Argentina Week 1: 1st Area: Tucuman in a city called Alderetes, Baptism of Cecilia, Faith, Patience and Making a Difference for that One

Well this week has been crazy and I don’t have a lot of time to write so I gotta type fast haha.

So we got into Salta Monday night. All the plane rides were not fun but I guess that’s ok. The first night we ate at President Chaparro’s house and had some delicious meat. I’m not sure what it was, haha but it was good haha, and we had some other stuff. The next day we had interviews and meetings in the mission home and met our new companions and we had empanadas! Holy smokes those were amazing!!! My companion is Elder Hermansen. He is from Sandy Utah and he is a very cool guy and a good Missionary.

I am in Tucuman in a city called Alderetes. So before I left on the Mission I said I wanted my first area to be super ghetto and have to shower in a bucket. Well I got exactly that except for the shower part haha. We have a shower and we also have a biday. Ya the biday is weird. 

This area is super poor. All the people here live in one room houses made out of cinder blocks. It is really sad to see how some people have to live and it is very humbling. Tucuman is known for people getting robbed haha, and today we went shopping and Elder Burr, the older Elder in our pension, almost got robbed haha so I will be careful. I don’t carry my wallet with me. I just carry 50 pesos on me if we need a taxi or a bus. We walk mostly though.

We eat lunch everyday with members. I eat a lot of rice and meat and a lot of soda. I have been staying away from soda for a while but here the soda is more common than water so everybody has soda.

Today we went to a sandwich place for lunch called Dogsy and it was really good. I had like a steak sandwich with a bunch of stuff on it and then we went shopping. There is pretty much nothing American here so all the food in the store is different, but the food is alright. We have bread with like every meal and the bread is really good here. I have also had pasta too but empanadas in Salta was the best thing I had so far.

I know why they call it Salta La Linda now. It’s because everywhere else here is ugly haha, especially Buenos Aires. Alderetes is very poor and ugly too. There is trash everywhere and there is always a fire everywhere cuz people just burn their trash and leave the fire haha.

The people here are so cool and I love teaching our investigators! I already had a Baptism haha!! Her name is Cecilia and she is so awesome and her son and daughter have already been Baptized, and she just got married so the husband and other daughter are getting Baptized this Saturday, and the next, so I am way excited. They are a great family. The first day I got here me and my companion went downtown to drop off their papers and stuff to help them get married.

Baptism of Cecilia August 2, 2014

So the other night we went to teach a family that I haven’t met yet and at the end the father gave me a hug and then kissed me on the cheek.... I was shocked but didn’t say anything, and after we left the house I started crying haha, and my companion is like, are you ok, and I’m like dude, he just kissed me!!!! Ya they do that here so I’m gonna try and avoid that.

Our apartment is a lot nicer than the people’s houses here, and I’ll just leave it at that haha. So they don’t call it Spanish here, they call it Castellano and I always wondered why, but since I’ve gotten here I now understand. It’s because it’s not Spanish. I barely understand anything like I just sit there and am like whaaaaa? But I am getting better each and every day.

It has been a pretty good week but pretty scary. The first day we got on a bus and I’m hanging half way out the door and the dude starts driving. I’m like bro you are gonna kill me!!! They drive crazy here like it scares me to get into a taxi! Other than that it has been good.

The first couple days were very hard adjusting but I had a few things come to my mind! 1. 1 Nephi 3:7 -the Lord doesn’t give us anything that we can’t accomplish. I am having a hard time with the language and was wondering how in the world am I gonna do this, but the Spirit reminded me of that scripture. 2: Romans 5:3 - Bear your afflictions with patience. I also thought of Joseph Smith and everything that he went through. I thought a lot about this and it’s tough, but I know that I will adjust to living here and things will work out. And number 3, is the story of the starfish. I was thinking earlier this week, how am I gonna help all these people. I want to help them all but I know I can’t do that, so the story of the starfish helped me. There was a man walking on the beach one day at low tide and all the starfish were washed up on shore, and he was walking down the beach picking them up throwing them back in. Another man saw this and said that will never make a difference because there are so many, and as the man said this, the other man bent down again and picked up another starfish and threw it back in the water and said, it made a difference for that one. I may not be able to save everyone and help everyone here, but I know that the Lord has people out there for me that I can help make a difference. So faith, patience, and making a difference for that one, are the things I learned this week!

