Letter Dated August 27, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well thanks for the emails.  Sounds like things back in the States are pretty normal.  I guess that's good.  I was glad to hear your ward is doing some good missionary activities and such.  That's pretty fun.  I bet lots of people get asked questions because of Mitt.  It is probably pretty crazy to be a missionary in the States with all that going on.  I can't say I hear anything about that here, ha ha.

That's too bad your offer on the house fell through.  I am hoping you find a house in a little bit.  But if not I guess that's alright.

We had a pretty decent week this week.  We found 7 new investigators.  Which is a pretty good number. one a day.  We are trying to get up to 2 a day, but whew, that ones pretty tough right now, ha ha.  Unfortunately, we still didn't have anyone go to church this week.  It is getting to be a quite a challenge to bring people to church out here in Tres Arroyos.  People are kinda willing to listen to us, but go to church....ha ha.

So we actually could of had a baptism this week, of Fernando, but he didn't go to church this last Sunday.  :( .   So we aren't going to do it.  We tried to pass by him and talk to him about it, but he didn't answer his door.  We think he is afraid of paying tithing.  He doesn't make a ton of money. All the investigators have a problem with something.  We are going to see if we can help him this week. Guess we will see what happens.

Liliana has just about dropped of the map, I'm not really sure whats going on there.

Fransisco, well he is a good investigator.  He feels the spirit.  He reads the Book of Mormon and the booklets we give him.  Which is GREAT.  He understands pretty good and he is a young man of 22 years.  His dad is a member.  So he has lots going for him.  But, well really it is 2 things.   First, we taught him the law of chastity.  He didn't like that one very much, ha ha.  Told us it wasn't possible.  He did said he would do it.  Fortunately right now at least he doesn't have a girlfriend so he isn't living with anyone.  Whew.  But the next problem is a bit bigger.  He wants to get baptized, cause he understands its a commandment and he want to get the gift of the holy ghost.  Unfortunately he think he can do it, then stop going to church.... so we have bit more talking to do.  Really he just needs to understand that it is a commandment.   We have an appointment tomorrow with him.  He doesn't like going to church.  He didn't go this week because he had to help his grandma.

Juan, well he had to work on Sunday, but other then that he is doing great.  He actually has a pretty strong desire to follow God and likes the church.  BUT, when it rains a lot he has to work Sundays. Cause in Argentina lots of people don't go to work if it rains ha ha.  Good excuse huh?  I should have used that for not going to school, ha ha.  I think its funny.  But its the culture in Argentina.

We met a less active, that was 91 years old living with a 65 year old, and they were planning on getting married......weird eh?

We also met an interesting less active that used to be a great member, but now he doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon and the thing that's really interesting, is that he believes in not all, but lots of the teaching of Joesph Smith.... Weird.  He wouldn't let us pray either.  Interesting.

On Friday, there was flooding in the city.  So at 7 in the morning we went out and helped people move things and such.  In some places the water was up to our knees.  It was crazy.  Tres Arroyos is 3 streams and they flooded from looooots of rain.  We were pretty cold from that one, but it opened up doors to talk to more people.

We actually found a family this week, Marcelo and Irma they have 3 kids.  Really great people but it is hard to get a hold of them.  They are actually interested to.  We only taught them 1 time, we hope thing are going good cause we haven't been able to find them available.

We found a guy who believes in Zombies, ha ha.  He had some pretty creepy paintings on his wall. That's all I'll say about that one.  I figure you can imagine what happened.

Well that is a rough note on what happened this week.  We had lots of good happen till Sunday, ha ha. And well I am actually going to Bahia today, for a leadership conference.  So that should be fun.  I guess I'll get home Tuesday sometime.

Yea so I figured I would stay the whole time out here, I know that I will have a long time to be bored. But I really just can't leave early.  There just might be one person the last week that I could find and help and well I can't really come back to Argentina later and find him.  So I think its better to stay.  Mom can find me something to do right mom? ha ha.  We will have to find SOMETHING that I can do, ha ha. 

