Letter Dated April 30, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well, glad things seem to be chugging along back home.  Sounds like life is just being exciting, eh. I'm on a really crappy computer.   I type way faster then it shows up.  Kinds annoying, huh. So yea. Anyway.  So in Argentina we had a pretty chilly week.  We were out in jackets most of the week.  

So pretty much this week went like this.

Monday we had a family night with Melina and her family.  It went well.  

Tuesday, we passed by the lady and the pastor, which was kinda an interesting little shindig.  Pretty much she told us she read 3 nephi 11, but said she was confused cause it referred to different time periods (like the past present and future) and she couldn't understand it....well it was pretty obvious to us that she didn't read right then since its pretty clear what happens in that chapter...can't really get to confused now can we.  Anyway so we had a good discussion and she completely rejected the Book of Mormon.  But hey, I cant force her to read it.  Then later that night we had an Elders Quorum party.  We went and two menos activos went as well, so we were pretty content.  

Wednesday, we had a nice surprise in the morning.  The Elders from General Pico (our district) came to our area to help us find new investigators.  I went with Elder Silva from Chile to work.  So we all knocked a ton of doors.  In total, we found 6 investigators, which is a week of work in Castex.  So that was pretty good.  

Thursday, not much happened other then working, ha ha.

Friday, it was cold and rainy and Elder Wagner was sick.  We still worked, just gave him a bit of time to rest as well.  Ha ha, we had a guy tell us to come back when the weather is nicer..... ok... we also had an activity at night.  Not very many people went cause it was cold and rainy.  But it was good.  We had a spiritual thought/lesson, then some (I guess) pioneer games.  But I did learn something good.  I learned I can put my head back, put a cookie on my forehead then using only facial movements, move the cookie into my mouth.  Pretty nifty huh.  

Saturday, well we lost like 4 of our investigators on Saturday.  First, a guy that we found on Wednesday told us he didn't really want to go to church or read, he just wanted to listen to us once, so he dropped us.  Then we went and cut down a tree with an axe for service.  Then we lost another investigator that Elder Wagner found with Elder Roberts, named Mirta.  We knocked the door then she came out, told us she read the 1st verse and got scared and couldn't sleep for the rest of the night...I don't think she really read either.  I think she talked to someone about the church and they said we were demons or something.  That tends to happen a lot here.  And well I started to lose my voice that night...Not like you need to speak as a missionary right? 

Sunday, my voice was still pretty gone.  Not a lot of members went to church cause it was a bit cold in the morning.  We did our home teaching.  We had a good lesson with German.  He has a huge problem with drinking alcohol.  And so we talked to him today, cause he drank the night before, and after our chat, he gave me the glass of wine that was on his table and told me to throw it away.  That was pretty cool.  So we tossed out all his wine.  We hope that helps him.  

Today, we reorganized our house, since our heater is far away from our study room, we moved our study room to the heater, so yea. That's more or less the week.  I am afraid I didn't tell you everything that happened.  We had a lot more lessons this week, but I think I told you the biggest things that happened. So far we haven't gotten any other people who are up for baptism.  But we just keep on chugging through. We will get someone at one point.

Oh and Mother's day is in a few weeks, you should tell me what time you guys will be home,  It might be a bit complicated this time cause we have transfers that same day,  Its possible I might move areas, and Elder Wagner's family is a bit complicated to find a time. So yea.  

Anyway have a good week. Have good weather.

Love Elder Obray

Letter Dated April 23, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad; 

Sounds like you guys did some pretty serious cleaning.  No goofing off over there, whew.  Que cosas.  Weird Vince said that, I was thinking the same thing.  When we all get back we gotta have one last soccer game together, ha ha.  I'm sure we will.

Yea, so I forgot to take a picture of the shirt.  BUT. I did send some pictures of some stuff I bought today.  I went and bought some Argentine Gaucho stuff.  Gaucho is cowboy, so some Argentine cowboy things.  Kinds cool.

So you see in the 1st one the pictures are a pancho some belts. Then these ones are knives (one of a claw of what looks like a raptor! but not really) and a mate bag. So yea I got some things. Anyway that's pretty much what the pampas are famous for right there. You saw it all, ha-ha.  

Oh and the picture of the house was the elders house in Pico, two of them have bikes.  Lucky guys.

This week, lets see what happened.

