Semana 75 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This week was a little crazy, but not too bad. I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish--absolutely LOVED it! Everyone needs to read it for sure because there are plenty of life-lessons that are taught in there.

President Northcutt raised the mission's weekly goals a little bit, we're feeling the pressure! I dunno, personally, I was still working on getting better at meeting the old goals, now it's really starting to push...I know I can do it, just gotta figure out how to get it all done.

District meeting went well. There are 10 of us in the district here in Tartagal. It interesting to see the diverse situations that are in each area and each companionship. It'll be a fun little transfer, for sure.

Yeah...can't think of much else to write...I'm sure lots of crazy and funny things happened this last week, but I'm getting so used to the culture here, it all just seems kindof normal to me. You'll all just have to ask me about more specific things down here so that I can unfold the craziness that is northern Argentina!

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 74 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This week alright. I was really happy with the baptism that we had this weekend again! Roberto Cortez was a tricky one to find sometimes. He is the father of a member here in Tartagal, but before, he was living in a little nearby town called Mosconi. He had a big drinking problem there, but his family started bringing him here about 6 months ago to listen to the missionaries. I ran into him toward the beginning of my time here when he was leaving for Mosconi again. He came back and he all of a sudden set his own baptismal date for the 6th of January (a Thursday)! We gratefully helped him prepare for that day, but then he disappeared right before the New Year again to Mosconi. It turns out right on the 6th, because of his drinking done there, he had a case of headaches that led to what seemed to me to be a stroke! He couldn't use his left arm and leg for about a week. The doctor got on his case about drinking and it kindof scared him and made him realize the importance of making good decisions always, so he switched his address to his son's house and we baptized him two weeks later :) He's doing great now and loves reading the scriptures with the family and really helps out around the house! A great way to kick off 17 months in the mission!

We had interviews with President Northcutt this week. My interview was short and simple--a good sign usually. We didn't talk about too much really, just about these study guides that he's having us look at, how my area's going, and how my comp is, that's about it! He bumped me up to district leader again though, so we'll see if life will be as challenging as when I was district leader the last time!

We got a phone from the pension office elder: I'm going to have to move pensions AGAIN!.....We're splitting the 4 Tartagal elders away from us two in Villa Saavedra, so I have to go look for something smaller. I think it'll be easier than it was in Jujuy though, so that'll be nice.

We were blasted with a crazy rainstorm again on Sunday morning, so our two branches were forced to combine sacrament meetings again, due to low attendance. At least the 3 newly baptized members showed up for their confirmations, so that was a nice addition to fast and testimony meeting!

Everyone down here is hearing lots about crazy snowy weather all over the U.S. Hope everyone is surviving up there ;)

Well, I've gotta run, but I love you all!!!

-Elder Powell-

 

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Semana 73 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!
This week was better than what I've had for the past little bit. We
got lots of work done, including getting the over-grown weeds and
grass cut in front of our pension :P
We were blessed this week with a great baptism! Osvaldo Naranjo is the
dad of a part-member family, so it's a big step for them. I didn't
realize how big of a baptism this would be for the people here, until
this week I started hearing things like "Osvaldo's getting baptized?!
No way! He's been investigating for about 4-5 years! He was my old
professor/my son's professor. He's my mechanic. I never would've
thought this day would come!", and a bunch of stuff like that! He's a
really great guy that has found a love of reading the scriptures. He
was especially surprised and excited when we presented to the family a
Bible and a Book of Mormon in an extra-large size because they have
trouble seeing things! He's been excited too to get right to work in
the church, so we're planning on using him well ;) The baptismal
service was actually one of the smoothest services I've ever had on
the mission--normally there's something crazy that happens! But no,
everything was just nice and pleasant :)
We were also blessed with various new investigators, so we have people
to teach and prepare in Osvaldo's place, as well as the other
investigator we're planning on baptizing this next weekend!
Can't wait for interviews tomorrow, and receiving transfer calls this
week (I'm always curious to see the changes in the mission)! Gollee
time is flying by!
Love you all!
-Elder Powell-

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Semana 72 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

