Week 57 (1/31/11) Email to Family

Hey Family!

     Lautaro says hi too. So this week I get to poop in a plastic bag! Then I have to take a small spoonful of the poop each time I go and put it in a flask with fermaldihyde(however you spell that). It's pretty crappy. I'll be done on Saturday, then I have to take it back to the lab at the hospital in Temperley and a week later we'll find out what's wrong with me. It'll be good to get to the bottom of it so I can start feeling normal again. My poop is pretty crazy looking and I tried to send some pics but it wouldn't work. Nothing too exciting happened this week other than that. I'm still waiting for Mom's package. I thought it would be here but it wasn't. I got Uncle Dave's package though. That was good to get. Tell them I said thanks! Its so hot here. Mostly humid but it feels so hot in black pants and a collared shirt with a tie. Sometimes its hard to pull my garment top off because it is stuck to my sweaty body. Last night we lost power and it was hard to sleep without the fans running. It rained too. I'm not a big fan of the weather here. I have been here in El Jagüel for so long now. I'm ready to get out. I'm ready for a new area. New streets, new faces, new experiences. I'd love to be with Bryce for one more but I don't think I could do another transfer in Jagüel. I'm doing good though. We're trying to do what we can to get things going here. We're hoping that Lucas will be getting baptized on the 17 of Feb. He's a 13 year old kid that we've been visiting since September maybe even August. He's so close. Well that's all for now. I love you guys!

Love, Matt

Week 56 (1/24/11) Email to Family

Hey best family in the world!

     So I think I have a tapeworm. His name is Lautaro. I have never felt the way I do now before in my life. It's kind of weird. It's not necessarily bad, it's just not super comfy and it kind of weirds me out to think that a big flat worm named Lautaro might be living inside of me. I'm going to call the mission nurse tonight to find out what I need to do to find out. Whenever they feed us here, they give us a lot. The way they eat here is basically one meal a day: lunch. After lunch we are always really full, but lately it has been a little different. When I eat a lot, about an hour later I feel hungry in a way. I still feel like I have stuff inside of me but I feel like I need nutrients. I feel like my body is asking for more food even though I just ate a ton. It's because Lautaro is eating it all! My poop has been kind of strange too. The other day I pooped and the toilet paper was black and I mean black. I looked in the toilet and there were little black particles covering the turds and there were black particles settled on the bottom of the toilet. Little Lautaro poopies? They just might be. Then the next day I pooped and when I wiped it looked like black with big white boogers on the paper. I looked in the toilet and it looked like it had the day before but it had this snot stuff in all of the cracks. Maybe Lautaro's having his own little problems. And that's how I have been pooping this last week. Sorry to gross you guys out but that's how it is. I'm pretty sure there is something wrong with me so hopefully I can get down to the bottom of this. If Lautaro really exists than he better be really long just so it makes the story better.

     It's been pretty stormy here lately. It's supposed to rain a lot this month. Elder Bryce and I are predicting that Buenos Aires is going to flood. It has also been really hot. The rain just makes it really really humid. These last few days have been SO hot. Today was cleaning day and while I was cleaning the floor in our apartment this morning, I was soaked with sweat. It was dripping off my nose. I was soaked. I had a hard time getting my t-shirt off. Elder Bryce and I played pádel today. We were supposed to play with Maxfield and Gaffney but they were sick so we played alone. Its better with four but it was still fun. I'm looking forward to playing tennis with Sam. It made me want to watch some grand slam tennis.

     So we met with Guillermo this week and the first thing he said when we sat down is that they're not getting married. He seemed very set on it. We had planned to teach the law of chastity. That was not what I wanted to hear but I wasn't going to let it slip away that easy. I told him we're going to talk about it but we're going to do a prayer first. While the member woman we brought with us prayed, I pleaded with the Lord that we would have the Spirit with us, that the lesson would go well and that they would get married. I felt a warm calm come over me and I was confident it would go well. After the prayer, Guillermo left the room to get his book and Bryce looked at me and said what are we going to do? He was worried about it. We tell him this is it? Take it or leave it? I shook my head no. I wasn't giving up that easy. I knew it would go well. We had an awesome lesson with them. The Spirit was strong and I was guided by the Spirit in that lesson, no doubt in my mind. I kind of went against the promptings at one point thinking I knew better and when I almost got frustrated with them when they said they weren't getting married under man's laws, I caught myself, calmed myself down and let the Spirit do its work. They realized the importance and not only said they would get married, but they seemed kind of excited about it. It was a good lesson.

     Things are going well here and I hope all is well at home. I love you guys lots and I hope you are all happy. You guys are totally piola. Thanks for being the best family ever.

Love, Matt

    

Week 55 (1/17/11) Email to Mom

So last week Elder Coats, my district leader came here to Jagüel with Bryce and said he was going to find out if Guillermo is married or not. When you ask if people are married you kind of have to dig to find out because if you just ask a simple how long have you been married, they'll tell you how long they've been together. Coats told me that yes they are married. So this last week we were at Guillermo's house and I felt like I needed to be sure about the marriage thing so I pulled out my arsenal of seemingly innocent marriage probe questions. Turns out they aren't married. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE JUST GET MARRIED?! I'm so tired of the whole marriage problem. Guillermo is progressing great and was supposed to be getting baptized this coming Saturday but now he's going to have to wait til they get married which I don't know how long that will be. He seemed to take it well when I told him he has to get married before he gets baptized but he seemed a bit taken aback, kind of discouraged. The next time he and his wife were there and they seemed fine with it, even made a couple jokes about how they've been dating for 23 years, but still he seems a tiny bit not as committed or excited or I don't know. He didn't come to church and wasn't there for the last appointment we had with him. I think everything is fine, its just a small setback, and he will continue moving forward; I expect to see him in the water before I leave.

