10-1-12

The Last Letter

 

Chapel in Salto de las Rosas where Elder Valle worked last week

hello family,

well mom´s letter almost made me cry in front of my computer screen. but yeah, it has been a great week. we have seen lots of improvements in the zone and we got the highest amount of people contacted this week in the whole mission. it was one of the best weeks of my mission for sure. this week is full of conferences and general conference...so, i won´t be doing a lot of street preaching this week ): but thats okay.

 Visit to Salto de las Rosas where the missionaries ride bikes.

i feel so good about my mission. about a week ago, i was thinking about all the people i have been able to help baptize and confirm. the Lord really does bless us too much sometimes. i was praying the other day for all of them and felt a beautiful spiritual confirmation from the Spirit that my Heavenly Father had been pleased with my service. i can´t even say that i did all of it, mainly because without the spirit it would be impossible. i am dying inside knowing i will have to leave the faces off all the people i have taught. today i get to go visit some people in mendoza with my comp and say goodbye for the last time.

Goodbye dinner given my members

 i´m so nervous about living in the states again. i have grown to love my parents for all their decisions they have made to get me where i am now. i understand everything they have to tried to teach me now. a lot of things make sense and i think that i will be hard to not think they are the perfect parents for me. i will miss mendoza more than i can say, but i know i will have to come back some day.

This is the very super fun gospel principles class. This group of ladies are all like best friends and sometimes its hard to teach because they love talking and... yeah. there is eliza the recent convert, roxanna the reactived single mom who is now a crazy good missionary, jacky the amazing eternal investigator i found...only eternal investigator because she isnt married yet. its hard to do that out here, sister mesa...the other reactived less active girl.

 it gets me teary even having to write this right now...but yeah. i am excited to see you guys, don´t get me wrong. i think every smell, sound,area, apartment and spanish words have come to be somewhat sacred in one sense. it has been my way of preaching the gospel for two years. i can´t imagine doing it any other way. i am going to do my best to pay off the debt that i am in with my Heavenly Father for this experience. We all owe him more obedience than we think but i know that i have the family and friends to help me do so. I love you guys, i can´t wait to see you! Have a great week!

Elder Valle


9-24-12

9-24-12

hello everyone

Asado

this week has been a good one. i wish that i could write you guys how much we have done in such short time, but i figure that me coming home in a few short weeks should yield your patience. afterall, stories told in person are always better. we had a great week as a zone, we were able to get the missionaries to do lots of work! we got special recognition in the san rafael zone because we had such a good week. so many good things are happening in the work of the Lord, and i hate having to leave it in it´s best state. however, it does feel good knowing that i can leave my area (lots) better than i found it. good feeling. these next couple weeks will be a little crazy becuase i have so much to do and so little time. this week we had 21 references contacted (which is ton for our mission), so you can imagine the work we did this week. i have slowly been giving away highlighters, flashlights, and other random missionary accessories knowing that i will have more of that when i get home. i honestly still have a hard time thinking that i am coming home so fast.

Eliza, recent convert bringing her friend to church

i love being a missionary! i am so excited to see in what ways i can share the gospel when i get home. i won´t be a missionary, but i will be a member and fresh off the mission field (watch out ladies...haha. no, just kidding). BUT REALLY: i am so excited to go back to people that i know could accept the gospel.

Service Project

this week has been a gold week...we have found some amazing people to teach with great needs and great reception! me and my comp have been getting super excited about everything. i don´t really know what else to write. oh yeah, president gave me permission to visit my converts in mendoza on monday. so next week will probably be my last email as a missionary, so if there is anything that i need to respond or say to you, inculde it in next weeks email. any congratulation and words of appreciation will also be accepted. oh mom: can we eat carne asado tacos when i get home? with the meat and cilantro (MMMMM), onion, and your amazing salsa. ranch wouldnt be bad idea either (: just an idea. thanks. thats it for now. i hope that the photos made up for my short writing (: i love you guys, and i can´t wait to see you. i still have lots of work to do in the couple weeks, wish me luck. miss you guys!

