Tuesday, January 27, 2015

January 27, 2015

Buenos Noches from Argentina!
     My wife and I were sitting outside an ice cream shop tonight eating cones with your son. He looks very healthy, happy and well. He has such a great spirit about him and you can tell he is an excellent missionary! Thought you would enjoy a picture of him and Elder Apodaca. :) Our son is next to my wife. We are here to pick up our son at the end of his mission. It has been a sweet experience.
 Chau,
 Dan & Suzanne Fullmer

Monday, January 26, 2015

Transfers and 7 months!!!

Hey family! I am doing way good! :) I cant believe how fast this week went and I CANNOT believe how fast this whole transfer went! this past 6 weeks in Albardon with Elder Apodaca sure did fly bye!!! So yep, we got transfer calls last night! and Elder Apodaca is out of here!! and guess where he is going...yep... San Rafael!!!!!  It's not my old area but it is pretty close to it!

My new companion is Elder Perez! He came in the same group as Elder Apodaca so I kinda know a little about him! He is from the states but his dad is from Chile so I think he already spoke Spanish! I am way stoked to be staying here because we have been working with some super awesome families of investigators! I am feeling another baptism this transfer! :)

Dang I wish Kyle was going back out on the mission! and that is crazy about Addi getting her mission call!!! what language is she speaking?? that's also crazy Bryson and Tails are dating! 

I am doing really good! We got 7 new investigators this week! its 2 families! they are super friendly and super accepting too! Its a lot better to teach a family than just one person in a family, well that's what I think!  

No I didn't get sick after eating the pizza! No we never told the mom that there was bugs in her pizza haha! We usually do have pretty good luck with most of our meals with members! I usually love everything we have! I cant wait to come home and make Argentine food for you guys! 

The Young Men's are doing good! this past week we just played soccer with them, but this week coming up, it's our turn to think of an activity for us to do! haha we haven't thought of one yet but we will think of something! haha

Our investigators are good! This family we just started teaching, they asked me what my name was (like people usually do haha) and so I told them my name was Elder Lawrence and they were like "noooooo what's your name!" and so I told them and I think they thought I said "Lake" because all of them just call me Lake now haha!

We haven't been teaching Noelia because she wont be able to progress but she is coming to church still!

I think I might have an experience I could share for your relief society thing... I don't have alot of time right now to write but remind me next week and I will write it down for you. :)

Well, I love you guys so much and I am so grateful for such a supportive family! I am sad to see Elder Apodaca leaving, but I am excited to have Elder Perez too! I hope you guys have a great week! Chau! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

oh PS that is kinda a bummer about the package haha! But hey its alright just eat all that candy for me. :)

 Chau chau Elder Apodaca!!!

 Me and Elder Apodaca right after church ended.

Probably one of the biggest vineyards in our area! You can't tell but it goes on foreverrrrrr!

Monday, January 19, 2015

January 19, 2015

Hey hey family :)
Wow this week sure did fly by! wow it sounds like you had a jam packed week with work and all that church stuff! That's fun that Bryson came down for the weekend and was hanging with Taylee! I love Taylee she is like the funniest girl I know! haha

That's awesome about Johnny Payne getting his call! and that's crazy that Addi is going on a mission too! how cool is that!

That's good Kamrie and Jonas aren't too serious anymore, I emailed her last week and said something about it haha!

So to answer your questions... Me and Elder Apodaca are doing really good! Yes we are allowed to take siesta during the day, but we have been realizing how bad it throws off our day... so we don't really do it! Its hard because it makes us not tired at night!

So whats going on with Noelia is.... No we didn't get to baptize her this week :(
We went and talked to the parents last Monday, and the mom was wayyy cool! she was totally fine with Noelia being baptized! But then the Dad came home and was like in a way bad mood and he said that we couldn't baptize her... but the mom said it was fine if she still went to church every week.. so that's cool still! I hope she will just go to church till she turns 18 and then she can sign the papers for herself and be baptized!

Its way fun being called as the Young Men's counselors because we get to go to their activity things every Saturday! They either just play Soccer or sometimes we do a service project! But yeah its awesome!

