Saludos!

Well, another great week passes in Argentina. We had two baptisms this Saturday and it was an awesome experience. I´ll talk about it later.

Well, I am genuinly jealous about your black friday shopping spree. Laptop? Xbox? Dang man, I bought a hot dog last week because I had some extra funds. Hahaha just kidding. I´m way happy for you guys. So, I just figured out that I can send mp3 files on this machine. The song that I sent it a song that another missionary gave me. Its called "Snakes", which is a term that the missionaries in Argentina use to talk about a girl whos got her eye on a missionary. There are a lot of those down here. The guys who did the song are ex missionaries from the Buenos Aires North Mission. Its a way funny song. You´ll hear something that says, "Que lindo que sos", it means, "How pretty (or handsome) you are!".

Good luck Paige with your job possiblity. I´ll be praying for you. Oh my gosh, there is a guy like two computers down from me who is watching Dragonball Z and saying all the lines that the characters are saying. The guy needs a girlfriend.

I´m glad that you guys had a great Thanksgiving. I think my mouth started to water when you guys ate the stuffing, given that my soul is permanently connected to that stuff. You guys ate the stuffing, "and my soul hungered". We had dinner with a family that same night. I sent you the picture.

Send my love to Chad. I love that kid. He´s so cool. Could you guys get his home address for me? I would love to send him a letter. If not, I´ll send you an email and you can send it to him.

Mom, some music would be awesome. I think I sent you a list a while back. I would still love that music. Plus, I just figured out that its possible to send mp3 files through email. So, gavin can send me some files from iTunes, or from my external hardrive. Which is in my box of stuff in my Sibelius box. Gavin, you can download some songs from Assassin´s Creed or Gears of War and send them to me through email. Pretty cool huh? You have to find the music file through "My Computer" though, you can´t drag and drop songs from iTunes. But yeah, the list of music is:

-Andrea Bocceli: My Christmas

-Avatar

-Band of Brothers

-Jim Brickman

-Green Mile

It would be awesome. Thank you for everything you do.

This week, we could see the hand of our Heavenly Father in our area. A family, which was inactive for three years, has a daughter who was not a member. We went to the house several times but could not talk much about baptism because the parents weren´t home. One day, we decided to go to the house and we found the parents. The mother had a testimony about the Gospel as the father did. However, certain problems that were happening in the house prevented them to go to Church. The father had no job, and the mother was working every Sunday. We invited them to attend the district conference and promised them that if they attended the conference, the would get a job that would allow them to go to church. They told us they were going to the conference with us. Sunday came, and they were the first to arrive. On Monday, we found the Branch President in the street. He gave us the news that the daughter of this family was going to be baptized on Saturday. It was big news for us because we knew that this girl was ready for baptism.

When passing week, we saw another miracle. An investigator, whose name is Silvia, had some problems with quitting smoking. We teach it in a member's house and talked about quitting smoking. She was afraid to be baptized because she thought she was going back to take the vice. We taught her about the gift of the Holy Spirit and the constant companionship of him upon being baptized. Also, I made an agreement with her, that I would stop biting my nails, if she quit smoking. So we began to have daily contact with her. We always visited her to cheer her up. I was not biting my nails and she was not smoking. Thursday arrived and zone leaders did the interview and were able to determine that she was ready for baptism. The most important thing is that she also realized it. The two were baptized on Saturday. So, I´m not biting my nails anymore. Can you believe it? Crazy right? It was so cool! Things are changing about me as I come to the last half of my mission. I always think about what my life is going to be like after this, and I can´t seem to imagine it. I always imagine myself as a missionary. Its really strange. I don´t want my mission to end. I want to see you guys at the end of two years, but I want it to be in a way where I am still a missionary. This is the life that I want to live forever.I think working at the MTC would help me out a lot with that. I really want to work there. But, we´ll see what happens.

I´ve got to go now. I love you guys so much. I always look forward to hearing from you guys every week. Dad, a missionary gave me a ton of music on my flash drive, and I´m thinking of you as I listen to the soundtrack to Master and Commander. I love the music. Bach´s Prelude on the cello is an amazing and I always think of you cause you love that song. I sent it so you know what I´m talking about.

I´ll talk to you guys next week! I love you!

Chau!

¡Hola del pais de la factura!

Bueno, como podeís ver, tuvimos una buena semana acá en la misión Buenos Aires Oeste. Tuvimos la conferencía del Distrito de Mercedes, y tuvimos que viajar casí tres horas para llegar allá. La Hermana Carter sacó una buena foto de nosotros, ¿no?. Okay, voy a escribiros a vosotros en Inglés ahora.

