Week 32: Feliz Pascua!

Hello Friends and Family!

Hope Everyone had a great Easter, and may you all feel the endless blessings of the Savior's atonement.  

This week was definitely so much better than the past few weeks, and we did not have any doctors appts, broken bikes, etc, so we could actually work super hard!  My legs ache so much from pedaling so long, and it feels so good haha.

First off, last Pday, I felt kinda just downtrodden and beat up from the lack of work from the previous week, and I just felt like I really am not making a difference in anybody´s life.  However, the Lord blessed me so much!

We had ¨super pday¨ so a ton of missionaries got together in Mendoza to play soccer, and the Mendoza zone leaders, who are now in my last area, San Miguel, were there too, and they told me that same day Sergio and Ines, my investigators in San Miguel, were going to the lawyer to get their divorce papers done so they can finally get married, and hopefully they will be baptized in a few weeks and Ines, my favorite person in the world, asked the zone leaders to make sure and invite me!!!!!  I was so grateful for that, the Lord is truly aware of us.

Next, we had a scary experience this week.

We were riding down the main street, and I was in front, with Elder Hollis behind.  We had just turned, and I was on the side of the street, and Elder Hollis kept going into the street a little bit, just as a GIANT Semi-truck blew by, literally missing him by about 2 feet.  He literally almost died and it was terrifying.  Then, the truck drive got mad, pulled over, walked past me, and started screaming in Elder Hollis´ face, saying some mean mean things.  It was terrifying, but luckily nothing happened after that.  

We found a new investigator this week, Antonela, who is a 17 year old girl, and she listens very intently, and we got to give the first lesson about the restoration and we also watch the restoration video with her.  It was a great lesson and the spirit was strong.  There really is just a sweet spirit that comes every single time we talk about the first vision and Joseph Smith.  IT IS TRUE!!

Yesterday was great, and a really strong recent convert gave a talk, and her mom, who is not a member, came to church for the first time, and stayed to watch the baptism of an 8 year old girl, and there was such a sweet spirit there.  Afterwards, we went to the house of some members for lunch, and they did a HUGE asado.  SO GOOD!  Pictures are attached.  

Yesterday, we also had an awesome lesson with a man who smokes SO MUCH, in order to help him stop smoking.  It was an awesome lesson and it was a blessing to be a part of it.  

Finally, last night we got transfer calls, and I am staying in Colonia Bombal, but Elder Hollis is leaving.  I will be Senior Companion with 2 other gringos with about the same time as me, so I am super excited.  However, Elder Hollis´ bike broke (yes they are brand new)  last night, so we now have 1 bike for 3 elders.  Should be an interesting week haha.

FUNNY

We got off a bus and Elder Hollis dropped his scripture case straight into the Acequia.....and yes there was water.  Luckily, they didn't get wet.  He also forgot his name tag that day.  The poor guy has terrible luck.

We were riding in the MIDDLE OF NO WHERE just trying to explore a little, and we were riding side by side.  I was on the right, Elder Hollis on the left.  Suddenly, two HUGE dogs came out of a house to the left, and I saw them coming, so I positioned myself so Elder Hollis was in between me and the dogs, so he would take whatever they dished out on us haha.  Anyways, the dogs surrounded Elder Hollis, and I made my get away as he was fighting them, trying to kick with both feet and pedal at the same time.  It was quite interesting to watch.  Suddenly, my companion just went kung-foo ninja and just pounded one of the dogs in the head, and just dazed it.  It then came after me and I got off my bike to fight it, and it ran away.  On the way back the dogs were tied up cause we think the owner saw what happened.  Don't mess with Mormon Missionaries haha.  

I also got a good dog face kick this week.  The dog was chasing me barking and being mean so I gave him a nice little smack in the face.  He ran away quickly haha.  

The Lord really blessed me beyond expression this week with feelings of peace, support, love, and just a feeling of contentment.  Thank you all so much for your prayers and love.

Elder Conover



Super cool area in Colonia Bombal.


There are the most beautiful sunsets in my area.


My new agenda...I love this story.  I really want to work on
gratitude this transfer.


Picture of Mommy in the agenda cause Mother's Day is in
this transfer!


Argentine Asado!




That moment when you come home and your house looks
like this.  Haha


This is my "dragon" from the last week.  She
was on the bus with us today. haha


BEAUTIFUL views here.


A toilet!


Elder Hollis was exhausted and he just like
fainted while studying hahaha...notice the
pen in his hand.

Week 31: A Week to Grow The Roots

Hey Everyone!

Here in Argentina, in the middle of nowhere in Colonia Bombal!

Anyways, this week, as it says in the subject, was a week to be able to grow the roots, or, grow ourselves spiritually to be able to help more people in the future.  

On Monday, we got to do a Choripan, and hang out with a bunch of missionaries, which was way fun.  

This week we went to the hospital almost every day for my companion, and it takes two hours to get there, plus a lot of other things happened that really slowed the work down, which was kinda difficult, but the Lord really blessed me with a happy spirit and it didn't get me down.  

