Dear Mom and Dad;
Thanks for the letters.
I was pretty excited to hear Holly is going to go to Salta. Its going to be HOT up there whew! Less humid though. I think there is a sister in my district from there, so if she wants to know anything about it I can ask her. Everyone is going on missions :).
Oh, and thanks for the pictures of the house. Looks like a pretty nice house. You picked a good one.
Anyway, we had a decent week. Nobody went to church, that was a bit frustrating. But I guess we will see what happens there. We for sure will have some next Sunday. This week was a holiday for Argentina. So lots of people just picked up and left, ha ha. But that's how it is sometimes.
So the updates on people. Daniel and Delcia, they are doing good. The problem is.... ha ha.... Delicia doesn't really want to get married again. She still feels loyal to her husband who died....So we have to front this one, ha ha. She is praying that God will change it so she can get baptized... So we are going to work through this one.
The Adventists aren't really progressing. They don't want to commit. So close yet so far.
Ruben, Thomas, Silvia, Ruben is a less active who is now active, and his 10 year old son who didn't want to get baptized till he took the Communion in the Catholic church, and Silvia the non member mom. We are starting to teach them cause Thomas took the Communion and so he and his mom can get baptized. I feel confident that they will get baptized. But its going to take some serious effort.
We did divisions this week. I went with Elder Garrision from Arizona. He is one of the old Missionaries as well. Really good Missionary, We had a good time and I learned a lot from him, he teaches really well.
We found a few people this week, but nothing super exciting. This week we hope to see more progress in the people we are teaching.
I forgot to write down in my Agenda what happened this week. I don't know if you notice the difference, ha ha. I can't remember, but hey, I've been writing in my journal for the past 2 years, I don't know if you knew that. I went back and read a few entries. Some are a bit ridiculous. For example I would write. ¨Today, we knocked doors and talked to people and taught a few lessons, but I don't remember their names and I'm tired. Good entry, huh? Fortunately as I learned the language better and got used to walking a lot I wasn't so tired to write and the entries are a bit better. I Usually note in my agenda from what I wrote in my journal for what happened during the week. but I forgot...
Anyway.... I cant think of anything. Um. I fixed our washing machine today. It broke, and I fixed it, that's was cool.
Ok, nothing else.
Have a good week.
Love ya.
Elder Obray
Thanks for the letter Dad.
I do appreciate the letter from time to time. When I read them I can hear your voice in my head, ha ha.
I Love the mission. Its a great experience. I don't think I could ever have learned what I've learned without the mission. There is a reason why God calls us to serve. It helps us. I feel good about what I have been able to do. I have learned a lot about life, about me, and most importantly I've been able to come closer to Christ.
Through daily study and of the scriptures and constant prayer I've been able to work hard even thought its difficult. The mission is a lot harder then I had imagined. I always thought that baptisms and success would come from just entering a house and teaching the truth. But it is a bit more complicated then that. It requires real work, real effort on my part, but mostly its through the power of the spirit and desire of the person that people are converted.
I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church. That it was restored by Joseph Smith, and is the only church where one can truly make covenants with God. I know the power of the Priesthood has been restored. I know, because the Spirit has testified to me.
I know it is only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can return to God. He is the way. By following his commandments and Repenting we can apply the Atonement of Christ and be clean from all sin. This is the plan to return to the presence of God. I know each one of us has the obligation as members of the church to preach the gospel to the world. It is the best experience to help someone to come unto Christ and receive a testimony of the Gospel and see the commitment in there eyes . This is true and this is the way.
I will continue to work hard through the rest of my mission . Don't worry about that one. I love these people and I want to help. Honestly it is easier for me to work now then it was a year ago when I was a young missionary.
Love ya.
Elder Obray
Dear Mom and Dad;
Thanks for the Happy Birthday. I feel the same. I just know I'm getting old, ha ha. I never thought I would live to get so oldddd.
Crazy to hear that Holly is going to go on a mission, ha ha. That's pretty cool. And Haily is leaving, that's cool too. To New York. Should be fun there.
Sooooo many people going on missions. That's just great. I'm pretty excited to hear what they say next conference about missionaries. I heard through the wind. Or something. That after President Monson changed the age for missionaries to leave, the bishops offices filled up with people wanting to leave. Which is fantastic. Everyone needs to serve a little bit. There are a lot of people who need help out here.
