8/22/11

HI!

2 day stay was super fun with the zonies. one of those days was p day and the other one was working like normal...just a fun two days (: pretty normal

I am still District Leader. hahaha, it´s ok. don´t worry about it (: the elders in my district are a little lazy...but thats ok...haha (:

Allright. maybe a long letter today...we will see (: my comp is already done writing the family (like...5 minutes) and i don´t want to make him wait forever soo...i will try to go fast. So i said goodbye to elder williams (good moment) but it was excited to see who would be my next companion. When they called, they told me that i had to be in the offices at 10 in the morning on Wednesday because I was going to train! Hooray! I was super super excited to get an Elder who was fresh on the mission and (hopefully) had the ganas to work. So i went down to Mendoza on a bus for a couple hours and with a bunch of elders we talked until our ¨sons¨arrived. It was sooo fun talking with other elders who have been comps with Elder Williams. I didn´t feel like I was the only one...but there were elders who were comps with im too, and well...we didn´t say bad things...but we definitly related better. hahaha (: It was a good feeling (: we finally got our hijos and as they announced them, i was not nervous but just anxious to see which elder i would. then they said Elder Valle will train...Elder Robles! (¿Latino?) We were all a little surprised that a gringo got put with a latin and there is also another companionship where there is a latin training a gringo...so...I was super excited, but a little surprised at the same time...as was everyone else. I was really looking foraward to being like..."Elder this is called an Alfajor...they are way good! Like a mini cake almost"...but...being from Chile, he eats alfajores every day of his life. Sooo...that sucks a little bit of fun out of the training...but its ok (: he and his brother are the only members of his familty. he got baptized when he had 11 years and his parents still need to get baptized. strong spirit, and has a lot of ganas to work (: that was way excited. he is just a big clump of clay right now, and i have to mold him into a good elder. hahahaha. we started woroking ont hrusday and we got a lot done. we are being super obedient and working good and finding way good people here in Albardon. I had to play a trick on him of course. he is new. hahaha. there were two members walking on the street this week...and i told my comp to do a street contact with them and he was too nervous. haha, so i told him that i would do it for him. so i went up and presented my self and my comp as missionaries and asked them ¨i´m sure you have heard of the mormones before...what have you heard about them?¨ the hermana started saying that they were a cult and that they do weird things in their churches and that they have lots of wives. then her daughter was like...ÿeah, i heard the pray to joseph smith and use a different bible¨ ( they were so perfect for the job) i looked at my comp and he started to explain profetas and how we need them. and after about a minute my comp started to bear his testimony and right when he started doing that, i had to stop him and tell him they were members. oh, they laughed so hard (: totally unplanned but it was gold!!! (: it wasway funny (:we are working super hard. please pray for melina and her dad and paula montaña. they need lots of prayers (: thanks for everything. miss you guys!
elder valle

8/15/11

Hey Guys!

It´s true when you say this week has been a long one. I have been counting days and hours, but I knew I could do it. Out of all my transfers with companions, I can honestly say I have learned more about myself and about life in those three months than I have learned in any other time in my mission. As surprising as it may seem, I guess I even had a hard time saying goodbye. We laughed our heads off together and even have yelled at eachother but all in all, we made it, and I learned unvaluable lessons with him. We got up at 3:00 this morning so he could get back to Mendoza on time, and now I am hanging out with my Zone Leaders from P day and for tomorrow. We still don´t know who will be my companion, but I am sure staying in my area, which I am totally cool with (: Way excited to show the members what I am like with another animated missionary.



Birthday was pretty...missionary like (go figure). We did missionary work and my comp was still packing and getting stuff ready so it wasn´t anything crazy. As you know, I just hate the birthday like attention, so I didn´t tell anyone. I figured the best way to celebrate was to wait for your packages and buy myself icecream the same day I get them, so I am still waiting to get them. However, my way way sick Bishop, Bishop Alvarez did send me a text message to wish my Happy Birthday. That was enough Birthday attention for one day. Then, on Sunday, days after my birthday, we had lunch at the Bishops house and before we left, the bishops wife (waaaay awesome strong mormon down here) pulled out a cake from her freezer that she made from scratch for my birthday and their family sang me happy birthday...in english! It was so nice. They only had two little kids...but It was nice and she let me put candles on it and enjoy it. I love strong members (: Pray that the Alvarez family gets lots of blessings. They deserve them. hahaha.

Oh man...I was reading Hebrews 12 this week. SICK chapter (: Read it when you have time. D&C 6 was another hot chapter this week in my personal study. Hit it up.

I did some way sweet divisions this week and did a ton of Baptismal Interviews, where I met some cool People. First of all, Ester de Valle (first Valle that I have met in the mission) and I also did an interview for Selena Gomez. Ha! Go crazy. The people over in that area baptized six people this weekend! Sweet right? And so with all the interviews to do, I have never felt so trusted in the eyes of God. I guess doing regular missionary work is one thing, but I was depending so heavily on the Spirit that day, that I had to make sure I was focused and on top of my "spiritual game". Good day (: I enjoyed it.

