Week 61 (2/28/11) Email to Family

HEY!

The news is out! I am no longer in El Jagüel. I'm in La Florida now! Our apartment is right across the street from Disney World and the Buccaneers stadium is just down the street. Its kinda nice! Change is an interesting thing. Its sad to leave the people we know and love behind but its exciting to go somewhere new, meet new people-new places, make new friends. As I packed my bags in preparation to leave the place that has been home to me for the last 7 months it made me think of cleaning my room and packing my bags before the mission. It made me think of Dad hanging out with me in my room as I organized things and got things ready to go. It made me think of how much I miss, appreciate, and love you guys. I'm excited for the change. One thing I like about change is the opportunity it gives us to change. My time in El Jagüel wasn't the best that I have had-it was actually pretty hard for me but I feel like I learned so much. I felt pretty burned out at the end. I felt at times that my flame was burning low, but I always tried to do my best and improve. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have now to have a new start and apply the things I have learned. One of my biggest regrets of my time in El Jagüel is having not spent enough time with the members. Members are key to the work and its important to have people here that support us and love us for who we are. Saying goodbyes yesterday and reflecting the last few weeks on my time in Jagüel, I realized how important it is and I'm going to do better about that here in Florida. I see this as a great opportunity that I have to make the most of. I don't have a whole lot of time left in the mission and I want to make the most of it.

On Saturday Camila got baptized. It was great. She is an impressive girl. She is one day older than Sam. June 1st. She's just a good, nice, happy wholesome girl. Not something you find very often here in Buenos Aires. The baptismal service was really good. Her mom and her sister came and the Spirit was very strong. Camila's twin member friends (Mara and Heliana De Ruvo) bore their testimonies at the end and the three of them were all crying. I think she will continue to progress well in the Gospel of Christ. I am waiting for Bryce to send me pictures of the baptism and then I'll send some your way.

So this new area I am in makes a corner with El Cruce-my first area. I talked with Gabriel on Saturday and he's stoked that I'll be close so we can play some pádel again. I haven't seen that guy in forever. He's such a good guy. He's taking temple preparation classes right now and he teaches in Elders Quorum every 4th Sunday. He's doing good. I'm looking forward to seeing him again. My trainer-Elder Sobré-used to be in this area too.

So they made a bunch of new rules recently, one of the which is that we can't go to the offices unless its to get our documents out or something else I can't remember. That limits the opportunities we have to retrieve our packages. Elder Bryce and I were both excited to get packages today and they didn't even bring anybody's packages. It's kind of annoying but there's not really anything we can do about it. The package you sent is here in Buenos Aires I'm pretty sure-just sitting there-waiting for the line of command to get it to me. Oh well. ¿Qué va a hacer?

So now I'm in Florida and things are looking up. I'm excited for the change and I'm going to make the most of it. I love you guys! I look forward to reading your emails next week. ...ermhrmh *cough*Pete*cough*Sam* hrmhrmh... I hope everything is going well. I can't believe school is almost to vacations again for you guys. School just started for the kids here today. Summer vacation just ended. They will just be finishing when I finish my mission, so basically I have a school year left. Seems like a lot but it will go fast. I love you guys!

Love, Matt

Week 60 (2/21/11) Email to Family

Hello? Anybody there?
Hey peeps. This could be the last email you recieve from Jagüel.
I'm hoping to get transferred to La Costa(the coast). I would love
that. It just isn't very likely because there are only a few Elder
areas there. If not I want to go to La Plata. We'll see though. I saw
a monkey this week! Elder Bryce and I were walking down the street and
I looked over to the left side of the street and as soon as my mind
registered what I was looking at I was like 'Dude a monkey!' It was
about the size of Indy and Max put together. We went over to the
monkey's house and he climbed to the top of the metal barred fence. He
wasn't on a rope or leash or anything. He reached out to grab the
leaves on the tree. I asked the guy there if it was their pet and he
said yeah. I asked if it bites and he said it will eat me. I reached
out my hand to shake its hand and it reached out its hands and
squeezed onto my fingers. It felt like it had little leather gloves
on. I pulled back and it let go. He reached out again and I put my
hand out for him again. It was so weird! Then he climbed down our side
of the fence and sat on the ground and scratched his butt on the
ground. Then he yawned. It's amazing how human-like monkeys are. When
I was in elementary school, I always wanted to have a pet monkey. When
I saw that monkey it awakened the childhood dream within me. A pet
monkey would be so awesome. The monkey climbed the fence and went back
into the yard. It was just like a dog, just wandering around his yard
doing whatever. Just part of the family. Crazy. I'm going to write
another email while I'm here using the internet but I'm going to send
this right now so that if you see it you'll write me!