With Mate

oh yeah i was eating these stale, fake cheeto things when my tooth broke. out of all things...ah. dental care has taken a toll on me these last few months. but i´m doing good. un abrazo,

elder valle

 

9-17-12

hey guys,
everythings doing good down here in san rafael and we are finding lots of solutions and ideas to get the elders and sisters to contact more references and to be able to baptize more. we are having lots of difficulties and even a little problems gettin the baptisms to happen but it shall work out. i love being optimistic about so many thigns, but i also need to have a good balance with that and reality. i am hoping that i can learn that soon. this week we had interviews with president and we were able to have a way good charla. we talekd alot about my plans for after the mission...that was weird. we are planning stuff for after the tenth of october and it stinks becuase they are way good ideas too. ug. anyways, i´ve been studying a lot lately the chapter six o preach my gospel. it has been super humbling. ifeel like humilty is defenitly the hardest trait to develop. i have had a constant struggle to develop that my whole mission, but i know that God will give me more oppurtunites to find that.

Local Shoemaker that made Jay two pairs of shoes

i also am super excited to see you guys in cascade. that shall be fun! really, a lot didn´t happen this week. can´t think of anything crazy. jackelyn is still helping us with lots of thins int he missionary work and we are finally getting to a point where we can depend on her for lots of help. its incredible. i think i will send you guys photos for the little that i´ve written today.

Elder Henry B. Eyring at the Buenos Aires Temple Re-dedication Cultural Celebration.
Jay got to see it by satelite.

i hope you all have a great week! can´t promise and crazy souvenirs, i am running out of money (: haha
love,
elder valle

9-11-12

Dear Family,
One month left...yeah, i know. It still have lots to do, so be patient. Haha.
Cool, I am glad that the arrangments are made for my royal return. ha.
anyways,
things are going great down here in san rafael. we are still super focused on baptizing and meeting aour goal again...we the people to do it, but the missionaries are going to have to work extra hard to get it! the good thing is, we have all the missionaries on our side, wanting to win too. many times in many other zones, the missionaries don´t like the zone leaders just becaus they want the goal so much, but after lots of work, we have been able to get lots of the missionaries just as excited as we are and i hate knowing that i´m going to leave an area right when all the missionaries start doing what many zone leaders wish their zones would do. its great though.
Weve had to drop the Herrero family, just because they are getting a little cold to the message and not receiveing us that often. so, we might give them a shot in another time...we will go by today, to see if they really in it to win it or not.
the rededication of the buenos aires temple was great. the cultural celebration was spectacular and the rededication was great too...my convert eliza, went and got the card to go, so did walter vaness and many more for sure (: good feeling. i will send more pictures, later.

i find myself battling with two feelings constantly, in my few weeks left in mendoza:
1: i am kinda nervous to come home. not because i´m not ready to go home, mainly for the reason of having to live like i did before or maybe even take on new tasks like...yeah, big decision stuff. i guess i don´t feel like the "returned missionary macho man" that mom always refers to...haha. when you come home, you are a man. maybe, i will just have to see what it´s like coming home. i try not to think about it, but it´s natural when you start putting baptismal dates for october 13th...oh wait, i´ll be home....(WEIRD).
2: i´m going to miss this place too much. i love being with the members of the argentine wards and branches. there are so many people that i wish i could bring with me to the states. we would just sit and talk all day about old experiences and eat asado and drink mate. yes. so. i´m going to miss so many people here. my converts from guaymallen and the cabrera family are planning on coming to the airport to mendoza to say goodbye, we will see if thats possible. i hope so. i would die to come back to chile (because thats the closest temple) to see when vanessa and walter get sealed...that would be the best (: who knows if it´s possible. anyways. i hope you guys all have a great week and keep being great at your callings and being super strong in the church (:
love,
elder valle.

