Letter Dated July 18, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Thanks for the Email. And the music.  Good to hear everyone in the family is doing good and that my friends are all continuing with the mission. I must say I was super surprised that you would go to Bear Lake without me ha ha. Enjoy.

Sunset

So this is the last week of the transfer, and my companion Elder Sullivan has a really good chance of getting transferred. By that I mean like 99% chance. So when I write again next time I will probably have a new companion.

I am still a bit sick (well really I pretty much got better, and then got sick again ), its not bad just a cold but it has lasted longer then normal. Probably cause I don't really get much extra rest ha ha.

This week we did divisions with the Elders in Miramar, I was in my area with Elder Araya from Chile. He is a really good kid, probably one of the better teachers I have been with so far.

Sunset

For me and Elder Sullivan this wasn't the best week, Family Pacheco was out of town most of the week so we only got to teach them once and they couldn't go to church Sunday.  Family Cuinka we only got to talk to once the entire week and family Barrionuevo we taught once, and then stopped by and talked to them for a few minutes another day. We did find one new investigator named Carlos though. He smokes and drinks (like everyone else here) but he was pretty receptive,  He didn't go to church, we will probably find out Tuesday.

This week my Mission President is coming to Mar Del Plata to do interviews, which should be cool.  There is a RM here in our Ward who just got home from serving in Provo Ut. ha ha. The same city as where my companion is from, He served Spanish speaking, but of course he did a decent amount in English as well. He can speak English pretty well. He told us he is studying super hard right now, and saving his money so he can go to byu.

Right now, there is a South American soccer cup going on that's pretty big, so sometimes during the day nobody cares about us poor missionaries ha ha ha. They just gotta watch that soccer ha ha.

Sunset

Some good news for us, is the Ward has a bus that will pass by our area and pick up members and investigators now. Since our ward covers a huge area we kind of need it. Apparently, they used to have one like a year ago, but it got to expensive. But some ward members pitched in to get it going again.

Well that's really all I have to say, have a good week. Sorry I don't have any pictures ha ha, but I didn't take any this week. This week I should have some good ones since Elder Sullivan is leaving.

Love Elder Obray

Letter Dated July 11, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Julieta & Deltina

Glad to hear everything in your part of the world is still going good. I got some pretty good pictures, I'm not sure how well you will be able to see the things I will describe about them without zooming in.

Julieta & Deltina

Pictures 5930 through 5932 are pictures of little girls from the family Pacheco In the activity we had Saturday (which was a huge success and I will describe it more later). The family is one of our 3 main investigators. The mom is in picture 5928. Mom is called Luciana, the older girl is Julieta 7, and the little one is Delfina 5. The dad and older son didn't go for some reason or other. Anyway they are awesome.

Julieta & Deltian

Picture 5925 is one of the ward activity. Lots of people there for a ward of like 90 active members ha ha. Pablo, a guy in the tan sweater in about the center is our new mission leader, he is a stallion. He went on his mission like 10 years ago, he is 31 and just barely got a girlfriend ha ha. Reminds me a bit of Nate  ha ha.

Picture 5926 is a picture of the Panisas. A bunch of little kids two of which are baptized. they go to church rarely but usually go to the activities ha ha. Way funny kids though, you can see Elder Sullivan with them and 5927 is the same really.

Picture 5925 - Ward Party

Picture 5928 is our investigator Luciana and her two little girls, and some ward members, the ward members here are awesome when new investigators come. Especially if they are a family, so they felt super welcome and loved it.

Picture 5929, a bunch of ward members, in the verrry back, you can see a girl with a shirt with lots of colors, well her and her sister are sitting next to each other, and there parents across the table, they are the Family Cuinka, who are also our investigators. We have been working with them for over a month and this is the first time they went to the church, and we have only been able to teach them the first lesson ha ha. Way good family though.

Picture 5926 - Elder Sullivan with kids

anyway so that's all the pictures I will send. The transfer ends really soon and Elder Sullivan will most likely leave, so I should get some more/better pictures for you then of the people.

So this week went really well for us. The start not so much, but the end was good. I was pretty sick Monday through Saturday, but we still went out and worked. Really though, we didn't get as many good lessons and we would have liked. But somehow (had honestly nothing to do with us ha ha) the Family Cuinka came to the activity Saturday.

