Week 69 (4/25/11) Email to Family

Hey I have a question. What happens in 8 months? ... A WHITE CHRISTMAS THAT'S WHAT!!! YEAH!!!

This week was pretty uneventful. It was the semana santa and a LOT of our appointments fell through. It was a pretty slow week but Sypherd and I are doing good. Last week on P-Day I bought some things among which were a t-shirt for Mom that I hope is the right size. It's a cool Adidas Argentina shirt with the Argentine sun on the front. I also bought some long yellow Nike socks for really cheap that will go well with my yellow cleats. They might be a bit flashy for me though. Either way they'll be good night time winter socks if nothing else. I also bought the Argentine version of Stratego for cheap. That game always makes me think of when I used to play it with Dad when I was younger. It's a good game. I also bought some shorts from my favorite soccer team, Independiente, for 25 pesos. Another good buy. I want to buy an Independiente jersey before I go but I have to wait til I find a deal. Independiente is the favorite team of Gabriel and Hermano Cardozo as well.:) Maxfield sent me an email this week. It's weird to think that he is in the US now. He said it was good seeing you guys and he said Sam is a giant. He said he thinks Sam is taller than me. Yikes. He said he really enjoyed showing his family around here. I think it would be cool for you guys to come and see what it's like here. How long would we be here if you come? It would be pretty crazy if we got back on Christmas. It would be cool if you guys could see the crazy Christmas Eve midnight fireworks show that would be completely illegal in the US. It's pretty impressive. I wouldn't really care if I didn't spend Christmas in the US as long as I'm with you guys. I'm cool with whatever you guys decide though. I do think it would be good for you guys to see though. It would make you appreciate what you've got.

I love you guys!

Love, Matt

Week 68 (4/18/11) Email to Family

Hey!

My first week with Elder Sypherd has gone quite well. We had some successes and some interesting experiences. It was a good week. On Monday we had changes and after we took Sypherd's bags back to the pench we went back to Varela and ate lunch with Elders Spencer, Beltran, McCrary, and Champlin. This is my third time being in the same zone as Elder McCrary and Spencer and the second time with Champlin and Sypherd. I bought some last second stuff for Sam and Pete for the Maxfields to take back with them. On Tuesday we went to lunch with the Maxfields at the Peruvian restaurant that Maxfield and I used to always go to and it was sooo good. I forgot how good it really was. Sypherd said it was the best food he's had in the mission so far. I must second that. It was really cool being with Maxfield and his parents. A little weird considering they had been in the USA the day before. They seemed like something from a dream. They're really nice people. He's got some good parents. It was weird having Maxfield out of the loop. There were a couple times during the week when something would happen and I would think to call him and ask him or tell him something but then I would realize I couldn't because he's done. He's on an airplane right now I think heading home. Its weird.

Elder Sypherd and I were looking for an inactive family this week and I looked in the member list we have to look for their address and I looked at their names. It usually has the heads of the family offset to the left a little and I saw the ages of the two offset names and I said man I really hope this is a father-daughter and it just lists them both as heads of the family. We got there and they let us in. They were really good people. He's a karate teacher. It turns out they are married. He's 73 years old and he won't be double her age for 13 more years. You do the math. They're nice and they're happy so whatever works for them, I don't have a problem, I've just never heard of such a big age difference in a marriage. 43 years. They've got three boys of 7, 5, and 2. If somebody told me my wife won't be born for 23 years I wouldn't even laugh. Yikes! No sir.

When I was with Elder Watt there was one night at 8:30 and we didn't have anything to do. Clapping houses at night very rarely yields results and he just wanted to go back to the pench. I told him I wouldn't go back to the pench early. We gotta go the second mile. He didn't want to clap houses so he kinda just followed me. We clapped a few houses with no results. I went with a prayer in my heart that something good would come of the extra effort. We passed a house with a bunch of kids outside playing together and I asked if their parents were home. One of the little girls ran inside and came back out and said no they're busy. We said thanks and turned to keep walking and one of the little kids-5yr old-shouted hey wait! My mom's home and she's not busy, go visit her! We live over there on the corner, go talk to my mom! We looked at each other and went over to talk to his mom. She came out and we talked to her for a few minutes. She was really nice and told us if we came back another day when its lighter outside she would be happy to talk to us. Her name is Silvia and she's coming along quite well now. She's a really nice lady, probably 50ish with two little kids 4 and 5 year olds.

