4-16-12

Last week Jay asked me to write some questions for him to answer. These were the questions:
*How much does it cost to mail a letter from Argentina to the states? (I want one-hehe)
*Does the beef there really taste so much better?
*Where do you buy your groceries and shampoo and stuff? Little tiendas and bodegas or a supermarket?
*What is your favorite Argentine dish?
*Any new fruits you have tried?
*Why don't you have bed frames for your beds?
*Do you live with 4 elders or just the 2 of you?
*What is the hardest thing about being ZL?
*Have you grown taller? I think you have
*Is it getting colder there yet?
*Do you still get to play piano ever?
*Are your shoes lasting?
*Are you in a metropolitan more place now?
*Are your shirts getting gross? need new ones?

And here are his answers/this week's letter:

Love the questions (:
It cost about 20 pesos to send a a letter down here. Not too much....it´s just dedicating my self to find time and write the letter (:
The beef...like ground bef doesnt taste tooo different. But when we have asados...yeah, i think the beef does. It´s not yummier....the texture is just way good...and very natural. It´s like natrual cooked meat..but it´s good. idk...hard to explain. It taste fresher sometimes tooo.

I buy groceries at a super market called super vea....it´s close to our pench. But fruit and carrots and stuff I buy at a little fruit stand. It´s kind of the same....not a huge difference. But, sometimes i also go to a kiosco to get stuff....its like a little stand thing....and they sell whatever thing.
My favorite argentine dish is Milanesas...yellow rice...pastel de papa...asado. yup...oh yeah...and empanadas de carne....MMM.

No new fruits...maracuya is a new flavor (: thats good. Pomogranites are more common. >That´s all though I think.

We do have bed frames...but they take up lots of room...and it´s more comfortable on the ground.

I live with 4 elders.

ZL is hard because you want yoru zone to do stuff....like being obedient and teaching seriously and even caring about the mission work the way they should. It´s hard to motivate them and get them to do the stuff you want them to do...with out offending them and making them think you don´t like them. people pleasing and pressuring. though balance.

Idk if i have grown taller. My pants all still fall the same...but...i hope i have (: haha

it is not getting too cold to be honest..just slight winds. its still hot somtimes

i can only play piano for like ten minutes after church on sunday....it´s not much...but i have written a ton of new songs. i loooove piano. made a new one on sunday...and a good trying to be like jesus. my comps don´t get how i can do it...but...whatev.

my new shoes i bought in san luis...yes, they are lasting. they wore down fast...but i think they will last the six months i have left. i hope so! they have too! hahaha. the first ones i bought...from kohls....yeah, they are destroyed (:

yeah, i am closer to the city...but they is still some very very poor places to go and proselite. so....it´s not too bad...it´s a good mix.

my shirts are actually doing good. if you want to send me shirts (size 14 and a half) you can...but only two or three. I will probably buy a new one down here from my plan ride home.

We had pretty good week. We are struggling with the baptism part and getting people to church. Our zone is super young....lots of missionaries with 6 to 8 months. Not the ideal...but we are trying to manage the zone and help them baptize. there is only one missionary in the zone older than me....feeling old! And we are looking for pure miracles. Our goal is 8...in the zone. Thats one of the smaller goals of the mission. and we are having a hard time getting it. I don´t know how baptizing was in Peru...but i know they baptized a lot more in those missions....like bolivia and brazil. Mendoza is just a little tougher. hahaha. We are doing good. this week we had zone conference and me and elder rios had to direct it. it was amazing. we did examples of selling chocolate (its a long explanation) and president really liked it. it was super fun. we also did good and bad examples of the missionary work. it was funny but effective. please pray for rosa!! she came to church...but is super indecisive. anyways, thanks for everything guys. i love you! pray hard and i will work hard! haha.

Love,
Elder Valle

Good week out here in Santa Ana (Saint Ana). Haha, I thought Ana would get a kick out of that. How is everyone? Man, we had a good week and are still trying super hard to find the kind of family and people we want. Sometimes I can get greedy because I just want a gold family to be easy, and that is not how the mission work is. Pray for us, to find the family that we need. Me and Rios are both machines in the mission and together we should baptize "a full", (as they say here in Argentina), but nothing is happening. So we will see what happens. Mom, the hopstial joke was an April Fools joke. Hahaha.
Everyone took the Semana Santa this week. Uggg....so annoying.

1) Everything is closed.

2) No meat eating (yes...fish empanadas and fish salads....gross)

3) People don´t even know what Easter is all about...so it was interesting. We were having a hard time.

Other than that is was great. We found two good families...not amazing, but they were cool. The mom in the end of her prayer asked God to help her understand what we were explaing....it was so sweet and sincere but at the same time it was super funny. Ha! My spanish is getting kinda funky lately because elder rios talks like a colombian and uses super weird weirds. hahaha. but its fun.

