Elder Pickle's Homecoming Address

WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE ANYONE COME AND ENJOY THIS SPECIAL DAY WITH OUR FAMILY!!

Don't Cry for Me Argentina I'M GOING HOME!!!

Tell Dad I will be wearing a suit and a tie so he will be able to recognize me at the airport, haha

This week was good! It was pretty crazy because we had to help the office out a lot. The cool thing was that I got to be on divisions with E Ratliff again during the time there helping out the office. We stayed at their pensh for two nights. This was all because of this huge trip of 50 missionaries to Uruguay. They had to go there to become legal. I would have gone too if I weren`t going home. There have been a lot of crazy trips like that lately and I think that there are a couple more coming up. Me and Elder Ratliff shared a ton of stories and we had a great time. We have decided that we would have been best friends if we would have known each other outside of the mission and that we are going to find each other after. 

We did a lot of random tasks helping the office. We had to clean up a lot. We had to go to the mail to get the letters for the mission. We had to bring Presidents car to the car wash. Lots of just random task. I also was in charge of verifying CD to make sure that they work and if not then we played a new game we invented "cd hockey" haha

We visited a couple families here, on Saturday night we went to a member named Hno Dapiano and we ate an asado with him, it was awesome! Then Sunday we visited the family Azares. I will put the pictures in Dropbox. Tomorrow I will see the family Lugo and I am hoping to see Sonia and her family (maybe Cesar too) and Barbara (although I don`t think she will make it.). We will see who makes it tomorrow!

Our Christmas party will be the last thing that we do. But it will be a lot of fun. We are going to have a spiritual part and then a sport part and then we will all eat pizza together. Also I am making banana bread for Elder Fiabane for his birthday which is today. It should be really fun!

Well, it is time for me to go so I will see you guys soon!!!! I can`t wait at all!!! Love you!!

Skin infections and paperwork

This week we started off with the Leader Council.  Pte Franco taught us a lot of new stuff for the mission. Mostly he focus on the "He is the Gift" video that the church is having us share. That is our focus for this month so we are sharing that a lot and we had training's and practices about it during the meeting.      This week I have had a skin disease called impetigo and it was horrible. Luckily I called the enfermera and she told me to get a cream and it is starting to go away.      I went on divisions with Elder Ratliff this week and it was a lot of fun!  I think that it was maybe my favorite divisions that I have gone on.  We are good friends and we had lots of stories that we were sharing and we have been organizing how we are going to get together after the mission.  We’re saying that it is too bad that we didn’t know each other before.      We had our zone meeting and shared everything that Pte Franco shared with us to the zone. It went well just a little long because our zone is HUGE. It is the biggest in the mission with 24 missionaries.      Today we had to go to Corrientes to do paperwork called rehabilitation. That makes it so that we don’t have to wait for five years before we can return to the country!  We will be able to return when we want to because of the long paperwork process that we did today.  Poor Elder Fiabane and Elder Karmanov have to go and do those papers all the time and it is a long and frustrating process.   We didn’t get to go to McDonalds.  I didn’t want to call President for permission and then also if I went to McDonalds and then I would have to take the bus back and it would have made the trip a lot longer and more of a headache.  Instead, I left with elder Fiabane in the truck and it was a lot simpler that way.  It would have been a big headache with trying to get back and us up the rest of my Pday, when I can eat real food in a little over a week.      Next Monday is a normal Pday but then at the end we have the zone Christmas activity. Tuesday we will go to the office at 10:30 in the morning and we will have some training's.  I heard that there is a marriage training, haha.  Then we have lunch and interviews with Pte Franco. Then that night we will have dinner with him and Hna Franco. (I heard it is lasagna). Then we will fly to Buenos Aires and stay there basically all Wednesday.  The church has discontinued the Temple trip because too many missionaries were missing their flight home. That afternoon we will take the plane to Atlanta, then to Utah and I will get home at 10:30am!  I think there are 17 in my group to leave if I remember right.      This week we are going to try to go caroling with the zone.  Also next Monday we have the zone Christmas activity.  We are going to try to do divisions this week too.  We have papers to do so that I can come back to Argentina without problems J

I love you guys very much and can’t wait to hear you guys next week and better yet, see you in a week and a half!!!!!  Until then! 

There are toasters in America?!?