San Jaun is starting to heat up! I actually started sporting my short sleeves this week and maybe even might turn on a fan during the siesta. We will have to see right? Anyways, I am sleeping with less blankets and more windows open. Winter just went by way fast here. Glad I had my warm clothing (:

I would have to say that my favorite experience this week was during exercise time on Saturday. E´ Williams loves to run, and I do to a little, but not as much as this guy. We run about a 5K in the mornings, and after that I am dead. Of course he goes way faster and he is skinnier and all that stuff...haha, but after doing the 5K he came to my side and said that he wanted to do it the whole route...again. (I was beat. So dead.) I told him how dead I felt and that it was time to go...he said "I know you got this Valle...you can do this. One last run". I gave in to the peer pressure and maybe more than anything because it was his last exercise day, I decided to do it. We started going around the second time and this time, he remained by my side, instead of trying to run off 100 meters in front of me like normally...I felt supported this second time, and even though my legs hurt quite a bit, I was doing it and I was going to finish the 10 k. I felt like sometimes, this is how Heavenly Father acts with his children. He gives us a trial, and squeezes us to our last drop of faith. Not for fun, but because he knows we can do it and that it will be for our benifit. Sometimes we think that all we can do is a 5K, but if we take seriously the confidence he has in us, he shows us our potential and helps us along the way. It was a great lesson I learned, and I was feeling the spirit as I ran through San Juan and thought about how similiar that situation was.



hope you all have a great week! thanks for the letters. sounds like dallan is just getting ready for the big haloween part...i mean, wedding. HAHAHA. big joke. Ana...if you are not doing band, you better find some club, and be way good at it. Like debate. That makes high school the best. Whatever you choose to do, focus on it and be the best and win state and yeah. You get the point. It´s sad, but I don´t blame you. Flute players are weird sometimes(no offense to erin or miranda). Love you guys!

Elder Valle

8/8/11

oh boy, this week hasn´t been too spectacular. my companion has one week left on the mission! you can imagaine how crazy things get on the last week! my brithday is tomorrow, but i don´t know if i will do anything (: you know me...birthday parties? mmm....no tanto. so we will mission it up like normal and i will celebrate when i get your birthday boxes in the mail! yay! so excited but i have to put my patience in practice because i live so far away from the offices, the mail man doesn´t run up to san juan too often, you know? but that´s ok (: more suspense...or soemthing like that. thanks for all the birthday wishes. i hope i act like a twenty year old...if not, well i am sorry (:

this week hasn´t been anything special, but i will let you in on a sweet lesson we had this week!
we found this cute little familye...ofelisa, eduardo, and their daugher caterina. we found them because i was talking to lady on the bus and she told us to pass by. anyways, they were doing what a lot of argentines do...drink tea, when we artrived. they were getting to know us and we were getting to know them and all the sudden they asked us...why are there so many churches?...(BOOM! perfect perfect question that just makes a perfect invatation for the restoration. being the smart people we are we started to explain and my comp and i started to relate the apostasy to the argentine soccer team. jesus christ was the coach and james was messi and paul was tevez and etc. without the football team, we would never have a team right? it´s the same with jesus christ. it was neccesary for argentina to "call" another coach..or prophet...and that´s where joseph smith comes in. haha, it was a way sweet analogy and it honestly feel like it made more sense to them because of the analogy. it was a great lesson and it definitly fulfulled their doubts. they didn´t come to church but i pray that they can make some progress. cute family in a cute house. i hope we can see more progress with them. they say they are catholic and actually the daughter is studying right now to be confirmed in her catholic church. not really sure, what she has to study and everything...but that poses wuite the challenge right? pray for them if you can. with my comps crazy schedule for this week, we might not have time to pass by too many people. i hope so though!
all our lunches are falling through! ug. sometimes the members are too afraid to tell us no for lunch, so they just don´t answer the door. i guess the economy is tough here in san juan...but i have atleast learned to increase my cooking skills (: thats a plus. i think, mom, you would be proud of me.
looks liek dallans plans for being a married man are coming along! i am so excited to hear about the wedding colors, and to recieve an invitation in the mail! crazy!
i just got done with 10 months and now completing 20 in life. time is going by fast, but it´s getting to be funner as i go.
i hope you all had fun on your SLC trip and that you didn´t get too tired...lol. thanks for the birthday wishes and everything! i love you all!
love,
elder valle

8/1/11

hey! i had zone conference yesterday and so my pday is today! sorry if you all freaked out about that.