Well, we had the two baptisms this week of Giovanni and Valentino. They are boys (ha ha, just so you know) of 12 and 14, they both got the priesthood so we have more people to pass the sacrament. Hurray! The baptism was great. We had lots of people. Members and Nonmembers. SO we were happy. And it was pouring rain, ha ha.
Whew. So we are happy. IN our district we had 4 baptisms which is great.
So this week I went to give an interview, hmm Tuesday it was I think. So here was the situation. His name was...no is Agustin. He has been investigating for some time now, has gone to church for a month or so. Pretty much ready to get baptized. And the Sunday before his baptism (this last Saturday) he was found drunk. This was a problem he had before. So he promised everyone he wouldn't do it again. So I did the interview Tuesday and found him ready to get baptized. He is a great guy. And he got baptized.
We also found a guy named Juan who has a drinking problem. We are working on helping him. So far its gone alright. He lives alone, apparently cause his family left him cause of his drinking. So we are going to see what we can do to help.
Delicia and Daniel are progressing super well. They are doing almost everything. They just need to get married and go to church... This week they should be at church, we are going to do everything we can so it happens.
The Adventist are doing ok. They have realized what they need to do, but honestly they are scared to do it.
Santiago and his sons didn't make it to church this week. We were a bit disappointed. But we ran out of minutes in our phone. Soo.... we couldn't call anyone.
The only investigator that went to church was Miriam. She went last week as well. We haven't been able to teach her yet, but this week, we hope to, ha ha. She already wants to get baptized. So we are pretty excited. She really likes the church. She has some 25 years and two little kids ages 2 and 4. So that's going pretty well. She has good members friends. So honestly we haven't had to do much work. Its better that way. It will be harder for her to become inactivate, ha ha.
So that's more or less what happened this week. It went pretty well.
This week we will just keep working hard. We got lots of good things going on, so I think I'll just keep working and enjoy the mission.
Oh hey can you get me Sam Horman's mission address. He sent me a postcard from Madagascar and I would like to return the favor, ha ha.
What else. Oh I was thinking, maybe during the time I'm home I could take an online class? So I have something productive to do?
Anyway I think that's all I have for you this week.
Have a good week. Choose the right. I'm glad you fed the missionaries. I like it when the ward member give us food. Yum.
With love and such
Elder Obray
Dear Mom and Dad;
1st things first. I am tired, ha ha.
OK. I am glad to hear everything is going pretty good over there. I was pretty excited to hear about Scott's mission call. Arizona, he is going just around the corner, ha ha, but I bet that will be a great mission.
Anyway we had a crazy little week. Whew. For that reason I am tired. We have been working super hard. This week we found 20 new investigators. Whew! that's a lot. Since most of the time we find something like 8 or 10. The people here are a bit more open or something, ha ha.
We taught a guy named Santiago. He is less active but he has 3 kids to baptize. He said he would start to go to church and everything. He didn't go this week, but we will see if we can help him start. So that was good.
Also, Ruben, a less active who is now becoming active, his a 10 year old son to baptize. But his son is going to a catholic school, and has to take the communion. After that we can teach him and he can get baptized. His mom said she would listen to us after the communion as well. So this could be a good thing in a bit.
We have two baptisms this week. Giovani and Valentino a 12 and 14 year old whose mom was less active, but started going again about a week ago.
We almost got eaten by a huge Rottweiler this week. The only thing that saved was the 70 year old women who was the owner who somehow had the strength to hold him back... whew. We had a good lesson with the 7th day Adventists. We watched the talk given by President Eyring in the last conference with them, the spirit was really strong and we asked if they believed he was an Apostle of God and they said yes. We hope this helps them to progress. We had some success with Delicia and Daniel. They want to get baptized. But They need to get married. Stop drinking and smoking. But they made a ton of progress. Daniel drank 2 liters of wine everyday, and now its only 1, and Delicia almost stopped smoking. She is down to 2 a day. Problems we have is that she has to get divorced. Sometimes a long process here. They are bosses of care taking a huge park. They live in the middle of it, and Sunday is there busiest day. Delicia almost went. But they lady that was going to work for her Sunday didn't show.
I did an interview this week. Two hermanas had baptisms. Went really well.
