Monday, September 29, 2014

September 29, 2014

Mom!!! I am great! another solid week! I thought this week would drag on but it went by way fast!!! sounds like everyone is doing pretty great and that makes me way happy! :)

Ethan sounds like he is doing good with school and tennis and golf! I hope he becomes a pro tennis star someday like me. ;) and Kamrie reminds me so much of me! hahaha saying that my grades will go up! haha wow and Bryson even reminds me of how I would just eat out like everyday!! haha I freaking love all you guys and how I am reminded of how I use to be with my bad habits ;)

So this was a way good week! We got a ward mission leader!!! and he is the coolest dude ever!! His name is Santiago! He served his mission in Mendoza like 15 years ago! He met his wife in San Rafael! haha crazy huh?? its kinda a weird story, He actually was way good friends with her brother while he was on the mission, but after the mission he came and met her or something... haha but yeah he is the bomb! He speaks english too!!! He lived in Idaho for like 10 years with his wife!! but yeah he was telling us that he knows he is supposed to be here now and he doesn't know why because he loved Idaho! haha But we are super lucky to have him as a ward mission leader! 

So to answer some of your questions... I am doing great! I literally love San Rafael and I feel super blessed to be getting trained here!! 

So you know how you gave me a recipe for the cookies last week... SOO GOOD!!! haha It totally smelled and just reminded me so much of your cookies! We had to search for chocolate chips for like 2 hours on P-day last week! haha one store sent us to a different store of theirs, which told us to go to this fancy chocolate store, which sent us to some little party shop thing, and they had chocolate chips!!!! whooo!!! :) haha but yeah cool story to go with this... We ended up giving like all the cookies away! We gave them to the families that always feed us every week! They were soo happy when we brought them by last night. :) I am super grateful for the members in our barrio!!! 

Our investigators are good! We got 2 new progressing investigators this week!! I love when investigators come to church!!!!!! I feel like we work super hard all week and our work shows by when our investigators and less active members come to church! its super sad when investigators tell you they will come to church and then just don't show... like they can just tell us they aren't going this week! haha 

We didn't knock to many doors this week... We always abrir la boca (open the mouth) at least a few times a day... because that's like the least we can do! if investigators aren't home, at least you can still talk to people on the streets! :)

Well wow what a week! that is way cool Hurricane beat Dixie!!! I love that!!! and I loved that picture with you and Zach!!!! I miss that kid! we email a bunch but he is super busy with school and he has a bunch of hard classes (the opposite of me senior year haha!) but yeah I love that kid!!

Man that is super sad about Kody... I love that kid soooo much and I pray for him so much every day... when I found out the news about Kody, it reminded me of a scripture. Its 1 Nephi 11:16-17 an angel is talking to Nephi and is asking him questions (I only have it in spanish with me right now so I might ruin it haha!) but yeah it says "what is the condescenion (means like reasoning) of God?" and Nephi answers "I know that God loveth his children, never the less, I do not know the meaning of all things" That's just kinda saying we don't know the reasons for why bad things happen or why certain things are... but God loves us!! He knows exactly where we should be and when, even when we don't know why... So I hope Kody knows that I love him and that God loves him! and its Gods will and not his! I love that kid so much! I hope I can still room with him in 2 years at UVU ;)

Well I am running out of time!!! I love you guys soo much! Thank you for everything and all the support that you have for me! I hope you guys have a great week! I pray for you guys always! I pray that dad won't be super stressed as he gets into the busy season at work haha! I love you guys so much!! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

 Just wearing my baptism socks because I always am down to the last pair by the end of the week! haha! :)

 This is what my shoes look like by the end of every day!!! haha I love these shoes though! favorite pair for sure. :)

 Just making some cookies!! sooo good. :)

 more from making cookies. :)

I got some Argentine clothes last P-Day! I got the Jersey for 100 pesos... which is like 8 bucks! haha and then I got the sweats for 150 pesos! Literally every kid wears these type of sweats around here.. and all the cool missionaries have them! haha :) all the missionaries call them "poop pants" and I think you can see why. ;)

Monday, September 22, 2014

September 22, 2014

Hola!! how are you?? :) Im doing great!!! yep this week is transfers and I am staying with Elder Connolly in San Rafael!!! WOO!! haha I am so happy to be staying here! Elder Cahoon and Kidman are staying here too so thats good. :) 