     I kind of feel like I'm missing some kind of the formula to getting people baptized. It has now been 7 months since I have helped someone make the covenant of baptism and that is a long time in this mission. I am finding people and setting goals with them to help them reach baptism, but somewhere along the line something happens and they drop off. I couldn't help but feel a little discouraged last night as my 5th dry transfer in a row came to an end-I'm trying and working hard, but it made me reflect and think about what I need to change, what I need to sacrifice to take my effort to the next level to find the people that are looking for the truth. Elder Bryce and I talked about it last night and set some goals for the transfer to come to be more obedient, to sacrifice more to be more diligent so that we can prove to the Lord and the Spirit that they can trust us and show us where to find the people that are waiting. I read a good talk by Elder Scott from the Ensign with King Benjamin on the front about recieving personal inspiration from the Holy Ghost. That is something that I feel like I really need to learn out here on the mission. President Eyring said somewhere-I'm not really sure when or where-that he doesn't understand why sometimes some of us have to try so hard and sacrifice so much-more than other people- to prove to the Holy Ghost that he can depend on us and show us where the prepared people are at. I feel like the Lord wants me to learn this process before he shows me where they're at. It's a trial for me to learn from. To show that I really want it. I really want to learn to work with the Spirit. To be able to discern what He is trying to tell me. My patriarchal blessing talks about working with the Spirit on my mission to have success and I don't feel like I have been giving my all. I have been working hard but I haven't given my all. I want to be able to say I gave my all when my work here is done. We're going to take it to that next level this transfer. The Lord needs valiant servants and I hope that I can show the Lord that He can depend on me. Thanks for everything Mom. I love you!

Love, Matt

Week 54 (1/10/11) Email to Family

Hey everybody!

     Nothing too exciting happened this week. Guillermo is progressing well. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and the second part of The Plan of Salvation where it talks about what happens after this life. He's excited and he's right on track for his baptism next Saturday. It's possible that this is the last time I will be emailing you guys from the old Jagüel, but I'm hoping I'll be with Elder Bryce for one more. I think I'll be here for another go around. We'll see what happens on Saturday night. Today we ate breakfast at the mission home with four other zones and we left to go play padel with some other companionships from the zone but couldn't find any clubs that were open. So we spent a long time walking around for nothing. Oh well! I'm so jealous of you guys getting to watch the Championship game tonight. I want to watch it so bad! I'll be in bed by the end of the first quarter. You guys should have somebody tape it so I can watch it next year.:) Go Ducks! I want to watch it.... Enjoy it for me! Not really a whole lot more to tell. Just keep being awesome. Oh yeah, Jim sent me a couple Halloween pics. You guys are looking good. Keep trying to get your pics sent Mom, I'm looking forward to it. I love you guys.

Love, Matt

Week 53 (12/31/10) Email to Family

Hola familia Goodsight. Get the Hello Dollies and the Christmas Tree ready because I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! Here we are at the close of 2010, a good quick year with its share of ups and downs. I'm looking at the last day of my black year. I've got a fair share of time under my belt but I feel like I'm just getting started. I feel like what I have done up until now has just been preparation and the good times are just getting rolling. This year will be better because I have more control of my destination, I'm in the driver's seat of my future. It will be great to get home and be with you guys for Christmas but I am glad that I still have so much time left, I feel like I still have a lot to accomplish and things to do. I'm not done yet. Just getting started.
     Today isn't P-Day but they gave us time today to do email because the cibers probably won't be open tomorrow. We have P-Day tomorrow and again on the 3rd so that will be kind of different having two P-Days in three days. I'm not complaining, but I would have rather had them stay spread out. These last couple of weeks have been kind of screwy with the Holidays and the change up of P-Days. I'm ready for it to go back to normal. Guillermo made it to church on Sunday and he is progressing well on his way to baptism. I love seeing people making the necessary changes in their lives to qualify for el bautismo y el Espíritu Santo. I love witnessing the satisfaction people get from changing their lives for the better by following the example and teachings of our Savior Jesucristo, when they find that extra happiness they didn't notice they were missing. Recently Elder Bryce and I have been focusing on changing our teaching to help the people understand WHY?. Why is baptism essential in our lives here on earth? Why did Christ come to earth? Why are we here on earth? Why is life so hard sometimes? Why is baptism by the proper authority so important? Why do I need to know for myself if Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus? Why was a restoration necessary? Why is the Book of Mormon important and why do I need to read it? Why do I need to know if it is true? Why? The answers to the why questions are SO important for each and every one of us as children of God with the potential to become as he is, because without that knowledge we have no reason to do anything. There is no motivation for us to make the difficult but necessary changes in life that enable us to return to live with God and our families after this life is over. I know why and I am very grateful to God for the family he has given me and for the opportunity he has given us to find out why and how we can be a family after this life is over. I love you Mom, Dad, Pete, and Sam. Thanks for everything. I'll be writing in 2 days. Until next year chau chau.
Love, Matt