Week 41 (9/7/10) Email to family

Hey everyone!

     This week went quite a bit faster than the last one. I hope you guys in Utah are all right. I was a little worried because I was informed by somebody yesterday that there was a big hurricane that went through Utah. Ha! Hurricane! In Utah! I didn't think that was a problem in Utah but maybe it was one of Dixie College's Red Storms. Ha!

We had Zone Conference this week which was good just like always. There was an announcement that I liked-the transfer will be ending 5 days early because of a meeting the mission presidents will be having on the 25th of October. That means the transfer ends on Wednesday the 20th of October and the next transfer will be 5 days longer. Woohoo!

This week we had 5 investigators at church which is the most I have ever had. Pablo came for his 4th Sunday in a row and is cruising in the Book of Mormon. He's almost in 2nd Nephi. Isabel and Lucas(13) - a mother and son - came for the first time and they really liked it. Lucas fit right in with the other young men his age and we're hoping to set a baptismal goal with them tonight. Camila(14) came for her second week with her twin member friends - Mara and Heliana De Ruvo - and we've got an appointment to visit with her tomorrow in the De Ruvo home.

I have felt a lot these last couple of months like a Wide Receiver in football that even when I'm wide open, my QB won't throw it to me - just tucks it and runs. The only time he throws to me is as he is getting sacked and I don't know where the ball is going. I finally got some of my ideas through to Elder Gonzales this week and we've got more focus on our solid investigators. We set multiple appointments with them this week and I made some phone calls last night to have members with us in the appointments. I have often felt like we're working hard with no destination, working just to work, but I finally feel like we're headed in the right direction here in El Jagüel. I feel a lot more confident with what I am doing and I'm excited to see what happens with Pablo, Isabel and Lucas, and Camila. I think it is really important to have members involved with the work and though its not really happening as much as I'd like right now, I'll have my say in the transfer to come. The members in our ward are really great and we're not really involving them that much. We're averaging about 6 lessons with member here, but I think 10+ would be easily reached. We'll see.

Thanks for your love and support! I love you guys and hope you are doing well. Let me know how things are going and what's up with you.

Love, Matt

Week 40 (9/20/10) Email to Mom and Dad

Haaaalllllloooooooooo!

Hey! This was a long week for me. The slowest El Jagüelian week yet. I actually had thought about doing triathlons before but that's as far as I ever got. I'd like to do a triathlon with Dad. I'll whoop his butt at swim and then watch his 50 year old calves zip past me. (Dad will be turning 50 two weeks after I get home. He's gonna be an old fart.Ü) Actually he would destroy me at all of the parts but I'll have to do some training. Yeah that's right Rafael Nadal won the U.S. Open! I already knew. That's weird to me that another US Open has come and gone. I watched the last US Open just about every day. I think this win completes his career Open, though I'm not sure if he has ever won the Australian. I know he's won French and Wimbledon. I don't really want to go back ten years, sorry Mom. I like where I'm at and where I'm going, though I must admit it wouldn't be too bad to be a kid again. Let's see...Halloween goodies...I really like Fastbreaks. A pack of Fastbreaks would be kinda nice. I also like a little Hidden Valley Ranch packets in my trick-or-treat bag. Ranch is like gold here. 'Solid gold!' Yeah I got Grandma's package. I really liked those worms she sent-possibly the best gummy worms I've ever had. Man I could really go for a good Pizza Factory pizza right now. But what appeals even more to me is the PF salad bar. I think I would pay 50 dollars to have an all you can eat salad bar right now. I'm so tired of the food here. It's basically the same things over and over. And its not that good. Really heavy. Lots of meat. Your whole vegetarian thing has never appealed more to me. The only problem is that the veggies here are pretty crappy. It's starting to heat up-today's pretty hot and its still technically winter. I fear the summer. After we eat I always have the worst fiaca-that basically means when you just feel wiped, not much energy or don't feel like doing anything. The fiaca just gets worse with the heat. I think I'm going to get bumped up to senior comp this transfer so that will be a lot better. I'm about ready to take the reins. I'm tired of having somebody tell me what to do. Its easier to get excited and be ambitious when I can choose what I do. Its pretty draining being with my current comp. I completed 9 months this week. It's gone quick! In the package I got from my friends, they included a picture of me with that cake they made me. It doesn't seem like its been a year since that happened. I guess Kelsee is planning on serving a mission. She put in her papers and everything and is just waiting for her call. You'll have to ask her about it next time you go eat at the PF. That's some exciting news. Pablo says his 'wife' is okay with getting married and tomorrow we'll be figuring out about going to the registro civil to take out a turno. After that we'll know what date we can shoot for for his baptism. He came to church for the 3rd Sunday in a row yesterday. This past week we did intercambios twice. Twice because the first one only lasted 22 hours and Gonzo says it has to last 24 hours so we had to do it again, but I didn't mind. Elder Fernandez Paz came to El Jagüel both times. We had some intense Jenga competition the first night. I like intercambios. Anyway that's about all I've got for this week. Until next time. I love you guys. Thanks for the weekly emails.

