Monsters Under the Bed

On Thursday our weekly planing session was interrupted by the discovery that we weren´t alone in the apartment. We were in the middle of a little chocolate break when we spied the intruder. A series of tactical strategym was discussed and developed. Precise SWAT maneuvers were carried out. The culprit was detained. However, the imprisonment was a little anticlimactic because the convict was already dead. It still way freaked us out. The thing had 8 eyes and 8 legs and was about as big as the glass that it had been trapped in. We´ve been a little uneasy for the past couple of days because of the experience. We shook out all our sheets and blankets and looked for other monsters under the bed and in the closets. So far we only have one prisoner. Although I´m not really sure if that´s a good thing or not. It either means our little roommate was a rare exception or that we just haven´t found his buddies yet... I´m hoping it´s the first. This week we feel like we´ve made progress (however little it might be) with some of our investigators that are SO close to getting baptized. Pretty much we have three people that have testimonies and that are keeping the commandments but that don´t want to get baptized...yet. They all admit they´ll do it in the future, but two of them have been saying that for the last couple months... The interesting thing is that they all agreed to have someone do the baptismal interview with them. So we´re REALLY hoping whoever does the interviews will be able to work some miracles and help these people see that it doesn´t make any sense to put off a bunch of blessings until later if they´re ready for them now. So we´re really praying they´ll get over their fear or whatever it is that is holding them back. That´s pretty much the biggest news this week. We´re starting to see some results from playing soccer on Wednesdays with all the kids that go. One of them who has been inactive for a while came to church last week and just seemed like he was way happy. And we´re starting to gain the trust of a couple brothers who aren´t members but who have family that is. We´re hoping we can start making the spiritual part a little bigger so that´s they develop more than friendships when they play. The father of some of those kids came for the first time in a long time so we´re way excited. His wife starting going to church like two months ago and gave a talk last week which was also way cool. They shared desires to go to the temple in a year so we´re way excited to see them making giant leaps. Welp, that´s about all I got. With all the love of a spider, Elder Lounsbury P.S. Zoom in on the eyes

Helping Hands

On Saturday we had the opportunity to be apart of a Mormon Helping Hands service project. We completely fixed up a neighborhood plaza/park here in Mendoza. We welded, sanded, and painted a play structure that was pretty beaten up. We also painted benches, took out a ton of rocks from the soccer field, planted trees and some people were even completely renovating this public building that served for something in the park haha. We got to wear to those cool Mormon Helping Hands jerseys and I saw one of the recent converts from Godoy Cruz so everything turned out pretty cool. Two new people came to church this week which is pretty great because the two people we have closest to baptism are progressing a lot slower than normal people haha. We´ve mostly been working in Cementista, the bigger branch, and haven´t done much in the smaller branch but this week we found a lot of way cool people who live in the area of the smaller branch so we´re excited to start working a little bit more over there. We had to give talks in Cementista this week so we just gave the same ones we gave in the smaller branch a couple of weeks ago haha. Altough I changed mine a lot and I think it turned out way better. It´s like we always get a practice round with the smaller branch and then we can change it and make it better for the bigger one haha. We had a Family Home Evening with Alex and Carla, our recent converts, and since their mom is from mexico we had tacos after the lesson. And they were incredible. They made their own tortillas and their own hot sauce. We walked out like 10 pounds heavier... They´re a way cool family though. They´re all way legit, Alex is inviting some of his friends to the soccer activities on Wednesday and one of them came to church this week so that´s way legit. We´re trying to get teaching moments in with the dad so hopefully he´ll get a testimony here pretty soon... We just got back from the closest thing they have to a mall here and they had some iPads you could type on and stuff and it was wayyyyyy legit. The place also has a Burger King and the whole thing is just like a little taste of the states. It was delicious, especially the iPad. Other than that...time is going by way too fast. The weeks are just flying by faster than ever and I can´t even really think of much else that happened... With all the love of dirty hands, Elder Lounsbury