Oh ya we played soccer with the our district today and that was really fun. Other than that everything is great but crazy. Love you all and hope you have a good week, and I got pictures.

Love,

Elder Lester

MTC Week 6: I am leaving now…I know I just need to love the people, work hard, and rely on the Lord…and I have learned…

Holy smokes I leave in two days!!!!!!!!! I can’t even believe it right now! This week went by super fast but it has been pretty restless cuz I haven’t been sleeping good, but its ok cuz I feel fine!

We had our last devotionals Sunday and Tuesday, but we have one more tomorrow, but we won’t be in the choir tomorrow. Did I even tell you guys that me and my companion joined the MTC choir?! Haha ya, it was an interesting experience but it has been fun singing in it!

So Sunday, one of the Branch President’s counselor’s wives passed out during the closing prayer in Sacrament! We just heard a big thud and I thought it was someone who was leaning back in their chair and fell, which would have been hilarious, or I thought it was the Branch President, cuz apparently he has kidney stones and he was hurting so he was walking around in the back during the whole meeting, but nope, it was the first counselors wife. Brother McCracken ran over and gave her a blessing and she woke up a few minutes later and that was pretty cool cuz it reminded me of that Mormon message when the boy was hit by lighting during football practice and that one guy gave him a blessing. It really strengthened my testimony on Priesthood power, and me and Elder Eliason were able to give one more blessing on Sunday before we were released so that was cool!

Other than that it has just been a lot of class and teaching this week! We had a District goal of only speaking Spanish everyday this week and it was hard cuz we can teach the Gospel in Spanish but can’t talk about anything we want yet, so I had a headache everyday, haha but it was fun and I really feel like my Spanish has improved a lot this week!  But next week I’m just gonna be like uhhhhh...... what? Haha but I should be fine!

We had infield orientation yesterday and that is at main campus so I saw Elder Turner again a couple times! Main campus has way better food than the west campus haha. We ate lunch and dinner there and they definitely have the better cafeteria and they have THE WRAP STATION. Dude, Brady told me about the wrap station and said it was bomb. Holy cow it was the best thing I’ve eaten in 5 weeks haha. I had two and the first one I had the guy double wrap it and I swear this thing weighed five pounds. Oh ya, and I ate 10 cordon bleus on Sunday so I now hold the record as far as I know, and Elder Peterson wanted to challenge me and he got 9 but the poor little guy couldn’t hold them down. Ya that’s disgusting!

Speaking of disgusting how I mentioned earlier my Branch President had a kidney stone. So all day Sunday the dude is telling us in meeting and sacrament meeting about his kidney stone and he told us he prayed for his wife to get one and she did and he kept coming in and saying "it hasn’t come to pass" and he said he’s gonna bring in his collection. What the what?! That is not normal and then he emails me on Tuesday and is talking to me about it again!!!!!! So ya there is a weird disgusting story for you guys!

Today we went to the Temple but we just took pictures cuz we don’t have enough time to do a session cuz we gotta pack, so I just gotta haircut and have been packing today. And we are not aloud to have gym time today cuz they don’t want the Missionaries who are leaving to get hurt and that is a bummer but probably good cuz I have jammed 3 fingers, and I pulled a muscle in my left leg, and I got kneed in the shin like five times in the past week playing basketball haha so ya.

So when I call I will be using a payphone and I bought a calling card from the bookstore here so just make sure you answer right when I call because it will take 130 minutes off my calling card if I don’t get an answer, so make sure you have your phones on you! I arrive in Atlanta at 4:49 pm so I think in Utah it will be 2:49 pm, so dad just expect a call sometime after 3:00 pm and then Mom and everybody in Arizona just be ready around 3:00 pm your time! I still don’t know if we fly to Salta or bus to Salta, but I think it will be fun to take a bus so we can try to talk to people!