Monday, Oh hey I made those cookies you sent me that night after we worked. They were super good. Thanks. Oh and we had some lessons that night. 1 with Melina and 1 with Antonia.

Tuesday, well, we did the normal.  Lots of knocking and talking, ha ha.  We had a chat with Gaby and Natalia.

Wednesday, this day was a bit more exciting.  My companion went to the hospital cause he has been having a hard time sleeping. So yea.  He now has some Melatonine which has helped him to sleep a bit better.  We have another appointment on May 3.  Then we went to a cita with a lady.  She is 100 percent 7th day Adventist.  But I hadn't really ever talked to one of them before. So we chatted, and we gave L1.  When we finished we gave her the Book of Mormon.  And she gave us a nice little book as well. So that is all fun and games right? Well she then leaves the room for a second and brings out the preacher of her church, who was lying in wait in the back room of the house, ha ha.  So now we are in kinda a werid situacion right, since we really don't want to ¨bible bash¨ although we definatly would have won, well at least I like to think so.  So we just kinda sat back and let him do his thing.  He of course attacks us a little bit, but all we did was testify and told him we are perfectly willing to answer any question he has about things (since he said ¨the doctrine of Smith doesn't add up with what the bible says¨) so we fixed a cita to come back Thursday to answer the questions to help him to see that the bible does actually support things taught in our church.  Then we left, I'll just tell you now, the guy didn't show up to the cita the next day.  Lame, huh. But anyway I think we handled it alright.

Thursday, not much happened we talked to German and Gaby and Natalia.

Friday, we had consejo in the night.

Saturday, we were looking for a menos activo in the morning, when we happened to find another menos activo who just moved in from southern Argentina.  We had a good chat, and fixed a cita to come back and teach the lesson to him and his nonmember wife.  So that was great.  Then we did some service.  We sawed a HUGE tree in half.  It took us 3 hours.....whew....it was a big tree.  What else can I say.

Sudnay, we had church and such.  Then that night we had a cita with the bishops mom and her boyfriend who will get baptized when he gets his divorce and then gets married to the bishops mom. So that was cool. 

That's about it.  Other then we probably had lots of other things that happened but I don't really have much more time to write.

So enjoy your week.  Have fun.  Do something cool.  I'll stay here and enjoy my week as well.  Doing some Teaching of the Gospel and that's what I like.

Love Elder Obray

Letter Dated April 16, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Glad everything is still going pretty good at home.

Well I haven't knocked all the doors. I've knocked lots, ha ha.  But there are some I haven't touched yet.  Give me another 3 months and yea, I think I would knock all of them. Some doors I've knocked twice though, ha ha. They sometimes tell me. ¨you knocked my door a few months ago.¨ ha ha. Well if they would just change there minds.

Oh and thanks a ton for the chocolate chip cookie recipe. I'll get to work cook'n up some of those delicious bites.

So I meant to ask you about Riley, but well now I know. I'll be getting back when he leaves.... how terrible. Oh hey and I want to know how Tyler and Bracken are doing if possible. I would think they would be going back out soon?

Anyway so we had another good ol interesting week.

Tuesday I was sick with another cold. I don't like colds. But this time I went and bought some sort of drug. I went and asked a member, and they got me some sort of vitamin c boost thing. Worked pretty well. I didn't really feel the symptoms anymore. I was just really tired, ha ha. And we went home teaching.  I don't  remember if I told you, but we home teach here. That was cool.

Wednesday, we actually found 2 newbies. Yea! They were an older couple. They had talked to the missionaries before. They liked everything and said they would read. But when we asked them to get baptized they just couldn't understand why they would have to get baptized twice. We talked about it for 10 minutes then I figured we would work on it after they read the Book of Mormon, ha ha.

Thrusday, we had district meeting in Pico. Oh hey and I got a package.  But not from you.  Jessica Heart sent me one for my Year mark?  Bit late but o well.  It was a t shirt that says Argentina Bahia Blanca mission, and a cool picture on the back side, I'll send you a picture when I take a picture of it. Its pretty sweet.  Then after district meeting we did divisions.  I went to Castex with Elder Roberts who is a new guy, he has like a month here.  So that was fun, he is still working on speaking, ha ha.  But he is new, ha ha.  So we visited Antonia and Nerina.