Hey I don't have much else to write for this week. I'll be having my
first baptism here in El Jagüel this weekend either Saturday or
Sunday. Camila Dominguez will be getting baptized. She's a really good
girl and she's really excited for her baptism. It will be a good way
to end my stay here in El Jagüel. Yesterday was one of the best
Sundays I have had on my mission. Santo came to church for the first
time and LOVED it. He said he thought it would be good but not THAT
good. He was excited to tell his wife and daughter how great it was.
We had two lunch appointments one of which we took to the apartment
and ate for dinner. When we went back to the pench after lunch for
language study the neighbor had some CCR blasting out of his car. It
was pretty awesome. Aren't too many voices that make me think more of
my dad than John Fogerty's. Good stuff.
Lucas got in a fight with his mom and went to live at his
friend's house where they are all biker dudes and he missed his third
or fourth Sunday in a row so we won't be doing a baptism for him this
week. We went and had a good talk with his mom yesterday and I had no
idea what to say to her. I knew what I wanted to say but I didn't know
how to say it so that she doesn't get offended. I tried to focus on
what the Spirit was prompting me to say and the words just started
coming. It was great. I love when I start talking with the Spirit and
the words just come and as I say the words I'm like hey that's pretty
good! She agreed to try what we share and said she would read in the
Book of Mormon and come to church. I promised her it would help her in
her relationship with Lucas and that it would make a big difference in
her personal life.
Anyway that's all I got for this week. I love you guys. Less than
3 months and we'll be talking. Less than 10 and we'll be seeing each
other. HAHA! You guys are great!
Love, Matt

Week 59 (2/14/11) Email to Family

Hey sickos!

     I think that Lautaro is dead. I took some antibiotics after I turned in my samples and after I finished my dosage I have felt better. I still haven't gotten my results but I think it will come up negative in the Lautaro column. BUSTED! I was hoping I would get to poop a big worm into the toilet and see him swimming around with a big smile on his face. Oh well...

