Forty Eight Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been a pretty awesome week so far. I must say that it is a lot of fun being in a trio - we get a lot of work done, but we also have a lot of fun together and are able to relax a whole lot more as a result. In turn, we are able to carry that same happy spirit to others and this week for example we had 21 lessons, and have found a whole lot of new people to teach as well. For example, people sometimes like to crack jokes in our direction, and one day as we were walking there was a 14 year old girl out front with her family that shouted at us "Amen!" as we walked by, and so instead of continuing on as we normally would, we went back to talk with them and they turned out to be pretty awesome. We still haven't been able to go by and teach them yet, but we gifted the girl (Evelyn) a pamphlet to read, and she was so excited you would think she had just opened her first christmas present. 

Another big thing from this week is that the church has launched a new christmas campaign called "Light the World" with a website that has a video of things that Christ did to help others in his lifetime and in turn an advent calendar of things that we can do each day leading up to christmas to follow his example and "light the world" (such as christ healing the sick = we can visit someone in the hospital/someone who is sick, etc). It's a really cool campaign and really helps us to remember the meaning behind christmas/the holiday season and so I invite you all to visit mormon.org to check it out and even if we don't change the world, we can change to world of those who we help, and our own world personally.

Another fun thing that happened this week is that on Thursday (thanksgiving in USA, but not celebrated here) we just so happened to end up with both Lunch and Dinner provided by members. It was really more a result of our two areas being joined together and us being in a trio, but hey I'll take it. I must say that I was really beyond full though. For lunch it was Milanesa Napolitana with a ton of super tasty rice, and for dinner we had Roast Beef, rice, and a corn salsa type deal that was super tasty, as well as gravy (gravy doesn't exist here, but that family made it for us). 

One night we were visiting a different family for dinner as well, and they all spoke fluent italian (for being descendents of italians, even though they have lived here their whole lives) as well as spanish, and after finishing dinner, as usual we shared a scripture but I grabbed a Book of Mormon that they had off of the shelf to use but quickly realized it was in italian. We were running short on time though so I looked up the scripture anyway and read it to them (in what I thought it should probably be pronounced as) and they said that it was actually very understandable Italian and asked if I had ever studied Italian before so I confessed that I had never studied a day in my life. They were pretty surprised (and so was I, I figured I had butchered it) but I guess I might have discovered a new talent. Maybe I'll have to study a little bit of Italian too if I have a bit of free time haha.

Other than that though, there really isn't all that much new. We're still in a trio (The Argentine, The Yankee, and The Brasilero, like the start of a good joke) but next Monday that should change because it'll be transfers, which also blows my mind because it means that I will have been here a month and a half already and it doesn't feel like it at all. Anyhow though, hope you all have a good week and sorry for not having any photos again. I want to see if I can maybe send out a short video clip next week, but we'll have to see.

Love,

Elder McCollum

Forty Seven Weeks

Hello Everyone!

Yet again, I have had another very interesting week. 

This Tuesday I got a haircut because my hair was getting pretty long at it's starting to get pretty hot here (getting to 30 degrees celsius, 90 degrees fahrenheit, but with almost 100% Argentine humidity). So for all of you going into winter, for me summer is just starting. Supposedly in February it'll get up to 45 degrees celsius, 110 fahreinheit (again with humidty) so I'll let you know how that goes once we get there.

We also found a really receptive man to teach this last week named Pedro. He is 76 years old, was Diagnosed with Parkinson's last year, and lives in a one room house with his dogs Mateo and Cual (Cual = which/who in english). He always recieves us well and loves to listen, but he also has bad vision so it makes it difficult for him to read and with his Parkinson's it's hard to get out of the house, so it makes things kind of hard but we keep visiting him regardless.

During the week we also saw a man walking 12 dogs, with all the leashes tied to his belt. We asked him how he did and what he would do if one took of running (because the others would follow) and he said be dragged along behind them (they were all big dogs, for example 4 or 5 were German Shepards and the rest were about that size. As he kept walking though most of his job seemed to me was just untangling the leashes. It was certainly an interesting sight.

Another day we were knocked on the house of someone to see if they would be interested in visiting with us, but they said no. So in turn we asked them if they knew anyone closeby that was passing for a difficult moment that we could visit and leave with a prayer to lift their spirits a little? His response was "Yes, Macri (The President of Argentina that nobody likes). He's passing for a very difficult moment." We thanked him and carried on our way, but we definetely got a good laugh out of it.