Well, we had a great week this week. Oh Mom, to answer your question, yes, we do see spiders like that often out here in the countryside. That thing was the size of the palm of my hand. Gigantic. They´re not so common toward the city, but here they are. My companion had a piece of paper that he rolled up. He touched the spider´s leg with it, and, in a thousandth of a second, jumped and bit the rolled up piece of paper. I think my companion jumped just as quick as the spider did. Afterward, the spider just crawled up on top of the window pane slowly. I think it was sleeping when we bothered it. Spiders are evil creatures. I don´t even know why they deserve an existence on this earth. It says in Corinthians that: "In Adam all things die, but in Christ all things shall be made alive". When Adam was thrust out of the Garden of Eden, the earth fell under the circumstances of his fall. Which means that all things were now subject to death. So, does that mean that all things, including animals, insects, fish, and other creatures, will all be made alive and resurrect? Ooooo....deep question right? Tell me what you think.

This week, we went to District Conference, almost three hours away from our chapel in another city called Lujan (Loo-hawn). We left the church in our city at about 7:30 in the morning to arrive at about 9:30-10:00 for the conference to start immediately after. The conference was really good. President Carter gave a great talk and the spirit was definitely felt. We are in a district, not a stake. Which means that the Mission President is the presiding authority and is in charge of all of the dealing within said district. We all hopped on a big bus and traveled to Lujan. I took some pictures, but my computer doesn´t have a USB hookup right now. I´ll do it at the chapel later today. I took some pictures on the busride. It was way fun.

On saturday, we had a miracle happen. We were a little down because all of our really great investigators were telling us not to pass by anymore. Way sad. We would go by the house and they would say...yeah...we don´t want you to come by anymore. So, we were feeling kind of down. On saturday, we didn´t have anything to do, so we decided to pass by somebody who lived really close to our house. We had contacted this lady my first day in Chacabuco, over two weeks ago. We went by the house and rang the bell. The lady came out and said "come in!". We looked at each other with a look of disbelief and went into the house. She sat us down at her table and started asking questions about the church. She said that she had never spoken with missionaries before and that she wanted to know everything. We started speaking and she was way interested. She then interrupted us and said, "let me call my family in". She left and called her fifteen year old daughter and her husband. I thought, oh no, the husband. Because the majority of the men here are really stubborn, especially when it comes to the subject of religion. We continued and they just listened. We came to the part of the Book of Mormon and then the husband started asking questions. He asked "Okay okay, stop. Now, who is Nephi? Did he live before or after Jesus Christ?" I drew a timeline on my planner from Adam to us and explained where each of the characters were in the timeline of the world. Nephi 600 years before Christ, Moroni 400 years after Christ, and Joseph Smith in 1820. He said "Okay! It makes sense now!" They said where can we get this book? My companion and I, now feeling a little bit stupid, said that we didn´t bring any, but that they could read the pamphlet that we had left the last time. They said okay. We ended with a prayer and that asked how we do our prayers. They asked if we did Father in Heaven from chapter 7 in Mathew and we said no. We offered the prayer on our knees and it was amazing. They said, I like that prayer a lot better. They then started talking about marriage and how they could get married in a few weeks. We challanged them to Baptism and they accepted. The family is absolutely golden! So, we´ll be working with them a ton to get them into the water. You know, from your missions, when you meet a family that makes you say to yourself, this family is going to contain the next bishop, relief society president and young womens president? Yeah, thats this family. It was an amazing day that just lifted our enitre week.

On thursday, I had my first opportunity to do a baptismal interview, which is one of my duties as a District Leader. It was way cool and spiritual. Even though they aren´t getting baptized for a few problems, the experience was really spiritual. We had to travel for an hour in a bus to get to the area where we needed to go. But, it was a way cool deal.

Thursday is thanksgiving and no, Argentina doesn´t recognize the holiday. But, we´re going to have dinner with a member family and they are going to do a mini thanksgiving dinner for us. I´ll send pictures.

Gavin, I hope you shaved dude. That barba (beard) was looking gnarly. Did it hurt to shave? I bet it did.

Paige, I have my fingers crossed for you as you go into your interview. I hope it goes well and that you can get the job. Put tape on your eyes so you look chinese, it´ll increase your chance of getting the job.

Dad, I feel so bad. So, I hope this makes up for it....

¡Feliz cumpleaños!

I felt really bad for not wishing you a happy birthday when it came around. So, I hope that made up for it.

Well, I have to go now. Thanks for all the love and support you guys give me. I always love getting your letters every P-Day. Mom, good luck on your new calling that you´ll get next week. I hope its a good one. I love you guys and I´ll talk to you next week.

Vuestro hermano, hijo, y amigo en Cristo,

Weekly Letter November 14, 2011

Como andan bien?