     I got robbed for the first time this week. It was pretty stupid. It was three kids that looked to be ages 20, 14, and 12. I will tell you the story but only if you promise not to freak out. I am okay. Don't worry about me. This is going to be hard to explain with just typed words so I'll do my best. We had to cross the railroad tracks and the freeway that runs right next to it to get where we were going. As we were crossing the freeway, I felt like we should go the other way and I turned around midstep. It was as though somebody turned me around. So I walked back to the sidewalk we had just left. I thought about it for a sec and I thought no the way we were going is better. We're going to cross the road. So we started back across the street again. We walked down to the road that runs parallel to the freeway and started down the road. As we walked we passed the 20 year old guy walking the other way. After he had about twenty feet between us he turned around and yelled to us. Hey chicos when am I going to church? When you guys take me? I looked back but was just going to ignore him and keep walking. But Elder Bryce turned around and stopped. The guy came over and shook our hands and started to walk with us. We talked to him but he didn't really seem like he was paying attention. As we approached the corner there were two kids on the corner that I didn't think anything of because they were just 12 and 14 but I was weird because they seemed to know him and came up to shake our hands. The guy that was walking with us shook our hands and said bye chicos. Then the kids shook our hands, Bryce shook the 12 and I the 14. Something just didn't seem right. All of a sudden I heard the 20 say chicos están robados-chicos you're getting robbed-I looked over at Bryce and the 20 had his hands on Bryce's backpack straps in the motion of pulling it off his back. I was like freak you've got to be kidding me. It was just a stupid situation. It seemed so not real. It seemed like a joke kind of. Then I looked over at the kid I had just shaken hands with and he had a knife pointed at me. I thought oh great you have got to be kidding me. It was a dull looking steak knife. I looked and the knife and at the kids face. He looked scared. The guy had Bryce from behind and Bryce had resisted the guy taking his backpack grabbing the guy's right hand. Bryce said when he looked him in the eye he looked scared. We could have messed them up. If we wanted to fight it would have been short and we would have sent them packing. But its not that simple and it wasn't worth the risk. I am sure that Elder Bryce alone could have taken all three of them. Like I said it is totally not worth the risk and we represent something more than just Austin Bryce and Matt Woodside. If we react with violence they will retaliate at future missionaries violently. Probably not but maybe. So I took off my backpack and asked the kid if I could take something out since I had all of my stuff to sleep for the night. *_I forgot to say that I was carrying with me the stuff I would need for exchanges later on. I was going to be spending the night in Spegazzini so I had my toothbrush, deodorant, bugspray, a t-shirt, shorts, and...my camera. I also had both chips with me because we were heading to a member's house so I could copy all my pics onto CDs before something happened to them._* It was a stupid thing to say I know but I said it. He said no and took a strap of my backpack. Bryce resigned his bag and the 20 and the 12 ran for it. The 14 saw that he was being left and tried to run but I hadn't resigned my bag yet. He tried to go and I pulled back on the strap. We struggled with the bag for about 2 seconds and I remembered the punk had a knife on him and it not being worth the risk I chose the safe route over the sorry and let go. Elder Bryce and were left alone on the corner and we looked at each other. CRAP! They got both of our bags. Both of our cameras. ALL of my pictures from the mission. All of our books. And they did it with a dull steak knife. We looked at each other for a sec and we both thought the same thing. We started chasing them. We went under the underpass right there and started the pursuit hoping we would see them enter a house so we could tell the police where they went. Otherwise there would be no seeing any of our stuff again. We went up to a house on the corner just on the other side of the under pass where a man and a teenager were standing at alert as they had just seen the punks run past. They said hey they went that way-*they turned to run parallel to the street they robbed us on*. What happened? We told them they took all of our stuff and they told us there's no way we would see them if we followed them. So instead of turning we went straight for three blocks*this street had a stream that ran on its left side* and turned right onto a pretty busy street. We got about a quarter of the way down the block and the people half a block in front of us walking at us realized who we were at the same time I realized who they were. It was the two older thiefs with my bag in his hand. They started to run and I said there they are! Elder Bryce was ticked. We started to run after them. I was being cautious in my pursuit. Elder Bryce not so much. I said hey watch out for an ambush! He kept charging ahead. I was like oh no this isn't good. They turned right at the next street which turned the direction back to the freeway. As we went around the corner there was a bus right there and someone was just laying on there horn. I didn't think anything of it. We were gaining on the punks. Elder Bryce was about ten yards in front of me. I heard a car hauling behind us, its wheels grinding on the dirt/gravel street. I thought oh no, they've got backup. I got out of the way and I yelled up to Bryce a warning about the car. He quickly got out of the way and the punks on foot took the next right. The car was close behind. We kept going but much more cautiously in case the car brought unfriendly visitors. We rounded the corner to see everybody from the whole block gathered around my backpack and a shirtless man with it in his hand. The punks had crossed the stream and escaped the man in the car but had had to ditch my backpack to run faster. YES! I jogged up to the man and grabbed his hand with both hands and thanked him. Muchísimas gracias! I thought we got all my stuff back. I quickly realized that it wasn't so. I opened my bag and it had all of Bryce's stuff shoved in mixed in with my stuff. I knew right away that my camera was gone. The man's name is Cristian. He was furious. He was swearing up a storm in Spanish saying how he wanted to kill the punks. He said if he sees them again he's going to kill them. He called them worthless pieces of crap and after his rant he turned to ask us if we're all right. We said thanks to him we're good. The man and teenager that we first talked to after crossing the underpass drove up on a motorcycle coming from the way we had just run from and had Bryce's backpack. They said it had been laying on the ground. I guess we didn't see it in pursuit. Cristian gave us a ride in his car where his wife and two daughters were back to his house and gave us something to drink. While we were there he went inside to get ready for work and left us outside on the porch. I looked through my bag and gave Bryce his books and the stuff that was his. After doing an inventory of what we had, the only things we ended up losing is my camera with the chip in it, a pair of shorts, a can of bugspray*which seems like nothing but its loss led to me having the worst night of my mission getting eaten alive by mosquitos in Spegazzini*, my consecrated oil and my mini swiss army knife keychain. They didn't find one of my chips that I had put in a pouch where pencils go. HAHA! Cristian told us if we ever need anything to let him know. He'll help us. Then he gave us a ride back across the stream to where our next appointment was. He and his wife were really nice. I thanked him and said I wished I had someway to pay him back. We gave him a pamphlet and I told him it may seem like nothing but that the message it contains will change his life for the better. He told us he's going on vacation for 15 days and after that to pass by and visit them. It was a pretty crazy experience. They are just things and I am alive and well with a crazy story to tell so don't be worried. Please. I'm fine. The chip that I recovered is the one that has the 'Are you bored?' videos so you guys will still get to see those don't worry ha. The only thing that makes me mad is how easily those stupid punks robbed us and how smug they were about it. I'm not letting my guard down again. The next couple days after I couldn't stop thinking about it. What could I have done differently to not lose my camera. What if we had just run? What if I had pulled harder on my strap as the 14 pulled back? What if...What if... What if... What could I have done differently. Sunday as I thought about it, it hit me. One simple thing that would have changed it all. It would have eliminated all of the what ifs. What if I had just listened the still prompting I received from the Spirit to turn around as we crossed the freeway and just go a different way? That is the change I should have made. I think I will listen next time.:)

