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!

How do you like being a Zone Leader?

Saying goodbye to Elder Galindo

1.       How do you like being a zone leader? (Do you wonder how I know) My new middle names are Shawn and Spencer
It is crazy. I basically had decided that I wasn´t going to be one because I was at the end of my mission. Plus I thought that I was going to be staying in Avellaneda not leaving... Well you told me that it was because you saw the FB posts but I was going to guess that it was the letter that Elder Fraiser sent to you guys. I was in the office when he was sending the letters out and he showed me. 

2.       Where is your new area?
It is called Río Negro 1 and is in the same building as Barrio 1 which is the big church here in Resistencia where the office is. I am the zone leader of the office and a ton of Hermana’s. We have the biggest zone in the mission. I am also the district leader of my district so on top of zone leader stuff I also have to plan the district meetings. Our district is my comp and I and four companionships of Hermanas.

3.       Was it hard saying goodbye to people? (It looked like on Facebook everyone was sad)
Yes... I really didn´t want to go :( I thought that I was going to be staying in Avellaneda with Galindo or at least just stay there and finish my mission there. I had even less idea that they would take us both out! It was hardest to say goodbye to the familia Gonza-Yegros and Césor. I really miss them and want to go back and finish there but I know that the Lord has called me here for a reason.

4.       Did your old companion get transferred too?
Galindo got transferred to Corrientes as a zone leader. 

5.       Who is your new companion?
His name is Elder Smith; he is from American Fork Utah. He has one year in the mission. He has been in this area for two transfers. 

6.       What kinds of things do you do as a zone leader?
Basically the big difference is that we have to do verifications with the zone every night so we have to call everyone instead of doing other stuff. We also have to do all the baptismal interviews, we have to do divisions with all the Elders in the zone once a transfer, and we have to answer people´s questions all the time (they call us about anything). We also have to go to a leader council once a month and do a zone conference based off of it. Also since I am the district leader I have to plan the district meetings.

7.       I am sure there are more things that I don’t know what to ask so just tell us everything ha ah!!
Well, I am sad that we had to leave all of the investigators that we had. We had some people who I am sure where going to be baptized this transfer. We worked hard those two transfers to get the area going and now we have to just leave it... oh well that’s just how it is. The sad part is my new area is also a dead one so we got a lot of work in front of us... at least I am a zone leader to keep me busy with other things as well. 
We had interviews with president this week. During the interviews we had to give the training and we were told by the assistants 20 min before it started. So we had this 2hr improv training. They did give us a planned schedule so it was at least a lot easier with that. 


Well, my time is up. I love you guys and I can´t wait to skype you this Sunday!!!!

Letter from Pres. Franco

We were anxiously waiting to find out if Cameron had been transferred when we received this letter from Elder Pickle's Mission President.

Dear Pickle Family,

I am so grateful for the outstanding service your son, Elder Cameron Pickle, has given thus far in his missionary service here in the Argentina Resistencia Mission.  He has distinguished himself by his obedience to the commandments and mission rules and by his unwavering dedication in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am pleased to inform you that he is now called to serve as Zone Leader in the grand zone of Resistencia 1 in the Rio Negro Ward.  This is a calling of great importance to the Lord’s work.  As a leader, he will be expected to be an example of righteousness and service to all missionaries, members and local church leaders.

He will work closely with the missionaries in his assigned zone, and with the Mission President and his Assistants.  Zone Leaders are expected to teach and motivate missionaries in zone conferences, zone meetings, through companionship exchanges and other frequent contacts.  He will help them to give their very best efforts to the Lord’s work.  He will report weekly the performance of missionaries in his zone.   He will assist in solving missionary problems within his zone.

Because of the rigors of his new assignment, he will need your constant love and support.  Please know of my confidence that the missionaries with whom he serves will be strengthened by his faithful service. 

May your family be blessed as your son continues to magnify his calling in the Lord’s service.

Sincerely yours,

President Rodolfo C. Franco

Misión Argentina Resistencia

My best part of the week was conference!!