My zone is doing alright...we kinds freak out when there are no people to baptize to meet the monthly goals. We MUST meet the goal. I want to be a zone leader who meets goals...so me and my comp are thinking of lots of ideas to make things happen. This week one lady thought i was 17 years old. Crap....I only have six months left. better get my excerces going (:

i took of bunch of pictures of our house this week and thought you guys might enjoy them. it was BEFORE we cleaned it...i promise...so don´t judge. haha. I love you guys. Every week seems to keep being the same. email me interesting questions. Thanks for everything. Love you guys, enjoy the pictures when i get them sent (if i can). haha (: Love,

Elder Jay Valle

April 2, 2012

yes everyone... i did see david archuleta on the tv. haha. no one in argentina recognizes him...haha, but i did. conference was sick! i was so excited. i felt like there was quite a big focus on families and raising kids and all that sorts of stuff. haha. it was good. we had a great week. we are still struggling to findf lots of people to teach and we need people to batpize. it´s tough but me and my comp are super positive and we get along great. my favorite talks were, holland and larry wilsons and...yeah, they were all good. i loved dallin h. oaks. i thought it was funny that richard g. scott talked about how much he missed his wife again. hahaha. funny yeah? we had a good time watching it in english and i have ten pages of ntoes...i was just writing pure revelation. haha. anyways...we had a good week.
i had consejo in mnedoza this week and we learned a ton. we were the only zone to meet our baptism goal this month, so we had special recognition...which was nice (: haha. we have to do it again...but we are having a hard time finding people now for april! ah! crazy stuff. anyways....they told us how being a zone leader was like being a quarter back. i didnt understand a lot...but all the football players did...so thats cool. hahaha. we then went to presidents house and had a taco bar. MMMMMM. big treats. presdients house is super nice. anyways...that was fun. other than that, me and my comp are trying to balance out the time we spend in our area, and in the other areas trying to help out the zone. life is getting a little crazy.

i loved general confence and i loved the pictures you guys all sent me! i didnt see you, but thats great that you guys went. the members down here would die to see at least one apostle live. good stuff. i have been eating a TON of the ranch you sent me with carrots and broccoli lately. so thanks so much! i love you guys. pray for my area....we need more people! thanks for everything. haha (: chow! six months left......crazy yeah?

love elder valle

3/26/12

Hello Family,
we had a pretty good week here in guaymallén.

we met our baptismal goal! the zone her in guaymallen was struggling to maintain a steady baptism rate and we are doing it. me and rios are getting a long great, and we almost didnt have a ton of time in our own area to go out and work. we have been in other areas doin baptismal interviews and making sure that people are getting baptized without delay.

oneday we showed up to do the interview and the family was like...yeah...he wont get baptized today. we want to buy him a little suit before...so it might be a couple weeks before we can buy him a suit and so we don´t know when it will be. (NO!) so i was acting all calm and i was like...yeah, like...it´s okay. he doesn´t need a suit to get baptized...(this was in another area obviously) and i had to convince her that sacred things are simple. just like the birth of jesus christ in a manger. ug...it was´nt super easy...but the kid got baptized and confirmed (: haha.

the mission is out of books of mormons! can you believe it? for some reason like, the president of argentina isn´t letting them in...or there is some big importing problem for published books or something. i can´t remember....so, it´s pretty crazy. me and my comp were thinking about making copies of the best chapters, and using that for a little bit, but that can be costy because foto copies are kinda expensive down here. anyways...a little bit of a problem. keep that in your prayers that everything can come out well and we can start getting books of mormon back into mendoza.

tomorrow i have consejo and so i have to keep my hair nice and combed and shoes shines. it should be exciting. it´s good going to consejo knowing you reached your baptismal goal. yay. peace and security. haha.

it´s the fiftieth aniversiary of the first stake in mendoza! crazy! and now there are lots. okay...like thirteen. so yeah, that´s cool. there was some big clebration thing and elder arnold of the seventy came...but we couldn´t go. and we were super close too! bummer. but, it´s all cool.

we had interviews with president avila this week. it was a little fast because he was running short on time...but yeah, he made some good comments and is happy with my work. that makes me feel good.

i got super sick this week! i had a nasty cold and even though i still left every day to work, i always had like half a roll of toilet paper with me to keep my nose clear so i could even talk. talk about frustrating.

me and my comp are doing good. we are looking super hard for people to baptize and we don´t have a lot of good people to be teaching, i think i will have to have a ton of faith this wek trusting the Lord that he will help us (: I bet you are all stoked for general conference. thanks for choosing to go without me. haha. just kidding. anyways. i am gonna check out, but have fun with all the families and send me lots of fun pictures. i miss all of you and hope that the prophet gives us good council like always. haha.

anyways, if you guys have any question just ask. i am sure enjoying all the ranch with broccoli and carrots! MMMMM.