Well, another week passes by in Argentina. Thanks for the letter, I always appreciate your letters, I love hearing from you guys. I look forward to it every week.

Paige, work will come eventually. Just keep going and be patient. It'll come through. Congrats on you getting into BYU online. That's awesome! Work hard!

Gavin, congrats on the Eagle buddy. Just get it done and don't procrastinate! Have fun in Ellensburg. I remember going there. It was a long day, but a lot of fun.

Thanks Dad for all the advice that you gave me. I'll definitely use it. Being a district leader is a lot of fun. I get to do stuff with my elders and help them out. It's tough, but I love it.

By the way, the answers to Bro. Wilson's email is as follows.

1) My parents helped me by always helping me place my mission as an ultimate goal. Like, if I wanted to do something, they always asked how it would affect my mission, such as finances or things like that.

2) I decided to serve a mission because I always had my mission as something that I would always do. I decided early to serve my mission, so when the time came, I didn't need to make a decision.

3) I decided to serve a mission when I was young. I always looked at the missionaries as my heroes. So, I decided to go when I was very young, probably about 8 or 9.

4) Serving a mission has built my testimony completely. I spend everyday from 10:30-9:00 at night sharing with everybody the message of the gospel. Testifying strengthens one's testimony more than anything.

5) The Holy Ghost is everything. It's the factor whether an investigator truly experiences conversion or no. The Holy Ghost is the deciding factor whether we find somebody who is truly searching for the Gospel. The Holy Ghost is what tells me that I don't need to worry about what I need to say in a lesson in order to bring that divine influence in what we are teaching.

6) I remember when we saw that a young girl came to church who we didn't know. We asked who she was and she said that she was a good friend of a recent convert who we had baptized. She said that she wanted to get baptized 2 weeks later. The only thing that she needed was permission from her parents. We went to her house but the lesson was unsuccessful because the father was a very strong catholic (like most Argentines), and refused to give his daughter the permission to get baptized. The young woman started to cry, but the father did nothing. A week later, this same young lady came to church and told us that her mother had convinced the dad to give her permission. We went to the house and taught the mom too. The young woman was baptized that same week. A definite miracle.

7) 10

8)The members help us quite a bit. The majority of my baptisms were member referrals.

9) My first week, we were contacting on the street and we contacted a very beautiful young lady about 20 years old. She said that she wasn't very interested in our message but she respected the fact that we were out teaching in the hot sun. She smiled and said good-bye. To be polite I stretched out my hand to shake her hand to say good-bye. She took my hand and pulled herself into me and kissed my cheek and walked away. I was beside myself and worried. A girl just kissed me! My companion was laughing and said that is how people say both hello and good-bye in Argentina.

10) Learning the language was difficult at first, but now I look back on that time and wonder why I didn't understand. Now, I can speak and understand as though this was my native language.

Well, we're working and doing well. By writing that little response, I've spent the majority of my time on the computer. Just know that I'm doing well. I'm healthy and without problem. The more time I have on my mission, it gets harder to find things to write about. I love you guys and I look forward to your letter next week. Oh also, Mom do you have a good recipe for fried chicken? Could you send it to me next week if you find it? That would be awesome.

Con amor y carino,

Weekly Letter November 7th, 2010

Hola!

Well, sorry for not sending pictures for a while, but now I sent you a ton.

First Housekeeping:

Looks like you guys had a pretty busy week. As always, I am glad to hear from you guys. I can't believe that I am already at 13 months in the mission! Time flies by so fast! Before you know it, I'll be home haha!

That makes me really sad about Bro. Bell. I hope everything works out for them.

Sorry that I'm not responding too much about what you guys did this week, I did read it all though and I pray for you guys every night that the Lord will extend his hand in all things that you encounter. I just feel so excited to share my experience with you guys, I can't wait!