It has really hit me that I am leaving now. I am beyond excited but it’s kind of scary now cuz it is the real thing. But I know I just need to love the people, work hard, and rely on the Lord. I’m sure when I get there it will be very tempting to feel alone and scared but I just need to remember that I always have Him by my side. We all do so there is never any need to feel alone. Remember that and don’t ever let satan convince you other wise. In the past five six weeks I have learned a lot. I have learned a lot about the importance of charity and love even though I’m still horrible at it. I have learned that we are all children of our Heavenly Father and we are all brothers and sisters. I have learned that nothing really matters besides the Gospel and the people in your life. Everything else is just stuff. That is one thing that Bishop Turner said to me a lot and I never really understood it until now. I have learned that my job is to bring people to Baptism. Before I thought it was to invite them to come unto Christ, but when you invite them to be Baptized I am inviting them to come unto Christ. Baptism is the gateway and it’s the starting point to help people soon get to the Temple and to then one day return to live with our Father in Heaven again. They talked a lot about this yesterday in infield orientation and it was neat to learn about.

So that is cool that Braxley and Kolby are still cleaning Sante Fe! How do you like it Braxley?! I’m pretty sure Kolby has showed you satan’s lair by now. Haha that place was scary! That is cool that Brady is coming up here and going to UVU! Good luck. I’m sure that will be awesome!

Okay, so I have some more pictures of our district at the temple this morning and then I got some of me and Elder Bates and Elder Peterson! Elder Bates is the ginger that looks like the dude off the incredibles and Elder Peterson is the other one. Elder Bates is from Spanish fork and he is awesome. Me and him always got into it when we played volleyball cuz we could spike it like nobody’s business. He plays rugby and stuff and he is way athletic but I can still jump higher than him:) But that explains all my jammed and swollen fingers haha! Elder Peterson is from Washington and is probably one of the funniest guys I have ever met in my life! They got here 3 weeks ago so they are not leaving with us on Monday which sucks cuz we all want to be companions out in the field, but they are going to Bia Blanca, but we have become real good friends and we are gonna keep in touch!

  Elder Peterson and Elder Bates

Oh ya and I took the stereotypical Missionary picture while I was at main campus for you guys! I think that’s the big map everybody gets a picture at? I have no idea!!

Well I’ve got some more packing to do and a bunch of letters to write to all you guys, but I hope you have a good couple of days until I get to talk to you!!

One other thing I learned is in Preach my Gospel chapter 6! I want you all to study it. One thing I did in that chapter was circled and underlined all the action words and statements in green! Green means GO! There a a bunch of them but if we want to be more like the Savior we have to act. We gotta get up and go do it right away and I have noticed if you apply all those actions and pray for help you will start to gain those attributes.

I love you all and can’t wait to talk on Monday!! Oh ya, and the other picture is my district with one of our teachers Hermana Boyce! She served in Bolivia and has been a great teacher! And we have our last class with Hermana Haycock today so I will get another picture with her and my district too!

Hermana Boyce with District

Love,
Elder Lester

MTC Week 5: Travel Plans, Back to the Temple, and Studying Prayer

Well I know I always say this but I cannot believe it is pday again!!! The weeks feel like days here. Well this week was awesome yet again!! I saw Elder Turner! When I heard he was here, I kept praying that I would see him at Sunday devotional and BAM!!!!! There he was doing some ASL with his companion. I gave him a gigantic hug and it was awesome to talk to him and get a couple pictures!!!

I just remembered that I forgot to tell you how my cordon bleu challenge was. I ate 7... with a piece of pie... and ice cream:) Dude ice cream for dayssssssssssssss!!!! It’s the best but it’s not Ben and Jerry’s Half-baked but it’s still bomb! They are having cordon bleus again tomorrow and I’m not gonna have pie and ice cream cuz I’m gonna try and eat ten cuz everybody says the most they have heard of is 9, so I gotta beat the record haha.