Oh something else I wanted to tell you, so the other day we wanted to go weigh ourselves, because I haven't weighed myself since I had been in San Juan... and guess what... I weigh 150 pounds!! that's crazy huh!? I finally can gain a little weight! haha! :)

So I got a gross little story for you... So yesterday we were eating lunch with a family, and the food they give us is always a little gross... not to be rude or anything! haha... but yesterday it was all four of us Elders eating with this family, and they made this HUGE pizza for us! and we were all way hungry because we didn't eat breakfast, so we were eating a ton of it and way fast, and I look up at Elder White while we are eating this pizza, and his eyes go really big and he is looking at the pizza and he goes white like a ghost! and he doesn't take another bite after that... well he writes down a note on a piece of paper and passes it under the table to me, and I open it up, and it says "tons of bugs in the pizza" ...and I look down at the pizza, and there were TONS of these baby cockroaches dead in the pizza!!! we think that they must have just got into the spices and when she put the spices on the pizza she couldn't see them! So yeah I probably wont be eating pizza for a long time! haha it was quite the experience!

Mom I totally forgot to tell you last week! I got all those cards from you guys! I got the ranch packets and the Hershey bar and the Andes mints! Thank you sooo much I loved it a ton! :) I also got a card from Grandma Ligtermoet and Rob and Lacey and Grandpa Sinclair! He sent me an awesome picture of you guys when you and Dad were just newlyweds!! I loved all the letters! Thanks a ton! :) 
But no luck on the packages!

That's awesome that Ben and Amberlee came over! I miss them tons! That does bring back memories of us all hanging at our house!

Well I love you guys tons and I love seeing pictures and everything! :) I hope you guys don't get cockroaches in your pizza this week! haha love you all! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

 So Silvana's mom got married this past week! Her husband isn't a member so we are going to start teaching him too and see if we can baptize him!!!

 So this past week me and Elder Apodaca both had headaches when we went to bed, and we were freaking out because we thought it was like carbon-monoxide or something (even though we have a detector thing) So we just moved our beds outside for the night and changed our sheets so our good ones wouldn't get dirty!  But hey we are fine now, no carbon-monoxide in our house. :)

 We saw a way legit sunset the other night! This is what the clouds looked like! I zoomed in way close!

I forgot to tell you, our backyard is a vineyard!!!! its way nice! oh yeah I also got myself a Christmas present! I bought this shirt and another one that looks the same but with different colors! It was like $15 for the two of them!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Hola Familia!!!

Hey Hey! Sounds like you guys had a way good week!!! wow I swear you guys wait till I leave to do all these random cool little trips!! haha ;) but hey, I am doing good and we had a really good week this past week! 

Bryson's classes sound sweet! sounds like Kamrie is doing good too and that's way cool about Ethan with all that Krushurz stuff and how they might go to Cooperstown!

Well not to much new going on in Argentina! But hey for our mission there is some new stuff going on! :) We had Zone Meeting this past week and there is some changes for us elders in San Juan (and only for the Elders here in San Juan) So because it is so hot here, the siesta is getting longer... and because of this, the elders here are allowed to take a 1 hour siesta break from 2:30 to 3:30! so yeah we are totally allowed to take an hour nap!!!! how cool is that??? :) haha but also because we lose this 1 hour during the day, we are allowed to stay out 1 hour longer at night! so we can stay out till 10:00 or to 10:30 if we have a lesson! I think its pretty cool and I am liking the changes a lot. :)

I still can't believe that its hot here and cold there! The difference between here and at home while its hot is that it doesn't cool down at all at night! Our houses just turn into little brick ovens!!! Also, here in San Juan they get these things called "Zonda" and its kinda like a thunderstorm but it doesn't rain at all and there is just a super super hot wind! Its really weird! 

We had a good week! We have some really awesome investigators! We have been teaching this girl Noelia, she is 15 years old and no one in her family is members except for her Grandma, but she lives with her parents for half the week and the other half with her grandma... Well at the Christmas party, me and Elder Apodaca talked to President Goates about if it would be alright if we baptized her even though only her Grandma was a member, and he said that would be fine! So we started teaching her the Sunday I got here and she has progressed a ton and now has all the lessons and she has a baptismal date forthis Saturday! but something sad is going on... We tried to teach her with her parents and they wouldn't let us into there house, they said it was fine if we taught her at the grandmas but they don't want to hear our message... Well...We have been talking to Noelia a lot and she thinks her parents aren't going to let her get baptized this Saturday... but we are going to go talk to the parents tonight and see what they are thinking! Keep us and Noelia in your prayers!

