Weekly Letter August 29th 2011

¡Hola!

Bueno, otra semana pasa en Argentina. ¡Que rapido que pasó! Ni puedo creer que voy a tener un año en la misión ya. Me parece que recién llegué acá y que recién me despedí de ustedes hace poquito. Ya me voy a llegar en el otro lado del cerro muy pronto...que triste

Well, writing after another week in La bella del Sur. This week was awesome to say the least. I don´t know if you read the blog yet, but I´ll tell a little bit about what happened afterward. But first, some housekeeping:

So, you never told me when Becca Pingel leaves for the mission. I would really like to know, given that she´ll be in my mission for a few weeks in the MTC. There is a return missionary in my area that teaches there. So, i´ll tell her to send my regards.

Wow, decided to skip out on Stake Conference huh? Those are the kind of members that make me really angry here. They go to church every week, but when there is a special conference, they decide that their time at home is more important than the time at Stake Conference...just kidding haha! That´s what you get when you write your missionary son about not going to church.

It´s an interesting task here, getting the members to talk to there non-member friends about the Gospel. Really, it´s not that difficult. I think that sometimes if we share the Gospel with other people not of our faith, we think that somehow we will lose that friendship or aquaintance with that person. But, like the admonition of Paul, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ...", so we shouldn´t be ashamed either. Which relationship is more important, the relationship with your friends, or with Jesus Christ? And how joyful would it be if, in the celestial kingdom, you reunited with one of your friends because they, through you, learned about the restored gospel? Anyway, I am stepping down from my soapbox...

I am so jealous that Gavin and Dad went shooting. My companion and I were talking the other day about how gun crazy me and my family are (namely Dad and Gavin). I think I´ve been up to that shooting range before but I´m not sure. I am starting to forget the life before the mission.

Okay, so this week was pretty crazy. First, we had to go to Capital so my companion could start his immigration papers. Then, on Wednesday, we had Zone Conference. It was so amazing! We got there at 8:30 in the morning and didn´t leave until 8:00 at night! Such a good zone conference. You can read about it on the Mission President´s wife´s blog. My picture is under González Catán if there is any.

On Saturday, the Mission President invited us to go to his home that evening so I could play the piano in the Dinner for the Stake Presidents. The piano was good, it is really old and needs a lot of work. But, a beautiful Steinway & Sons Grand anyway. The food was really good, a nice break from what we eat out in the boonies, and we were there until about 10:00 at night. We weren´t breaking rules because the President and his Assistants were there.

We are definitely seeing a lot of blessings here in Laferrere. We taught the family of 6 this week and we also obtained a reference from the Mom to go and visit her sister from here. We went and found her sister, and her family as well. So, they all want to come to church this sunday. Hopefull we can baptize all of them. Nothing would make me more happy than to baptize an entire family. Oh yeah! Turns out that my convert from Moreno, Estiven, is a ward missionary and is working a ton with the work over there. And, his girlfriend, Joregelina, is working really hard with the Relief Society. My converts rock!

Well, got to go. Not much to write this week, but you can go on the blog and see whats going on in the mission. Pretty sure our transfer video is on there as well. I love you all and I will write you next week with what´s going on. Also, when do you need the list of what to send in my package? Just wondering...

Su hijo y misionero preferido,
--

Élder Garrett Brighton Rook

Letter from the Mission Presidents Wife

Dear Elder Rook,

You can't know how much Presidente and I appreciated your service tonight! Again and again, thank you so very much. I posted a few pictures on the blog, but here are a couple of others that your mommy might enjoy :)

Hermana Carter

Weekly Letter August 22nd 2011

Hola de vuelta,

Okay, writing after a busy week and a busy P-Day. I don´t have a ton of time to write, but I´ll fit in as much as possible.

It´s so nice to hear from you guys every week. I love getting your letters. Please send me some of the pictures from the mission president´s wife´s blog. We can´t go to other websites, cause its against the rules. So, I haven´t seen those pictures. Thanks for the pictures of Manito. I always loved going there. Hey, I have an idea. You guys can save for a car for me and give me the money so I can buy one in Utah after the mission haha. Don´t worry Mom, you don´t make me trunky. By the way, my shoes are just fine. I need to take them in to a zapatero to get the inside fixed, but the outside is holding up really nicely. I won´t be surprised if they last me my entire mission.