Winter Didn't Give Up

Yeah remember how last week I said spring had come already? Well, I jixed myself because this week winter decided to come back. So that wasn´t too fun. Someone my companion and I got sick again. Luckily it wasn´t as bad as a couple of weeks ago but it still made for some pretty miserable days. Pretty much someone in every companionship in the zone was sick this week so we suffered a little bit from that. This Sunday we had the priveledge of witnessing the rededication of the temple in Buenos Aires. It was pretty cool to take part in that. There were no regular church meetings so we had to go to the stake center to watch the rededication on the projector and screen over there. Also, on Saturday there was a youth cultural celebration that we also got to watch which was pretty cool. They had a lot of dances from Argentina so it was pretty interesting to see all of those. So far we haven´t had any baptisms this month and this upcoming week has some possibilities but nothing is certain so we´re starting to get kinda worried. We had a meeting with the whole zone on Tuesday to convey to them everything we learned in Consejo from President that went pretty well. There are a couple trouble Elders who have zero respect for others so it´s been good practice of loving everyone equally haha. We had a good meeting with the district leaders on Sunday about how to keep helping the missionaries do everything that President has been taeaching us that also went pretty well so we´re really hoping this week we can get the push that we need to start seeing some baptisms. I think being sick and the whole not having regular church meetings kinda messed us up so hopefully this week will be the bounce back. We´re getting super close to having a couple of baptisms in our area. They are seriously soooo close, they´re just kinda waiting to feel more ready and sure about it. So we´re going to be working with them a lot this week to actually make stuff happen because they´ve kinda been like that for a while now. But they are making gradual progress so we have that to be happy about. All of the days kinda blur together and I can´t even think of other stuff that has happened since last time I wrote. We´re still getting to know a lot of less actives but we got to know a lot more this week so we´re making some progess with that at least. Oh and last P-day we played some good ol´ american football. I don´t know how not playing for almost two years helped me, but I threw some pretty dang impressive touchdown passes if I do say so myself. Apparently not playing for so long taught me how to throw...I thought dad would be proud of that. I´m excited to beat him in some Turkey-ball ;) With all the love of leather, Elder Lounsbury

The first day of spring

I cannot believe school is starting again, that seriously just blows my mind sockets out of their membrane wall. It´s also just way weird thinking of everyone two grades further than they were when I left. I still think of madeline as a freshman and since when was emma further ahead of me in school? I think the news of everyone going into school over there somehow reached Argentina because this week has been absolutely gorgeous. I walk out of our apartment in the morning and the weather couldn´t get any better. It is seriously incredible. These past two days I think we´ve been in short sleve shirts even at night. Winter just kinda never came and spring is coming early, so....my life is perfect right now. That´s WAY AWESOME you guys invited someone to church!! I am way impressed. Like seriously, way to be bosses. Hopefully they´ll keep coming because now they´re one step closer to eternal happiness!! haha. And who doesn´t want that? On this side of the pond things are going pretty well. We made some progress with an "eternal investigador" when we finally got to talk to him alone but just when we were about to get into the real good stuff some of his family got home and we kinda lost the opportunity to get where we wanted to go but we´re way happy to see what he needs or what he might not understand because sometimes with investigadors like this missionaries think they already understand everything perfectly. We´re also seeing fruits of working with two kids of a member who are slowly gaining testimonies. They came to church last week but unfortunately didn´t make it this week. But, we´re definitely seeing progress with them as well and have hopes they´ll get baptised this month. Other than that this week we had a meeting with all the zone leaders on friday about how to be better leaders and what things we can do in our zone to help the missionaries work more with member references. They gave us a way good talk entitled, "Jesus the Perfect Leader" by President Benson I think and we talked about how love needs to be our main motivation, not our own needs or desires. We have a meeting tomorrow with the whole zone so hopefully we´ll be able to instill in all of the missionaries the importance of working with the plan 5-5-5 and how we can work with the members to plan and contact references. With all the love of a new sun, Elder Lounsbury P.S. I had some of the best food in Argentina on Sunday with our next door neighbors. It was like pork chops from back home with an incredible sauce on top and oh my taste buds, it was to die for.