Dear Family,
And I finally got your package! Oh man....okay first things first. the GRAVY is heavenly!!! I already ate a package with my chicken and noodles. OH MAN. suuuper yummy. the pants fit like a glove on my hand. i was a little freaked out about how perfectly that actually fit. that was amazing. RANCH. oh my word...my comp was jealous, but of course i will share. i havent made it yet though. it has to be the right time. hahaha. the candy of course was pretty amazing. i had a kit kat with a banana for breakfast. thanks for everything seriously. i was super happy to get it. you made a missionary happy this week. I wish i could tell you how greatful i was and am...but it´s hard through email. THANKS (:
this week was great. me and my comp have found lots of new OLD people to teach and bring to church. hahaha.
armando and lidia are an older couple who decided the get baptized on the third charla. they love love love the book of mormon and keep having lots of fun charlaring with us.
i dont really have a lot of time, because i want to send you guys pictures at the same time. anyways, pray for angelita. she could get baptized this week (: we are working super hard. thanks for the prayers. church was special this week. in was in a house and the rain feel super hard...it made me think that maybe thats how it was when the savior died on the cross....with storms and thunder and everything. the spirit was super strong and i almost got amotional. it also made me think of how it would hav been to go the church when it first got restored on earth, in a house with joseph smith and everything. anyways. i love you guys (: thanks for everything.
i bought new shoes, just fyi (: thanks for everything (:
The Fence
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
1-16-12
hey guys!
i will try to send all the photos i have ready, chat with you guys and write an email all at the same time. anyways...our week was good. it felt a lot like last week. i think lately i have really devoloped a talent for pacience. the kinda of things that are happening i think would have normally frustrated me. and i am pretty pacient. i feel like i have learned a lot more of the purpose of life and accepting what happens for a reason. i must have gotten that from dad because he has always been a huge example in reverence and pacience for me. my suepr hero! anyways, this week we found some great new people. i feel like the peoploe we are finding and teaching are so different from the people we had in san juan! it´s like...they understand everything we are teaching to them, but it just doesn´t matter or it´s not a big deal, you know what i mean we found this amazing family who actually had talked to the missioanries before. we explained a lot to them abotu baptism and how it should be done and when...they understood everything. they committed to being baptized the 28th and we did everything to get them to church on sunday and they didn´t come. it is kind of a long story....anyways. so that ruined some things however this little old lady named angelita came to church. and she said she LOVED it and that she felt this peace like she had never felt before. we tried to help her recognize on sunday evening that that was the holy ghost telling her that she shoud be here in the church (and get baptized) hahaha. she is the sweetest old lady. she invited us to her garden which is super big and told us to come get food when we need some (talk about charity!) awesome lady. keep her in your prayers. she lives alone but latley she has become amazing friends of her nieghboors who are members. so, you can imagine she has a lot of contact with the church.
we are starting to make a huge weekly calendar, me and my comp of when the members are available to leave with us (trying to work better with members). we are hoping to have every member tell us when they are normally available during the week to go and visit people. hopefully when we get everyone on board, there will always be someone available. there are like half of our area who is signed for weekday from 6 - 8....haha, no one can go in the morning...one little prbblem we didn´t see coming. haha. anyways, so you can probably imagine how much we are working. the sun itself just makes you tired. you don´t have to do anything, you just lay yourself out under the sun and it sucks all the energy out of you...haha. anyways, . that´s fun (:
this morning me and my comp decided to go to a lake and have an american bbq. it didn´t really turn out as we liked but we made it work and it was super fun. we roasted hot dogs and used this super weird ketchup we bought in centro san luis. we also skipped rocks and had to make a fire using the wood we had around us. hahaha. super fun. anyawys. it was pretty good, but now i am just super tired...but i love it. at this time in the mission it is hard to keep up the speed and the energy that you once had being a new missionary. haha. but i am still getting up on time and being obeident. my exercises are becoming more like stretch and meditation routine....that has got to change. haha. this week is zone conference...we shall see what happens (: we are working hard and it seems like we are planting many seeds. so. you know how it goes (: haha. anyways, thanks for everythign family. photos to come (:
un abrazo,
elder jay valle.
i will try to send all the photos i have ready, chat with you guys and write an email all at the same time. anyways...our week was good. it felt a lot like last week. i think lately i have really devoloped a talent for pacience. the kinda of things that are happening i think would have normally frustrated me. and i am pretty pacient. i feel like i have learned a lot more of the purpose of life and accepting what happens for a reason. i must have gotten that from dad because he has always been a huge example in reverence and pacience for me. my suepr hero! anyways, this week we found some great new people. i feel like the peoploe we are finding and teaching are so different from the people we had in san juan! it´s like...they understand everything we are teaching to them, but it just doesn´t matter or it´s not a big deal, you know what i mean we found this amazing family who actually had talked to the missioanries before. we explained a lot to them abotu baptism and how it should be done and when...they understood everything. they committed to being baptized the 28th and we did everything to get them to church on sunday and they didn´t come. it is kind of a long story....anyways. so that ruined some things however this little old lady named angelita came to church. and she said she LOVED it and that she felt this peace like she had never felt before. we tried to help her recognize on sunday evening that that was the holy ghost telling her that she shoud be here in the church (and get baptized) hahaha. she is the sweetest old lady. she invited us to her garden which is super big and told us to come get food when we need some (talk about charity!) awesome lady. keep her in your prayers. she lives alone but latley she has become amazing friends of her nieghboors who are members. so, you can imagine she has a lot of contact with the church.