We were able to watched conference in our church this time which was awesome. Everyone watched it on the projector in the chapel while the gringos watched it in the family history room in English. My companion and I watched it in English except when it was a Spanish speaker then we switched it to the Spanish channel. We had two investigators that came to watch conference! We had Aylen who is César´s sister. Also we had Diosnel who has been saying that he was going to come to church for a few weeks now. It was really great that they came. We had a few others we were hoping that would come but they weren´t able to make it. Most people thought it was interesting that they are starting to allow general authorities to speak in their native language in conference. I still think that Christoffersen should have talked a little longer in Spanish, haha

It is really hard to pick which was my favorite talk from conference; I really liked all of them. One of my favorites though was by Uchtdorf when he was talking about asking the question, "is it I?” I think that one was during Priesthood session, I can`t remember. But he talked about how we should not say or think, oh this talk would be perfect for that person but we should think of the example of when Christ was at the last supper and told his apostles that one of them would betray him and they all ask, master is it I? I thought that that was a really good talk. 

My companion and I never have time to work in our own area which can be really frustrating.  Since my comp is the district leader we often have to go to Reconquista to do interviews or other things like that. Also we have a lot of meetings in Reconquista every week. The pantere (the bus that takes us there) takes 30 min to go there and another 30min to come back. So between our meetings, interviews, and protecting the investigators that we already have it is really hard to find time to find new ones.

The pictures in dropbox are Xiomara´s birthday pictures. That is the daughter of Sonia. They are the only active family in our area and we are always bringing them to lessons with us. We got her a triple combination for her birthday. They are only recent converts as of February and she still didn`t have one. They are really awesome especially for how new they are to the church. I lots of times forget that they are recent converts.

We will find out about transfers tomorrow night. My companion and I are really hoping that we both get to stay here. No matter what I hope I die here but I know that when you love an area it seems that God soon has other plans for you. We will see.

My favorite thing of the week was Conference!!! sí o sí! I loved it and it is kinda sad that it was the last one in the mish, but it´s ok this next time I will get to enjoy it with you guys!!

I love you guys very much and can´t wait to hear from you next week and skype the following!!!

Cesar's Baptism

Cesar’s baptism went really good! Well there is always some sort of problem but that is the nature of the baptism because Satan doesn`t want it to happen. Of course when Cesar went to wait for the pantera it didn`t arrive for an hour so we had to start the service an hour late but it all worked out and was awesome! There were five people who got baptized in our branch that week! Afterwards we all ate doughnuts (that I made in the picture on drop box) and there were some cakes too. Everyone LOVED the doughnuts, haha. 


We rode a Catybus to the zone conference in Resistencia this week. We didn`t spend the night we came home and that was the end of the day. It is closer to go to Resistencia than it was to go to Saenz Peña like we did for the Multi Zone conference the other week.

Well today I made pecan pie (in drop box) it just doesn`t have pecans because there are far too expensive in Argentina.

The worst part of last week was that we hardly had any time to be able to work in our area with my comp

I got the scripture cases ordered and they are going to be super awesome! I bought them from a guy who is doing them for a super great price. I think that he is just starting! I bought all the stuff for half the price that I would have paid at any other guy and it is the best ones that I have seen!


I love you all so very much and can`t wait to talk to you on the 19th!

I am currently ILLEGAL!

Avellaneda is by far the cleanest and prettiest place that I have been to in Argentina. The only part that I don`t really like about Avellaneda is that there is this nasty oil factory that is close and it smells really bad and sometimes lets out these string like things and it is like you are constantly walking into spider webs, but I love it here and I love the people of Avellaneda!

I am currently illegal here in Argentina... I still haven`t done any paperwork to renew my visa so I am currently illegal. I might have to travel to Paraguay at some point to have my visa stamped. Both me and Elder Callister are in the same spot, haha I don`t know when It will get fixed I was talking to E Fiabane and he said that they have a lot of missionaries that don`t have their work done. They are backed up on trying to get people`s papers done but they will tell me when it is my turn. He said there are several options and he isn`t sure what they are going to do still. I might go to Paraguay to get my visa stamped or I might have to go to emigrations and they will pay a fee to keep me here ha ha.. 