Congrats to Gavin on the apporval of his eagle project. I remember when I was doing my Eagle. Just get it done and don´t wait! By the way, check the spark plugs on the car. Maybe that´s the problem. And congrats on the job.

Sorry Paige that you can´t get out of the house to go to the institute activities. Just keep plugging along and it will work out. You look good by the way with your new hat.

So, on Tuesday, we had to go to Ramos Mejía (the mission offices) to pick up our kids. We showed up at about 4:45pm, because we were told to. The new missionaries didn´t show up until almost 7:00. So, we weren´t able to work that day, because we got back so late. In the meeting, they put all of the trainers on one side of the room and all the newbies on the other side. President got in front of everybody and started naming off trainers and their kids. I was hoping to get an american companion, because I remember how I felt as a new missionary in another country. They called my name and then my new missionary. His name is Elder Abarca, from Santiago Chile. But, the cool thing is is that he speaks fluent English. So, I don´t have to teach anybody how to speak english or spanish as a trainer. Which is nicer. He is super cool and super excited to get to work. He is a convert of a year and a half also. Before we got our kids, we had a training seminar on how to train. We are the first group of trainers in the world to implemant the church´s new missionary program for the first 12 weeks. Now, every group of new missionaries will be using this program to get up and running on their missions. It´s like he´s running my area and I´m just there to help. It´s awesome. President Carter is an amazing man. He is seriously the most spiritual being I have ever met in my life. I guess that comes with a new, fresh mission president. I was really nervous about training a new missionary for the reason that Dad brought up. That he will always remember his first companion more than the others. I remember my first companion in the field, he messed up big time, but I remember the experiences I had with him more than the others. What advice can you give me as a trainer, given that both of my parents served missions?

Me and my companion worked really hard this week and found some really good people. We are excited to finally get to work, and I´m excited to have a fresh missionary to help me in the work. We have not been able to contact the family of 6 for about 2 weeks now, but we keep trying I guess.

Sorry for the short letter, but I really have to go. So, I hope you enjoy the pictures I sent and I look forward to hearing from you next week.

Su misionero favorito,

--

Élder Garrett Brighton Rook

Pictures that I got off of his missionary president's blog.

I was looking at Garrett's missionary president's blog, and found these pictures of Garrett. They were having a meeting getting ready to be trainers to the new missionaries coming in. This is a big responsibility, especially for Garrett teaching a new missionary the language of a foreign land and teaching about the land of Argentina. Garrett has been there 8 months and I'm sure he feels a bit overwhelmed with this responsibility. Very proud of Garrett!