This Friday as well then, Elder Pinheiro was having dental problems and so we had to go to Capital Federal (The heart of Buenos Aires) so that he could get a Root Canal. So, we got to travel - it should have been a half hour drive more or less but with traffic due to manifestations going on by people that didn't have a job, it took 2 hours to get there, the operation lasted another 2 hours, and then 2 hours to get back. It was fun at least to visit the really nice city area of Buenos Aires though instead of just the outskirts where our mission is at. It is a lot different with a lot of pretty views (for a city), but I'm happy to be where I am at regardless.

This last weekend as well then was Stake Conference, and there were meetings on Saturday night and Sunday morning. As missionaries we were going to go on Sunday as if it was regular church, but last minute they gave us permission to go on Saturday if we didn't have teaching appointments. I wanted to go, and my companion too, but I kind of felt as though we should stay in our area and keep working instead of going even though we didn't have appointments, but we got on the bus to go back to our apartment to change and go anyway. As we got off though, I felt almost sick to my stomach that we shouldn't go but I was doubting it anyway, so I asked to borrow the Book of Mormon that my companion was carrying and planned to flip it open and read the first verse that my eyes fell upon. As I was flipping though, the number 17 came to my mind and when I stopped on a page, I read verse 17 (Mosiah 7:17) that says: "And now, it came to pass on the morrow that king Limhi sent a proclamation among all his people, that thereby they might gather themselves together to the temple, to hear the words which he should speak unto them." The literal translation in Spanish as well says on the next day instead of on the morrow. We took it as a sign and decided not to go. We didn't end up teaching anyone that night, and I'm not sure what would have happened if we went, but I feel good about having stayed.

Last exciting thing of the week then is that I have another companion (WHAT?) Of the other Elders in the same ward as us, Elder Pulli and Elder Aguirre, Elder Pulli got sent to another area and instead of Elder Aguirre getting a new companion, we are now in a trio (Elder Aguirre, Elder Pinheiro, and I) for the next two weeks until transfers come up, and we have to be able to cover and teach both areas, which separated are already pretty big but combined are gigantic. I am looking forward to it though, and it should be a fun two weeks, and I hope to learn a lot from the experience as well. Also, my previous companion, Elder Dominguez, was only in his new area for 1 week but got flashed again as well because now he is going to be working in the offices of the mission. What in the world? Everything is going crazy haha.

Other than that though, there is nothing new to share for this week, so I hope everyone is well and that you all have a good week to come!

Love,
Elder McCollum

p.s. photo of the trio

Forty Six Weeks

Hello everyone!

Well this has been a very different week than the usual, to say the least. We didn't have a whole lot of lessons, for various reasons, but it has been a very eventful week regardless.

In chronological order:

First, we had divisions this Tuesday, so I got to spend the day with a Chilean. It was a lot of fun and I learned about some things that I can improve on to better my abilities as a missionary, and we also had a couple of interesting lessons, but more or less nothing too out of the ordinary.

Next, on Wednesday we had a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader, but the other Elders had the keys to the chapel (where we normally have the meeting) but couldn't make it to the meeting so we had to have the meeting just sitting in his car. It was mildly amusing, but he brought pepas and juice, so it was okay.

Thursday we were able to perform service for a less active member, helping her to clean things off of her roof that the previous home-owner left behind so it was fun being able to help out with a project like that. Doing service like that in the mission is super fun because it doesn't happen too often, as you normally spend most of your time teaching so we enjoyed it.

Friday then came the biggest change - we were eating lunch with a member when one of our mission president's assistants called us to say that we were going to have a flash (when someone changes to a different area on short notice in the middle of a transfer) and that my companion Elder Dominguez was the one that was going to leave. 

So, Saturday morning he left for Moron and I received a new companion; a Brasilero with 3 months in the mission named Elder Pinheiro. I am his 3rd companion, and this is his second area, and so he is by far the newest in the mission that I have had as a companion. That combined with the fact that I only have 3 weeks in this area myself means that the coming weeks should be pretty interesting as well. He works really well though and we get on fine, so we should have some good success together.

