Letter Dated October 17, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad;

Thanks for your emails. Sounds like things are going good at home. Which makes me happy. Good old Nate is getting married this week. That's good for him ha ha.

This week was a decent week.

When it comes to investigators it went mas o menos. We didn't have a ton of success. We never got to see Nestor. And we didn't really find anyone. Well we did find a girl, who listened to the first lesson, but we couldn't say any prayers. Kinda a weird situation. But she said she would go to church and didn't show up, ha ha (which is fairly common).

The good things that did happen. We had 3 menos activos at church yaaaaaa! that was pretty good.  One lady hadn't gone to church in 3 weeks, and we passed by her house. Her husband is a super active member. She told us she wasn't going to go to church anymore, We set up a cita to visit with them both. And she wouldn't talk to us during the cita. So we talked to the Hermano, got some ideas of things we could do. And long story short. She went to church, so we were happy.

We had an activity on Saturday, Which was cool. It was for the whole district for 50 years of the church being in Necochea.

So for the activity we opened the church up to the public from 6 to 9 and passed out invitations. Not a ton of people came. But someone from Nechochea central brought someone from QueQuen, So we were happy. We talked to them and got their address. And fixed a cita, but they can only have citas on Saturday.

So that was pretty cool. Oh and Sunday was mothers day in Argentina. So happy mothers day yesterday from Argentina. I think I sent the pictures of the cake we made that says Feliz dia de Madre, ha ha. Hope you like it.

Lets see what else happened. We had a decent amount of lessons. And I really think this next week we will have success. So I guess we will see, ha ha.

Oh and I haven't met sister Iraeslson...Or I don't think I have....hmmm. Well when I left Mar Del Plata there were 4 new sisters going in. So she was probably one of them. But I only met 2 of those sisters and I cant remember there names but I don't think it was her.

Hey, I hit 9 months this week too.

Oh I did forget someone else. We visited a menos actovo and her family is not baptized, and they said we could pass by and teach them the lessons. So we have a cita this week with them, we hope it goes good.

Anyway enjoy your week.

Love Elder Obray

Letter Dated October 10, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well I'm glad thing at home are still good. Seems like a pretty normal week for you guys, ha ha. Which is pretty good.

Elder Stewart and a family from Mike's last area

This was a pretty interesting week. The weather was actually pretty bad. Pretty rainy and cold all week. My poor companion from Mexico was dying from the cold.  But he made it and now, at least today was pretty decent

This week started out pretty bad for us, we didn't find anyone, Marcelo and Cecilia will be in a city called Tandil for a month. And this was bad news, and it didn't get much better till Friday.

Friday we found a young man, like 23, called Nestor. We were visiting a Menos Activo and he happened to be in the house. And we started to talk to him tactfully (since people are legitimately scared of missionaries) fortunately when I asked if he was interested in religion he said yes. So we pounced, ha ha, and he listened to the first lesson and everything. We took our a fecha, which is a surprise. Then we left and we set a time to come back the next day, to visit with him and the menos activo. But he never showed up and he had left his Book of Mormon in the menos activos house. So we were saddened. But we found his house and talked to him (and he said something came up and he couldn't come) so we fixed a cita for Tuesday which is tomorrow so we shall see.

Then we had two good lessons with menos activo families. Man, I tell you what. Every family the wife and kids want to come back, but the dads are lazzzzzy, ha ha. (In the mission they are called Bago Pa´s which means lazy dads in Argentine Spanish.) In seriously every menos activo family we have its the same kind of problem. One of them legitimately said this¨I know I need to go to church I have a testimony and I know this is the only true  church, but I'm lazy. But I know I'll come back someday,¨ ha ha.  We got a bit frustrated. We have a cita tonight with that guy. One of the other families the dad got offended because he didn't get a church calling after a few years. Which is impossible here since there aren't any members unless he had some sort of problem...I guess we will see.

Sunday was a weird day for us. We spent the entire day searching for people to teach, ha ha. Well we walked out our door and a car stopped and a couple were arguing about religion, and somehow we managed to get a cita with them tonight and come to there house. Hope that goes well. Then we got into a house of a teenage kid who told us he had NO interest in religion, ha ha. But we taught and we Know he felt the spirit. and we have an invitation to come back, but his schedule is crazy since he is a soccer player, ha ha.

