Monday, April 25, 2016

April 25, 2016

Hey Hey Family!!! Everything is going way awesome here in Tunuyan! How are you guys doing?? Well This was one of the coldest weeks of my life! Man these past couple days it has been freezing and super rainy! Lots of members were telling us that it is supposed to snow here today!!! Yesterday we still went out and worked in the rain and man it felt like my skeleton was cold. My socks were completely soaked!!! But it felt super nice when we got back to the pench. :) It will be a nice toasty day when I get home in June! haha :)

Oh also I came up with an awesome idea for P-day today! Since it's going to snow we are having a half Christmas P-day haha! We are going to do a big Christmas breakfast for lunch and Elder Christensen is making eggnog. We are also going to do a white elephant gift exchange. Mine is hilarious haha! and yeah maybe someone will bring some Christmas music. :)

I liked the photos from Kamrie's dance! Looked like tons of fun! Is Ashlyn dating Noah or are they just friends? He has some awesome hair just like his bro!  And wow that's awesome that Krusherz did so good in their tournament this past weekend! Sounds like a tonnn of baseball games though!  That's way cool though!  Glad to hear that everything went good with the neighborhood meeting! Glad to hear that mostly everyone is happy again! haha :)

Yep everything is going great with me and Elder Quist. You can't tell from the photos but he looks a lot like Elder Child but taller!  The work is going good here though. It was hard to get investigators (let alone members) to church yesterday because of the freezing rain but Javier and his family came as usual! He now has 11 assitances and still isn't baptized, I think that's a record somewhere haha! But we have interviews this Wednesday with President Goates so I think I am going to ask him for some advice there. :) I also have to give another talk thing while people are in interviews about "commitments" and asking people to commit to stuff like coming to church and things like that! Keep me in your prayers! :)

This week we went by our investigators that live in Colinia de las Rosas which is like a little town 9 kilometros from Tunuyan and we had a sweet lesson with them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. My comp talked about Faith and did a way good job. I talked about repentance and I think it really hit them. I also tied repentance in with fear, because if you think about it, ever since the time of Adam and Eve there has been fear (when they hid because they didn't have clothes) and to this day we all have fears. But God is always telling us not too fear so afterwards I shared this scripture with them.  

33 Fear not to do goodmy sons, for whatsoever ye sow,that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.
 34 Therefore, fear not, littlflockdo good; let earth anhell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock,they cannot prevail.
 35 Behold, do not condemn you; go your ways and sin no more; perform with soberness the work which have commanded you.
 36 Look unto me in every thoughtdoubt not, fear not.
 37 Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful,keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.
And afterwards the spirit was super strong! I felt like it helped them to not fear and have faith and repent. :)
Well yeah that was like the highlight of this week! Hey if you have any fun team work activity ideas I would love them for my district meetings! If you don't its all good! haha :) Well I hope you guys know that I love you to death and then more. You guys are always in my prayers as well! I can't wait to skype in like 2 weeks!!! That's way exciting! It feels like we recently skyped! haha I hope you guys have a great week! :)
Love, Elder Lawrence
PS... Yeah Kody told me he wont be coming home till March 2017!!! That is super crazy! It kinda makes me sad because I won't get to see him forever but at the same time he is making a way good choice. :)
 Just me and the dogs. I feel like I look like my cousin James right here

  The snow is coming.

 We went to Mendoza to do my hijos tramites and we ordered Fidelitos... it was amazing

  I killed this misquito but I was too late.

I found Mortensens jacket in the offices when I was looking for my lost jacket. This is his nickname and a soccer player for team USA.

 
Snagged this photo while we were in Mendoza and I thought it looked pretty cool!

The snow is COMING!!!

We made roast yesterday... best. idea. eva.

Monday, April 18, 2016

T minus 2 months (this Friday haha)

Hey Hey Family!!! 
Everything is going great here! Nope I haven't heard anything about earthquakes here! That's pretty crazy that there have been a couple recently! Geez mom you don't need to yell at me via the internet hahah jk but no I didn't really have space to pack around my coat and my sleeping bag, so I chose the sleeping bag over the coat! I ended up buying one for really cheap though, it was like less than 20 bucks. 

