Eighty Two Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been a pretty easy-going week. We have a new schedule of when we are in the mission offices, and so that has been interesting getting used to it but now that we are doing so it has allowed us to spend some more time in our area. As such, this week we have been finding lots of new people to visit and teach and have met some really awesome people that we plan on going back to visit as well. 

One really cool thing that happened though, is that the security guard that sits in a little booth on the corner of the block the church is on (his name is Cristian) started sharing the gospel with a friend, despite the fact he's not even a member. He tends to be a little of a goofball, but at some point in the past some missionaries had given him a Book of Mormon (with a guide of how to pray written in the front to help people who don't know how to say more than just a recited prayer) and it had sat in his booth for a long time. As far as I knew, he wasn't really interested in the church, but the other day he asked my companions for another Book of Mormon, with the same guide written in the front to give to a female friend that he has. He had explained it to her as a good book with things to help you written in it, and the guide on how to pray was especially helpful. With that, she wanted a copy to read for herself and thus we got to where we are at now. They gave him the copy and hes going to be giving it to her here in the next couple of days when he sees her, but we´ll see what comes of it. It was really cool for me though to see how someone that wasn't even a member of the church was able to see how beneficial the Book of Mormon could be in someones life and shared it just like that with someone else because "It´s a good book."

Other than that, there isn´t all that much new for this week. Last Sunday we didn't have lunch with a member, and so Elder Cespedes (from Argentina) taught us three Yankees (the rest of the companionship) how to make empanadas. They were completely homemade, including the dough, and they turned out nice and tasty. I enjoyed them. Photos will be included. 

I hope you all have a great week though and love you all!

Love,

Elder McCollum

Photos:

1921 - A pretty cool quote in spanish we saw grafittied on a wall. "They won't pass into history those who speculate, but rather those who most play (take action)."

1925 - Us making empandas. It involves rolling the dough into a disc, scooping stuff onto it, then folding it in half and crimping the edges by folding it to seal it shut.

1926 - Making empanadas.

1932 - We visited a member whose son is into real world sword fighting (and has traveled to Russia and Spain to participate in tournaments for it). My comp took advantage of his sword being there to grab a picture.

1937 - Our district (as of right now - next week it is going to change :/ ) 

Eighty One Weeks

Hello Everyone!

Well, among the new changes with a new Mission President is that he wants the office Elders to have P-day on Saturdays, which means that I will now be writing you all on Saturdays instead of Mondays up until I leave the offices. :)

Thus, not much has happened since I wrote just four days ago, but I do have a few fun, short little stories to share.

First, I was on divisions with Elder Peralta, another Elder in our district on Tuesday. We didn't have that many plans, and so we went and tried to re-establish contact with some people that Elder Cespedes and I had contacted previously. Well, we showed up to the house of someone named Ariel and knocked on the front door. From a side door farther down the block though, someone stuck their head out and asked who it was. We told him that we were looking for Ariel (I didn´t remember so well what Ariel looked like) and he told us that he wasn't home, but that he was his brother. We talked with him about a minute more, and asked him if he wanted to hear our message (he declined) and so we talked a minute more with him and were on our way. As he was stepping into the house though, I said I'd missed him name and asked him what it was. "Ariel." He then stepped inside. I don't think he realized his slip up, but I don't think we'll be heading back there haha.

We were also able to teach our investigator Serefina this week. It was really cool though because though she told us once again that she wanted to put of getting baptized a little longer, she was really open with us about doubts she was having and how it was a little difficult for her to leave behind some of her traditions. I say it was cool because not a lot of people here tend to be that open; they just shut it all up, or layer it with excuses or things they think you want to hear to be happy. It's nice though, because now we know how to actually help her and she ought to be able to make it to baptism some time in the not too distant future.

Yesterday too then, Elder Cespedes and I got to help out with the zone conference in Chivilcoy that started at 9am, so we got to wake up at 5am to get ready and then out on the road there by 6:30. It was a fun drive, and was a really good zone conference, but there was one part in particular that made both of us about die laughing. If it's not that funny in email, I'm sorry, but it was really funny in person (and in spanish - not sure if the English translation will have the same humor). Anyway, I was grabbing something out of the backseat of the truck, with my hand on the doorframe, and Elder Cespedes decided to look in to see what I was grabbing. As I grabbed it and stepped back though, my hand (and more specifically my finger) went straight under his lip, in the same way as when you have a baby make a kissy face and then pass your fingers over their lips to make a funny sound. I grabbed my hand back, and then have jokingly, half actually saying it said "¿Porque pusó su boca allí?" "¿Que haces?" ("Why´d you put your mouth there?" "What are you doing?" - what made it particularly funny though is that the form I used for the verb in the second sentence, "haces" is the same kind of verb you hear a parent talking to their kid with, or one friend talking to another with (vos), and not the more professional form you normally use as a missionary (usted), and it just came out like that without thinking). It was a kind of awkward random moment turned funny.

Other than that, there isn't all that much new to share this week. Sorry, but it was kind of a short week between P-Days haha. I hope you all are doing well though and have a great week!

Love,

Elder McCollum

Photos:

1906 - Elder Peralta and I on divisions

1910 - The sunrise on the way out to Chivilcoy

1911 - Early morning fog off in the distance on the way out to Chivilcoy

1912 - Zona Chivilcoy, who we helped out with their zone conference (I´m not in Chivilcoy, so I'm not in the picture)

Eighty Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been a busy, busy week. More than anything, we have had zone conferences every single day and the schedules have been changing a lot as President Resek goes trying to decide the format that he most likes. With all that, it has been a little difficult to get out to our area every single day, but on Saturday the whole zone got together in our area (around 20 missionaries) to go out and contact and they were able to tell us about a lot of awesome people that were receptive to us going back to visit them and so that kind of made up for it. We are looking forward to following up with them (if time allows) this week to hopefully find more people to teach.

