Monday, March 31, 2014

Mid-Transfers

Hey everyone!! 

This week was pretty cool!! We´re already done with half the transfer which is weird, and tomorrow we change back to the old schedule with studies in the morning and staying out all night since it is transfering from summer to spring now, so we´ll see how I like that! 

Also, this last week we had a ton of rain and I lost my voice for two days so I had to like yell and it still barely made any sound, but I feel fine now! :) Anyways, because I hit 6 months I burnt one of my ties to "celebrate" the 1/4 mark and now I´m looking forward to a year where I´ll burn a shirt! haha Anyways, this wednesday I did divisions with Elder Gates, our district leader, and those went really good and the member who made lunch made the best pizza, hands down, that I have had in Argentina! It wasn´t a dominoes pizza but it was almost as good as an American Pizza and I haven´t had that in soo long that it was incredible!!! She had a pepperoni one, a ham one, a tomato one, but the only one that was kind of gross was sardines. I dont know why, but people here think it is okay to put fish on a pizza. 

Then, the next day, Thursday, we had a training with President Heyman which was pretty okay. But, the best part was when we got free lunch and it was a really good steak sandwich! 

And, this week we got the goal that we were trying to get: the whole family of Mauricio came to church, all 6. They all came to church and liked it and we had another family home evening with them and la familia Mercado, even though only the Dad from la familia Mercado came.... Anyways, it was a great week and Jorge, the Dad of Mauricio, really opened up to us and thanked us for how much we are helping him and his family and really wants to do the right thing and that was really cool to see!! anyways , that´s pretty much all that happened this week. 

And, the quote from this week reads, "Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can, for you may never be able to experience it again." I love this quote and it´s pretty selfexplanitory. We aren´t here to waste time and we need to do our best, and make the best, out of every day and every situation and I love this mentality in always looking for the good, or looking for the lessons that you can larn from the bad! i hope everyone has a great week and I hope to hear from a lot of you soon!!
 
Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine
 
 A picture that Brisa, the Sister of Mauricio, drew for me.

 When Elder Cannon cut Cintya´s hair

Saturday, March 29, 2014

6 MONTHS!!

Tues, March 25, 2014


Hey Everyone!!! This week was pretty awesome!! First off, today I officially have 6 months in the mission!!!! One fourth of the mission is done!! Crazy how fast the time is going! And, to start off the week we had some more cow heart and intestine with la familia Pereyra. 

So, Wilson came to church again so we were planning on having his baptism this coming saturday...until we talked to his Dad. His Dad wants him to go to church every week and is fine if we want to keep teaching him but won´t allow him to be baptized because he is catholic and doesn´t think that Wilson can make his own decisions. So that was kind of sad. And, Manuel couldn´t come to church again and we went to his house and kind of had a serious talk with him about coming to church if he really wants to be baptized and get the Holy Ghost and he shared with us how badly he wants it and said he has to get to church and that this week he is for sure going, so we will see where that goes, but he seemed really committed and devoted to going! 

And Jorge, the Dad of Mauricio, has been reading the Book of Mormon a ton this week and has a true desire to know if it´s true and he came to church and everything and he prayed in front of us and asked God to let him know that this church was true so that he could be baptized and follow in the correct path for the rest of his life!! It was one of the coolest moments on the mission and it has been crazy to see his conversion process since day one!! 

Oh, and speaking about church, our Zone broke a record last transfer and we, as a zone, had 30 investigators at church. And, the record for this zone before was 27 and that´s when they had 15 companionships and now we only have 10 companionships. So, this last week, with still only 10 companionships, we destroyed the record and had 41 investigators at church as a zone!! That´s amazing that we had 41 people come to the church and learn about Christ! And, Elder Cannon and I had David, Diana, Wilson, and Jorge with us!! And some of our recent converts! So it was a great week. 

And, one of the days this week when we were teaching Wilson at the house of Raul and Eduardo we were talking about which church is the true church and Eduardo yelled out "The true church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the church that I was baptized in!!" So, that was super funny and awesome to hear haha. 

So, on my birthday it was basically a normal day but we had dinner with la familia Gomez and they made me a cake and then we did the same thing on Saturday with David and Diana and we also made our own cake on Saturday and it was a great birthday!!! Also, thank you to everyone who sent me a birthday wish!!! I really appreciate it! 

