Letter Dated January 2, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Christmas present from the Mission President

Happy New Year!!  Hope you guys had a good one!  Sounds like you all started off pretty good.  I can't say new years was much for us.  We bought some food to eat, and a expensive (well like 3 dollars so not really) kind of pop.  And we went to bed at 10:30 like normal, ha ha, but the fireworks woke us up at 12:00 ha ha, someone close to us had really loud one, ha ha.

I hope my shoe pictures work ha ha, I glued my shoes so they will hold up for a while longer so I can't take anymore.

Yea, Elder Sullivan went home in....October I think, a long time ago, ha ha.

Winning first place in Volley Ball Tourament

Good to hear everyone in Utah is doing well.  Weird to think Scott and Holly are going to Graduate from High School! They are old now, ha ha.  If Scott goes to a full year of College I'll be able to see him before he goes. That will be nice for me.

OK, so this week we had a bit of success.

First off, well actually its a bit of bad news really, two of our investigators Estela and Floretino wont get married to get baptized for several more months. We were a bit disappointed, but they are fixing their house up a bit.  So they don't have enough money.  They don't have any really.

We found and taught a lady called Carmen, she didn't really care about our message, but the other day we went back to her house, and she wasn't home, but here son was, and we taught him a bit. Then his mom came home, ha ha and she wasn't too happy that he was talking to us, she wasn't rude, but she said that her husband was going to be home soon and he hates missionaries and kicked us out of the house ha ha. So we are going to pass by in a bit and see what happens.

We found two more Niko and Marialisa. We were knocking doors when the son Niko invited us in we started to teach him, when his mom Marialia came home.  Kinda the same as Carmen but nicer, she didn't like that her son was talking to us, but she didn't kick us out. The problem is this, she is Evangelical and active, the good is she is a new convert to their church.  We have a cita with them tonight, we will see how that goes.  I have a little fear that she will invite the preacher of her church....wont be the 1st time that has happened.  They just like to fight us.... o well.  I guess we will see.

Next we went and visited Alejandro (he is a kid we visited a few months ago, his mom name is Monica) He was really nice.  We dropped him cause he and his mom didn't have time for us, and he was to busy drinking and smoking marijuana.  So, we passed by and he said he was tired of these things and was willing to stop.  One thing at a time.  1st the Cigarettes.  So by the end of this week he promised to have stopped.  I think he will.  He knows they are bad for him.

Then we were just walking down the street and a kid of 16 years said a full sentence to me in English, which is really weird.  So I turned around and started to talk to him.  He is called Max, he like to learn English, pretty smart kid, and his friend Santiago.  We probably talked for 15 minutes and him and his friend are going to meet with us in the church (we can't go to there homes cause the parents are Catholic and Evangelist's and don't like us ha ha).  So we got their phone numbers and are going to call and remind them of the cita.  Hope it goes good.

Also this week a guy on a motorbike stopped and tried to rob us, he wasn't very good at it.  He first asked us for a few pesos to buy something.  We said no.  Then he said if we don't he will have to pat us down and rob us.  We actually didn't have anything.  So we told him we really don't have anything, Then he just drove off.....

We also ran into a Guy from the States.  Who served a mission in Cordoba, Argentina.  He was visiting his mission and some of his converts.  Really nice guy, he said he would take us to dinner, but he had to hurry to Mar Del Plata, so he gave us some money to buy something, ha ha.  He is from Texas, his name is Ed Shinedling and he has his own dental business called ¨Dental Implant Surgery Center.

It was fun to talk to him and his family.  He speaks really good Spanish still.

Anyway that's about all I got for you all this week.  Enjoy your week and start the new year good! ha ha.

Love ya

Elder Obray