Email Letter - 29 October 2008

Hey Family,

So I finally got transferred as you all know and I met my comp. His name is Elder Patterson and he’s from Spanish Fork. He goes home this February and we are the branch Presidency of the Reconquista, West Branch.

Here is Reconquista there are very few active members which I think is the case in lots of areas down here but in this zone its even less.

So there is a couple that are serving their mission here, The Caspersons. And Elder Casperson is the District President and he has two counselors and then our zone leaders are his secretaries. Then there are two other branches that have missionaries as the presidents and counselors including mine and then two others that have presidents and the missionaries are the counselors to them. It’s a little bit different and there is a lot of stress because we can only go out and work a total of maybe two days a week because of all the things we have to do to get everything functioning correctly. We have interviews that we have to do and finances and mutual for the youth and just everything. I guess I have gained a lot of respect for those of you who have served as bishops or counselors or secretaries over the years because now I know just exactly what you have been doing. Especially right now because of tithing settlement.

My comp and I have two areas; one is Reconquista, West and then a place about an hour away on a bus that’s called Villa Ocampo. There are no missionaries out there and the branch president there needs help with finances and stuff like that because he can’t do it alone so we go out there once a week to help him out and to talk to members.

I’ve got a lot on my plate and I’m just trying to sort it all out and get on track. My comp told me that we have an average of 5-10 people every Sunday at church and that’s including us. We conduct and bless and pass the sacrament and make sure that everything runs as smoothly as we can make it. Then after church we are there with our secretary for awhile doing finances and planning things like when we can have presidency meeting and do mutual and who we can visit to make things run better in the branch.

I guess they were right when they said that the mission gets you ready for the rest of your life.

I’m planning on becoming president within the next 3 or 4 months when my comp leaves but we will see how things go.

We have some really good investigators and we are working with them whenever we have a spare minute here and there and we have also made some planes to work with the families most in need in the branch. On my first day here with my comp after cleaning up our house some...because it was and really still is nasty!!!...but better now. We went out so that I could meet some members. The first family we went to visit was the Molinas Family and Sister Molinas didn’t waste any time making me cry. She told me about how her husband along with another guy in the branch were on their way back from church meetings in Resistencia almost 3 years ago when they got in an accident and both men died. Both of these families are in our branch and both of them consist of 6 kids with just the mom to raise them. As of right now they are both inactive but when she was telling me the story I began to cry and realized just how much help they need right now. I’m excited to be in this leadership role in the branch so that I can try to help these two families and many more to come back to church and receive the blessings that the lord has for them.

It’s going to take some work but I know that I’m in this area for a reason and that I can get over this feeling of stress and start helping like I should.

Thank you for all of your love a support. I love a miss all of you. Take care.

Tay

Email Letter - 22 October 2008

Hey Family,

So first things first...I GOT TRANSFERED! I’m going to a place called Reconquista, Santa Fe. It’s a place that not many missionaries get to go because we only have one zone in Santa Fe so the odds aren’t very good that someone will go. I’m pretty excited but I don’t know what to expect. I hear that my new companion is a nerd and doesn’t really like sports at all. So we are pretty much complete opposites to say that least. It’s going to take some getting used to but it will all work out.

That’s pretty crazy to hear about Chris. Is he home then? What are the odds? I didn’t think that something like that would ever happen to me or any of my friends. He’s going to be okay then?

So Sunday was mother’s day here in Argentina and we got invited over to a member’s house for lunch and the food made me sick. I haven’t been able to keep anything down and I just feel weak. I thought that I was over the sick phases of my mission but I guess not. It didn’t help that it was 110degrees yesterday and we were out walking around. It made it a lot worse I think.

The weather is so weird here. It was hot yesterday and it rained overnight and now it’s cold. It’s the most rain that Chaco has seen in a very long time. They needed it here and I’m happy they got it but it didn’t have to be so much.

So like I said I’m moving and I’m sick which made last night a very long night. I had to finish packing and it just made things more difficult when I had to throw up or go outside and use the bathroom. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep so I’m hungry and tired and just not feeling my best.

On top of that I won’t get to my area until around 11pm tonight. What a long day of just sitting on busses. I guess that’s the life of being transferred.

I’ve been talking so much about wanting to leave and now that it’s happening I don’t want it to. We have some really good investigators and I have a feeling that they will get baptized soon and I won’t be there to see the fruits of my labor. I’m sure that I'll have some success in Santa Fe though and that’s why I’m going there.

I better get running because I’m only done with stage one of three in my transfer. I love you guys. Take care!