Love, Matt

Week 39 (9/13/10) Email to Family

Hey familia!

Hey woodchuck chuckers better put your booties on cause it's cold out there! The groundhog saw his shadow and went back into his hole for six more weeks of winter. I will be with Gonzo for 6 more weeks. Gonzo was upset that he didn't get moved up to Zone Leader, but he just doesn't show a whole lot of love for people. You have to love the other missionaries, be encouraging, listen to them, show interest in them as people. He likes to drop the cane-Argentine phrase that basically means lay down the lay-but nobody likes hearing that. I was kinda bummed when I heard the news but I'm going to do what I can to keep learning and improving. I like the ward I'm in so it will good being here til at least December. I will be getting my second kill making me the most dangerous Elder in the mission. That will make me level up more than a few times and bump me up to Latino Slayer. Thats some pretty good experience points there. Pablo Chaves came to church yesterday for the second Sunday in a row and we set a baptismal date for him in October. It's good to finally see some progress. Pablo is 23 and his girlfriend lives with him and they have a 2 year old daughter. --The whole marriage thing is a mess here because people don't think its important, a LOT of the people living together aren't married. Its how the culture is here.-- Pablo recently had a big tumor removed from his left ear for the fifth time. He's hoping it doesn't come back again. At church yesterday he gave me a pen with string weaved around it that says JESUCRISTO on one side and WOODSIDE on the other. It was pretty cool. Pablo is a good guy. He's got a lot of faith. He likes reading the Book of Mormon because of the peace he gets when he reads it. The Book of Mormon really has power to change lives and fill people's lives with peace and happiness. We've got a Family Home Evening planned with the Villagra family tonight and Pablo says he's going to come, so that will be good for him. I got a package today from STG Friends. It was a good package. It had licorice and letters from Charity, Maddy, Kelsee, Ren Quinn, McLain, and Nick Barnum. It was good to hear from some people I hadn't heard from for a long time. I also got a letter from Greg that I really liked. It seems weird that he speaks 'Castellano' and knows about Alfajors and Argentine things. Pretty cool. --I wrote more before but my computer was being dumb and I lost what I had and now I have to go. Until next week. I love you all.

Love, Matt

Week 38 (9/6/10) Email to the Family

Hey!

El Jagüel basically means the swamp, or the marsh. I didn't really understand why until this week. It rained five days in a row and since the majority of the streets here are dirt, it was a muddy mess! We played padel today with Gabriel and Elders Maxfield and Henrie. They announced on Thursday that we can't do stuff with missionaries from other zones. I was really bummed because I was looking forward to playing all transfer. Elder Maxfield called President this morning to ask permission and he said yes! WOOHOO! Speedy wasn't too excited. He wasn't very cool about it. It was good to see Gabriel again. He's such a good guy. On our way to the padel courts he asked if I have had any new baptisms. I said, Nope you're still my last baptism. He smiled and put his arm around me. I put my arm around him and said if I don't baptize any more people on my mission, that's okay with me. You're worth a thousand baptisms to me. I love that guy. We played padel for about an hour and a half. I played really bad but it was still fun. Gabriel is going to come to transfer meeting next week. I'm hoping for some good news this Saturday night but I think I'm going to be with Speedy for another month and a half. I did exchanges with the zone leaders this week and that went well. I really like doing exchanges. It was good to be able to spend a day with someone that I could enjoy being with. I spent a day with Elder Jeldes in 9 de Abril. He and my other zone leader Elder Robledo trained guys from my group. Its easy to wonder why I couldn't have been put with one of them at the start but the Lord knows what he's doing and I trust him. Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. Its tough being with my companion because I don't feel much if any love from him for me or for the people we are teaching. Its really frustrating. I'm reading in the New Testament right now and its good to read about the example Christ gave. He loved all of the people. In theBook of Mormon in Mosiah I think chapter 3, it says that even with all of the persecution he recieved he never opened his mouth. This transfer I have had a lot of Dad's advice from growing up going through my head and it has been helpful. Maybe I didn't listen back then, but I see now that he was right. Nothing really new this week to report. I'm coming up on 9 months. I can't believe it. 15 months ago we were starting the summer. That's about the time we did Subway as a family. Not that long ago. Time is going so fast. I hope everything is well with you guys. I love you guys a lot! Thanks for your support and prayers. Next week is a new transfer so that's all from me for transfer 5.

