WEEK 12 -Happy Mother's Day and always learning

Monday, October 17, 2011

Oh hey I forgot to say that our ward is having some problems with the members so we are trying to work with them, and some don’t seem to like us and it’s hard to get them to come out with us but we are doing our best and trying our hardest to have success. We won’t be having lunch with them anymore so that’s a little disappointing.  But ya it’s hard to work with them sometimes when they say they will but then always cancel on us but all is well love you all byebye

Ok so first off I want to say HAPPY MOTHERS DAY and your probs thinking hey it’s not even close to Mothers Day but here in Argentina it was yesterday so I’m a little late.  But hey I can still say it or I guess it would be Feliz Dia De Madres! 

So to start off I want to say that right now I hate dogs because they always bark and are trying to bite me and I’ve come close many times to kicking one in the head cause it’s trying to bite me with its rabies covered mouth but besides that I’m doing great haha. Like I’m trying my best and having my ups and downs of the day or week but I find that as soon I go out and start doing the work everything gets better.  Just have to do the service and all feelings of frustration or anything go away. I’m doing good I would say.  But one thing I am learning to love along with the people is futbol aka soccer, its soo much fun and I’m getting better already. We play at least once a week and it’s just a blast! So many new ways to do things its soo much fun and I hope I can actually compete with people now when I get back cause before I was and still am terrible!!.

But anyway this week I had my first zone conference and I got to say about 75 percent of the things said went right over my head. But from what I got it helped a lot and was really good. I find myself being so tired because translating all day hurts my brains and it just wants to shut down. I do my best always to listen but it’s hard when my brains doesn’t want to work.  So I just need to step back relax and then go at it again and I know I won’t understand everything but I try my best that’s for sure.  And I found out this week that my trainer also trained Elder Van Loo which was Elder Henry’s MTC comp so that was interesting to find out he’s my brother.

My comp is great though, we have a lot in common and there are times when I don’t agree with him and he doesn’t with me  but he’s a really good guy, and he’s nuts too. He’s from Texas if I didn’t mention that but man he’s a good worker, very helpful and encouraging.

 The food is pretty good, the other day I got to eat mashed potatoes and I didn’t think that was gunna happen anytime soon but it did. I think I’m becoming Argentine because they like to put mayo on like everything and so I put some on my potatoes like everyone did and it was really good actually I liked it so ya I’m changing in many ways I didn’t think possible!!  hahaha.  And speaking of food yesterday I ate the nastiest thing!  It was like this bread roll with moldy toothpaste inside covered in mayo and topped with olives so I’m not becoming that Argentine but man was it hard to eat, I was almost gagging luckily we got it as we were going out the door so they didn’t need to see my face when I ate it. 

 So interesting stories for the week, we got robbed last pday so that was fun, and don’t worry it wasn’t too bad cause we didn’t actually see who robbed us cause it was pick pocketed and we were just walking and I noticed Elder Lerma’s bag was open and we found that our cell phone was missing so now for the next while we are without a cell phone.  But a scary thing that did happen was our mission leader the same day was robbed by gunpoint. It was him and his wife who is pregnant and they came up and asked for everything and then pointed the gun at her belly and she fainted, but luckily they are all ok and they are doing fine now.  And also the other day we got caught in the rain. So we were outside and it just stared pouring and we tried to contact our way into a house cause our pension was pretty far and so we were out in it for about 30 to 40 min and like right when we got inside somewhere it stopped so ya that was fun. We came back and were totally drenched!!

 But yesterday was a really good day for me; I learned a lot about the doctrine and myself.  As I was taking the sacrament I was thinking and I know we teach that when we take the sacrament we are as clean as the day we are baptized and I’ve never really thought that is true before. But yesterday as I partook it hit me that right now I am as clean as the day I was baptized that I was perfect and free from sin, and a great peace came over me that I could really know that that was true and I can be that clean every week of my life form this day on, so just something I learned.  And how important it is to take the sacrament every week.  And then that night me and Elder Lerma had a little interview and I shared a lot with him and really opened up and was able to really feel the spirit as I learned a lot about myself and about him and the way we can grow together.  It was a great experience and we both shared a lot with each other.  But ya I learned a lot in the last 24 hours.