Braian, Anahí's 13 year old cousin came to church again and during sacrament asked me how soon he can get baptized. That he wants to get baptized now. So we'll be over there teaching him the stuff so that he can get baptized soon. He's a good kid. He and a bunch of other kids in the ward came to the church to play soccer on Saturday and it was really fun. I'm not too bad at soccer now. It's fun stuff. Anyway that's all the time I've got for this week. I love you guys and I look forward to hearing from you next week Sam.

Love, Matt

Week 67 (4/11/11) Email to Family

Hey everybody!

This shift key on this keyboard sucks so i'm not going even bother capitalizing anything. i will be spending the next transfer with.....elder sypherd! elder sypherd was in my last zone and we were there together for 4 months and his trainer, elder coats and i, are good buds. i had done an exchange and spent a day with him before. he's a good guy. he's really quiet though. he kinda reminds me of scott serage. elder coats was having a hard time getting him to talk in the lessons when he was new so we'll see how he is now. coats also told me that he gets discouraged easily as well. i'm not worried. i really like elder sypherd so i'm excited and willing to help him in any way i possibly can. i feel like that's something i am really good at isconnecting with people that aren't popular or really social and making them feel good-being a friend to them and not just superficially. president sent me an email saying that he was putting him with me because he thinks i will be able to help him feel loved and to help him grow as a person and as a missionary.

Elder maxfield is done now. all that he has to do now is wait til tomorrow when his parents come and he'll be going around with them until next week. they're going to come by tomorrow and me and sypherd are going to go to lunch with them at the peruvian restaurant maxfield and i used to go to every week after district meeting back in the day and i'm going to put together a package for maxfield to take home to give to pete in salt lake. the package will include a disc with pictures and the videos you guys are dying to see. i am now at the point in my mission where maxfield was when i left him in el cruce. weird! time goes so fast. also speaking of ex-companions, elder spencer got transferred today to my zone so it'll be fun having him around again. he's a fun dude.

I'm jealous of the ultimate. who else did you guys play with? that's good to hear that sam's still got the skills because we're going to be the best brother trio ever. i think we'll have to make a new team name though. something cool. with cooler shirts. yeah. maybe just shirts for us three.

we played some fun soccer on saturday for mutual and we had several investigators there. elias is a 16 year old paraguayan kid that is the friend of a member and he plays amazing. he had some experiences with the church in paraguay and he wants to start coming to church. he's a cool guy. we're also going to start working with a 13 year old kid named braian that is the cousin of the girl we baptized a few weeks ago. he came to church this week and really liked it.

Well that's all for this week. i sure love you guys and sure look forward to being with you guys again. you're the best! we'll be talking in about a month.

love, matt

Week 66 (4/4/11) Email to Family

Hey guys!
Not a whole lot to report here. Conference was super duper. In between sessions on Sunday we held the baptism of nine year old Anahí Llano. It was a really good experience and the Spirit was strongly present just as in every baptism. On Saturday we made breakfast at their house with Elders Thueson and Vergara and afterwards Thueson did the baptismal interview. We made french toast and it was delicious. While Elder Thueson and I were cooking he turned the bread over in his pan and it was a little black. He looked at me and said man I don't know how my mom does it but every time she makes french toast, it looks perfect! I said yeah mine too. I said moms are just awesome like that. They really liked the french toast. It was something new to them and it was funny watching them try to figure out how its eaten. I made Maxfield's buttermilk syrup recipe and Thueson made his mom's vanilla syrup. It was a good time. Its interesting because Anahí has a 13 year old cousin that lives in El Jagüel named Aaron that I knew. He is a really good kid. Really polite with a funny sense of humor. Aaron lives with his dad and we did most of Anahí's teaching in the house of Aaron's mom with his sister present. Anahí's mother doesn't go to church but she goes with her grandma and her aunt Analía- Aaron's mom. Whenever we go over there Analía asks me to tell her about Aaron. She doesn't get to see him very much. They're probably my favorite family to visit here in La Florida. Analía kind of reminds me of my own mom.
This is the last P-Day of the transfer. Next week I may have a new companion, but I doubt I'll go to a different area. We'll see what happens. I love you guys lots and I'll be talking to you in about a month! Yeah!! Thanks for your support.
Love, Matt

