October 27, 2014

Hola familia!!! I love you all soo much. :) man, Hurricane sounds way boring right now!!! haha Thats makes me glad to be in Argentina. :) I am loving it here! I am pretty nervous because we have transfers this next week (November 5th) we will see if I will be staying here in San Rafy or going somewhere else!!! Oh mom I totally forgot to tell you last Sunday... Happy Argentine Mother's Day!!!! :) I love you so much! haha Mothers Day is definitely a bigger deal in the states! haha they have way too many little holidays here so all the shops will randomly be closed once or twice a week... haha but yeah happy 2nd Mothers Day. :)

We also got some amazing news last week... Elder D. Todd Christopherson (from the Quorum of the twelve) is coming and talking to us November 8th!!! I get to shake his hand!!!!! haha I am so excited!!! He will be speaking to us in spanish... so I hope I can understand all of it!!! :)

So as I am sitting here writing, the zone leaders came in and brought me a letter from you guys!!! its from September 17th!! haha and it has Brian Scott's 8 life lessons in it. That is way cool and I am way glad you shared that with me. :) also thanks so much for the letters!!!

Wow there really isn't too much going on with you guys this past week! haha but hey that is way better than having a bad week for sure. :)

So to answer some of your questions... This week was wayyy hot!!! haha holy cow I am just so use to the cold or something... but we also had two giant thunder storms!!! haha I love it so much! The only bad thing about the rain is that it gets super humid afterwards and it is just soo hot and humid!!! haha but its all good! I will probably get use to it. :)

Yeah they celebrate Halloween here! There is a bunch of Halloween stuff for sell and like masks and stuff... My companion told me that they dont trick or treat for Halloween, they just get all dressed up and go to like parties... So yeah it will be my first Argentine Halloween this week!! whoo! :)

Today for P-day we are going to play rugby with all the elders in our zone!! That will be pretty fun. :) Last P-Day we went to this little restaurant place, and it was the first time I have had tacos in Argentina!!! they were like the best tacos I have had in forever!!! you know that little taco place we went to a couple times in st. George before I left?? yeah it was exactly like that! soo dang good!!

So yesterday it was raining before church... and people will use every little excuse to not go to church I swear haha... So yeah we struggled to have investigators come to church yesterday... but its alright! maybe this week. )

But something good happened yesterday! Our ward mission leader had an idea for us... it was just like a little "meet and greet" type thing with our less actives and investigators and active members... it was last night from 7:00 to 8:00 and it turned out way good! a bunch of people were there and our ward mission leader  taught the importance of putting God first! it was soo good! and it was good because our ward struggles to have activities. 

Well, Everything is great here! I am loving the work and loving the people! I love bringing people closer to the gospel and I love teaching about it too! I love you guys so much! Keep having good (boring) weeks! ;) haha I love you all!

Love, Elder Lawrence

Just a cute little puppy we found outside of one of our recent converts house! :)

 Don't ask me why I am smiling weird haha... but yeah we found this giant abandoned factory in our new area this past week! way cool! haha :)

Somos misioneros de la iglesia de JesuCristo de los santos de los Ultimos Dias. :) 

Also this Vineyard companys name is "missionary"...  we always laugh when we pass it because all the grapes are just turned into wine... it's also in our new area. :)

October 20, 2014

Hola!!! How are you all doing? I am doing great here!! :) I had a super solid week and it seems like you guys did too! that is way cool you guys took that little trip up to Midway!!! I am jealous of all the fall colors! Fall is my favorite season!!! haha 

Its great to hear that everyone is doing really good! I am glad Kamrie was able to get her grades up! Yes I remember when I got that 4.0! Best day of my life! haha ;) and thats good that Bryson is liking his job and everything! That sucks that there isn't really any girls at college right now haha! I hope there will be some cuties there for me in 2 years!!!

Yeah I read that email that Marcia Cahoon got... but I don't really get it... because Elder Cahoon actually received a package a week or two ago! haha I feel like its just a gamble whenever sending packages... haha well its up to you! its not a big deal if I don't get a package or not, I totally understand. :)

To answer some of your questions... Me and Elder Connolly are doing way good!!! Church was way good! it was actually fast sunday for us! was it for you guys?? 