 Well thank you for the addresses and all that stuff. My area is pretty sweet idk how to really describe it so I’ll send some pics next week but it’s like cement and dusty a bit and just I don’t know its home now haha. I’ll try to think of an explanation for next week  but Erin and Sara so the people here love you guys, its kind of creepy.  We showed our pics to a member and they were like are they models'?  haha so ya and some of the guys in my pension are like wow they are so pretty , and this one boy said cuinado which means brother in law about Sara hahah aka he wants to marry you. but ya so they love your pics down here.

 Oh and mom before I go I want to ask you to send some recipes that I can make that are simple maybe if you can send one a week that would be great but 2 if you would like to. Your dumplings with the carrots in the broth I think, and also tuna noodle casserole.  But ya all is well with me and I love you all soo much!!!  I’m glad you are my family and give everyone else my love and those that are coming home from missions too.  I LOVE YOU ALL and hope the best for you

Love Your Boy  Elder Harker

WEEK 11 - How to kill a chicken, blisters and learning about covenants

Monday October 10, 2011

Ok so I’ve got lots to say today so I hope I can say it all.

 So this week has had its ups and down just like usual but more ups than downs at least I would say.  My comp is great, we get along well and sometimes just like anyone you have your disputes but we can usually work it out in about 5 min and then get over it and so it’s all good.  He’s a really hard worker and he loves the work and the people so it looks like its gunna be a good transfer. I enjoy his company and we get a lot done and I have the blisters to prove it!! I now have 4 on each foot so ya I’m working pretty hard I think and don’t worry mom I’m fine just to let you know.  

This last week we had what is called an intercambio aka splits and so I went to another area and was with Elder Casas, he’s a pretty cool guy and so we had a lot of walking cause all of our appointments fell through on us except 2 and their area is pretty big and has a lot of hills so it was a long day of walking, but still it was good.  The blessing was I got to do a lot of contacting that day, I got like 13 or something and this week I got 47 on my own and I had the most in the district cause we had a little competition to see who could get the most.

So some interesting things that happened this week, well where to start.  I definitely learned how to kill a chicken the other day.  I know now that all you have to do is put it in a yard with 2 dogs and they will tear it apart and yes I did see that, it was really kind of cool idk but ya we saw 2 dogs just destroy this chicken.  Then the roof was fun we took a bunch of pics and we can see our whole area from up there because our area is not that big but it was awesome to see all of that.  And now I’m starting to improve slow but sure at futbol we play every week and sometimes more with investigators so hopefully by the time I get back I’ll be like Messi hahah I wish.  Some of the people here are still using a horse and buggy to get around so I also thought that was a little interesting..... hhhmmmmm what else.  The other day it was pouring buckets and I got to use my rain coat and I found out that it really is 100 percent water proof so that’s good .

 Ok so onto investigators, we are working with many and some are progressing really well but I’ve found that the church attendance is the biggest difficulty here in Argentina. They really like to make commitments and then not keep them.  So that’s what me and Elder Lerma have been working on this week and will continue to is getting our investigators to church. We did have one this week who came and that’s good but we have about 5 investigators that are doing well but out of those 5 only one came.  Then our star investigator, his name is J and he’s great.  He didn’t commit to come to church and that’s why I like him because he’s not putting it off until he knows he can but he doesn’t want to fill his plate with too much. He really enjoys our lessons and when we teach him I always feel the spirit soo strong. He understands well and he wants to keep moving forward and I really hope all works out with him.

One thing Elder Lerma taught me and which is very special to me now is that we can make covenants with God and I mean our own, I never really knew that.  We decided to make one with our Heavenly Father and in it we asked for specific things and in return we would provide ourselves to him and do specific things to earn our end of the covenant. This has been a great experience so far because I feel I have really given myself to the Lord to do what he wants me to do.  Our relationship with the Lord is very special and we need to always try and understand and learn more about the bond we have with the Lord. Through this experience I have felt the spirit more abundantly in my life and I feel I am more prone to the promptings of the spirit.  It’s really been a learning experience as well because I now understand him a little bit more. I challenge you to find out the connection you have with our Father in Heaven and strive to strengthen that connection.  I miss you guys’ a lot and I am doing well here in Argentina but I love you!

 Well that’s kinda been my week just work, sleep, work ,sleep and then some futbol so it’s pretty good I like it, But let me know what’s going on with you guys?? I always want to know what my fam is up to.  But I think that’s about all I have to write for now but maybe I'll think of something quick.

Oh and one more thing, Tyler said he saw 5 people on a moped and I saw not 6 people but a guy riding his bike carrying an entire bed!!!! haha I thought it was funny!