The last thing that I wanted to put in here was a quote from a poem that I read this week that reads, "Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul. Without these small tests, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere. Safe and comfortable, but dull and utterly pointless." I love this quote and the message it has about our hardships in life. Sometimes we don´t understand why things happen or to the people they do but it is all a part of making us who we are and turning into the people we were meant to be! So, I hope that, even though they aren´t easy, we can look back on our hardships and realize the lessons that they taught us. Thatnks again to everyone that emailed me and I hope to hear from everyone soon!!!

 Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine

 Milanesa sandwiches that we made on my birthday

 The Cake we made on my birthday

 David, Diana, and Ivan and the cake they made for me

 Same picture but with their other friend

 Me cutting David´s hair

 Cutting the cake from David and Diana

 The cake from the Gomez family

 Me with the cake


 An awesome sunset this week

Monday, March 17, 2014

I'M STAYING HERE!!

Hey Everybody!! 

We got the transfer calls and both Elder Cannon and I are staying here for this transfer!! I got my wish!! I get to be here for my birthday (on Friday ;)) and I will have 6 months here in Sáenz Peña at the end of this transfer!! Crazy! It was funny because most of the people we passed by last monday (specifically Raul, Eduardo, Mauricio and his family, and la familia Pereyra) prayed for me to stay here another transfer and their prayers came true haha. Crazy that I´m going to be 19 and next week I will have 6 months in the mission!! 1/4 of the Mission!!!! Crazy! 

But, this week one of the friends of Raul and Eduardo started listening to us, his name is Wilson, and he came to church and wants to be baptized;we just have to get his parents to be okay with it. Also, after we found out we were staying and passed by Mauricio, his dad, Jorge, prayed and thanked God that I was able to stay and teach his family and they are all reading the Book of Mormon and progressing well and the rest of the family has a baptismal date for the 5th of April. Also, la familia Pereyra is still doing good and we have dinner with them tonight where we will eat......mondongo, or, for the gringos, cow stomach!!! So, I´m excited for that haha. 

And, this last week we found music on some file at the church so we have been loving that since we haven´t really had music because elder Cannon doesn´t have any and my package still hasn´t gotten here so that should hold us over until then. 

Also, this last week some college students started having early morning classes at the basketball arena but they don´t start til 8 so we can still play there. But, it´s cool because they are all inside and they are all watching us and it´s like we have a crowd for just the two of us playing. And, since the pictures didn´t work last week I will have pictures today for the last 2 weeks and I have some pictures of the arena!! But, that was pretty much it this week. Elder Cannon and I are excited to work together this transfer and we are having fun and we are having a lot of success and I´m excited to see the development in the people here this transfer!

The quote I wanted to include this week comes from President Gordon B. Hinckley again and it reads, "The Lord did not send you here to fail. He did not give you life to waste it. He bestowed upon you the gift of mortality that you might gain experience-positive, wonderful, purposeful experience-that will lead to life eternal." I like this quote a lot and the perspective it gives us on life. Our time in life isn´t a lot and we have to appreciate what we have and do as much as we can with what we have. I hope we can all live our lives and not have to look back and say that we wasted part or all of our lives!! 

Oh, and the last thing, I´m also pretty excited that I´m going to be 19 years old this friday!!! *cough cough* haha Thanks to everyone for your support and emails and letters!! Talk to everyone next week!
 
Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine
 
 The Basketball Arena we get to play in.


 Last District meeting with our district
 All of the Gomez family except for Celeste who is 11.

 A cool jaguar painting in Centro.

 A 3 day old kitten that la familia Pereyra had.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Transfers Tomorrow!

Hey everyone!! 

Crazy that transfers are tomorrow!! I´m excited to see if I stay or if I go. I was thinking this week and decided that I would really like to stay here one more transfer but I feel like I am going to leave. But, I will find out tomorrow. 
 