9-3-12

 know you guys are all excited to see me, but calm down. i still have five weeks to baptize people....tranquilo. jaja.
okay, this week was especially good for san rafael. i have never felt so on top of everything and so obedient that i can start counting the blessing left and right. so we went down to mendoza this week to go to the zone leader conference (about twenty of us) and we were on of the only two zone to meet the goal and the only one to break the goal! it was way exciting. i definitly feel like everything that i have been doing differently and all the changes in the zone have defintily helped the zone. i will always be in debt to my Heavenly Father for blessing us with good ideas and the baptisms that we had. it was good. so anyways, before we had gone down to the mission meeting, presidente ávila called me and we talked for a little bit and said something like this:  "elder valle, we have seen a huge improvement in san rafael over the last few months, and basically whats happening in the your zone, we want to happen in the whole mission. so, we are going to give you time in consejo to give a little presentation about the things you are doing and tell us what zone leaders can do to have successfull zones and have happy elders and sisters". i tried to not let the compliment go to my head, so i agreed and started thinking. i was so happy that someone was finally seeing the fruits of all my ideas and recognizing the changes we have made in san rafael. i was so happy. i kinda said a little prayer and thanked my Heavenly Father for the help. so on friday, in mendoza i gave a presentation about all the "marketing" stuff ive been doing to get the zone pumped. i talked about using the district leaders and the slogans and the zone calendar...just new ideas that worked in san rafael. i don´t like attention, but i had no problem giving out ideas on how to help the work of the Lord move forward. it´s the best work there is. so, it was cool (: it was a good friday. then we ate tacos. it feels weird knowing that my group is the next one to leave.
the flia. herrero is doing good. they are having a hard time getting to church and keeping comittments, so keep praying for them. our amazing investigator sent us a text message this morning that says...." les cuento una gran noticia o más bien, un milagro de Dios...maxi mi hijo se quiere bautizar en nuestra iglesia con mí mama". me and my comp were in the bank taking out money and he wouldnt let me see the text message until we left the bank because he knew i would scream and look weird in front of everyone. thanks elder wixom. haha. but yeah, we are super excited! and she sent us another text a little bit ago about inviting her freidn sonia to start hearing the lessons in her house. she is more of a missionary than all of them members combined. she is on fire, if she could get baptize right now, she totally would. so we are fasting and praying and working with her so that she can help us find more people to teach and she takes the missionary work so seriously.
we are doing good. i am still trying to figure what to buy you guys for recuerdos. if anyone wants alpargatas, you must send me your argentine shoes size, si no, no tendrás. ja. so get on it. also, i love you guys. i´m not trunky. i have never been so obedient before. not that i´m disobedient. but there are little things and to the book things that i have been better at. it feels great. i can defintly count all the blessing of doing so. thanks for everything. miss you guys.
love,
elder valle.

8-27-12

 

 

we had a great week in san rafael.
mother nature in southern mendoza has been quite the bi-polar lady lately. we have been seeing changes in weather and in success. just like our showers, our goals are broken too. that´s right, san rafael beat its baptism goal for the first time in almost three years. you know what that means? it means im a great leader...no, just kidding. but our missionaries and our new and improved way of leading the zone is working! thank you Heavenly Father. me and my new comp have been on the same page since page one and our way of getting missionaries pumped is just as equal as our taste of music. i guess you could say our way tof doing the missionarry work and meeting its goal has been very influences by our advertising, marketing and visual taste. with our posters and two hour long converstations about the physcology behind missionary work, we have been able to do somethings. i don´t say any of this to make me look good, of course, but the Lord has blessed in ways unforseen. it has been good. we have felt good. for september, we have also put in the new slogan and signs for the zone this month creerlo. hacerlo. san rafael.

 

 i will send you a picture later (: it has been fun. this friday we get to go to consejo and see all the zone leaders again. it is feeling weird knowing that i will be one the oldest missionaries there...the next group to leave (:  me and my comp might be getting a long too well. but its good because we are both pushing each other to be more obedient...even with tiny stuff. like sometimes i will start humming or singing a michael buble song in the street, and even though he loves michael buble like i do, he will start singing a hymn. so then i just start singing michael buble versioned hymns. haha, it´s weird. but it´s cool. you guys understand me (: haha. anyways, we have been doing good.
pray for the family herrero. they are a great family and we consider them gold. me and my comp found them cleaning their windows and they let us in. when they invited us to sit on the leather couches (it´s been a looong time) all the kids came over with chairs and sat like perfect little argentine kids and listend to us. the mom was like..."okay, whats your message all about". (gold silence...) and they are doing great. we gave them lesson "0"....which is just starting teaching and heling them understand what we do and we even give the charlas. it was a great week. the zone broke the goal and we are happy but obviously not satisfied because a new month comes and that means just as more work, and especially more (: thanks for everything guys. have a great week!"

Elder Valle

8-20-12

this week has been good. not a lot has happened, but alot has. this week i got my new comp.yeah, i was with another elder named elder zanabria from spain. his comp had also gone home, so we stuck together for a couple days til our companions got up to san rafael.

