Life in Argentina:

Hola family and friends!

I hope all is well and that everybody is doing well.

I've gone through yet another week in Argentina and can't believe that I am already half way through my first transfer here. It´s been a great week. The work is starting to pick up a lot and we are starting to get a lot more of investigators. Elder Milne and I didn't work that much Friday and Saturday because he got really sick all of a sudden so he was in his bed for about two days straight (we still managed to work in the night for a couple of hours) But yes, i was pretty bored during that time. I washed all the dishes like twice and read Our Search for Happiness by Elder Ballard. So at least I kept myself somewhat busy. The book, Our Search for Happiness was awesome though. It was all about the basic principles of the gospel and how they can change our lives and it was a great testimony builder.

The castellano hasn't gotten too much better in the speaking department. But it is amazing how much I can understand when people are talking. But I am still working hard at trying to speak up and continue to practice and develop the language. I am finally able to add into lessons and basic conversations instead of just sitting there saying nothing all day so that's good.

We have a few new investigators. We met this really good guy from a reference from a member who just finished his mission in Chile a month ago. His name is Carlos Perez and I think he is about sixty or something. anyways, he has known the church for about twenty years and believes it to be true and watched general conference because he loves the prophets, he has church DVDs, listens to the hymns. The only thing that is lacking is that he isn't baptized! He is scared that if he gets baptized he would just fall away from the church after. So we are going to teach him about faith and about how the gift of the Holy Ghost can make a difference in his life. But he has an amazing spirit. Another family we are working with who are less active members is the familia Aguierre. They have a son who is nine that they want to be baptized so hopefully that will happen soon. But as we were leaving their house the other day the parents friends were coming in and apparently started to ask about us and requested for us to come over and teach them. So hopefully the lessons will help the two families and the son to get excited about the gospel!

On Thursday we got back from a district meeting and the other companionship in our house were on exchanges so one of them were en our casa for that day and the next. but when we got back they were eating our left over pasta that we were going to eat. So we gave elder Thomson a lot of crap for eating it and told him that he needed to make us pasta on Sunday. everyday before Sunday we kept saying how excited we were for the pasta. So Saturday night he got all the stuff to make it and everybody was excited. Well after church on Sunday we got invited over to a members house for lunch to have shepherd's pie. So we agreed having forgot about the pasta. So we ended up eating like 3 plates of shepherd's pie each and then when we were walking back to the house Elder Thomson called us and asked us where we were and we remembered about the pasta. we didn't want to disappoint him so we said we were just at a members house. long story short. Elder Thomson loaded up our dishes and we ended up eating a ton. I felt like throwing up... but he still doesn't know that we ate two lunches that day so shhh.

For P-day today Elder Milne and I got permission to run to Centro. It was about 4km or about 2 miles. It was nice to get out of the house and do some running and exercise. Today is yet another holiday in Bahia Blanca.... today is the 186th year of Bahia. But they seem to have holidays every other week and the whole city shuts down. But it was fun to be in Centro today because there was a lot of music and celebration. Learned a little more about the culture. But it was fun to take some pictures of the city city in Bahia Blanca.

Not much else to write but i´d like to share a couple of scriptures that have helped me out.

In 2nd Nephi 31:3 For my soul delighteth in ^aplainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the ^bunderstanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their ^clanguage, unto their understanding.

I like this scripture because it gives me comfort here. I can´t speak the language well. But I can speak it in plainess. The was I can do that to equal understanding in the people is to teach with the Spirit because the spirit speaketh unto men according to their own language.

And next scripture is James 1:5^aIf any of you lack ^bwisdom, let him ask of God, that ^cgiveth to all men liberally, and ^dupbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

I love this scripture because this scripture is what ultimately led to Joseph Smith praying to find out the truth and being called as a prophet. I love that God has given us all the promise of being able to ask and receive answers. Personal revelation is incredible and has helped me out more than I ever could have imagined in my mission. I encourage everybody to seek for the things that Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ want us to know... because they will give it to us.

I hope all is well.

I love you!

Elder Vaterlaus