I went up.

Well, for those of you who actually follow the whole 6 week mind set... you`ll understand that I just had transfers! YEAH!!! I’m staying in Villa Zula with Elder Kushlan (not too exciting). But the exciting news is that not only is Elder Trujillo receiving a Latino companion in our pench... but I went up. For those of you who don’t know what "going up" is... it means I "went up in the missionary power scale." I don’t know. It sounds like a whole lot of tish tosh to me. Pero... para que sapen: When a person goes up they first become senior companion, then district leader, then zone leader and then assistant. Somewhere in there there is training and going to the offices. Most people don’t make it up to Zone leader or even district leader. I just got moved up to senior companion. What does that mean... NOTHING!!! But it made me feel cool. Of the 20 some odd people I came here with only 2 have gone up. Elder Jones (he also jumped to district leader because he is amazing) and me. Really, I’m just excited about it because Elder Trujillo and Elder Kushlan were getting me all excited about it. The fact that I’m "going up" so young could mean X, Y or Z. It is pretty fun to try predicting the future mission life of missionaries. Well... now that you all know the gossip, we`ll return back to our program.


This week was amazingly... um... amazingly... a week. I don’t know how to give you a one sentence description on this week. It was a little all over the place. We worked a lot... and by a lot I mean a lot. We talked to more people this week then I’ve ever talked to in one week. We also taught more "other" lessons than any other week in my mission. We also bought bikes and took out a baptismal date. Things have not really been "oh my gosh did you feel that spirit crush over us" but more of... "We are working so hard that the spirit is the only thing keeping us alive". For those of you who know me well... you know I am loving it to death! I’m not so sure about the bikes yet. I’m surely not use to it in the rear area... if you know what I mean.


I’ve got some more stories though because I know you`ll all dying to hear them.


When I got here I looked through the ward list to find some likely people to go by. One named popped out at me and I read the description written next to in put there by other missionaries. It said "Sons have assaulted/robbed the missionaries and will do the same to you". That didn’t bother me one bit, so I mentioned it to my companion who flat out refused to go. The same thing happened when Elder Kushlan came. But the mother`s name kept on coming up and I just put down my foot and said we were going by... "Don’t worry, I’m big... just stay behind me (unless we are running away). So we went and found the mother. She talked to us for an hour at her door. It turns out her sons (all 3 of them) were taken to jail for supposed murder. Needless to say, she wasn't exactly in the happiest moods. We warmed up her heart and came back a few days later. We gave her another Book of Mormon and when we did she said, "I’ve been praying to God that he`ll send me his Church. That he will send me whatever church he wants me to have." We sang and read with her. She said that she`d pray and has been doing a little bit better every day. I love when God sends ME to places marked with a "you will be assaulted" sign on it. That`s why I’m here.

We`ve found some really wonderful people this week. People who have read what we`ve given them because they have been searching. People who know the truth without knowing where it comes from. People who just want us to come by. I don’t know. I’ll be honest. Things are getting exciting around here. But I really lost all ability to convey it to you all. I’m getting lost in the work... or at least I hope I am.

However, one thing that is pressing on my mind: The 10th would be Mother`s Day. That is not this Sunday... but the next. I’ll only be writing home once more before then. So... um. Just don’t worry about it. Don’t call us... we`ll call you. I’ll give you more details later. I’ll probably be calling home sometime around 2 and 8 here. So that`d be like 8am-2pm at home... SOMETHING LIKE THAT! I don’t know. Just letting you know. Oh, and another scary thought that hit me this week is that at the end of this transfer I’ll turn 21! SCARY!

Well, I love you all. I’ve really got to go though. I’m short on time... as usual. I’m sorry I’m writing so short. I’ll write more when something more firm happens

Take care of yourselves,

Elder Tommy

I got my socks knocked off me in Spanish Scrabble

This feels like the longest week in history. So many things have happened... but they are really nothing that would interest any of you. Sorry. I mean, you don’t know who any of these people are and it would take too long for me to explain it all. Not to mention, it would be rude of me to put personal information in here about people I love. I think that is why so many missionaries don’t send much home to their families. Oh, and the fact that the fun things we do really shouldn’t be known by the world... if you catch my drift. But I do have a few fun facts for you all.

This week we went out into our "villa" or ghetto area right by the edge of our area. We saw two little kids in front of us with a slingshot. One of the kids picked up a rock and pulled the sling back (being his size made it so that he was basically spreading his arms out as far as they would go). He aimed up and released. We saw this poor bird just chilling about 30 feet above him just have its head kick back and fall. The other birds on the line didn’t move at all. And the kid just picked up the bird like nothing happened, like he does it every day. I was very impressed. I’m sure he would be a great hunter if he tried... I’m just glad he had a homemade slingshot.