We are teaching an Ateo who is a good kid, has tons of questions, but doesn't really want to believe. The last time we came by he had a list of 15 questions. But he said we answered well and it seemed really clear in his mind. But he still says he doesn't believe. We will see what happens here in a bit. He is going to read the Book of Mormon. I think he is progressing pretty well. He is about 23 and is in college preparing for Medical School. Super smart kid
.
Well that's more or less what happened this week. I'm sure there is a lot more. But I don't remember it all, ha ha.
O hey tomorrow is my birthday, I turn 21. Just so you know. Feel Old... Especially cause 18 year olds are going to start to enter the field that graduated in 2012. Wow. Crazy huh. I thought the world went on pause when the mission starts. But apparently not.
So have a good week this week. I hope it all goes well for you and you enjoy the weather and such. Its getting hottttttt over here, lots of humidity.
Anyway I will keep working hard. I gotta end the mission good. Right? Right! End with 20 baptisms.
Love you all,
Elder Obray
Dear Mom and Dad
Well I'm glad you guys are doing pretty good over there. I am sorry I couldn't write on Monday, but we didn't have P-Day this last Monday, so President told us to write on Wednesday. So here I am.
I was excited to hear that Izzy is having a boy. About time. ha ha.
So my new house in Terrada is on the street Terrada y Gonzalez M7 apt 4. You will see a group of apartment buildings and that's where we live. Its by far the best house I've had. We live like Kings here. A good area to end on. Since we have lunch everyday and the shower is actually more then light sprinkle. Which makes me happy. The house is pretty much new and large. Me and Elder Fernandez are the only ones who live there. Elder Fernandez is from Santiago Chile. Comes from a family of all members. Good kid. He has like 7 or 8 months. He teaches pretty good and we get along.
Yea so my new district has 8 sister missionaries, and well as district leader I have to call every night. So from 9:30 to 10:30 I am on the phone. My poor companion, ha ha. I don't have much time to do anything, ha ha. Its pretty crazy. All but one is Latino.
So this week I pretty much just tried to get used to the area and meet some people. It went pretty well. We have a good bunch of investigators that we are teaching. We have 2 baptisms for sure the 17 of November. So that's good. Apparently the story is this. The mom has been a member for a long time, married a nonmember and became less active. When her kids got to be 15, 14, 12 she decided that it was time to go back to church. So she just showed up one Sunday and told the Missionaries she is here to baptize her kids and help them to grow up in the teenage years with the gospel. Pretty good news for us.
Then we have a family of 6 we are working with. They found the church cause there grandma just got baptized and preaches the gospel to them a lot and they decided to see what all the fuss is about. They are great people and have gone to church several times. We lack a bit for baptism a few of them have fechas for the 2 of December. But its hard to teach them all at the same time. But we have some high hopes there.
Also we found some people who work in a large park and live in the middle of it. The wife (they aren't married but I didn't know how else to say it) has a great testimony of the Book of Mormon and wants to get baptized. The husband is starting. Unfortunately she has to get divorced then the have to get married. So in like 6 months they might be able to get baptized. I guess we will see.
Then we are teaching some 7th day Adventists, they aren't progressing very well. But we are trying one more week to see if they read.
We found 13 new investigators last week. that was really good.
So on Monday we had a special leaders conference from 10 to 4 and at 4 all the leaders went out to work in Bahia. We had 16 Elders in our area. we found like, whew, 20 new investigators in 5 hours. Great news for us right? We are going to have tons and tons of Baptisms here this next little bit. At night 16 elders slept in our house. It was so full of Elders and Mattresses that there wasn't room to walk, ha ha. Then Tuesday we finished the conference. Really good conference. Got me excited to go out and work again. Sometimes you just got to recharge the batteries a bit. So for that reason we didn't write till later, ha ha. We have been super busy. Which is good.
My allergies are out 100% right now. I bought some pills, I think they help a little. Not a lot, but they do something. I've been going out and working with my glasses, cause with contacts my eyes start to swell up a bit and go pretty red. I got some eye medicine for that, it helps a bit. I assume my allergies will go away.
So this week we are going to be working super hard. Lots to do.
Anyway I hope you guys have a good week. And all goes well. .A member told me Obama won the elections. I was sad. But o well. Honestly I forgot about elections till the member said something, ha ha. O well.
Anyway that's about all I got to say.
Love ya,
Elder Obray
We did divisions this week. I went with Elder Garrision from Arizona. He is one of the old Missionaries as well. Really good Missionary, We had a good time and I learned a lot from him, he teaches really well.
