My New Companion Arrived - Elder Herbertson

My new companion did arrive. I went to pick him up Friday. His name is Elder Scott R. Hebertson. He was born in Mesa, AZ but shortly thereafter moved to what is known in Argentina as the "elder factory", Utah...Sandy to be specific. He is a LOST fan and I almost lost control when he asked if I wanted to know how it ended, apart from that, however, we get along great and he is trying really hard to learn this language.

My mission conference is this Saturday, I'm excited to see everyone and Elder Andersen. I've been reading up on all his recent General Conference addresses so if he asks any questions I can respond with his own answers and impress him ;) That in Spanish is called "sucking socks" or in English commonly referred to as "brown nosing", for some reason I enjoy the Spanish way of saying suck up more.

Villa Maria is doing awesome. Ludmila Imerso (12) had to give a talk on Sunday...let's just say I taught her well.

I did take some money, it was because I needed to travel to Córdoba to pick up Elder Hebertson, but there is a little leftover and I'm thinking of putting it towards a skillet so I can actually cook...but I'm also leaning towards a tie for the mission conference. I don't know if I'll actually be able to see the temple groundbreaking, but I hope so. In Spanish it's called the "palada inicial" or literally the "first shovelful" haha.

So I don't know if you noticed, but today marks two months until our next phone call, and Christmas. If you were thinking of sending a Christmas package it would be greatly appreciated. Here is a list of suggestions: consecrated oil thing (IDK what it's called in English), American breakfast cereal, photos!!!!, a 2011 calendar (if were church related that would be sweet, just for reference my favorite church artist at the moment is Walter Rane), and whatever else your hearts desire.

Awesome story of the week: yesterday morning all of our investigators were sick or out of town or we still don't know why they didn't come to church, but a quiet sister in the branch who I had never said more than hi to brought one of her good friends. Well her friend loved all three hours of church and before we could, she asked when we could come and visit her. Miracle! Every time I work and work and work and I feel like nothing is going to pull through God repays me for the work. I'm super grateful and know that he directs this work.

Hope everyone has a stellar week, next time we talk I'll be two days short of twenty and a half years old.

Chaosito,

ELMX

Where Oh Where Can My Companion Be - Still in the MTC

Transfers, so this week things changed a little bit. I'm glad you were informed that I would not be emailing you on Monday, because all day Monday I was scared you'd be wondering what happened. So here is the news. Next Saturday, Elder Neil L. Andersen is coming for the ground breaking of the Córdoba Temple. While here, we are going to have a mission conference with him. In order to prepare everything for the conference, transfers came early, just this week though. Every week from here on out will be the normal Monday/six week schedule. As for transfer news, there were some changes. There are four elders that serve in my branch. One returned to his house, and the other left for Córdoba. One of the new elders that came is a former companion of mine, Elder Frias, back from the Oncativo days. He's not my companion, however. My companion is still in the MTC as of now! President Salas called me Monday night to inform me I'd be training again. I don't know what to think. Elder Haacke was one of the best companions I could have ever asked for, I'm hoping I'm blessed again in a similar fashion.

As for the Imerso family...they are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and happy! It was awesome. They are some of the best people I have ever met and are future calling holders. Super awesome!!!

As for Mike (a friend called to serve in Donetsk, Ukraine), that's crazy! Not just Europe, but Eastern Europe. The crazy hard angry languages haha. He's gonna love it! I'm excited to go to his homecoming in twenty five months.

Sunday was Argentina's Mother's Day. I tried to get permission to call you saying there was mate in my house which basically made you Argentine, but it didn't fly, so it looks like I have to wait till Christmas. I'm glad everyone is doing well. Tell my sisters I love them too and today we were talking about Wii tennis and I thought of the book Po made me because there is a Wii tennis photo in there :)

Love you all tons!

ELMX

Oh, So Much To Say...Rain...Trip...Interviews

Oh soo much to say for this week. First off your rain prediction was correct, Wednesday it rained and it rained hard all day. I had to travel to an area an hour and a half away for a baptismal interview, but President Salas had to conduct interviews with Elder Madriaga and Elder Adams first. Well President Salas showed up way late and we finally left Villa Maria at 6:30 to get to Las Varillas by 8:00 for the interview, well with the rain we got there late (8:30). The interview went great...but getting back home did not. We missed the last bus so we had to stay the night in Las Varillas. We slept on the floor, we slept in the cold, we ate a pizza called "el Aleman" or the "German" which made me sick, so as if the cold, hard floor wasn't enough to keep me up, the aftermath of the pizza was. We got home a little after 8:00 the following morning, tired and sore, but ready to work!