Something you might have to check, I don't know how but to see if I can go that spring, cause I probably have to tell BYU-I that I want to go that spring.  Cause I'm officially signed up to go Fall/winter.  Anyway that's something I can't do out here in Argentina.  It would be great if you guys could help me out with that one.

Have a good week.

Love,
 Elder Obray

Letter Dated August 20, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well I'm glad things seem to be going pretty good for everyone.  Sounds like a lot of fun.

Well my companion didn't come on time because of visa problems.  I guess lots of people are having them right now to get into Argentina.

Yea, I guess its good you sold the house, I'll be needing the address, I haven't told the mission office you moved yet.... at this point I'll probably just wait till you have your new address, you said your phone number was the same right?  But what is your area code?  That probably changed right?

Well I'm glad to hear that Aaron and Sam are both doing good out there.  Not that I expected much less then that.

So I thought about the whole college thing, I wont come home till the end of January.  So I figure I wont go to college the winter semester.  Since I was called to serve till 21st of January I figure there is a pretty good reason. So I'll stick to it.

So this week was a pretty interesting week.  Our success was decent.  Well really we didn't have much happen at church.  We had 10 investigators planned to go, we went looking for them early, then sent members to look for a few. Called a few others, but unfortunately none of them ended up coming except 1.  And well we are glad that 1 person came, ha ha.

On Thursday we took a bus to Mar Del Plata for a special conference with Elder Vinas.  Stayed the night with two other missionaries.  One of which had a large number of ties.  Sixty to be exact.  I was very surprised.

Friday, we listened to Elder Vinas.  He was very nice, I guess they are happy with the mission, since its made lots of progress.  He focused a lot on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it helps us as missionaries.  That was a very enlightening conference.  I felt better about the mission afterwards.  Then our mission President talked to us about having desire to work.  I guess he has gotten a few letters from missionaries who say, they want to work, but at the same time they just lack something to help them do it.  So he talked about that.  It's very important to have or to find the desire to do difficult things. 

On Saturday we passed by and talked to lots of investigators trying to excite them to go to church.  We had lots tell us they were going.  But in the end it just didn't happen.  But we haven't lost hope yet.  We really have a lot of good investigators and I really hope we find what they need to help them.

As it is, we will just keep working hard. My companion is actually one of the best missionaries I have seen,  He teaches well, works well, and follows the spirit.  I think next transfer he is going to be training me, ha ha.

Thanks for your love and support.

Love ya,

Elder Obray

Letter Dated August 13, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well sounds like a pretty good old week back home.  Seems like things are going pretty good.   I'm glad the states won lots of gold, I heard we won basketball against Argentina.   That upset a few members at church on Sunday, ha ha, they all had to tell me.

Glad to hear Tyler is going out again.  That's pretty exciting for him.  All the way to Texas again, ha ha. Hey well I found out this week that my friend from high school who was suppose to come to this mission is here now.  I haven't seen him yet, but I met his district leader, ha ha.  So that was pretty cool.  I hope I get to see him at one point.

I'm going to explain a little about the complicated week we had.

Monday, well my companion was gone, ELder Oldham went to Santa Rosa in the Pampa.  So I worked with Elder Pino and Elder Morel.  We did a little family night with a family in there branch.

Tuesday, I was working with them again.  We found 3 new investigators, so that was good.  It was pretty interesting.

Wednesday, at 4 in the morning I traveled to Bahia Blanca to pick up my new companion.  They have a little conference for the trainers and the new missionaries, so I went.  What they do is at the end of the little teaching they tell us who our companion are.  A little story about that one is that the mission president was matching us all up right.  Well he just passed right over my name, so I was a bit confused.  All alone without a companion, ha ha.  It was a bit awkward.  They apparently forgot to tell me my companion hadn't arrived yet....ha ha.  He was still traveling.  So I ended up staying the night in Bahia.  Without change of clothes or anything, since they forgot to tell me, ha ha. 