It looks like things are good there!! Wow Grady has an awesome beard! I am way jealous of his beard! haha He looks like a young Grandpa Sinclair!! I hope I get the family gene of having a cool beard when I am older!! haha :)

Thats awesome that Hurricane beat Cedar at their homecoming!! That is surprising that they keep winning!! I hope Kamrie is still liking cheerleading and what not. :)

Thats cool you guys had the ward party and got Sonny Boys on Saturday! Sonny Boys is way good, but I promise, the meat here is wayyyyy better! haha I swear I will be fat from all the food here!! I love the meat here, I could eat the same thing everyday, which is Asado! Its just like Argentine Barbeque... I think I might have already told you about it so I wont go into too much detail! haha

Today after cyber we are going bowling!!! I am so stoked! remember the last time we went bowling in Vegas and we saw Drake and his family?? that was way fun and funny!!! haha but yeah I love bowling so I am stoked! haha :)

So to answer some of your questions... My week was great! it was great chatting with you the other day. :) Our investigators are good! I am glad that I have at least 6 more weeks to work with them!! We had 1 of our 3 progressing investigators go to church this past week! I wish they all would go but thats all good. :) haha

so a funny story about church yesterday... There is this super old lady in our ward who has been a member forever, and she was saying the closing prayer, and she goes up there and says "Father, thank you for this day, In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen"........... Thats it! haha I have heard her pray before in our gospel principles class and it was way longer than that.... But yeah it reminded me a ton of when Kamrie or Ethan would say the prayer at dinner time! haha! ;)

Its not to scary knocking doors... people are usually pretty nice! even if they don't want to hear from us! they just will say they respect what we do but they don't want to talk to us! haha so yeah knocking doors is fine for me. :)

Yeah I understand basically everything I hear!!! The thing that Argentines do is the don't really say there S"s too much! haha so when they saw "mas o menos" (more or less) is sounds like "ma o meno" haha so that is just something I have to get use to! they kinda mumble too, but I mumble too, so its all good! haha ;)

Well yeah everything is great here! I am super grateful to be staying in San Rafy a little longer! I feel like I know all the street names and everything! haha so everything is good here! I hope things continue to be good at home! Tell Grady I am jealous of his beard! haha :) I love you guys sooo MUCH! I am so grateful for everything you do for me!!! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

P.S.... Me and Elder Connolly are wanting to make some chocolate chip cookies... Do you think you could send me a recipe so we can make some?? haha that would be awesome. Love you tons!!! :)

 Check out this cool guy I met! ......haha Just kidding he just snored way loud for 3 hours all the way to Mendoza Centro! haha :)

 This was the first day that it was warm enough to wear a short sleeve shirt in San Rafael!!

 I am never too far away from good ol' Utah. :)

Someone cough-cough* (Elder Connolly) forgot to pay the electricity bill... so here he is moping up the water (which was ice that melted inside our fridge! haha :)

Monday, September 15, 2014

September 15, 2014

Hola mi familia!! ¿como esta? ¿como le va? todo bien?? 

No but seriously how are you guys doing?? :) This was literally the fastest week of my life! haha I really just barely had P-day so I probably wont have too much to write! But it was such a good week! I am loving San Rafael so dang much, I will be sad if I get transferred anytime soon! haha

So this past Friday and Saturday I got to go on intercambios (exchanges) with our zone leaders! Elder Connolly went with Elder Ferrin to there area, and I went with Elder Rojas and stayed in our area! Elder Rojas is from Pueblo, Mexico and doesn't speak to much english haha!! It was way cool to get to do intercambios! It was kinda scary having to stay in my own area, because I had to plan everyone that we would be teaching those days and who we would talk to and whatever, but it turned out great! I was surprised that everyone whose house we went by was home and let us in! so we taught a bunch of great lessons! Another thing about Elder Rojas, he is WAY good at opening the mouth to people on the street!! He can just talk to anyone and he is not scared at all! He had me open the mouth to a bunch of people and he showed me his ways and now I'm basically a pro at talking to people on the streets! :)