     We had a great Thanksgiving dinner.  It was very delicious!  It was a little rough cooking the chicken because we bought it and it was frozen and we didn’t have time to thaw it... haha. So we started cooking it and it cooked half way through but the center still was raw so we took the outside off and started eating that part while the center cooked.  We cooked some batata with the chicken and it was good!  It was just me and my comp for dinner but I have been told that we are going to have a zone Christmas activity.  The only thing is that I don’t know if that is while I am here or not. Haha

     We have not been able to get any new investigators as of yet.  None of them are any closer than they were before.  We are working with them but I don’t think that there will be any baptisms here before I go.  At least in my area.  

     You asked what I will miss about Argentina.  What I will miss most is the people that I have met here.  I will also miss alfajors they are really good and cheap. 

     What will I not miss most about Argentina?  Well let’s just say that this list might be a little longer... sanjas, the smell, the lower quality of everything, and things like that... haha  There are so many things that I remember exist back home every once in a while and I am amazed that they exist. Haha. The other day I thought of the fact that we have a toaster... those don’t exist here.  Even if they did it wouldn’t be very useful because when you talk about bread here it isn’t the bread that you buy at home.  It is more like a roll.  You can buy the bread like at home but it is really expensive and I will enjoy having that again as well.  Then that makes me think that peanut butter here is SUPER expensive and that it just isn’t the same as at home.  Yes I do miss carpet very much but what is even better than carpet in itself is that our roads are paved so the dirt doesn’t get kicked up everywhere and cover the houses inside and out with dirt and makes it so you can’t take your shoes off inside because everything is really dirty all the time.  But carpet, paved roads, and clean houses all sound like something amazing that just doesn’t exist here. haha

     This wasn’t a very eventful week really.  We had divisions for an afternoon one week and I went with Elder Fraiser from the office.  It was fun.  I really like all the elders from the office they are all really cool.  I did an interview for one of their investigators while I was there and that was fun.  She is really prepared to be baptized. 

     We have been showing a Christmas video to everyone lately that is called He is the Gift.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s on christmas.mormon.org  It is really good and it is fun to do something a little different.  I don’t know if I ever told you but the last month or so we have also been sharing a video that is about a family who each member goes out and shares the gospel in their own way during the day.  It is a good video and has given us a few references.

     I love you guys very much and can’t wait to hear from you next week!

Short but Sweet

     As for the holiday yesterday I’m not 100% sure what it was for.  I think it was some random virgin’s anniversary or lazy Argentine day.  This time of year every other day is a holiday.  Holidays really don’t make a difference to me weather it is one or not.  The only dig difference is that if it is a P day.  Then it gets cancelled for the next day and that is annoying.

     For Thanksgiving, we are going to buy a chicken!  There aren’t any turkeys here to buy so we are going with that.  We will use the money and make it a Thanksgiving chicken feast (since there is no turkey).  There are a few nicer restaurants in our area but their prices have gone outrageous since I have gotten back to resi.

     Today we have had a kinda crazy morning because we came here to print letters but the power cut then we left but it came back so we came back and printed them.  Then went to Subway for lunch (it was delicious) and then we had to go to the office forever and do a load of things there.  Then we went and bought our food for the week at Carefour and are now here. haha  Our area is pretty sketchy.  It is right across the route from Fontana.

     I have to go now, my time is up.  I love you and will talk to you next week.

Doughnuts for EVERYONE

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!

     This week has been good!  The week went by really fast.  I don’t know why but it seemed even faster than the last week. 

     We did had a mini divisions on Saturday night to be able to help commit some of the investigators in the area to go to church. I went with Elder Fiabane and we went to the investigators while Elder Smith went with Elder Ratliff and Elder Walker to wait in the terminal for an Elder to arrive. 

     Did you award the winner of your district their doughnuts?
     Sort of, haha I ended up making a ton of doughnuts and brought them to the district meeting and I gave them two options.  I told them that everyone had done very good in contacting a lot of people but we hadn’t tallied the results to see who was the actual winner.  So I said that we could tally the numbers and give the doughnuts to the winner or we could just share them all.  That was what we ended up doing. 