That same day we found out due to members of the branch leaving for the long weekend (Columbus Day), we had to change the baptism of the Imerso family to this week. Speaking of the Imerso family, yesterday all the kids in Sacrament Meeting were running around and being loud and irreverent while everyone was sharing their testimonies. Hermano Imerso got up to share his and the whole room turned quiet and still and filled with the Spirit. Awesome! Also, Friday night while planning what to teach them the following day Elder Vasquez and I were stuck. We had taught everything. He suggested teaching more specifically about temple work, but neither of us felt that's what they needed so we continued thinking when the story of the Liahona came to mind. In Alma 37 it describes how the Liahona functioned and how we can apply the Liahona to the words of Christ. We both felt this would be a better lesson. So we read the last part of Alma 37 with them and they started talking about how it was so clear. How following the scriptures and the prophets and Christ will guide us to a better future just like it guided Lehi's family. Then hermano Imerso told us he was exhausted from work and was contemplating taking a Sunday off, but that would be being lazy and not following the "Liahona". Super awesome. Also in church we had two new investigators. One is a simple woman and she loved it. The other is a lawyer with a lot of doubts but wants to learn more, so he is reading the teachings of President Kimball, haha.

I also ate dinner with the head of the missionary department last night. He's buddy with apostles and stuff and has a touch screen laptop thing. Coolest technology I have seen in awhile, haha. He is staying with the owner of the Zone Leaders house. He served here thirty years ago and continues his friendship with her. She is not a member, but her cancer disappeared after a blessing from Elder Scott when he was mission president here. It was pretty cool to meet him and eat dinner with him and her.

I became district leader when transfers happened. I have to give training in district meeting every week, do baptismal interviews, do exchanges, and make the zone leaders happy. The white bible explains it better than I can, I'm still trying to figure it out. Being a missionary is enough responsibility, but now I have to concern myself over four areas instead of one.

I'm glad everyone is doing well! Sports, school, work, callings, motorcycle rides, everything. Keep it up.

Love,

Elder LMX

Celebrating One Year in Argentina!

After a year in this country, I understand the language well, my accent is weak, but last night we met a woman and when I said I was from the states she was impressed at my Spanish, a couple minutes later she asked if I even spoke English, haha. Villa Maria is keeping me busy, too busy at times. So much to do, so little time. Elder Vasquez is doing well, I don't know if I mentioned that he is one of ten kids. This week I had the opportunity to work with an elder from Nicaragua who is one of fifteen. Today was another soccer Monday. I received a solid foot to the shin and have a nice baseball sized bump now.

I enjoy being a city again. It's so big it has two branches! And my branch is four elders away from being a ward. I'm working on that and we're adding one more male to the branch this weekend! I too am watching a family enter the waters of baptism this week! And luckily the only thing that has been stolen is one of my t-shirts, unlike your Elder's bikes.

I don't know where you get your weather information but I hope it is warm and dry. I had a cold, wet week. One of the coldest, wettest days of my quest was Friday (my day without the Panamanian and with the Nicaraguan). During this cold, wet day, my companion stopped by the chapel to dry his socks and shoes on the heater. Well, he now longer has those shoes. They completely melted! Luckily he has some others haha.

So the general conference was awesome. I enjoyed all five sessions, and every time Thomas S Monson talked I'm more convinced of his role, responsibility, and that he is telling us what we need to hear. Who would have thought we needed to hear about gratitude.

Tis it for this week. I hope you all have a super duper week and apply all we learned this weekend ;)

Love,

ELMX

When I was born did you ever think someday I would be playing soccer in Argentina in the middle of a rain storm?

This week will mark one year in this country and 5/8 of my mission complete. It has been ridiculously fast and there is so much that needs to get done, but I assume it's like that for everyone. Yesterday we had a surprise guest at church, President Salas. There is a young man who needed his final mission interview to send his papers, and he needed to meet with some other people, and interview the six elders serving in the city of Villa Maria. In the interview he started asking about how I felt about the time I've completed in the mission. Then we talked a lot about Villa Dolores, about the district I'm in, and then about me. President Salas is great. It was also awesome to see him there because he got to meet the Imerso family (possibly the best investigators I've had, but they do have some tough competition).