Other fun tidbits to share then:

1. I found a gecko outside of our pench last Monday and was able to grab ahold of him. He had already lost his tail and his stomach was somewhat scraped up but he was a fun little guy. We're not allowed to have pets in the mission, or I would have kept him, but I do have a mint plant that has a few bugs on it that I have been fighting with and so I put him on it to rest and he helped me kill a few but was gone the next day.

2. The whistling man - every night, for the street that passes by right outside of our pench, there is a man that passes by walking his dog that puts a smile on the face of everyone when he goes bye (the entire neighborhood already knows who he is). The reason being is that he goes for a walk with his dog, a giant black mop of a thing, and he personally lopes along walking as if his joints were elastic, and he always has earbuds in listening to music, and so he also whistles. He whistles super loud, which is how you know he is coming but what makes it fun is that he doesn't whistle anything in particular, and doesn't even whistle in tune to the music (or if he does, I have no clue what music it is). It always puts a smile on your face at the end of the night though.

3. Kid that always says hi in the street. There is a kid (about 11 years old) that always runs up to say hi and talk to us when we pass by the street where we live. Elder Dominguez told me that he doesn't go to school, and just spends his entire day outside, without his parents even watching him. This last week though, he asked us  "Do the other kids over there (the other side of our area, where we told him we were heading) say hi to you?" It made me kind of sad, because really he just wanted someone to pay him attention and make him feel a little special, but there really wasn't anyone in his life to lead him or guide him. I hope everything works out for him in the future, but the next time that he says hi to us, I'm going to ask where he lives so we can try and teach him and maybe his family too.

Other than that though, there really isn't that much new. The photos are of me and the gecko, my old companion, and my new companion. I hope everyone has a good week though and until next time!

Love,
Elder McCollum

Forty Five Weeks

Hello Everyone!

Well this week hasn't been quite as eventful as my first week here in Loma Hermosa, but it certainly has been exciting regardless. The biggest change in general though is that it has been a lot hotter this week. The summer sun is already starting to come out here, and between the extremely high Buenos Aires humidity, button up shirt and tie, pants, and leather shoes you definetely feel it. A lot haha. It's all good though, for that I carry around a handkerchief to dry the sweat off my face every few minutes and it all turns out ok. 

As far as teaching goes, we were able to visit Enrique this last week and he is doing great - he reads and prays on his own now without us having to give him a certain part to read, and he is progressing really well. We also found two new people to teach that were very friendly to us when we contacted them for the first time. One is named Emilce and her mom is in the hospital, and her son has some kind of infirmity too that they are learning about. We shared a little bit about the Plan of Salvation with her and we plan to pass by this week to visit with her again. Another is named Clara and she is studying English. Thus, she was very excited for the opportunity to speak with a Yankee and wanted to know how she could learn English better, so we gave her one of the lesson pamphlets that we have (in spanish) and promised to find her the pamphlets in English too so that she can read them side by side and learn that way too, and she was very excited, so we hope to be able to get them from the offices and take them to her this week. (It's one of the things that I did to help me with my spanish, along with talking, so why couldn't it work for her?)

Other than that though, I don't think that there is all that much new to share. My companion and I are getting along great and now that I am with an Argentine, a lot of people think that I am Argentine too. I'd like to try and tell people that I am, but I'd have to say that I'm from Buenos Aires with my accent, but it's very rare that the send missionaries to a mission that close to their house so it'd be kind of hard to pull off. One day when I travel though maybe I'll be able to pull it off. 

As far as photos go, I haven't been taking too many, but thankful one of the other Elders for this ward has been taking a lot, so he sent them to me in an email and I'll forward them all to you. Hope you all have a good week though! Love you all and keep it real!