Tay

Email Letter - 15 October 2008

Hey Family,

It has been so hot this week! Everyday but today has been around 100 degrees. You all know how much I just love the heat so you should know that it’s killing me. It doesn’t matter what time of day or even night, it is always hot and humid. It’s even worse when you have to walk around in a shirt and tie around your neck but it’s something that we just live with. It’s part of the work.

We have been teaching a lot more as of late and we’ve been getting a little bit of help from the members in the form of references and we have one member that is willing to help us with lessons when she can.

It’s transfers again next week and I’m not going to say anything because every single time I say that I’m going to move and I stay right here. I have decided to take a different approach this time and just not say anything. I’ve given my goodbye testimony like four times in sacrament meeting and I’m hoping to not have to give it again…in this area.

So story time…
Yesterday we were walking to an appointment and I felt something on the back of my neck, assuming that it was just a bug like always I grabbed it to throw it off and it stung me! It was a bee and it hurt. I killed the bee with my fingers and pulled out the stinger and started to feel the pain. My neck started to stiffen up and its still kinda sore today but again…the life of a missionary in Argentina.

Well that’s all for this week but I love you guys. Take care!

Tay

Email Letter - 08 October 2008

Hey Fam,


So things are going well here and I loved Conference! It was so amazing. It’s a lot different down here for sure but it still gets here and it’s nice to get advice and comforting words from our leaders. It was cool because in the first session on Saturday two of the three from our area presidency took part in the session. Pres Bowen said the prayer and Elder Adukaitus spoke. We were also all really excited when they announced the building of the Cordoba Temple! I think everyone in the whole world was surprised and excited about the ROME, ITALY temple so I won’t go into that. Ha-ha.

It’s been a good week here, we found some new investigators and we got a couple of references from members and other Elders which should turn out to work for us really well and it’s really exciting. A couple of interesting things have happened in the last few days and they go as follows

1- I was cleaning up the pench and I found a little lizard under my luggage. I guess that pretty common here so nothing to worry about. We enlisted the help of our neighbor to help us get it out and everything is fine now.

2- We got the pench fumigated yesterday so that should help with the bugs and stuff that again are very common down here.

3- My companion and I started running 3 times a week a few weeks back but plans have changed on that one, we are now running to our gym everyday but Saturday and Sunday to go lift and work out. How cool is that! I’m for sure excited about that and I’m hoping to lose some of those lbs that I’ve put on. I’m ready to turn it into muscle.

Things have just been going well. Like I said we have a few new investigators and are working on these contacts to get more. It’s starting to really progress and I love it. We have been making some good contacts that aren’t too far away from the church and they seem really excited to listen. We went out contacting the other day and we clapped this house and a girl answered the door. Her name is Vanessa and she lives with her mom. We asked her about her religion and why she thought that there are so many these days and her response was...¨well we are catholic but we don’t really do anything¨ we laughed with her and she invited us in to talk to she and her mom. They are really nice and ready to listen and I hope they get baptized. I’m just happy to be where I am right now and ready to keep working with the people in Villa Angela. That’s all for this week but I love you guys.


Tay

Email Letter - 01 October 2008

Dearest Family,

It sounds like things are going well and that everyone is staying busy…but that’s football season in the king household. Things are going well down here as well.

We had interviews with President Del Castillo yesterday and they were great. We also worked on our contacts. We are trying a new thing in our mission and maybe in the area or even the world but we are starting to use the pass along cards along with the pamphlets. Now the pass along cards are really just for the states and Canada but we figured out a way to make it work. It’s another way to speed up contacts in the street. President is really stressing that we talk to everyone that we see and not just clap houses.

We have practiced lots a different ways to do and we had an awesome practice with the Assistants to the president yesterday. We are practicing just going straight into doctrine because we know that on the streets people don’t really have a ton of time to just sit and talk to us. It’s been really effective in getting us working more and finding more people in a more efficient way.

Last week was Service Day for all of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay which is our area and we cleaned up a school. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work and it was so hot but it was cool to work all together as a Branch and not just us to missionaries. We worked hard and got a lot done.

It has been a good week and I’m looking forward to General Conference this week. We have had a lot of investigators say that they will come so I’m excited to see if they really will. The Area Presidency made some cool invitations for us to hand out and that has made it nice to invite people and a lot less work and money for us because now we don’t have to make them.

This hasn’t been a really busy cool week because we haven’t really been in our area so this email is short. I love you all. Take care and I’m sure that I'll have more to write next week.

Tay