Week 65 (3/28/11) Email to Family

Hey guys not a whole lot new here. I had a cold this week. The weather is cooling off, we busted out our sleeping bags and jackets. We did a really fun activity this week as a zone with our collective investigators and recent converts. It went really well. We played basketball today. It was me and Watt and three terrible(I mean how well they play) Latins against four good Americans and a Latin and we kicked butt. It was really fun. We worked really well together and I had a bajillion blocks. We also played soccer and I accidently kicked the ball over the fence and almost killed an old lady with it. I'm actually not a bad soccer player and I really like playing now. I'm out of time for this week-I spent most of it emailing Sam. Until next week. I love you guys!
Love, Matt

Week 64 (3/21/11) Email to Family

Hey guys!
First off I want to congratulate you guys on the improved performance this week. You guys improved your combined email lengths by a total of 125 lines from last week to this week. That's what I'm talking about! That's an average of 33 lines each. Yeah! I'm so proud of my family.
Anyway, things are going good here in La Florida. We're getting the members here excited to work with us here in the obra misional. My talk went great and the bishop told me it was really really good. He seemed very pleased which is good. We need his trust. The future here in La Florida is already looking brighter. When I came here I wanted to change the way I did things and it looks like it is going to be paying off. Not yet, it is something that takes time but I think I have finally found a way that works good for me.
We have an investigator here that is nine, her name is Anahí, and her mom is an inactive member that said she won't let her daughter get baptized til she turns 10 in November. Anahí goes to church every week with her grandma and her aunt with her older sister. We had never met the mom but we got an appointment with her for last night and we prepared a lesson for her focused on why baptism and more specifically the gift of the Holy Ghost is important even for a nine year old. We helped them see why it is so important and how it will help her. Its true, even after the age of 8 children aren't going to know a lot, but they can know/feel that it is the right thing to do by the power of the Holy Ghost before baptism. They aren't going to know a lot but it is something they need to help them make good choices and be protected from the influence of the adversary. It was really good and at the end her mom gave permission for Anahí to get baptized.
So this week we did back to back exchanges so Elder Watt and I went 2 days without each other, it was kinda weird. Anyway I went to Bosques with Elder Champlin (he was in Damien's class in the MTC) for part 2 of the back to back exchange. He told me that he and Velasquez, his companion, had found a list earlier in the week that lists all of the missionaries that have served in Bosques, kind of like geneology, and that it goes back to 1989. I realized that Greg had told me in a letter that he started his mission in none other than Bosques. I told Champlin that he had to show it to me when we got back to the pench. When we got back he got out the list and in the year 2002 it lists one Elder Bailey as being companions with our very own Elder Barnett. How crazy is that!? I thought it was very cool. I am honored to have worked a day of my mission in the very same area as my cousin Greg Barnett did on his mission. Yeah that's right. Good stuff right there.
Alright guys that's all the time I've got for this week. I love you guys and thanks for writing to me.:) Hasta la proxima.
Love, Matt

Week 63 (3/14/11) Email to Family

Hey guys, not a whole lot to report here. I think the stat of the week is that you guys averaged a line and a half of text each for email this week, making Dad the weiner. I thought the tsunami was in Japan, not Utah. I've now been here in La Florida for two weeks and I've already accustomed to the new place. A goal I had coming in here was to start off on a good foot with the members getting to know them right away and establishing a good relationship with each of them. Working with members is key and I haven't been doing a very good job of that. I remember having the missionaries at our house in the past and I loved it. I loved having the missionaries over. Had we had Elders at our house when I was in high school I probably would have been more open with friends like Aditya about the church. I just want to do my best to love the people and enjoy my time here with them and make the most of it. The rest will come with some work. I feel like its going good so far. The bishopric has assigned me to give a talk this next Sunday about missionary work so that will be a good way to get the members excited about getting involved and having us over at their houses. I'm actually excited for it. It'll be my first talk here on the mission.
The weather is cooling down a bit. It was cold yesterday and we wore sweaters out to work for the first time this year. I'm not looking forward to winter but I do like change so bring it on. Well that's all the time for this week. I'm looking forward to emails from all 4 of you next week.
Enjoy your spring break! I love you guys.
Love, Matt