We had a bunch of investigators come to church yesterday!!!!!! I am so happy! :D We had 3 of our investigators come and then 3 more that we have been working with from our new area!! yes we did go to both of our churches! haha

I will just tell you about a couple of our progressing investigators... So Marcus and Natili are the two that we want to get baptized by the end of this month! They are both 19 years old and they just got married a month ago and are expecting a baby! Natali was born Catholic (basically everyone here is born catholic haha) but she doesn't like the Catholic church anymore... she is super amazing! we asked her to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon, and she went and read to chapter 10 or something! she is way awesome and came to church yesterday! But her husband Marcus has never had any religion before. We asked him to pray the other day and he was wayyy nervous because he had never prayed before! it was way cool though! such an amazing young family that is the same age as me! haha. I swear I am older than 19! I am like 30 or something.

The people are pretty poor here... We have a family of investigators that struggles to find work so they dont have too much money... its sad but the families are always super humble and are sooo nice!

Oh something funny happened this week... We were eating at a members house the other day and they had the TV on and it was playing a movie, and it was that movie that was filmed on our street in Hurricane!!! Its called the Fly Boys or something?? Yeah well I totally saw the Snowdens house!!! haha I just wanted to tell everyone that that was the street I lived on back home! But they probably would've thought I was crazy or something... Because what are the odds of me seeing my street back home, in a movie, on a tiny TV screen in the middle of Argentina!!! haha :)

Oh one last thing... Our Grandma (that lady who does our laundry) had us over for lunch yesterday, and her son was there and he served a mission in Buenos Aires... Well he asked where we were from and everything, Well come to find out, that he was companions with the person who started "Dixie Dental" in St. George! haha I don't know if you have ever heard of him, his name was Elder Henderson... haha yeah he showed us some pictures of him and stuff... I just thought that was pretty cool! :)

Well Everything is great here! I hope that you guys have a great week back home!!! I pray for you all on the daily:)  I love you guys soo much!!! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

 Here is where we study everyday!! 

We made some homemade onion rings last night!! Soo good!!! :)

October 13, 2014

Hey family!!! you guys sound like you are doing great!! You all sound super busy but super good!! Its about the same here! We are super busy but I am doing super good! :)

This past week was soo good! We had interviews with President on Thursday (we have them every 3 months) and it went wayyy good! I love president Goates! He is super knowledgeable about the gospel and shared some awesome stories with me! We also had stake conference this past week!!! It was way good too! And one of our progressing investigator families came with us!!! I was soo happy! haha I just love when people go to church. :)

Wow mom I think you have super powers... You sound like you were super busy with those funerals and everything! I don't know how you do it all! Way to be awesome in you calling though. :)

That's awesome Bryson got that job at Blendtec and he likes it!!! I hope I can get hooked up with a cool job in two years! haha :)

I hope Ethan gets way good at golf and tennis!! that would be way cool! There is a sweet golf coarse that is just outside of San Rafael and Elder Connolly said he knows a member who might take us in a few weeks! How sick would that be!!!

Kamrie reminds me so much of me its not even funny! haha wow I am so glad I dont have to worry about grades!! Kamrie sure is turning into a cutie! tell her to stay away from boys!!! haha

So to answer some of your questions... Our investigators are doing good! Something sad happened this last week... So I sent you a picture of me and Elder Connolly with Elder Castillo and Elder Scott a couple weeks ago... Well Elder Scott (from Arizona) was having some issues with depression and way bad head aches... So he went home this past week... So Elder Castillo was transferred to a different area, and our zone leaders left us in charge of their area! haha our area is sooo HUGE now! We also now have like double the amount of progressing investigators! haha alot alot alot of teaching... we also go to church for twice as long now! haha we go to our ward and their ward. :) We are also shooting for 2 baptisms by the end of October!!! So we will see! :)

If you are above 18 years old, you have to go to church 3 times before you can be baptized... but if you are under 18, its like 10 times, just if no one is a member in your family. but yeah, people just need to understand the importance of church attendance!! We teach that wayyy often.