We had some interesting things happen, we walked to our area, Wednesday I think, and we happen to run into the Wife, Carma and the youngest daughter Celia, actually we didn't see them, they came and talked to us out of nowhere ha ha. And that was really the first time we and been able to talk to them in a good week or two. We had all but given up hope on them, and they only seemed remotely interesting when we invited them to the activity.

Picture 5927 - Elder Sullivan with kids

But next thing you know the whole family showed up. The two girls made fiends with the young women almost instantly, in fact, when me and Elder Sullivan got to the activity all the girls were over talking in a corner like girls tend to do . But we were pretty stoked, and the members treated them super well. And we got the 1st counselor of the bishopric, who had talked with Jorge (the dad) a lot to invite them to church Sunday. It went super well, the family loved it.

Picture 5928 - Luciana and her two girls

The family Pacheco, we called a Ramiz (cheap taxi) for them to get there, since they don't have a car, and they are pretty poor. and the mom and little girls came, we had already taught the family with a member, and the member invited Luciana (the mom) to sit with her and all her friends so that was good. Of course the two little girls were bored, which is why I have picture of them, cause they came and sat next to me cause apparently I am more entertaining ha ha ha, imagine that. ha ha and they all liked the activity, you should have seen the two little girls faces when they had to leave the church  so very sad ha ha.

The activity was cool, we ate a food called Lucro which is good I guess ha ha. Its a soup stuff. But its got Churisso which is a really good sausage in it. Anyway they played all these games (which was for all ages except really young) and everybody participated a bit. The people here are a lot louder then they are in the states ha ha ha ha.

Picture 5929 - Cuinka Family in the very back

Anyway so Sunday came and the family Pacheco never answered there door (found out later the mom was sick) and we had called Cuinkas and were waiting hoping they would come. And they did. Which was awesome. And the members just absorbed them so they just disappeared until the Gospel Principles class where new members and investigators go. And we had a way good lesson (one of the best I've seen) about baptism and Jorge Cuinka even made a sweet comment. Anyway they all loved the church. And we have high hopes for them right now. We will see what happens in the next couple of weeks. Oh and one of the Families, Beloki, invited the family Cuinka over for a Noche de Hogar (family night) Friday night and of course we are going to be there to teach lesson two ha ha. But we are pretty excited for this next week or so.

Anyway this is a long letter and I typed really fast.  I hope you can understand all of it. If you have question be sure to ask.

And just so you know, as much as I would like nate to get married, he can wait till I get home. I reallly do like wedding food. Just saying  ha ha.

Have a good week.

Love Elder Obray.

Letter Dated July 4, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Elder Parra

Thanks for the music you sent, I am probably going to have to find a cheap mp3 player to play them on, or I'll get a CD player radio and burn them on Cd's, I haven't decided, really just depends on the mp3 price. And restrictions, just don't send me anything that's not good music. The manual tells us to listen to music that will help us to focus on the gospel, so classic music is good, any church music with good lyrics, no love songs(cause we shouldn't spend our time thinking about girls) hopefully that helps.

Mike with his new teeth

So exciting story, my comp threw up in our lesson after P-day last Monday ha ha, he was apparently a bit sick, but its alright, we were doing a family night at a members house so it wasn't so bad, he was just a little bit embarrassed. We are going over there again tonight for a retry ha ha.

Story 2, we buy our groceries for the weeks on Monday, and we knew it was fast Sunday  this Sunday so we bought food and everything. Well, it turns out that Saturday the other two elders' (Parra and Silvas) lunch fell through so they came back to the house and ate, but they ate my spaghetti sauce, so on fast Sunday I was planning on eating spaghetti, but I didn't have any sauce; ( ha ha so I ate oatmeal instead. Mmmmmmmm good, ha ha ha. I was slightly frustrated, but its alright.

Elder Sullivan with his big bowl of oatmeal

In those images, Elder Sullivan ate a huge bowl of oatmeal, you can see the bowl almost full.  We found some candy teetch that are gross looking that you can attach to your teach for a few minutes and we took some pictures, the native is Elder Silva, I don't remember what I told you about him, but just for your information, he is 26 years old! whew.

I think those gold pictures you talked about are Elder Brown ha ha, but I don't have those pictures with me today so I can't check....I think though the map is the 2nd area and all the pictures after 5853.

