You can reach Levi by email at levi.lamoreaux@myldsmail.net
Levi's Quest in Argentina will soon be coming to a close. Levi will be returning home on July 6, 2011 after serving an unforgettable journey throughout the countryside surrounding Cordoba, Argentina.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Training and More

So training:

My companion is Elder Andrew Haacke from Farmington, Utah (that's where Lagoon is at). He is a stud and we get along great. He works hard, doesn't speak but tries and when in doubt he testifies but he is going to learn quick. He is the middle of three children and his favorite band is Brand New. We work hard and I'm learning a ton. I didn't feel my Spanish was as good as it could've been but now I have to understand everything people say because I don't have somebody backing me up (in the understanding department), but I'm way happy to be serving with him.

We finally received a new window Friday (the night a storm blew in) and we're almost done undoing the damage done.

I had to go do some paperwork for immigration today, giving up the majority of my p-day, but it's cool.

I ate lunch with an American family on Sunday! Elder Guthrie's parents and older brother came down to pick him up from Argentina, spent the week here and ate with us Sunday afternoon. His older brother was proof that there is life after the mission. I already knew there was but sometimes it seems like a myth. Like in "Logan's Run" you think they're leaving and going to another place and all is good but you never really know.

I ate this way good thing called ñoquis this week. It is a potato noodle. Yeah sounds weird but try it, way good.

Anyways that's about the week. I'm happy to be here. I love the ward, the investigators, the missionaries, it's a great place to be. God has shown me many things in my short time here and I learn something everyday.

I love you guys. Take care.


LMX

Monday, February 15, 2010

Weekend At Bernies (idk why, nobody died but that's what came to my mind)

Okay well a lot happened this week but all you are going to hear about is the weekend.

1100 hours: Work day begins. A couple lessons. A couple more rejections. Your normal morning.

1330 hours: Lunch with the Campos family. Lunch was way awesomely delicious. As we are eating a storm rolls in from nowhere and it starts raining hard. We finish eating and pray the winds and the rains die down soon so we can leave and fill the baptismal font. Neither the rain nor the winds ceased, and we could not chill in their house and we had things to do so we left in the pouring rain. As we make it out to the main street we only see a river where the road once stood. We removed our shoes, rolled our pants (which still got wet) and waded the rushing stream.

1700 hours: In the chapel we start filling the font and were going to set up chairs and all that when we realized we had forgotten a key, so we return to the apartment (only two blocks away). As we approach the corner on which we live we noticed the window on our top floor was missing. We climb the stairs to our apartment and open the door to a flooded apartment. Everything is soaked. Elder Guthrie (one of the APs) just finished his mission and all his luggage was sitting on the now flooded floor. So as we go up to our second floor we see shattered glass everywhere. The storm had blown the window which gave us trouble a couple weeks back and shattered the entire sliding glass door, permitting all the rain to enter upstairs and filter through our wooden floors to the lower level. We salvaged what we could but there is no time, there is a baptism and it must go on. Then we make it back to the chapel and finish setting everything up and we get a phone call from the missionary in charge of all the apartments, and the APs to assess the damage. So we had to return to the apartment again. Then finally make it to the chapel for the last time.

1900 hours: The baptismal service begins for Agustin and Rocío. It was one of the best I have ever been to (and not to brag or anything but I kinda planned it). A ton of people showed up and everything was awesome. It was, dare I say, legendary.

2100 hours: Elder Pacheco and I are feeling crazy good from what happened and everyone is having fun eating refreshments and enjoying one anothers company. We are enjoying our cake and Elder Pacheco and I start joking around like I'm president and he is Elder Guthrie and we are reenacting his exit interview (of how we thought it went), when who happens to call, President Olsen. I love President Olsen but you cannot be a little nervous/anxious when he unexpectedly calls. He speaks to Elder Pacheco and tells him of his transfer news. Elder Pacheceaux (as he likes to write his name now haha) is now a zone leader. I gave him a ZL high five but then President wanted to speak with me. He delivered me my transfer news as well (which is usually done by the DL (district leaders) or ZL(zone leader)), let's say it was a little surprising and I'm not sure how I feel.

0030 hours: we finally finish getting all the water out of our apartment and get to bed.

As for Sunday I had the privilege of confirming Rocío a member of the church and giving her the gift of the Holy Ghost.

As for my new companion and his description, I apologize but you are going to have to wait till next week for that information. Why? Because he has not arrived to Argentina yet. I meet him tomorrow afternoon.

Well I am very grateful for this opportunity to serve and have such awesome experiences regardless of flooding, I love what I am doing and this gospel and the power it has.

Catch ya next week.

