Letter Dated June 18, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!  I hope it was good, ha ha. I forgot it was Fathers Day until Sunday, cause it was Fathers Day here as well.  Sounds like you guys ate pretty good.  We got lucky here on Fathers Day.  We were actually able to get into a few houses, ha ha. I'll be honest, we didn't expect to get any lessons on Fathers Day. It's a pretty decent sized holiday here.

Sounds like you guys had a pretty good little week.  Packing and Packing.  Good stuff.  I guess that is a good thing about the mission is, uh, well I only have 2 suitcases of things to pack. Not to much, ha ha.

This week here it hasn't been as cold.  Whew.  Really I don't think it gets super cold here, but it is really humid. So it is cold.

That's cool you could download the video of our snowman and such, I didn't know you could.

Well I should be home for the next baby in the family, in Febuary.  It's going to be born on Valentines day.  Just you wait and see, ha ha (its a boy, and they will name it Mike)(of course)ha ha.  Im just waiting to hear from Izzy now.

So well, this week. Lets see, we didn't have anything happen when we started the week.  Honestly we didn't have much success, we barely got into a house on Monday and Tuesday.

Tuesday, we traveled to Nechochea for a Zone Conference. The last zone conference for me with President Detlefsen.  But anyway Tuesday night we traveled.  The conference was on Wednesday.  We had to sleep on a verrry hard floor. It would be like sleeping on the kitchen floor. Pretty uncomfortable if you ask me, ha ha.

Wednesday, we had the zone conference.  It was really good, and we had interviews.  Apparently I passed the inverviews cause I'm writing this email, ha ha.  Anyway he spoke lots about obendience to all the rules. The small ones as well as the ones that sometimes don't seem so important,  This would include staying with your companion.  We do pretty good at that one fortunately.  My companion isn't trying to escape me yet, ha ha. There was a few really cool things he taught and showed us.  One was, we reviewed the tabernacle that Moses had and the symbolism. That was good.  Lots of cool doctrine.  As well Enos 1:1 when he talks about how he learned from his father the language and about God. Then he was grateful for it.  President expounded that for us a lot.  Talked about recognizing the promtings of the spirit.  He said something interesting about if it brings hope it is from God, if not, well its not from God. Then about, uh, excitement, or I guess how you can be excited about the work.  Cause what happens is we are excited one day cause we found a new investigator and everything, and then the next day it's gone.  Sometimes it is difficult to stay excited everyday.  He talked to us about that, really he said it is a difficult thing and we have to learn through lots of experiences how we can find joy in difficult situations and in doing things that maybe aren't a lot of fun.  That night we rode back to Tres Arroyos with the A.P. in the mission van, cause Elder Pino had to go to Bahia for his visa.  He is apparently here illegally,  ha ha. He goes back again tonight at 4 in the morning.  Yeaaaa.... haha

Thursday, we worked as a 3 some, I don't really like it, it's kinda awkward,  ha ha, but we got used to it a bit.

Friday, we found 1 newbie, Maria, whose husband got baptized years ago, then died.  But he was inactive cause he got mad at the United States cause we apparently supported England in small war for the Malvina Islands. Kinda sad, but she was really nice. Then that night we had a ward activity. They cooked some super good chicken.  Lots of people went.  We met a new investigator named Oscar.  He has gone to the church before, but stopped because of work.  We fixed a cita to talk to him on Saturday in the branch presidents house (they are relatives).

Saturday we had a good cita with Oscar, took out a baptismal date and everything and he promised to go to church!  Yea! 

Sunday, we had 4 investigators go to church.  Aylen, she is 9 and goes to church with her grandma.  Her parents are diffictult and as of right now haven't given permision for her to get baptized....  :( but we are working on that.  Karen, shes 15 and her dad is a menos activo and is living with her mom (aka not married) otherwise the mom would be baptized. The mom is also pregnant with twins and its a complicated pregnancy so she doesn't have much desire to get married right now cause she can't walk much and these sort of things.  Anyway, so Karen is really good. Her parents want to wait a while for her to get baptized.  For whatever reason.  Honestly we just haven't had a lesson with them in 2 weeks.  It is difficult to get them in there house, ha ha.  Oscar. we really have high hopes of a baptism here. Thomas. he is 8, he came as a surprise with the family of the branch president. He is a good kid and loves to go to church.  Apparetnly when he went to church he, uh, ha ha, fell in love with a 11 year old girl in the primary.  I thought that was pretty funny when Ii heard it.  Anyway we are trying to get in and talk with his parents. He had a lot of good things to say about the church, ha ha, that was good.

Yea so, we had a good Fathers Day, we had some lesson.  One with Oscar, One with a guy we found Jose,  He lives alone (probably why we got in, kinda a sad holiday for him).  One with a less active family who recently lost there dad.  Then with another less active family who were nice enough to let us in.

Oh hey one other thing, there is a family that is not active cause the dad races pigeons....  I had never heard of that before, and I didn't actualybelieve it till I saw his 600 pigeons he has.  Ridiculous isn't it?  I found that slightly humerous. 

Anyway that is a bit about what happened this week.  We did lots of contacting and talking and such like always as well.  But I usually don't mention that cause well its not to exciting.

Tonight we have a cita with a new investigator and 2 family nights to do.  Whew.  Thats a lot but it should be fun.

I hope everything continues to go good at home. 

You should tell me when BYU-I starts next January.

Trying to think if there was anything else....hmmm. oh yea, we just found out the other day that a 70 is coming to our mission sometime.  I think in August, but we really don't know when yet.  But I'm pretty excited. It's great to listen to them.

Anyhow, have a good week. Choose the right.  Eat some Cinnamon Life for me, I was kinda sad that that cereal doesn't exist here.  It's really good.  I usually eat a cerial called Copitas. They are like small bowls of chocolate. They are alright, but cereal here is expensive its like 7 pesos for a small bag, ha ha.  But hey sometimes you gotta eat some cereal in the morning.

So I'm going to work and teach some gospel to some people. I'll send you an email next week.and some pictures, I couldn't send any today.

Love,
Elder Obray,

Some people called me Elder Okay, who knows why, it just started in this area.  They can't read my plaque  or something, ha ha.