But Love you lots and hope to hear from you next week!!

xoxoXxOOxOoXOxOoxxoOxOxoxXOOXXoXoXo

WEEK 10 - He's arrived - Argentina!

Wad up Fam!!!

 How’s life back in Calgary?? It’s not the same here! haha but all is well.  I guess the last time I wrote you was last Friday in the MTC but I did get to talk to you since then so that was even better.  But about the travel, it was way long! We were traveling for something  like 32-33 hours straight, I’ll tell you it was not fun. We went from Dallas to Buenos Aires and that flight was about 11 hours and usually I can sleep on planes but on this one nope.  The seats were the smallest I’ve ever experienced and so my legs literally barely fit and I walked around a bunch but it was still hard. I slept for probs about 1 to 2 hours the whole flight. It was very uncomfortable for the whole flight.  And I know I get grumpy when I travel for that long but I really tried my best to be in a good mood.  We arrived at the airport in Buenos Aires and got all our stuff and met our travel leader named Alberto.  We then went to another part of the airport to wait to see what would happen next and while we were there we saw the Assistants and Mission Pres from the Buenos Aires West Mission, so I told him to say hi to Elder Kwasney for me.  Then after waiting for like 2 hours we went and got on a bus that would take us to another airport in Buenos Aires that just flies within the country.  At this point we put our luggage on a bus that they were driving to Cordoba.  Then we got on a bus to this other airport and I think within like 2 min of sitting down I was asleep because I was so dead. We got to the airport and went to board our flight to Cordoba,flew for about an hour and then got off the plane.  But ya so then we met our Mission President, and he is pretty cool.  He speaks both English and Spanish fluently so it’s good for us gringos that don’t speak Spanish at all.   We took some pictures when we were out of the airport and then took taxis to the central of police to work on some visa stuff.  Then just back to the mission home. We were introduced to the assistants and the office elders a little more and then watched a talk from Elder Holland and then we had dinner. It was about let’s say like 10 at that point so we were all soo tired. We had empanadas and they were heavenly!!  Anyway then that night we stayed at a hotel and the next morning we had a great start because Elder Hruska’s alarm didn’t go off so we got up at 715 and had to be at the mission home at 745 so we got ready and sprinted there and were ready in about 5 min.  Then just more visas stuff that day and the interview with the Pres to get to know me and so he can see what comp I would get.  Then we went to another meeting where I met my comp Elder Lerma. He’s a great Elder, a hard worker and always strives to be obedient.  He is a great example to me and I feel that I can learn a lot from him.  He has a great spirit about him and he’s always trying to better himself. From what I can tell from being with him these last few days I think our companionship will work very well.  He is a great and hard working Elder.

 Well about the work, the first day we went straight to work. We had a few visits and in one of them two ladies started to breast feed right there. Now I heard that would happen but I thought it was rare or something and didn’t expect it on my first night, but it happens and it was kind of weird. I just tried to focus on the things we were teaching but when you can’t understand anything anyone is saying it’s hard to focus on the conversation.  Not saying that I was looking but I was definitely trying to focus on other things and just keep the lesson in my mind. So that was a weird first night.  But anyway the last days have been good here just working away as best I can and it was hard at first but it’s getting easier.  I just gotta keep my mind on the Lord always.  The investigators we are working with are : M. (who I put a fecha with on Friday and that means I put a baptismal date on my second day) and then there is, the A. family who is a family of 10, C. and his family who has 9 in that family, C. who is a guy we taught right before conference. and then the C. who is V. and her husband with 5 kids.  Not all the people I just named are of age to be baptized but they are the ones we are working with the most and hopefully the work will continue.  Oh also contacting is way harder than I expected and in Spanish wow its tough!! But whatever just gotta do it.  The Spanish is hard and its way hard to understand, harder than I thought but it’s getting a little better every day and I know it will come I just need to be patient and listen carefully. So ya there’s just so much I want to write.

 Alright so futbol aka soccer man it’s hard!! All the people here are soo good and so intense I am such a gringo it’s so hard but, with practice makes perfect or at least that’s how the saying goes, but I hope to improve in these next two years so I can do something hahah but whatever I like getting my butt kicked by 5 year olds.