Les amo!

Love, Matt

Week 37 (8/30/10) Email to the Family

Hello from El Jagüel! I had my first dream in Spanish that I actually understood last night. I dreamed that I was playing soccer with the other missionaries and I had to use the bathroom so I went off by myself and I had to cross a crosswalk at a red light. As I crossed, the first car honked its horn and I looked as the window rolled down, it was Dad! He said hey buddy you need a ride? I was like yeah! I hopped in the car and the whole family was in there. It didn't seem to me like a big surprise or anything out of the ordinary. I thought to myself, I'm going to impress them with my Spanish speaking skills, -even though Dad had asked me if I needed a ride in Spanish. I started talking in Spanish and much to the the dismay of my dream-self, they could all speak Spanish too, so they weren't impressed. Pete made a comment about how there are a lot of pandas here in Argentina and that confused me. I thought maybe he meant pandillas-which means gangs-but he said no that he meant pandas. I was still confused but I just went with it. Then Dad dropped me off at the bathroom-the bathroom had to have been really far away!-and drove off like it was nothing. There was a member of the church close to where I got dropped off and he gave me a displeased look like-Elder you're not supposed to visit your family on your mission. I got defensive and said, 'That was not planned!' He let it go and I headed toward the bathroom and I woke up and I realized that I had just dreamed in Spanish. It was a pretty weird dream. I also do a lot of my thinking in Spanish. It feels weird. When I think of memories, they're mostly in Spanish even though they happened in English.

     This week we went clear to the other side of our area to contact a reference somebody had given us. We passed a house and a man was standing outside so we stopped to talk to him. He acted like he didn't want to talk to us but he came over and shook our hands. He asked my companion's name first, then he asked mine. He said what sounded like Herman. I just assumed he was saying his name. He looked at me like he was waiting for a response. I said nice to meet you. He said it again. Herman. Again he looked at me waiting for a response. After an awkward moment, I said again, nice to meet you. Then he said it again. Herman. I looked at my companion to see if he was confused as I was. He looked like he knew what he was saying and he was waiting for a response as well. I gave a nervous laugh and said I don't understand. The man brushed it off and asked my comp where he's from. He said Perú. He turned me and asked where I'm from Germany? I said no I'm from the U.S. He looked kind of confused/amused and then said again Herman. I was so confused. He said 'Don't you speak English? Herman.' Then he just went off speaking in a language I have never heard in my life. If that was English then things have changed since I have been gone. He looked at me expectantly and I said I didn't understand again. He strung off again in his perfect English. I didn't know what to say. I looked at my companion again and he still looked at me expectantly. I just kind of chuckled and didn't say anything. The man looked kind of disappointed. He told me he learned English here in Argentina. Haha. He told us his name is Victor. We talked for a second about who we are and what we do. He said something about musical instruments and said something about a harmonica. He said he plays the harmonica. I said wow that's great! He headed toward his house and opened his gate. He was really excited. He said come in come in I'll show you! He ran in his house so we passed in to his front porch table. We didn't know what to do. He seemed like he might be kind of drunk. As we waited I looked at his tablecloth. It looked familiar. After a second I realized why. It was a Twister mat. It made me laugh to myself. My companion was confused. Victor came out with a small harmonica and a medium one. I could hear a faint electric guitar sound coming from inside. He said do you like this music? I could only tell it was elec. guitar that's it. Then he started singing loud while pretending to play guitar. He changed his voice to mimic the singer. He was singing in his Argentine-English jibberish accent not even formulating words but the way he sang I thought to myself that has got to be John Foggerty. He stopped for a second and I heard a familiar Creedence Clearwater Revival song playing from inside. Haha! Then he whips out his small harmonica and just starts sucking and blowing on it. He did it for about 15 seconds and finished with a pleased look on his face. We were like wow that's really good! Then he grabs the medium one and does the same. Suck blow suck blow. It reminded me of the harmonica that we played with at Mark and Lynn's house. The one that got me sick. I didn't even want to think what would happen to me if I played with his harmonica. He was very pleased with his harmonica skills. We praised him on his talents and we said a prayer with him and started heading out. He asked us how old we were and we told him to guess. He guessed 20 for me. Right on! My companion said alright what about me? He looked at him for a second and said uh less than that. Haha it was pretty funny. We invited him to an activity we had that night and he said he would come only if he could find a girlfriend there. We headed on our way. He didn't show up, but it was a pretty funny experience.

Well that's all the time I have for this week so I'll stay in contact. I love you guys!

Love, Matt