Elder Wixom

 my new comp is elder wixom from st. george utah. and to be honest we get along incredibly well. i would name off all the reason for why we are and how well we get along, but i will just name a few. we love the same kind of music (michael buble, norah jones, indie stuff) and we both love graphic design. his dad actually does it for a living. also, we bothe want to do advertising after the mission and we both have the same dream job...haha, church advertising. uhmmm.what else. we both play piano by ear, we actually wrote a way sick song on pday i will have to send to you. it was pretty sick. also, we just both are simple obedient, so there is no weird awkwardness of fights about being obeident. we just do it. and we both know when to laugh and when not to it has been great. also, we have found lots of the same ideas, and we are just on thesame pagea s far as leadership and doing missionary work. we are trying to focus alot on changing san rafael. and it´s changed a lot, and its getting better. he just barely went up as zone leader, so i am doing zone leader training again. he went up at 16 months just like i did, so we both have the same feel about the mission and stuff. it has been a good week. we have been going to other areas securing baptisms and trying to make a lot fthings happen. last night, me and my comp did this thing in the zone called a white strom. its where all the missionaries in the whole zone get together to go out and work in onew area for just 3 hours on pday. almost the whole zone. this area we went to was called caudro nacional. we went out for alittle bit, and all came back to see how we did. in total we found 28 new investigators just for that one area! hahaha. so we are going to do it next week in a different area...normally for the struggling areas (: we are super excited. we should also be getting our baptismal goal this month which is super exciting. next week i start my last transfer and i just gotta work my hardest. it shall be good. i´m gonna send you guys some pictures too

I was walking in our area when I heard drums. so i knocked the door and asked if i could play.
man...i am sooo rusty. it´s been forever. i still did good though

 

(: thanks for everything (: we had meeting yesterday so i coudlnt write yesterday (: love you guys!
elder valle

8-13-12

Baptism of Matias. 

This week was great.

So on my birthday, one of our investigators chose me to baptize him. It was a great little present and it was great day. I din´t tell anyone about my birthday, because as mom knows, i don´t really like my own birthday. So, it was good because we did intercambios with my good buddy Elder Falcon, and we went to go preach. I hadn´t told anyone except for one of my pench comps. So we were walking in the street when we saw an older couple from the church, and they had stopped to talk with us for a second and then they just asked the craziest and most coincidental question: " elder, cuando cumple los 21?"....uhm....wow...."hoy de hecho.....como sabía?. " "en serio, ni sabíamos....feliz cumple". then that went around the ward as fast as a rumor. it was great (: hahaha. anyways, when i got home, we had walked in and there was cake, baloons and sprite for us.

from the elder who i had told. i feel super bad because i think the cake was expensive....hahaha. ug. anwyays, it was good. i didn´t want to celebrate anything big, i really just wanted to work super hard, because this will be my last birthday in the mission. anyways, that was fun,

 this morning we went to a big cool place called valle grande. you can imagine how many jokes i got about that....
"but, valle is small....hahahaha"
"this is valle grande and your valle pequeña....hahaha" the list goes on.

 it was a beautiful place with mountains and a huge lake.
we also baptized the son of jaqueline. she is waaay converted and so we are super excited about that, she is working with us alot to baptize more people and we are also starting to baptize her sons.

 its great.

 san rafael is changing and now i realize a little bit why president put me here (:

anyways, love you guys!

 hey, i just sent you guys a ton of photos. i hope that makes up for all the writing i wasnt able to do. the bus back from valle grande was late....but, i will try to write with more detail next week. we had a baptism and the zone is doing super good. i am the only zone leader for a little bit. a little daunting the tasks is, but we shall see.

hahaha. i love you guys! have a great week (:
elder valle

8-6-12

Investigators:  Jaqueline and Matias

Family,

Its my birthday this week.

We had a great week over her in San Rafael! We got 19 people to church this weekend. Thats a record for the zone, so we are doing just great. I love when my plan (to baptize) starts working and the whole zone all the sudden decides that they want to baptize and we all the sudden see all these crazy miracles. It has been going great.
We should see some baptisms in the zone this weekend and next weeken. I love it. This week President came up for a special training and talked about working with the members. It was great, and then he left with me and my comp to come and work with us! At first, I was obviously a litte intimidaded, but in the end, it was super fun. He is such a capo. We worked with two families and it was a great day of work. I love it! We also got people to church. Speaking of getting people to chruch...remember Eliza, that lady that we had baptized the other week. So she has a super hard time walking so she usually rolls around in her little wheel chair. Me and my comp were walking on our way to church, and about half way i see froma distance a little old lady going like, 5 inches an hour, with a walker. as we quickly got close, we realized it was Eliza!!! She was walking to church on her own. None of her grandkids would roll her to church in the chair, because they all stayed in sleeping. It was sad, but she just made a huge sacrifice to go to church! Amazing! Anyways....that was great. This week is my comps last week of the mission....so I hope we are able to work super hard like we would any other week. crazy stuff yeah...and i´m feeling a little old in the mission now. I love being a missioanry! I kinda dont want to stop, but at the same time, it will be nice to study and stuff too. So we shall see (: I´m 21 this week. Adult and still four feet tall....well, it happens i guess. I will try to send you guys pictures. Today me the zone had a great asado! oh man....best meat ever! I will miss argentine meat. it was just gggrrreeeaatt (: (: have a great week! guys!
Elder Valle