Elder Jay Valle

3/19/26

good visiting converts in Mendoza!!! they are doing way good. they love us and just gave us a ton of gifts! won{t have time to write, but i hope you understand...it´s just crazy trying to keep up with them and write something long.

i am doing great! glad to be back with elder rios. not a lot to say, but we had a good time. my area is huge and i have lunch every day. i am visiting my convert that is going to seal himself with his family in april and now he is the young mens president. great stuff! my favorite family in mendoza.
i am diong good....hardly eat anything these days...get super full. it was rather easy to leave l apunta but, i am glad to be back in mendoza. hahaha
i hope you guys liked the photos that i sent. i love you guys. i promise to write more next week. have a great week. being zone leader is fun. me and rios held a waaaay sick zone meeting. everyone got excited to baptized. now iknow what dal is talking about...beinf ZL of disobedient missionaries. dificult. but it{s all good. abrazo a todos,
elder jay valle

3/12/12

Hello Family,

hey, got my new area, i am leaving to guaymallen (close to mendoza) to be zone leader with elder rios....my son! i trained him! and so now i will go back and be comps with on of my old comps. crazy studd right? president called me and told me about transfers and told me that i would be going up and congratulated me. (i´m not bragging...just interesting facts), but, i am the first one in whole group to go up as zone leader. not that it as anything to do with me, but i was just glad to hear that. president avila is a great guy, so i hope that i can do a good job as a zone leader.

this week was pretty good. we found a menos activo family to teach. the mom is a member and she is way sick! she speaks super good english and loves american food. get this...our second visit in the house she was like....i made a treat for you guys! and she came out with PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES. okay, so number one...peanut butter is definitly super super rare our here, and cookies just don´t exist. so, like...she told us she makes homeade peanut butter with her food proccesor and then made us cookies because she knows how much the mormon missionaries like them. hahaha, we ate all ten of them. super good stuff. her husband is not a member, but he is super sweet and came to church this week too! we were super excited. i hope he felt somewhat of the spirit there and was able to get along with the members. we had 67 at church this week! (: good numbers for la punta! we are on the brink of getting our ward and our chapel....what an exciting time to have to leave this area, but i feel like in the four and a half months that i have been here, a lot of progress has been made. even though i have only had four baptisms in la punta, all of them are very strong members and jsut this last sunday, my convert, fernando got the aaronic priesthood and is preparing to get the Melqesidec (i forgot how to spell that in english). Angelita is as active as ever and Agustin is still going to church in his shirt and tie. It feels good leaving the area, knowing they will go on with me holding their hands and being able to say goodbye to them today and tomorrow. i will get to my new area on wednesday. crazy stuff. anyways.

I will try to get pictures to you guys. our ward had a a huge empanade party after church on sunday , because we church in the house. it was so fun. me and my comp made desert empandas....everyone was scared to try them...but it was great. then they made me and my comp have a juice drinking contest. my comp one. with eight glasses of juice. i love our ward (:

Hvae a great week guys, photos to come (:

Elder Jay Valle

3/5/12

F A M I L Y ,
how is everyone? we had quite the week, so i will try to tell you everything without sounding like a missionary who tries to impress people with his stories (: haha. let´s start with news.

angelita got baptized! crazy stuff. it was a little roller coaster. on thursday we went into her house to tell her what to bring to the baptism and we asked her how she was doing....she was like..."estoy bien, pero no me voy a bautizar sabado....". (GASP)....crazy stuff. satan was making her feel all nervous. so i told my comp in english, we will just listen to her and let her tell us how she feels and be polite but let her know that she is seriously ready to get baptized. it was an intense 45 minutes, but the last thing she said before the closing prayer was, "bueno...me voy a bautizar sabado. esta bien.". MM. relief filled the room and i could already fill the font being filled with the san luis water (: hahaha. crazy stuff.

consejo was super fun. being with the zone leaders was like being with a big group of fun, obedient, happy, hard working elders. it was the funnest hours of my mission. it was good to escape the district leader that has to get on people for being disobdient. it was nice to see president and just relax and also be serious about the success of the mission while people cared. good times.

i saw elder burns and actually we went out and worked for a little bit was was pretty fun. good missionary too.

this week we went to some waterfall things for pday....i hope you guys liked the photos. it was a hard climb but worth it. i got a little water trunky...i wanted to swim way bad. 17 months...i´m a dry kid.

i got your valentines day package!! it was sick! tell thanks to the mia maid president for the letter. haha. weird. anyways, i am going to enjoy all that ranch mix soon...and i will also dig the gravy soon. hahaha. anyways, so thanks for everything. i had a happy valentines day. some of the elders i think are jealous that i get spanish valentines from dad. you guys are the best. i love bilingual relationships. good job guys.

i hope the letters made up for some of the writing. i love you guys. oh yeah, i saw the new brandon flowers "im a mormon" video on mormon.org. amazing! i thought dad would like it!

love you guys,
elder jay valle