Seventy Seven Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been a very busy week. Exciting(?) news is that the next time that I write you, I will have a new mission president. Thus, in the offices it has been quite busy preparing for that change. There's not really all that much exciting to tell though, but there are a couple of fun little tidbits of the week to share.

First - One thing that made this week especially busy is that last P-Day there was an Elder playing soccer that accidentally stepped on the ball as he was going after it and fell, doing some serious damage to his knee. Thus, we had to go and pick him up and take him to the doctor to get an MRI. Following that, he was stuck in a knee brace and couldn't go out to proselyte and so there was yet another change of a couple companionships we had to help coordinate so that his companion could go back to his area and keep working while he stayed in the offices with us, waiting the diagnosis from the doctors in the USA (we sent the MRI images to them to look at). Well, after the diagnosis came back he had a ruptured ACL and some other minor problems which would entail a surgery and a 6-7 month recovery. Thus, he was sent home to receive treatment. It was kind of weird because normally you can receive treatment and then come back to finish your two years as a missionary, but once you have already passed 18 months then you can't come back. This missionary had 19 months and so his mission ended just like that without warning. He took it really well though and was super good spirited even as we drove him to the airport. The pictures included this week are of two missionaries we had to pick up at 11:00 at night from Liniers as part of that last minute change, and then him in the airport just before catching his flight. The entire week he was getting around with just crutches, but in the airport they were nice enough to get him an attendant to push him around in a wheelchair to make the whole process easier for him.

Second - We were able to get an investigator to church this Sunday! This new area I am in is a really good area, but it is going to take a little bit of work. There haven't been that many people that have received a lot of teaching from missionaries in this past few months and thus very few that have actually made it to church. There is one though that has been taught already a large majority of the lessons normally taught by missionaries, but after more than a month had still never made it to church. She expressed one concern being that she didn't have a skirt to wear, and so we found one that was left behind by sister missionaries who had finished their mission and brought it to her, and then got her excited to be able to come on Sunday. She got prepared then on Saturday to go, charging her bus pass and everything to be able to make it. Last minute though, her son needed to go to the hospital since his baby was sick and so she lent her bus pass to him with the promise that he would bring it back before Sunday morning so she could go, but she called us on Sunday morning stating that he still hadn't returned it but that she was all dressed and ready to go already. Thus, we waited in the entrance of the chapel for the members to start coming and the first member that passed by in a car we asked if they could take us to her and pick her up to bring her. They agreed to help, and so we were able to get her a ride to church and she ended up loving it, as well as her 8 year old son that came with her. It was an awesome day and probably the victory of the week for us as missionaries as far as I am concerned haha.

Other than that though, there is not all that much new to tell and so I hope that you all have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder McCollum

Seventy Six Weeks

Hello Everyone!

So this has been a very busy week! (But awesome nonetheless!) To start out, we had transfers on Tuesday and almost the entire mission had changes so that everything could be well set up for President Resek when he gets here and so he won´t have to change around a lot of missionaries right off the bat. Well, that was a very busy day and it went off without really any problems... ...except those that had to take a micro out to their area in campo (a micro being a two story busy that they use to travel long distances) were not able to take all their luggage with them, and so the next day (Wednesday) Elder Cespedes and I took it all out to them in the truck, once again going all the way to 9 de Julio (the farthest point in the mission, making a round trip drive of 550 kilometers or about 350 miles). It was pretty funny because along the way we saw a Mate dispenser along the side of the road as we went through a toll booth (Mate being an Argentine herbal drink that has a cup with shredded leaves in it and hot water which you drink through a special kind of filtered straw - making a dispenser kind of a bizarre item). Also, we replaced a couple of mattresses for the Hermanas in 9 de Julio, and the old ones we were able to fold in half with ease to get them to fit in the truck bed again. I think their lifetime was just about up haha. 

On Thursday then we were also able to go to President's house to have breakfast with him, his wife, and his son as they were going to be moving out Friday. It was really delicious and a really fun time. They've only got about a week and a half left now of their mission, and then they too will be on their way home.