Weekly Letter August 15th, 2011

Hola,

Kind of boring letters you sent me this week, but it´s okay. It
happens. Sorry to hear about your uneventful week. And sorry to hear
about Florida too. I know that I didn´t want to go, but it´s sad that
something like that didn´t come through. Something that I´ve learned
this transfer, was that the Lord has control of everything. The Lord
can control, that if we´re not being obedient to the mission rules, or
we have a lack of faith in him, the ability to meet or teach certain
people. This last Saturday, we found an amazing family of 6 that are
all interested in what we have to say, so we will be doing our best to
help them arrive at the waters of baptism soon.
Yesterday was a really bad day at church. So, elders quorum
starts. Our high councilman is going to teach the class. He says
"Bretheren, we have over 50 people on the ward records that are all
the age of being elders, but I only see 10 today. What happened to the
other 40? What can we do to help them get back to church?" So, all of
the elders start talking. *Side-note, no investigators showed up to
church yesterday.* Anyway, they start talking. They start giving
suggestions like home teaching, ward activities, and what not. Our
Branch President, President Golinowski who is a mega-stud, says "well,
if I remember right, me and my counselors have been planning ward
activities every saturday for the past 2 months and nobody showed.
Even with notice in sacrament meeting on phone calls, nobody comes.
So, we have ward activities, but nobody comes." The counsilor of the
elders quorum gets a little defensive and starts
yelling....yelling...at our Branch President that he doesn´t delegate
to other people to do this work. He said "Oh, I heard a sister say
that President does it all by himself. Where are your counselors? One
of your counselors isn´t here today, and your other counselor just
sits on the stand with his suit coat looking like a counselor and
doesn´t do anything! They don´t help you and you don´t ask them for
help!" *Side note: This is true, but partly. In our Branch, the
presidency is the only group that functions. Elders quorum is dead,
Relief Society is almost non-existant, and we have two active young
men and zero active young women.* President Golinowski said nothing.
His counselor, who was sitting there defended him and the conversation
went back and forth until we had to go and teach the Gospel Principles
class. After class, an hour later, we noticed that the door was still
shut on elders quorum. Sacrament meeting started 15 minutes late
because elders quorum wouldn´t stop fighting. Okay, at nthe beginning
of the meeting, we had close to 60 people. By the time that sacrament
meeting started, we had an assistance of 39. Some of the elders got
angry, took their families and went home. Sacrament meeting was dead,
the spirit was not present, and it was finally a blessing to end the
meeting and for everybody to go home. It was also a blessing that none
of our good investigators showed up to church, because there was no
good spirit to be had.
This week, we had the worst storm I have ever seen in my life. It
started out with wind that tore a sign out of the ground by our
apartment. Then, hail the size of cat´s-eye marbles. I kept some of
them in the refrigerator. Then it started to rain. We were able to
leave the apartment about an hour later after it calmed down a little
bit. Crazy. The streets seriously looked like rivers, no joke about
it.
Yesterday after church, my companion had to go and vote in
capital, becaue he´s from there. Anyway, we had to go within three
blocks from his house to go to the school where he had to vote. That
was fun. I have never seen a missionary so nervous in his life. He was
praying that he didn´t see anybody that he knew. Haha But, when he was
done voting, we had to get back to Ramos Mejía, where the mission
offices are, and he didn´t know how to get there. So, I called the
Assistants and asked if we could stop by his house so they could call
a car to take us back. I know it sounds disobedient, but it was really
our last option. He told us to go ahead, but then he stopped, and said
that it was probably better that he didn´t see his family. So, he told
me to call his family and ask them to call a car. So, I talked to my
companion´s family while he sat there and watched me. Poor kid...:-)
Ended up not being any car to take, so the Mom told me to go to a
certain area to take a taxi cab. Fun experience, probably not for him.
Okay, I know that you guys see that I did not attach pictures
this week and I´m sorry. We have had a really busy couple of days. So,
to start...you remember my companion Elder Mielnikowicz? Today is
transfers by the way. So, we got the transfer call on Saturday night,
and he had been in my area for 6 weeks or one transfer. Our District
Leader called and told him that he was being transfered! After one
transfer! That´s unheard of in the mission! So, he was kind of upset.
But, my DL told me that I had to be in the mission offices at 9:30
this morning for some meeting. Everybody else had to be at the mission
offices for changes at 10:30. So, that kind of freaked me out. So we
showed up this morning and I went to the meeting. Long story
short....I¨M GOING TO BE A DAD!!!! Hahaha Tomorrow, I get a greenie to
start training. I did not attach pictures because I am on exchanges
with another trainer. At 5:00 tomorrow, I am officially a father. :-)
My Branch President, President Golinowski is a mega-stud like I
said before. They thought that I was leaving this transfer, so they
went out and bought me a birthday/going away present that they decided
to give to me anyway. It is an official Argentine soccer jersey from
the 2006 World Cup. It is sooooooo awesome. And it fits me perfectly.
I love them so much. I´ll get a picture with them and send it to you.
I´m sure that we´re going to go to their house for dinner this week
since I´m getting a newbie :-)
Well, I´m afraid that´s it for today. Thanks for all the support
yuo have given me. I am so thankful for the family I have and all the
love that they show me. Pray that i train an american! Hahaha

Su Elder preferido de todo el mundo,

*Élder Garrett Brighton Rook*

*"Mi proposito es invitar a lodas las personas a venir a Cristo..."*

Weekly Letter August 8th. He said he sent a picture, but he didn't!

Hola mi famila!

Another week passes by in Argentina. Can you believe that I have been out ten months already? It´s so crazy! Where did that time go? At any rate, we worked like slaves this week. I don´t think I have ever been more tired in my entire mission. That´s why the time went by so fast. Sorry for the letter last week. I found it fun to write given that we got out okay and that it was quite an interesting ecperience, but I did not take into account that I have the Mom that I have...who loves me so much and wants to protect me in everything, so again I´m sorry for the scare.