we are starting to make a huge weekly calendar, me and my comp of when the members are available to leave with us (trying to work better with members). we are hoping to have every member tell us when they are normally available during the week to go and visit people. hopefully when we get everyone on board, there will always be someone available. there are like half of our area who is signed for weekday from 6 - 8....haha, no one can go in the morning...one little prbblem we didn´t see coming. haha. anyways, so you can probably imagine how much we are working. the sun itself just makes you tired. you don´t have to do anything, you just lay yourself out under the sun and it sucks all the energy out of you...haha. anyways, . that´s fun (:
this morning me and my comp decided to go to a lake and have an american bbq. it didn´t really turn out as we liked but we made it work and it was super fun. we roasted hot dogs and used this super weird ketchup we bought in centro san luis. we also skipped rocks and had to make a fire using the wood we had around us. hahaha. super fun. anyawys. it was pretty good, but now i am just super tired...but i love it. at this time in the mission it is hard to keep up the speed and the energy that you once had being a new missionary. haha. but i am still getting up on time and being obeident. my exercises are becoming more like stretch and meditation routine....that has got to change. haha. this week is zone conference...we shall see what happens (: we are working hard and it seems like we are planting many seeds. so. you know how it goes (: haha. anyways, thanks for everythign family. photos to come (:
un abrazo,
elder jay valle.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Letters from December 5, 2011-January 9, 2012
My appologies to those who follow this blog for updates on Jay. It was a crazy holiday season and I just kept putting off posting "one more week"-ha! Anyway, here are the letters we got from Jay over the past six weeks. We had a wonderful time being able to Skype with him on Christmas day and he looked great.~Kelly
12-5-11
I got my mission credit card back (: so no worries.
This week has definitly been a good week for the test that God is giving us. Hahaha. I´m district leader of some interesting companionships. I just have been having to deal with serious problems lately. I mean, their probelms are not mine all the time, but sometimes I feel responsable not only to the mission but also the Lord, that these people keep doing missionary work. I worry and pray about them and it´s tough. It just makes me think how heavenly father feels when i disobey or make mistakes. Anyways. Crazy Stuff. Not a lot happened because my comp was actually crazy sick this week. We had to go back to the house a couple time so he could lay down or use the bathroom. He hasn´t eaten much, so we have been in the pench just waiting. haha.
We found some way amazing people this week. we found this lady named nelly who told us at a bus stop that she was looking for the trutgh because she was wayy confused about churches and stuff. anyways...we went to her house and taught her about the la restauracion and she said it made sense. she said she would pray and stuff. she was super nice. anyways...we went back to verify how the prayer went....what she felt and shat she thinks aobut Joseph Smith and stuff. She was like...yeah, i was praying and i got this way cold feeling....like it was dark....and i couldn´t talk anymore and i had to stop praying because i got scared to prayer after i felt so bad. (what?) i was soooo confused...and i had no idea what to say. either did my comp. we talked about the holy ghost and how it should feel, but obviously it wasn´t what she felt. and then i remember thats exactly what happened to jospeh smith when he was praying for the truth....boom. so we read it and she got a little teary and was like...that´s exactly how i felt! like, i couldn´t speak. We explained to her about how her answer will change her life, and doesn´t want her to get an answer. so when she feels like maybe she will have to keep fighting. I felt for sure that the idea of sharing the part of joseph smith history didn´t come from my mind, but from me and my companion just trying to figure out what God really wants her to hear. And thankfully to that we didn´t loose her. At the end of the lesson she gave us a huge plate of empanadas (SCORE!) that same day was actually her birthday so we brought her back a cake. Idk how much she will progress, but she is special so just keep her in your prayers (: anyways, that as a cool experience. I have some picture i will have to send you guys, but other than that itwas kinda a normal week (: hahaha. love you guys (:
Elder Valle
12-12-11
Hey Family.
Wow, when did my family start going to the knitting factory on the weekends? weird (: I´m glad you all had fun (: This week was good. A little frustrating..peoples agency sometimes....to not go to church or no to pray and stuff. ugh! crazy stuff. i never thought i would be so worried that people go to church and crazy stuff like that but i am.
President interviews were this week. It was a good interview, he explained a lot of cool things about how the church will grow in certain areas. He also told me some cool stuff about taking it east. I told him everything that wa s going on and the pressure that we get from getting people to progress and stuff. he told me super simply, just give it your best, god will do the rest....if it´s his will. that made me feel good. knowing that i can give it my best and accept whatever comes, because it must be the will of God. Which is the only thing I am here for really. I am glad you guys had that fireside with the to RM´s. Sounds super fun. if only all the young men knew how fun it is the baptize people...they would be preparing themselves already. it´s jsut the blast.
We had a busy wek inviting people to church. using members to get them to church, in viting in actives to pick up people to go to church (that´s a double hitter....inactives and non members at church...love it). and all sorts of phone calls and stuff. with all that we only had one investigator at church. me and my comp were so confused! someimtes, 9:30 is "early" for the people out here to do. anyways, as you can imagine, i was not really frustrated...it was just hard for me to accept god´s will you know? but i understand there are still things i need to learn. we have a baptism planned this weekend but some crazy health problems are going on with some family members...and so we are still unsure. gah. anyways, this week was really quite the hassle. we have found some new people as well. december is always a crazy month for missions. we all have to reach our end of the year goal and make sure we get it ...si o si. crazy stuff. did i tell you about that one elder that wanted to go home? well...he´s staying!!! yay! (: president is such a boss.
we found this new lady named veronica. she has two daughters and her husband died about a year ago, making her a single mom. she wants to move to the states so her family can have a better life, but obviously it´s too much money..and she doesn´t have a job. she is super receptive and loves me and my comp. way funny. i don´t think she believes in joseph smith, but thats just because she hasn´t read the bom yet...just wait. things will get real spicy when she reads the book of mormon. boom...testimony. beacuse she´s like waiting for a sign...not an answer form the Holy Ghost. man...it´s super fun helping people get a testimony. like a game. that would be a sick video game. anyways...pray for us so we can get people to church christmas eve and new years day...eek! tough stuff. i have an awesome photo this week. you guys will love it (:
love elder valle
12-19-11
Hey, I have permission to write you guys today about something very cool, that should be great. I just got a call from my zone leaders. President Avila was talking with the Area Authorites about Christmas Calling. Looks like he has permission for the Elders in all of South, South America to SKYPE their families for Christmas. Now, there are a couple rules that go along with doing this.