Man I really don't miss the wind! For some reason almost all of my companions say they love the wind! I think they are crazy. That's pretty cool Adam is back in Hurricane! and that Hurricane is actually winning some baseball games!! and that is way crazy about all the stuff going on with the trees on our street! I can't believe everyone is freaking out about that! I have no idea which side I would take!! That's pretty crazy though that all the neighbors are mad at each other over that. I think they are making a big deal out of something that shouldn't be a big deal haha. Also that's pretty cool about Tyson giving his homecoming talk on fast Sunday! I didn't know you could do that! 

Everything is going pretty good here in Tunuyan! We haven't seen the sun in like 2 weeks straight! But yeah things are great. :) Elder Quist is doing way good! He is adjusting really well. I have seen major progress in his Spanish for sure! We have been doing a lot of cooking! We eat these things called milanesas like every night! haha I love it!

I just realized I never really tell you about District meetings! Well we have them every Tuesday morning at 10:30 and it goes till about 12:30 and then we eat lunch together as a District! We kinda invented that, not all districts do that. But yeah basically we start with a hymn and then a prayer and I pre-ask someone to share a spiritual thought and then afterwards we talk about the investigators that we all have and what we can do to help them, and then after that I give a little lesson on something from Preach my Gospel and do an activity or something and then we end with another hymn and prayer. It's pretty awesome! Just thought I should tell you that. haha :) We also made Milinesa tacos after district meeting this past week.... SOO GOOD! 

Man we think we are going to have to drop one of our investigators named Ayto. He was progressing wayyy good at first! It always makes me sad to drop people, but sometimes you just have to do it! We passed by on Saturday so that he could come with us to District Conference but he said he didn't want to because the church is far away and he is lazy... but the thing is that the church is like 5-6 blocks from his house!!! I know people who walk or ride bikes wayyyyy farther than that! Like it makes me way sad but yeah I think we are going to drop him this week.

Well That's basically all for now! I am wayyy excited to skype with you guys!!! It will be crazy because it will be the last skype before I come home! Crazy stuff right there. I am glad that you guys are doing good!  I will email Elder Landt about the package thing for sure. Yeah sign me up in some college classes with Bryson and Taylee! Well I hope you guys have a great week! I love you guys sooooooo MUCH and I love hearing from you! It always makes my week! You guys are always in my prayers too. :)

Love, Elder Lawrence
 Utah Jazz in the tiny town of Tunuyan, Mendoza, Argentina.

 We found a burnt bible, it made me sad. :(


 Cool lightening storm right behind the church!

 Power outage because of cool lighteneing storm right behind the church

  Next morning everything looked awesome though! Feels like I am serving in Portland or something.

 My companion took this photo at District meeting last week... Everytime I look at this photo the theme song from Full House plays in my head... the part thats like "everywhere you look, everywhere you go, theres a place, of somebody who needs you!" 

 Just on our morning jog!

 Just kidding haha The hermanas here were struggling to find news so we did a service project thing where we went around there area and asked people if we could rake the leaves off of their porches! It actually worked pretty well!

Me holding a little cat that looks like a tiny bear. I don't think I am allergic to cats anymore... I don't know what happened but yeah I can hold cats and stuff now! haha 

Monday, April 11, 2016

April 11, 2016

Hey Hey Family spamily!
It was a solid week here in Tunuyan, and when I say solid I mean freezing rainy week here in Tunuyan! haha

It was a good week over all though! It sounds like you guys had a good week too! A weekend full of weddings! You should have taken the life size cut out of me to BreAnn's wedding and then to Amberlee's wedding afterwards haha :) I loved all the photos though! and that's way cool that your high school friend from Sweden came and you got to see her for a little! That's way cool! :) 

Nothing too out of the normal this week! It's been really cold though for fall! I only have my sweater and my rain jacket, I left my big coat in the offices because I didn't think I would need it again. I was wrong. Terribly wrong. haha we are going back to the offices in a couple weeks for tramites for my son so I am going to try and find it then. :)