Okay, to start. We suffered yet another sunday with zero in church. But, we weren´t too disanimated. Its tough though. I think the older days of missionary work were better. Now, it´s all a competition. The data for every area are posted every week, so the entire mission can see. So, if you had a bad week, everybody knows about it. I wonder what it would be like to just be dropped into an area without knowing what everybody else was doing. People are baptizing life crazy, and my area isn´t moving an inch. I only have 7 baptisms in 10 months, which is low on the mission average in this mission. But, I don´t know what to think anymore. Its kind of embarassing sometimes. Preach My Gospel says that we shouldn´t compare ourselves with other missionaries, but its hard given that everybody sees your terrible week, and that it´s published all over the mission. But, whatever. Sea lo que sea. It makes me wonder sometimes. I think that the Lord causes that we go through trials to test our character and faithfulness. Maybe that´s what´s going on here.

Anyway, no me voy a quejar más (I´m not going to complain anymore). Ashley Gay is getting married? Wow, didn´t waste anytime. To who and when? It´s like getting married is a fad now. Geez. Yeah, I met that slimeball that Brandy married when they dated. Doesn´t suprise me that he abused her, but that doesn´t make it less sad that it happened. Sorry, but people such as that have no business being on this earth. But, what are you going to do? He´ll be paying for that a little later.

Congrats to Gavin on the Eagle Project. Awesome, all of the Rook boys are going to be Eagle Scouts. That´s what I´m talkin´ about.

Man, everyone´s moving away! Who´s going to come to my homecoming party when I get back? Nobody, because they´re not going to live there anymore! Haha...trunky comment.

Sorry about your rest home Dad. Quite a story. Bummer about the bonus. But, it´s good that it´s all getting worked out.

Quite a week we had here. Sorry for this but I´ve just gotta say it! haha Remember those boys that we kicked out of the chapel last week? Okay, so we were working around the chapel again this week and noticed that a couple of people were screaming at us from about 3 blocks away. We looked and every single one of the boys that we kicked out formed an "angry mob" that was after us. Haha We ended up talking to the head honcho of the the group, because he approached us, and told him to knock it off, leave us alone, and that we don´t want any trouble from them, because that´s the last thing we want. He agreed and told the other guys to back off and leave us alone as well. Blessing number two. :-)

Okay, my comp and I decided to start a fast on Saturday. We started the fast in the morning and went out to work. Not 20 minutes later, we found a family of 6 that invited us in their house and we taught them all! The Mom knew who we were, because her parents are members of the church in Bolivia and she wondered about what we taught. The entire family is interested and we´re taking them to church on sunday. The Lord is mindful of his children everywhere. Blessing number three.

Anyway, gotta go. I´ll write next week. Enjoy the pictures I sent. I know, the jersey I´m wearing is pretty sick right? Happy Birthday to me...haha I love you all!

Con todo el amor que poseo en mi corazón,
--

Élder Garrett Brighton Rook

"Mi proposito es invitar a lodas las personas a venir a Cristo..."

Weekly letter August 1, 2011 Scary Times!

Hola familia mia,

Bueno, otra semana pasa en Argentina. Hace un montón de frio y yo llevo mi campera cada día. Ahora, hay dos muchachos en mi izquierda y derecha quien están diciendo malas palabras mientras juegan su video juego en la computadora...amo a Argentina...

Okay, another week in Argentina, and it keeps getting colder. Yes Mom, I didn´t want any troubles with the money on my card, so I withdrew it as soon as I possibly could. But, I didn´t spend it all so I have it safely kept in our apartment. Not gonna lie, it would be nice to know if the big exodus to Florida was happening. It would help me relax a little bit (not that I´m worrying at all). But, on the other hand...it would be nice to stay in Idaho. I know, I said it. But, I´ll go where you want me to go, Dear Lord.

Congrats to Gav on the camera. I would see where you go on your mission first before I decided to take it or not. If I had a camera like that, I wouldn´t bring it within 200 miles of where I am.

How did Scott land that job at Girl´s Camp? First of all, why did the girls need somebody to stay up in camp during the night? Are they having problems with girls staying in camp? If they are, that royally stinks that a member needs to come up and stay. Bummer.

Not much to say more, gonna continue with my letter...