1) It must be the Skype service. So today, I would have to create an account, and so would you guys. I asked them if it would be okay to use the gmail one and they said no ): lame. But beggars can´t be choosers. Hahaha.
2) The call should only be, about an hour.
3) It can´t be in a members house....I will have to find an internet cafe with cameras to do it. So I will be in public instead of a members house.
4) It can´t be done Christmas Day (Sabbath Day...) and so either the 24th (Christmas Eve...I like that idea) or the 26th.
It would be nice that if Erin and Dallan want to do it, that they could sign up as well. This is kinda exciting...as you can imagine all the missionaries are way stoked. I am too. Just a little worried about the audio, just make sure to set it up. If neccisary get speakers and a microphone for the laptop so everything can work (: hahahaha. So get an account and write me back. the thing is, i would have to go download the skype thing on the computer. i really don´t have a ton of time to figure it all out. but just to let you know all this stuff so you can get it started and figured out. if you dont want to, and you just want to call, let me know. haha (:
elder valle
12-26-11
no letter because we Skyped for Christmas the day before
1-2-12
this week has been pretty great! it was a little crazy beacuse there wasn´t too much time to actually work in our area, but we have had a good time. sometimes its frustrating when people are not home...because we seriously have no control over that. so with the holidays and everything, it has been tough finding peoplein the house and actually having time to talk. anyways. we also had a bunch of meetings and little holday parties we went to that cut out so much time. right now, we have people to teach but not enough. we really have to find a lot more people to teach and lots more families if we want to baptize in the month of january. so, it was a good week but we just needed more time. we started off having the mission christmas party. it was pretty fun. it was the first icecream bar i have had in my mission! it was so good! i forgot all about it. fudge, cookies, m and m´s, ice cream flavors. ag! it was amazing! we had lots of fun. the president dressed up like a wise man and we had santa clause there. it was pretty fun (: anyways....so we played soccer, had some weird skit game things and ate and got to talk with all the elders. i got to see my best missionary friend on the mission, elder rios. we talked forvever. it was great (: they served us cow tounge....it wasn´t that good. it was worth the try though. for the white elephant gift i got a cooking glove....like the ones you put on your hand to take hot stuff out of the oven. those don´t exist down here! someone bought one in downtown mendoza and i got it for my gift. a little exciting. i don´t cook toooo much, but you can imagine i was a little excited (: haha. anyways, i still didn´t get your package. i guess the offices fogot to bring like half of the packages down the party....as you can imagine, there were a few missionaries that were a little dissapointed. hahaha. anyways. BUT, there is acompnaionshiop who is going down the mendoza today and they said they would bring me the pacakge...and so i am not too worried. anyways.
the fiestas was pretty fun. for new years eve, we went to the zone leaders pench and actually cooked a lot and played board games. we cooked asado, pizzas, fruit salad..just lots of yummy stuff. and then we put the matresses together and did wrestling. it was a little fun, but i got dominated because like two of the elders were wrestlers before...so...chau pichu. anyways, we had fun, we had church the next morning and obviously like...hardly anyone was there. people go to bed at like 5 or six in the morning and then they have church at 930, so....it was weird. anyways, and the the actualy new years day, yesterday, we weren´t allowed to work, so we went to my pench to grab some stuff and clean it just a little bit and came back and played more board games. it was fun. it was a good new years. at midnight we got on the roof to watch all the fireworks, and it was fun. i actually ended up reflecting a ton on last year and erverything that i want to achieve this year, and the things i did achieve last year. anyways. it was fun (: i miss you guys but i hope evrythings going good! hope you guys had a blast and i´ll be seeing you this year right? hahaha (:
feliz año!
elder valle.
1-9-12
don´t feel like a rotten mother (: hahaha...whatever. i only sent pictures because we just talked the day before. anyways (:
not a lot to report this week.
me and my comp worked super super hard this week and it was hard to see the fruits. i wish i could blame it on the area and say, well this is a rich area, it´s harder to baptize, but if i think like that i will never baptize. so...talk about trial of our faith. this week will be one to remember becuase we worked so hard for the fruits of our labors and nothing showed up....so as you can imagine. we got frustrated. i feel like i don´t get mad to easily. so this week i kept my cool...but if we don´t get anyone at church next week, i might have a fit. no, just kiding (: but man....we worked super hard. we worked during the siest, we have been extra obedient but i know all of this is for my own benefit. i have been reading a lot in ether 12. it gives a lot of good guidance about going through hard stuff. i have thinking a lot about dedication. i defintily think that dedicating my self will be the best thing i can do right now. im not a bad missionary nor am i disobeident or anything...but, there are lots of little things i can fix. thats for sure. i only have a little bit of time left and i want to come back as my best self. we will see how that goes.
we found some sick families. we have found a family of eight (7 baptizable) who are super nice. they are pretty strong evangelical but they don´t got to church on sundays....which is kinda weird. anyways, so we will have to see how that charla goes...the next one (: it´s vacation time out here in argentina and so all the kids are on vacations and families are always leaving to go swim in the lakes or rivers. they don´t have like publiuc swimming pools but they do have a lake kinda near my are....it´s kinda gross, the water, but its what there is (: every one is doing their vacation thing and it´s hard to find people in house. that has been the biggest problem for us, is finding the people that we have already taught, the second time. it´s tough because a lot of people are gold but we just can´t find them! gah. whatev (: i know if we are obeident that we will be doing god´s will...and that´s all i want to do. i will try to send photos off here in a minute.
my is great (: he is new...has some good ideas. i kinda feel like he is trying to take over and show me how to do things, but you just have to run with it for a little bit and then suggest other ideas how to work. anyways, it´s good. we get along (: the area is fine and the members are amazing. thanks for everything family (: sorry, there is not a ton to write about (: love you guys!
chau,
elder valle
12-5-11
I got my mission credit card back (: so no worries.
