Week 41: Last Week We Were Just Rolling With The Punches, This Week, We Socked Satan In The Face

Hello Friends and Family,

I hope that everything is so good in your lives and that life is just treating you all so well.  

This week has its challenges, but brought great, great miracles directly from the hand of the Lord.  

First off, Pday was great.  After writing the fam, we went to a buffet called Las Tinajas, which is AMAZING.  All you can eat Asado meat, pasta bar, fried food section, raviolis, fruit bar, and giant dessert bar.  AMAZING! And, best part.....it cost 12 dollars.  

At some point during the week, I decided to sit down and just start writing my blessings.  It took me and hour and a half, but I filled three pages with 368 blessings.  It made me feel so good it is incredible.  

Tueday was kinda difficult.  We went to go contact references, and got some of the worst rejection I have gotten on the mission.  Lots of people yelling at us and telling us to go away and stuff for a few hours, but it´s ok haha.  We can just keep pushing forward.  

On Wednesday, however, the crazy stuff started happening.  First, we passed in front of Hermana Villegas´ house, and she called to us, so we went to talk to her.  She told us that her daughter was sick and had a lot of problems, and that she was scared for her daughter.  Right then, she got a call telling her that her daughter had just died.  She absolutley lost it and freaked out, and we rode around trying to set up some transport for her so she could get to her family.  It was absolutely heartbreaking to see.  

This week, we had the blessing to be able to teach Maria, the woman we gave the blessing to outside the pension.  It was a great lesson, and the bishop came with us to do it.  There was a sweet spirit and Maria seems to have real desires to change her life and to come unto God.  We are so so so excited to teach her.  

Thursday and Friday were pretty slow, but I had a great spiritual experience that was a sweet tender mercy of the Lord.  

I sat down to do studies, and I was gonna read Our Heritage, the book about the history of the church.  However, I felt strongly that I shouldnt, but that I shouldve read True to the Faith instead.  So, I did it, and I read about baptism.  I've been wondering for a while, since the mission is so stinking hard for me, if I will really look back on the hard times and look at my mission and Argentina with a positive view.  When I opened True to the Fairth, this is what I found.  

¨The Book of Mormon tells of a group of people who learned the gospel and were baptized at a place called Mormon. From the time of their baptism, they regarded Mormon as a place of beauty because while they were there, they “came to the knowledge of their Redeemer” (Mosiah 18:30). Strengthened by their testimonies and their baptismal covenant, they remained faithful to the Lord, even in times of intense trial (see Mosiah 23–24).¨ 

When I read that, I felt the spirit strongly, and I knew that I will have good feelings and joy from the mission, as long as I work and remain faithful, just as the Lord blessed the people of Alma, because Argentina is the holy land for me in which I have gained a stronger testimony.  

Then, I had a cool experience on Friday.  We were about to leave, and I suddenly felt really grateful for the trials and hardships I have gone through.  I then went into my room to give a prayer of thanks for my hardships, and when I got up, the room was literally 10 times brigher.  It shocked me, and I even looked out the window to see what happened, but the sun was still covered by clouds.  It was a tender miracle.  

Anyways, on Saturday, we went to Anestacio´s house, the man who told us he wants to stop drinking.  When we sat down, he told us that he hasnt drank at all since we went the first time, and that he read the pamphlet we left for him.  We had an awesome lesson, and he is going to go play soccer with the ward members on Tuesday and they are gonna go pick him up!  WE ARE SO EXCITED.  

Then, Sunday was amazing.  I had the great opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting, which I just loved.  And, a random guy came to church to get to know it and he showed up for all three hours and met with the bishop after so we are super stoked.  

Then, we got to work.  We rode for an hour and a half and the appointments fell, but we kept going.  We went to the appointment with some members and their friends, who are investigators.  When we went by the investigator´s house, he came out really sad and I asked him what happened. He started crying and said that his wife left him and his son, and he said that there was no way he would be able to listen to us.  I know that I was being guided, and I explained what a Family Home Evening is, and told him to invite his kids just to have fun so he could forget things.  HE DID IT!

It was a great hour or so and we just played games outside with a lot of laughing and joy.  It felt so good, and then we gave  a little lesson, and it was a good spiritual experience.  As we left, I shook his hand, and he looked my in the eyes, and just what seemed to be with all his soul he said ¨thank you so much, thank you so so much.¨  It was such a blessing.  