Monday we had Papa Johns and when I saw the guy get out of the car to drop of all the pizza I ran out and gave him a hug! Some other Elder challenged me to eating pizza and I ate 11 pieces and I went back up to get more and they wouldn’t let me have anymore... That was kinda hard to hear haha! The funny thing is I still have not gained a pound.

Well I have really been trying to work hard with my language study this week cuz I’m outta here in 9 days!!! I am beyond excited! I got my travel info on Friday. My flight is at 11:00 AM on the 28th and I arrive in Atlanta at 4:49 for a 5 hour layover, so when I get there it will be 1:49 back in AZ cuz I think Atlanta is 3 hours ahead, so just be ready to get a call sometime around then, and I have Dad to call and then Mom to call, but I have a lot of time so it’ll be great I’m so excited!!! I’ll call you first dad so I can talk to all you guys and then I’ll call Mom, and I’m guessing if Cameron and Brinkley don’t work they will be over there!!! I leave Atlanta at 9:08 PM and we fly into Buenos Aires at 8:20 AM so we will be flying all night!! And from Buenos Aires to Salta I’m not sure what we are doing. If we fly it’s only a 2 hour flight, but we might have to take a bus and that is a 16 hour bus ride, so I am praying for a flight, but I think a bus ride might be pretty cool! I will be good on the weight of my luggage so I don’t need to worry about that.

I can’t believe I only have a week left!! Well me and Elder Eliason were gonna invite our investigator to be Baptized yesterday and he wasn’t there cuz he had to go to the doctors for his knee cuz he hurt it. We still don’t know if he is a real investigator or not but we got to email our lesson to him which was kinda of a bummer cuz we won’t see him again.

We had a Zone Conference thing yesterday and some of the teachers did a role play so we could see how we could improve on our teaching skills. Holy smokes it was crazy. They were so good! One of them is Hermano Hammond and he is a legend. There is so much stuff I could tell you about him but it would take forever! Lets just say he was the most amazing missionary to ever live. I literally don’t think he is human.

Well my companions girlfriend sent him a bunch of pictures of her for him to have and he doesn’t stop looking at them or going and checking the mailbox for letters. Pretty much every one here has a girlfriend and it is retarded. They don’t stop talking about them and they don’t focus at all and I have been trying to tell my companion to focus and actually study but it’s not working so I hope this week will be better, and I think it will cuz I know everybody wants to make their last week the best!

We got to host the new Missionaries coming in this past Wednesday and that was pretty interesting haha. I hosted one Elder and I was trying to talk to him but he didn’t say a word. I got to see a couple guys I knew from school come in so that was pretty cool! I’m glad to hear that dad and the boys had fun at scout camp! Those sounded like some pretty cool devotionals you guys had at the campfire! I miss camping haha!

I’m glad to hear the backyard is coming along. Sorry I’m not there to help with anything or anything in the front yard.

Yesterday I was outside during study time and there were some guys that had to come fix some stuff on one of the buildings and they were all swinging sledge hammers and doing all the things I love haha. One of the guys was welding something and I seriously wanted to go over there and be like dude... can I weld?!  It was fun to watch them work for a while and it brought back a lot of memories from JME with Spencer and Hunter! Hunter sent me a picture and he is just sitting next to this goat and Taylor told me he ate some big bug this past week and says he can’t wait for me to be eating bugs too. Not a chance!!!

