Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Week 14 - Learning to Listen to the Spirit

10/17/16
First Baptism!!!! But I'll talk about that later. 

So I don't have much time, but to sum up my week, we officially have the new villa Oculta, and inside is a building called the Elefante Blanco.. its interesting and if you care to know more you could probably look it up and see how "fun" it is haha

There have been a lot of protests lately, dont know why, but we've had to leave the villas some days because there were fires all over the streets. 

I had to go do Immigrations this week, and before I left I thought, I should take my handout English book of mormon, but turned the thought away. Later I met two professional Bball players (Argentine Professional) and after a long and good talk (Theyre from the states) I realized I didn't  have a Book of Mormon, only Libros de Mormon... I learned to listen to the spirit because I could have given them a book they could have read!

Graciela is doing awesome we should baptize her this week!

And, after mispronouncing the baptismal prayer twice, on the third try Jairo was baptized!! wohoo! Honestly was so great
I've been reading in the end of Alma with all the wars and Moroni, honestly this is my favorite part of the book of mormon!! I hope we all have the courage to stand up for whats right like moroni!!
Les Amo Todos!!









Sunday, October 16, 2016

Week 13 - 3 months!

3 Months... holy cow so crazy, I feel like last week I was packing my bags... weird

Anyway first off- whats been happening. There's a new Elder who's training in my ward!! His name is Elder Layton (His family settled Layton) from Idaho. He's also really tall, and it feels good to be able to help someone with spanish!!
Also I got some letters this week, the offices brought them to me, but not the package haha sorry. But I loved them, thanks soo much!!:) Made my day. 

Jairo is going to be baptized this week!! I have faith. He really is so strong in the church. He already goes to mission prep, and seminary, and institute, and mutual, and attends church every week.. We also showed him the full movie of the Restoration this week, and he told us a story of how his grandma started bashing our church, and he bore his testimony to her and I've never been prouder.

We have a new investigator who has been to church twice now, she's from the area we just got added on to ours. Her name is Graciela, she's really nice, but we just have to hope, maybe we will be able to baptize her this week. 

Really, I've had some pretty rough times with everything, and I've been on my knees a lot trying to find some answers, and this week they came. Elder Garcia (The new missionary for Elder Gutierrez) was telling us about how one day he realized, its literally a commandment to be happy, and idk why but I just made myself be happy, and I was. I stopped thinking about the negatives, and just focused on being a missionary with a good atitude, and it changed everything in the matter of 2 days!!

Also I feel I've come closer to a stronger testimony in the book of mormon. Here's a quote that I loved this week fromElder  Holland: "No wicked man could write a book such as this, and no good man would write it, unless it were true, and he were commanded to do it."

I know this church was restored through Joseph Smith. And that this is THE Church of Jesus Christ. Not A church, but HIS church! And we have the opportunity to share that, everyone! How great is that? Just a thought, never take for granted the knowledge we have.

Love you all,
Elder Ryan







Sunday, October 9, 2016

Week 12 - Time is Flying!

Two transfers down, and one down in the field!! Time is flying, its scary!!

I'm still with Elder Saez, but my roommates Elder Coltrin and Andrade both got transferred. They're gonna give me and Elder Saez their area, which means we will be in charge of 4 areas!! Parque avellaneda 2 y 3 and Villa Piletones, and Villa Oculta. 

Sadly, Elder Gutierrez was transferred, and so was Elder Soto!! And basically every other friend I made here in my area... But I played soccer with the new elders today and I like them. 

Concerning our investigators.. still just Jairo, we find a ton, but they never go to church or do anything, still looking.

This last week was weird, we didn't get to do much proselyting. We had to help a bunch of ward activites, Conference, We were a little sick this week with allergies (Elder saez was pretty sick, I was just a little) Also, Elder Soto got really sick this week and we had to give him a priesthood blessing, very crazy week.

Also in a ward activity a turtle peed on me..... 

So conference was awesome, I wish I could type up something about each speaker!! 

I can't say much right now about them because I have to listen to them again in english, but the spirit was awesome there!! I'll write more of my thoughts next week. 

During the conference on sunday, in between sessions, we had to prep a baptism for some hermanas, but when they filled the font in the morning, they left the drain open.. so we had to fill it with buckets of water to try to fill it up in time for the baptism, it was a pretty funny sight. 

Thats about it this week!! I love you all!!!

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Week 11 - Challenges and Service Projects

Hola Todos!
Basically with my investigators, Jairo doing well, just have to wait for him to be ready, so were visiting him a little less. Ricardo, Lurdes, and Gary we cant talk to because their building owner is a drunk and hates us. 

So our zone was almost last place last week in giving out books of mormon, so president called us in a conference call and kinda animated us, to do better. And this week we were 2nd in the mission
On friday we did a zone activity where we all went to some areas that needed help, and shared books of mormon. Now how this is the statistic, you have to gift the book and get their reference. And in an hour and a half we did 41!! I did three, and 9 together with E Aguilera and Gutierrez, we three went together. 

Something I've done twice this week is a Dan Jones.. It's where you stand in public and just preach holding the book of mormon high. I did them on collectivos and it works, we've gotten references!! Its so scary but you can feel the spirit direct your words. 

We got a new investigator this week, named filiberto, he's trying to find the right church, and we got his reference from a less Active.  During the lesson he asked for a priesthood blessing and we gave him one. But when we went to get him for church he couldn't go, and then an evangelist stopped us and told us all the things wrong with our church, and we almost missed sacrament... 

Thursday night we were chilling in my pension, and all of a sudden there were sirens, gun shots, and ambulances in front of our pension. We ran and turned off the lights and hid in the kitchen on the floor, basically laying on each other (There's four of us) Don't know what happened but after five minutes the street was silent. 

And for those worried about my safety, I'm fine, honestly. 

Friday night we had to go to the ZLs church because E saez had to interview an investigator. And the interview went till 9:15 and we couldn't get back to our pension in time, so we had to stay with them in their pension again, haha they ordered us a mountain of asado, french  fries, chorizo... oooo sooo goood

Saturday we had a big service project by the church, painting fences and planting plants at a hospital. I saw E Jensen, Justice, and Leavitt, all are doing awesome!!

Thats about it, Love it here, its a new adventure every day . I'm so lucky to be in this mission, all the elders are so close, and we have so much fun teaching this gospel together, love you all!

Les Amo un Montòn!! Lean el Libro de Mormòn TODOS, si tienen un testimonio de esto, todo serà bien

Elder Jordan J Ryan