9-26-11

well, everyone and everyone is talking about uchtdorfs talk that i didn´t see (: i want to see it, or read it soo bad (: but it´s ok, with general conference this week, i will get my fill of apostle talks right? soudns great. glad to see my cousin had a cute baby. congratulations eryka (: that´s neat. all of us are getting way old. cousins with babies and dallans getting engaged, feels kinda weird but it´s making life more and more exciting (:

this weekend we had the baptisms of three wonderful people. Leonela Palacios, and Solangel (Sun angel) and Roco (Yes, that´s his real name). Haha. Leonela since day one we met her has been super nice and super welcoming when we go to her house. Even though she can´t read, she had such a desire to get baptized and so she hopes that her family will follow. She´s only 26 years old but she has been married since she was 18 and has two kids. It´s been tough, but she´s super nice and laughs at my accent. Haha. Luckily, some of her family are members and so I think that will help her stay strong in the gospel. Me and my compnanion are super proud of the progress she has made in coming to church and sacrificing her time to get to church with her crazy two daughters (: haha.

Solangel and Roco are from the Flia. Gonzalez. They are waay funny and they always make me laugh way hard. Solangel and Roco are from a family who will one day all get baptized. One day me and elder robles were eating lunch and there was the sister of the Hermana who gave us lunch. We asked her if we could come by her house one day...so we went the next day to go talk to this lady, the sister of the hermana. and then when were visiting her, we found her neighbors who were the flia. gonzales. We taught about the Sacrament and how it´s a commandment and stuff. And since that day that have all been progressing and super nice. Aldana (baptism from last week) is from that family and gave a talk in sacrament meeting this week. she was way nervous but she bore her testimony and it was the best ever! when converts give testimonies...it makes you wanna cry. you can´t deny that they have a testimony and it´s the best thing (for me) that can happen on the mission. Way SICK!

we had 40 people at the baptism and 5 investigators. it was way cool! we are getting the whole ward involved and i love to organize such a big event. i kinda get too worried making sure that the refreshments will be ok and that everything goes perfectly (: hahaha. everyone was like...¡elder valle, tranquilizate! i can get worried about the details sometimes. haha (:

I am way way excited for General Conference this week (: Don´t even know what to do with my self. my investigators are way excited too. going to be a great weekend (:

I got one of moms "buzz cuts" this week for the heat. It´s getting hot. So, i decided to take it all off. I don´t look too good, but I do look like a missionary so thats all that matters (: Transfers are today, but hopefully i stay here (: i love it here in Albardon so much...so we will see (: have a great weekend! i will try to get photos off (:

Elder Valle

9-19-11

so, my week was hot and tiring. but i like it like that sometimes, so it´s really not a big deal (: haha.

this week was crazy. we have a lot of big goals as a companionship, as a zone and as a mission for the month of september. and so needless to say we had our hands full. i love to work, but sometimes i get so worried about my investigadores that i can´t stop thinking about how tto help them and how to help them with their testimony. last night, apparently i was sleep talking in spanish of course about helping a lady we are teaching about the importance of going to church. we have so many goals to reach before september ends, so we will see how even more busy it will get. haha. nuts.
this week we had the baptism of aldana. we found her and her family while knocking doors in a pretty crazy villa. we taught about the sacrament and they never really seemed like gold, but they came to church and aldana even made it to alma 36 before her baptism. she goes to seminary and is stronger than some of the joevenes that have been members for a while. hahaha. it was a good baptism and the ward really helped us out. we are trying to gain the confidence of our bishop. this is the second time that i have had to do it, so it was easier this time. haha. we are doing good and working super hard (: we have a lot of people to work with thsi week and we are having a way hard time finding baptismal clothes for everyone...that part is tough. i love it though.
i worked with the asistants this week because they are traveling and working with every companionship for like two days. it was wicked fun and we got a lot done with four missionaries in our area (:
so i know this might sound greedy and way pre mature. but i figured out what i want for christmas if its possible. i know in the states they sell ctr rings in different colors...pink, black, pruple, some have flowers and some have soccer balls and stuff. mom, i don´t know how complicated or expensive it would be to just send me a bunch of those rings in cool shapes and sizes and a mixed bunch of them idk. like thirty or twenty. converts LOVE them. it´s crazy sweet for them...and it doesn´t matter that it´s in english they love it . also...josh groban...i heard a song of his from the ipod of another missionary and i just looved it. if you could make copies of allll the groban cds you could get a hold of, i would love you guys forver. miss you guys!
elder valle