Funny

We were in lunch with our ward mission leader, and we were messing with him, a we were whispering stuff to each other so he wouldnt hear us haha.  But then we realized we can speak English and he cant, so we just spoke in English.  Hahahaha he was so confused ¨what did you say? stoooooooop¨ hahahaha.

Saturday night, Elder Sorenson´s Exgirlfriend was at prom with another guy.  I happened to wake up at 4:30 and looked at the clock.  I realzed that it was 1:30 in Utah, so I yelled to Elder Sorenson, ¨hey elder! I bet your girlfriend is kissing someone RIGHT NOW¨ He didn't like that hahahaha.  

This morning, as Elder Sorenson got into the shower, I filled up a bowl of cold water (It is winter here so the pension is really cold).  Then, I kicked the door open and drenched him before his water got warm.  The yell he let out was Priceless.  

The Lord blessed us abundantly this week.  This is his work, and he always takes us out of hard times.  

I Love You All,

Elder Conover


This is the familia Teran!  The people we did the family night with.


This is Hermano Anguita


He is short...


Las Tinajas buffet...Amazing!


This is the feria.....where we buy our food.




Mission life is better when one is not eating just pasta.


I hit 9 months in the mission...A PREGNANCY!


Blessings page 1

Blessings Page 2

Blessings page 3





This is my favorite type of alfajor.....soooo good

Week 40: Just Keep Rolling With The Punches

Hey Everyone!

I hope that you all had an awesome week!  This week definitely brought a lot of challenges, but it also brought a few miracles and tender mercies.  

For pday, we met up with the zone, and we did a big asado with everyone, and I actually did this one!  Me and my comp split a 41 ounce steak.....it was huge and sooooo good.  And only like 8 dollars haha I love Argentina.  

On Tuesday, we had the district meeting, which takes two hours to get to, and there is only one bus that goes through the area, and it only goes by once every hour and a half or so.  Unfortunately, we missed the bus, so we just walked down the street trying to hitch hike, and it actually worked haha.  We made it to the district meeting.  

This week was crazy, and it definitely was difficult.  We had another investigator text drop us, which was just oh-so-fun to receive, but it was alright.  

Lately, it has been raining a TON and it is really cold.  All that, with dirt roads makes for really slow riding through really really deep mud, and super dirty clothing.  A lot of dropped appointments this week, but we got to teach one person, so that was good.  

As the week went on, on Friday, I was stressed and just kind of felt nervous to leave the pension and just face all the rejection again, and I prayed and studied a lot.  Then, we left to work.  That day, we left like 15 mins late since we had all the dirty clothes and had to clean them, and when we left, there was a woman standing across the street waiting for the bus.

I looked back over to Elder Sorenson, who was closing the pension, and when I turned around, the woman was right behind me, and she asked me if we were going to the church.  I told her we werent going there right now, and I was really confused.  

She then explained her problems with her daughter, and asked us if we could offer a prayer for her.  We then pulled out a seat and we gave her a blessing.  At the end of the blessing, she was crying, and thanking us.  She told us how much better she felt and that she felt empowered and like she could take on any of her challenges, and said that we can come back on Wednesday.  It was such a miracle, especially since she said that she never is out at that time.  She just felt like she should leave a little bit earlier so she did and ran into us.  

Following that, I just ran into the pension and got on my knees and cried and prayed for a while.  It was such an incredible tender mercy of the Lord.  

Funny

We were riding down this side street that has a ton of dogs, and three surrounded me, coming at my heals.  I shot my foot back at a bigger one, and clocked it in the head, which stunned it into giving up the chase.  Then, a smaller one came after me, which I have no patience for haha.  The dog made the mistake of coming into my kicking range, and I just gave it all my force.  It was so perfect.  My heel got its nose perfectly, with the front of my foot on its forehead.  When I kicked it, it fell and just started rolling over and over again, just out of control yelping all the way.  IT WAS AWESOME

We were at the church, and I saw two little 3 year old boys looking at each other awkwardly.  One of them turned his back to the other, and the other came over and smacked him in the back of the head for no reason.  Then, in the middle of the first boy´s cries, the other one grabbed his hair from behind and just slammed his head into the door.  I felt so bad, but I just could not stop laughing because it was so crazy, and I had to cover my face so the mom didn't see me laughing haha

So because of the rain, my gloves got all wet and cold, so I'm not using them, which hurts a lot haha.  My hands turn purple each day and I usually cant feel them after working.  When we got back to the pension one day, I turned on the stove, and tried to heat them up.  Then, I smelled something bad, and turned over my hands, and all the hair on the back was gone.  I just burned the hair off and I had no idea cause I couldn't feel them hahahaha

Love You All!