We planned an activity this week for the two branches that attend our building. It wasn’t huge, but it was fun. We are going to start doing that more and more. We got inactive people to come as well as investigators... more like investigator, but still. It was cool! We watched Wall-E again (I’m glad I bought it). I crushed some people in chess. I got my socks knocked off me in Spanish Scrabble and ping pong. We`ll do it again sometime soon. I’ll get a little better every time.

I bought an MP3-4 player last weekend. But it is kind of cheap and I’m not sure how I feel about it. But it has been fun to use for one week (with 3 CDs on it... I need something new). I can also download the photos people send me and put them on it... so that`ll be nice if I end up keeping it.

We are also going to buy bikes soon. We got them picked out and everything. The bike guy just needs to put them together. I’m really excited because my shoes are getting a little thin. I take great care of them... but the bottom is just not steel. And the fact I basically only wear the black ones.

Um... that`s about it. Life is good though. I’m working really hard and trying to do my best. I’ve recently realized how sucky my Spanish is... so I’m making a new effort at perfecting that. I’m making a scarf because it turned into late fall over night (literally... over night). I found a cool sweater vest in the old fridge outside the apartment. OH! OH! I taught myself to cook burritos today! The only problem with them is the corn. I made a bad move with the corn idea. Um... Um... yeah, I’m out of news. Sorry.

I can however tell you all how glad I am to be out here. I’ve realized recently that it really is a blessing to be out here. I’m not terribly tired or anything anymore. One gets accustomed to things. I just haven’t realized until recently how blessed I’ve been over my time here. I’ve also realized how long I’ve been out. It feels really long ago that I went to the MTC. But my trainer Elder Sagripanti is about to go home. He has one week left. Wow, how weird is that? I like looking back after a long time and seeing all the ways God has put what I need in my path. I’m honestly in love with being out here. I want to be the perfect missionary, but I’m not. So I want to stay out till I am. Sorry family. I might not be coming home for a few more years then you were expecting. We`ll see what I can pull off.

I want you all to know how much I love you. It is such a blessing knowing that I have people rooting for me and praying for me every day. That I have true friends and family concerned about my welfare and trying to help me out. That there are people who listen to me and have gone out to help the missionary work. Thank you all. I love you more than my feeble words can describe.

All my love,

Tommy

PS I’m luckly still fat... for those who want to know.
PPS I finally broke a shoe lace too. They were the first things to go.

"Winging it" is not a missionary term

Well, this week was interesting. We had a lot of success... but also a lot of hardships. But thus is life. I really don´t know why this week impresses me like that, but it feels like one of the longer weeks of my life (but not the longest). Well, let’s start at the top.

Monday we were not going to go out and teach because we had preparation day and then a meeting with our district. But that meeting got cancelled, so we went out anyway. It was interesting working without a plan. Normally we have plans and go with the plan. "Winging it" is not a missionary term... but we did it anyway.

Tuesday we went to the temple. That was a trip! For those of you who have ever gone to the temple... you know that the feeling is amazing inside the temple. Well, the feeling was the same and I understood the Spanish better. But for some reason it felt even more wonderful to go and feel that peace. It had been so long. The best part was visiting the sealing room and seeing two huge mirrors reflecting each other. I just stood there and felt like I was seeing forever. I love the power of mirrors. I’ll send picture later.

The rest of the weekdays passed fairly uneventfully. Not to say that things didn't happen... I just mean that all the days run into each other, so I can’t remember exactly what day things happened. I just know when "p-day eve" or Sunday is... then P-day. Every other day just runs into the other. Haha... thus is life.

Some great stories for all of you out there wondering what we do.

The man that looks like me (I sent pictures). He asked for a blessing some... months back. And his daughter also. I gave the daughter hers. I felt impressed to tell her that her arm would heal, so I didn't argue and just said it. We left and I didn't hear anything about it until this week. The Hermana told me what happened. It turned out that after we left she returned to life and about a week later told her "ya know... I haven't had a problem with my arm since those boys came". I love hearing about how the priesthood has blessed people’s lives... especially when I was there to witness it.

There are a few people around here who are not having the easiest time. We sometimes randomly visit inactive people on the ward list. We had been trying to go by this one lady for some time. We finally got her number and called her. We set up an appointment and went over. She had just broken away from her abusive husband and was still struggling to get on top of things. We shared something briefly and she told us that she had thrown away everything from the gospel... Book of Mormon, folletos, all of it. So we set up another appointment to come back. When we came back she was upset and asked us to stop coming by. I think it was the next day that someone failed on us, so as we were going by her house on the way to another person... her husband ran up calling us over. We came over and he said "My wife isn't doing so well. Can you stop by?" We swung by and she was bawling her eyes out. We came in and sang. She felt the Spirit once again. So we gave her a Book of Mormon. We read and she felt really good. When we left she was basically giddy with joy. The next morning we came by again and watched the Restoration and sang some more. She was radiant with happiness. So we set up an FHE to come back and teach the family. And all of this happened in one week. Talk about a crazy roller coaster she must be going on. But in reality... she is doing great. We have learned that some people receive the Gospel... get baptized and then the missionaries get changed. Then they never hear from the missionaries or members again. It is SO important that they have the three required things (nutrients from the good word, a friend and a responsibility)... and continued visits from the missionaries.

