Monday, June 30, 2008

Picture - TK at the Zoo on June 11th


Sweet tie - I need one like that for the fourth...

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Email Letter - 25 June 2008

Hey Fam,

So first things first, we had our last zone conference with President and Hermana Shakespear...for real this time. They are really leaving this weekend. He got up to give his doctrine lesson for this conference and starting by bearing his testimony of the work and of the gospel. It was really powerful and moving to hear him share his love for us. Next week we will meet President Castillo and his wife and two daughters that he’s bringing with him. It will be different but it will be good.

So I got my new comp finally ha-ha and he is a little bit different. His name is Elder Adams and he’s from Arizona, he has been here for 17 months and people still can’t understand him. More often than not I have to ¨translate¨ for our investigators and members. It’s a little hard because lots of times I don’t fully understand myself what he is saying or what our investigators are saying but I’m getting there. I would say that by the end of this transfer that I’ll be able to understand just about everything and then pretty soon after I’m hoping to be able to speak in the way that I want to.

I have had to work a lot with my patience with this one but it is helping me to grow for sure. I am very grateful for Elder Avalos and what he taught me with doing all the books and things because my comp doesn’t really like to help me with those either. He’s a little bit stuck on worldly things like girls and music but I’m doing my best to look past all of that and work with him. He has a bad past of breaking rules with other comps and that worries me a little bit but it also shows that president has a lot of confidence in me and trusts me to work hard and to help him to do the same.

I have been told that I should move up fast into leadership positions if I don’t get put into the office. It’s a little scary but I would love to be a zone leader or something for a long period of my mission. People think that I'll move up to district leader not next transfer but maybe the one after and then train and then move up from there. Scary thought for sure but it would be fun I think. Ha-ha.

Today we had the whole zone in Saenz Pena again and we played basketball and went out to lunch. It was way fun but I just found out that there are golf courses in Resistencia and in Posadas (Missiones) and so I wanna go there to hit up some golf. Ha-ha.

Overall things are going well and I’m getting better and things because I’m in a position where I have to. We will see how it all works out but I’m trying to be as positive as I can. I love you guys so much. Take care of yourselves.

Tay

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Email Letter - 18 June 2008

Hey family,

So I’ll start with the phone call that I got on Saturday morning from my zone leaders saying that we needed to get to the supermarket and buy as much food as we could but enough for at least a week, it was really just in time and I know that President Shakespear must have received some revelation because Saturday night is when it got really bad. The markets ran out of milk among other things. Ha-ha. Life as a missionary in Argentina. Now I’ll explain why, the president of Argentina is making some bad decisions in the eyes of a lot of people but especially the farmers so they are blocking all of the major roads in almost every province in the country and won’t move.

This is especially bad because we are trying to do transfers this week and it’s just getting worse not any better. As of right now I’m stuck in Saenz Pena with my two zone leaders. I’m getting a new comp who is stuck and can’t get to me and my old comp left already. A quick side note, in order to get to Saenz Pena we had to take a taxi and go in dirt roads and stuff. It was so crazy but quite an experience. We are hoping that they will at least let some busses pass so that we can get missionaries to their areas but I’m pretty sure that there will be a lot of people taking back roads to get to where they need to be this week. It’s a little crazy but its fun as well.

So I’m sorry to hear about another water mess but look at the bright side...at least you have water.

As far as my package goes, that’s pretty sweet that Danny Russell is bringing it and I’m sure that it will get here way faster but just send it to the mission home and I’ll get it in a couple weeks when I’m there for zone conference. I had no idea that Danny was doing that kind of stuff but it’s pretty cool.

So other than the road blocks and no one having food things are going well. We have a few families that we are excited to teach and one that is progressing really well that I’m so ready to baptize. Ha-ha.

So the Hermana that feeds us every Saturday came down hard on the other Hermana's in our branch on Sunday. She was teaching them about missionary work and asked why none of them have been helping us with our appointments and why they haven’t been feeding us. That’s when the branch president’s wife chimed in and told all of them that we didn’t have any food and we don’t have any money to get food so they need to feed us. These two Hermanas would do anything for us and they are basically our moms here. One washes all of our clothes and the other feeds us every week. It was funny because that same day right after church we had two other Hermanas ask us when we could go have lunch at their houses. Hna Suarez and Hna Gomez are our life savers and we love them.