9-12-11

hello everyone. another crazy hot week in st. john.
it really doesn´t get that hot, but i does make me sweat a little bit...ug. and then i can´t wear the same shirt the next day...so that kinda stinks. anyways, i don´t want to say that i´m down...but i am suuper tired because we are working super hard in our area. you wouldn´t blieve it. its the biggest and best feeling helping other people become more like christ. it´s kinda crazy thinking about it to, waht i am actually doing but i love it and i am growing to love argentina more every day. i sometimes think about my life in the states and can´t imagine it with out the weird teas the drink all the food and all the crazy poor places we walk too. like...now i am way used to seeing kida play in the mud in the diapers while their parents are at work...but everything just seems so normal now. i kinda dont want to leave and i am glad that i still have one year to do it.
we are teaching an amazing family se llama the flia. gonzalez. there is the mom, maria rosa...the daughters, aldana, solangel (sun-angel...haha, i always make fun of her name) and the boy named roco. they are HUGE bosses...they all read the book of mormon on the bus and stopped drinking cafe. for the girls birthdays i bought them chocolate powder to mix with milk so they could stop drinking cafe. hahaha. they loved it. hahaha....we alse gave solangel a HLJ ring for her birthday and her family almost got mad because now they all want one...ugh. hahaha. love sweet families like this. they will be baptized next week for sure. the mom isn´t married so she cant get married right away, but she told us that on monday (today) they were going to centro to get the paper work done to get married. (getting married down here is a lot more difficult). anyways, they have way strong testimonies.
the church came out with a new program for missionaries with less than twelve weeks and their companions have to study the same thing. so we are trying to new program out as mission mendoza to see how it works. it´s a little different but alteast i don´t have to find stuff stuff to study...like its already there you know? hahaha. anways, that´s cool.
mom would be proud of this one...i bought a raw chicken and cooked it this week. the skin turned out good but the inside was way normal. how are you supposed to make the inside yummy? i put oregano, salt, lemon juice, pepper, and onions....mom, how would you cook a raw chicken? cuentame. anyways, i am learning to cook. thats. fun. pray for the flia. gonzales, and marcos and rosio. (: thanks. i love you all!

elder valle

MOM!
haha, i had to respond like you say hi to me. oh man, i remember you telling me about the savior of the world program when i was starting the mission....getting close to the year mark baby! sounds like you guys had a fun weekend. oh mom, i know that Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel like the back of my hind. Haha, even though i might not have developed the Humble attribute still...estoy llegando. hahaha. the activity..yes, i have done. good thing. yes it is getting warm down here. i love it. right now its perfect weather.

i got a package this week with a shirt and some birthday cards. thanks! (: it was way funny. marie wrote a weird birthday card and wrote...the hot pigs....yeah, i don´t know. but i love it, because it´s from marie. dallan and mirandas card (i guess they are one now...when it comes to cards) was a little distrubing. but other than that i loved it. am i supposed to be waiting for another package for my birthday? i´m not sure. i just remember when we sen t dallan like a box of jerky and candy and toys and doritios and stuff for his birthday...but, i don´t know (: should i be waiting for another box? if not let me know, so i don´t go looking for it (: loved the yellowstone shirt. thanks (:

me and my comp worked crazy hard this week. normally we don´t work during the siesta because everyone is asleep or drinking tea (yes, that´s an excuse to not listen to missionaries in argentina), but we still left outside during the siesta and kept working. even though we didn´t have the best success, i felt liek we were putting forth our best effort. but the blessings always come because this week we had seven of our investigators at church. i don´t know about veracruz mexico, but in argentina mendoza, that´s a huge number for investigators (: me and my comp were so happy and we are really excited to see the progress we can make. missionary work is...the bomb! well i promise i sent you a letter a long time ago, and then when i went to go get my mail, the letter i had sent came back because it had the wrong adress....weird right? yeah, i don´t know (: anyways, i am sending you a photo for proof. so don´t be mad at me that you havent gotten a letter...it´s not my fault! the adress is correct. i sent it july first...soo...it might be outdated when you get it.
2101 E. Massachusetts, Nampa ID 83686...thats still the adress right? i hope so (: (: hahaha
i had to go to mendoza this week for consejo. it was super fun! i learned alot from pres. Avila...that guy is a complete boss. he speaks like an apostle and his family is super neat. they have something that the lindahls didn´t..(surprise!). they feel more like a family and hermana Avila is more like a mom. way cool people. wish you guys could meet them (: our baptismal goal for the mission this month is 125. HUGE goal but i think we can do it because everyone is getting a ton of people to church.

remember when i told you about the flia. monataña who we were teaching and then how they rejected us and i had to write my testimony on the libro de mormon and give it back? i dont remember if i told you guys about them . they were gold and then one day , all the sudden they rejected us. well, anyways, the other day, me and my comp felt that we should go back to the house friday night, so we went and we knocked and the dad of the home answered (never saw him before). his name was orlando and he was way cool. we talked aobhut the plan of salvation and all that fun stuff. anyways, we had a way good lesson! we than talked to him about coming to church and he came the next day! i´m glad me and my comp did what we knew we needed to do (: that alone made it a succesfull week (: anyways, i hope you guys all are having fun in nampa. thanks for the shirt! have a great week!
elder Valle

8-29-11

family!
oh wow (: it has been quite the week. we are working way way hard and i get to the pench way tired, but my comp told me that that´s when we feel the happiest and it´s true (: so anyways, things are going good. we have a lot of good people that we can baptize but they all have their little htings that keep them from getting baptized. we have a lot of young kids who want to and can´t because their dad wont give them permission. ah! it´s killing us,but we are praying a lot so that they can progress and be baptized, if not now, in the future. me and my chilean son are having lots of fun. he talks WAY too fast and simple frases like...what are you going to eat for breakfast, i can ´t understand because he talks like a machine. haha, its a little funny, but i think he forgets that all the gringos are learning a second language. i took a lot of photos this week. today for p day we went to a catholic church (irony) and took an elevator to the top of one of the towers and took pictures. nothing like the empire state building obviously, but it was still pretty fun.
there was also a holidy here in san juan called chocolataza...which is like a festival or chocolate and all was free. so obviously, the town went to the plaza to get their free chocolate and we were left sunday evening without anyone to visit. it was tough. then we found this one guy who wanted to talk about joseph smith, so we watched the video the restoration, and he wanted to see it really bad but he couldnt change the language because his remote was broken. so we watched in english (hace mucho que veo eso en ingles) and i had to tell him what was going on. i would like to say that it went great but, it was weird during the first vision trying to speak over the television. anyways, it was a good lesson. i felt the spirit even though it was in english...hahaha. we also started teaching a family with a bunch of kids who say they read the book of mormon and they said it was true! whoo! but they have an uncle who is the pastor of the church "espiritu santo" and they have to go to that church because its family first. ugh...tried to explain that family first means being an eternal family and so you have to go where you know is right...but they still don´t get it. we also found a way sweet investigator named marcos who is looking for the right church. he thew us some super tought questions about the bible and the book of mormon and how they contradict and stuff...but he was nice about it. and the same morning me and my comp had had a big study about how the bible and book of mormon support eachother from capitulo 5 of preach my gospel. it was sweet, feeling prepared for the charlas that we had.
we are all working super hard and have fun doing it. i have never been so hungry and tired in the mission, but it´s all worth it (: this week i get to go to mendoza for leadership training. should be fun! hope you recieve and enjoy the photos i am sending (: love you all (:
elder valle