Well, this has probably been one of the craziest weeks of my mission to date. P-Day, we played soccer at our chapel. During the game that we had, it started to rain but only for a moment. Then it stopped. We ended and all went back to our areas. As we were walking home from the city center, the blackest clouds I have ever seen gathered overhead. It was almost 6 o´clock and it looked like about 8 or 9. The wind started to beat on us and we started to run to our apartment. As soon as we got inside, within seconds, the wind was at hurricane speed and hail the size of marbles to golf balls started to fall from the sky. We have metal sheets covering our windows, a good thing too, because the hail sounded like somebody was throwing rocks at our window from two feet away. It was so loud. Then the rain started. It seriously looked like a hurricane came through. You couldn´t see more than twenty feet in front of you because of the rain. It was so incredibly heavy and cold too. I´m glad we got into our apartment when we did, cause that would´ve been bad if we were still outside. The next day, we came out to some busted windows and windsheilds. Somebody was watching out for us.

Then on Wednesday, we had quite an experience in our church building. We were working around the building and we noticed that about 25-30 kids in between the age of 14-17 had jumped the 15 foot fence around the chapel to play soccer on the field. Our Branch President told us, if we find anybody inside to kick them out and then call him. So, we went inside and proceeded to talk to them. We asked how they got in and they said that they jumped the fence. My companion spoke first, native Argentine, and tried to get them to leave. They didn´t even listen to him and continuied to play. I went out in the middle of their game and started to speak. A couple of kids proceeded to make fun of my accent and asked if I was german. I said who cares and told them to leave. I informed them that they were playing on private property of the church and that they had no permission to be there. They gathered around us as we spoke and started to poke fun at us. I told them that there were a ton of soccer fields in the area and told them to go choose one and go. They gathered around us and tried to pull the nametags off of our jackets and yelling bad words at us. Some threatened to beat us up, but by this time some of them had left. My companion pulled the phone out of his jacket and a little more left because they thought that he was calling the police. By this time, the ones who stayed were getting really angry with us, still about 20 of them. We shut ourselves inside the church as they started to pound on the windows and doors trying to break something and get to us as my companion called the police. I knelt down and prayed that they would go away and that they would leave us alone. At that time, one of them opened a window from the outside and started yelling at us and threatening us. Then, in an instant, they all ran off. It started to rain at this time, kind of strange given that there was no rain clouds above. As they left, they started to throw rocks at the chapel. I wanted to go outside and get angry at them. I have never felt the urge to hurt somebody as bad as I felt it in this moment than in my entire life up til now. My companion stopped me, thank goodness. They finally stopped when two windows were broken in our dear meeting house. When they left, we walked outside to observe the damage. Only two windows were broken and a couple of marks were made on the side of the wall. I started to cry. I wanted so bad to do something to defend ourselves and the church but we couldn´t as missionaries. The police finally showed up after an hour and took down my comp´s information and left. I am reminded everyday that we are indeed in a foreign country and we´re not in Kansas anymore. We were definitley protected that day. The Lord protects his servants from harm, I know that for a fact.

Yesterday, a recent convert called us after the meetings and asked to meet with us in the chapel. He didn´t come to church, so I thought that there was a problem. We met with him last night and he started to tell us that he had done a really bad thing. He told us that when he was baptized, that he had lied to the missionaries that he had stopped smoking to get baptized. He had only recently stopped smoking as of a week ago. He started to cry, which made me cry. He told us his life story. That he had been in and out of drug rehab three times, been treated for phycoligical problems, and lost contact with all of his siblings because they didn´t want to talk to him anymore. The only one in his family that he talks to is his Dad, who lives an hour away. But, he came to the church out of curiosity and was baptized. Even though he lied; the Lord, in his great mercy, is able to forgive all. The spirit was so incredibly strong in that room that I could hardly bear it. He said he would go to church to talk with the Branch President next week.

Other than that, the work is slow. We had nobody in church on sunday and I was getting really discouraged. We had a hard week and it feels like our work that we do is going nowhere. It´s like we´re just driving into a wall over and over. I don´t know what to do. We have zero investigators and nobody wants to listen to us. But, I guess I should keep my head up and keep going. I talked with me District Leader last night and he told me that he and his companion were going through the same thing. So, I´m not the only one.

But, I guess that´s it for the week. I´ll write agian next week and as always, I love getting your letters. Keep the faith and just keep swimming!

Con amor,

Élder Garrett Brighton Rook

"Mi proposito es invitar a lodas las personas a venir a Cristo..."