Week 49: Gave Me the Package

Hello Everyone! 

This week was difficult, but the Lord blessed us with a wonderful experience in changing the life of a person, and a family.  

On Monday, we got together with a bunch of missionaries to play soccer, and we invited a bunch of members to come, and our investigator Elias told us he was going to be there as well, however, he didn't show up.

In the afternoon, we went to his house to figure out why he didn't show up, and we found out that he went to jail for the day.  He lives in a kinda dangerous area, so the cops just went in their to raid random people walking in the street, and he just got chucked into prison.  I couldn't stop laughing hahaha.  

On Tuesday, we had the district meeting, which went well, and I got a good story out of that (See Funny Section).  

We had the opportunity this week to do exchanges with the zone leaders as well, which was fun, and we got to work a lot in Libano (the area next to ours).   

Anyways, last week, we taught Favia and Elias the Law of Chasity, and they HAVE to get married, especially since she is pregnant.  He was all gung-ho for it, but she wasn't.  This week, however, we taught the plan of salvation, and when we got to the end and we talked about the celestial kingdom,  I decided to use some Valentía, and talk about the marriage again, and I invited them to be married on the 13th of August.  They were blown away.  However, we pushed and pushed, with love of course, and they ACCEPTED!!!! We even made Elias´ mom cry.  It was such a tender moment just soaked in the spirit.  

We also had a tender moment with Analia this week.  We only taught her once this week, since she has been super busy, but we brought the Relief Society President with us to help, and that was amazing.  They connected so well.  We taught the word of wisdom, and I have suspected that she smokes for a couple of days, but we never confirmed it.  

As we taught the word of wisdom, I could see the guilt starting to bubble up as she thought about the things that we were teaching.  The lesson went well, and at the end, I got to extend the invitation to live the word of wisdom.  She accepted, and I asked her if she would have any problems living the word of wisdom, and she looked up with the most humbled face to confess that she smokes.  

She started sobbing, telling us the guilt she always has to smoke, especially near her kids.  She told us that she started smoking when she was 15, and she showed real desires to change.  It brought me to tears as well, and it was an amazing moment.  In that moment,  I told her that in that moment, she was going to stop smoking.  We invited her to show her faith to give us the cigarettes she had left, and she then handed me a box of cigarettes.  The healing power of the atonement is real and the Lord allowed us to see that 

Funny

I was playing a game with the zone leader, Elder Cook, in which you have to hit each other's hands to push them back, but if you step, you lose.  He pushed forward to hit me, and when I dodged him, I lost my balance.  I, in my pride, didnt want to lose, so I spun instead of stepping, and I hit my face on the cement corner of the church hahaha.  It really really hurt

Lately, I have been trying to develop the ability to talk like Elmo.  As we left the apartment this morning, I was practicing my elmo voice.  Suddenly, a man came around the corner, trying his best not to laugh.  Classic

I love you all so much

Elder Conover

Me and the zone leaders


Argentina specializes in the art of hot dogs


My shoe broke this week


Dayana....the neighbor´s dog came for a visit


Analia´s LAST package of cigarettes


I smacked my head on a brick wall...nice


My oh-so-sexy comp

Week 48: The Gospel Changes Hearts

Hey Guys!

It was  a good, challenging week, and the Lord blessed us with a lot of progress with the investigators we have.  

One monday, we played soccer and ultimate frisbee as the elders in the zone, and it was a really fun pday. 

Then, on Tuesday, we buckled down in the afternoon, because we got to teach the Law of Chastity to our investigator, Elias, who´s girlfriend is pregnant.  Let´s just say I wasn't jumping up and down giddy with joy to teach that one haha.  

When we went, he invited us in, and we pulled out the law of chastity pamphlet.  We explained what it is, and he said, ¨Ya, I know that Jesus wants us to be married first, he wants our lives to be in order.¨ We taught the lesson, and he turned to his girlfriend, and he said, ¨Flabia, looks like we are done!¨ It was incredible how fast he accepted it.  We explained that it would be better to get married than seperate, and they are thinking about it, and reading the scriptures and praying together to know what they should do.  It is incredible!  

We were also blown away because Elias has now gone 9 days without smoking a cigarrette, when he used to smoke 20 every single day.  It is a miracle, and he is praying, studying the scriptures, and is working to be able to go to church!  It is amazing to see his progress.  

This week, we were also blessed to have the baptism of David Maldonado!  It was such a beautiful moment, and just seeing his family together was amazing.  Now, their family can take the steps to be sealed for eternity in the temple of God!  Such a miracle to see!

This week, we didn't get to teach Analia very much, because her friend´s baby is in the hospital, so she has had to take care of the other kids, and hasn't really been in her house.  She took the Book of Mormon to her friend, so she can find peace, which is a miracle, because it shows that she desires to share the gospel!  Unfortunately, she didn't come to church, and we aren't sure why, so we will go figure out what happened tonight.  

