realize the importance of this work.  Do we realize how much joy and comfort we can bring into lives? This is really a serious thing we´re doing.

Ok, one cool lesson that we had this week was with a guy named Carlos Maria.  We were visiting a member, her neighbor walked by.  We talked with him outside for a minute, and he brought up the question of where we go after this life, and a few other things with that.  We were pretty much like, wellllll, we can tell you a bit about that!  It´s really nice that this Gospel is from Christ, because it has the answers to Life´s questions! So, for the next hour or so we talked to him and taught him the Plan of Salvation.  We left him with the commitment to pray about it, and we´re going to try to meet with him again.  It´s a little difficult, because his life doesn´t have an horario (I can´t remember the word for that in English at the moment, but you have google... ) 

So ya, a good week.  Cada Día, Yo se mas y mas que este evangelio es verdadero.  Estoy tratando a mejorar mi mismo, a mediante Jesucristo, yo puedo hacer esto. Yo oro cada día para ustedes! Les quiero! 

-Elder Holtry

 Our Zone

 What we thought was Elder Cedeno’s last supper, but it turns out he didn’t get transferred so we are still companions!

 Our Zone