     So that poses a question. What am I going to do for a camera for the rest of my mission? Elder Maxfield said that his parents can bring a camera with them for me when they come pick him up in April and I can just pay them back. What do you think Mom? You could also just send me some disposables. I don't know. However you want to do it. Whatever you do I am going to be more careful with my camera and put it inside my pants like Elder Maxfield does.

     Well that's all the time I have for this week. I sure love you guys. Keep being awesome! Don't worry about me. En serio. Two weeks left til transfers. We'll see what happens. I love you guys!

Love, Matt

Week 58 (2/7/11) Email to Family

Hey y'all!

     This week was pretty slow. I'm feeling pretty burned out here in Jagüel. I'm ready for a change. This week I hit the six month mark in Jagüel. 6 months. That's a lot! The next transfer is on February 28. I would be down for another go with Elder Bryce but I really do not want another in Jagüel. I want out! This week we went to a baptism in Spegazzini with Lucas so that he could see what a baptism is like so that he'll feel more comfortable about it. His baptism will be next Thursday. We also set a baptismal goal with Camila for the 26 of February. She is a 14 year old girl that I found with Speedy forever ago. Her best friends are twin members. We were only able to meet with her once for like ten minutes but she came to church a couple times. She wasn't doing too well in school so her mom wouldn't let her keep coming. She came the last two Sundays and we set up a visit for this past Thursday. We watched the Restoration DVD and she understood very well. It was a great lesson and I felt the Spirit. She is really ready. She's a really good girl. When I get home we'll have to watch the Restoration DVD in Spanish and I can show off how much of it I can quote.:) She didn't come to church this week though because today is the birthday of her friends and they were out late on Saturday so they slept in on Sunday. Don't get me started on birthdays. Birthdays are ridiculous here. Ridiculous. Anyway that shouldn't be a problem and she still is on track for the 26th.

     I went to the hospital in Temperley on Saturday to return my poop samples and they wouldn't take them back without a doctor's order. It was pretty lame. So after some confusion and talking with Hermana Stapley we got it figured out. I just went to the guardia which is supposed to be the ER and waited to see a doctor. He wanted to check me out but I just explained the situation and told him I just need his signature. He was cool about it and I got my ticket to drop off my poop. I'm supposed to get my results on Valentine's Day. If my test comes out positive, this will be my first Valentine's Day with a Valentine other than Mom haha.

     Today we played pádel with Elder Maxfield and Elder Gaffney. It was fun like usual. Elder Bryce and I bought some shirts this morning that are pretty cool. Not a whole lot more to report. I'm going to try to send some pics. I love you guys! Thanks!

Love, Matt