Finally, we had a couple of other miracles with Elias this week.  We usually just teach him, and his girlfriend doesnt have much interest.  We asked her to sit down, and we gave a lesson, and at the end, we changed Elias´ baptismal date to the 20th of August.  We then turned to her, and I invited her to baptism.  She rejected, so I asked why.  She said that she wasn't prepared, so I explained that she is right, she is not prepared, but that we will prepare her.  I invited her again.  She said no, so I asked her why.  She said that she needs to ask God for forgiveness first.  I told her that setting a baptismal date would be the first step to showing humility before God.  I invited her a third time, and the silence that followed could have killed a horse.  THEN, SHE ACCEPTED WOO!  Such a miracle!

Then, last night, when we went to his house, Elias had taken out his piercings in his face and his earings.  As we finished the first prayer, I asked him why he did it.  He told me that he was thinking about the word of wisdom, and felt like he should take care of his body and not have those piercings.  I almost died.  

When we first met him, he came out smoking a cig, super gangsta´ looking.  Now, he is reading the Book of Mormon, keeping the Word of Wisdom, cleaning up his language, and changing his life.  THE GOSPEL IS TRUE AND CHANGES LIVES:

Funny

We taught a member this week the word ¨Freaking¨ Gosh I Love Spanglish

We had a dog follow us all around the city for 28 hours, and then we went to the church.  She then got stuck in the fence.  It was so stinking funny.

I, trying to be a good District Leader, wanted to make crepes for the district, and I made all the batter and we got to the chapel and I started making them.  Epic fail.  Burned a lot of really ugly crepes.  Hermana Sayer had to help me save the crepes.  

The Gospel is true and changes lives when we have an open heart and sincere desires!

Con Amor,

Elder Conover


Analia and her family

Baptism of Ines!!!

David Maldonado's baptism!



The dog that kept following us around for
hours and then got stuck in the fence.



I can cook Asado now



PDay


Elias

Week 47: The Hand of God in His Work

Hey Guys!  

I hope that you all had a great week!  We saw so many miracles in the work this week that it was just absolutely incredible!

First off, 4th of July was great.  We have mostly gringos in our zone, so we did a huge asado (which I did) and we had hot wings and cinammon rolls.  It was way fun. 

After the festivities on monday, we went over to Analia´s house to see how her study of the Book of Mormon went.  We had left 3 Nephi 11.  She greeted us really well, and we asked her how it went.  She told us that she LOVED it, and that she wanted to talk to us the next day about it.  Needless to say, we were stoked for the rest of the night. 

During the week, we had a lesson with a person, Hmo Quiroga, who is a less active member.  He is very interesting.  Right when we sat down, he said that women are a vice for him, like that was no big deal.  We just started reading Alma and Moroni 9:9.  It was a way interesting lesson.  

Then, we had another lesson with Analia, about the Book of Mormon.  We asked her how she felt when she was reading, and oh my gosh this woman has a testimony that is so strong.  She said she just felt completely at peace and love and she felt like someone was pushing her head down to read more and more.  When we talked about how to get a testimony about it, she just stopped us and told us that she already knows that it is the word of God.  WOW. 

We also are teaching Elias, a man that we found a couple weeks ago, and haven't been able to teach since.  When we sat down, he was smoking, and he told us that he hadn't read the part of the Book of Mormon that we had left.  So, I decided to use a little valentia and ask him if he wishes to stop smoking, and he said yes, and then I talked very directly about the importance of reading the Book of mormon. We taught him the word of wisdom, and he agreed to live it, and he also committed to be baptized!  Woo!  We are now going to his house every day with a ¨stop smoking plan¨ and he is quitting!  And, he read the first part of the Book of Mormon, and he took notes and everything!

We also taught David Maldonado, the father of our ward mission leader.  We taught him about the law of the tithe, which he accepted, and then he surprised us, and told us he wants to be baptized this coming Thursday, so we have a baptism this week! Woo!

Anyways, when we taught Analia again, we taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and in the middle of the lesson, she started crying, and told us just how amazing it was that we showed up at her door when we did.  She told us how much she was struggling in that exact moment, and then we knocked on her door.  She said that right when she saw us, she knew that she church is true.  I had the opportunity to invite her to baptism, and she accepted the baptismal date of July 30th, which is as soon as she possibly can.  She also came to church yesterday, and LOVED it, and wants to keep on coming with the rest of her kids. 

SUCH A MIRACLE AND A BLESSING

Funny

We were eating with some members this week, and the mom of the members came in, who is not a member, and she asked us how her daughter had treated us.   She asked Elder Hoagland, and he said  ¨más o menos,¨ cause he didnt know what she said.  The Woman was kinda offended and I had to explain what happened hahahaha I'm so glad I'm not new anymore

Poor Elder Hoagland had a rough week.  We were walking in the street and he ran into a bird cage with his face.  It was super funny.  Especially since the owners were standing right there and watched the whole thing haha

The Lord Is In His Work!

Elder Conover

Week 46: Really Hard Week, But The Lord Blessed Us With A MIRACLE

Hello Everyone!  

Crazy, hard, amazing week here in Krause, and we are working a ton to find more and more people to teach.  