 Ok so conference, oh man it was amazing I loved it!!! I got to watch it in English too!!  That was a bonus,all the Elders in my zone who speak English all watched it together to get the most out of it!! It was soo good and now that I’m on a mission I definitely have a better appreciation for Conference.  We have been inviting a lot of people to Conference this week and we got about 7 of our investigators to come and that was a great number to have.  Our zone had 30 total and we got 7 which was really good!!  The talks were amazing and I don’t want to spend too much time on it cause I know you heard them too but all were so good.  The priesthood especially and man when Elder Holland came out and dropped cane!! Man that was nuts, oh dropped cane or bajando la caña is a phrase here to like lay down the law it’s just an Argentine thing but it was great.  I loved conference soo much!!!  and I got to go on splits with this Elder named Elder Bridge who is from Raymond and is friends with Tyler Johnson so that was cool. Actually he’s cousins with Ivy who Tyler is dating which I thought was kind of neat. Small world.

But that’s good you are all doing well and enjoyed Conference well except Sara who got hives but I’m glad you’re all doing well.  And that you got to spend Conference with others is fun. I hope Sara is doing better and I hope Erin had a good time at Conference as well.

 Other things going on I ate like dog or cat the other day just to let you know, no big deal or anything and it tasted ok I guess. The food, weather and apartment are all good I guess. The weather for you guys that kind of sucks but I’m going into summer again which is good and the weather here has not been too bad,  just warm and my farmers tan is coming along great!!  Not too hot not too cold and all is good. The food is good, I really haven’t eaten much since I got here, just this baby food cereal we eat for breakfast which is actually really good and then sometimes we go for lunch to a members house or just have a snack at our place but I don’t eat dinner anymore. It’s weird cause I never really feel that hungry.  Sorry but I forgot to take a picture of our pension aka apartment so I’ll do that for next week.

 I hope all is well with you guys and I love you all soo much. I don’t really have much to say anymore and all is well with me. The first few days were scary not gunna lie and I thought I was gunna die when I saw my pension but all is good now. I’m getting adjusted and I’m doing what I need to, to be a good missionary.  I got a letter from Elder Henry the day I got here so that was really nice.I’m doing my best to be obedient and sometimes it’s hard to get up in the morning cause I’m always tired but you just gotta do it.  I love you all hope all is going great and hope to hear from you all in about a week!!!

Love your little big boy

Elder Kentis Harker

WEEK 9 at the MTC - packing up and getting ready to head out!

Hey guys

To Coreen I did get your letters, I kind of forgot to reply but I will and in the mean time can you tell them thanks.

 Thanks for all the letters you guys send, it’s always great to get mail! and also for the updates of the other guys out right now, it’s always awesome to hear how they are doing, but I guess I don’t have too much to write today.

 That’s so awesome that you enjoyed stake conference soo much!! It’s also sweet to hear all of the new callings, like Ann and Dave congrats to them and I know that they will do great in what they are called so give them my regards. And also Ian M.! that’s cool, when I first read moms I was a little sad cause she forgot to mention that Patriarch Melchin didn’t die and I knew it was a calling for life so it was great for dad to clear that up.  But hey it will be great to know Sara will get her blessing at the dentist’s office while her teeth are being cleaned!!! haha Also it was great to hear about Peter and Braden and the advancement to the Mel Priesthood. 

Oh and thanks to dad for working on my line of authority that will be great to have.  Just so you know I can write today and tomorrow because today is infield orientation and tomorrow is our Pday so please answer on email because I will not get any dearelders before I leave. Just a heads up.  And no mom I have not started to pack yet so I’m doing all that tomorrow so we will see what happens.

To tell you a little bit about the orientation. It’s a full day and the whole time we have been here it’s been mostly focused on the teaching. Today is focusing on finding, study, goal setting, planning and that kind of stuff. It’s pretty interesting so far, we’ve only been in it about 3 hours so not too long and we have a lot to go so I’ll let you know tomorrow. 

I am definitely jealous that I can’t go to the corn maze this year! Now that you mention it I want to go sooo bad but my calling is here and this is what I need to focus on.  Also great to hear Jeremy’s papers are in and cool to hear about Danielle’s call.

Ok so sounds like it’s been a busy week for you guys hope all is well say hi to Grandma, please tell her I pray for her and send her my love!! I hope she’s doing ok. I love you all so much and miss you a ton but its only 2 years til I’ll be back. 

Ok so Sara - DO RAPPORT!!!  It will be soo tight and it’s great to do it. It’s not just leadership and it’s helped me so much in my life to do other things as well, even though it’s not with the church it helped me strengthen my testimony and helped me to know what to do in my life. It helps with social skills and can almost be applied in every aspect of you life so please do it, and it may be hard but it is definitely worth it. As for bball that's cool that you are doing the camp thingy and school is going well so that’s great!! Hope to hear from you again and tell me your teachers.