We had a way spiritual experience this past week! I think it was Tuesday night. So we were with the familia Cuello and their daughter Luna (I think she is 4 or 5) recently got chicken pox and so after the lesson the mom asked us if we could give Luna a blessing so that she would recover fast and everything. Well this was the first time my comp had to help in giving a blessing in Spanish, so he did the anointing and I did the blessing. Well Elder Quist did way good with saying the first part and then after wards I gave the blessing and I feel like it went really well! I really just had to depend on the spirit to tell me what to say. :) Well after the blessing it was just really calm and the spirit was strong. Afterwards I looked down and Luna was crying. But it wasn't like sad crying. It was totally the spirit! It was way spiritual! It made me want to cry. She ended up recovering in less than half the time that the doctors said it would take and they all came to church yesterday! Javier has 10 assistance's! ....It kinda gave me an idea for what I want to talk about when I get home. The language of the spirit... that's the title... that's about all I got so far! haha :) 

Well Sorry I don't have too much time to write today! We have to go catch a bus to La Consulta! We are going to make an asado! It will be the first one my hijo has ever had!!!  Well I love you you guys sooo much!!! Everything is going great here! Me and Elder Quist are like best buds! I want to go visit his fam when I get back!  Maybe I can take a package for him too for his fam! We will see! Well I hope you guys have a great week! I cant believe it's already time to skype again almost!!! whooo!!! :) I love you guys!

Love, Elder Lawrence

PS... Tell Ashlyn to rejoin the cheer team! That is way sad she quit! 

 My comp loves to take photos of me at the worst times... I hope you guys like it hahahaha.




Monday, April 4, 2016

21 Months!!! and Conference!!!

Hey Hey Family Pamily... 
Hows it going??? Sounds like you guys had a good week and a awesome weekend with General Conference! There were tonsss of good talks!! I really liked Elder Holland's right at the end, that was awesome.  I really liked the quotes you and Dad sent me! We watched it here in Tunuyan, just right across the street from the pench. :) I feel bad though for a couple peeps in our zone, because they just got here like 3 days ago and we listened to the entire thing in Spanish! haha it was fine for me but for others it had to have been tough to sit through for like 10 hours.

Oh hey I just realized you guys don't even know who my companion is! haha well.... his name is Elder Quist! He is from Layton, Utah!  This is my second companion from there! (Elder Benedict) But yeah he is wayyy awesome!!! He doesn't know too much Spanish but it's all good, it's a lot like training before! :) We have been doing this thing though where whenever we are outside of the pench we speak only in Spanish! I think it's helping a lot! It's weird because we will go back into the pench and I am just used to speaking in Spanish with him and so my mind just keeps thinking in Spanish and when I go to say words in the pench its just all Spanish and he just looks at me super confused hahaa. :) He is way awesome though we are going to have tons of fun together!!!

That's really sad about John Wadsworth. :( I feel sad for Austin too because he is in the mission, but hey that's why we have the plan of salvation. :) Families are forever!

This was a good week! We weren't here for too much of it! Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Mendoza waiting to get my hijo! Oh hey Jared Cahoon is also training to end his mission!!! He also is going to the best area on Earth... Albardon!!!! I gave him some references to old investigators up there in San Juan, but yeah he is a lucky duck. :) But yeah Hna AzaƱero is one of the Hermanas here in Tunuyan and she is training as well! She is training a gringa too! Her name is Hermana Holmes from Northern Utah! haha my district is 5 gringos and 1 latin!!! Its pretty funny to me. :) we are going to have tons of fun as a District...I cant wait!!! A lost Elder Chamberlain got transferred into the District!!! He is from my MTC District! haha I haven't seen him like my entire mission! So it's been awesome hanging out with him again!

Soo yeah basically that's it for this week! We have been going around meeting all the investigators and everything! It's going great though and I am super excited for these next few months too come! :) Well I love you guys tons! I hope you have a great week! Be safe, do work, and pray often. you know the drill. :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

PS... I just sent an email to President Goates about the online orientation... I feel like it should be fine but we will see!

PSS... Love ya! :)

  Got to see some of my best buds on transfer day in the terminal! Me and Mortensen also went and got some pizza after this photo was taken, it was the bomb.

 4 generations of Secretaries right there! In order from left to right.

 Getting ready to receive the hijos! We all had to take off our ties and our hijos had to guess who their trainer was by giving them their tie...sorry its super low quality haha!

 The new Tunuyan crew! :)

 I realized I didn't have a photo alone with my hijo so like 2 minutes ago we walked outside and took this photo haha!