We probably visit 8 to 12 people or families a day! Always some investigators, always some less actives, and always an active member or two! :)

Right now our apartment is way clean! Because my companion told me that usually when we have interviews, Hermana Goates will come check the penches to make sure they are clean and everything! So we cleaned it wayyy good last P-day, but then she never came by to check our pench! haha but its alright because now we just have a way clean house. :)

I haven't had to give a talk in church yet! But I feel like I might soon! haha we are running out of active members that have already gave talks while I have been here! So my turn is probably coming up! 

I still love the food!!! It is all sooo good!! Nothing is too spicy here though... Which makes me a little sad!!! haha like families will tell us to be careful when we put pepper on our food, because they think its way hot!!! haha soo weird!!

My pants still fit pretty good! They are a little tight around the waist!!! haha Me and my companion weigh ourselves once a week at these little pharmacy stores! and its all in Kilos! haha but this past week I weighed 64 Kilograms which is like 142 pounds! So I have gained a little!!

Hmmm something I want in the Christmas package... The only thing I really want is a step counter!!! I want to see how many miles I walk every day!!! haha they don't sell step counters anywhere here!!! But yeah one of those would be awesome. :) Thanks in advance for sending a package!! I hope it makes it all in one piece!! haha ;)

Well I love you guys soo much and I am so grateful for such an amazing family!! Its always great hearing how every one is doing!! and yes I am still taking those vitamins! haha don't worry. :) I love you guys so much and I will talk to you guys soon!!! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

 We got some sick hair cuts this past P-day!!! This hair cut turned out alot better than my last one! haha (oops someone forgot to open their eyes too.)

 Haha check out this cool little thing we found in Centro!! We both wanted to be the girl one, but I beat him to it. 

This is the old lady who does our laundry every week! She is soo nice and we always just call her our Grandma! This is also her daughter and her grand-daughter! We are giants here I swear!!! haha :)

In the "Gringo" room waiting for General Conference to start

P-day!!!!!

October 6, 2014 (3 Months in the Mission!)

Hey hey! :) another great week! how are you all doing?? I am doing great! I loved General Conference soo MUCH!!! All the talks were soo good! I dont know why I never really appreciated Conference before the mission... We literally get to hear from living prophets!! how cool is that?! :)

It sounds like you guys had a great weekend! Thats way cool Bryson came down for the weekend and got to spend it with you guys! :) 

So I went back to Mendoza Centro this past week and finished my paper work for my Visa! Its funny because I am getting really familiar with Mendoza Centro! haha I road the 3 hour bus by myself to Centro and then I got off and got a taxi for myself and then walked to the office pench after that! haha I could have never done that 8 weeks ago when I got here!!! My spanish is definitely getting better and its alot easier for me to talk to anyone now!

That is super scary about the Mission President in Buenos Aires... I hope nothing like that happens to me! haha I hope he is all better now from that experience! 

So did you guys have a favorite talk from Conference?? I loved David A. Bednars talk at the very end! I felt like he was talking to all our investigators out here in San Rafael! and he talked a lot about "going forth and teaching all nations" and that is exactly what we are doing! I loved it so much!

Something that wasn't too cool about Conference for us out here in San Rafy... So the stake president made us watch the first two sessions of Conference (on Saturday) in Spanish!!! yeah no gringo room! Everyone of the missionaries was way mad at him haha... it sucked for us new guys, because it went from understanding 100% to understanding about 50%... But yeah we talked it over with him and then he finally let us go in a different room and watch it in english!! so thats good. :)

Well nothing too new happened this week. But I am doing really good. :) We are playing football americana today so I will hit you up with some pictures of that next week! oh did I ever tell you about the bowling place?? It isnt even open on Mondays! and it doesn't open till like 8:00pm any other day of the week! soo lame! haha but its whatever.

Well I love you guys soo much and I am so grateful for everything you have done for me and continue to do for me! I hope you guys have a great week!! :)

Love, Elder Lawrence

 Just chilling on some swings we found way far into our area the other day! 

 I took this picture on the way to Centro! There really isnt a way to explain how huge these mountains are... Just imagine that the little mountains that you see in the very front are about the size of Pine Valley... like these mountains are HUGE!

 So I had quite the cool view on my way to Mendoza Centro this past week! I was the very front seat on the top floor of this way nice two story bus!! And yes this street was lined with sycamore trees!!! Reminded me a little of our street! :)

Just chilling in the gringo room waiting for Conference to start!!!! 

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. ;)

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 :)

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!!!