Let God stand as my witness that I KNOW it!!!

My birthday was pretty much just a normal day. We went out and taught in the morning and never found anyone who let us in for a lesson so we went to lunch. There we did have a good lunch (milanesa, bread, and mashed potatoes) followed by a really good cake! I got to keep the cake and I have been eating it with my comp. It is vanilla with a strawberry creme layer and a dulce de leche layer.I believe I got a Christmas package this week! It had lots of Christmas wrapping paper and gifts for my comp. It is awesome!!! I love the Dr Pepper gum, the chick fil a sauce, hot sauce, spot it, shirts, wallet, and I am sure some other things that I am blanking on this moment. I was very happy to get it! I think that I will probably get all the packages you sent maybe just a little late but better late than never! That was the Christmas one right?

We have a baptism coming up next week! It almost happened on my birthday but Rocio didn`t go to church last week because her coworker was sick and she got called into work. But this Saturday si or si we will be having a baptism! We also hope that her mom Vilma will be getting baptized as well. She is a little scared to get baptized again and we think that she is scared of what her husband and neighbors will think. We are getting her ready for this week and so if she wants to we will have the clothes there and she will be ready to go! 
Valentine’s day didn`t really affect us at all... besides give people a reason to break the law of chastity... But they would have probably broken it anyway. Elder Clemons and I didn`t do anything special at all. I told him feliz dia de amor and he just wanted to see his girlfriend so he was bitter about that. 
I made pancakes this week with the syrup recipe you gave me! I still need to find coconut milk to make Rumbi rice but that will be delicious! (pictures of Dropbox) The chicken salad I haven`t done yet but will do soon, but what is exactly mexican creme? haha Also I don`t know if there is enough time to do the chicken noodle soup because it takes an hour and we only have an hour of lunch time. 

Just yesterday we were waiting for Vilma and Rocio to make it to church (our crazy branch president started the meeting 10min early) and they didn`t make it until the sacrament started and they close the doors and don`t let anyone in. The problem is there is no foyer so often time’s people find it closed and just leave. I was very worried that this would happen but by divine interception Hna Loli and her daughter Damaris showed up (they are fellowshipping them) and waited there with them until the sacrament was over. I know that they were sent at that time to keep them there so that Rocio would be ready for her baptism this Saturday.

I don`t know how to say what part of my testimony has grown on my mission because really it all has. I have learned things that I never knew before and have a much stronger better understanding of the gospel. Before I more knew bits and pieces but I have seen everything come together more on my mission. I have learned of the importance of all the differences in our religion and that of others. Also I have seen the depth and understanding that we have in comparison to that of the other churches. It is really interesting to see how even from a purely logical point of view our church is the only one that is possibly correct. Sometimes I feel like people are crazy because they don`t see it but it is really just that they are too stuck in their ways and don`t want to change. But I definitely have no doubts that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the one and only true church on the face of the earth. The restoration and the Book of Mormon are evidence of it. One only has to take Moroni`s challenge and ask of God if the book is true and they can also know with certainty of the same. The same way that Peter knew when Christ asked him who he was, through the power of the Holy Ghost we can know and that is the only true and lasting testimony that we can receive. All others are only temporal. I know these things are true by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost and nothing will change that. Let God stand as my witness that I know it and that I am here to let all know it as well.

Something funny about this week…we were taking a colectivo (bus) to the far part of our area. I didn`t have any small change and the bus drivers are very strict and only accept small change. Luckily he accepted my 20 pesos and had change for it. He forgot to give me a ticket for paying but I didn`t mind because it is annoying to have them anyway. Of course this time the ticket collector man got on the bus and started stamping the tickets. When he got to me I told him the bus driver didn`t give me one. He then started asking stupid questions like ``do you not pay attention to what you do?`` ``Do you want me to take you to the police station it is right here?`` I told him he could ask the bus driver and he would tell him that I paid because he had to brake the 20. He just kept going off about the ticket and I told him this was my stop anyway so if he wanted we can go to the police station but I paid anyway so calm down. He just left it at that because he knew I paid but was just really annoying. Later that day we got on another bus and he was there again and I was holding my ticket out to him the whole bus ride but he never wanted to stamp it, haha. Then the next day we saw him again and we showed him our tickets but he still resented us and didn`t want to stamp them (it doesn`t do anything if they are stamped or not). Then he went to another lady who pulled out her ticket and he got mad at her because it wasn`t the right ticket and she realized that and got out the right one but he threw a fit and made her talk to the bus driver. now we hate him and are going to do everything we can to annoy him, haha
Well, I have run out of time and I can`t wait to hear from you next week. I love you all tons!!