The biggest news for this week though is that I was also changed in transfers! I will be staying in the offices a little while longer, but I got switched to the other area the office Elders work in. There are 6 of us in the offices, and before we worked in two trios, but President didn't want that and so I got switched and am now in a companionship of 4 missionaries! (With my two old companions staying in my old area). It is definitely an interesting experience, I have to say that haha. It means though that I am now in my 8th area and now have had 16 companions (17 with my MTC companion included). I am really excited though because this new ward is super eager to help the missionaries in what we do. I have had people on all sides offering to go out and visit with us, and there are lots of people that have been sharing the gospel with their family and friends that they now want us to visit as well. It ought to be a really awesome time here. The ward in and of itself is pretty interesting though - my new Bishop's wife is the daughter of one of my MTC companion's Mission President (and she had heard plenty of him from her dad as he was in the offices for some time as well in his mission). There are also a couple of members that gave us dinner one night that had lived in Australia for 7 years! Most people here dream of living in the states (and some do go there to stay, and lots go there and then come back), but they had decided to live in Australia right after getting married (and both of them are Argentine). I thought it was awesome, but they have now been back here a long time since that had happened. Another Hermana too then had some fairly recent Italian roots (her parents or grandparents) and it showed. One day she made us lunch that we went and picked up from her son while she wasn't there and took it back to our apartment to eat. At the end of that day though on our way back to the pench, we stopped by (just me and one of my companions - though we are a companionship of 4, we normally work in pairs all the same to cover more area) to thank her for it and see how her family was doing. She invited us in though, and sat us down to talk for a few minutes and while visiting she served us even more food - a bowl of soup each and a miniature chesecake too. It was very tasty. :)

Other than that though, there hasn't been all that much new. It has been getting really cold here and so we have been progressively putting on more and more layers haha. Oddly enough too though, I found a coconut in a vegetable store and bought it (this being the only time of year I have ever seen one for sale). It was tasty too. :) I am excited for this new area though and looking forward to finding even more people to help and to teach. I don't have any pictures of me with my new companions, but I will get some to you all next week.

I hope you all are doing well though, and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder McCollum

Photos:

1810 - The truck loaded up with all the luggage and two mattresses for the trip to 9 de Julio (leaving all the missionaries´ luggage with them in their areas along the way).

1811 - Same

1812 - Same

1813 - Mate dispenser passing the Toll Booth

1819 - The sad looking mattresses that we replaced

1825 - The coconut I bought. It was rather hard. A hammer was needed to open it.

1826 - I noticed that our paper shredder had a warning about getting your tie caught in it. It made me laugh. Hopefully it makes you laugh too. :)

Seventy Five Weeks

Hello Everyone!

Well this has been a pretty interesting week. We have been having Zone Conferences all week long as President and Hermana have gone saying goodbye to everyone, and we have had to help out a lot in the offices with that. It was an interesting experience with all their last advice to us and the stories that they shared and it was actually pretty touching. It is going to be interesting when here in 2 or 3 weeks we receive a new mission president. It will be interesting getting used to someone that isn't President or Hermana Robertson but it will be an awesome learning experience at the least. 

Another interesting thing that happened this week is that Elder Dosdall went home. :( He had to go back to the United States so that he could receive better treatment for his ingrown toenails and recover for a couple months and so he was released to do so, but here in a couple months he should be able to come right back to the mission. It was kind of a blessing for him though because his "mission clock" was ticking away how much time he had left as a missionary but he couldn't really get out to do that much prosyleting and so now when he comes back he should be able to finish all of what is left in the mission for him without losing any time just sitting around waiting to get better. All the same it was sad to see him go, but he is awesome and so he will be okay.

As far as our area goes, it has been a little difficult to get out to our area some of these las few days with all the zone conferences, however the days that we have been able to get out and teach have been awesome. We have had a few investigators that I really felt a connection to, as if I knew them from before or something like that. One is a man that is in his 30s that lost his job after being there for 7 years and the last couple of months hasn't really been doing anything with his life, but rather just looking for answers. Another is a youth that is 16 years old (maybe a little more) that bounces back and forth a lot between living with his sister in our area and his mom in a different neighborhood, changing every few weeks. He has kind of taken a step back and looked at all his friends and the villa that he lives in, and just kind of the world around him and realized that none of them really do him a lot of good and is starting to become a little distanced from it all as he tries not to makes bad choices in his life. It was awesome being able to help teach and share with both of them, and they were both really attentive listeners as well. I don't know if I had ever felt that same kind of deep connection before, but it was a really cool experience.