Elder Sullivan

So lets see, this week we had two lessons with the Family Rodriguez, who is Norma's friend. The lessons went pretty well I would say, and we brought an awesome member to the second one. Unfortunately they couldn't go to church Sunday because the mom was really sick.  The family is really good though. We just have to hope they do their part.

Elder Sullivan

We taught another family, Juan & Alejandra Barrionuevo, they are cool and like the church, but don't go because they don't really have a good way to get there. We are working out a way for them to get to church, but its a struggle to find a person with a car that's not full already. We taught them the Word of Wisdom this week, Juan seemed alright with it, said it wasn't a big deal to give up those things, Alejandra though really likes her coffee.  Other then that, this week we struggled, we taught a few random people, but not much that's really promising.  One of the hardest things here is that the people are VERY set in their religious ways and don't want to change the church they go to, or their idea about marriage. those are super common, a lot of people here are anti marriage which is terrible.

It was pretty cold here this last week, lots of rain and wind, it actually snowed in our area for a few minutes which was a shock, it doesn't do that very often here ha ha.

Elder Sullivan

So that's the life of the mission right now. We will see what happens this next weeks. Oh and Happy 4th of July. I didn't get to see any fireworks :( ha ha o well.

Oh and you should tell me when everyone Birthdays are, I can't remember. I think mines in November, Nate's is in February, millions of them in July, and Jenny in August.

Sounds like you guys all had a good week, keep staying busy and enjoying the large variety of food that the U.S.A has to offer, I say that cause I had a terrible craving for Panda Express this week, but there isn't anything even CLOSE to it here, ha ha.

Love Elder Obray.

Letter dated June 27, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;


Thanks for the Email, I am just uploading a bunch of random pictures from my camera, you might already have some of them. But I am going to upload them in order. So anyway. And send them in different emails so this will be a bit scattered,  ha ha, I have faith you can figure it all out.

Mike has the top bunk

This week was kind of a big week for the Mission. Well Mar Del Plata area it was, because Elder Arnold came. I didn't say much about him besides he was coming, but then I didn't know anything either.

So first we had a conference for all the youth last Tuesday where Elder Arnold was the speaker, and of course we could invite any investigator that would go. We only got 1, Norma (I think I told you about her once, she is awesome and loves the church but she works Sundays) but Norma brought her mom and a friend, and we have an appointment to teach the friend with Norma later this week.

So we are excited to teach them, only fear is that they don't have much (so they just might want stuff from the church, hard to say though...), and the church is willing to help if they reach certain requirements... anyway we will see what happens.

Then Wednesday, we had a special conference where Elder Arnold came and talked with the Mar Del Plata Zones, about 40 missionaries. We started at 8:00 in the morning and went till 2:30 in the afternoon. And it was pretty much amazing. Just as a side note, Elder Arnold gave a talk in the 2010 October conference that was way good. And he speaks really good Spanish.

Mike sun burnt or embarrassed or just bad lighting

So Elder Arnold pretty much talked to us for 6 hours, ha ha. He really pushed us to learn how to plan better (that was one of the biggest things), make sure we teach with members, and make sure our whole day is planed out smart. We realized that really we usually are only in houses teaching for maybe 2 hours a day, the rest of the time we walk, eat, read, and sleep. We need to plan so we can double our teaching time for every day. One of the biggest problems that the missions are having is the missionaries waste way to much time because we don't know how to plan, or sometimes we don't really plan.

 

We also need to ask and receive references, he showed us a method that would help us get references better, since that's something we have struggled with.

I wish I could do justice and tell you all the stuff that Elder Arnold told us, in the same way he told us, but that's not really possible, ha ha.

Some other things I remember that he talked to us about was:  
     1.  To receive revelation, 1 pray 2 study 3 meditate 4 pray 5 study 6 meditate.

     2.  We need to realize that this life is not a game, and take the things we do a 
          bit more seriously since we only get one shot.

     3.  Make sure we work hard so we don't regret the mission.

     4.  Set metas for our investigators, for baptism, since our job on the mission is 
          to baptize, not just be friends with people, and teach them things that are
          interesting.

Mike's Companion, Elder Sullivan after a hard day

Anyway obviously that's just a small portion of what he said, and he said it better, ha ha. But I hope you understand that it was a good experience and for sure a missionary pump up, ha ha. There just so many things that we have to do better its crazy.

So, it pretty much rained here all week, ha ha.  So it wasn't very much fun, since the roads are almost all dirt, my shoes and pants and socks and verrrry dirty.