It has been raining a lot all week, today harder than any other day. Would you like to know what we did for preparation day with all this heavy rain. We played soccer for five hours straight. It was cold, wet, vicious, yet ridiculously fun. Several missionaries were saying it was the funnest they've had in a long time. When I was born did you ever think someday I would be playing soccer in Argentina in the middle of a rain storm? I'll be honest, it never crossed my mind. Yesterday while working in the rain we knocked on a door. The street on which this house was located was completely flooded. We were walking through thick mud in people's front yards to stay out of the deep water. Well here in Argentina the two most common excuses to not listen are "I'm breast feeding at the moment" or "We're leaving", this door we knocked the man decided to go with the classic "I would but we're leaving right now". I couldn't help but turn around and see a river instead of street and couldn't help but ask where. It was a little funny.

It's good hear that every one is doing well. I was blessed with the best family. I love hearing about all five of you. Have a great week!

Chao,

ELMX

Survived The First Week in Villa Maria

First week in a new area down. Met some members but everyone with a calling has a similar name (Claudio, Cristian, Cristofer, etc), I can only remember so many C's, but it'll come with time. It was weird to almost have church attendance of 100, but way awesome. The primary is more than two kids and my first and only primary program of my mission is next week!! Our neighbor's dog hates us and every morning chases us down the block. I live in an apartment complex. It's pretty nice, my only complaint is how fast we run out of hot water, but apart from that, it's the nicest I've had in my mission. That's awesome that you had a family of investigators stay for all three hours! We did too!! The family Imerso. God has been preparing them and decided to hand them to the missionaries at the perfect time. We also had a couple others in church. That's awesome about the Hammontree's! Alison (from Baltimore) hit a year yesterday. I can't believe it's already been that long.

This week we found a great nineteen year old young man named Roque (pronounced like Rocky Balboa) and a couple others and are working on several exciting dates in October. As we were returning to the apartment to eat lunch this week, an investigator passed by on her bike and stopped us and as we were talking to her the branch president drove by and stopped, introduced himself and invited her to church and it was way sweet. Things are going well. I'm exhausted, but I enjoy it. Fun fact, there is a sister missionary from Mesa in the district, and like Elder Flaherty knows Lamoreauxs that I don't haha.

I played soccer for a couple intense hours this morning. It's funny, every companionship in my district is made up of one Latin and one Gringo. So we played gringos vs latinos, then senior comps vs junior comps. It was so much fun, but it got cut short because we popped the ball! haha To me football fields don't exist anymore, they are all soccer fields.

Well, that sums up my week. I'm glad everyone is doing well and I hope that your weather takes a chill pill soon. We're gradually warming up here, today is super humid.

Paz fuera (peace out),

ELMX

New City - New Home - Great Mission

About the conference this past week: President Arnold was pretty awesome (as well as his wife and the mission president and his wife). They are changing things a little bit with Preach My Gospel so we talked about that and we also talked about things we need to be doing better (like kneeling and praying with every investigator). I did get to see some old friends at the conference, the best of them all, Elder Haacke, my companion who I served with in February and March. It was great to see everyone though.

The day after the conference we received transfer calls. Elder Flaherty and I are no longer living together after close to six months. And I am now living with a Panamanian named Elder Vasquez in the city of Villa Maria. Villa Dolores had become my home. As much as I wanted to leave (I felt like I had talked to everyone and knocked every door), it was really hard. The Ceballo family is one of my favorite families I have ever met and I didn't want to say bye…Same with the Tello family and Beatriz and her family and so many others. It wasn't fun, yet I am excited to be here in Villa Maria with Elder Vasquez. He comes from a family of seven girls and three boys, he doesn't have a camera so I told him I would take photos for him and we can print them out. He has several months here and says there is a lot of work here and is pretty stocked, so I am too! I'll probably be with him six weeks and then have another companion, we’ll see. We live alone so I will be speaking Spanish 24/7 again, so I apologize if my English starts going downhill over the next couple weeks. My new area is pretty big. I’m in a city not a town this time, it’ll be interesting. My branch has about 80 active members, so that’s a good change, and the city is of decent size, so there are lots of people to talk to. There are two branches here and six elders. We're going to work hard and have fun. Elder Vasquez is awesome.

I need to learn how to cook some new foods. Argentina meals stop at meat and noodles. Hopefully with my Central American comp we can find something new. Like a thai soup :)

It's kind of funny, about 40% of the missionaries in this mission serve in the city Córdoba. I was there for a little bit but this is my third area outside the city, but I like it, it's a different experience.

The photo from last week about “companion inventory”, there may have been a sharpie involved at an investigators house who raced motocross and BMX until he destroyed both his knees.

Sounds like everyone is doing well, maybe a little too busy, but healthy and happy. Love you all. Have a fantastic week, thanks for the pictures. Catch you on the flip side.

Love,
ELMX