The carnival was a nice break since we had to be inside early, but nothing really happened. There was just some big parade in centro. Also, this week we got our hands on a bible from the Jehovah´s Witness and it was interesting to see the things that they have changed, and they have just completely removed 14 verses. But, in order to keep the references in tact, the verse still appears and just has a giant dash like nothing ever existed there...weird. And, Elder Cannon was sick this week but we had a ton of work to do and he still wanted to leave and do work and we still did, except for one morning that we took off in order for him to rest some and take some medicine. But, he feels fine now. 
 
And, this week we had a family home evening with la familia Mercado and la familia Gomez (The family of Mauricio and Raul and Eduardo came) and that went really well and we had a nice night and a good lesson together. And, Celeste, the sister of Mauricio, and Manuel have been reading the Book of Mormon a ton. They each read like 20 chapters this week so that was really good. And, we did service this week by cutting the hair of Mauricio and then of his Dad (Sorry I don´t have pictures) and then we spent 3 hours digging a 7 foot hole that was 6 feet wide for Raul and Eduardo´s Dad since they are making a bathroom, and I guess that´s how they do it here haha. So, that was really tiring but still fun! (And we got to be in normal clothes :D haha) But, that´s pretty much all the exciting stuff that happened this week and now we just wait until transfers to see what happens. 
 
But, the last thing I wanted to share is another quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley that reads, "Keep faith with the best that is in you. Your own constant self-improvement will become as a polar star to those with whom you associate. They will remember longer what they saw in you than what they heard from you. Your attitude, your point of view can make such a tremendous difference." I love this! If we can just go through life and try to be better and show that to others and be the most that our potential allows, then people will always remember us as good people. So, we should always strive for this type of excellence and impact in our lifes. 
 
Thank you for the emails and I hope to hear from you all soon!!
 
Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine

Monday, March 3, 2014

1 Week til Transfers

Hey everyone! 

This week was really awesome and it was super busy!! But, the good thing is that this week it has really cooled down here. It kind of sprinkled here a couple and has been pretty cool outside for the most part, so I´m hoping that it stays this way and that we are making our way towards fall. 

So, this week had a lot of fun and cool things. We have still been teaching Manuel and he read over 30 chapters in the Book of Mormon this week and knows that this is the path that he needs to follow. But, he can´t walk more than one or two streets and the church is about an hour away to walk for him. And, the only person in the ward that has a car or a bike that could take him refuses to go over there because it is too far away (even though it is only 5 minutes out of the way). So, we really want to help him and are going to try to think of a way to get him to church this week. Then, we did service this week and we spent almost 2 hours one morning hoeing the front yard of one of our investigators and that seemed to really help them since there isn´t a man of the house. Then, on Friday, Elder Warth and Elder Gates had to come to our area to do the baptismal interview for Raul, Eduardo, and Mauricio since Elder Gates is the District leader. So, that day was really fun and that night Mauricio´s family wanted us to stay and show them how to make American Pancakes so we made pancakes with them and they loved them (especially the maple syrup that we made with a maple extract from the States). But, Elder Warth and Elder Gates missed their bus back to their area so they had to spend the night with us and we don´t really have any extra things in the apartment so Elder Warth and I offered to sleep on the floor that night, which was really uncomfortable since carpet doesn´t exist here. But, it was nice to see Elder Warth again and to get to talk to him for awhile. And, the next day, Mauricio´s family invited us over for lunch because his parents really like us and that we are trying to better their lives and help their children be better people so they straight up told us that they want us in their house as much as possible and they are always sad when we have to leave. But, that day was a little stressful because the Dad of Raul and Eduardo changed his mind like an hour before their baptism and he wasn´t going to let them be baptized. But, we went over there and talked to him and the spirit touched his heart, so we ended up having all three of their baptisms and it was awesome (even though our President left town and only trusts himself with the key to the baptismal clothes so Raul and Mauricio were baptized in our shirts haha.) But, it went well and I got to baptize Eduardo! And, I got to do all three of their confirmations the next day, Sunday, and those went well. But, the confirmation of Raul was especially cool and he had some really cool blessings and a really strong spirit in his confirmation. 