We were able to teach one mini-lesson the entire week, and we talked with Miguel, who we are trying to help stop smoking.  He had been smoking 50 cigarrettes every day, and he is now down to 10, which is great, and he promised us that he will take his family to church on Easter, so that was really cool to hear and see!  Definitely a tender mercy of the Lord.

Like I said, the whole week I felt really good, despite the lack of work, and we got a lot of rejection haha.  All of the appointments of the week fell, and very few street contacts invited us back (and those that did werent home when we went haha)  However, the Lord really helped me in the week.

Yesterday, I felt really stressed out and just anxious.  It was really really hard, and I just fell to my knees, and the Lord definitely helped me make it through the day, which was really a blessing.  

Funny: (There was a lot this week)

We were riding in the bus, and we heard a BANG!  from the back of the bus.  We looked out the window, and two people were picking up their broken motorcycle they had just run into the back of the bus.  Luckily, they werent hurt at all. 

Elder Hollis (my companion) has terrible luck.  This week he electrocuted himself trying to plug in his fan, ran into a window with his face, got peed on by a goat, and got bit by a dog.  Poor Guy.

We have learned how to ride our bikes with no hands.  We tried to do a competition to see who could go further on this bumpy dirt road.  My bike went off on the side, into the rocks, and my pride was too big to grab the handle bars.  The bike then stopped, and my body went over the handle bars straight into a face plant, while everyone around laughed.  Luckily nothing but my ego got hurt.  

In the mission, a ¨Snake¨ is a girl who is after missionaries.  However, there are other classes of snakes.  A 45 or so year old woman is considered a ¨Dragon¨ This week, I got a dragon after me.  This one older woman ALWAYS stares at me on the bus, and she has no shame, doesn't hide it at all.  This week though, she took out her phone, and pointed the camera at me.  Then, without her knowing, her flash went off, clearly stating that she was taking a picture of me.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh haha

I Hope You All Have An Awesome Week!

Elder Conover


Cool Sunset...My area has beautiful sunsets.



Doing magic for children.

My Comp...straight thuggin.

Apparently Obama is coming to Argentina....
and I don't think people like it.

This is what I call 'the back of rejection"...When
people sit super far away with their back turned
to you so you don't talk to them.

I don't know if these are big in the states, but these shoes are
so popular here.  They look like my worst nightmare!

This is my "I just fell off my bike on my face" face.

Week 30: What A Week

Hello Everyone,

First off, I'm gonna be completely honest....this week was really really hard.

I'm just gonna get everything off my chest and then talk about the good, building, spiritual experiences.  

I have just felt super stressed since I still don't have very much time in the mission and I am basically washing the area, and all the previous investigators have all but fallen off the face of the earth, so we are starting from scratch.  The bikes also were broken all week long, and we proabably spent 10 hrs this week trying to fix them, with no success, so that meant walking 30 mins to get to any groups of houses, which meant very little work, so we basically had straight 0´s for our numbers.  All of this, with extreme sleep deprivation, really made for a hard week.  I feel so innadequate to drive this area like this and I am so humbled to be given this assignment, and it was just a hard week.

Then, to top it all off, our best investigators, the Alvarez Family, dropped us last night, so they are not investigators anymore.  But hey, all we can do is keep pushing forward.  

However, with all of the hardships, the Lord still blessed me with some building experiences.  

One of the days, I was feeling really sad and stressed out, and I just needed some serious help, and it was study time.  I got on my knees and just begged Heavenly Father to bless me with an edifying study session.  As soon as I got up, I felt prompted to grab my hymn book, and just sing for study.  I was overcome.  I cried the entire time, and the spirit that I found was unbelievable.  God truly does answer our prayers and always has his arms extended to embrace us in times of need.  I'm so grateful for that knowledge.  

Yesterday, I also had a really hard time.  I was just overcome, and I just felt like I couldn't keep going on.  I fell to my knees bawling, begging God to help me.  He blessed me with a miracle to be able to continue on and I felt so much comfort the rest of the day.  So much comfort that I even felt at peace when the Familia Alvarez dropped us, it was such a huge blessing.  

Funny:

On companion exchanges this week, I was with the District Leader, and he had to go to the doctor to get something checked out in his throat.  The doctor wanted to put a mirror in his mouth, but he wanted to make sure it was santized of course.  He then proceeded to take out a cigarette lighter and burned the mirror, felt it with his hand, then stuck it in the Elder´s mouth.  #onlyinsouthamerica

We contacted a reference after walking 1 1/2 hrs to get to the house.  When we got there, two men were sitting inside, watching us, we waved to them, and they ignored us.  This continued for about 5 mins, and then we had an idea.  Since it was a reference from the church, we had their phone number too, so we called them right there.  

 

Him: ¨Hello¨

Me: ¨Hi we are looking for Gladis?¨

Him: ¨She´s not home, who is looking for her?¨

Me: ¨The missionaries that are waiting outside your house¨

Him: ¨Uhhhhhh.......¨

We knocked on the door of a less active member´s house at night, and he´s old, and was scared of robbers, so he opened the door, and had a 10 inch knife in his hand ready to take us down.  He was pretty shocked when he saw us.