I can't believe I am 20.... that seems SO much older than 19

This week has been a little better than the last. The biggest problem right now is that we don´t have any investigators besides our one that should be getting baptized on the 22nd. Her date passed another week because she didn´t go to church this week. We have had a lot of rejections lately. We have people tell us stuff like ´´I already know everything about your church´´ Then we ask them to teach us because we don´t know everything about it, haha or ´´Your church was started by a man´´ ´´you follow that john smith´´ ´´you are all tricked by evil spirits´´ ´´you don´t believe that Christ is the son of God´´ just waving their finger no ´´no, solo no´´ ´´i am the antichrist and the devil is inside would you like to meet him´´ or whatever else they say. Just the norm.
Vilma is still scared to get baptized again. We are still working with her but more with her daughter, Rocio, now. She also has been taking the lessons but she is sure about her answer. They both know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet but Vilma still doesn´t want to get baptized yet. Rocio is ready she just needs to assist one more time before the 22^nd and then she should be getting baptized! More than that we have no one right now... we are looking all over but just a bunch of rejection.
We hope to find out if we can move into the new apartment we found next week when he is back from vacations. The people here have this thing where they leave for the whole month of either January of February and just vacation. So he will be back next week to tell us.
It is still blistering hot here. It is at the end of it though. While this has been the hottest summer of my life and probably the hottest I will ever be the good thing is that now it will cool off and I will only be here for the beginning of the summer next year.
We will be having a multizone conference tomorrow so I will let you know how that goes! They are always great and then we will either get to have empanadas or pizza for lunch! With the best soda that they have here called pritty lemon, because they don´t have the best soda... Dr. Pepper. I did hear that in Paraguy there is Dr. Pepper and I am trying to get someone to buy it for me and bring it back, haha.
Not really much to tell for the week... lots of contacting again.
I did hear that I have a package waiting for me in the office!!!! I am going there after this to go get it! 
Oh and I was wondering if you could try to send me dollars in the mail. Maybe only like 10-20 at a time but if you did that then I could have so much more money than taking it out of the bank. I really have gotten sick of them cutting the value of my money in less than half. The ´´official value´´ is 5.50 peso to the dollar but the street value is 12 peso to the dollar. It would be great if you could send it. I am trying to find a place to be able to take out the money in dollars but so far I haven´t found it. They try to make you buy dollars for 12 pesos because they know the really value of the peso is much lower than they say. It is all just a scam. Plus the inflation is ridiculous every week the prices raise .50 - 1 peso. 
The birthday video was AWESOME!!! Thank you all very much! I still can´t believe that I am going to be 20... that seems so much older than 19, haha 

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

Better double the ice cream it has been a rough week!

It has been a very long week and we really haven`t had anything happen. We don`t really have any investigators right this moment only one family that is progressing.  Vilma is progressing and we hope that she will get baptized this weekend. She is scared to get baptized again and doesn`t want to anger the Lord. We have been focusing on helping her get a testimony of Joseph Smith so that she will know that we have the authority and that she needs to get baptized again. Also if she gets baptized her daughter Rocio will too. More than that we don`t have squat. They are awesome but the rest of the time we are just contacting and not really finding anyone, just people who we teach once then they don`t progress. You can tell that it has been a long week because we bought ice cream twice, haha We had very long and hard days so we went to Luigis. 

I am in the same place with the same comp, same everything. The only change in our zone was that one companionship was taken out. On the bright side we now have what was the Fontanegro 1 phone, since there isn`t going to be a new Fontanegro 1. But one cool thing is Elder Fiabane my first hijo is now in the office. He is the secretary of documents. Also we have a new AP who is Elder Perez. He is really cool we have been together twice. He was in my zone in Formosa 1, then he was my zone leader in Formosa 3 then my zone leader here and now he is the AP. Next transfer the gringo AP will go and we will have another new AP and it will probably be Elder Howlett. 

While we were contacting this week in the center of Fontana I saw a giant swimming pool, I have never seen a pool here in Argentina. I was very tempted to just run a jump into it. I wanted to and it would have been amazing....

Really there isn`t much to tell for this week.... lots of nothing going on. I now do not have any more Januaries in the mission. that is new. 

Oh and if you have any basic recipes that you can send that would be awesome... there is no variety to the food here. I would like something different, haha. The only ingredients are things like bread (more of a roll really the sliced bread is harder to get and expensive), rice, noodles, tomato sauce, a creamy cheese (not cream cheese but queso cremoso, our cheeses are much better), milk but it is a little expensive, eggs, most fruits and vegetables, and that is about it haha so if you have any recipes for things like that I would love them! 


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