So something cool that my companion is doing right now, Elder Connolly's visa expired a little while ago, and right now him, and like 30 other missionaries, are on there way to Chile, Santiago just so they can say they have left the country and will be able apply for a new travel visa!! they are sooo lucky!!! Not to many of the missionaries have to do this here, just lucky ones! ;) 

So right now I am in a tri-companionship with Elder Cahoon and Elder Kidman! I got to spend the night at there pench last night!! and there pench is definitely a lot nicer then ours, but I definitely like our area more then theirs, so that's all that matters! haha :)

So to answer some of your questions... We receive letters at every zone meeting which is once a month, so I will probably receive your letters at this next one! it just depends on when the letters get to the office and whatever... and about packages, my companion said that we can receive packages, its just that there is a chance it might not get here! But Elder Connolly has received every package that his parents have sent to him (which was 5 or 6 packages) So yeah! :)

Yes I got some allergy pills! but for some reason I haven't got allergies like at all this past week and I haven't been taking the medicine! haha I think I just get allergies super early in the season and then it goes away!! haha so that's good though. :)

So Mario is an awesome guy! it is just super hard to teach him cause he works off his own hours and we never really know when he is going to be working on the house! We try to go by, but usually no one is there! But yeah we are still going to try to talk to him. :)

My spanish is definitely coming along!!! I spoke so much this past week its not even funny haha! But yeah, they give us an hour every day to study the language and I definitely use my full hour! haha I read so much of The Book of Mormon in spanish! I really think that helps me learn spanish! and Elder Connolly showed me this talk from Gordon B. Hinkley that says if you read the Book of Mormon in your mission language, when you finish, you will be able to understand the language completely! So that is what I am aiming for! :)

Well you guys sound like you are all doing great!! I hope you are really liking your job and everything! Sounds like Kamrie is super busy 24/7!!! haha I love hearing from you all! :) I love you guys so dang much and I am so grateful for such an amazing family!!! 

I love you all sooo MUCH! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

 This is Elder Ireland!! He is the first missionary I know to complete the mission in Mendoza, Argentina! He goes home at the end of this transfer! (Which is next Monday... Can you believe I have already been here for 6 weeks?)
Oh yeah, and he looks exactly like Johnny Payne!!! I told him that haha!

This past Saturday was like national service day in Argentina! We painted this huge school! haha it was way cool and our whole district was there painting too! :)

 Just me and Elder Connolly with Elder Scott (from Gilbert, AZ) and Elder Castillo (from Buenos Aires) at the service project!!!

 Just chilling in this freshly painted room. :) haha

 No one wants to rob me here, because I look like a gangster (When its raining and freezing here at the same time). :D

Just walking down the calle with Elder Cahoon and his companion Elder Kidman! It was awesome that I got to spend the night with them and see their area!!!

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

September 10, 2014

Hola!!! :) how are you all doing?? :) It sounds like you guys had a great week last week!!! 
Happy 25th Anniversary! I hope you guys had fun on your little anniversary trip. that is so cool you guys have been married that long! :) So as you can see I am writing Wednesday and not Tuesday...that's because Me, Elder Cahoon, and two other new missionaries in San Rafael had to go to Mendoza Centro Monday after Zone Conference and fill out our paper work for our visas!! it is little over a 3 hour drive from San Rafy... So here is our day yesterday... Wake up, sign like two pieces of paper, get our finger prints done, get on a bus and go back to San Rafy. THATS IT!!!! haha we had to sit on a bus for 6 hours just for that!! haha but it wasn't too bad because I got to sit next to Elder Cahoon on the way there and back. :) but we heard some sad news when we were there... Elder Christensen went home this week... he has to get surgery or something, it makes me sad cause he was like one of my best buds at the MTC! :(

Everything is great here!! Me and Elder Connolly are getting some major work done. :) A lot happened this week! I asked one of our investigators (his name is Oscar) to be baptized! He said he knows he needs to be baptized in the church but he didn't want to say a date yet. I am super stoked for him and I know he will be baptized soon! :)

Zone Conference was good too! it was great seeing president and sister Goates! I got to talk to them a little, he just asked how the spanish was coming and they wished me happy birthday and sang this funny song to me and a couple other missionaries with birthdays kinda close to now!:)

So there is some new rules we got at the Conference... We can no longer baptize 9, 10, or 11 year olds unless we baptize one of the parents as well, or if someone else in the family is an active member. another rule, we aren't supposed to drink as much coke as we all are haha! Me and Connolly don't drink too much, but I know some missionaries that drink a few litters a day! haha :)

That is sooo cool about the new Stake Presidency! President Broadbent is perfect for that!! and Bro. Hatch is a awesome guy!!! that is way exciting news!