Elder Conover


The mud up my jacket...haha




Making the asado fire.


All elders making the asado.


Preparing the meat...we just use salt to season the meat.


I spent just like $5 on all this food!


I gave myself a haircut this week!


Argentines make really goo churros...dulce de leche filled!


In Colonia Bombal, there are two options....
your shoes are muddy and wet, or you are not working

Literally like 5 mins after leaving for work yesterday.
I shined  my shoes the day before yaaaaay

Whenever I have a hard day, I just remember,
¨at least im not that tree¨


We were in the MTC together and now we have 9 months!
Me, Elder Morgan, and Elder Call. They are studs.

Week 39: From The Valley Of Straight Suffering To The Everest Of Joy And Praise

Hey Guys!

Hope everyone is doing well and that the week has treated you well.  This week was so hard, and we had so many hard moments, but the Lord blessed us with many miracles at the end.

First off, we spent a LOT of time knocking doors and setting appointments this week.  In fact, we went 9 days without teaching a single lesson to anyone.  That destroyed us. 

It was really hard since we set a lot of appointments, but not a single one panned out.  They all fell, and the people one by one blew us off with our appointments.  

On Tuesday, we had spent a really long time knocking doors and getting rejection, and finally, we knocked on a door and the guy really just kinda started arguing us, and it just felt terrible.  We testified and just got out of the situation as fast as we could.  Afterwards however, I just felt so dark and sad about everything.  I just set my bike down and just got on my knees and prayed in the dirt right there begging for strength to do the work.  The mission really is humbling.  

Just have to say one thing, this area has been very humbling for me.  We have had a lot of stressful things happen, and it has been hard, but we have worked to get our investigators, and we have been chugging along.  

However, this week, basically all of our investigators dropped us, or we found out they have no interest, etc.  That was one of the hardest things to happen to us, since that has happened three or four times in my time in this area.  With all of the stress, I basically had a full blown panic/anxiety attack, and President had me call the mission counselor, and she told me that I am overworking and that I have to slow down how much I'm working.  That is not something I like accepting haha.

Needless to say, for a few days I felt about as dark as I have ever felt.  It was some of the hardest days I´ve had in my life.  

However, despite the difficulties, the Lord ALWAYS pulls us out.  

After 9 days of not teaching anyone, we had one of the best teaching days I have had on my entire mission.  

So, Sunday after church, we got to teach Jenifer, the sister of a recent convert, who is 15, and she goes to church all the time, but she has had a really hard time accepting the baptismal invitation.  However, yesterday, we talked about the Book of Mormon, and the spirit was really strong and we could just feel it really really strongly.  We asked her if she had faith in the Book of Mormon, and she nodded affirmatively.  Then, we asked, ¨Pondrá su fé en el Salvador y seguir su ejemplo a ser bautizada por alguien que posea la autoridad del sacerdocio de Dios?¨ and the spirit was way strong, and she ACCEPTED!!! WOOOOOO!  We were way happy, and the Lord blessed us immensely.  

Then, we got to go to a member´s house to teach their next door neighbors, Daniel and Alejandra.  It was an awesome lesson and the spirit was really strong.  They were super attentive, friendly, and accepting, and they like bore their own testimonies of the power of prayer.  It was AMAZING and we will teach them next sunday.  

Finally, we went to a member´s house to ask for some references, and when we showed up, their brother, who is not a member, was sitting there.  He wanted us to teach him, so we just went in and got to teach a little lesson and they want the missionaries to go to their house in Cordoba!  It was amazing!!!!! The Lord blessed us so abundantly.  

Funny

We were on the bus, and Elder Sorenson squatted to put something in his bag, and the bus driver hit the breaks.  Elder Sorenson fell over and hit this little kid, and pushed him off to the side.  The poor kid looked terrified hahaha.  

We were going to the house of some investigators, and a drunk guy stopped us.  LIKE WASTED.  But, he liked us for some reason (Like all drunk people here) and took us to his house, riding his bike, which was quite impressive to see.  We then took a picture and he invited us to come to his house one day.  Maybe when he´s not wasted haha.

We went to a bakery on Saturday, and I was with another Elder from california, Elder Freeman.  We walked up to the counter, and I asked the girl behind the counter how much the bread cost.  

¨Cuanto salen sus tortitas?¨ 

She giggles

¨Cuanto salen sus tortitas?¨ 

she giggles

¨Cuanto salen sus tortitas?¨ 

she giggles

Me (to elder Freeman) ¨She is SUCH A SNAKE¨ 

Her: ¨Salen A bailar?  Tienen novias? Salen con chicas?¨ (Do you have girlfriends??)