Erin- hey buddy, so I hope all is well with you and you are enjoying work and life in general. I miss you . I’m praying for you and love you lots and hope you are doing great!! I hope you are finding a man that I would approve of and just having fun in all that you do. Know that you are loved and keep moving forward!

Momma Papa - hope all is well and I love hearing from you guys and I just can’t wait to talk to all of you on Monday its going to be awesome! I am doing just fine hear and ready to go and take on new challenges!!

 SO spiritual thought for this week - this may sound a little repetitive but it’s the truth!! Learn to love the Book of Mormon. So this last week the Ensign for this October is about the Book of Mormon and all the missionaries here were given a copy of it early!! So mom this time I can say that I’ve read the whole thing and there are great messages in it! I challenge you to read it haha I got there first this time.  But ya I challenge all to read it, it’s a great issue! This week for devotional, you might be a little jealous but here comes Russell M Nelson.  This is our 3rd apostle in 3 weeks so that was awesome. The devotional was about the Ensign this month and the Book of Mormon it was a great talk!!  Just learn to love and read it!! It is now my best friend here well other than prayer but I know it was written for us and every page we can learn something from it. And it really does testify of Christ! Since I’ve been here in my Spanish set of scriptures, when I read them I go through and mark every time God or Jesus or any of his names are mention and it’s amazing!! My scriptures are so green because that’s the color I’m using for it, its nuts! I went and researched and it’s something like every 1.7 verses the Savior is mentioned! Go read it and use it every day and I know you will be blessed.

Well anyway I don’t know what else to say, but I love you all so much! Hope all is well with you and I am excited to hear from you tomorrow and talk with you on Monday.

Kenty Boi 

So just another update for you

Yesterday went well with infield orientation. It was pretty much just classes where they teach you everything you haven’t learned yet which actually turned out to be a lot! It was pretty good and informative nothing really special though, just good info on what we need to do in the field, what a day is kind of like and what happens when we get there. It seemed to go by so fast too! It’s weird now 16 hours of class a day is no problem, I’m turning into a robot.   I am doing wash right now so I haven’t started to pack but I’ll let you know how it goes when I do.  But thanks for the tips on the luggage and I hope everything goes well. 

Love you all

Kenty Boi

WEEK 8 at the MTC - travel plans, a real investigator and another apostle!

Como Esta mis amigos??

Just to let you know this week has definitely been an ups and down week, but I guess for the most part of it, it hasn’t been too bad.  This letter might be a little choppy but there isn’t a lot that went on this week so I’ll just answer some questions and let you know what’s up.

On the spiritual side I always like to set 2 goals for the upcoming week so that is where my spiritual challenges come into play.

Ok so onto some exciting news, I GOT MY FLIGHT PLANS!!!!!!! I only have 9 days left.   So we leave on Sept 26, and go to the travel office at 8:00am and then go to the airport.  Then have time to check in and call for a couple of hours.  We go from SLC to Dallas Fort Worth (hey maybe I’ll see Brett haha) and then from Dallas - Buenos Aries and that’s all that’s in our plans. There are 7 in our district leaving and we are all going to Cordoba.  So we are not sure if we bus to Cordoba after or fly there but I’ll for sure let you know when I know.  Mom don’t worry they gave us all the info on how much our bags should weigh so you don’t need to worry about it. Just letting you know.  So that all happened yesterday so I’m pretty excited to get out into the world preaching the word!!!

Thanks for the addresses you sent I haven’t got all of them yet but I hope I do, you might want to send them again just in case.  And I’m glad that Grandma is doing well, I hope she got the letter I sent her and give her my love and tell her I’m doing just dandy.  I also got a letter from James Harker again so if you could give him thanks from me, I also wrote him a letter today but ya it was great to get that.

That’s awesome that Brendan Day got his mission call!! I’m glad that he is making that choice to go on a mission and I’m so excited to hear all of us are going!! I have a much better appreciation for missionaries and I love when people come and serve!!  Vancouver will be awesome and I’m assuming because you didn’t say that it is English speaking???