So to answer some of your questions... I'm doing great and zone conference was great. :) yes this was my first one! no I didn't get interviewed, but I did get to talk to president just a little! I really like him! He is a super smart guy! 

Yes I am staying healthy! I talked to Hermana Ashby (she is like our nurse lady) and she wrote down the name of the allergy medicine for me to get! she gave me one of the pills too and I feel like it helped me a lot on Monday!! So I will go buy some of those later today. :) There was a bunch of kids asking about allergy medicine too! haha I guess its not just me!!

So we did have a neat experience this last week... So we were getting our hair cut last week in San Rafy Centro, and there was this guy waiting behind us and he didn't really talk to us or anything so it was just whatever, but then we went to Cyber later that day, and he was there too! and we said something about how we all got hair cuts and it was just kinda small talk and that was it... but then a few days later we are walking down a road to go to a Cita, and we hear "Elders!" and he was working on this house that was just a few down from our investigators! so we go and talk to him and we are just talking about how it is crazy how we keep running into him! well it turns out that he doesn't even live in San Rafael but a town close by, he is just working construction on this house. He gives us a tour of the house and we ask him his name and stuff (which is Mario) and he asks about what we are doing here and what not... Well at the end we didn't really give him a lesson, but we asked him if he wanted to come to our church this past Sunday, but he kinda seemed wishy washy about saying yes, but he said yeah... well he totally came to church!!! it was way cool that he actually came!!! We our going to try and teach him lessons now because he seemed like he liked church! :) I thought that was a cool little experience that I thought I would share with you guys. :)

I feel like San Rafael is pretty safe! it might just be because we are missionaries, but I feel super safe all the time. :)

Oh guess what!!! I got a letter from Grandma this past week!!! and I got a letter from Grandpa Sinclair! He sent me the coolest medallion thing that is like an Army of Heleman Coin!! it was sooo amazing to get letters from them!!! I will have to tell them how grateful I am for them and all that they do. :)

Well I sure am grateful for all you guys do for me. :) don't worry about me to much mom, I think that you do. ;) Tell Kamrie to try to get some more sleep, because that used to happen to me! I would make myself sick from lack of sleep!!! Wow that is so awesome about Ethan being way good at golf! haha he needs to play Tennis and Golf during High School for sure!!! he would be way good!! 

Well I love you guys sooooo much!! keep having good weeks in Hurricane ok. :) I cant believe how much I'm growing on the mission! I am learning soooo much!! not just spanish wise, but spirtually!!! I love it! I love you guys soo much. :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

We painted a members house this week!! It was cool getting into my P-day clothes when it wasn't even P-day. :) haha!

 We look like giants compared to the old ladies here! haha they are both members and are so amazing and always feed us the BEST food! :) 

 Just a cute little puppy that belongs to the members whose house we painted. :) 

Just trying to follow in dads footsteps and become a pro crepe maker!!! haha they turned out more like pancakes, but it was soo good!! We made crepes after we broke our fast this past Sunday

The after result of our crepes! It is crepes with peaches and dulce de leche and powder sugar! Sooo good!!! :)

Just me and the comp taking a quick break in this little park that is right next to our house!

Monday, September 1, 2014

September 1, 2014

Hola! how are you all doing?? :) Sounds like everyone is doing pretty good! Everything is great here!!! I cannot believe its already P-day!!! I love mondays! I love hearing from you guys!!! you guys make my week always. :) Sounds like you guys have a pretty quiet house without Bryson around haha! ;)

This week went really fast! oh something funny, So I was reading Tysons email about how he saw some kid peeing in the street, and I thought that was super funny! But that same day I saw a kid pee in the street!!! I laughed so hard because it reminded me of Tyson and his mission! I love writing Tyson and Lincoln and Kody! they all sound like they are doing great and they are all soo funny!!! 