I have a couple other funny stories to share, but I am already out of time for today, so if I can grab some time I will share them next week. Just want to let you all know though that I love you and care for you all.

Love,

Elder McCollum

p.s. Have a great week!

photos: 

The office staff with President and Hermana

Elder Dosdall sitting on his suitcases the day that he went home, just waiting for the remis to arrive that was going to drive him to the airport.

Seventy Four Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been a really good week! Elder Dosdall, the missionary that I was able to train, has been in the offices the last few weeks recovering from an ingrown toenail and just this last week he got permission from the doctor to start walking around some again and so he was able to work in our area with us this week (and will do the same next week until he is fully recovered and can get assigned to an area). Thus, we have been a companionship of 4 missionaries, which has been quite fun living in a very small 1 bedroom apartment. More importantly though is that that means we have been able to work in pairs of two and cover a lot more ground, finding 4 new people to teach this week. We were pretty excited about that, but hope to find even more this next coming week as well. Something else really awesome is that we were able to establish contact again with Milagros, a 15 year old girl who was the last person that I baptized (with Elder Ehlert and Elder Moreno). After being baptized, she had a falling out with her father and went to live with her mother. After about 2 months though, she came back and is once again living with her father and so as we stopped by to visit him one day, we ran across her. It was something not quite expected, but it was super awesome and so we hope to be able to help her come back to church again and keep learning and growing.

Other than that, it has been a fairly normal week. This is the last week before transfers and so my next P-day will be on this Saturday, but these will be the last transfers for President Robertson and two weeks later President Resek will get here. As such, President was visiting last week (and will be visiting this week) all the zones in the mission to have a special meeting with all the missionaries to say good-bye, give some last spiritual thoughts, and some last trainings. It's been really weird seeing him start to wind down a little bit as a Mission President, taking all the pictures out of his office and leaving a little more room for President Resek to make the changes he feels necessary when he gets here instead of being bringing forth lots of new ideas on how to do things as he normally does. Us in the offices have been helping out with the meetings though, and so on Friday I was able to travel all the way out to Bragado again with Elder Venecia to help out. That likely was the last time that I have had a long drive with Elder Venecia too though, because in transfers he will go back to a normal area and Elder Cespedes will be the new office Elder in charge of apartments (and thus I will likely be traveling with him instead). Lot's of little changes though kind of spice life up I suppose.

Last P-day as well then, I had to drive Elder Dosdall to the MTC here in Buenos Aires so that he could visit an American doctor and get his opinion on his toes. Since the MTC is attached to the Temple here in Buenos Aires, we were able to walk around the grounds a little bit afterwards though there wasn't time to go in. It was a fun experience.

Other than that though, there isn't really all that much else new to share for this week, and so until next time I hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder McCollum

Photos attached are all of the temple. :)

Seventy Three Weeks

Hello everyone!

This has been a really good week, nice and full of lots of stuff but somehow easy-going at the same time. 

First of all, the area:

This week was really awesome working in our area, we were able to find a lot of cool new people to teach and I had the chance to meet some people that my companions found while I was doing something else for the offices. Our area is awesome and I really love it. Some things that happened this week (in no particular order):

We have a couple investigators that have been coming to church for a long time now named Graciela and Armando (an older couple, with Graciela blind). Well this Sunday Armando turned 68 and so the day before (Saturday) he invited us over and made an Asado to share with us. It was super tasty and had chorizo sausage, blood sausage, a couple nice large portions of meet, potato salad, and various other things. It was pretty awesome (and very tasty) and a really cool moment to be able to share with them. They can't get baptized at the moment because Armando still needs to get a divorce worked out with his ex-wife who now lives in the states in order to be able to get married to Graciela, but we are hoping that things can get sorted out when his ex-wife plans on visiting Argentina at the end of the year. 

