Letter Dated March 5, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Hey well sounds like a few interesting things are going on back home.  That's good. Makes me happy.

Sounds like everyone is pretty much out or going out on the mission by now that's good. Hope Sam is doing well. We have a senior couple here that were in Madagascar as mission presidents. They say they eat rice.  Always. rice, rice, rice, rice, rice... makes me count my blessings, ha ha.

I hope Romney wins. That would be cool ha ha.  Sounds like he's doing good.

Yea I wouldn't worry to much about the kids going to mutual. A lot of them are probably like me, don't really like to go just cause they would rather be out with friends or playing soccer, ha ha.  I liked my leaders, really good people just like you guys are.

Well out here in Castex we just continue to work as hard as we can. We had the baptism of Antonia this week. I'm going to try to send you a picture here, but my companion is using my USB converter right now.  Antonia is great. She is really happy right now. She has felt the difference.  So we are really happy for her.  So Yessid, Natalia, and Gaby went to the baptism, which was great. Also All three went to church as well.  Woot!!  Antonia had a lot of trials before her baptism almost her whole family and all her friends are against her and the church. But she went ahead anyway. A great example of faith.

We still are struggling to get Yessid to get baptized.   He is ready but just doesn't feel like its the  right choice yet. I know he has felt and can identify the spirit. Maybe its just a matter of time.  But we are doing what we can.  I think he will get baptized shortly.

Natalia actually bore her testimony (shes the 11 year old) in sacrament meeting which was great. Gaby no, ha ha, but not a huge surprise.  We have a baptism date for the the 24th.  We are just trying to prep them for it. I think they both will get baptized.

With Melina we actually changed the baptism to next week cause they didn't go to church this week :( so we can't baptize her...

We are having a lot of success.  We only had 3 go to church. But that's still really good. Especially since they all should get baptized.  We are excited.

Anyway that's the biggest news of things that happened this week.

We started to teach the mom of Nerina. Her name is Susana. We are going to keep passing by to see what happens.

We did divisions this week as well.  I went with Elder Sterling from California.  Really good Elder, he has like 8 months out, but he is a superstar.  I learned a lot from him. He was hear as well to do the interveiw with Antonia. Which went well.

Oh, almost forgot the baptismal pila is small swimming pool thing.  That they put inside the church. ha ha. We went to the church a bit early for the baptism and someone left the hose on on and it was overflowing!  So we had to hurry and clean up all the water. Fortunately, in Argentina, carpet doesn't exist.  And that's how they clean floors here, with lots of water. So we really just cleaned the floor.

We did service this week as well.  We used a saw and cut down some small trees. It was pretty fun. We did if for Hermano Rico. Super good Hermano. He helps us out a ton and made friends with Yessid and always invites him over for pizza and such. Its great.

So when I went to Bahia, my comp stayed in Santa Rosa and I was on the bus alone (its not against the rules to travel alone).  Then in Bahia, the secretary picked me up and did the visa, and I came back. Great fun ha ha.

Anyway that's like all I got. Well I'll just stay around the South pole and baptize people in cold water (actually the waters pretty good, just deadly to drink) You guys can stay up north in the snow.  I'm good right here for now. Maybe when it gets cold here we could switch. I don't like the cold to much here.

So I will talk to you next week. Have fun.

Love,

 Elder Obray

Letter Dated February 27, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well sounds like a pretty interesting week.  Some good snow storms and such.

Yea, so actually we had another pretty good week.

Antontia is for sure getting baptized Friday. So we are pretty excited. We are just getting things ready for it.

Also we are still trying to get Yessid to get baptized. They have lots of good friends in the church.  We just got to help him understand the spirit.  A bit of a challenge sometimes, but he is going to go to the baptism, which I think will help out a ton.

Then unfortunately Gaby and Natalia didn't go to church this week.  But they have PROMISED to go this next week and to go to the baptism of Antonia.  So that will be Fantastic.

We had 5 people go to church this week.  Yessid went with his wife.  Melina (the daughter of the elders quorum president, she is going to get baptized in like 2 weeks, we are teaching them).  Antonia. and the Mom of member went who we are trying to start teaching. So we got lots of good things happening this week. We were pretty stoked.