This week has definitly been a good week for the test that God is giving us. Hahaha. I´m district leader of some interesting companionships. I just have been having to deal with serious problems lately. I mean, their probelms are not mine all the time, but sometimes I feel responsable not only to the mission but also the Lord, that these people keep doing missionary work. I worry and pray about them and it´s tough. It just makes me think how heavenly father feels when i disobey or make mistakes. Anyways. Crazy Stuff. Not a lot happened because my comp was actually crazy sick this week. We had to go back to the house a couple time so he could lay down or use the bathroom. He hasn´t eaten much, so we have been in the pench just waiting. haha.
We found some way amazing people this week. we found this lady named nelly who told us at a bus stop that she was looking for the trutgh because she was wayy confused about churches and stuff. anyways...we went to her house and taught her about the la restauracion and she said it made sense. she said she would pray and stuff. she was super nice. anyways...we went back to verify how the prayer went....what she felt and shat she thinks aobut Joseph Smith and stuff. She was like...yeah, i was praying and i got this way cold feeling....like it was dark....and i couldn´t talk anymore and i had to stop praying because i got scared to prayer after i felt so bad. (what?) i was soooo confused...and i had no idea what to say. either did my comp. we talked about the holy ghost and how it should feel, but obviously it wasn´t what she felt. and then i remember thats exactly what happened to jospeh smith when he was praying for the truth....boom. so we read it and she got a little teary and was like...that´s exactly how i felt! like, i couldn´t speak. We explained to her about how her answer will change her life, and doesn´t want her to get an answer. so when she feels like maybe she will have to keep fighting. I felt for sure that the idea of sharing the part of joseph smith history didn´t come from my mind, but from me and my companion just trying to figure out what God really wants her to hear. And thankfully to that we didn´t loose her. At the end of the lesson she gave us a huge plate of empanadas (SCORE!) that same day was actually her birthday so we brought her back a cake. Idk how much she will progress, but she is special so just keep her in your prayers (: anyways, that as a cool experience. I have some picture i will have to send you guys, but other than that itwas kinda a normal week (: hahaha. love you guys (:
Elder Valle
12-12-11
Hey Family.
Wow, when did my family start going to the knitting factory on the weekends? weird (: I´m glad you all had fun (: This week was good. A little frustrating..peoples agency sometimes....to not go to church or no to pray and stuff. ugh! crazy stuff. i never thought i would be so worried that people go to church and crazy stuff like that but i am.
President interviews were this week. It was a good interview, he explained a lot of cool things about how the church will grow in certain areas. He also told me some cool stuff about taking it east. I told him everything that wa s going on and the pressure that we get from getting people to progress and stuff. he told me super simply, just give it your best, god will do the rest....if it´s his will. that made me feel good. knowing that i can give it my best and accept whatever comes, because it must be the will of God. Which is the only thing I am here for really. I am glad you guys had that fireside with the to RM´s. Sounds super fun. if only all the young men knew how fun it is the baptize people...they would be preparing themselves already. it´s jsut the blast.
We had a busy wek inviting people to church. using members to get them to church, in viting in actives to pick up people to go to church (that´s a double hitter....inactives and non members at church...love it). and all sorts of phone calls and stuff. with all that we only had one investigator at church. me and my comp were so confused! someimtes, 9:30 is "early" for the people out here to do. anyways, as you can imagine, i was not really frustrated...it was just hard for me to accept god´s will you know? but i understand there are still things i need to learn. we have a baptism planned this weekend but some crazy health problems are going on with some family members...and so we are still unsure. gah. anyways, this week was really quite the hassle. we have found some new people as well. december is always a crazy month for missions. we all have to reach our end of the year goal and make sure we get it ...si o si. crazy stuff. did i tell you about that one elder that wanted to go home? well...he´s staying!!! yay! (: president is such a boss.
we found this new lady named veronica. she has two daughters and her husband died about a year ago, making her a single mom. she wants to move to the states so her family can have a better life, but obviously it´s too much money..and she doesn´t have a job. she is super receptive and loves me and my comp. way funny. i don´t think she believes in joseph smith, but thats just because she hasn´t read the bom yet...just wait. things will get real spicy when she reads the book of mormon. boom...testimony. beacuse she´s like waiting for a sign...not an answer form the Holy Ghost. man...it´s super fun helping people get a testimony. like a game. that would be a sick video game. anyways...pray for us so we can get people to church christmas eve and new years day...eek! tough stuff. i have an awesome photo this week. you guys will love it (:
love elder valle
12-19-11
Hey, I have permission to write you guys today about something very cool, that should be great. I just got a call from my zone leaders. President Avila was talking with the Area Authorites about Christmas Calling. Looks like he has permission for the Elders in all of South, South America to SKYPE their families for Christmas. Now, there are a couple rules that go along with doing this.
