Hey Everybody!

I´m so glad to get your letters every week! Keep ´em coming! I attached some more pictures for you to look at. The first is Elder Hart and I. He got transferred to another area today, like 3 hours away. We got to be really good friends these past 12 weeks. He says that he wants me to play at his wedding in Las Vegas after the mission. Transfers are sad :-( The other is our Zone before transfers.

Some housekeeping first. As far as I know, I don´t have any problems with my VISA to remain in Argentina. If I did, the mission would let me know. But, as of now, I haven´t heard anything. If there were any problems, I would be going to the Miami Florida Mission, that´s where all of the missionaries go if there VISA fails until they come back to Argentina. Take your time with the CDs, theres no rush. And yes, I can buy gel down here, so I´ll do that. I gave Gavin the run down about the other CD that I wanted (a mix CD with various tracks on it). Gavin knows how to do it all. He´s a capo (stud). I´m glad you had fun at Beauty and the Beast. I know Alex very well, and he is no Tenor, as much as he wants to be. I sent Karenna a congratulations letter about her wedding and I haven´t heard back...weird haha. Man, I miss Sonic Cherry Lemonades like really bad. I could use one of those right now. I looked at the pictures of the ward building, sad. Although, with the flooding, it´s still better than our ward building. We have an infestation of hormigas (ants). At any given moment, there are hundreds of thousands of ants. Gross. I´ll be fine in the winter time. No missionaries here have sleeping bags. I bought the coat the other day, and I do have to admit, I look pretty classy in it. It´s a long trench style coat. Pretty güapo (handsome).

Well, I´m definitely living it up here in Argentina. This morning, before my shower, I killed a cucaracha in the bathroom, a good 2 inches long. Oh haha, I´m writing in Spanish. Cucaracha is cockroach. It was huge! And it screamed as it tried to run away from me. They crawl in through the shower drains, and no matter their size, they can fit into any space imaginable. Kind of nasty, but these experiences will be told for a long time.

Our Mission had a goal of 200 Baptisms at the beginning of transfers. We got the data this morning, since this morning was end of transfer. The mission ended the transfer with 201 baptisms. Talk about close call, if I´d ever seen one. But, we all get T-Shirts now with our names and the amount of baptisms we did. I get one that says Elder Rook with a big "3" on it.

That´s cool that you saw Jesse. He´d make a Mormon. Haha

Send my love to Paige, I didn´t have time to write a response to her email today. But I will write her directly next week. Enjoy the pictures and I´ll write next week.

I love ya all and I´ll talk to you next week

Su hijo, y hermano en Cristo

Elder Garrett Brighton Rook

Misión Buenos Aires Oeste

Letter 2/21/11

Hey!

Well, it was a great week this week. We had three baptisms on
Saturday! Pictures are attached! It was a great day of which I will
never forget. The time for the Baptism came around and we went to the
church to get everything preped and ready. The Assistants to the
President (Elder Palacios y Elder Aguirre, both from Chile) called and
they said that they were going to attend the Baptism to help us with
whatevery we needed. We bought some cookies and juice for everybody
that was going to show up. We went to the house of the family to pick
up the three girls who were going to get baptized and the Mom told us
that she wasn´t going to go because she didn´t feel good. She´s kind
of a headcase. So, we were pretty sad about that, but we had to
continue on with the baptism. So we, the Assistants and me and my
companion, all headed back the the church with the girls and their
older and younger sisters. We showed up to the church and cleaned a
little bit while people were coming. Then, we all dressed in white and
went outside for pictures. Thus you see the pictures attached. I
baptized two of the girls, Roxana (13) and Florencia (11) (far left
and far right). The other girl is Andrea (9). The feeling I had was
nothing I had ever felt before, saying that I was commisioned by Jesus
Christ, the Spirit was so incredibly strong, I couldn´t believe it.
Afterward, Elder Aguirre told me "Bienvenido a la misión" (Welcome to
the Mission). I look forward to other days like that.
Congratulations on the move. I hope it goes smoothly. Toss the
posters, except the James Bond, I like that one a lot, and I think it
would look good in my college dorm room Haha. And yes Mom, the time is
flying by, it seriously feels like I´ve been a missionary for like a
month. Sorry,but I do have to say that If you guys move to Florida, I think I´m going to stay in Post Falls to go to school. Maybe Gavin could live
with me after he gets home from his mission! That would be so cool!
Well, I would have you send some of my soundtracks down, but I kind of
want to keep them after the mission. You could make copies on iTunes
and burn them onto discs and send them to me that way, with the
exception of the Green Mile Soundtrack because it has other various
tunes on it. Like Band of Brothers, and you can send me my Mozart
Collection box set that I think I put in the cupboard with your CDs.
Gavin knows how to burn CDs. If you could, I would LOVE to have the
Mormon Tabernacle Showtime as well. I bet Brass Plates has it. It´s
like Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings songs from movies, and we can
listen to it, because its MOTAB, and 22 Greatest Hits if they have it
too. I don´t know what it is, but I´m starting to love them! Juice
packets would be great too! And my CD of course, because I´m going to
give it to President and his Wife. Just send it to the Mission Office
because my area doesn´t have an address. I get mail and packages every
week on Tuesday from the Office. And if you could find the Meet Joe
Black soundtrack somewhere that would be awesome! But if not it´s
okay. Hastings might have it. Oh and my EFY CD! Ship the package with
a flat rate box from the Post Office in Post Falls, next to Hollywood
(or what used to be). You can ship up to forty pounds for like $40
internationally. Oh, also a little thing I wanted to address. My Debit
Card is going to expire in March of this year. I was withdrawling some
money to buy a coat and noticed the experation date. I need a new
card! Don´t worry though, I already withdrew the funds to buy a coat,
so I´ll be okay for a while. But, anyway I think that´s all I wanted
to address. The address I sent last week is for letters only, but I
think you have the pachage address already, There is one correction I
need to make to the address and I will give it in a post script at the
end of this letter.
I love you all and I pray for you daily. I am so happy for the
success that you are now experiencing. And I thank God everyday for
that.