We had two investigators at church this week!!, Cesar and his sister Ailen. Cesar is going to get baptized this Saturday and we are super excited for that!!! He is really prepared probably the most prepared person that I have seen in my whole mission. He is going to make an excellent leader in the branch. 

Well so here is the crazy thing. We ended up having a multi zone (almost the whole mission just not Formosa) meeting. We all went to Resistencia and listened to Elder Gonzalez speak. My companion and I thought it was only for the leaders, but everyone got to come. It was really good! He talked a lot about looking at things with the eye of faith. He said that if we apply the eye of faith that we could easily be baptizing 10 or more people a month per companionship. He talked about pressuring the work by baptizing more, reactivating more, and retaining more. He also talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. How we should be focusing on doing everything with the book of mormon like answers.

I am sorry this is such a short letter this week but I have been emailing with a guy who is going to make me a leather and carpincho (rodent of unusual size) scripture case. I am so excited.

I love you and I will write more next week!

I am melting... (All Argentine's are made of sugar ha ha)

Well... this Sunday was very interesting. We had a bunch of investigators lined up to go to church this week but come around Sunday morning and we woke up to rain.. Well the people here think that they are made out of sugar or something and so not even our most sure investigator made it to church. He was supposed to go with the member that is in our area and she is the only really active member but even she didn`t go. In church we had ten members, one investigator (among the ten missionaries) and the missionaries. This week was pretty crappy with that also because we don`t have any new investigators so we are going to focus a lot on that and protecting the ones that we have.

The closest people that we have to baptism are Cesar and Agostina. Cesar is Sonia (the member in our area`s) neighbor. He is really cool and loves learning about the gospel. He always is happy when we come over and if he ever has questions he runs over to Sonia`s house and asks her. It is really the perfect situation.

The next closest is probably Agostina. She is Sonia`s niece. We teach her with her cousin Xiomara (Sonia`s daughter). She is progressing but she still has a few things to take care of and we still need to teach her a lot of lessons but she lives far away so it is hard to arrange appointments with her.

The other good investigator that we have is Vanesa. She is really nice and likes listening to us but it is hard for her because she has one year old twins that make a huge disaster wherever they go. We are trying to work hard with her but her husband has turned a little sour and we are worried that we are losing her. She has even received an answer and everything!

This time of year the weather switches between hot and cold, dry and wet. Once we get into October things will start getting a little more normal and just hot.

Elder Gonzalez the area president is coming to visit our mission. He will be talking to all the leader missionaries in a conference this Thursday. Elder Galindo will go to it since he is district leader. Then I will find out what it was all about. That day that he is gone I will be going with the others here in Avellaneda I.

This week, more than anything we have been visiting our Illuminados (those who have a baptismal date and have assisted the church). We also had divisions this week and I went with Elder Conway (my grandson, he is E Clemons son) here in Avellaneda and that was fun. We have to take the pantera probably at least four times a week to and from Reconquista for meetings and interviews. The biggest problem is that it is a thirty minute ride so it takes up a lot of time to go there. But in our area we always walk everywhere and our area is far from the pensh so we do a lot of walking as well.

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

ELDER PICKLE HAS A RELEASE DATE!!!

This is the email I received from the Mission Office:

Brother and Sister Pickle,

My name is Elder Frasier and I am the secretary for President Franco here in La Gran Misión Argentina Resistencia. We recently finalized all plans for the missionaries going home in the December group with your son, and we have scheduled all flights for this group to leave the 17^th of December from Resistencia. The church will book these flights and send you the itineraries as soon as they are finalized, though we anticipate that your son will be back home in Utah the 18^th. If any concerns remain, please do not hesitate to email us.

Very Respectfully,

Elder Frasier

Secretary to the President

La Gran Misión Argentina Resistencia

ELDER PICKLE'S FLIGHT ARRIVES DECEMBER 18th AT 10:30 A.M. YEAH!! HOME IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!

My son and my grandson are in my district :)

Well... nothing really happened with transfers, haha me and my comp are both still here in Avellaneda. Well nothing happened to us at least because there were 150 changes and the most that I have ever heard of before was 80+/-. 