1) It must be the Skype service. So today, I would have to create an account, and so would you guys. I asked them if it would be okay to use the gmail one and they said no ): lame. But beggars can´t be choosers. Hahaha.
2) The call should only be, about an hour.
3) It can´t be in a members house....I will have to find an internet cafe with cameras to do it. So I will be in public instead of a members house.
4) It can´t be done Christmas Day (Sabbath Day...) and so either the 24th (Christmas Eve...I like that idea) or the 26th.
It would be nice that if Erin and Dallan want to do it, that they could sign up as well. This is kinda exciting...as you can imagine all the missionaries are way stoked. I am too. Just a little worried about the audio, just make sure to set it up. If neccisary get speakers and a microphone for the laptop so everything can work (: hahahaha. So get an account and write me back. the thing is, i would have to go download the skype thing on the computer. i really don´t have a ton of time to figure it all out. but just to let you know all this stuff so you can get it started and figured out. if you dont want to, and you just want to call, let me know. haha (:
elder valle
12-26-11
no letter because we Skyped for Christmas the day before
1-2-12
this week has been pretty great! it was a little crazy beacuse there wasn´t too much time to actually work in our area, but we have had a good time. sometimes its frustrating when people are not home...because we seriously have no control over that. so with the holidays and everything, it has been tough finding peoplein the house and actually having time to talk. anyways. we also had a bunch of meetings and little holday parties we went to that cut out so much time. right now, we have people to teach but not enough. we really have to find a lot more people to teach and lots more families if we want to baptize in the month of january. so, it was a good week but we just needed more time. we started off having the mission christmas party. it was pretty fun. it was the first icecream bar i have had in my mission! it was so good! i forgot all about it. fudge, cookies, m and m´s, ice cream flavors. ag! it was amazing! we had lots of fun. the president dressed up like a wise man and we had santa clause there. it was pretty fun (: anyways....so we played soccer, had some weird skit game things and ate and got to talk with all the elders. i got to see my best missionary friend on the mission, elder rios. we talked forvever. it was great (: they served us cow tounge....it wasn´t that good. it was worth the try though. for the white elephant gift i got a cooking glove....like the ones you put on your hand to take hot stuff out of the oven. those don´t exist down here! someone bought one in downtown mendoza and i got it for my gift. a little exciting. i don´t cook toooo much, but you can imagine i was a little excited (: haha. anyways, i still didn´t get your package. i guess the offices fogot to bring like half of the packages down the party....as you can imagine, there were a few missionaries that were a little dissapointed. hahaha. anyways. BUT, there is acompnaionshiop who is going down the mendoza today and they said they would bring me the pacakge...and so i am not too worried. anyways.
the fiestas was pretty fun. for new years eve, we went to the zone leaders pench and actually cooked a lot and played board games. we cooked asado, pizzas, fruit salad..just lots of yummy stuff. and then we put the matresses together and did wrestling. it was a little fun, but i got dominated because like two of the elders were wrestlers before...so...chau pichu. anyways, we had fun, we had church the next morning and obviously like...hardly anyone was there. people go to bed at like 5 or six in the morning and then they have church at 930, so....it was weird. anyways, and the the actualy new years day, yesterday, we weren´t allowed to work, so we went to my pench to grab some stuff and clean it just a little bit and came back and played more board games. it was fun. it was a good new years. at midnight we got on the roof to watch all the fireworks, and it was fun. i actually ended up reflecting a ton on last year and erverything that i want to achieve this year, and the things i did achieve last year. anyways. it was fun (: i miss you guys but i hope evrythings going good! hope you guys had a blast and i´ll be seeing you this year right? hahaha (:
feliz año!
elder valle.
1-9-12
don´t feel like a rotten mother (: hahaha...whatever. i only sent pictures because we just talked the day before. anyways (:
not a lot to report this week.
me and my comp worked super super hard this week and it was hard to see the fruits. i wish i could blame it on the area and say, well this is a rich area, it´s harder to baptize, but if i think like that i will never baptize. so...talk about trial of our faith. this week will be one to remember becuase we worked so hard for the fruits of our labors and nothing showed up....so as you can imagine. we got frustrated. i feel like i don´t get mad to easily. so this week i kept my cool...but if we don´t get anyone at church next week, i might have a fit. no, just kiding (: but man....we worked super hard. we worked during the siest, we have been extra obedient but i know all of this is for my own benefit. i have been reading a lot in ether 12. it gives a lot of good guidance about going through hard stuff. i have thinking a lot about dedication. i defintily think that dedicating my self will be the best thing i can do right now. im not a bad missionary nor am i disobeident or anything...but, there are lots of little things i can fix. thats for sure. i only have a little bit of time left and i want to come back as my best self. we will see how that goes.
we found some sick families. we have found a family of eight (7 baptizable) who are super nice. they are pretty strong evangelical but they don´t got to church on sundays....which is kinda weird. anyways, so we will have to see how that charla goes...the next one (: it´s vacation time out here in argentina and so all the kids are on vacations and families are always leaving to go swim in the lakes or rivers. they don´t have like publiuc swimming pools but they do have a lake kinda near my are....it´s kinda gross, the water, but its what there is (: every one is doing their vacation thing and it´s hard to find people in house. that has been the biggest problem for us, is finding the people that we have already taught, the second time. it´s tough because a lot of people are gold but we just can´t find them! gah. whatev (: i know if we are obeident that we will be doing god´s will...and that´s all i want to do. i will try to send photos off here in a minute.
my is great (: he is new...has some good ideas. i kinda feel like he is trying to take over and show me how to do things, but you just have to run with it for a little bit and then suggest other ideas how to work. anyways, it´s good. we get along (: the area is fine and the members are amazing. thanks for everything family (: sorry, there is not a ton to write about (: love you guys!
chau,
elder valle
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
11-28-11
Hey Family.