Then we were walking down one street and we decided to knock a door with cracked windows and a broken door. Humility right? Well turns out they were a menos activo family. And there house literally exploded (from gas fire) and their lives were miraculously saved. And the hermano was a ward mission leader. They loved to talk to us (the family is crazy a bit ha ha) we didn't get much chance to share cause they don't have a whole ton of interest. But they invited us to eat dinner with them Saturday night, ha ha. And we left there house at almost 9, which is when we are suppose to be home, and the hermano was soooo worried about us he called us and sent us a message to see if we were alright, ha ha. I thought it was funny. But anyway. We had some interesting stuff happen this week. 

And in our mission there is a senior missionary couple and they visited our branch. They are really cool. The poor sister was trying to learn Spanish I felt bad for her cause its not easy. But she did really good. Tell you what, talking to senior missionaries is awesome. They help make life for us missionaries a lot better. Its kinda (as in the way they talk) like having another mission president.

We did have a bit of success with  a menos activo, named Oscar Lopez, who came to church. Which was good. I was pretty happy somebody came. Everybody else bailed on us ha ha.

Anyway I am going good. I sent a few pictures of people in my last barrio. So I hope you enjoy them.

Hope things continue to go good. We have transfers this week. But I am almost 100% positive we will both stay.

Argentina has elections in the end of October.....should be interesting....I've heard we can't leave our houses that day, ha ha.

Anyway, love ya, enjoy your week.

Elder Obray.

P.S.  I get a wedding picture of Nate and his girl right? That would be cool. Since I can't remember what she looks like ha ha...am I bad...I forgot what she looked like. Black hair?  Maybe, pretty sure it wasn't blonde.....anyway that would be cool thanks.

Letter Dated October 3, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad; 

Taken from last area in Mar Del Plata

It was just me and my comp who played soccer. But it was fun ha ha.

So this last week was pretty good.

We did not have tons of time to go out and teach. Or at least it felt that way since we had general conference. For conference we went to a church in the central part of the city and we were there all day Saturday and Sunday. So that was good. It was pretty fun. Conference is just like Christmas for missionaries, ha ha. Its a bit strange I would say.

We did get to listen to all but the priesthood session in English. Which is good. But it doesn't matter to much for me, I can pretty much understand Spanish 100% when talking about the gospel.

The talks were really good this time, I picked up some good stuff. Conference is so much better on the mission.

We didn't really find to many new investigators, by that I mean 1. But we have started working on the menos activos in our branch a lot. The members actually want to help with that, so I think it will go really good. I guess we will see.

I really don't have much news on investigators or anything. We really are struggling to find and keep them. We can get into houses for 2 or 3 lessons then they don't want more :( kinda sad for them. But nothing we can do about that really...

We went and taught Alan, our baptism, this week a bit more, we met Flia Alberta who is menos activo. Taught Marcelo y Celcilia twice this week, We are trying to get him started on his divorce papers.

We went into a menos activio house, her name is Maria, and her mom was there, her mom isn't baptized.  So she is a new investigator. 

Really I'm stuggling to think of awesome things that happened and I cant ha ha. Besides conference. 

But the week went decently well, ha ha.
 

Take from Mike's last area in Mar Del Plata

I can't even think of any stories. How dull... haha. sorry. 
 

Which is weird since we are really busy, ha ha.  We almost went fishing for P-day today. But we didn't. :( oh well.

Anyway I hope to have more to say next week. 

Glad to hear you guys are all doing good. Nate going to be married in a month, huh, weird.

Love Elder Obray

Letter Dated September 26, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad,

Well we did have a pretty good week  this week. We did some work, found some more potential investigators. So it went pretty well.

Today was fun.  I bought a soccer ball so me and my native companion can go play around a bit (which we did today for a few hours) so that was pretty nice to relax a bit.

Mike's companion and the whole family of the boy being baptized

Lets see, we had interviews with the president on Thursday which was pretty cool, our mission president is awesome, and since we can finally communicate its a lot better, ha ha.

We had our baptism on Saturday which went well. I sent you some pictures of him. The kids name is Alan Emanuel Calderado. And he is baptized and confirmed and everything. There weren't any problems or anything. So we were pretty stoked about that.

We found a decent number of people.

Cecilia, Andrea, Memlica. We just knocked and taught the first lesson, we have a cita tonight

Cecilia y Marcelo. They left for Buenos Aires for the week.