Friday, we worked, lots, ha ha.  Good details huh? We visited Pedro, then at like 4 when we JUST entered Pedros house it started to POUR rain, whew, Lucky eh.  But then we left it was still raining.  Oh NO. So we got soaked pretty good.  And the streets were underwater by a few inches. UGH.  We got lucky again though. We were on our way home to change and let Elder Roberts pack to return to Pico, when we got to a large river street.  Under like 6 inches of water, when a taxi guy offered to give us a ride through the river. YEA! So we took that. Only bad part of the story was that he didn't want to get baptized. Yet. ha ha. Then we changed companions back.

Saturday, we worked lots, like on Friday.  We knocked one door and talked to a older guy.  He was really nice, almost let us in.  But he decided not to. So we fixed a cita for another day.  Then we were walking away when we heard his wife yell at him for talking to us.....whew...poor guy.  That old lady sure knows how to destroy ones self esteem....I felt pretty bad for the guy... We also talked to German. who was not drunk today!  Yea!  We had a good chat.  We just gotta help him go to church.

Hemano Melchor who they ate lunch with everyday

Sunday we had stake conference in Santa Rosa. So the church rented a bus and the whole ward went on the bus to stake conference.  A seventy was there, uhh named....I'll telll you next time I can't remember.  Really good guy . I shook his hand. TWICE. Once when he entered, and once while we waited to get interviewed by the Mission president afterwards.  He is a cool guy.  So yea, we had interviews with the president, as well.  Those went well.  Then we left for home.

Monday, today we shopped. I had to buy new jeans, my old ones are destroyed with holes everywhere.  So I got some without holes. Good thing, huh.  Then we relaxed cause it was p-day.  So that was our week.  Good stuff.  We are still struggling to get some investigators.  We will see what happens this week.  We work, just haven't had gallons of investigators pouring into our cup.  I cant think of anythings else.

So have a good week.  Talk to you next week

Love Elder Obray

Letter Dated April 9, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well hope you had a good Easter.  Easter here is kinda weird.  No basket of candy or eggs hidden everywhere :( O well.

I did learn something I didn't know, ha ha.  Catholics did not eat meat last Friday.  They only eat fish.  I learned that the other day.  Cool eh.

So let's see what happened this week

Monday, we were still in Pico.  I went out on division in Pico with Elder Roberst who just got to the mission.  So he can't speak a lot.  It was fun.  We did a little family night with a member family.  It went well.  We taught the plan of salvation.

Tuesday, we had District Meeting.  Then we came home from Pico.  We visited a less active named Pedro.  They promised to go to church this week.  Hurray!  Then we stopped by and visited with Gaby and Natalia.  They are doing great.  We are going to start to go over the lesson again with them.  Then we visited Antonia.  She is doing great.  Just keeps truck-in along.  And we bought food, since we weren't home on Monday, ha ha.

Wednesday, we visited Nerain, who also promised to go to church.  We knocked millions of doors and did contacts and such fun old stuff, and visited another less active Flia Barrionuevo.

Thursday, we had weekly planning in the morning.  Then we knocked and talked lots.  Then we kinda had a lesson with Gaby and Natalia, but they had to leave early, like after 10 minutes. So we planned to finish thiis Friday. Then we went and wished Hermano Rico a happy birthday and ate cake and pizza. Yum.  Then we visited Yessid.  Who was doing pretty good.  But still just doesn't want to get baptized arpeggio.

Friday. We met a new menos activo, German. He said he would go to church. And we finished teaching  Gaby and Natalia. Then we knocked and talked. Honestly we do that all day really, ha ha.

Saturday, we did service and ate a Asado with Hermano Rico. Which was fun. Then we had a small adventure.  We did a contact and we got a direction for a house in the boonies. So we went. We found the house, but she couldn't attend us at the time cause alllll her family was there....i thought that would be a better time to get in ;) but she didn't, ha ha. So we go back another day. Then we visited Antonia. She was doing great, still.

Sunday, we had 45 people  in church.  Which is a good number.  Pedro and his family went, and Nerina went.  And Yesid went.  SO that was really good. Then we ate lunch with Flia Ferias. We gave the kids a bunch of pass-along cards.  Apparently they have been handing them out everywhere, ha ha. Little kids are AWESOME.  Then we had a chat with Yessid.  Unfortunately he told us he doesn't want to get baptized, mainly cause it would cause a rift between him and his wife. So we dropped him for a little while.  He is going to keep reading and going to church though. We tried to have a chat with German, but he was super drunk, so nope, ha ha.  He didn't make sense. Then we had a bunch of Sunday meetings. Then we made a final stop at another menos activos families house. It was the 1st time I'd passed by.  Apparently the guy Raul stopped going cause his wife (nonmember) doesn't want him to go cause it takes to much time away from her. So he stopped. LAME. Then we came home and slept....yawn.