We got to go to the Temple this morning and it was awesome!!!!! It feels like it has been forever since we have gone but it has only been two weeks. But it was nice to go again. Earlier this week I was studying “Prayer” and there was one thing that I really liked. In Matthew 7:7-8 and 3 Nephi 18:20, it says the ask and ye shall receive thing, and ask the Father and if it be right He shall give it to you. Well those aren’t the exact words haha but we have all heard those scriptures before so you know what I’m talking about. One thing I found in the Bible Dictionary about prayer and it says: The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and others the blessings that God is willing to give us. Prayer is work because blessings require work. We can’t just ask and wait. We have to act!!! Gordon B Hinckley said: Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work! Another quote I like is "Those who kneel before God can stand before anyone.”  And another one I like is "When life gets too hard to stand, kneel."  Prayer needs to be a part of our everyday lives and every moment too. Always have a prayer in your heart. The CCM has really taught me how to pray cuz I CANNOT do this on my own. Pray for help and guidance and He will help you but we gotta work!! I forgot which Apostle said it but he said most of the answers we receive to our prayers are in the scriptures. 2 Nephi 32:3 says "Feast upon the words of Christ for behold the words of Christ WILL tell you all things what ye should do." Those are a couple things I liked studying this week.

So Kolby are you still a heat fan? Is K-Love going to the cavs? Are the suns getting anybody good? Ah dude I wish I could see the cavs play they are gonna be crazy good!!

Okay, so I have a few more pictures but don’t be alarmed when you see a picture of me with some random civilian. We were walking back from the Marriott center from our devotional and I took a selfie with him. You will laugh when you see it. Its great.

Well I love you all tons and hope you are all doing great! Thanks for all the letters and dear elders. It’s always fun hearing from you guys! Haha I loved Bailees email. "Hey Kasey we were bored without you" love Bailee. Haha that was funny. Oh and Brother Turner said Jemesa is getting his papers worked on some more! Give Jemesa a big hug for me and tell him I’m so excited for him. I miss my brown brother! Sorry my emails are so unorganized and weird and jump all over the place, you all must learn to live with it!

Love,

Elder Lester

MTC Week 4: The Atonement has Increased My Capacity to Love

Hey guys!  Well I can’t believe its P-day again cuz it just felt like I had P-day yesterday!!  This week flew by!  Me and Elder Eliason have been teaching a bunch of lessons and we got a new investigator to teach and he is actually a real investigator!  His name is Alan and he is from New York!  We asked him what’s most important to him in life and he said chicas haha. He is a super cool guy but it’s hard to get him to talk cuz he had a rough life cuz his brother died and he doesn’t know his dad and a bunch of other stuff!  But we have been having a good time teaching him and getting to know him!

For the Sunday Devotional we had some dude who is like a famous piano player and when he was playing some songs for us I was wishing I had stuck with piano. Looks like Mom was right about that one haha!:) The Tuesday Devotional Elder Anderson came and spoke and that was cool. He talked about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and it was cool cuz he talked about how blessed we are to have a member of the Godhead with us at all times and I really liked that. It’s cool here cuz you feel the Spirit so much and the times you don’t feel it or don’t have it with you, then you kinda feel weird but it was a way good talk!

The rest of the week was just normal though. The Temple is still closed so we have a lot of free time. This morning we helped with a service project and that was fun even though it was at 6 in the morning haha. We just cleaned classrooms in the MTC.  

So Kolby are you a Cavalier’s fan now? I’m guessing you don’t like the heat anymore now that LeBron left, haha you bandwagon. I heard k-love might go to the cavs too and maybe Durant?? Ah dude I wish I could see them play. Now all the cavs fans have to go buy new jerseys cuz they burned them all when LeBron left haha. I’m surprised they have enough cap space for all those guys but if they get them that’s gonna be scary.

So Elder Romer, one of the other Elders in our district, was teaching a lesson the other day about the Restoration to a real investigator and tried to say José Smith pedio which is Joseph Smith asked, but he accidently said José Smith pedo, which is Joseph Smith farted, haha the investigator started cracking up and he didn’t know what he said until after so that is freakin hilarious!  Some other Elders were teaching the Restoration too and said Jesucristo ordeñar sus apostoles, which is Jesus milked his apostles, instead of saying Jesucristo ordenar sus apostoles, which is Jesus ordained his apostles. Hahahahaha, the investigators here are probably just thinking what the crap are these kids saying to me???!!!!