     Right now the investigator that is most progressing is named Gladys. She didn’t go to church this week though.  We were sad about that.  We haven’t found her yet so we don’t know why. The biggest obstacle for her though will be that she needs to get married.  We had her talk to her *husband* to work out a marriage date.  He said that they could go to the civil registry as soon as he gets a chance. I just hope that it is pretty soon!  I want to be here for the baptism. Haha  Once she gets married and goes to church a couple more times she will be ready for baptism. 

     We also have a couple named Dani and Vilma.  They are kind of progressing.  The problem is that Dani is married to another woman and has to divorce her before they can get married to be baptized. The good thing is that the divorce is almost complete he just needs to go to the judge and sign a paper but is a little lazy to go do it.  Or when he does go it ends up not working for one reason or another.

     I am in the office I do happen to know a little something about transfers., haha  We had to go to the office Sunday night to help the elders out because they were short on elders because they had to bring some hermanas to another pench because they were robbed.  So we had to go to the office to be with one of the elders who would have been left there without a comp if we didn’t come.  During that time we noted and saw a few things. haha  First of all we haven’t seen one of the assistants Elder Ortiz for a time and the Elder that Elder Smith and the others picked up on Saturday was with the other assistant and using the assistant’s phone.  So we figured out that he is the new assistant.  Then we wanted to know where the old one went.  That night when we called we asked about him to the secretaries and they said that he went to his house for family issues, and they confirmed that the other elder is the new assistant.  Also while we were in the office we happened to see the tablero (the list of the missionaries in their areas) and see it for a little bit so we know who is in our zone. haha.  I am staying with Elder Smith.  In the zone about half of the missionaries are changing. Now in my zone there will be four of us who all leave on the 17th of Dec. Me, Hna Medina, Hna Washburn, and Hna Gonzalez. I don’t know what they will do when we all leave. Haha  Also Elder Fiabane and Elder Ratliff are training their replacements so they are happy about that.  Elder Fiabane has been in the office for almost a whole year and is really excited to be able to get out.

     I love you guys and I have to go!  I will talk to you next week!

Elder Pickle and Elder Smith with their district of ALL Hermana's

Elder Fiabane and Elder Pickle together again

      I went on divisions with Elder Fiabane. It was a lot of fun. We were able to work together again after a year of not being companions. It was fun to be able to see all that had changed and how we had grown and progressed as missionaries and also to remember all of the fun times that we had in Circuvalacion. We had a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the divisions. Also Elder Ratliff who is Elder Fiabane´s companion wants to do divisions with me so we will see if we get another one in before transfers. 

     The first meeting of the week was the leader conference where all of the zone leaders went to our church here in Resi 1 and we listened to president and the assistants. They taught about being consecrated missionaries. We all are going to read a talk about being consecrated and I think it will be good.  President is cracking down on obedience. He said that there are missionaries that are using facebook and that are having many hour phone calls all night long and those calls include both elders and hermanas.  Then we had the zone conference where we taught.  Then we had the multi zone conference which was basically like having consejo de lideres all over again but it was still good. It was a lot of meetings and it made the week fly by.  In zone conference we shared all of the things that we learned during the leader’s conference.  We basically read our notes in training to the rest of the zone.

     This week will be a little more normal. It is the last week of the transfer so it is probable that we will do divisions with them. I am not quite sure how it works but I think that one of us stays in the office with one of them and the other two go to their area to work because if not then they are stuck in the office all week long.  Today was a little crazy because we have to pay the rent and my comp really doesn’t know how it is paid here so we have been going all over the place to get all the money and pay for it.  It has kinda wasted a lot of time…oh well.  

     It seems like my time was cut short this week.  I don’t know but my time is up so I will have to write you guys more next week.

     Love you and can’t wait to hear from you next week. 

Sloshing through the mud

We had a competition with our district/zone this week.  They are excited about it and they are all contacting a lot more people than normal and are finding a lot of new people too!  There are a couple of them who always comment on it in the nightly verification's. haha

     You asked where we got the pizza with French fries on top.  We bought it at a place called Quijote Pizzeria and we got another one today, it was really delicious. haha   

     This week mostly we have done a load of contacting.  We found a few but really no one with strong potential.  We are still going to be having to look for a lot of new people. The area here really isn`t very easy.  It is a lot like alberdi.

     The zone doesn’t have any baptisms super close right now.  There are only 2-3 people who are even kind of close right now and they have big obstacles like getting married so we will see how that goes.