Elder Muñoz who lived next door left to Formosa and took the spot of Delgado who then in return came here! I was super excited to hear about that. It is cool to have him here living next door! Also Elder Parsons who was our zone leader left and Elder Mossman is now our zone leader :P It is nuts! I have mi hijo as my zone leader, haha also I have one of my other sons and my grandson in my district as well (elder Clemons and Conway).

It is still being considered to make a group in our area where we would meet here in Avellaneda three times a week and then once a week we would have to meet in Reconquista and also have baptisms there, but that is no problem, I hope that we get to do that.

We still make our own food. We only have like two active families in our area.. or like one, haha That makes it have to be able to eat with people when there are none. but we did recently get the MLS and so we will be getting to know all of the less actives (or really non actives) that are in our area.

We have to wash all our clothes by hand again so i am really glad that I didn`t leave my clothes plunger in my last area like I had considered doing. I was thinking that I hadn`t used it since the beginning of my mission and so I thought that I would just leave it but decided that it was probably only one more area to bring it to anyway. 

For this week we haven`t found any new investigators. Well sort of. The first half we were starting to but then during the second half of the week I got sick and we had to stay in and it was really boring. I just have wanted to go out and work but my comp wanted us to stay until I was entirely better. I am pretty sure that we are going to leave today only my voice is bad with some cough. It was a really weird sickness. I just had a head ache, cough, and general ache, and fatigue. I don`t think that I have had anything like that before. I just woke up Thursday and felt like crap it was stupid.

We had to do this crazy survey thing this week because a general authority might be coming to our mission, we are hoping that an Apostle will since there hasn`t been one for almost two years now... we will see.

It is crazy that general conference is starting to come up. This will be the last one here in the mish.

The pizza oven looks sweet! I can`t wait to use it!


There isn`t a lot to tell from this week...

Love you and can't wait to hear from you next week!

God really answers our prayers!

Rob Ryan emailed me the info about his converts while he was on his mission here in Santa Fe and I am trying to find out more about them. I have to check the other branch`s MLS because I didn`t find it in ours. Hopefully soon.
I have been wearing my hair a little longer. I thought that I would try it out since I never have before. We will see how it goes with the calic and all.
They are considering starting a branch here. Really it sounds like it is more likely that we could have what they call a group here in Avellaneda. If I understand right that is where all of the weeks but one (I am assuming fast Sunday) that we will have church in Avellaneda and then the one week we have to go to Reconquista. It would really help out a ton for all of the members and investigators here. They are all pretty humble and often times it is very difficult for them to find eight pesos a person to go to church each week. If they only had to once a month like that it would make everything so much easier.
My companion and I both have meetings that are in Reconquista and then on top of that we have to go there to do interviews for the people that are in our district. That is what throws it over the top with  us traveling to Reconquista.
This week we had a multi zone conference with Sans Peña and that is 6 hours of travel from here... needless to say it was a long and all day adventure. We had a colectivo that was rented for the zone and it was fun. The problem was that it was just about impossible to sleep. If you are on a bus of 21 missionaries at 3:30 in the morning you will find out. Even on the way home I think I only slept about a half hour, needless to say I was very tired for the rest of the week. We did get to sleep today though.
At the conference we pretty much just reviewed everything that we learned during zone conference. It was the exact same teachings but this time we got them straight from President and Hermana Franco.
This Sunday we had a 70 come to our branch named Elder Romero. After church we had a mini branch council and he taught the leaders what they should do during branch council meeting, which is review our progress reports that we give them. He said that each one should be reviewed and that there in the meeting that the leaders should be given their tasks and have to report on them in the following meeting. He was a boss and started to smash their petty problems that they always come up with, it was funny. If this actually gets applied then I think that we will have a lot more success here in the branch. 
We had a pretty bad Saturday. It was really windy and the day was killed because we had to go do interviews for the zone leaders and go to the baptism that night so we had about three hours of working on the most important day. Then when we were out there it was super-hot and windy and we were really thirsty and no one was answering their doors. Of course it was the ciesta so there weren`t any stores open either. So we sat down and prayed and it really was a cool experience. I was really kind of angry and just worn out and wanted to not do anything at all. After the prayer I had an entire change I was ready to go and everything just seemed so much better. We found a kiosco that was open and bought a drink and it was a lot better. Then we went to a member’s house and they had a friend there and we taught a lesson. It was a really awesome experience and I know that God really answers our prayers, we just need to talk to him and ask him for help when we need it. . 