It definitely has been a fun week and I have 16 days left and then I’m off to Argentina!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And they play in the world cup tomorrow but I don’t think they are gonna beat Germany sadly, but maybe!!

Haha it’s so funny, so Hunter emails me and is all like dude, I hope you are enjoying the MTC. The MTC is so awesome and the food is the best. And then Taylor emails me and is like duuuuuude the MTC sucked. Haha, and then Hunter sends me a picture of him cooking a burrito on his iron..... I got the best brothers ever haha!

Hey Mom, so I got a letter from Brother Hansen and I never have time on P-day to write him one back, but I will write him one back before I leave so let him know for me. Also don’t send me any packages when I’m in Argentina cuz apparently they are not letting any packages get sent down there and they open all up and that’s a lot of wasted money if you send one and it gets stolen. Also one of my suitcases is gonna be overweight cuz I have that heating blanket now and 10 pounds of books that I got here.

When I leave the MTC I get to call you guys when I’m at the airport for a couple hours. I don’t know the exact schedule yet for my flights and where my layover will be, but I know most Missionaries have a layover in Atlanta for a few hours and they get to talk to their family, so I get to call you guys in a couple weeks!!!!:) Oh and I wrote Juli and told her about that and said go over to the house when I call you guys so I can talk to her too, so hopefully she will.:) Mom I put you in charge of kidnapping her for a few hours that day when I call home so I can talk to her haha.

Other than that this week has been awesome!! For gym time everyday we play volleyball with one of the new districts and it is a blast! I haven’t gotten chosen to say a talk yet in Sacrament, which is a bummer, but maybe tomorrow. Sundays here are cool. I love Sacrament meeting cuz it kinda makes you feel like a normal person again haha, but it makes you miss home. After Sacrament the rest of Sunday we just have Zone Leader meetings which I think most of them are pointless cuz we talk about the same stuff in every one and it takes away from our personal study time which is a bummer. And all day Sunday after every meeting, the Branch Presidency feels the need to give us a braso. I’m sick and tired of hugging dudes haha cuz they want a hug like every five seconds. I’m just like dudes... a handshake is fine haha!

This past week during personal study I learned a whole bunch and one thing I really enjoyed studying was Forgiveness. I, and we, all need to forgive those who have wronged us and forgive those who have wronged those we love. Remember when Christ was on the cross and asked the Father to forgive the men that crucified Him. We all need to follow Christ’s example. Or the story in John 8:1-11, the women taken into adultery. We all sin but we all need to forgive and not judge because when we do so then we are denying the power of the Atonement in the life of others. Another thing I liked that I read in Jesus The Christ it said " The need of a Redeemer lies in the inability of men to raise himself from the temporal plane to the spiritual plane, from the lower kingdom to the higher." I really liked that because it really helped me to rely on the Atonement a lot this week because I have been trying to love more deeply and care more for others, and I have a really hard time doing that with people I don’t know. But this week I have noticed that the Atonement gives us the capacity to become better. I have noticed that is has increased my capacity to love more deeply which is a blessing cuz before I could have never done that.

Oh ya I almost forgot!!! So since me and Elder Eliason are Zone Leaders, we can give blessings to the people in our zone if they are sick or need comfort, and a Hermana asked for one because she had some allergic reaction in her eye and it got all swollen and we gave her a blessing and it was a cool experience this week. I felt bad for her cuz I know how much it sucks to have problems with your eyes, but she is all better now so that is good!:)

So Austin now has his license Kolby says, haha and Kolby is getting scuba certified?!!! When he told me that I was like yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! Haha I’m so excited for him!!!!! Seriously it’s the coolest thing in the world besides the Gospel and mangos.

Ok there’s a lot more things than that but seriously its the best! Just don’t pee in your wetsuit... Well, I hope all is well at home!!  I miss you all and am praying for you all!  Mom I love you so much keep writing me Dear Elders cuz that is the best part of my day!!!!!!:) I hope your Sunday School lessons are going good and good luck on your talk tomorrow Brady! 

Love 

Elder Lester