Another person that was super generous with us is a man named Juan. He is perhaps one of the most humble persons that I have met (humble of heart that is), and super awesome. While visiting with him, he was explaining to us how his wife was in Santiago del Estero (another part of Argentina) helping to get a farm set up to help people with drug problems be able to recover and leave their addictions behind. He said that he wanted us to go there for a couple weeks to be able to teach all the people there and that he would even pay all our travel and lodging to do so (after saving up the funds). We had to explain with him that we couldn´t, but we had a really awesome visit with him all the same. As we were finishing up too then, he stepped into the other room of his house (it was literally just a bedroom and a kitchen) and came back with a scarf that he gifted to me since he saw my companions were both wearing one but I wasn't. I was blown back and said that I was just fine, and that I actually had a scarf but just hadn't worn it but he insisted all the same and so now I have a new tan scarf to wear everywhere. He said the next time we come, he will prepare us something to eat too and it just amazed me how generous he really is.

Lastly, we were visiting with Cristian and his family on Saturday, and two more of his cousins showed up to listen to us too, making the grand total 6 youth that we are teaching in his house, now from age 8-18 with most of them 13-15. It was super awesome, and it kind of blew my mind as I looked around and there were 9 of us there together (including my companions and I) in a lesson. It was more people than I had ever taught at one given time before, but it's an experience I won't forget. What was even more incredible is that the 8 year old girl that was there also understood everything perfectly and was able to teach it all back to everyone else too as we went over it again real quick as we finished up. Everyone was left amazed, but that too was a really awesome experience to just see the simple and pure understanding that comes from a small child.

Oh, and also we contacted a poet on the street one day that started reciting ballads to us there on the corner. It was pretty interesting, but he said that we could come by and visit him later and so we will see how that goes.

As far as office stuff goes, there was a lot that happened this week but somehow it seems to have gone by really quick and seems to have happened weeks ago. Mixed in with everything, we had transfers, a meeting for all the leaders in the mission that we had to help out with, as well as all of our normal things that we have to do. Perhaps the most fun thing though was driving out to the very farthest point of our mission that still has missionaries on Friday, and in the process going through my first area that I hadn't seen since I had left last year. 

What happened though is that there were a couple of missionaries that were sick and so had to stay a couple days after the meeting for missionary leaders to recover. We had to take them back to their area though (Bragado), which was about 3 hours away in car, and so we took advantage of the trip to drop of some copies of their apartment keys to the sister missionaries right next to my first area (Chivilcoy) (they had them robbed while traveling) and take new bikes to 9 de Julio. If you can believe it, the old bikes they had were much much worse than the bike that I had. I don't even quite know how they were using them. After all that then, we got to drive all the way back. We left at 9:30 in the morning and with stops, eating, unloading bikes, and everything we ended up back at the offices at 8:30 at night. It was a fun trip. Included are photos:

Photos:

1709 - The first view we got of entering Chivilcoy for the first time in almost exactly a year. :)

1714 - The main plaza of Chivilcoy.

1717 - Also the main plaz of Chivilcoy.

1723 - The group of us that went out. Elder Huber (up front) is the one that was sick, and Elder Millett (the blonde one in the back) was his comp. We dropped them off in their area and then just Elder Venecia and I came back. It was fun though, because both of them had also been office Elders in the past (Elder Millett was an office Elder when I got to the mission).

1724 - A flooded out field/river turned into a lake that was on the highway there. It was pretty. If you look closely, you can see just the top of the fence sticking out above the water.

1731 - A weasel skin (complete with feet and nose and eyes) that Elder Huber found in the pench upon arrival (it was there before hanging up as decoration, just that he was new to the pench). He promptly put it on as a fancy scarf and posed for a good picture. Elder Venecia decided to join in with the picture too. 

-Map of the drive, 530 kilometers (330 miles). We got about halfway out into the actual province, so that was a lot of fun.

Other than that though, there isn't all that much new that has happened this week. These coming weeks should come to be even a little more crazy though as we have transfers again and get a new mission president, so there will surely be some fun stories to follow. Love you all and hope you have a good week though!