The family with the Mom and two daughters was in Elder Parras's area, so we haven't talked to them since then.  This week me and Elder Sullivan worked pretty hard trying to get investigators to church we taught all our main investigators who are:  Juan y Alejandra ( great family mom and dad, two little girls, but they just wont go to church), Familia Cuinka (mom and dad, 3 daughters  17, 13, 9, and they just wont go to church), Osvaldo(we might end up dropping him, he doesn't want to set a baptism date, we talked to him last night, and he was super duper drunk and told us he was going to uhh very bad place that night, sooo.....), Familia Garcia(we found them this week, mom and dad are married, two kids 17 year old girl and a 14 year old son, they are cool, but difficult to teach because they have strong ideas).

Then we have a bunch of investigators who we will probably drop unless we can get baptismal fechas (sorry that's a spanish word for date) for them this week, we found out from Arnold if we don't or struggle to get a fecha, drop them and let the next missionaries try the next transfer.

Sunset on the ocean

So anyway this next week we will probabaly have to work on getting some new investigators, and working better with the members.  Oh but we didn't have any investigators come to church this Sunday which was pretty frustrating, since we had called them and confirmed and everything. But oh well not much I can do about it now.

I was stoked to hear Aaron's mission farwell went well, yea I had it on my calender the day he leaves, whew this Wednesday! That's pretty crazy! I am excited for him. He will do good. Have you heard anything about Sam going on a mission? I wouldn't mind knowing if anything is going on there. I heard Roisum was going to Italy which is awesome.

That's sweet that Alyssa is home! One thing that Arnold told us, was to make sure that when we come home, we come home a much better person, so much better, that the people around us will notice. So it's a good thing she came back way different, should show that she did a great job.

Anyway that's all I got for you right now. If you have a question on a picture just ask, I didn't have time to go through and look and write about the pictures that I send, some of them might be a bit strange, ha ha, have a good week, enjoy the photos.

Love Elder Obray.

 

I want to get some church music to listen to, to help me stay focused in the work, I have found that sometimes I waste time thinking about others things, and listening to church music helps me to stay focused. Right now I'm lucky that Elder Parra has some church music on his mp3, and Elder Sullivan has some speakers. But after this transfer I wont have anything. I know we have some at home, and I can get some from the mision office the next time I am there, but I think I have an EFY cd somewhere? That would be cool, and then I am sure we have some church music at home, I know we used to listen to a bunch of church music on road trips when we were little that would be cool to, the best way to get them to me would be to email them if possible. that would be awesome.

Letter Dated June 20, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Happy Fathers Day! Ha ha, Argentina had it the same time, which is weird cause mothers day is in like October, ha ha. Anyway Enjoy.

Mike in his appartment

Sweet, thanks for Sister Andersons address I will send off a bunch of letters tomorrow, probably. And I want to know what those changes the stake president is going to make will be. Sounds pretty exciting, ha ha. I can't even imagine what it would be. Is the church in general going to change something soon, or just our stake? Cause if its just the stake, it cant really be that big of a change right?

Yea it's decently cold here, but it's a different kind of cold, really misty. And the sleeping bag seems to work out pretty well. I defintatly don't live cold.

So I do have the same companion. Elder Parra picked up his new companion Friday night, Elder Silva from Santiago Chile. He is fresh from the MTC, they are only in the MTC for 2 weeks! Thats nothing haha.

A trainer is someone who trains a new guy from the MTC, so Elder Brown was my trainer, Elder Parra is a trainer for Elder Silva.

This week was interesting since Elder Parra didn't have a companion until Friday night. So we were at trio for the week. Which was kinda nice to have a person who could easily speak the language, ha ha. We taught some good people. We had a family that was a reference that we had been trying to teach for a long time that we finally got into and taught this week, they liked the lesson, but we have yet to see if they read and prayed.

Mike's companion Elder Sullivan

Then we worked in Elder Parras area, and he had a reference and we went there, they were one of the most prepared people I have meet so far, the family is just a mom and two teenage daughters, but they had been searching for a good religion for a while, and one of the daughters told us she felt something during the lesson (which is rare for them to say, but awesome) and she thought it was the spirit.