So, that´s pretty much it for the week and this is the last week before transfers. So, I am getting excited to see if I will leave or if I will stay again, and this time I would really be happy with both for different reasons. I would like to go, because if I stay then I will be here for 6 months and that´s kind of a long time and I would like to get to know some other areas, but I would like to stay because I really get along with Elder Cannon and we are having some good success this transfer. But, we will see. And, today and tomorrow we have to be in the apartment at 7 at night because there is a giant carnival festival/holiday thing that is going down and the Mission President doesn´t want us outside at night. So, I´m kind of excited to get a little bit of a rest because Elder Cannon and I have been going at 100 mph this last week and we are really hurting for some rest. But, I think that´s pretty much it. 

The only other thing I wanted to add in was a quote from James E. Faust (An Old Apostle) about honesty. It reads, "Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving...Do not rationalize that dishonesty is ever right." It´s pretty clear. I feel like I don´t have to expound on it too much. We should be honest in all that we do and be the type of person that others can trust. I hope that we can all think about that a little more and be a little more focused on being an upstanding and just citizen. I love hearing from everyone in the emails and am grateful for all the support. I hope to hear from everyone soon!!
 
Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine
 
 A funny torta frita (like fried cake or fried bread/dough) that I made this week >:)
 
 Raul(Right) and Eduardo(Left) With our badges and backpacks, because they 
want to be missionaries some day and like to be like us haha
 
 Mauricio, Raul, and Eduardo right before their baptisms!! :)

Eduardo and I right after his baptism! I think it´s an awesome picture! :D

Saturday, March 1, 2014

5 months in the Mission!

Tues, February 25, 2014

Hey Everyone!

I officially have 5 months in the mission today!!!! The time has been flying like crazy and the rest of the time is going to go crazy fast if this part has already gone this fast.
 
This week was pretty good! We talked to the Dad´s of Raul, Eduardo, and Mauricio and they said that they could be baptized as long as they behave well and show that they have actually changed and want to follow Christ. So, we are super excited for that and if everything goes as planned then we will have their baptisms this Saturday!! So, I´m really excited for that! Crazy that this saturday is already March! Also, this last week we went over to la familia Pereyra to do service, and this week it just so happened to be with giving haircuts! So, we cut the hair of Manuel, Gaston, and Cristian!(Sorry but I don´t have pictures). That was pretty fun and they actually turned out really well. 
 
And, the only nice thing we have in our area is a really big basketball stadium where the professionals play. Anyways, Elder Cannon and I decided that we really wanted to play basketball and, because there aren´t basketball courts here, we decided to take a shot in the dark and ask the boss of the stadium if we could play there. And, he said yes!!! So, we have permission to play in this stadium every morning for half an hour and I have been loving that and it has been way more fun playing basketball every morning. 
 
Then, one day we were walking and then this girl in front of us just randomly like freaked out and started crying and we went over to talk to her and she never really said what was wrong but she just said that she didn´t want to live anymore. So, we talked to her and comforted her and brought her back to her friends house where she was living(Her name is Maira and she has 2 kids and was basically living house to house). Then, when we went to pass by a couple days later, her friends husband let us in and told us that she had left to go live with the dad of her children again. But, he then continued to tell us that he is a member of the church and hasn´t been in about 6 years but liked when he went. So now we are talking to him more and teaching his girlfriend the discussions.So I´m excited to see where that goes. 
 
The only other thing I wanted to add in is another quote. This one is from Gordon B. Hinckley again; I´ve been getting a lot of quotes from him lately! But, he said, "I don´t worry too much about the future, and I don´t worry very much about the past. The past is gone, and you can´t change, you can´t correct it. The future, you can anticipate, but you can´t necessarily do very much about it. It is the present you have to deal with. Reach out for every good opportunity to do what you ought to do." I really like this quote. Everyone always talks about the past and how you have to move on and all that jazz, but I especially like his point about the future. Even though we can try to anticipate it, there isn´t a whole lot we can do about it. What we do right now, in the present, is what is truly important and is what is going to shape what we do tomorrow and who we are and what we have accomplished when we reach "the future". If we can focus on becoming better, happier, and more successful today, then we are going to see the fruits of our labors in the future. I hope everyone has an awesome week and I would love to hear from everyone. I love getting emails and letters. Thank you to everyone for your constant support. I hope to hear from everyone soon!
 
Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine
 
 The pancakes we made for lunch one day with ice cream on top.

 Multi-zone conference with Elder Diaz (He's an elder from Peru that I met that is pretty cool.)