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

Finally we have two forks!!

1.       What is this about you only having one fork in your apartment? Did you eat your food and then wash the fork and let your companion eat his food ha ha?
When we got here there was only one fork in our pensh and I really don`t know why or how it worked out. What happened is that we would go to the other elder’s pensh and rob one of their two forks. They didn`t always use theirs so we would take it but now we have our own forks and what not so it doesn`t matter anymore, haha

2.       So did I understand in your letter correctly that you cannot have zone activities anymore?
I was super excited with all the zone activities but the rule was established that only four missionaries can get together... which is no different from before. 

3.       Are you going to be able to go to the port while you are in Santa Fe?
I don`t know. The other elders went this last week but we wanted to go play sports for the last time that we probably are ever going to be able to during the mission. So I don`t know if we will go or not. 

4.       How are your investigators have you found any new ones? Do you ever do things like hand out so many book of Mormons in the town square etc?
Well we had to kill basically all of our investigators and were left with nothing but this week we have found a ton of new and awesome people. It has been all blessings from the Lord because we haven`t had much time to work in our area. These last couple weeks we have been really busy with meetings just about every day in Reconquista from district meetings to correlation, to branch activity, to branch council meetings. Also my comp has to go do interviews every now and then so it kills our time. But we have been able to find people who are very cool and I think that they are prepared to receive our message. The only down side is that none of them were able to go to church this week. But next week we are going to make sure that they all go to church. 
Not really. We have done things like that more for big events like ward activates, or holidays but not just a common thing. 

5.       If it is so hard for you to remember to ride a bike after a few years I am worried how driving will be for you. What do you think?
It wasn`t hard to remember how to ride a bike, haha it was just really small. If the bike was bigger it wouldn`t have been so difficult but I still rode it without problem. I don`t think it will be hard to drive again when I get back but we will see. 

6.       Do you want me to send you any more recipes etc?
Yes, if you could send me ones for spicy tai noodles, egg casserole, and any other one that you can think of that is cheap and easy, haha

7.       Have you had any funny experiences or people say funny things to you?
Yes, This week in church the lady who said the prayer started going off about how there are guardian angles all around us and how there is specifically one that is with her and that he knows who she is talking about then she started talking about how Christ is our shield and how we need to have the shield of Christ with us at all times. 
We were told that we can now be reimbursed for our tickets on the pantera and that is going to save us because we spend 60+ pesos on it a week and that was eating into our giro quickly. So now we have been hunting down tickets on the pantera to replace those that we threw away. 
One of the investigators that we found this week gave us a lot of food and that was cool. They gave us some canelones and a cake and they were very good. 
We saw this super cool sunrise Sunday in the morning. It was a super foggy day. I think that was the thickest fog that I have ever been in. While we were walking you couldn`t even see more than a hundred feet in any direction. When the sun came up you could even look at the sun with no problem it was the coolest thing. I really wished that I would have had my camera to take a picture of it but unfortunately neither of us did. 


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

First time riding a bike in a year and a half :)

I still don`t know when my release date is going to be. The normal date is December 30th but President has approved moving it a few weeks earlier so that I will have time to get ready for school. The English test is for the Latinos. It is a test that they can take that if their English is good enough they get a scholarship or something like that.

We finally got our money this week. We were finally able to buy all of the things that we have been lacking since that we arrived. We didn`t have some really basic things like a broom, toilet brush, more than one fork, etc. We finally now have all those things.
Our investigators are kind of bad right now... We basically have killed all our investigators right now because none of them are progressing. No one went to church this last week even though they were committed 100% to going and somehow didn`t get there. We are going to have to do a lot of tracting and it won`t be fun but oh well, that is how it is.
I have been studying in the Book of Mormon a chapter at a time and I read Alma 32 today.
The coolest family is the Family Gonza. Two days ago we went to their house and ate empanadas for dinner and it was really good! They are probably the most active family here in Avellanada as well. We have been taking the daughter with us to go teach Beti and Leo but I don`t know if we are going to keep teaching them or not... The mom, Sonia, says that she will add you on Facebook and let you know what is going on here, but I don`t know how when she only speaks Spanish. I think she uses google translator or something, haha

It should get warmer in a month or two. It has been pretty warm recently but according to some weather thing on the missionary portal it will be a cold week...