I love you and I´ll see you soon!

Elder Garrett Brighton Rook
Misión Argentina Buenos Aires Oeste

P.S. Address:

Elder Garrett Rook
Misión Argentina Buenos Aires Oeste
C.C. 92
1702 Ciudadela
Buenos Aires, Argentina

P.S.S. I was looking at the pictures that you sent like two weeks ago,
and I was fat! I´ve lost a ton of weight since I´ve been here. you´ll
see in the pictures.

Letter 2/14/11

¡Hola!

Thanks for writing once again. I always appreciate your letters.
This week has been Awesome! I love my new companion! He´s an awesome
guy and he loves to work. His name is José Martin Morales, and he is
from Mendoza, Argentina. He reported to the Argentine MTC on October
7, 2010. We have the same time in the Mission, almost 5 months. 5
Months?! That´s crazy isn´t it? Already?
Congrats with all of the items that
you´ll be receiving for the house. Count your many blessings. I got a
haircut today with about 7 other missionaries (including my
companiion), and it looks awesome! The guy who was in the barbershop
(the guy cutting hair) asked if one of his staff could take a picture
with all of the missionaries that got haircuts. Its a great picture.
If my district leader can send it to me, I´ll send it to you next
week. My haircut was 10 pesos, aproximately $2.50 en los estados. I
love the exchange rate here, it´s wonderful.
LOST is a good show isn´t it? But I think Prison Break is better
though. More action, same with 24. Prison Break rules! I used to watch
it with Adam, when I didn´t have a life before the mission.
Oh man! Papa Murphy´s! I´m like super jealous right now, because
generally; the pizza here sucks! Its not like American pizza. They
like to use something called "aceituna", which is a green olive. I´m
actually starting to like it. Because it´s on everything.
Hey Dad, next time you go to Nate´s, send him my salutations.
Tell him I miss his food.
Well, my comp and I are working liking crazy. Turns out, that my
companion before, Elder Cortes, did nothing in the Area Book, or the
companionship before us. So, we have no information on investigators
for the past four transfers (6 months). So, that´s our project for the
next couple of weeks. It takes forever to catch up on the Area Book if
it´s way behind. We need to make a teaching record for every
investigator that has been taught two or more lessons, even if they
didn´t progress, so the elders that come in later can find them again
to verify if they are interested later. Fun stuff.
So......WE´RE GOING TO HAVE A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY!!! We found
an inactive Mom with three daughters who aren´t baptized. The Mom
wants to come back to church and her daughters want to get baptized.
I´m going to baptize two of them. Obedience brings blessings. As a
companionship, we made a goal to be exactly obedient to all of the
rules of the mission. As soon as we made that commetment, we started
to see the blessings. We started to find good people to start taking
the lessons and commiting to be baptized. We commit somebody to be
baptized in the first lesson here in this mission. It´s kind of
strang, I know, but it lets our inestigators know why we are there,
and wha our purpose is as missionaries. And it the Spirit is there,
there is no reason to be nervous or hesitant.
I love you all and I will write you next week with more info on
what happened on Saturday, and photos as well. Keep the letters
coming, I appreciate them!