So guess what... I gave not 1... but 2 blessings this week!!! yeah, in Spanish!!! hahaha I was sooo nervous! my hands were probably really sweaty and cold on there heads so I feel bad for them, but good for them at the same time because they are getting a blessing!! :) haha! Yeah the first blessing was for this member whose back was killing her... she couldn't get out of bed... So I anointed her with the oil... But the second person.... oh my gosh... It was this old lady that wasn't a member.. and she got bit by a dog on her leg, and her leg was completely purple and red and black and looked sooo bad! it was like the grosses thing I've seen... But it was awesome because we taught her the first lesson and taught her about faith and how important faith is before we gave her the blessing. she was super thankful for us! she said we can come back and teach her more someday... but yeah her leg is really gross haha.

Wow thats awesome you guys sold goldie! I will miss her... haha! that is sad about Kyle. :( I love that kid! I hope everything works out for him! and wow Paige is engaged!! thats crazy. She sent Jared some pictures and he showed me! haha wow that is crazy stuff...

So to answer some of your questions...
I'm doing great!!! the only thing that we kinda forgot, it is spring time here, so allergies is totally kicking my butt!!! haha yeah all the trees and stuff are coming to life so I sneeze a million times a day... Im totally fine, I just have some itchy eyes and a stuffy nose. haha :) I take all those pills still haha dont worry. :)

My feet are doing good!!! They use to hurt pretty bad, but now it seems like they are just use to it! haha I love it now that they don't hurt. :) 

Yes everyone does siesta here!!! haha once the clock hits 2:00, everyone is off the streets and everything is closed!! haha its crazy. No one will answer there door either. So what all the missionaries do here is we just go back to our pench and do our studies and stuff like that! its actually pretty nice to get a quick break in the afternoon to study spanish and what not!

So about the withdrawl from the bank... My companion was telling me that it is super expensive to get money out of the bank here, So he told me to just get $100 out right now and whenever I need it, I will have it, because no one accepts credit cards here. So it was about $13 dollars extra to get that out, haha that is pretty expensive! Yeah I haven't spent any of my personal money yet... but it should last me a long time! you dont have to put anymore money into my account for a few months... probably like around christmas time you will! haha :)

The weather is great here!! it looks like it is going to rain here alot but it never does during the day! it rains at night though! its pretty nice to listen to on our super thin roof haha :) 

Volaria and Valintina are doing good!! they just make me mad sometimes... like they will be way excited and we ask them to come to church with us and they say yes, So we go to pick them up yesterday morning, and they said they were to tired to go! they didn't even answer the door! they just text us and said they were to tired. So yeah I don't get them sometimes! haha

Well it sounds like the weather is great there and everything is going pretty great!! I hope you guys know I love you soo much! Thank you so much for the book of pictures you gave me for my birthday! literally everyone asks to see pictures of our families! I always tell them about how Bryson served in Mexico and he is wearing a jersey in one of the pictures and they always say something about that! haha 

I love you guys so dang much! I hope you guys have a great week! Just know that we are super lucky to live in such a beautiful place and have the gospel in our lives! We shouldn't take that for granted. I love you guys! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

Oh p.s. I wont be writing you til next tuesday. We are having Zone Conference next monday! its going to be awesome to see President and sister Goates again! :) I love them. So yeah just a heads up. :)

 This is what the place looked like that we went to last P-day!! Not sure if I am in Argentina or Southern Utah?¿?

 Just me and Elder Cahoon chilling in front of a giant dam and this cool waterfall thing! Its so weird that I am like 6,000 miles from home, but here I am with a best friend from the same small town as me! :)

 Selfie with Elder Cahoon from pretty high up on the side of the dam! :) haha

 Just chilling on the top of the dam with Elder Cahoon and his companion Elder Kidman! :)
 Just me and my companion Elder Connolly in front of the dam! I love this kid. He has been such a great trainer for me! :)

 These are my zone leaders Elder Ferrin and Elder Rojas! They are the coolest! this is like there second to last transfer! Doesn't that look soo much like Southern Utah though? 

Me and my companion in front of some grape vines! Pretty soon these will all be covered in grapes! :)