LMX

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Transfers Next Week - Where Will I Be

Tis the last week of the transfer, so next week I'll fill you in on how that turns out. As for this week some interesting things went down. Elder Pacheco and I were doing some missionary work one day and had this lady stopped on her bike to talk to us in the street and ask if we needed help or if we were looking for someone in particular. We said yeah we were looking for you (not verbatim but still something along those lines). The following day we had a lesson with Santiago and he told us about his neighbor who has nine cats and that there is was a house down the street with 18 dogs. Well we finished our lesson and followed up on what was next on the agenda. We heard a ruckous of canines and laughed saying hey this must be the house Santiago was talking about. Well this house turns out to be the lady who stopped us on her bike. So we knocked and counted 16 dogs outside, she let us and how many dogs were inside, 12....and eight cats. It's the first two story house I've entered on my quest and she lives upstairs while all her animals live downstairs. It was kinda a little, okay, really crazy but she's way solid and excited to hear more.

Fun story number two, Saturday's baptism. We show up to the chapel to fill the font and all that, but the there was a little problem. The last baptism in Argüello was about seven weeks ago, the water was still sitting in the font from that baptism. The font does not drain like a bathtub, you have to use a pump, so of course the pump was broken. We tried to use buckets, but it took about three seconds to realize that we could not pail out a significant number of liters. So we scratched our heads for a long time and called the whole ward roster and finally got it fixed at 6:20 (fourty minutes before the baptism was supposed to start). Then at seven one of our baptists disappeared and I don't even remember the rest, but I do remember it was a super spiritual packed with people dunkfest (baptism). I also learned how to improve on the baptismal service this weekend.

I cannot remember anything else from the week because those two events are occupying my mind at the moment (the baptism more so than 28 dogs and 8 cats).

I'm stoked the Saints won and that my family is hXc awesome. I love y'all and I'll catch ya the fifteenth.

Chao,

LMX

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Ridiculously Hot and Waiting for a Cool Down

Hey there,

Alright so this was an interesting busy week. We finally found some investigators who are progressing because the majority of everyone we had has fallen through the cracks. We teach about families and temples about 673 times a day so it kinda makes me trunky (missionary term for nostalgic, but not in a bad way) for the temple and my family. I taught a lesson using all the photos you sent me, with the big winner beginning Tyra's baptism. I fell ill for the first time in my mission! w00t w00t. No idea what I ate or did but I did not sleep nor have the capacity to study or even work yet somehow I did. And one of the people I found that day came to church (which ended up being three hours of rebuking the ward in every aspect, interesting first Sunday in church, but I think it'll work out). Yes from my comment last week, I spoke last minute in Sacrament meeting, then visited an investigator who was at church and said she learned from what I said, way cool.

I'm doing good and things with my companion are pretty good too. Everyone keeps asking about the food here in Argentina and what I miss. I miss syrup and peanut butter and burritos and tacos and fajitas, and basically all of it, but Mexican more than the rest. I have only found one burrito and I don't know if I will ever find more. Tortillas don't even exist here :( but there is a restaurant down the street who just start making tacos so maybe a Mexican revolution is starting in Argentina, and it's about time (although I have to yet to try the tacos, there's not
time to eat at restaurants). Argentine food is interesting. It's all ridiculously basic and often bland...but not bad. They eat french bread with every meal, but it's hard to find good bread. But the best food would probably be empanadas. They are similar to a miniature tortilla and they can be filled with ham or cheese or chicken, but usually hamburger with onion and cooked with lemon.

The weather is still ridiculously hot, and inside houses is always hotter than outside because no one has AC or fans so we bake inside the cinder block homes, hopefully fall gets here soon. I'm not in the big building part of the city, I'm on the outskirts part, kinda like home, except that pavement is rare (it's all uncared dirt roads, and the majority of the people with any type of vehicle drive scooters, it's interesting).

Some more answers to questions: my ward has 192 members, no missionaries, as for youth and primary I am not sure on the numbers. I use the computer at the cyber (nobody in Argentina has their own computer so these businesses are all over the place). President Olsen decided to mess around with our p-days so yeah usually I write late because the circumstances are weird and I'm not a fan, we'll see if this schedule sticks come July when a new president arrives.

Elder Holland gave a talk to the mission presidents in South America about the "divine companionship" which is all about the companionship between the missionary and the Spirit. So Pres Olsen always references it.

Thanks for all the updates, sounds like you're all busy, and doing well. I'm glad. I love you and I'll catch ya next week,

Levi

ps I found a sale on ADES (the most delicious beverage ever, it's soy juice which sounds weird but it's McDonalds).