We have also been re-teaching the lessons to this lady, her name is Alba Chavez and she has 5 kids and they are all members, but she cant be baptized because her husband doesn't want to get married, he says it is just a piece of paper. So we feel super sad for her because she is one of the most faithful people here! We are trying to keep her positive but its just tough for her sometimes because she really wants to be baptized!

I will tell you about some other investigators next week! Oh one last thing I wanted to tell you about! So here in Albardon the members are kinda weird about going to church, like they kinda take turns, about 35 members will going one week, and then like 30 the next week, but all different members! The people here just think it's okay to go every other week! and sometimes they all go on the same week so there will be like 60 people at church! Well the first week I got here we had about 40 people go to church (we have to keep tract, its part of the numbers we report every week) Well then we started teaching members about the importance of going every week and how it blesses our lives if we do, and the next week we beat the record of having the most people go to church at one time with 72 people, but then this past week we worked super hard with members and reactivating less actives, and we had 90 people go to church yesterday!!!!! isn't that crazy!!! The church was like full! It was way exciting for us missionaries here in Albardon to see that many people at church! :)

Well I love you guys so much! I hope you guys have another great week! It probably wont be as great as my week this past week, but hey, that's ok. ;) Keep working hard and remember to pray always! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

 Call me a nerd, but I officially know how to do a rubix cube...haha!

 This family in our ward has a pet fox!!! They caught it and then they just made it their pet! How crazy is that!

 We have matching ties! We got them as a Christmas present from President and Sister Goates!

 My piano skills are getting put to use! I was teaching this kid (his name is Giovani) some piano... he is pretty good for a 3 year old! haha :)

 We had a mutual activity this past Saturday and a ton of kids came! We had 5 investigators too! It turned out way good! Except I don't know why the only 2 white kids look so white compared to everyone else (me and Elder White) haha!

Me and Elder Apodaca are called as the Young Men counselors in our Barrio, so these kids are ours!

Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy New Year!!! and 6 months!!!!!

Wow! crazy how fast the time is flying!!! I cant believe I already have 6 months in the mission! I am loving the mission and loving the person I am becoming! So much good has happened this past year! 

Sounds like everyone had a great New Years! We had a fun New Years Eve too! We had the Elders of Retiro come over to our pench and spend the night with us! and we stayed up till midnight and got onto the roof of our pench and watched all the fireworks around us!!! it was amazing! we also had an asado! soo good!! :)

So here we have church at 9:30 in the morning! and it never changes because we are the only ward in our chapel... but also we have like a 40 minute walk to our chapel so we have to leave a lot earlier! haha

Wow that is crazy how cheap gas is!!! It is not cheap here!  Well I don't really know... its like 13.00 pesos for a liter of gas... so whatever that means! Mom I know BreAnn's new companion! I used to work with her at the city pool for two years! she is cool! what a small world!!

That's crazy all these peeps are getting married! So Bryson's not going to be a nurse anymore? dang, I am still going to try to major in nursing! I legit know I could do it... 

To answer some of your questions... I am doing good! yes we are working super hard! it was kinda hard to get into houses this last week... just like Christmas week! haha but its all good, now that all the holidays are over! :)

Yes me and Elder Apodaca get along really well!! He says I remind him sooo much of his brother!  He is a way good Elder and I am way lucky to be his companion!

Well I don't have too much else to say! We might have another baptism coming up in a couple of weeks! That would be amazing! :)

Well, I love you guys so much and I hope you guys have some good goals set for this next year! I have some! I want to read the Book of Mormon in English in 3 months and I want to read it in Spanish in 6! Thanks for all you guys do! It's great to hear how good you all are doing! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

 We went to Walmart this last p-day and it reminded me a ton of the one in Hurricane!!! Doesn't that look like Pine Valley right behind it???

 Best. day. ever.... there was a McDonalds connected to the Walmart!!!! I love American food! haha :)

 Happy 6 month mark!!! :)


A member here is really good at sewing and she tightened a couple pairs of pants for me! What do you think??