I don`t know why the stupid computer doesn`t want to read my SD so I don`t think that I will be able to send pictures today...

This week we were on divisions because my comp had to go to Resistencia for the leadership conference. The other elders here in Avellaneda have recently been approved to ride bikes out to the campo or translation would be field. I have a lot of pictures but I don`t think that I will be able to put them up today. It was a lot of fun. It was the first time that I rode a bike in a year and a half. It was pretty uncomfortable though because it was really small for me and the stupid seat wouldn`t stay tight and it would have to pointed end sticking up.... not fun. And since it was so small it made it impossible to stand and ride at the same time.

We had the multizone conference and now we know all the mission rules that have changed or really you could just say that haven`t changed... we can`t have zone pday activates, we can watch the mission videos like finding faith in Christ, etc. but you already could if you just called president and really nothing changed at all... everyone was very sad about that.

This next transfer there will be 26 new missionaries arriving in the mission and 19 leaving. There will be several new areas opened and a ton of trainers. 21 of those missionaries are elders. Who knows maybe I`ll have another hijo.

While I haven`t found a Frisbee here in Argentina I came across a patch of luck. There was an elder here who left his Frisbee and no one takes claim to it so I did, haha it isn’t in the best condition but it is ok.

Well I have to go. I love you all very much and I can`t wait to hear from you next week!

Getting hired at the photo shop ha ha

We have mostly been working with the same investigators as last week. We haven`t had a lot of time to work in our area this week with divisions, branch council, and an activity. We do have a few other investigators right now though. We have an investigator named Natalia. She is a single mother who struggles to keep up with everything including her three kids and work. She had a little trouble staying focused but you can`t really blame her with her three kids running all over. We have another named C. She will be a little difficult to help progress I think because she had a lot against her. She is currently in an affair with some guy who lives in Reconquista and she wants to stop but at the same time says that she likes it when he comes over and the messages he sends so she doesn`t want to stop at the same time. Plus she smokes and probably drinks. We have another investigator that is really snake. We are trying to decide whether or not to keep teaching her because we don`t know if she is just going to be snake the whole time and not keep commitments or what. this is the second week she hasn`t gone to church now so we will probably stop by one more time and see what she says. 

We have been waking up even earlier to get to church on time and it isn`t quite as bad anymore because we know the route and how long it takes before it passes but we have had to run for the bus quite a few times. But this last Sunday we didn`t have anyone go to church :(

We didn`t end up going to the port like we were planning because the Leader conference has been moved to tomorrow so my comp and the zone leaders were here and so we played a tournament of ping pong in the church. Sadly we came in fourth place, we were doing good but then we just flat out failed at the end of the game, haha

We will hopefully be getting the money for our heater tomorrow, well sort of because my comp will be in Resistencia so we will really get it Wednesday. 

We have a few stores here close. The puma is one block from our pensh but it is kind of expensive so we usually go to this really big one called Union Agricola. Before I would buy stuff from different places like fruits and vegetables from little stalls around and meat from carnicerias but here there aren`t any fruit stalls and the carnicerias are more expensive.

We do a lot of walking to get to our area and to leave it more than anything. Our area isn`t that big but we live a little far from where we work so every day we walk 20-30min to get to the part of our area where we work then we have to return another 20-30min in the night. 

Today we went into a shop to print photos and we had to wait a few minutes while they were printing them and so I decided I would play with Photoshop and I just cut out a picture and put in a different background and the people there were saying that they wanted to hire me to work there, haha. 

We had divisions this week with one of the companionships in the district and I went with a Peruvian and for lunch we ate a food called tacachos. There were really good. It is made out of plantains that are fried then mashed up with chunks of fried fat throughout it. There are pictures in dropbox if they all upload.

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