Political Campaign Signs in San Rafael

7-31-12

Baptism of Eliza

I shall try to attempt to write short, to the point and effectively of all important occurances of this last week.

1) Baptism of Eliza. It was great....poor lady had the hardest time getting in and out of the pool, but she did it! She did a great job and she said she felt so relieved to get baptized because she had been wanting to for a long time. She always complains, that when you are a little kid, you dont have sins...so she loved getting baptized and she loved the book of mormon. She might look super old in her picture...but she is actually super active and super funny. Grandma Etelvina thing....she wanted to have a dance after the baptism. it was hilarious. Love that lady.

At Zone Leader Conference with Elder Gonzalez

2) Zona San Rafael. lots of thigns are changing. I finally feel that i am getting a hold of things in San rafael. I love being Senior Zone leader of a zone. I finally feel like things are getting better, and I don´t even want to think of what it will have to be like to stop being a missionary. anyways....we had a great meeting with the zone this morning and i have been using this new idea i came up with of every investigator has a calendar....and that the missioanries have to plan everything with the details of how they are going to baptize every person they want to in agosto. i am pumped. and also...last week only two areas had people at church...out of nine. but this week we got 8 out of nine....thats incredible! i love seeing the fruits of my work and especially when i can feel the trust of the Lord in the work. Everyone left the meeting this morning, rather excited. I think President is coming down to work with us this week....a little intimidating but i am excited! hahaha. Things are getting better in San Rafael.

Zona San Rafael

 

3) I got your pacakge! thanks soooo much! i made the chocolate chip cookies this morning and the zone loved it. i only got one cookie, but i decided that the latinos and gringos would probably enojy some. everyone loved them and wanted the recipie....hahaha....uhm....(: super funny. i also looooove the william joseph cd. jesus once of humble birth is just genius. love it! you guys know me to well. i will see if i can find a muffin tin to make the blueberry muffins...muffin tins don´t really exist...neither do muffins, but i will find a way to do so. haha (: i also gave the popping candy to the bishops family...they loved it....they kinda got scared it was funny, but they loved it! you guys are the best (: thanks (: (: (:

 

I love being a missionary...and I don´t want to stop...so it shall be good. Just wanna baptize baptize baptize.

 

Walter, a convert that Jay baptized in his last area, now baptizing his own mother. 
They sent Jay pictures of the special day.

Love you guys...thanks for everything you teach me.

Love, Elder Valle

7/9/12

Cabrera Family
Jay baptized this family last year and they continue to stay in touch with him.
They traveled to Santiago, Chile recently to be sealed in the temple.

fourth of july.
being a zone leader.
finding people.
people coming to church.
snow.

in that order i shal write (:

fourth of july in argentina in the freezing cold and we decided to try to make hambuyrgers over the grill. bad idea. two of them fell through the grill and they were kinda raw. we made french fries and burgers and tried to have a normal american dinner but it wasn´t the same. i think iwill stick with empanadas and asados til i have to go back home. we sang the national anthem, and even though wehave a chilean living with us in the pench, he was super cool about it. it was a good day. elder lounsbury bought some bbq sauce from super vea from the imported section and may or may not have spent too much money (: haha.

this week we had some seirous disobedience going down in the zone. oh pucha. so we wasted our wednesday going to other areas, talking with bishops, doing interviews one on one, calling president and we couldnt work in our are that whole day. it sucks when things get in the way of the work of the lord. ug. but thats what being a leader is about. i realized that one of my many wekanesses is telling people (when they don´t like it) what they need to do and must do, without coming off as a complete ignorante. anyways. that was a tough deal...we fixed some things, but president is coming to san rafael this wednesday. he will probably help a lot of things out. (: yay. thanks for an awesome mission president.