Love,

Elder McCollum

Forty Four Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been a very eventful first week in a new area, with plenty of stories to tell. I am pretty excited to be here, and my new comp and I get along great. I look forward to the time that I'm going to have here and it should be awesome. Now, on to the stories:

1) Man with a box of wine 

So one day we were walking down the street when a man sitting on a low fence at the edge of someone's property drinking a box of wine called us over. We got as close as the edge of the street because he was really poorly dressed, missing teeth, and drunk. He then proceeded to ask "Where are you from, English?" (Argentines hate the english, but that is a different story. He also said "English" in english and not spanish). I said no, and so he asked "Where then, USA? (USA in english as well instead of spanish). I then said that I'm from Arizona. "Where?" I told him Los Estados Unidos.  "Oh, USA." "What do you think of Trump?" I told him sorry, but I don't talk about politics. "Why not?" So I told him because I am hear for two years to share the gospel and talk about Jesus Christ, not politics. "What does Jesus Christ have to do with the USA then?" I told him the same as the rest of the world, he is the savior of mankind. "No, die USA! It's your fault that we are all down here in the state that we are." was his response. My comp (who is Argentine) almost told him that it was his fault that he was sitting on a corner drunk on wine instead of working, not another country's but bit held himself back and we thanked him for his feelings and we kept on.

2) I predicted it all

So there was one day that we had just really terrible luck. We had five appointments planned (coordinated with the people, with the hour and everything) and we went to the first and they weren't there. I then told my comp: "Watch, all the rest are going to fall now too, and the new investigator that we plan on visiting later is going to live outside of our area." (The new investigator was someone who worked in a store close to our pench that we talked to that invited us by to teach her in her house instead, but we weren't sure if her house number was in our area so we planned on visiting her at the end of the night to see). Well it happened exactly like that, and we didn't enter a single house that day but we walked the entire area (a lot) and couldn't even feel our legs anymore, so I decided I wanted to buy a pizza to share with my comp at a pizza place close to our pench to finish off the night. On the way there I said "Watch, it's gonna be closed and after all that we aren't going to be able to get one." It wasn't closed, but the line was way too long for the time we had, so I said that we could make smoothies instead, but I'd need to buy a box of milk and fruit to do so. "Look, after all that bad luck, the grocery store is going to be closed." We got there and made it in, but there was a huge line for the register, and the lady locked the door behind us to close for the night with only the people she already had. Thus, we left and kept on our way. "At least we can buy fruit though, given they aren't closed" I said. The fruit shop was right in front of our pench though and as we turned the corner they were also closing up for the night. We asked if we could still buy though, and they let us so at least we had that, but I learned to not be so negative with my predictions haha.

3) Contact in the street

Yesterday we saw a man sitting on a bench resting and I felt the need to talk to him, but we kept on walking. At the end of the next block though I told my comp and so we walked back and contacted him. He said he doesn't go to any church, for no particular reason, but we gifted him a Book of Mormon and he opened it up on the spot and read two verses (2 Nefi 4:33,34) before closing it and thanking us. He said that he would try and make it to church this next week but wouldn't give us his exact direction (though he did give us the street and the general area where it is at) and though I don't know if he'll make it or not, it was a really cool experience.

4) Baptismal Date

On Tuesday when I first got here, we didn't know who our district leader was so we called our zone leaders to ask them and in the same call, they gave us a challenge to pull out a baptismal date/appointment with someone before the end of the day, and to call them back and let them know once we had done it. So, we immediately went and visited one of our investigators (anamed Enrique), told him that we felt he was ready to be baptized, and said we were planning a service the 26th of November, and asked him if he would be baptized that day. He accepted, and so at the end of the lesson, we called the Zone Leaders back and told them, and they were super surprised because not even an hour had passed, told us we were capos, and to keep it up. It was very satisfying hearing the surprise in their voices though.

I have a few other stories as well, but not that much time left so if next week isn't as eventful as this one, I'll see if I can share a little more. More or less though, they involve other contacts we made, seeing a couple having a very intimate moment on the porch while leaving their baby in the stroller facing the other direction on the sidewalk, and a member pulling a prank on me. Nothing too crazy though. Hope you all have a good week and love you all!

Love,

Elder McCollum

photos:

1) Me and my new comp, Elder Dominguez. He's from San Juan, Argentina.

2) Me, my comp, and the two other elders from our ward. They stayed the night in our pench last night so that we could make pizza together and have a little fun going into P-day.

3)Our sleeping arrangements - I strung up my hammock between the framing of the closet and the bars on the window and slept there, with Elder Aguirre (also new to this ward, from Salta) sleeping on the ground and Elder Pulli (very new to the mission, with not a whole lot of spanish experience) sleeping in my bed. 

Forty Three Weeks

Hello Everyone!