Us: ¨No, how much does your bread cost?¨ 

The Argentine Girl just could not handle the two incredibly handsome, strappling califronia boys standing in her midst hahahaha.  Just kidding.  

It rained really really really hard Wednesday and we had no rain stuff.  That and dirt roads is really fun hahahaha.  

Overall, this week was way hard, but ended well.  We are now working so close with the ward to kick the area into gear, but the investigators are so low, and we are having a hard time finding them.  However, the Lord always delivers.

I love you guys!

Elder Conover






We photo bombed this families picture.

Week 38: Got Chased By A Pack Of 15 Dobermans

Hey Guys!  

Week 37 of the mission came and went here in Colonia Bombal, and we are still here just chuggin along.  

Last Pday was fun, and we got to play ultimate frisbee with my (Emily´s) frisbee for the first time in my entire mission, which was super duper fun, until the Chileno chucked it over the fence and into another dimension, and there was no way of finding it.  Darn.  Note to self......Latinos do not use frisbees in their countries.  

On Tuesday, I tried a new food.....Conejo....or rabbit. It literally just tastes like chicken, so it was actually way good haha.

This week, we had quite a few very interesting experiences.  First off, we went 10 days without getting into a house, which was so difficult to deal with, but the Lord delivered us and we got into two houses this week.  

However, I first want to talk about the Dobermans.  We went to knock doors, and we went and clapped outside (cause that is how we ¨knock¨ here.  Anyways, when we knocked, we noticed a doberman sitting in the yard.

Nobody came, so we clapped again, and then the stampede started.  Suddenly like 15 Dobermans came hauling out from behind the house, barking, bearing teeth, sprinting, the whole deal.  They came straight at us and just started trying to jump the fence and the gate looked like it was about to break.  We didn't even try to get away cause if they made it over, it wouldn't even make a difference hahahaha.  The owner came out and told us about all of his life stories and how is Argentine and he moved to Russia to be a Russian pilot, and then he fought England in the war between Argentina and England, and took shrapnel, and now he breeds big dogs.  It was legit.  

We also got to go exchanges this week, which was good and we got to teach a couple of people.  We contacted someone, and they invited us into their house.  When we sat down, my companion asked him if he had a wife.  He then told us the story of how she got mad and called the cops, and now he has a police tracker locked onto his ankle, and he is on house arrest.  It was quite interesting, and I was just wondering why the heck we were in the house of a man on house arrest, but so goes the mission life.  

So anyways, this week was difficult, but we could see some great miracles.  On Friday, the Lord really helped us a lot.  We were able to contact a lot of people, and set a lot of appointments with people that we hadn't been able to talk to for a while. 

One woman, named Mabel, invited us in to teach them, which was a huge miracle. however, we knew that there was no way that there was a man in the house.  We explained the problem, and she got really mad and attacking and offended.  We tried to explain, and she was not taking it.  We pulled out The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and just bore testimony.  She completely changed her attitude and told us to come back another day with a man.  It was a great blessing and a miracle.

Then, on Friday, we were riding, and a car passed us, and a guy got out of it, and just faced us, staring.  I honestly thought that he was gonna just beat us up, but then he just came up and started speaking in English, and said he lived in the states before and he told us to go see his family next weekend.  SUCH A MIRACLE.  

Overall, this week was super difficult, but the Lord really did show us his hand and his love.  And, I got to talk to Mommy, so it was a great week.  

Funny

Elder Sorenson was going to deep fry something, and when he wasn't looking, I turned off the stove, and walked away.  He then popped his food into the oil, which was super cold.  Elder Sorenson: ¨Ahhhh its not hot¨ hahahaha I was in the other room dying while he was trying to figure out why the fire went out.  

After we ate the rabbit, the member showed us the rabbit cage, and showed us the babies and the dad.  So, I asked her where the mom was.  She just responded, ¨You just ate her¨ 

Me.....¨ahhhh¨

Elder Sorenson to the baby rabbits......¨I ate your mom!¨ 

When we went to the house of the guy who is on house arrest, and we were about to leave, we asked him when we could come back.  He just said,  You can come whenever you want, Im always here, I don't have a choice hahahahaha¨ It was hilarious but kinda awkward.  

I love you guys!

Elder Conover


Me with Hermana Vale and the baby of the rabbit that I ate.


On Monday I had knee pain so the nurse made me stay inside
the rest of the day....yay fun.