we found some great people this wek. we found a family of this (rich) well off family. the mom, jackie and her kids are the ones looking for the right church. the dad doesnt believe in god, but that isnt the problem. it´s that he own some insurance companies and he is always outside of the house. anyways...they have four cars and two companies (whew!). its super different teachign them. obviously the message is the same, but being humble has a big key in the influence of the holy ghost in peoples lives. they are great! and she came to church too.

jacki came to church and so did eric sosa, this kid that never came to church. when we invited them on thursday, the committment wasn´t very assuring, but they actually came. me and my comp high fived eachother and hugged when we saw them, from the glass windows, walking to enter the church building. good moment!

there was a little bit of snow down here this week. it is freaking cold and i made some more gravy this week to eat with the french fries. haha so thanks. this week we have zone conference and i shall be one busy bee. love you guys, hope you have a great week! (:
love, elder valle.

7-2-12

With Elder Burns who returns to Idaho in 2 weeks

first things first.

got my tooth fixed. yay! it was 120 pesos and she did it super fast and we also got super great service. she explained to me why it was all wrong and beagn to drill and fix it right away. it was super sick. my tooth is doing sooo much better (:

we had consejo this week with elder resek from the area seventy. it was great! he gave us a lot of great insight. we didn´t baptize alot and the whole mission as a whole also did kinda bad and so it was a bummer month and we went to consejo and ate at presidents house. we had tacos and at ice cream.

melissa sent me a great birthday package with sixlets, everything i need for a birthday party and a great new tie (: good package!

i saw elder burns for the last time before he goes back to nampa. he is an ap viajante, which means he goes around the mission visiting companionships who need help and ehlps them baptize. so if i´m lucky, he might get sent to san rafael one more time before he goes back to nampa. you guys should go to his homecoming or something. great guy. two weeks left for him.

the bus ride was crazy long but our seats were right in front of the tv where they played a new movie called the tourist with johnny deppan and it was pretty good. president told us to watch it if it was appropriate. and it was, i believe. it felt kinda weird wathcing it though...i didn´t really enjoy watching a movie. so whatever. melissa wrote me a letter saying i have 96 days left....freaking weird. this month i hit 21 months. WEIRD! just trying to do all i can to get a lot done before i go. anyways (: we had an okay week. the beginning of the month is usually super tranquilo. we are just busting our butts off trying to get people to be more obedient. (elder with sisters and people staying up suuuper late). its super annoying but its pruebas no mas. anyways. i hope you guys have a great week this week and hope that i can write better next time (: love you guys!

elder jay valle

 

 

6-25-12

Big Empanada

Hello Family and Friends,
This week has been great.
Personally I am doing great. I have never found so much joy in reading the scriptures as I do now, and I am so happy to get up every day and work...even though its 6:30, we havent had a working shower for the last 2 weeks, and we don´t have heating in the super cold tempatures. It´s still great. Regarding the work of the Lord, as much as we work and leave and talk to people, the results have been poco. We have been trying so hard to help the Elders be obedient and have fun baptizing. This month has been low on baptisms....our baptismal goal for July will be 7. That will be a good goal to push our zone to reach their potential.
We have been working witht the ward directory and finding kids that havent been baptized. Lots of times, inactive parents leave the kids to turn 9 without baptism and then it all the sudden becomes our responsibilty. So, it is super interesting finding these families. We have foundf ourboys in our area who could get baptized, but because their parents got offended in church años ago, we still have trouble helping them progress. It had been fun, but si o si, we have to baptize this month. Anyways, we are trying our best to baptize. I will go fix my teeth this week. I hate taking up work time to have to go to centro, but I will do it. Sorry....I can´t wait to see Dr. Widdison again. We have consejo this week...super excited to see all my buddies again.

Elder Sarasua who has the same eyes.  What are the chances?

anyways, love you guys, have a great week...gonna send you a photo if my computer works (:
love,
elder valle

"Just going to the local dairy store to buy baby pig heads."

6-18-12

Travel Group to San Rafael

hey guys,
i gotta try to keep it short.
this week has been alright. a lot of stuff seems to be slipping form my hands, as being zone leader always isnt the easiest. we had a baptism this week and we also had more planned. its tough when all the missionaries are really doing everything that they are supposed to be doing. we have a ton of stuff to do.