This week was good (: It was a little crazy because I barely had any time in my area or to talk to my investigators! I felt trapped I wanted so much to teach and talk and pray with them but this week was so hard because we had so many things to do this week (:
First thing. My Mission credit card got eaten in the ATM....i guessi put in the wrong password and they ate it. Ug....it´s going to be a PAIN trying to get this card back. So I have been pulling money off my personal just so you know mom (:
After pday they told me that I had to go to mendoza ASAP so I could get my VISA renewed before i became illegal. Anyways...I had to go on tuesday. I went to mendoza and got there at 12 at night and then i had to get up at six the next day so i coudl go get in line and wait for the fingerprinting place to get me a spot. i finally got in, got my fingerprints done and i was good to go! wow...so then I had to travel to San Luis again (four hour bus ride back) and i had to wait in the terminal for my bus. they dropped me off at eleven and my bus didn´t leave til two. They told me i would have to be alone for a while. WEIRD feeling to be honest. I really got a glimpse of what it might have been like or how hard it would have been to preach the gospel like the apostles who didn´t have companions and had to be perfectly obedient. I could go on an on about the comparison but you guys get he gist. It was a boring experience to be hoenst. I found one guy to talk to who actually spoke english and lived in virgina for like five years....go figure. Anyways, that was nuts. Next day (thanksgiving) President came up to do Leadership trainging for our zone. He spoke a lot about how the church is changing the way of doing missionary work. No longer will we nknock doors. the goal is that the missioanries work with pure references...crazy right? But we know that we can have success. I would challenge you to think of someone (anyone....a neighboor...just and random person that live in the ward boundaires) and tell the missionaries where they live on sunday and ask them to visit them. They will be thrilled!! Even though they might not be baptized, we are planting seeds and working ina new way. Should be great. they evening the zone had thanksgiving. Rolls, chicken, chorizo, mashed potatoes...and someone had there mom send them gravy packets (MMMMMM) i also made a peach cobbler for the thing. Way yummy. It was a little argentine because we didn´t have any turkey. it kinds doesnt exist here. or it is waaaaaay expensive. So, it was fun. The next day worked a little bit in our area (finally) and the next day i had to do divisions with my district. they are not being disobedient but they just don´t get along (atleast they are baptizing though!). They are not doing to hot as far as companioship unity goes. So it was a little intense trying to fiz the problems. The hermanas in my district are also lossing some investigators...which is super hard for them. So it was a little nuts. We also had to get people to stake conference which was a little tough because it is so far away. Then sunday night....it started rainging and hailing like no other again. It was nuts. Too dangerous to go outside too....it was a little dissapointing not getting much done. But we had thing to take care of. It´s interesting how many things god puts in our way. I am having lots of fun. Me and my comp are at one of the points in the mission where there is no one progressing...no one really wants to get baptized. It´s tough. I am so used to working so much and helping people get to church. It´s weird when you have to look for people...i guess i am supposed to learn something. We will see what it is (: I hope you all enjoyed your thanksgiving (: I might try to get some cool photos to you guys today.
This moning we went to a lake and played soccer which was in the middle of a huge argentine race track.
it was acually pretty cool! i will try to get those to you (: love you guys (:
Elder Valle
This week was good (: It was a little crazy because I barely had any time in my area or to talk to my investigators! I felt trapped I wanted so much to teach and talk and pray with them but this week was so hard because we had so many things to do this week (:
First thing. My Mission credit card got eaten in the ATM....i guessi put in the wrong password and they ate it. Ug....it´s going to be a PAIN trying to get this card back. So I have been pulling money off my personal just so you know mom (:
After pday they told me that I had to go to mendoza ASAP so I could get my VISA renewed before i became illegal. Anyways...I had to go on tuesday. I went to mendoza and got there at 12 at night and then i had to get up at six the next day so i coudl go get in line and wait for the fingerprinting place to get me a spot. i finally got in, got my fingerprints done and i was good to go! wow...so then I had to travel to San Luis again (four hour bus ride back) and i had to wait in the terminal for my bus. they dropped me off at eleven and my bus didn´t leave til two. They told me i would have to be alone for a while. WEIRD feeling to be honest. I really got a glimpse of what it might have been like or how hard it would have been to preach the gospel like the apostles who didn´t have companions and had to be perfectly obedient. I could go on an on about the comparison but you guys get he gist. It was a boring experience to be hoenst. I found one guy to talk to who actually spoke english and lived in virgina for like five years....go figure. Anyways, that was nuts. Next day (thanksgiving) President came up to do Leadership trainging for our zone. He spoke a lot about how the church is changing the way of doing missionary work. No longer will we nknock doors. the goal is that the missioanries work with pure references...crazy right? But we know that we can have success. I would challenge you to think of someone (anyone....a neighboor...just and random person that live in the ward boundaires) and tell the missionaries where they live on sunday and ask them to visit them. They will be thrilled!! Even though they might not be baptized, we are planting seeds and working ina new way. Should be great. they evening the zone had thanksgiving. Rolls, chicken, chorizo, mashed potatoes...and someone had there mom send them gravy packets (MMMMMM) i also made a peach cobbler for the thing. Way yummy. It was a little argentine because we didn´t have any turkey. it kinds doesnt exist here. or it is waaaaaay expensive. So, it was fun. The next day worked a little bit in our area (finally) and the next day i had to do divisions with my district. they are not being disobedient but they just don´t get along (atleast they are baptizing though!). They are not doing to hot as far as companioship unity goes. So it was a little intense trying to fiz the problems. The hermanas in my district are also lossing some investigators...which is super hard for them. So it was a little nuts. We also had to get people to stake conference which was a little tough because it is so far away. Then sunday night....it started rainging and hailing like no other again. It was nuts. Too dangerous to go outside too....it was a little dissapointing not getting much done. But we had thing to take care of. It´s interesting how many things god puts in our way. I am having lots of fun. Me and my comp are at one of the points in the mission where there is no one progressing...no one really wants to get baptized. It´s tough. I am so used to working so much and helping people get to church. It´s weird when you have to look for people...i guess i am supposed to learn something. We will see what it is (: I hope you all enjoyed your thanksgiving (: I might try to get some cool photos to you guys today.