Jueves, well I was with the assistants all day since my companion wasn't going to arrive till 8 that night.  But I found out the mission is getting microwaves :) what a blessing.  At last, my companion came.  He is Elder Cuadras from Aguas Caliente, Mexico.  He is a super good missionary already.  He has been preparing to serve for a while.  It's good to work with new missionaries, they are always super excited and well its a pretty good adventure for them to come to Argentina.  So he is a good kid. I don't have a picture yet, but you'll get one.  We came home that night.  At 12:30....yawn, I didn't sleep much this week.

Friday, we did some service in the morning, then I explained a bunch of mission stuff to my companion and then we planned.  Then we bought him some food, ha ha, important stuff.  Then we worked.  We visited Fernando.  He was doing alright, but he works this Sunday.  :(

Saturday we had a meeting with Elder Fee and Sister Fee.  They taught us how to put in information into MLS.  The. uh, computer system for the church.  Then we talked to Guillermo , Liliana, Juan, and they all said they would go to church.

Sunday, well nobody went to church, ha ha.  We called them and tried to go to them, but nothing.  Just didn't have a lot of luck this Sunday.  But I guess it was a holiday here.  Called Children's day.  Huge party for the little kids.  So lots of people were busy.  We talked to a guy named Mario, he was cool, had some good questions, then we talked to Fernando and Oswaldo. 

We had a weird week, and this week is only going to be a bit better.  Friday we have a conference with a 70, Elder Vinas, I think. So that will be really good. I'm pretty excited.  But we didn't have much time to work this last week.  We got to start it all again.

So that's kinda how the week went.

Pretty interesting.  I finally found a place to dry clean my suit.  It's expensive to dry clean here, like 30$ But its been 18 months since I dry cleaned that suit.  So it was time, ha ha.

Anyway I hope you have a good week and things keep going pretty well.  You did sell our house then, right? 

And I'm glade Izzy got a job, that should be pretty fun.

Enjoy your week, choose the right.

Love,

Elder Obray

Letter Dated August 6, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well sounds like a pretty decent week.  I'm sorry you haven't had much luck with the house searching.  This email will probably be a bit quick I don't have a ton of time.  The computer I'm on is terrrrrrible.

So we actually had a pretty decent amount of success this week.

Fernando we passed by a few times this week.  He went to church by himself which was excellent progress.  I think he should be getting baptized here in a couple of weeks. We are pretty excited about that.

Juan also went to church.  After 3 weeks of him not going he went.  I think he liked it.  I haven't really had much of a chance to talk to him.  But that's alright.  We are excited that he at least went to church.

Liliana slept till 11:30 so she didn't go to church.  But some good news with her.  We taught her the word of wisdom and she smokes like a chimney.  When we taught her, she took her cigarettes that she had in her house and threw them out.  She told us she hasn't smoked a single one, and doesn't even feel like smoking.  We were pretty stoked.

Juana, well, we have a tougher situation now.  She isn't earning enough money to support herself right now.  She told us until her financial situation gets better she doesn't really want to talk to us much.

We also got transfers which was pretty interesting.  Elder Morel and Elder Pino stayed.  Elder Oldham left for Santa Rosa to train, and I stayed here in Tres Arroyos to train.  So that was a pretty big surprise.  I go to Bahia on Wednesday to go get the new missionary.  So this next little while should be an adventure.  I don't know a single thing about who the new missionary is.  Should be fun.

We found a less active family that has a kid to baptize.   They didn't go to church this Sunday, but they said they wanted to go.  So, we were pretty stoked.

Things are going pretty well for us.  Elder Oldham was sad to leave, he had very little time here in Tres Arroyos.  But the Lord knows what he
is doing.

Anyway, I apologize that this letter has very little detail.  We had a crazy week. But don't worry, we are working hard.  I'm pretty excited to be able to see a few more baptisms out here.  Since I'm training I might be able to stay for a little bit longer here!  Hurray!  Also I heard in 2 weeks we have a 70 coming to visit us.  That should be pretty cool.

Anyway have a super week.  I hope everything goes well back home.

Love ya

Elder Obray