Oh before I forget DAD - can you send me my LINE OF AUTHORITY please, that would be great, thanks. Oh and also that’s good or cool I don’t know really what to say about the 24 hour phone 911 thing but that’s good you were able to do that.  Here on Sept 11 we had a fireside  like we do every week but this one was special because they showed us the footage from that day and just a couple of videos about it.  The Mormon Tab did a music and the spoken word tribute to it that morning so we were able to see the recording of that which was neat. I’ve never really seen that much about 911. I also saw Carol in the choir so it was a good experience.  Sorry my spelling is bad I’m trying to go fast.  Oh and another thing I met a counsellor here named Christian Anderson and he said dad would know who he is, so just letting you know he says hi.

I’m sorry to hear about Brother Bennion I can’t remember if I said anything about it in my last email so give them my sympathy’s.

 I got the shoes for Tyler and so I’ll for sure bring those to him and I know I’m just waiting on the nets cause I only heard of them today but say thanks to Diane for that and I hope I have enough room!!!

Anyway about Thiago, so stuff happened and we were not able to teach him last Monday, but we get to this upcoming Monday, so me and Elder Hruska have been preparing a lot and we hope that we can bring the spirit into his life and help him to know what his Father in Heaven wants him to do. So this will be interesting because it’s our first real investigator, but our practice lessons have gone really well so I pray for the best.

Ok so now is time to make you all jealous.  So you know how we had Elder Holland come talk to us like 3 weeks ago..... Well this last Tuesday we had another apostle come, and it was Elder Ballard!!!  It was so awesome to hear another apostle speak. He had such a great message!! The one thing that he said that I really enjoyed was he quoted Joseph Smith  "No matter what may come upon you, round up your shoulders and bear it."  I really enjoyed that quote cause lately I find myself complaining to myself a lot, and you know what I know I don’t want to be in the MTC anymore but I just need to suck it up and just finish strong.  I need to be able to do whatever I need to do to become a better missionary. I know that it is definitely tough but whatever its only 2 years, and I don’t want to come home regretting anything.  It really got me thinking that it’s not my time I’m wasting if I don’t work, it’s the Lords and I just got to do whatever it is because it’s what he wants me to do.  It’s not that spiritual I guess but it was my own personal little revelation.  I just keep reading and studying everyday and hope I improve my knowledge and testimony of the gospel. His message was awesome so I really enjoyed our devotional this week.

Anyway I just want to say what’s up?? To Erin and Sara before my time runs out, and this is to mamma and papa too.  I love you all; I hope everything is well with you.  Erin I hope that work is good and you are living life to the fullest and just being with buds and doing what you need to do.  Sara I hope school is good, not getting into much trouble and just hope you keep up the good work and not get too boy crazy.  Mom and dad hope all is well and just doing good for everyone, I don’t know what you’re up to now that school is back and the basement is done but I hope you find some interesting things to do.

Well I love you I can’t think of anything I need besides addresses that are lost and maybe phone numbers that might be lost too, I love you all and I’ll email next week and talk to you guys soon!!! Literally.

Love your baby boi

Elder Kentis

WEEK 7 at the MTC - cereal, scorpions and a prayer answered!

Ok so hello there my loving family!!  How are you this wonderful day??

Well let’s start out with something fun. This week our district had a cereal eating competition. We called it  the TOWER CHALLENGE!!!! It was awesome. Here they serve cereal out of huge tower dispensers and we decided that just during a lunch hour we would see if we could deplete an entire tower of cereal before they refilled it!! Guess what we did it!! And it only took 73 bowls to complete it.

Another funny eating thing that I forgot to tell you about was my second week here, when Elder Bryce and Young were here they had Mexican candy and one was a sucker with a real dead scorpion in it. They challenged me to eat it and I did.  So from then on I was called the "rey de scorpio"  aka scorpion king.  It actually didn’t taste that bad, the stinger was cut off and it just tasted like dirt so I guess the sucker was good but the scorpion just was nasty and it equalled out.

Anyway onto other things, so thank you soooo much for the package!!! I loved it and still love it.  Thanks too for the updates on the other Elders, it’s always great to know how they are doing.  Oh and mom you had some pretty funny stuff in your letters, like "happy labour day..... did you labour hard??" hahaha and your rhymes haha anyway I love you guys.  About the shoes for Tyler ya I’m down to bring them to him all I hope is that I have the weight but I think I will with the backpack now.