Actually, right now I am in Bahia Blanca, writing. I gotta do some stuff with my visa. But I'll be back in Castex by Wednesday. So that's good.  I don't have a ton a ton of time to write.  But I wanted you to know that everything is going good out here.

Elder Wagner is from a small town next to the coast.  I don't remember what his city is called.  But that's all good.

I thought it was funny that Abby doesn't like Nate.  Just wait till she sees the real scary guy, hee hee hee.

Anyway. Have a good week.

Love ya'll

Elder Obray.

Letter Dated February 20, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well sounds like everything is still going pretty good at home. That's always good.  Tell Nate happy birthday.  He's like 30 now right?  Man, I'll be honest, he's getting old,  ha ha.

Yea, so I haven't explained many of my pictures.  But they are all fro m Quequen, so sometime you will see pictures from Castex, but I gotta finish Quequen first.

Alright, so.  This week also went pretty well.  We had some great things happen.  Well Yeesid  is pretty close to the same.  Or I haven't noticed a lot of progress.  He keeps reading and praying, but he wants something more.  We brought the Stake mission leader to a lesson with him to help us out. We had a good lesson, but we are kinda stuck.  Really I don't know what else we can do. We have explained things to him very clearly.  And he understands. But he is looking for a bit more. Really he just doesn't have a testimony yet that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joesph Smith was a prophet.

So now I am finally getting to some Castex pictures. You'll get all Castex pictures next week.

So we just keep trying things with Yessid.

Antonia progressed really well this week.  She even dreams about getting baptized.  Cool huh?  She wants to get  baptized this week. So we are going to try (we gotta do a lot of stuff before she can get baptized)  but she accepts everything, and loves the church.  Her health is doing better as well. She has been sleeping a lot better. So I am happy for that.  She  went to church this week.  We are pretty excited. 

We also got a few new investigators.

1st Gaby and her 11 year old daughter Natalia. They are neighbors to a good member family.  The 11 year old is awesome. She describes things in a good way.  When we asked her how she felt when she was reading, she said "its like Jesus is standing right in front of me giving me a bug hug"   Well, I can't think of a better way to describe that....  Anyway we taught them 3 times this week. Which is great. They didn't go to church though.  Probably cause the dad doesn't really like the idea of them going to the Mormon church..... But we are going to keep on working.

So those are the best  investigator stories that happened.  Now for other exciting news.  Elder Stutz got transferred to Necochea! So he is now gone.  I already have my new companion.  He is from Texas.  Elder Wagner.  He has 6 months in the mission.  He is a great kid. 

So now you know.  Everything changed once again.  So, yea that was fun.  We said goodbye to a lot of  people for Elder Stutz.  Elder Wagner was actually in the same MTC group as Elder Stutz.  Weird huh.

Thanks for sending the shoes.  I hope to see them some day! Ha ha. I'm sure I will in a few weeks.  

Anyway, that's all I got for you this week.  Enjoy your week. 

Love ya

Elder Obray

Letter Dated February 13, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well sounds like you guys are doing a bit of missionary work!  That's awesome!  Keep that up.  We always stress to the members here to look for and pray for opportunities to share the gospel, cause God will help us to achieve the righteous desires of our heart, and that is one of the very best things we can do is share.

So I'm glad your week went well.

Our week out here went really well.  A lot of pretty good things happened.

Alright, so this week.

First we continued to work with Yessid.  We didn't get a lot of progress, he has read a lot and prayed a lot, but he still doesn't feel like he's gotten an answer. So it's a bit complicated.  But he did go to church for the full three hours.  We were happy about that.  But we still can't commit him to baptism.  But we will keep going.

Alright so now on to the really cool stuff that happened.