With love,

Elder Garrett Brighton Rook
Misión Argentina Buenos Aires Oeste
La mejor misión en todo del mundo

P.S. When you send the dots, could you send a CD as well? The staff in
the offices want one so they can make copies for the missionaries.

P.S.S My address for letters follows, in case anybody in the ward
wants to send me a letter:

Elder Garrett Brighton Rook
Misión Argentina Buenos Aires Oeste
C.C. 92
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Letter 2/7/2011

Hola mi familia,

Well, I am so glad to hear all of the good things that are happening to you guys finally! I give thanks to the Lord for all of the success that you have received and I pray that even more comes your way. Grandman emailed me about Paige going to BSU? If University of Idaho didn´t have the piano program that they did, I would think about going to BSU myself. Its a great school and their pragrams are outstanding compared to other schools in the state. Plus, Paige would be close to all of the "Rookites" down in the Boise area. Its a great option that I would give some serious thought and consideration. It makes my heart leap when I hear about Dad´s job. I almost cried when I read the letter saying that he got a job, and it makes me feel even happier when I hear about his success in that job. It almost makes me want to come home and party with you...almost haha. Congratulations on the house! I´ve been in their house because I used to home teach them with Stoker, and its a nice place. I would live there sin problemas (without problems). Just a thought, I have been reading the New Testament lately, and all of your emails are like the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Every one talks about the same situation, but with either less or more information. Like Dad expounded on the conversation with Will, and Mom didn´t. I thought it was funny. Dad, have fun with the excema. Just cream it up and it won´t bother you much. Within five days of living down here, there was no sign that I even had it. I have been excema-free for almost three months. (By the way Dad, "Greetings" is "Saludo" o "Buenas"). When it comes to government or social uneasiness, there isn´t much down here. Most people seem to be content with Presidenta Kirchner right now. But, our problems are dogs (big, mean and scary ones), and drunks (at 10:00 in the morning). The alcohol consumtion down here is astounding, and people wonder why nobody wants to work or has any money. The weather is starting to be a little more tame now. Its still hot (between 75 and 85 with humidity), but nothing compared to a few weeks ago. We had a Carbon Monoxide scare in our apartment last week. The detector woke us up at around 2:00 in the morning and we had to open every window in the apartment to let it vent out. But within five minutes, the detector tunred off and we were able to go back to sleep. By the way, tell that loser gavin to start sending me emails. I hear from everybody else in the family except for him haha

Well, I´m writing this letter after quite a couple of melancholy days. I suspected my comp to be having some flirting problems with an investigator that we are teaching. My District Leader, Elder Bush, wasn´t paying attention to where his area boundaries were and showed up at her house 10 minutes before we were supposed to get there! When we arrived, she was talking to Elder Bush and his companion, and I did a little exchange with Elder Bush because he had some questions for me. After a half an hour we returned to her house. After the Elders left, the flirtations were quite evident, like sitting close so their arms could touch or she would brush his hand when she sat down and stuff like that. That night, I got a call from the Assistants and they wanted to talk to my companion. After the phonecall, my companion threw the phone down on the desk and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. The Assistants called me back and said that the President wanted to meet with us on Sunday (yesterday). After a meeting with the President for about an hour, the President decided to do whats called a "flash". A "flash" is an early transfer where one companion leaves early from his area because of certain problems. Turns out, this wasn´t the first time that my companion has been flashed out. So, I get a new companion in approximately 2 hours. I´m glad this episode with my comp is over. Plus, since yesterday, he has treated me like utter garbage, so unfortunately, I´m not sad to see him go. My new companion is a Latino and only has one more transfer in the mission than I do. So, we´re going to be a couple of youngens in my area for the next three weeks until next transfer.

But, that´s pretty much it for my week. I will be writing again next week about what is happening now. Oh! Our baptism didn´t happen. Turned out that our investigator of 17 years has a mother who is very strongly against the church and didn´t give him authorization to get baptized. So, we have to wait until May for that baptism to happen. But he still comes to church and everything, so the interest and desire are definitely there. He´s already going to have a really strong testimony by the time he´s baptized.

I pray for you all everyday and I hope that all goes well with you. Keep writing, because I love your letters.

I´ll send some pictures when I have my camera with me and when I take some more :-/ I´ll take my camera to District Meeting tomorrow and take pictures of some of the other Elders. I´ll send them to you next week on Monday.

I love you all!

(¡Les amo todo!)

Sinceremente,

Elder Garrett Brighton Rook

Misión Argentina Buenos Aires Oeste

La mejor misión del todo el mundo