All in all, this week was very challenging, and I have felt so humbled by everything, but the Lord also helps us so much and he blessed me with strength to overcome when I didn't think I could.  

I have a new saying next to my desk...¨No Effort Is Wasted¨......and I know that if we trust the Lord, no matter what happens....No Effort Is Wasted.

Have a great week everyone,

Elder Conover

This is my im going to kill this bike face

We had to take a taxi....and bring the bikes haha #onlyinsouthamerica

​My new ride.....still better than our bikes hahaha

It got cold, so i took a picture of my cold weather outfit.....how missionary can you get?  Complete with BYU pj´s

Me and Elder Pixler, the district leader

In the states, we have ¨farmer john¨.....this, ladies and gentlemen, is ¨farmer Juan¨ hahaha lame spanish jokes

​My new favorite saying

The people who came to our ward mission activity.....not many people came haha

Week 29: Great Experiences But A super Stressful Week

Hey Everyone!

So like the subject line says, we had some amazing experiences this week, but it was also a pretty challenging week as well.

First off, we had some special transfers this week, so I got a new companion, Elder Hollis from Johnstown, Colorado. he has 20 months in the mission, but he still works hard, and he just came out of the offices so he's excited to be out.  

However, this week has been super stressful since we have basically washed the area.  I've been here for a couple of weeks now, but now I´ve gotta drive the area, and I just feel super insufficient, and the investigators that had baptismal dates have all but disappeared from us, so it´s like starting from square one.  But all we can do is trust the Lord and do our own part!

So on Wednesday, we were contacting people, and we were about to go knock doors in one area. when Elder Hollis´s bike broke.  Usually we go back to the pension to fix it then, but I just decided we´d do it later and we left the bikes at a less active person´s house, and just went on foot.  

We started contacting, and we were looking for one guy´s house, so we stopped to ask for help finding it.  An old woman came out, and we asked if we could just come into her house haha.  I begged and begged and finally she said yes!  When we went in, they accepted us well, and a woman, Alica, was there, who has just come out of the hospital, and has a lot of health problems.  We had an awesome lesson, and she told us that she doesn´t feel special, and we just testified of the love that God has for her, and afterwards, she just smiled us and said ¨I won´t think that I´m not special anymore.¨ It was a huge blessing and we found 4 new investigators in that experience!  The Lord really does work in mysterious ways.  

Another experience we had this week was helping a couple of people stop smoking.  We planned a really powerful lesson, and we were super excited to teach it.  We were going to play a video to introduce it, but sadly, the video didn't work, and the investigators really kinda shot down the word of wisdom, which was difficult, but we kept pushing and working with them.  Then, the lesson was going well, but then one of them mentioned falsely that we don't believe in the Virgin Mary, and then the other investigator got all worked up about that. and we had to guide the lesson back to how to stop smoking.  It was an interesting experience, but they both committed to follow the word of wisdom to stop smoking, so we will be going by this week to check up on that.  

Finally, we got to teach the Familia Alvarez again, and it was a good experience.  Dario (the dad) is still reading the BOM, and has tons of questions.  However, becuase of a few things he saw and heard in church, he has some doubts, so we were nervous about that.  

The lesson was going pretty well, but then it just went awesome.  Dario started talking about the changes that have been going inside of him.  He said he never has been a person to sit down and read the bible, but he has a lot of interest with the Book of Mormon, and he feels really good when he reads it.  He also told us that he has an increased desire to serve God, and I asked him when that started. and he told us right after we first started teaching him, and I felt the spirit so strong when he said that, it really was amazing, so we are trying as hard as we can to try to help them recognize that these changes and feelings are directly from God testifying of the truthfullness of these things.  It was amazing!

Funny:

One morning, I was getting ready, and Elder Hollis called me from the back room.  He had shut the door and there is no door knob, so he had no way to get out hahahaha.  I had to jimmy rig the door with some scissors to try to free my companion.

A guy came by the pension to ask us if he could leave his bike (which had a popped tire) at the pension while he went shopping.  Elder Hollis told him that he would fix his bike for him.  Unfortunately, Elder Hollis hadn´t learned how to fix a popped tire, and he used shoe glue to fix it, and then inflated the tire, which then exploded.  I laughed pretty hard knowing that I didn't have anything to do with it and therefore wouldn't have to take the blame.

A couple days ago my bike pedal fell off my bike, so we started walking, and we passed a bunch of drunk gangster guys, and they saw that we were walking and asked what happened.  We explained and they then argued about how to fix it and then grabbed the tools and fixed it.  Towards the end of this experience, another drunk guy came over, with a huge wad of marijuana in his mouth, and him and his friend told us they were going to come to church that week.  They didn't come.  Hahahaha

I Love You Guys!

Elder Conover

​Fixing the bikes!

The people in my mission really really like soccer

​The people in my mission also really really like coke

​Hermana wright....we were in the mtc together....she is a saint.

​My bike pedal fell off

​This is our ¨we hit six months¨ face!

This is Flaca, the neighbor´s dog, we thought we killed her on accident
by giving her some chicken, but she showed up healthy!

​Then, my bag broke and got caught in my tire and i started skidding around like crazy