So that was the best thing that happened this week for sure. It also rained almost all week, so the streets are super muddy, and Elder Sullivan and I have been walking to our area, because Elder Sullivan spent almost all his money, ha ha, and we have to cross a stream, but the little wooden bridge was gone this last time, well more covered in water from all the rain, so we eventually found a place where there was small islands, and we hopped across the stream. Sometime I'm going to take pictures of the stream, and the forest we walk to, to get to our area.

And Elder Arnold from the seventy is coming to our city this week, he is president of South America South so that should be cool. Except apparently they always "drop the cane on the missionaries" which means he will tell us everything we need to fix. Should be fun.

Anyway that's all I got for you this week

Love Elder Obray

June 13, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad:

I'll send more pictures probably next time, we never have very much Internet time, haha.

Anyway I was glad to hear everyone is doing well. Sounds like some fun things happened. Yea, we hear from the people we visit sometimes about all the disasters that happen in the States. I didn't know about the flooding and fire, but the tornadoes we hear about like every day.  I don't know if I told you last week, but there was a volcano in Chile, and we could see the smoke in the sky for a while it was kinda cool, blocked out the sun a bit.

Elder Sulli

So the transfers came in and Elder Hampshire from our house is in Bahia Blanca now, Me and Elder Sullivan stayed, and Elder Parra is going to be a trainer. And that's all we know about that. But it's pretty cool. I would say Elder Parra will be an awesome trainer, he is a really good missionary and he only has like 9 months left.

I got the letter from Sister Anderson, but I can write back without an address. So you should try and get that for me. Thanks.

So this week, we didn't get a ton of lessons because people were hard to get a hold of and we seemed to have lots of extra stuff we had to do this week.

We had a Argentina conference though where Boyd K. Packer, Neil A. Anderson, Sister Wixom of the Primary, and a 70 from Argentina spoke to Argentina. It was cool, but only one of our investigators went. Oh Well. They talked about tithing, and warned members about going menos activo. Which was good cause 20% go menos activio in 20 years.

Mike

So honestly it was a pretty uneventful week when it comes to investigators. I honestly don't know where all of our time went this week. But this next transfer we are going to have some baptisms for sure. I am pretty excited.
I am frustrated though with some of our people they read and pray but Never go to church.  Anyway the mission is just that way, haha.

I do not know if i told you, but we have cell phones here. Well me and Elder Sullivan didn't have one before but they finally got us one, yay!   So that will help us.

Anyway I can't think of much else to say.  Besides I have written about 6 or seven letters, but I haven't sent them to people...whoops its been like a transfer since I sent a letter, haha.

Yea, I let Elder Sullivan cut my hair, instead of going and using 30 pesos on a barber, haha.  And that's what happened, haha. He did good just way short.

Enjoy your week.  Should have some more to say next week I hope.

Love Elder Obray

June 6, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Well sounds like you guys had plenty of interesting things going on. I can't believe Riles would only get 3rd place! O well.

Elder Parra

So this week wasn't so good work wise, we struggled to really teach progressive investigators. We technically got 10 new investigators, but they were all people the missionaries had taught, and dropped, so we went to see them and teach, but I can't see any really progressing.

The guy we had an appointment with is actually moving, closer to the church, but the church isn't in our area. Oh well. And we had 0 investigators come to church. But oh well, this week will be better.

We have stake conference this week, and they send a bus to pick people up cause its a fair distance away, so we should be able to get people to church since its free, haha.

This week is the last week of the transfer. I am pretty sure I am staying in the same area. Usually you are in the same place fore two or three transfers. But Elder Sullivan might leave, and the Canadian Elder Hampshire will most likely leave because he has been here for 4 transfers, haha.

Elder Sullivan

We did division again, so I worked with Elder Hampshire for a little while, and the Zone leader Elder Wells.

Yea I guess Aaron should be entering the MTC like June 28th, that's pretty sweet! Elder Parra one of the Elders in my house is from Chilie, I think he lives in the mission Aaron is going to.

I bought a converter, for 13 pesos, which is like 3 dollars, haha, anyway that was a sweet deal so I can send pictures.  I sent 11 pictures.  I have a bunch more photos, haha, but they will come next time.

Anyway that's all for now have a good week.

love Elder Obray


These are the pictures that Mike sent.  I spread them out over previous letters.
Letter March 11th one picture

Letter March 18th one picture

Letter March 28th one picture
Letter May 2nd one picture
Letter May 23rd  four pictures
Letter May 9th one picture

Letter May 16th one picture
Letter May 30th one picture