Okay...here goes! I got transfered this week on Thursday. I got a call on Wednesday night from the Assistants and they told me that I neede to be in the offices at 7:45 in the morning for an interview with President. So, I arrived in Ramos Mejia and President called me in. He sat me down in his office and we said a prayer. He then told me, :Elder Rook, I have a special project for you. I need you to be a District Leader and lift a branch at the same time. Will you do that for me?" I was a little beside myself. I said okay and that I would do it. He told me that I neede to make my numbers everyweek, and be an example to the district of missionaries. He asked if there was anything he could do for me or if I had any questons. I just said that I felt a little sick that's all. He laughed and led me out of his office. I went to the gym where all of the elders were to start the meeting. I sat in the gymnasium and watched the screen as the pictures of other missionaries came up and the missionaries were whooping an d hollering as they found out where they were going. Then, my picture came up. I was going to Chacabuco out in the country...5 hours away from Buenous Aires. Out in the middle of nowhere. My companion is Elder Harriott from Panama who is an absolute stud. We came together to Argentina, so it will be nice to be with an experienced missionary. I said goobye to my son, Elder Abarca, who is training his own son right now which makes me a Grandfather! He was really excited to be training a new missionary. Elder Alema, my MTC companion was also made a district leader out in Campo, so we're in the same zone again. I got together with my companion and we got together with other Elders going out to campo (country). We went to capital to take a bus out to the country. A big two-story bus. We traveled with two sisters who were going in after a white wash (where both missionaries were taken out). It was a long bus ride, but it was so pretty to see what the country side of Argentina is like. On the way, we passed the giant cathedral in Lujan. I sent that picture too. It was gigantic! You could see it from miles away. We finally arrived in Chacabuco after about 5 hours. The sisters kept traveling for about another hour. The city out here is so pretty! It's like I went back in time about 20 years. The people are so nice and I still haven't seen a dirt road yet. The only thins is, there are no big buildings, so the heat is even more intense. We have bicycles, but they need to get repaired, but we'll have them this week. The people are awesome here! There are about 29 active members as of now. The Branch President is way cool, President Villalva. The zone is interesting, because we don't have meetings. We are all spread out too far that we don't have district meetings or zone meetings. We will have zone conference with other zones, but we'll have to stay overnight in another zone that night before conference. Crazy right? The pictures I took are really cool. That's my area. There are other pretties parts, but they are under construction so I'll take some other pictures later. I am so excited to be out here. All of the other missionaries talk about being in campo, but not many have the opportunity to be out here. It's like a different world here. It's nothing like Buenos Aires, which makes me happy. I was getting a little tired of being in the city.

Well I have to go. I love you all and I pray for you every night. I look forward to talking to you when Christmas rolls around soon. It will be weird, given that I can't speak english anymore. Tell Grandma I said thank you and that I love her a ton, and Grandpa! I love you guys. Until next week!

Su hijo, hermano y amigo en Cristo

Hola como estan?

Okay, I really don't have a lot of time, so I will try to make this quick.

Yes, I am getting transferred on Thursday from Laferrere II. It makes me really sad that I'm leaving. I gave my farewell speech in my ward yesterday and played a musical number of God be with You til we Meet Again. Pretty cleche right? But it was good.

I attached a zip file with a few pictures in their from our baptism on Saturday and some from my branch presidents' family. They are so cool and I'm going to miss them a ton. They want to come and visit me in the states in a few years. They said that if I want to return to Argentina, that I have a house to stay in. :-)

Mom, pray about your decision about going back to school. I personally think it would be good for you, and give you something to do while we are out of the house.

Congrats on all the future missionaries. Maryn and Tanner, I hope for the best of them. The mission is awesome!

Good luck to Paige on the job search, I hpe you find something soon.

Gavin, great picture you sent me. Keep it up with photography. Send me some pictures of Post Falls so I can print them off! :-)

Oh, by the way. Tell Chad to write me. On Wednesday, I wasn't able to go to lunch at his house because I was caught on divisions with another elder, so I wasn't able to see him before he left. I felt really bad that I couldn't see him. Tell him I love him and I hope to see him soon!

So, we had a great week this week. On Saturday, we had two baptisms, Samantha and Nely. Samanta was our miracle story that I told last week. I had the opportunity to baptize her and the spirit was so strong. He mom went and liked the baptism a lot. It was so cool to see an investigator grow in the gospel until the point of baptism. She is going to be a super strong member of the church. She also showed interest in serving a mission, but we'll see. That would be the highlight of my life if one of my converts served a mission. Nely was a member who's records got lost, so she had to get baptized again. She started to cry during the baptism. It was really cool.

We did divisions on Tuesday with my district leader and I went with his companion. The district leader lives right next to the zone leaders on the same piece of land. We woke up early in the morning to take some flour from the zone leaders apartment to make some scones. The zone leaders went to capital to do some immigration stuff, so we got the flour as they were leaving. What my temporary companion did not realize, was that he left the key to open the gate to leave the apartment in the zone leaders apartment, and the zone leaders left their apartment locked. And, we had no telephone to call anybody. So, we hung out in the apartment until the district leader and my companion came back. But, we still couldn't leave. So they went to the lunch appointment with Chad and we stayed in the apartment until the zone leaders arrived at almost four o'clock. Fun experience that definitely went in the journal.

Other than that, I don't have much to say. I'm just waiting for the transfers on Thursday. Kind of nervous because I don't know what's going to happen. I hope you enjoy the pictures and I hope you can open them on the Mac. If not, try Dad's laptop. I love you all and I look forward to your letters next week! Pray for me that transfers go okay!

Chau!