And today, was fall cleaning. EVERYBODY, well all the msiionaries had to scrub the houses down. So we did that alll day for p-day. SO yea. We had an intersting week. Still just out looking for newbies, ha ha, but well get them. They hide, but not forever.

So anyway have a good week and I'll talk to you guys next week. Have fun in the sun. Stay dry and don't fry, please.

love
Elder Obray

Oh hey you should find me a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. They don't have those here. Weird eh?

Letter Dated April 2, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well I am glad you guys had a good little week.  Lots of time with the family that's pretty important.

Yea so I think my visa stuff is all done now.  Shouldn't need to worry about that for the rest of my mission. Hurray.  

This week was a pretty decent week. Pretty fun, interesting and such things.

On Monday, we ate stuffed pumpkins for lunch that a member cooked up for us.  The pumpkins were a lot smaller then our Halloween pumpkins, but they were pumpkins, ha ha.  Then we had a lesson with Melina and her family.  We are going over the lessons with her again.

Then on Tuesday, we had district meeting, then we went out and worked all day with our mission leader.  We didn't have a whole lot happen.  He showed us/we tried, a bunch of old investigators and people he knows, but we didn't get any new investigators.  Sometimes that's just how it is.

Wednesday, well, we found out a kid in our zone went home :( so we were a bit sad, I didn't really know him.  But still, can't say I know a whole lot more then that.  We went and visited Antonia and gave her a few church books. They have a ¨new member kit¨ that we bought and gave to her.  So she has lots to do now ha ha.  Then we went and talked to Gustavo and Alberto, we dropped them, so we wont really visit them anymore cause they wont progress.  Then we visited Nerina. She was doing alright.  She said she would go to the baptism of Gaby and Natalia.  So that was good.

Thursday, Elder Wagner cooked us up some spicy tacos for lunch. They eat spicy in Texas apparently.  Well at least he does.  We talked to Pedroa who is a menos activo.  He was doing better.  He read some from the Book of Mormon at least, but still struggles to go to church.  Then we had good little lesson with Gaby and Natalia to help get them ready for baptism.  We talked about what would happen step for step.  So that they would feel a bit more comfortable. Then we went out and got the clothes ready for the baptism.  So that was good.

Friday, we spent almost all day getting things ready for the baptism.  We made a cake for it, and had to fill the font and such, so we had lots and lots to do, ha ha.  We did spend a few minutes out with the ward mission leader again, with the same results as before.  Then we had the baptism of Gaby and Natalia, which went well.  I can't send pictures to you yet, but you'll get them soon.  Gaby had a really long dress, well it's just cause she is really short, ha ha.  So when she was getting baptized I had to do it several times cause her long dress would bubble up, ha ha.  But really the baptism went super well.  They both liked it a lot and felt the Spirit. Then we had a noche de hogar with our barrio.  They young women were in charge.  They did skit practices.  They had everyone practice passing a pass along card.  It was a really fun little activity.  Especially for us missionaries.

Saturday, we went to General Pico to watch conference by satellite.  In English yea!  So conference was really good.  They had some awesome stuff.  I really like Elder Nelsons  comparison thing.  Where he said something like, You can't have an explosion in a workshop and get a dictionary.  I laughed good when I heard that one.  They had some great talks about the need to get baptized and lots on families which was great.  I really liked it.  I forgot to bring my notebook to the cyber so I don't remember very many things in specific.  But Conference really makes me want to try harder, ha ha.

Sunday, we went to conference again.  Yea!  It was great.  Then that night we ate an asasdo with member family in General Pico. Which was super good.

And today we are still in Pico with the other Elders, we go back to Castex tomorrow.

So that's our week.  It went alright.  We learned lots.  I must say, at this point we are just out looking for investigators.  So far without much success, but sometimes the people just like to harden there hearts to challenge us a bit more, ha ha.  So we will keep working hard.

Have a good week.

Love

 Elder Obray