     It hasn’t been too hot here because we have had a lot of rain this week.  It has more just been muddy than anything and of course our area is on the edge of the city where all the dirt roads are, haha so we have tons of mud to go through.

  

     Right now our closest investigators to baptism are a couple that the man needs to finish his divorce (and he is close!) and they need to get married afterwards. I think that it could happen.  We will see with this week.

     I love you guys very much and can’t wait to hear from you next week!

The computer whisperer ha ha.

1.       What are the responsibilities of a district leader?

I have to call all the missionaries in our district every night and I have to plan the district meetings every week. 

2.       What are the responsibilities of a zone leader?

As a zone leader we have to do a whole bunch of things. Whenever anyone has questions they call us and we have to solve the problem. Lots of times the office has us do stuff like collect peoples rent tickets to make sure they paid and any extra money. Or collect their baptism papers and stuff like that. Also we have to interview the district leaders’ baptismal candidates and the districts baptismal candidates. Well this week has been a little crazy as a zone leader.. Yesterday we had a lot of craziness because some elders came to Resistencia for emergency transfers and we had to accompany one of them and then he slept the night in our pensh. We are a little behind on everything because of all of that. 

3.       Do the sister missionaries cause you any problems, I mean like drama ha ha?

So far we have been luck to not have drama. There is one new Hermana that is a little dramatic but not too bad, sometimes I just don`t know how to respond to her, haha It is always an interesting stage just getting here from the MTC and adjusting to the mission. But there isn`t any problems.

4.  Is your new apartment nice? 

Our apartment is really nice, the only thing that it doesn`t have is air conditioning. We are in the process of trying to convince our owner to put it in. We haven`t gone since I got here but it is now the end of the month and we will be going soon.

5.       Do you go to more than one ward on Sunday now that you are a zone leader?

No, our ward is the Rio Negro ward which meets in the same building as Barrio 1. We just have opposite schedules. We start sacrament first and then have classes and they have classes first and sacrament after.

6.   Is your mission president in your ward?

No, he jumps around to all of the wards in the mission. I haven`t seen him at church for the three weeks that I have been here. Last week I did see Hna Franco with the Hermana’s attending the Barrio 1 ward. 


7.   If you have any other great stories let us know.

Umm... a great story... We this week we had to go to the office and get supplies to send to las palmas (a small village outside resi) and so we had to wait there until the guy came to pick up the supplies to deliver them. While there we ate lunch with the office and we bought a pizza that was really good. It was double layered with a lomo meat inside and French fries on top. Then they asked me to help them with their computer because it was having problems and so I fixed it and am now known as the computer whisperer in the office, haha

CRAZY TAXI DRIVERS!!

I really enjoyed skyping but it passed by way to fast! It always does, but at least like you said next time we will just be able to talk in person and we won`t have any time limits then!
Nathan looks so much older. He has changed a lot since I left you just have to look at some pictures of before I left and you will see.

We are looking for investigators, it is going ok, haha there really aren`t any progressing investigators right now so that isn`t the best but we are working on it. 

The best thing about being a zone leader is that you get to talk to everyone in the zone and basically means that you will be a favorite in the zone unless they don´t like you as a zone leader then probably the most hated :P but Everyone seems to like us as zone leaders so that is good. The hardest thing is either having to plan the district meetings or not having any time at night to do personal things because we have to make calls to all of the areas. 

This week we had divisions with the Leonesa which is more in the campo. It was interesting to go because I never have before. We got in a long distance taxi and the lady was crazy. She almost crashed a couple times because she wouldn`t stop playing with her phone and dog. She kept having her dog lick her face and not look at the road and I wanted to throw the dog out the window so she would pay attention.

There at the Leonesa was pretty similar to the edge of any of my areas where the city starts to end. Lots of shanty houses and stuff. There I did an interview for a kid who was getting baptized this last Saturday and that was cool! That was the first real baptismal interview that I have done and it was cool. I like them because you get to know and talk to the people who are ready to be baptized which means that they are the prepared people and they are always fun to talk to.

Then on the way back to Resi we had another crazy driver but supposedly he is the safest of them all. He speeds around really fast and cuts a lot of people off but supposedly he has never crashed in his 20 years of driving and everyone else has. But at least he had good music and it was fun despite that he did crazy stuff that I would never do driving.


I love you guys very much and can`t wait to hear from you next week!