Love,

Elder McCollum 

Seventy Two Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been a really awesome week! We have transfers in 2 days, and so all of us in the offices have the opportunity to write home today since Monday we are going to be loaded up with tons of stuff to do. Needless to say, life has been really busy here in the offices, but we have been able to get out to our area some and have some cool experiences all the same.

Okay, so first normal missionary stuff and then office stuff. 

There was one day that Elder Durfee and I were headed to our area and we decided to talk to a guy that was standing there outside of his car letting his dogs run around and get some exercise in the park. We started talking to him though and he was just a super cool dude in his mid to late 20s and when asking about his priorities in life, he said he just kind of wanted to be a father, and that him and his girlfriend were even considering adopting in the not too distant future. Well we ended up talking with him for about ten minutes and then he kind of disappeared for a moment to take care of something with his dogs, and so as we waited for him to come back, his girlfriend got out of the car, walked around back, propped herself against the back of it, and said "I´m Mormon." It was a pretty unexpected twist but we ended up just talking with her (and her boyfriend - Diana and Jesus) for about another 30 minutes more, and it was one of the most spiritual and also coolest conversations I had since I have been here. It turned out that she was 26 but wasn't really going to church. What had happened is that she had an older sister that had gone a mission, done everything right, and that had always tried her best but all the same life didn't turn out all that great for her and so Diana got kind of confused on how that could happen and kind of stopped believing. It was really cool though, because we were able to share a lot on just different points of view and things that both of them could do to bring themselves closer to god and have a better relationship just between them as well to be able to be more prepared for whatever life gives them too. As we walked away, Elder Durfee and I were just kind of awestruck. We didn't end up getting their address, but we left them our phone numbers. Maybe one day we'll hear from them, but I wish them well. They were pretty awesome.

Last week as well then, Elder Smellie was in our area with one of the Assistants and they found a new investigator that was super awesome. She was super excited to listen to them and really wanted to get her entire family to listen but she was home alone at the moment, and so to do so we would have had to come back later. All the same, they taught just her and left her a Book of Mormon with a part to read. Well Elder Smellie and I went back a few days later, and she had actually read it and loved it! Again she was home alone though (and this time cooking) so we weren't able to teach her, but we plan on passing by in the next few days to visit her and her family when they are all together.

Also, we have an investigator named Tamara who had her birthday this last week and so Elder Durfee made cookies bars and we took them to her on her birthday. Elder Smellie and Elder Durfee then passed by the next day as well when she actually had a little more time to visit, and she hooked us up with some of her leftover birthday cake and so that was a fun little win too. :)

As far as the office adventures go, we had perhaps our most fun one this last Monday night. At 10:30 (the time we normally go to bed), the Hermana Robertson (the mission president's wife) called us and asked us to arrange a remis (a form of taxi) to take a couple sister missionaries to a health center that same night since one of them had been sick for a week and was developing bronchitis, which was causing problems with her asthma. She said we'd also need to go get the truck from the offices and just leave it parked outside of our apartment so we could pick them up from their appointment when they finished and take them to a nearby apartment we have for Hermanas when they have to come in and stay the night. Well, upon calling the remis, they said it´d be 30-40 minutes before they could get a car even headed out that way, and so after consulting with the Hermana Robertson, it was decided that we could just pick them up and take them there ourselves. Thus we were on our way. By the time we got them, got them to the health center, and then got back to our own apartment it was already 1:30 in the morning. We were able to get a couple hours of sleep then, but at 3:30 the hermanas called us so that we could go and pick them up. Thus, we were on our way again and after picking them up, dropping them off in the nearby apartment for hermanas, and getting back to our apartment it was 4:30. President Robertson luckily gave us permission to sleep in a couple hours more to make up for the lost sleep, but it was quite the adventure. I just about died laughing at the point when we were walking down the street to the offices at 10:40 at night, and Elder Smellie came out and said "Well, I did not think I'd be doing this 20 minutes ago." I thought it about summed it up perfectly.

