Letter Dated May 30, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Glad things are still rolling on back at home. Yea, so when I get pictures up and rolling in the next couple of weeks, I will figure out something to let you know whats going on.

At the end of the long stretch is this Jesus statue

Can't say a whole ton of exciting things happened out here in Argentina this week. We had a pretty normal week this week. We found a new investigator who seemed like he was pretty interested.  We only taught him, but he has a family of 6, so we will see how that goes, we have an appointment with him on Tuesday.

We had a church activity this week, they did a talent show, and we had 4 kids show up that we are teaching, 2 of them are already baptized and 2 of them could get baptized, so that was good.

Other then that this week, we pretty much just went and visited families and investigators, nothing super duper exciting.

We just started up week five, so this transfer is almost over only got 2 weeks left, I guess we will see what happens here pretty quick to finish it off.

Mike's companion, Elder Sullivan and Elder Parra

So the Spanish is coming along nice and slow, haha. Yea  it's coming, just takes some time. Usually it takes about 3 or 4 transfers to get decent with the language. So we shall see.

I realized a few days ago that high school just got out right? and Riles, Jordan, Roisum, and all those studs should have graduated, haha, that's pretty sweet. Did Riley win tennis again?

Anyway I think that's about all I got this week. Enjoy your week.

Love Elder Obray

Letter Dated May 23, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

I only have a few minutes on the internet today, cause we were late getting to the Computer Cyber and it closes in like 20 minutes.  We were late because today we went sight seeing around Mar Del Plata. We went to the big sea port and a few other pretty cool places and got some pictures.

Hotels along the beach

We watched a dog get run over by a car today. That was pretty gross. Don't recommend watching that, just so you know.

 

I got a bunch of pictures to send home by email sometime, I think I might have found a way to do it, we will see when I have more time.  I don't know how much the package will cost me yet, ill find out in a bit.

Mike's Companion Elder Sullivan, from Provo, Utah

That's Sweet Tyler gave his talk, looks like he is pretty much off, that's cool.

Do you think they would let Holden serve a mission cause of his problems?

Beach in Mar Del Plata

The Zone conference we had had 3 zones come to it, so like 80 elders, the President talks, the A.P. talk, and we eat lunch, the Pres talks some more, the A.P.s talk some more the Zone leaders talk a bit. That's pretty much it.

Yea I heard about Osama Bin Ladan, that was actually pretty big news here, everyone wanted to talk to us about it. haha.

So this week was a pretty decent week, we taught a lot of people, found 2 new investigators who will hopefully get somewhere. But we only had one person come to church out of like 15 who should have. O well.

They can only visit the beach during the winter, that is why no else is there.

We also got a reference from a member and spent 2 hours looking for the house, and never found it, we gotta find a phone and call the member about it, apparently they are friends of his.

Anyway that's all this week.

Love Elder Obray

Letter Dated May 16, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Well that's cool the blog thing is working. Should be pretty cool. I'll just trust you to know what stuff to put on it, haha.

Mar Del Plata downtown area in the background

Yea so this week, we visited most of our investigators. We struggled to get lessons this week, but some weeks are like that. We only got like 10 lessons. Unfortunately zero of our investigators came to church this Sunday :( .  But I guess they can choose to go or not, we even went out and tried to get them, which is a hassle since we have to take the bus to do that. O well. This next week we are going to try to find some new ones, and go talk to the families who didn't come to church.

Tonight right after email, we have a Noche de Hogar (family night) with familia Gurrero. They have something like 11 children, I've never seen all of them, but they are a less active family, and they said they were going to invite a guy who hasn't ever even heard of the Mormons, so we will see how that goes.

Anyway we will see how this next week goes hopefully its better.

Oh this last week we also had our zone conference. I didn't realize they were so long. But they are super good.  From 9 to 5 pretty much a whole day, haha. Anyway it was really good although  couldn't understand all of it.

I also received the package and all the letters anyone has written, haha. All at once, I think there were like 10 or so letter and the package, so you don't need to worry about that.

Home Sweet Home

I was way surprised David Titus is going to My mission, that's pretty sweet. He is a pretty cool kid, I am sure I will see him eventually, but I bet he wont be in Argentina till August or September. By then I could actually be his trainer haha, that would be pretty cool. And Brennan Jensen Going to Oklahoma, should be fun for him.

Cool that dads trying to contact some people he baptized, I gotta say that now days that would be easy with facebook ;)  Everyone down here has facebook, haha.

Yea the weather here really isn't too bad, the nights are freezing because of the humidity though. The days are usually pretty nice.
So i don't know if i told you this yet, but the record for baptisms in this mission is 48, two people have gotten that. That's 2 a month. Although I don't think that record will hold for too much longer haha

Anyway i don't have much else to say right now. Till next time.


Elder Obray

Letter Dated May 9, 2011

Dean Mom & Dad;

Yea I got the Email, so anyway yea it was good to have a little chat for a while, haha.  Cool how you got the Blog up and Rollin.  How do you have it work? Do you post my emails on it or what?