Esther y Juan. The mom is Esther she is 82 and her 40 year old son Juan we taught them and they had some interest and we go back in a few days

Rosio. Taught the 1st lesson, she is difficult cause she studied religion, but she might progress if she actually has faith and prays, ha ha. A lot of people say they have faith but they don't do anything......so we shall see.

Elder Arriaga, Alan Emanuel Calderado, and Mike

Those are the big things that happened this week. Other then our baptism. We just have to get some people interested in going to church, ha ha. And sometimes the best way is to almost beg them to; go just once, and if you don't like it, we wont bother you, we might have to do that one, cause they say they'll go but they don't, they just don't really want to go to church, ha ha.

And the computer is being lame, so I might not be able to send pictures :( so maybe next time, ha ha, sorry. Yea we do a lot of menos activo work here, mostly because there's a ton of them and second because its a lot easier to reactivate a menos activo then to get into a house and baptize them into the church. And its just as useful. Of course we still search a decent part of the day for the people cause there are people being prepared. Anyway we just keep doing what we can.

There is a immobilaria right next to our house, I don't know if that is the right one, but I'm guessing it is. So we would be down a ally from that place, you probably can't actually see our house. And the lighthouse is in our area, but we don't go out there to work very often. Like never, ha ha. There are 300 members in our branch and 30 strong every week, ha ha, with probably 50 active. So, a bit of work. The thing is the registry for the area is a good ten years old and a lot of people have moved or died or who knows what. So..... yea we have been trying to clean it up a bit.

The meeting house is the corner of 521 y 554 so one street above ours and like 2 or 3 blocks its pretty big, with a basketball hoop/soccer court.

Trying to think of any stories we had this week....hmmm.... I'm going to try and find a way to send the pictures, ha ha. Just in case I don't end up writing more.

Love ya, enjoy your week

Elder Obray

Letter Dated September 19, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Alright so I am sending lots of pictures this week. Hope you enjoy them. Sound like you guys had a not so exciting week. Which is good. Sometimes I wish I new what it was like to be bored ha ha.

Mike's new companion, Elder Arriaga

Yea, so things in my new area got shaken up pretty good. With Elder Howard out. I only had one week in my new area, and I am training Elder Arriaga. He is from Mexico, Which is good he only speaks Spanish so he is helping me a lot. I have a picture of him somewhere. and I'll send it. He is pretty cool. We get along just fine so no problems. But he is new, so he is learning (along with me), ha ha, how to teach and such. Its pretty fun. He was frustrated this week though cause he thought Argentina was more like Mexico where everyone baptizes tons. But its not. Apparently the people in Mexico are more receptive, ha ha. But he likes it. And he has a good attitude so he will do fine. Anyway, my comp was a member all his life, he is the first in his family to serve a mission, and he has a good desire to obey the rules and find and teach. So he is a good kid.

This last week was crazy though. Since we don't know the members super well (it's better now, ha ha, then when the week started).  We pretty much had to start from scratch. We were¨given¨ 3 good investigator families that the other missionaries started the teaching.  Flia Marcelo y Cecilia, they have testimonies and know all the lessons, but he (Marcelo) needs to get divorced first  then they can get married, but its like a year long process. But they've started.

10 year old that was baptized

Flia Monica y Alejando. Monica is the mom and Alejandro is the 17 year old kid. They are nice, but I really don't know where they are at, ha ha, since my comp didn't tell me to much and I have only been in the house twice and only for a short time. We had citas this last week but they fell.

And Carlos, he is getting baptized next year after he retires, ha ha.

And we are actually going to have a baptism. We reactivated a family that has been going with a ten year old son who is going to be baptized on Saturday at 5. So that's cool, and really good for my kid (my kid is the Elder I am training).

But anyway the last week we knocked lots of doors and such trying to get more investigators but its difficult. We didn't really find anybody who was super ready. But we have several people that we will pass by and see if they are going to progress or not.

Mike and his companion and the 10 year old who was baptized

My Spanish is better now by the way. Far from perfect. But they can understand and I can for sure get my point across.

The pictures I sent, are from my last area Punta Magotes. Flia Zendroni with the kids. They are a really good menos activo family we reactivated.  And Hermano Quiroz. Tambien is a menos activo family we reactivated. Then just some pictures of the forest. Oh and Elder Stewart is in all those pictures.