The best thing is that we found a lady named Antonia, we found her trying to avoid a HUGE rain storm. We saw the deadly clouds and knew we would be 100 percent soaked if we didn't get into a house. SO we did warped knocking which is we ran house to house trying to find one.  Cause we only had a few minutes.  And it started to pour right as we knocked her door and luckily she let us in.  Whew.  So then we taught her L1, which went really well, she accepted everything, even a baptismal day.  She even asked us where the church was!  And we fixed a cita to pass by in 2 days.  Which we did, and she was waiting for us!  Which is odd.  So we taught lesson two and talked about how she felt.  And she told us she read and prayed and felt really good while reading and praying.  Alright so we were happy.  Then we passed by again on Saturday.

So Saturday we passed by.  And she told us her story, right.  So apparently her husband and son died in a car crash. So she was struggling. Then one day she asked God to send her some people that could help her.  And the NEXT day we knock her door. She saw it as an answer to her prayers.

So she went to church on Sunday. She liked it a lot.  We were pretty excited that we could actually be a small part in this whole thing.

I hope that all made sense, cause I'm not re-reading it.

So that was the coolest thing that happened this week.

Then I don't know if you remember Enrique, we kinda dropped him for a bit, but we talked to him Saturday night.  And he went to church, (which was a huuuuuge surprise).  Well he kinda forgets things. And couldn't remember what the sacrament was.  So when they passed the bread he said very loudly for a silent room, hey whats this?  Then with the water, Oohhh Gracias esta Frescito. or wow thanks its nice and cold.... ha ha.  I almost laughed.  Well I thought it was funny.  Maybe its just cause he is like 65 and kinda a funny guy.

So we had  3 people in church. We were happy.

Anyway we actually had a lot of other things happen.  That was pretty good.  But you got the best of it all.  We did see hail the size of golf balls that was cool.  Some where even the size of a tennis ball. Crazy huh. Yea we hid under someones patio, ha ha.

Anyway hope you guys all have a good week this week.  It's already transfers week.  I doubt I'll leave, but maybe Elder Stutz.  Apparently we are getting 40 new missionaries this transfer!  Which is a ton.  We will have 200 missionaries here now.

Enjoy.

love ya

Elder Obray

Letter Dated February 6, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well sounds like a pretty interesting week. Glad I wasn't home and sick, ha ha, that would not be fun....  But other then that it sounds alright. Girls camp will be interesting with the new change.

So this week in the field was a bit interesting.  I don't think quite as much happened, ha ha.

So. 1st we did divisions Tuesday after district meeting and it went through Wednesday. I went to General Pico which is like an hour north of Castex with Elder Himebaugh. Elder Himebaugh is from South Jordan Utah. He learned Spanish before his mission though, so he speaks really well. He only went to the MTC for 2 weeks then he got put out here. Crazy huh. Anyway he is a way good missionary. We worked hard. Found some new investigators. And it looks like they should have a baptism in a few week. That will be great for them.

I got back to my area late Wednesday.  So Thursday through Sunday I worked in my area.  We had some decent success, maybe not as much as I would like.  But we did alright.

So We found one investigator named Jaun Carlos who is interested, but only sort of. So we are trying to find a way into his heart. But its a bit hard. But he did say he was going to read and pray. So we shall see what happens.

With Yesid, well, we taught some more, but we really are in the same place. He reads, he prays, but he doesn't feel like he needs to be baptized in the church. Really he just isn't so sure that the church was restored by Joseph Smith. So we shall see what happens there. This week he is going to try super hard to read and pray everyday and ask specifically if Joseph Smith was a profeta of God, and if the Book of Mormon is true. So he should get an answer.  But who knows. I think he might have already gotten an answer, but maybe he's scared to follow his answer.

Those are the two biggest things that happened.  We didn't have any progress with anyone else. 

Flia Mason, a family in the ward gave us a HUGE bowl of canned apricots.  They are really good.  Just so you know.  They are fresh two, just canned.

We did find out something interesting. We have a list of members right? And on the side of one name, Teresa, it said her husband was dead right? So we passed by one day and she was there (she is an older lady) and we talked. She told us she wants us to pass by and talk with her husband.  So we thought she was crazy.  Elder Stutz had passed by and never seen her husband before. So we passed by and he was there... we were surprised.... i guess he wasn't dead after all.....