First off, on Monday, we got to teach a man, Pedro Aguero, for the first time.  He is an old man, who is Catholic, and super duper stubborn.  Let´s just say it wasn't exactly the MOST spiritual, progressive lesson  in the whole wide world.  

Then, for the next few days, we did a LOT of door knocking and talking to people in the street.  It was a lot of hard work, but at the end of the week, we found out that we talked to the most people in the street out of the whole zone, so that was good to hear.  

We worked really hard to set a lot of appointments, but unfortunately, every single one of them fell for like 3 days or so, so that left us with a lot of door knocking haha.  Oh So Fun.  

Something that I like doing, and that often gives quite a bit of fruit, is searching for old investigators, and since we basically have very few investigators right now, I have scoured the area book looking for people who have talked to missionaries before so we can find them and teach them again.  

We spent most of Wednesday looking for former investigators, and it was pretty slow going.  We met a lot of super duper grumpy people that really did not want to talk to us at all, so that was just awesome haha.  We finally went  into a little store to contact a man that the missionaries had talked to before, and when we walked in, I asked the man behind the counter for ¨José Rodriguez.¨ Well, apparently that was our friend José, and he got really mad.  He like started yelling and telling us to go away and to respect his religion and what not.  Things like that dont usually bother me at all, but man, that one hurt, and everyone just stood and watched me.  It was a painful rejection.  

Needless to say, the first three days of the week were awesome haha.  

On Thursday, we had weekly planning, which is by far the most stressful time of the week for me.  This weekly planning was no different, and I could feel the dark clouds comin´, but we kept going.  Right at the end, we got a text from the Familia Maldonado, canceling their appointment that they had for that evening, which meant we would basically be knocking doors and talking to people in the street again, which just really felt daunting.  

On Tuesday, we talked to a woman in the street, and set an appointment for thursday night.  We were not going to be able to make it, due to the appointment that we had with the Maldonado Family.  However, since they canceled on us, we got to go to the appointment.  We went over to the house, of the direction she gave us, and we clapped outside.  She walked out, and she was super duper nice to us, and opened the gate to say hi to us.  As we started talking, we came to find out that the woman that we talked to in the street had actually lied to us, and gave us a bogus address, which was actually the house of Eliana Romero, the woman who we met Thursday.

  We explained who we are, and asked if we could go to her house sometime, and she accepted.  As we were leaving, I asked her if her husband would be there, so we could know if we had to bring a man to the lesson or not.  She then explained that she just seperated from her husband, and that she has 4 kids with her.  She also explained that 12 years ago she talked to sister missionaries, and then she looked at the lesson one pamphlet, and touched it, and she said, ¨that is why I need this so bad.¨ My mouth almost hit the ground when I heard that.  It was amazing.

Fast forward a couple of days, and we went to the appointment with Gabriel Maldonado, who is 18 and just got called as ward mission leader yesterday.  She invited us in, which I was SO STOKED about, and we got to talk to her for a while, and then we taught Lesson One, about the Restoration.  It went SO WELL.  She was SO ATTENTIVE and listening to every word.  At the end, we gave her a Book of Mormon, and she stopped, and said, ¨I felt really bad and I was passing through such a hard time, and right in that moment, you two came and clapped outside my door, and gave me THIS¨ and she held up the Book of Mormon.  As we left the lesson I ran around in the street heel clicking and dancing (missionary-appropriate dances).  The Lord blessed us SO ABUNDANTLY.  It is amazing how miraculous finding Analia Romero was, and I KNOW that the Lord guided us to her.  

Funny

We were walking down the street, and a random dude yelled ¨JOHN SMITH¨ to us.  

Me: ¨No, its Joseph Smith, John Smith is the guy with Pocahontus¨ 

The Ward mission leader here is way into movies, and we were at his house, and he asked us if we have seen the movie ¨House¨ I had NO IDEA what he was talking about, and I was concerned my spanish just suddenly got really bad.  Then, he told us the movie about the Shark, and we realized he was talking about ¨Jaws¨ Classic spanish-english pronunciation.  

I was making a banana smoothie, and I wanted to break up the ice chunks, so i put a spoon inside.  Well, the spoon hit the blade,hit the side of the blender, putting a whole in it, and then dumping my smoothie everyone.  I was disappointed haha.  

We were walking, and I was on the sidewalk, and Elder Hoagland on the street.  Right as I stepped, he said, ¨that concrete looks wet.¨ Too late.  I left a HUGE footstep in the concrete, and as I looked up at the business next to me, it said ¨El Gringo¨ CLASSIC.  

The Church Is True!  The Lord Loves US!  And This Is His Church!

Con Amor, 

Elder Conover

PS  HAPPY 4TH OF JULY (From Argentina)


My new Argentina Jersey


Yes, I buy soda water now.  I like it.  I'm Argentine


The sad thing about this picture is that this car is better than
mine......because mine is nonexistant


These houses are next to each other.......addresses are hard here.


The hole in the blender.....wooo


Service with the Vega family


yaaaaaa



Rotweiler puppy I found


Perfect Fit


AGUANTE USA!!!