So about your culture class question - unfortunately we don’t have any class like that, but both my teachers served in Argentina on their missions and one is a native aka born there so she is bringing in some stuff and going to do a little lesson on it I think next week so that will be really interesting to hear.  Also dad that is so awesome that you got to sit by Elder Holland and man would I love to just sit down and talk to him for just like 10 minutes. That would be amazing!! That’s great your young men all did well on the summer challenge. My summer challenge is going good I’m working my way through and I should be done by the time I get to Argentina.  The language is tough though, the days always have their ups and downs so one day I’ll be good at it and another it won’t be so great but you know it’s a work in progress so hopefully when I get down to Argentina I’ll be able to understand about a quarter of what they say haha. But who knows, all I know is that I need to pray a lot to get help.

Ok so what you were saying about rook made me wish I could play it once in awhile.  I miss being able to play games so much, board games card games anything, I just want to do something!!! ahh its killing me but its actually not I just make it more than it needs to be.

Another cool thing that is going happen soon is that I will be able to watch this conference in Spanish so that will probably help my understanding a lot more, but the sad thing is that now that I’m a missionary conference talks and just talks in general seem to have more meaning to me and this conference I won’t be able to get that much just cause I don’t know the language that well. Hopefully it turns out ok and if I can even get one thing out of conference then that would be awesome!!!!

So I’ve heard you guys are starting school and such . Sara - Seminary!!!! ahhaahahahahahah now you get to wake up even earlier than I do!!! Isn’t it the life??? Mom you’ve been doing it for what like 6 years so I guess 4 more isn’t too bad.  But Erin I hope you are doing well and hope you had a great time on your Labour Day weekend idk I’m just glad everyone is doing ok and loving life!!  Just do your best and learn to love the gospel is all the advice I got right now.   A nice thing that happened this week is we got a new district and there is another Elder Harker in it, I haven’t really met him but I’ll tell you how he is.

 I know my letter is kind of all over the place today but now to the spiritual thought of the day.  So this week was good and bad, it was kind of all over the place but really what has been wrong is that I just want to get out of the MTC.  I know it’s good for you and everything but I signed up for teaching real investigators and help change other people’s lives.  So I’ve kind of been thinking like that the last couple of days and I just want to help someone for real.  We teach our teachers and they act like investigators and we are supposed to pretend they are, but we really know that they are just evaluating us and stuff. Yesterday as we were teaching Hermana Arcos, after our lesson she had an idea. She asked just me and Elder Hruska if we wanted to teach a friend of hers named Thiago.  He is not a member of the church and has met with the missionaries before but it didn’t click with them.  They didn’t teach the restoration until lesson 3 and so on. So she is asking permission for me and Elder Hruska to teach a real investigator!!!  This was definitely an answer to prayer and I am so happy that I have something real to prepare for and a life I can actually influence.  He already goes to church and is reading the Book of Mormon but our teacher thinks he just needs the right missionaries.  I don’t know what she was feeling and I’ll be honest I still don’t feel prepared to teach him in anyway but the spirit led her to make this decision.  I guess the lesson I learned this week is following the spirit. I don’t know how we can help him but we need to do our best and I am very excited to teach him.

 I realized how important prayer is in our lives and I think this is one of the first times I can remember where prayer has been answered so just wow, like right in front of me.  Anyway it is really awesome and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Can you please tell Janelle thank you for the letter and all of Tanners updates and also thank you so much for the package.  I’m still going to write her a letter but if you could tell her that would be great. I’m sad I’m missing the corn bust this year but whatever things will be alright and oh tell Kianna congrats again, I guess she’s getting hitched today!

Another thing is I get my flight plans next week so I’ll give you that info in my next email Please try to get those addresses soon and write them in your email or dearelder as soon as you can because I want to send letters out soon.  This week was great for mail thank you I got all yours plus ones from Jesse, Tyler G, Tanner, Jessica, Melissa and I think that’s all but ya it was a good week for mail.

Anyway I love you all stay strong in what you do and just push on cause we need to endure to the end

Love you

WEEK 6 at the MTC - an apostle speaks!

Hola Amigos!!  Como estan??

Well to start off I’m soooo glad that you got my package! I hoped you would enjoy it. Thank you for your many letters, I love hearing from you guys it makes me so happy inside when I do.  It’s almost like having Christmas every day, well almost every day at least.

So this week has been a lot better. I am feeling great, and my spirits are up and I’m just trying to understand Spanish.  It is messing with my mind. Half the time I’ll think or say something in Spanish and I don’t even know, by the time the day is over I feel like that one episode of Dexter’s Lab when his brain just shuts down for the day, That’s pretty much how I feel.  So ya its all good though I’m still loving it I guess but I just can’t wait to get to Argentina!!! I get my travel plans in 2 weeks and then I’m off to an unknown land in about 3 weeks.  So I hope it comes fast, cause I feel like I’m trapped in a black hole of gospel that will last for an eternity.