This moning we went to a lake and played soccer which was in the middle of a huge argentine race track.
it was acually pretty cool! i will try to get those to you (: love you guys (:
Elder Valle
11/21/11
Hey Everyone,
This week has just been....crazy. Just for the missionary work part of it...nothing has changed with me. Hahaha. La Punta first of all, is an amaaazing place. I really believe San Luis is one of the areas of the church where we are growing the most. I love working in this type of area. The members are all excited about the growth of the idea and the idea that we could get our own chapel someday if we work hard enough in the work of the Lord. Anyways, everything is going great, it was just a crazy week.
We confirmed three people members of the church this week. Javier, Jessica and Facundo. Javier and Jessica are a young married couple looking for a better life. They found that obviously. And Facundo is Jessicas little brother who we baptized last week. Anyways, so one thing that I found out about La Punta this week...is that church is in a house. Hahaha. We go twice a month to church in a house and the other two times we travel about half an hour to go to church closer to centro. So this week we had church in the house of one of these active members. He has a pretty nice garage I guess, so we had church there. Well, he obviously has his garage stuff in the "chapel"....wood, bicycles, his pet birds and stuff. Anyways, so we started to confirm Javier in the Sacrament Meeting and the birds...idk why..just went nuts. They are like these really small super super bright yellow birds. Anyways, they started to sing and make all these crazy loud bird sounds. It was kind of embarassing for our convert Javier....but he was way cool. Anyways, we had to ask the guy to take out his bird cage because the birds were not inviting the spirit. Only in Argentina. Anyways, they all got confirmed. La Punta was also waaay excited because our stake president came to church with us at the house! La Punta is exploding...and the president told us that if we can get enough people baptized and confirmed and remaning active, that we could be our own ward and get a chapel....here in La Punta. Anyways....the members are super excited and we sohuld start recieiving lots of help from the ward. I personally am super excited (:
This week it rained...A TON. Like...this is the most rain I have felt in my life. It almost hurt. And then we had super huge hail that fell down too that also hurt. A couple them hit my ears and i still kinda hurt in my ears. My book and my agenda were completely destroyed and obviously my shoes are almost dry. I obviously couldn´t take any pictures...but luckily we had lunch with the relief society president who heated us up and gave us towels and a wicked lunch too. We were relieved. Oh yeah, and the thunder was just WAY loud. Both me and my comp we like...kind of ducked and almost covered our ears because the thunder just sounded like it was headphone. It was nuts. Lighting was super bright. I will never forget that day. The hermana was mad that we didn´t call a taxi or call her so she could come pick us up....but me and my comp decided this would probably be a super fun experience seeing what happened. And it was.
Hey! I got your package and I love it! Thanks so much. I am addicted to the EFY cd. Seriously. Amazing.
I have to go to mendoza tomorrow because I have to renew my visa. Anyways, It´s kinda crazy because I have to travel four hours...ALONE (freaking weird) get to mendoza...sign like two papers and then go back four hours again. I really don´t want to. There is a lot to do in my area...so...anyways. That will be interesting.
My district is doing pretty good. One thing I am trying really hard to do is love them and their investigadores. I guess I realized it´s hard for me to love people I don´t know and even though I don´t have to know the people in other areas, I still need to pray for them and help them. I was just doing a lot of reflectioning this week. I love how the mission...in it´s distinct ways helps us to realize the things that we need to be doing better. I love being a missionary. My comp got box last week and his parents had sent him maple flavoring...maple syrup!!!! (does not exist here). So i will send you a picture of us eating pancakes with maple syrup. mmmmmmmm. long time. I hope you guys have a great week, i might write more If i get more time here.
Hasta luego,
Chau,
Elder Valle
Saturday, November 19, 2011
11-14-11
La Punta is doing way good. It´s kinda a weird area. it´s actually only like nine years old and missionaries have only been here for like two years almost. we actually are alost our own barrio! we are way excited for that to happen. we just need to baptized like 2 or three more elders and thats it. boom! new ward in the world! anyways...we are working super hard. my comp´s spanish is pretty rough, so i end up talking alot of the time...but that doesn´t bother me. i really don´t know why, but here in san luis, everyone thinks i´m latino. like...from buenos aires or something....? nada que ver. i even have an accent and i look white....but they say i don´t have too bad of an accent. so, idk. pretty weird. but i like it here. it is for sure probably the richest area i have been in on my mission. a lot of poeple have their own computer...some with interenet...and a few have cars of their own. its way nice to escape the heat of san juan for the summer and come down here to san luis. when i was san juan...it was super tought with the weather, but here its super nice and chill. we baptized a kid named facundo this week. we actually had our trials trying to get him baptized but it was super fun. his whole family was baptized like...two weeks ago. but he always was busy with soccer stuff that he didn´t have "the time" to listen. so we went this week and taught him all the commandments. he had already been to church like 5 times and loved all of it. it was raining a ton sunday morning...so almost no one came to church. but facundo and his family did obviously. me found them at the bus stop waiting he is way funny and reminds me alot of the humor i had when i was his age. anyways, it was crazy. i feel a little crazy out here because i don´t know the area, but im senior comp and i am supposed to lead the area. so i want to do things right but i don´t know where to go and my comp is still way new. but i know things will work out. anyways, we are having lots of fun. we are teaching this way amazing family whoa are all professional belly dancers. yeah, it´s a little weird but it´s super sick. luckily they havent performed for me or anything...hahaha. i hope not. they also speak arabic and she transleted i am a child of god for us. it´s pretty cool! anyways, pray fro them. the familia quevedo and the familia quiroga. they need a lot of personal revelation to know they need to get baptized. the love church, so that´s not a problem. haha.