Eating at Hollywood Burger

be praying for eliza. she is facing lots of opposition from her family as she tries to join the church. it was tough, and the mission in itself isnt doing so hot. i wish i could say lots of stuff happened this week, but it was super hard trying to get the elders to work and i am working witha pretty disobeident zone. i dont have a lot of time because i have to meet upewith the elders in the stake center in ten mintues and then get back to my area to work. we have to be on top of a lot of things. anyways, my tooth is fine. i still havent gone in to try and fix it, just because i am super busy with zone stuff and its killing me knowing that i will have to sacrifice time from my area to visit a dentist. i promise i will though (: sorry for the short letter this week, but i sent a ton of photos.

Wine at Casa Bianchi Winery

Tour at Casa Bianchi Winery

the bodega we visited was super sick and i had lots of fun. we are trying our hardest to get most of the elders to be more obedient (: we will see how it goes. thanks for the prayers. it really does help, and i will keep working super hard for the Lord. Love you all,
love, elder valle (:

with companion, Elder Gonzales

6-11-12

Leaving my converts was tough. They gave me an asado and they gave me a couple gifts. However, Vanessa gave the most precious letter ever about her conversion story, the part of her conversion story that she hasn´t told anyone. It made me cry. As I leaving the house, I shook hands with Angela and she started crying and I told her to not cry, and she said "Como es que no puedo llorar cuando se me va un hijo mío?". Ug....I started crying too. Vanessa said bye and Walter walked me to the bus stop and after getting on the bus, through the windows and through his tears I waved him goodbye. It was tough, but now I need to get my heart in San Rafael, so I will talk about that later. First things first.

I was on the bus to San Rafael and I was chewing on soft candy and my tooth that that one dentist fixed broke again. ug. so frustrating. So mom, I will probably make a trip to the dentist again this week. I wish Dr. Widdison was down here in Argentina. Ug. Anyways....My new comp Elder Gonzalez is so great. We get along super well and I am super excited for everything that can happent hsi transfer. San Rafel is kinda known for not baptising a lot and it´s kinda known as a trouble zone. It kind reminds me of Dallan when he got sent to go fix the zone. on the first week of transfers (last week) , we already started having trouble with idisobeidence and had to talk to soem elders. so i can tell already, how muchi am going to learn frome this transfer. last month the zone baptized 5 and before that they baptized 2. Wow....and my area, a zone leaders area, hasnt baptized for a year now. !!!!. scary, i know. so, i am just going to be obedient and do the best i can to baptize and help the zone be better. I want to be a better missionary and a better person, so i hope this crazy sone will help me do that. I still have four months, that´s a good four months to be what the Lord wants me to be, and maybe to reach my baptismal goal. It will probably be likely that i will end here in San Rafael. Cool (:

I am working on a lot of things to make the zone to get everyone excited. In guaymallen, our slogan was

SI PODEMOS, EN GUAYMALLEN. It was actually a great slogan (not every sone has a slogan or anything, i just did it to get people excited). And now i gotta think of a better one for San Rafael. We might make a logo too...hahaha. who knows. We played a futbol game this morning to get everyone excited. I think it worked pretty well, and i Hope we can start getting missioanries excited about working! Thanks for everything guys, i cant sen d pictures this week because my computer is kinda junky. anyways, thanks a lot! pray for eliza and brunilda and the flia. quiroga.