holy schmoly...looks like my brother is totally getting married! im so excited for him and especially miranda. i have lived in the same room with dallan for a lot of my life...and so, miranda could use a lot of advice from the professional himself (me). it´s going to be a crazy ride, but i think miranda is going to be such a fun addition to family get togethers. haha, oh man, way excited. saw a picture of them kissing....that was weird. but thats just because we are brothers. great news! sounds like everyone is having fun, and i also recieved pictures of erin´s super cute family. wow! talk about good photography and cute ideas! totally worth it. i´m going to see what i can do to try and print out copies to show to the people and missionaries here so i can brag about penny.

to say its been cold down here is an understatment. i guess central heating really makes a big difference in things out here. my blankets were cold when i woke up and my socks too...it´s a little snowy but all has melted. no one does too much when it gets cold around here so we only had 6 people at church this week. waaay low. it was sad, but it was good because we now realize what we need to mejorar over here in albardon. i have some pictures of my bundled up self for you guys.
i made a waay good salsa this week! mom you would be so proud (: the other elders liked it and said it was yummy. it has been a while, but i don´t think any of the members like spicy stuff at all...so, it doesn´t hit off to well with the argentines. haha, oh well.

we had a waaay sweet zone conference. we had a nice lunch which gave every elder horrible gas...oh man. the bathrooms were destroyed! and presidente avila gave a way sweet talk. i love that guy. i played the musical number and it seemed like the people liked it. it took up the whole day from 9:30 til 8:15....nuts. but it was way fun to see other elders and just have a good time (: thats what we did yesterday.
i came to a realization today...that camp rainbow gold has begun. so...i have my relay for life surivivor shirt and my CRG sweater on every day when i go to bed, including this week and who knows, maybe i will sing the "camp prayer" before my meals this week. trunky moment...haha. but it´s all good! way funny...but, i do miss my cancer camp. its kinda weird having to explain to elders why my sweater says camp "rainbow gold". not the coolest name, but whatev. no one in argentina understands it...lol (:
i heard some rumors in the mission about a temple being planned out for Paris, France...Dad, you should get on Google and investagte to see if thats true! Would be super sweet.
We are still making it through here in the mission and getting used to Presidente Avila. He likes us to have our investigadores listo, but he also likes lots of baptism...so the work is tough! Salt Lake has asked us to increase our baptisms by 33%...so...in three years thats like...100%. WOW. Nuts, but I believe it can happen. and thats what Pres. Avila said...is that we have to believe it will happen instead of work hard and see what happens. Its way true too.
Miss you guys and hope you are having fun in Nampa!
Elder Valle.

Jay's letter 7/25/11

Family and Friends

Oh my, this week has been a good/better week and I have had lot´s of good things learned. From experience, scriptures, prayer. I love how God knows how we feel and what we are in, and he knows how to help us. It has been a great week, in that sense (:

Nothing crazy happened this week, but some stuff did happen, and so I hope you enjoy!

-there is a family we are reactivating that is really sweet, and they really have the desire to do the right thing. the hermana subiere (last name) is the strongest one and makes her sons go to church so that they can all go to the temple this december. i have loved helping re activate them and help them get more blessings! it was especially rewarding this sunday, when hermana subiere was assigned to give a talk in sacrament meeting (big deal for less active people). she killed it! she did such a good job and i was crazy proud of her. she told me how nervous she was and how much better she could have done, but she looked like a way strong member. these are the best moments in the mission. she is funny though...she still refuses to wear a skirt to chruch. at least she find the nicest slacks she can. hahaha. good lady. always makes us malta.

-well i have run up with a terrible cough this week, but i found some way sweet cough drops that are actually hardened squares of honey. hard to explain, but they are amazing. might bring some home from argentina. but don´t worry, i don´t feel sick at all, just a nasty cough from san juan weather.

-there is an ice cream place here, way good, called GRIDO. about a week ago i went in their to buy ice cream for one of the new elders in my district. that was a week ago, the other day elder burns called me and he went over there the other day to buy ice cream. the guy working there asked him if he had a "church friend" that had two colored eyes. he laughed and said yes, and th guy told burns he was too shy to say anything to me but thought it was super cool. hahahaha. another thing on the mission, is, i´m getting tired about people talking about my eyes. i am pretty sure my companions have tired of hearing it too. but, i won´t complain too much...sometimes it helps us get in doors or make people laugh. que se yo.

-i´m still loving the missionary work and we are still working with ana and her daughter. great people, but they don´t understand many things....i am thinking with time that we will be able to see miracles with them. the work here is slow, but i know that god will bless us and that sometimes he tries us til our last drop of faith (:

-looks like my brother is getting taken away! that happened fast! wow (: but i´m proud of him. i still hasn´t told me if i´m his best man or not....we will see. hahaha. man....and then when he gets married, i guess i´m next in line....scary thought! not ready! still a missionary. haha, oh well. hope you guys have a great week! i´m super hungry today...thinking i might make a chicken sandwich or SALSA. MMMMM. see how it goes.

-oh and yes mom, we have a hand blender. (:

love you guys,

elder valle