Anyway.  Hope everyone feels way better this week.  Just so you know, that flu isn't in Argentina yet. Hurray! 

Have a good week ill talk to you next week.

Oh, I think the pictures are of Quequen, a catholic church. They have cool churches. And a kid Nahuel. His dad is M.A. I think I wrote about him a few times.

Anyhow. 

Love ya

Elder Obray

Letter Dated January 30, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad;

Well sounds like a pretty good week for you guys in Texas.  Sounds like a lot of fun up there, ha ha.

Cool to hear that Drewbee is going on his mission in four months to Italy.  A lot of guys are going over there right now.  I think that makes 3 in Italy, ha ha.

So we had a pretty good little week in the little town over here.  First off, we had interviews with the President on Tuesday.  Which are always good.  We went to Santa Rosa for the interviews in the morning, and we ended up spending most of the day there.  President got there and we had an hour and a half chat as a Zone with the President where he explained some things and taught us.  It was really good. Then we all got like 5 minutes with the President.  So it was pretty cool.

We also cleaned a water tank.  I think I sent home pictures of them.  They are big tanks above the house, they are full of water.  Well we cleaned one out.  And it was disgusting.  It took us like 3 hours to clean....and I'm still not convinced its clean enough.

So lets see, the things that happened with people this week.  Well a hermano in the ward.  Hermano Abromavich.  He is Elders Quorum President, and active right, but we were on our way to a cita with someone, and he stopped us in the street and told us his 10 year old daughter isn't baptized and he wants to baptize her..... ha ha, me and my companion were in shock cause we thought she was baptized since they have been going to church since my companion Elder Stutz got here.  So he then went to Buenos Aries for a week. So the 5th of February we get to start teaching her.  Kind of a surprise, but cool as well.  It will help us to connect with the family really well.

Then we have Yessid.  We taught him a few times this week.  Some really good things happened with him.  First we had a lesson Thursday.  And we focused on church since he hasn't gone yet.  And at the end of the lesson we had him give the closing prayer (which up to this point he wouldn't do). He asked God if he needed to go to church.  We all felt the spirit.  After the prayer I asked him if he would go to church with us, and he said yes.  So Sunday, he and his wife went to church.  We were pretty excited about that.  Church went alright.  I gave a talk.  Pretty decent.  They have problems with the Word of Wisdom (they like coffee) and tithing.  But we are still working with them.  We just put our confidence in the fact that every question they have they can talk to God about to find out if its right.

We also were put in charge of the Ward Family night on Friday.  So we prepared a lesson using 1 Nephi 17 when Nephi builds the boat and some of the things that happen, and then for the kids we made paper boats.  So that was cool.

We also found 2 reallllly good investigators yesterday.  Gustavo and Alberto Sosa.  They are great.  They are friends, Gustavo 23 and Alberto 71, they hang out everyday.  So here is the thing.  Gustavo just started changing his life, he stopped drinking and smoking pot.  So that great.  But he still wants to stop smoking cigarettes.  Oh just so you know, we found him and he was wearing a Jesus shirt, or a shirt with a Jesus picture.  Which I thought was interesting.  When we taught them, they both liked it.  Said that they were going to read and pray and go to church and get baptized.  So yea.  What else can I say. They seem golden.  We talk to them again Tuesday.  But I wont be there.  We have divisions this week and I go to a city called  General Pico up north I think.

So that's pretty much the success we had.  Pretty good week if you ask me.  I liked it.

Anyway we will keep working over here. You guys can just keep working over there and its all good.

Today we visited the only tourist attraction here in Castex.  They have a dinosaur park!!  Yea.  It's actually kinda cool.  I guess.  I was expecting a bit more.  But  I'll send the pictures sometime.  I have millions of pictures still to send of Quequen.  The ones you got this time are of Jaun and his sister Rosio, Jaun is getting ready for the mission he went out with us sometimes.  Then just pictures from the streets of Quequen, I got plenty more coming in a few weeks.  The internet is just slow here, so, yea.

Anyway enjoy your week.

Love ya

Elder Obray