But I hope you are all jealous of me because the highlight of my week was the devotional!! We had Jeffrey R Holland come and speak!!! It was absolutely amazing! I don’t even know how to describe it but man was it good.  They haven’t had an apostle here for about 10 weeks and so we always joke about the prophet coming or Elder Holland because everyone loves him because he’s such a powerful speaker, and what do you know he came!!! I almost didn’t believe it at first but now I do haha.   He talked on so many things it’s hard to pick just one, but one thing he did was a question/answer period. Unfortunately I didn’t get to ask a question because they had people write them up before and then gave it to him right before he spoke but one question I really liked was:  Q- What is the greatest gift I can give to the Savior of the world the Lord Jesus Christ? His answer was - your heart, everything you can give.  He then brought up Joseph Smith's vision when Christ says " They draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" and that hit me really hard that I need to do everything I can to draw nearer to God with my heart.  Because my purpose out here is to invite others unto Christ, and how can I do that if I’m not striving to come unto Christ as well. Thought you’d want to hear about that, and maybe it’ll be online in a couple of weeks for you to read. It was really amazing to hear an Apostle of the Lord speak with such power.

I guess that was one of my spiritual thoughts but I do have another one.  So the past couple of weeks I have restarted the BOM and have challenged myself to finish it before I leave the MTC.  So it’s been a couple weeks and I’m already into Alma and, oh how I love the BOM, it has been so long since I’ve read it this much in such a little time period and its so awesome.  The lessons you learn from it are amazing and once you get going the story really makes you never want to do anything else because it’s so entertaining at the same time.  This is one of the greatest tools and I don’t see how anyone in their right mind could read this book and say that it’s not true because it is.  Even the first chapter of Nephi is almost the exact story of Joseph Smith.  He wanted to know an answer, prayed and had a vision of the truth. I just can’t believe how good this book is.  It’s absolutely astonishing. I challenge everyone to read it every day because it’s definitely the best part of my day.

Well some things for you to know are I got a haircut, and wow they do such a good job here!!! It’s almost as if a 5 year old was cutting my hair. I feel like I’m 10 years old again because they pretty much just buzzed it and then off I go. But whatever, hair grows back so maybe I’ll get a better one next time.  That’s cool that your converting all our VHS over (sorry I didn’t ever do that hahaha) but sounds like you’re having a good time with that. I love watching old stuff cause it reminds me of a young care free version of me, when I could do whatever I want and just live life.

Also I thought the changes in the ward were pretty awesome!! I’m sure everyone will do a great job!!  and to answer Dad’s question yes I have been singing in choir and no they haven’t mentioned General Conference choir but I won’t be in it anyway cause I leave the week before conference so ya kind of a bummer but you know what it’s all good I get to listen to it in Spanish and not understand a word of what they are saying!!! It will be so much fun!!

  Oh another thing I want to say before it happens is tell Kianna congrats on her wedding even though it hasn’t happened yet. I’d rather be early than late I guess if that makes any sense at all but ya just please do that.  It’s so weird she’s getting married but hey, it’s awesome!!

So Erin I just wanted to let you know that I’m praying for you everyday, and I miss you so much and love you that much as well. I hope you have a great time in Montana, just chill and love life.  I hope that work is going good for you and your beasting in the area of dental assisting and idk just hope that you’re doing ok and going to Institute.  I know I wasn’t the best at going but just learn to love the gospel because it is the best thing you will have in your life, besides me of course but hey I love you and stay strong sis

Sassy, well first off good job on your talk I guess, I never heard it but I hope it went well.  I also am praying and cheering that you will get on the  Vball team, so just do your best and whatever happen happens but just stay strong .  I’m glad you had a good summer, and just really try to do your best in everything that you do, don’t worry about your classes everything will work itself out in the end and if you’re alone just make some sweet new friends. I love you and cya in 23 months!! 

To momma and papa thanks for the letters this week and thanks for the comforting words, they really helped a lot I’m so grateful for all your love for me and I miss you guys a lot, but please send some pics with this package too, anyway love and miss all of you.

Also if you could get me Spencer’s address in Victoria that would be good.

Well I think that’s all love you!!