So the big news of this week is that I will be going to a new area - Loma Hermosa B! It is located in the zone of Caseros, and is an old area of my current comp and so he told me a little about it. It is divided up pretty evenly, but to explain how it's laid out, if you can picture a 3x3 tic-tac-toe grid, starting with the top left corner it is wealthy, then the next two sections beneath it are super wealthy, in the middle column, the top section is a military-type base or something like that, and the two sections beneath it are more average to humble neighborhoods, and then with the column on the right side, the top corner is a villa that you do not want to go into, and then the two sections beneath it are then more humble to average neighborhoods, so I should be getting a good mix. My companion will be Elder Dominguez, and Argentine, and so I am super excited to have another Latin-American comp to keep improving my spanish even more (6 weeks pretty much english free, oh yeah!) and it will also be my first time as senior companion, but there really isn't that much of a difference if I'm honest, other than he has less time on the mission than I do, which is a first for me. I'm looking forward to it though.

As I am going then, I said goodbye to a lot of the members, and then got a photo with one of my favorite families (Familia Monzón) which I'll share with you all since I've been pretty slack on the photos recently. The Hermana is also from Paraguay and so goes to visit her family from time to time and so she gifted me a handmade tie from Paraguay (and you can't find the style anywhere else, not even replicated) as a going-away present for leaving this ward so I was super happy with that (I also will include pictures).

Other than that though, there isn't really all that much else new that I wouldn't have shared before but it is a really weird feeling knowing that I'll be leaving Libertad. I realized yesterday that I had two transfers in Chivilcoy (my first area), 1 in Atalaya (my second), and 3 here in Libertad (not counting the two weeks that I had in Parque San Martin) and so I have had pretty much half my mission in Argentina up until this point here in this area. I have definetely gotten used to it and don't even look at my map at all anymore, but it'll be a fun experience getting to know a new area, and a new part of the mission as well. 

I hope all is well with everyone though and that everyone has a great week!

Love,
Elder McCollum

Forty-Two Weeks

Hello everyone!

So this was a really good week. We didn't have as many count-able lessons but we have been passing by a lot for all of the active members in the ward to animate them more to help us out, and so we have had a lot of really cool experiences with that; we have been able to animate them more to visit other families that aren't going since they really can offer them more help and more friendship than we can, and since we passed by all of the 200ish families that are in the ward directory since I have been here, we have been able to help them out with knowing who they can visit, who is receptive, and more or less what each person they plan on visitings situation is so that they can help them out in the best way possible.

Something else that I really enjoyed is that this Saturday we had an activity called MTC for a day (MTC being Missionary training center, like where I was at for 6 weeks learning spanish and how to teach before coming to Argentina), where we taught all the youth how to start sharing the gospel with someone and how to more effectively be able to share their testimony, and then we went out with them for an hour to do contacts (a fairly common missionary activity involving knocking on doors, or approaching someone in the street to start talking with them out of the blue in an attempt to be able to share the gospel with them.) Needless to say though, just approaching people and talking to them out of the blue isn't something that people normally do from day to day and so it was really cool to be able to help them out, and it reminded me of when I first started in the mission as well and still had no clue what I was doing.

The last cool story for this week then is that we finally had an investigator show up in church yesterday, which was the first time in about 3 months now, so we were super excited. One of the youth brought her friend which was someone that was investigating the church before and almost got baptized, but then moved away. She is now back though, but we had no clue who she even was (there is no record of teaching for her) and so she just literally appeared out of nowhere, showed up to church and said that she loves going, and so we are hoping to be able to pass by this week to visit with her and teach her, and so we are pretty excited. One of the other youth then came up to us and said that she has a friend that she has been sharing the gospel with that really enjoys it, and then a second that she gifted a Book of Mormon to and she wants to invite them over to her house so that we can pass by and visit with them/share a little bit as well in a type of easy-going family night, and so now we yet another thing to look forward to.

This coming up week is transfers though, and so now that I have 3-4 months here in Libertad, it's probable that I might go to a new area, but we'll have to see. I'll be sure to let you all know on Monday though. For now though, I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder McCollum

Photos:

I'm not sure what order they are in, but one is a group of us on a public bus (we were the first ones on, so there were actually seats), another is a giant field/public park 8 blocks large in our area. My comp wanted a photo together there. Lastly, one week's serving of Bananas. Yum!