This last Friday, I was also able drive Elder Dosdall to his medical appointment for his in-grown toenails and all went well. He is recovering fine. I did want to include though a picture of perhaps the craziest intersection that I have seen yet in Argentina (and that is saying something). It was the second time I have been through it, but the first time was actually worse. Basically though, you have 3 lanes of traffic coming from 3 different directions into the middle of the same intersection and all are turning to go out the 4th direction onto a metal bridge that is only 2 lanes wide. It would be crazy enough in and of itself, but what makes it worse is that there are no stop lights or even stop signs and so everyone just floods it at the same time and goes for it. As I said, this time wasn't as bad but last time there was less than a foot of space between me and the cars around me on all 4 sides (including in front, because if more than that opened up, another car would wedge itself in there). This time there was a little more breathing room, but I hope you enjoy the picture.

Lastly, last P-day as stated I was able to go to the Zoo in Lujan with the other office Elders and pet a Lion, a Tiger, and hold a 2 month old Tiger Cub. We also enjoyed the other animals, but it was a really cool experience. The way it works though is that all the big cats grow up with humans handling them from the moment they are born, and then they grow up with puppies and dogs. Thus, the puppies and dogs act as though they are bigger than the cats and the cats stay super passive, even when they are older. It is really interesting though to be able to see that when the big cats can't even see their true potential or see themselves for how big and powerful they really are, they just kind of make not a lot of themselves. I imagine the same happens a lot with people when they really don't realize all that they can make of themselves, and so I thought it was kind of something interesting to note.

Other than that though there hasn't been all that much new, so until next time I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder McCollum

01. Us on our way to the offices Monday night.

02. The same.

03. Us in the health clinic waiting room at 1am, waiting to find out if it'd be better to wait for the Hermanas or go back to get some sleep. 

04.The crazy intersection that I mentioned on the way to the clinic with Elder Dosdall.

05. Selfie with a tiger.

06. Me petting a tiger.

07. Me holding a two month old tiger cub that was falling asleep cuddled into my arms. :)

08. A 21 year old elephant. She was fun.

09. Us feeding said elephant.

10. A very expressive monkey.

11. Same.

12. Same.

13. Same.

14. A sad looking chimpanzee.

15. One of two hilarious llamas that liked following us around.

16. A bear.

17. Me petting a lion. (It's yawning).

18. Same.

19. Same.

20. Same. (Once again yawning, they are more active at night.)

Seventy One Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been yet another easy-going week. We have transfers in a week from now, and so the offices should be a lot busier than they have been, but somehow we have been on top of everything and so it has been nice and peaceful. Our area as well has been pretty easy-going - all the people that we have been teaching have been doing super good, especially all the youth. Cristian and all his cousins have now been to church over 6 times and in 3 weeks, his sister (Selene) has read the Book of Mormon from the beginning all the way to 2 Nephi. Their parents didn't want them to get baptized before (they wanted to make sure that they would actually be committed to it and weren't just going through a phase). We hope to talk to them again though either this week or next and if we can get the permission from all of their parents, we might have a decent number of baptisms coming up in the next few weeks. We can only hope. :)

On P-day last week too though, we went with the Assistants and played a game of bowling. I was able to get a few strikes, but still barely broke 100. It was between me and my companion Elder Smellie to see who would win but in the end he ended beating me by a decent margin. Once he finished though, it was really entertaining because the two Assistants were left, and they were competing to see who didn't get the lowest score. Elder Siale was ahead by 9 or 10 points, but then Elder Suarez got a spare and ending up passing him up at the very end. It was pretty fun. Today we are going to the zoo too in Lujan, and we'll get to pet a tiger there. :) It will be fun. 

Also, I don't know if you remember, but Elder Dosdall (my hijo) started getting some pretty hardcore in-grown toenails about halfway through his first transfer with me. Well, last week he had a surgery for it finally and has to go two weeks without walking. Since he can't work, they sent a different missionary to his area, and then he gets to hang out with us in the offices for these two weeks. As we have stuff to do, and he has to be laying down, he pretty much gets to spend the entire day laying down on the couch in President's office. When I was going to leave at the end of our time together, he said "It´d be nice to spend some time together in the mission later on, to be able to work together again". Well that wish came true, just not quite in the way that maybe we were expecting.

Other than that though, there isn't all the much new that has happened, and so until next week!

Love,

Elder McCollum