Today on P-Day, our bishop also invited us over to have an Asado (a type of Argentine grilling out). We came a little early though so that he could also teach us how to make it, and so now I am a little more ready to give it my own hand too. :) It was super awesome though because normally we are limited to one hour to eat with members during the week so that we can get out and get working again, but since it was P-day we were able to spend time with him, his wife, and his kid, as well his neighbors that are also members just visiting and telling stories, which was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it, and I think it was one of the tastier asados that I have eaten as well.

Other fun things for this week are that I have been sick with some kind of throat something. I don't feel sick at all, other than a sore throat that at times really starts to irritate (especially when it's cold) but I found that having a scarf on and keeping it warm makes it less irritated, and so I have been wearing a scarf all week long, both inside and outside, awake and asleep. Since we´re not quite sure what it is either, the mission nurse lent me a medical-type disinfectant spray that I can spray in my throat that has a dragon on the bottle. I thought it was cool (and it helps) so I am sending a picture.

Other than that, with our new mission president, we are now allowed to drink mate, an argentine hot drink that is super tasty (or so say I - it is very bitter and most people probably wouldn't like it). It is prepared in a "mate" or "matero" though, with "Yerba" (dried Yerba Mate plant, sometimes with flavorings) and a "bombilla" - a type of metal straw with a filter on the end so that you don't end up drinking the plant leaves too. Long story short though, you put the bombilla in the matero with yerba, and you pour hot water into it, drinking it up as it passes through the leaves. Once it is gone, you fill it up and drink again. You can add sugar if you want (and many people do). It's fun though, and I really like drinking it during my studies (especially since it's cold outside) so I'll also include some pictures of that.

Other than that though, there isn't really all that much new to share and so I hope that you are all doing great and that you have a great week. Love you all!

Love,

Elder McCollum

Photos:

1872 - A very Yankee sight as we were going down the street in our area. A convertible Porsche outside of a Starbuck's Coffee. (In my year and a half in Argentina, this is the ONLY Starbuck's that I have ever seen or heard mention of, and maybe the second Porsche that I have seen.)

1882 - Elder Cespedes and I running and errand in the office truck. Notice the scarf haha.

1886 - Mate and crackers with cream cheese is pretty tasty in the morning. The thing that says Taragui is a bottle of hot water to make the mate with.

1887 - Mate :)

1888 - Mate with water.

1892 - Dragon feel better spray. I like.

1898 - A very foggy day outside - picture taken from our apartment on the 13th floor.

1902 - The asado that we were making with the Bishop today. It was tasty.

Seventy Nine Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been a busy week. It has been cold and very rainy, and I have been a little sick, but we have been enjoying life all the same. We are working a lot on finding new people to teach, and so this week we basically just spent contacting (knocking on doors, etc.) and speaking with as many people as we could. Thus, there is not that much to share, but there were two contacts that we had this week, one right after the other that both made me laugh a little, so here is how they went:

Contact 1:

-We knocked on the door of a house and a man opened his window to talk with us. He said sister missionaries had visited him before, so we had hopes to visit with him as well. The following conversation was after talking with him for about 30 seconds already.-

Us: Can we come in and share this message with you?

Man: Forgive me, but right now no.

Us: In a different moment then?

Man: No, no. That's why I asked forgiveness - because I am going to close the door.

-Closes the window-

Contact 2:

-We saw a couple of young people sitting outside eating lunch, so we decided to go up and try to talk with them. The following took place (with them starting to talk to us before we even had the chance to speak with them).-

Them: Not right now.

Us: Oh sorry, busy eating lunch?

Them: Yes.

Us: Oh, what a bad moment.

Them: No, what a good moment!

Other than that, there is not all that much new though to be completely honest. This next week is going to be busy with interviews and trainings all over the mission with President Resek, and so we will see what comes of that. I hope you all have a good week though, and love you all!

Love,

Elder McCollum

Photos:

-Presidente y Hermana Resek

-Our companionship

-Our companionship with an awesome member family that gave us lunch. :)

The companionship: Elder Sultan (with the camera) and Elder Tanner normally work together, then Elder Cespedes (the Argentine/Paraguayan) and I normally work together.

Seventy Eight Weeks

Hello Everyone!

This has been a very, very busy week... ...and we have a new mission President!!!

First of all, I don't have my weekly planner from last week, and so I kind of forgot all the things that happened; it all passed by in a pretty fast blur. Basically however, we spent all week preparing useful information in a 3 ring binder for the new mission President and his wife for them to have, as well as doing a few last small things to send off President Robertson and his wife. On Friday then, President Resek arrived with lots and lots of energy, and so we will see in the coming weeks all the changes that may come. 

One fun thing that happened though was that we were able to get together all the office staff on Monday (P-day) and we chipped in a little bit each person to have an asado (grilling out, but Argentine). One of the best parts of the asado was that President and Hermana Robertson cleaned out their pantry before leaving and I they gave us Root Beer concentrate. Thus, I was able to make Root Beer and enjoy it for the first time in a year and a half (picture included).

Other than that, we have been trying a lot in our area to share family history with people (knocking on people's doors and directly presenting the gospel hasn't really been super effective for finding people to teach) and it has actually been pretty successful. We have found a good few people that we are going to be able and go back to help them get a basic family tree going and it is a really good conversation started for why we are interested in family history as well and the importance of families. Plus, it´s really fun to just hear other people's stories too.

Other than that though, as I said there is not all that much new that I can think of that happened this last week without all the notes I jot down, but it was plenty busy.

I hope that you all can have a great week and love you all!

Love,
Elder McCollum

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. :)