Well, this was a rather miraculous week! To start, we were protected during crazy weather conditions. On Tuesday, it was super-rainy in the morning, but as the afternoon hit, the sun came out and blasted the clouds out of the way, making it extremely humid. And then all that evaporated rain hit us again, but even harder this time, on Thursday morning, right at the point where we needed to get back to the pension. I didn't have any raingear on, so I just gave in and let myself get completely drenched in the middle of the street. I felt rather special as I just sang in the rain and as the rest of the Argentines just stared at us, probably thinking we were going crazy! I was just loving the fact that it wasn't hot! The next day, I kid you not, I saw in total about a few hundred thousand of butterflies heading in a southern direction! We're guessing that they were migrating, or something, but for a few hours, butterflies just kept appearing out of nowhere from the north! And then Sunday, all the rain hit hard again early in the morning. If there's anything that spooks Tartagal citizens, it's lots of rain and water. Last year, a huge landslide ('alud' in Spanish, I tell you because there are youtube videos of the news footage) came through and just destroyed Tartagal. The people almost never leave now if there are heavy rains. The rain alone killed assistance at church, bringing a total of 40 people between our two branches and the entire city of Tartagal! We just held a combined sacrament meeting and called it good because there really weren't enough people to hold the other classes! As we were waiting about an hour for the decision to be made to combine the two branches, I decided that the silence in the chapel was a little awkward, so I just decided to start playing prelude music until something happened. Well, it turns out I never left the bench for that hour, right up until we started the meeting. It was a little hard finding enough hymns to play for an hour, but I managed! The miracle came halfway through that meeting: 4 investigators showed up!!!!!!! 2 of which are getting baptized within the next 2 weeks--talk about faithful ;) 3 of them are actually the dad and nephews of a member-family and were brought by them, so I was glad they were able to get to church.

We're having some success with our investigators. We're hoping to have a baptism this week. It's this older guy that has been investigating the church for a really long time, but he was finally able to get over his chewing-coca-leaves addiction! We're hoping for the best.

We're looking forward to another good week. Good luck during your last week of January (time flies, doesn't it? :P )

-Elder Powell

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Semana 71 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

We had a fun little p-day last Monday. We went to the church and made Chilean hot dogs (regular hot dog with tomato, lettuce, lemon, mayonaise, ketchup) and sugar cookies (thanks Mom!), and we watched church movies for a couple hours! Super great on the projector screen!

We did our zone meeting in Orán on Thursday, where we make the 3-hour trip down to chat with other missionaries, listen to a quick lesson from the zone leaders (one of them is actually from my MTC group), wait a couple hours for our bus to get there, and make the 3-hour trip back home! It's nice seeing everyone, but the trip almost isn't worth the time it takes...

As for the missionary work, we're getting a lot of support from the members here, it really helps a lot. We're working on a new method of knocking on doors, basically leaving a pamphlet with the people that tell us to come back another time so that we have something to talk about the next time we come back. It's rather simple, but I think it's making a difference. We'll see!

It got hot again this week...Everyone should be grateful that they don't live--let alone work--in such hot conditons! I'm surviving though--enjoying my nice farmer's tan ;)

Have a good week everyone!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 70 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This has been a pretty nice week. We had lots of people to visit. Sorry if it seems a little boring, but you just have to have served a mission to know how a regular week feels.

Our whole district of 10 was invited by the district president on Thursday for a big lunch--way fun! I was surprised that he did it, but it turned out great!

We had a nice surprise training from President Northcutt and his wife on Saturday. He's trying to get us on the new teaching patterns that the church has come out with, so he came straight to Tartagal to work with our district! I'm working on making the changes that I need to, but it's a little tough being a good enough teacher to help these people change their way of life to something better! President Northcutt also made an appearance at church as well! It just so happened that our Gospel Principles teacher didn't come to church, so I had to improvise a lesson with President Northcutt sitting in on the lesson! I was a little nervous, but it turned out good. He also spoke in sacrament meeting and gave a powerful talk about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon often. He gave us a ride home afterward--I felt privileged ;) I also forgot to note that our pension got a bad cleanliness rating from our district leader, so President and Sister Northcutt came and checked out the pension after the training on Saturday. It's a good thing we had already suspected that they would do it, so we were able to get a deep-cleaning of the pension done before they came! It was really weird seeing President Northcutt walk into my bedroom--just seemed a little frightening! :P They were content though, so we're relieved!

That's about all I have though, hope this week goes well for everyone!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 69 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This week was super-funky. Every single day was cloudy and/or rainy!!! I didn't need to take my hat out at all!!! Too bad today heated up again, I would've loved a couple weeks of "fresco" as they say here, basically meaning just a little cool!

It was rough doing missionary work this week because everyone had plans for the New Year. We found lots of old investigators though that we could teach and help out, so that was good.

We celebrated the New Year at our pension again. It was almost a perfect repeat of Christmas, except that the zone leaders didn't come, and we made tacos at the church! It was nice though. Really weird thinking that I'm entering into the same year that I'll be going home in! It just makes me feel really old, especially because yesterday I hit my 16-month birthday, leaving only 8 to go!

Once again, we had low attendance in church. I don't know what the people are thinking, but I'd picture the first Sunday of the year to be a good opportunity to make good habits. Oh well, I enjoyed it at least.

My new comp is really nice. Elder Macias is from La Plata, Buenos Aires, and has a really quiet personality, which is completely opposite from your stereotypical "porteño" (resident of Buenos Aires). He just has three months in the mission, but I'm already his 3rd comp in the field!

Don't really have anything else for this week. Hope the New Year's celebration went well for everyone!

Love,

Elder Powell

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