love,

elder valle

6-4-12

Transfers: Elder Valle leaves to Zone San Rafael as Zone Leader to be companions with Elder Gonzalez. San Rafael is about 4 hours away from the mission offiices in Mendoza. Lejos! I am bittersweet. I definitly wanted to stay another transfer in Santa Ana....and be here in Guaymallén. Ug. I mainly love the members here...the bishop and especially the converts obviously. I am not looking forward to packing up, but i mean, it´s cool. Elder Gonzalez is a cool Elder. We were in the sam zone together when I was back in La Punta. Cool. I travel this Wednesday morning super early on a bus. Should be good. This week Walter recieved the priesthood. It was an amazing experience. The stake president was visiting our ward and so he was interviewed on Saturday to get it on Sunday. We were in the room with the bishop and Vanessa (walters wife) the ordenation was awesome. When he finished he got up and kissed his wife. I love how the gospel brings couples together. It´s amazing. They looked so happy...and whenever they feel the spirit and pray, they start holding hands. oh yeah! anyways, he shook the hands of president and bishopa and then came to me and hugged me, and right when i was going to let go of the hug, he kinda held on for a little bit. for a littl while, then he stepped back, looked at me through his tears and then did the same thing to my comp. it was super sick! oh man. super spiritual and amazing experience i was able to be a part of. I will always be in debt to my Heavenly Father for these experiences. We talked to them about temples this week and showed them on their laptop, a ton of pictures of the temple that were on the church website. they were like...wow!!! they are so funny. they said the were going to call pres.avila to make sure we both stayed. anyways, we are having dinner together tuesday, the night before i leave. should be a good despedida. love those guys too much. hna. cabrera also sent me photos of the family at the temple but it didn´t get through and it´s not working so, hopefully i can get them before i leave. you could probably find them on facebook some where. look up her name, claudia cabrera. anyways, i was really bummed and still am to leave my area, but i only want to go where the lord sends me. that will be the best area. san rafael is supposed to be really pretty too...so i am rather excited. i have to go buy new luggage...so heads up on the back account. haha. also, we met a new investigator named Salvador....haha, Savior. Cool name. he is old style bread maker and has little school filed trips come see his oven. its made of bricks and it´s huge! you could fit people in there! a little creepy! anyways...he has huge shovel things to take the bread out and heats it up with fire. he can cook over 700 empanadas at a time and cook 90 kilos of bread a day in the that thing. and one kilo is quite a bit! imagine that. he is a great guy, for sure to get close to baptism, but i have no idea what will happen. we also had a great meeting with you district leaders this sunday. we got them excited about trying to baptize 10 in one month this month and it worked great. i am starting to feel like an effective leader now. anwyays, it has been a great week. hey, mom....could you do a huge favor and send me velocity face cleaner? that would save my face. love you guys lots,

love elder valle

hey guys,
we had a killer week here in guaymallen this weekend. first things first.
we had the baptism of the flia. perez. thanks for the prayers. at the beginning of the week, me and my comp had a meeting with are seventy, pres. avila and stake pres. it was way good! nothing intense, but i learned a lot from it. it was only thirty minutes (: not a big deal. then, pres. came with us to perez home, they still hadnt taken the decision to get baptized. but we didnt want to take president with us to make hime look like a problem solver, so we just went in and shared our testimonies (: it was amazing. we were out kinda late with pres, but it was worth it. he took us home in his car. we talked about politics...he started it. haha. amazing guy. then next day, i went with my comp, and we were racking our brains for way to figure out how to get these people baptized without being obligators or anything. anyways, we went over there and they looked pretty normal. and we sat down and they started to hold hands and sit closer to each other, and walter started talking, "well, chicos, we´ve been thinking about it and we actually prayed last night about it too and..." by this time i was getting super nervous...getting ready to come up with a magic solution to this situation. "we want to get baptized". boom, fireworks, angels regoicing, happy missionaries, and water already filling up the font. easy. the spirit totally did that one. what a great conversion. they all come to church with modest clothing and shirts and ties and they want to do everything in the church. especially vanessa, she goes to activites at the church just to clean up and she has an interview with bishop this weekend to set up with her plan to get to the temple. she wants the gospel principles books and just wants to go all out. she is for sure a strong convert (: i am so happy! yay. thanks for your prayers. walter asked us how to get a temple reccomends and what he has to do to get the priesthood. haha. so good. love these people
we had 25 de Mayo this months. Its like indepence day. we have locro and chori pan and everyone gets the day off. we dance folkloric. the whole ward, young and old started doing fold dance (i kinda wish the USA would get into this kinda stuff) it looked so fun!, i cant because im a missionary. ug....it sucked. it was a great activity and we had seven new investigators there! super cool. love argentina culture.
then yesterday and this morning we had consejo. of course, it was super fun. my zone did good! our goal was 8 and we got 7. other zones got 1, 2 and....0 yeah. its tough out here right now. but, they were super disappointed with the baptisms. i spent this morning with aps doing stuff for the mission and they said my zone, mendoza zone, and chimbas (one of my old zones) were the best ones. so that made me feel good. pres. avila wants to visit the flia. perez again and we spent alot of time at his house.we had tacos...oh man!!! super good! and then, we sat around presidents house giving testimonies, and elder jacobs played songs on the guitar while we sang a bunch of songs.

 it was super fun. then this morning we had a little meeting and alot of people left, but i played basketball with ap´s, elder roche his comp and the office elders. i couldnt believe how good i was! people actually passed me the ball and i almost made a three pointer (: yay (:haha. so you could say my physical ablities have improved. hanging out with all the other elders is super fun. than we got permission to go the new burger king that just opened up in mendoza....have it your way! it was yummy whopper time for me. yum yum yum. anyways, that was my week (: hope you guys enjoyed the photos (: haha.
love you guys, elder valle