Alright I don't think I'll be able to send all the photos I want, this computer is ssllloooowwww. But you'll just live with what you get huh?

OK mission stuff.

For my first week in Quequen we got

0 Baptized
0 Confirmed

1 Con fecha

2 at church

2 lesson with member

8 other lessons(without member)

0 progressing investigators(attend church with baptism fecha)

0 Received References

0 Contacted References

2 New investigators

3 lessons with menos activo o recent converts

Mike's new apartment

My second with with my Kid

0 Baptized

0 Confirmed

1 Con fecha

2 at church

3 lesson with member

11 other lessons(without member)

1 progressing investigators(attend church with baptism fecha)

6 Received References

3 Contacted References

6 New investigators

4 lesson with menos activo o recent converts

(I don't have my agenda for my old area with me so I only have the data for the new area)  And I would say that those are pretty normal. I have no idea what the mission average is, but the Meta is

1 Baptized

1 Confirmed

15 Con fecha

Mike's new apartment

5 at church

10 lesson with member

15 other lessons(without member)

5 progressing investigators(attend church with baptism fecha)

10 Received References

10 Contacted References

15 New investigators

6 lessons with menos activo o recent converts

But if you get that your a Zone leader or Assistant for sure, cause you have to be really good. It hard, but possible. Eventually me and my kid will get there.

And the data is for one week.

My schedule since I'm training is different as well. We study till lunch.

Mike's apartment

1 hr personal at 8

9 to 11 comp study

11 to 12 language study

Lunch 12:30 to 1:30 (but usually 2)

then work till 9 with citas and all that fun stuff 

Then finally get to sleep yawn.

Thanks for your letters and everything. I must say the mission is a lot better leading then following, ha ha.  A lots more fun and more entertaining. I like it a lot.

Anyway I'll talk to you again next week. With more pictures. The green church is a Russian church. I ran into some Russians in my last area that can't speak much Spanish or English, ha ha.

Picture 6119 is me and my kid Elder Arriaga. The Mexicano.

Anyway love ya.

Elder Obray

Letter Dated September 12, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad;

In last area the forest they walked through

Hey, sorry, I can't really write much of an email today, I'll get one off in the next day or two though, the Internet in the city right now isn't working. So I'll get you more info later on everything. That and to add to it. We just got a phone call like 5 minutes ago, and apparently Elder Howard is going to switch and be Financero (so he is going to Bahia Blanca) and I am going to be a trainer, ha ha. Sooooo yea I'll email you more about it when I know.

Love Elder Obray

Russian church in Mike's last area

Well I have a few minutes more to write an email.  To answer some quick questions, yea my last area got closed, or rather combined with another area, so two elders have their area and my old area. There is a district in the city so like 8 missionaries mas o menos. Our house is small, so its just me and my companion.

I rode the bus alone, but sometimes you ride with others, just depends on who else is going to the area. I am in a Branch with like 40 active people and 300 people on the member list.

We live on street 519 close to the river, really its a small town like Ammon is to Idaho Falls. called Quequen.  Really I live in the middle of a busy street behind a house, you'll be lucky to find it. But I'll try and get better stuff next week. The people seems to be decently well off. Not rich but not poor. Hard to say.

About the door knocking and such. Normally we leave the house at 10:30, so we knock doors or have lessons or whatever. Then come back or eat lunch with a member at 12:30. Then out again until 2:00ish and work till 9:00 that night. We don't do contacts when it's dark. Since the people wont open there doors to you unless they know you.

My comp Graduated from Grantsville High school and they live in Grantsville. We speak Spanish about the same, he is a bit better, but he was in the intermediate Spanish class in the MTC, cause he knew lots before the mission. His vocab is better then mine.

The questions I didn't answer you should put in your next email to me.  Sorry I don't have time to answer much.  Like Dads data question will take time so next week just ask again so I remember.  But this happens sometimes. 

Part of the forest in Mike's last area

I got the Letter from Aaron's mom, and I sent him a short message, but he will get through it. It's just the first little bit that's super hard being far from home and not being able to speak. I think he will be fine. I think ALL missionaries go through a time like that.

Oh and you should get me Nate's email so I can send him my Congrats on proposing, ha ha. That's pretty exciting. I KNEW he was waiting for me to leave on my mission, ha ha.

Love Elder Obray