my new comp is cool. elder taylor...he is actually a convert of about one year and one month. he decided to get baptized and serve a mission. he is from....Ventura, California. Isn´t that where dad served? that´s way cool right. anyways. he grew up in a place called Ojay. Maybe dad remembers that. Man. i love the people here. i hope everything is going great in nampa. how are dalan and miranda? good?
i love you guys. happy holidays. haha
love elder valle.
my new comp is cool. elder taylor...he is actually a convert of about one year and one month. he decided to get baptized and serve a mission. he is from....Ventura, California. Isn´t that where dad served? that´s way cool right. anyways. he grew up in a place called Ojay. Maybe dad remembers that. Man. i love the people here. i hope everything is going great in nampa. how are dalan and miranda? good?
i love you guys. happy holidays. haha
love elder valle.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
11-7-11
MOM,
glad the reception went MAGNIFICENT. so happy for them (: I am glad that everyone loved the letter i wrote.
Tomorrow I am going to Zone San Luis and my Area is La Punta. I am going to be companions with Elder Taylor. He just barely got here about two transfers ago. I am still district leader. I actually talked with President...and he said it was time for me to be Zone Leader because LIndahl wanted me to be Zone leader about 3 months ago. Hahaha. But, it´s just not working out. But he´s as soon as "positions" open up, we will make things happen. Hahaha. But that doesn´t even matter to me. I only want to go where the lord sends me. I don´t want to go up and have it not be the will of the Lord. If going to La Punta (the tip...haha) is where the Lord needs me....i am over excited and anxious to go there and work a ton and cosechar all of the semillas. hahaha.
I am going to miss Albardon. In testimony, our ward mission leader started like this.....I am a little emotional...forgive me. Elder Valle leaves us this week, and well....he´s been a good Elder". oh man....i started crying and i felt guilty for leaving a little bit. hahaha (: It is going to be way hard to leave Albardón.
The first half...was well...interesting with Elder Williams. But with my son Robles, we have baptized some amazing people. Some have callings and one of them has started personal progress and next sunday one of the converts is getting the priesthood. I can´t believe how the Lord works with us when we work with him. It´s so great (: I have been taking pictures with everyone this week (: We were going to change saturday but instead we are changing tomorrow...so it was really weird when i said goodbye to everyone on friday night and we cried a little bit....and then i came back to church the next Sunday.
The president changed things around at the last minute....we don´t know why. Revelation i guess. haha. But everyone was really confused, but it was good to say good bye to a few people that i could not have said goodbye to last week. Albardon i would say, is the area where i have grown the most sow far in my mission. sometimes, i look back at myself in old areas, and think of how much i didn´t know. haha, i was a baby.and i still have a good 11 months to go. I am so blessed to be here. Sometimes, I don´t even want to think of coming home. Even though air conditioning is nice and i love my home, i´m never going to be able to do this again being so young. I love it. anyways, i´m going to try and get photos off to you guys. we will se what happens. love you,
elder valle
glad the reception went MAGNIFICENT. so happy for them (: I am glad that everyone loved the letter i wrote.
Tomorrow I am going to Zone San Luis and my Area is La Punta. I am going to be companions with Elder Taylor. He just barely got here about two transfers ago. I am still district leader. I actually talked with President...and he said it was time for me to be Zone Leader because LIndahl wanted me to be Zone leader about 3 months ago. Hahaha. But, it´s just not working out. But he´s as soon as "positions" open up, we will make things happen. Hahaha. But that doesn´t even matter to me. I only want to go where the lord sends me. I don´t want to go up and have it not be the will of the Lord. If going to La Punta (the tip...haha) is where the Lord needs me....i am over excited and anxious to go there and work a ton and cosechar all of the semillas. hahaha.
I am going to miss Albardon. In testimony, our ward mission leader started like this.....I am a little emotional...forgive me. Elder Valle leaves us this week, and well....he´s been a good Elder". oh man....i started crying and i felt guilty for leaving a little bit. hahaha (: It is going to be way hard to leave Albardón.
The first half...was well...interesting with Elder Williams. But with my son Robles, we have baptized some amazing people. Some have callings and one of them has started personal progress and next sunday one of the converts is getting the priesthood. I can´t believe how the Lord works with us when we work with him. It´s so great (: I have been taking pictures with everyone this week (: We were going to change saturday but instead we are changing tomorrow...so it was really weird when i said goodbye to everyone on friday night and we cried a little bit....and then i came back to church the next Sunday.
The president changed things around at the last minute....we don´t know why. Revelation i guess. haha. But everyone was really confused, but it was good to say good bye to a few people that i could not have said goodbye to last week. Albardon i would say, is the area where i have grown the most sow far in my mission. sometimes, i look back at myself in old areas, and think of how much i didn´t know. haha, i was a baby.and i still have a good 11 months to go. I am so blessed to be here. Sometimes, I don´t even want to think of coming home. Even though air conditioning is nice and i love my home, i´m never going to be able to do this again being so young. I love it. anyways, i´m going to try and get photos off to you guys. we will se what happens. love you,
elder valle
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