The end of a long stretch of a man made breaker.  This is a spot for fishermen.

Transfers, at least this one, we just all met up at a huge bus terminal, those who went far away got on a bus, we just met up and took a taxi to our area. Usually you stay in a area for three transfers, each transfer is 6 weeks.

So lets see going west on Cuidad de ONeglia we should be on the south side. Honestly I don't have any good land marks around our house that I can really think of. Our house is is really two houses connected, we live in the back. Then another house sharing our yard area. And I found maybe another name for the street Calle 28, it might also be called Castro Barros. The Church is east and a few blocks south, and its pretty close to the ocean. That's all I really know right now about it.

I really don't have much to say about this past week. I kinda just got to know the area and our investigators.  We have a family called Panisa, the two boys 16 and 14 are baptized and we will baptize the two girsl 10 and 9 in the next few weeks. The family has two parents who like us, but haven't listened to us, and the grandparents who are interested but haven't listened.

Mike in his apartment in his second area

Next the Zendronis are recently activated members and their son just got baptized, through this family we will probably be able to baptize another 10 year old girl, and maybe her family.
Then I met family Macia who like the missionaries, but they don't go to church and aren't baptized.

Those are our main families right now, there are a few others that I haven't had much of a chance to meet yet. Should be able meet them this next week.

Oh I did have to get up and introduce myself and bear my testimony in front of 150 people in church on Sunday in spanish.  That's always fun, haha.

We went to central today. That went pretty well.  Anyways, don't have much else to say... hope to see some of that lost mail this week, haha.


love Elder Obray

Letter Dated May 2, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad

Yea I have not received anything from you yet. But we get mail again tomorrow, so if I haven't gotten it by the next one, everything must have been in the lost letter shipment. Which would stink. Well I don't know cause I got a letter last Tuesday that went to the MTC, that I never got last week I was at the MTC and the MTC forwarded it here. Hard to say really. That's cool that Tyler and Coleman got their calls. The missions will be fun for them,  that's for sure.

Mar Del Plata skyline in the backgroung

So the street I lived on Miapou, we lived probably (not really sure) 5 blocks from the train track with a white house in front of our little house in the back, I also recognized the street Champagnat, but that street is probably 10 blocks from my house maybe a bit more. Close to a decent intersection next to a Toledo store and gas station.  I don't know the street numbers and I can't tell you them anymore, cause I got transferred to a new area.

I am now in a place called Punta Mogotes(something like that).  I'll get you the street and number for it next time. We are like 15 blocks from the beach so that's pretty cool.  And I pretty much don't know a ton about the area. It's suppose to be one of the nicest areas, lots of wealthy people and a good ward with 150 active members which is really good for Argentina.

The picture above Mike is a map of his current area

My new Companion is named Elder Sullivan from Provo, UT. He has been out for 18 months. He is a pretty good guy. He and Elder Brown were companions for 3 transfers in a place called Olivaria.

I was actually going to ask about Sam, I was hoping to hear he was sending in those mission papers. He kinda needs to get rolling on them before allllll his friends are gone. Yea its too bad he didn't come up to college with us, he would have liked it a ton more. It would have been fun to have Sam with us. O well.

Elder Kory(Cory?)Brown should be home on Wednesday, He might have some pictures of me and of Argentina you could look at so that's something you could do.

Mike looking thoughtful

So pretty much it would be nice to have something to connect my Camera to the computer, it would be best if it was SD card to USB drive, and not a cord for the camera, cause I don't want to take my camera anywhere really. Other then that I don't really need anything. But your always welcome to send stuff. Things to be aware of though are that if you send any food stuff it needs an expiration date, never insure the package cause apparently they always go through insured packages and the insurance would cost me a ton(Brown knows that one from experience). And they say it takes 4 weeks generally to get a package, so it takes a while.

So lets see, this week wasn't a super exciting week no great stories, We Spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday visiting people and buying things for Elder Brown and packing. So those days were different.

You should see if there is a store called Havanahs somewhere nearby. It's a store that's in Argentina that sells Argentina food and such, and I heard that there are some in Utah. So anyway you should do that sometime.

And you should tell me When you get the letter I sent cause that will let me know how long it takes haha.

We apparently have a 70 coming to our mission in June, I think his name was Arnold.

So recently I've been reading 1 Nephi 12,13,14,15, which talks about the vision that Lehi and Nephi both had. Probably some of my favorite scriptures to read, especially since I am on a mission and can see some of the prophecy come true. There are verses that talk about how people will harden their hearts, say that since they have the bible they don't need more (which is unreasonable since God is Just and Unchanging, we will always receive the word of God through Prophets and always receive more knowledge and help from him so long as we are righteous. If I had my English scriptures I would point things out to you haha, but I don't, we are only suppose to carry around One Book of Mormon, a few pamphlets and pass along cards, a pen, our agenda, and a few pesos.

Anyway till next week.

Love Elder Obray