So my new companion that I haven’t met yet is a gringo which means that I get to speak English!!! (I’m not so sure that’s a good thing because my Spanish wont progress as fast) I’m still excited though. I hear mixed reviews about him so we´ll see how things go. I’m sure everything will be fine and I hope that we have lots of success together but I’ll have to tell you more about him next week because I don’t know him yet.

I’m a little bit sad to hear that they changed the regions around and that Provo won’t have the good old Timpview rivalry anymore but it will probably be good for both schools. It sounds like Provo got put into the weaker region though which is a little interesting but whatever.

Anyway I want you all to know how much I love you and appreciate all that you do for me. Take care and I’ll write next week. Love you!!!

Tay

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Email Letter - 11 June 2008

Hey Fam,

So some bad news to start of this letter, we ran into some serious problems with Nora...the lady that I was supposed to baptize this weekend. She had some things that she wasn’t really honest with us about but that came out in her interview so we won’t be able to baptize her now but maybe a ways down the road. It was hard to take but I’m glad that she chose to work it out now.

We have some really great investigators right now and things are going well. I’m starting to understand more now but it’s still tough to get used to because they speak in vos here (I don’t know if I explained that) anyway things are getting better.

We have transfers next week which will be fun because there is a very very good chance that either I’ll get moved or my trainer will, more likely him because he´s almost at the end of the allotted amount of time that you can have in one area. I got word that President Shakespear will be here for the next round of zone conferences to introduce the new president. That will be weird not to have pres. Shakespear anymore but it will be good for him to get home to his family.

So today we are in Saenz Pena again for p-day but today we went to the zoo here which was pretty fun and I took lots of crazy pictures.

Overall things are going really well and I’m starting to take over lessons more and more when I can understand and answer in the way that I want to. I get a lot of compliments on how well I’m speaking from members and from my comp and even from the assistants to the president. I still can’t really talk the way that I want to but people understand what I’m trying to say so I’m making progress.

I’m always glad to hear that things are going so well with everyone and I can’t wait for the football season to start so that I can hear how well the boys are doing and Hayleigh with her dance as well. I want you all to know how much I love and miss you. Take care.

Tay

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Email Letter - 04 June 2008

Hey Fam,

So we´re in Saenz Pena again today and we all got together to play ping pong again and we bought a bunch of ice cream and made a lot of peach cobbler. Oh it was good. Who would have thought that a bunch of elders in a third world country could figure out how to make peach cobbler. Ha-ha.

Anyway I have some good news...we are going to have a baptism a week from Saturday if everything goes as planned. Tomorrow we are going to go over the baptismal questions with Nora and answer any questions that she has and then on Friday our district leader is going to give her the real interview and if that goes well the baptism is on! It’s an exciting thing and I can’t wait.

It has been really cold as of late, and when I say that I’m cold it must really be cold right. It has also been raining which has been horrible because we just get muddy. So yesterday we had the bomb in our area but it wasn’t really a bomb because only two other elders came. The others were either sick or were too busy. It was a good one though. We got a lot done and found a lot of families that we can now go back and teach and that’s what we needed.

So as far as transfers go...we have them in two weeks and I’m almost positive that one of us will go but I think it will be him because he’s almost at his limit in one area. You never know though.

We had our last formal interviews with President Shakespear last Thursday and even though it was so amazing I wish that it could have gone on forever because at the end he said...¨Elder this is my last formal interview with you¨ that was a heart breaker. We talked about how I’ll have to give him and Hermana a visit after I finish my mission which I’m looking forward to doing in 20 months and three weeks. It’s amazing how fast time is going here.

One thing that I have realized is that I wish I never would have stopped playing the piano...yes dad you were right. My new zone leader is so amazing at the piano and it makes me wish that I would have just stuck it out. Oh well, shoulda coulda woulda right.

So some unfortunate news, since it has been so cold my knee has been getting pretty stiff again. I’m working with it every morning and I’m sure that it will get better with time so don’t worry.

I want you all to know how much I love and miss you. Thank you for all of your love and support. Take care.

Love, Tay