We are also working with a member who is having troubles coming back to church. This week we went by and found her arguing with her mother. We heard them outside and clapped anyway. They let us in and we could tell they were in bad tempers. We read and prayed with them. We tried our hardest to bring the gospel light into their house and finally, right before we left, they felt it. They cheered up and started laughing. Oh the power of the laughter. Then on Sunday she came to church... for the first time in who knows how long. Dressed in her Sunday best too!

The funny thing is I'm almost out of time to write about all the others. Basically this is what we did all week. We went to people’s houses and brought the Spirit back. Especially to in-actives. We as missionaries are called to "invite others to Christ". But really, we are supposed to teach and baptize. But in some areas, the members are the ones who need the invitation. We work just as hard here in Villa Zula with the members as we do with the investigators. This week many more have realized the need to come back to church and have committed to come. People who have stopped going to church for years and years. People who have almost lost the light they once had. Though it doesn't look as wonderful as baptismal photos, it certainly does feel just as wonderful.

Little note about Easter. Here Easter is really Catholic based. A lot of people fast and stuff... and the whole Easter egg thing is kinda weird. They have chocolate eggs full of little candies. I actually learned how to do them... but it really is a lot more work than it is worth. I don't know why people do it. One interesting thing about Berisso (the actual city I'm in) is that they do a fake Crucifixion every year. We missed it because we were helping the other elders prepare for a baptism. But apparently a guy goes around town all day dressed up like Christ and carrying a cross. Then at night they tie him up to it for a few hours. Not exactly what I call fun... but interesting no...

Anyway... I’m off. Take care everyone and remember the REAL importance of why we have Easter... please.

Love you all,

Tommy

PS I’ll send picture next week.

I’m so glad I can be here.

Well, I’m um... tired. This week was crazy. It FINALLY got cold enough to make me feel cold! For the first time in about a year... I got cold. I’m loving it. I’m assuming that is the reason for why I’m so tired. The cold gives me more energy and so I’ve been working harder (in truth I don’t get more energy... I just feel more energyful).

Well, this week we worked our little tails off and found a whole ton of people. We also went around and taught with members! Really, people can’t get baptized or have a true desire to stay active if they don’t know members. So, we have really helped our investigators this week. The best part was when L. Tom Perry dropped the hammer on all the people in conference about how they need to find. I loved that. And also the part when we looked around and saw all the members squirming in their chairs. I think we`ll be getting more references and lessons with member from now on... ¡Ojela!

Well, I must admit... I didn’t see much of conference this time. We were not allowed to see anything on Saturday because we didn’t have any investigators with us. We did however see priesthood (Sunday morning recording) Most of Sunday morning and all of Sunday afternoon. It was so cool. We had a lot of inactive people come. We had a lot of success and a few really long days. I’m really trying to lose myself in the work now. I’ve realized that I can actually speak Spanish... so I’m working more and more at teaching and committing. So far... it really has been good.

Quick story because I’m short on time.
April Fool’s day... we went out tracking like always. Someone failed us... so we went to my brilliant back-up plans... which also failed us. So we were left with nothing to do for about 30 minutes. We were heading off to do contacts when we passed by an inactive members house. I had never talked to them... but I knew they were members anyway. We clapped and heard something that sounded angry. So we said thanks and started to walk away. Then we heard it again... and asked him to repeat himself. It turns out he was saying "Here"... so we came in and started talking. He is the son of a very old lady. She is a member, but he isn’t. He was sitting at a table in dim flickering lights... smoking and drinking mate. He looked like a wreck. We started talking and he told us about his problems. One thing I’ll always remember is him saying, "I’m closer now to my gun then my guitar". We taught him and gave him a Book of Mormon. We came back the next day... the day after and the day after. He progressed every day just a bit. He has not mentioned suicide in a while and is really interested in the gospel. He wants to stop smoking and change his life. We`re heading back soon and will teach him about baptism. I believe there are just some times when the Spirit calls you to a house where someone just needs a friend. Sometimes they just need someone to save them. I’m glad to be the one to come and do that for them. I’m so glad I can be here. The Spirit constrains me to say more... but know that I am loving helping people. This week I’ve realized what a sacrifice it is to be a missionary. And I’m glad to do it. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I love you all. I really hope everyone is doing well. Staying safe and keeping close to the Spirit. The Spirit is our only way back to real joy.

Take care... And don’t forget I love you,

Tommy