I am teaching myself how to cook...I made breakfast burritos
this week!


Bought empanadas during intercambios.


When your socks dont dry fast enough, put them
on a fan.....they dry faster


She made me hold the rabbit like that.


We used mom´s recipe for pancakes and had it with maple syrup.


Found a bee on me so i had to take a picture.


My bike after riding through a lot of mud.


i decided to draw my name while elder sorenson talked to his family.


Skype with the family!!

Week 37: What a Week

Hey Guys!  

It was a way crazy week. and basically like opposite of the last week.  

We had a great Pday and we got to go bowling in the Guaymallen mall, and it was super fun with all the other missionaries.  The missionaries from my old area, San Miguel, told me that Sergio (Sergio and Ines) fell, and they think that he is dying, so we are planning on vistiting them next pday.  It made me so sad to hear that.  

This week we had the opportunity to meet Nazarrena Florentina.  She was a reference of some Elders in the district, and apparently they gave her a lesson 1 pamphlet and a Book of Mormon, and she is super young, friendly, and has a husband and two little little kids.  We are super excited to teach her, however, she lives in a rented house behind a Catholic Woman named Maria.  Maria is one of the meanest people I've met, and she like freaks out every time she sees us.  She says that we cannot enter the property, so we have to figure out a way to teach the family at a member´s house.  

Unfortunately, we never entered a house this week, which was difficult, but the Lord blessed me so abundantly with feelings of peace and comfort that I just felt great and peaceful the whole week.  

This week, we also had a ward mission activity, however, only 2 people other than the people who planned it showed up haha.  It was kinda a bomb, but hey, what can you do.  One of our investigators showed up, so that was interesting with the 4 man party, but the members did a great job helping them feel comfortable.  

The whole week, we worked really really hard and were praying super hard for the investigators to all go to church.  We were super excited since a lot of them said that they were going, however, no one came yesterday, which was really hard to accept, especially when the members started asking about it.  

Satan got a good upper hand on us this week, however, the Lord blessed us with quite a bit of blessings and miracles this week.

First, we didn't get to teach our investigators, Norma and Gabriel, however, when we went to their house, Norma came out to talk to us.  We don't know her that well, but she just completely opened up, and she told us all of her problems and the help they need.  She said that she feels like the Lord has given her her problems so she can go to church.  We got to share Ether 12:27, and bear testimony.  She was in tears and the spirit was really strong.  

Second, last night, as we were closing out the week of work, we wanted to visit Nazarrena Florentina to see why she didn't come to church.  We decided to say a prayer before going so we´d be able to find her.  We went to her house, and called her, but she didn't answer.  We were just about to leave, and right then, she got home, and she told us they had to go to the hospital in the morning, so they couldn't go to church, but they´d like to go to the house of a member for a family night this week!  We are stoked.  

Finally, before the mission, I was pretty timid, and never was jumping up and down to talk to someone I didn't know, let alone in another language.  During my mission, my goal has been to become social, funny, etc. in order to connect with the people, and it has been so stinking hard for me. But yesterday I got such a tender mercy.  We were eating with a famiy, and one of the women stopped during the conversation and just told me how fun it is to talk to me because I am so social and funny.  It was such a blessing to hear, and the Lord has blessed me so much.  I am so grateful for the Lord´s hand in my life.  

Funny

This week, we were passing the one house with all the dogs who hate us.  Sure enough, as we passed the house, the leader dog came after me.  Something to know about the dogs here:  They know that people want to kick them on the bikes, so the usually stay just out of leg distance.  However, this dog came into my leg zone, so I took a nice swing, STRAIGHT into it´s throat.  There are few things in this world as satisfying as that kick hahaha..

At our church, if you are on a bike and have some good speed, you can jump off of the ramp that leads to the parking lot.  As I jumped it, I felt way cool, but unfortunately, my bag broke right there, and just pasted the ground.  And all the members were looking.  It looked way lame.  I guess that´s what I get for trying to be a little bit of a show off. 

I love you guys and hope you are all doing well!

Elder Conover




I decided to put my beanie on this dog's face haha


My new tie!


It has been muddy here lately


Me and hermana Villegas.




Deep fried chocolate chip cookies and dulce de leche....SO GOOD


I made fruit salad this week!


This is my ¨I'm so stressed out from planning I'm gonna die¨ pose


I had the opportunity to give my comp the worst
haircut hes every had this week.


Literally had a heart attack when i saw this call.


A woman made us fried dough stuff this week.