11 Months!!

Monday, August 25, 2014

Hey everybody! 

Today officially marks 11 months in the mission! Crazy how fast it went! Like I said last week, we had a multizone conference on Tuesday. That went well and I was assigned to play the organ for that which was fun to do. It was a good day and it was good to see some old, familiar faces. And, this last saturday, we had another fun branch activity. It was kind of like the last one where we threw the football for awhile and then had lunch and then a small talent show. All went well and we had locro for lunch. Locro is like a soup thing with veggies and cow. But not normal cow. The stomach, tripe, kidney, leg, and tail of the cow. And after a little bit, we didn´t want anymore. Mostly because some of the pieces still had skin and hair on them...So Elder Mauricio and I just left real quick and bought some chocolate and coca-cola haha. And, for the talent show I was able to play a couple songs on the piano and then do some card tricks which was fun. 

Elder Mauricio is now officially gone. He left this morning and I am staying with our zone leaders until the other changes happen tomorrow. I´m hoping that I stay here and that I get to train a new missionary. La familia Melgarejos made us dinner twice this week to say goodbye to Elder Mauricio and that was good. They are doing well and their neighbors are coming along as well. They are accepting what we teach, but their kids got really sick last week and they couldn´t come to church because of that, but I have faith that they´ll get there! And, I got a couple cool hats this week and I forgot to take pictures. I´ll get some pictures and get those to you next week. 

And, we took a picture with all the soda that we had in the last 7 weeks. I think that you´ll all be impressed with the picture! That was pretty much all the exciting stuff this week. The quote for this week comes from Jean A. Stevens and it reads, "We can trust that He will help us, not necessarily in the way we want but in the way that will best help us to grow." I love this because it shows us that some of the trials that we pass through are necessary in order to learn certain lessons. But, once we have learned what is required, the Lord will help us get back up and get to a stronger position!! Thank you to everyone who wrote me, I hope you all enjoyed summer, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Les Quiero,

Elder Joshua Clarine

 

 The cow tail with hair.

 Me metaphorically killing Elder Mauricio

 The soda we had.

 Don´t worry, I got one coke zero to not get fat.

 Taking out the garbage-2 trips is for wussies.

 The last dinner we had.

 Elder Mauricio and me  before he left.

Last Week

Hey everyone! 

This last week went pretty well. First off, we´re getting kind of excited because it is the last week of the transfer. So, Elder Mauricio only has 7 days left in the mission which is exciting.  And, tomorrow we have to go to Resistencia to go to a multi zone meeting, so that should be pretty fun. 

But, this last week went okay with the people we visited. We visited la familia Perez and they are doing well. Her husband works at sea for 45 days at a time, so she is super busy since he is gone. And, la familia Melgarejos is still going strong and Lidia goes out teaching with us when she can, so that´s pretty cool. And, their neighbors are coming along well. They weren´t able to come to church this week, but they are really accepting what we are teaching and moving along well. And sister Cuevas is okay, but she just doesn´t feel ready for baptism, so we can´t really do a whole lot more with her to help her decide. So, we´ll just hope that something happens to change her mind. 

And, I got my haircut this week. I don´t have pictures yet, and the computer is broken anyways, so I´ll send some next week! That was pretty much it this week, nothing too exciting.  The quote I wanted to put in this week comes from M. Russell Ballard. It reads, “Without the completed action, the commitment is hollow.” I love this and how it applies to everything we do.  We can´t commit to something and not follow through with it!! Thanks to everyone who wrote me and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Les Quiero,

Elder Joshua Clarine

Baby Blessing

Monday,  August 11, 2014

Hey Everyone. 

This week went pretty well. I forgot to mention last week that I got to do the baby blessing for sol! Lidia asked me to do the blessing, so we did it in church and that was pretty cool to do, even though sol was squirming around the whole time. And, this last week we had a little moving to do. We use to rent 2 apartments in the building, but we are now down to 1 since no new missionaries came and the contract ended. So, Elder Mauricio and I had to take all of the furniture, appliances, books, shelves, etc. from the lower apartment and move them into our apartment. So we took a couple hours out on Tuesday and Wednesday to get all that done. 

Our 2 convert families are both doing well. This week we found out that la familia Gomez is moving a couple of streets down, but those couple streets make them not in our area anymore and the other missionaries will have to go by their house instead of us. So, that was kind of sad, but it´s a better house for less money, so it makes sense. And la familia Melgarejos is also doing well. They actually fed us dinner like 3 times this week which was really cool and we even had a Family Home Evening with them and their neighbors and watched a movie on the restoration of the gospel and it turned out to be a really cool night. Their neighbors are doing well, but can´t seem to wake up on time to get to church, but we´ll work with them on it. And la hermana Cuevas is coming along well and starting to get answers, but this week she was unable to come to church. She has diabetes and started feeling really sick on Friday and hasn´t left her house since then. So, we´ll hope she gets better. And, since it is prohibited to play any sport other than volleyball and ping pong, I gave my old cleats to la familia Vera. I brought them thinking that I would use them, but I can´t. So, I decided to give them to the family as a gift and they can use them for soccer. 

Anyways, that´s about it for this week and the quote comes, once again, from Dieter F. Uchtdorf. It reads, "We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly shortsighted that is. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the raIinbow before thanking God that there is rain?" I love this quote and how clearly it shows us that we should be thankful before, and not only after. Thank you to everyone who wrote me and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Les Quiero,

Elder Joshua Clarine

A cute picture of Sol.

Every one of those dots is a good sized spider...
we found a hive...my fear of spiders has basically disappeared

10 Months Forgotten...

Hey Everyone.

 

I just wanted to start out by letting everyone know that I forgot something last week. I forgot to mention that I hit the 10 month mark in my mission!!! :) So that´s cool. This week was pretty good I guess. Even though we are technically in the middle of winter, this week was super hot. For 3 days in a row it was crazy hot and really humid. This just means that this coming summer is going to be killer... 

 

Anyways, this week we had some good things happen and one sad thing. We found out this week that the boyfriend of natalia refuses to get married and doesn´t want to learn about the church, so we can´t really do a whole lot anymore with her or her kids which is sad. But, we have some good news with la hermana Cuevas. This week she came to church again, the 4th time, and she really likes everything we teach. The only problem is that she doesn´t feel ready for baptism and can´t receive an answer, yes or no, from God. So we are really just hoping that she can receive an answer to be able to take that step. And, this week she showed us how to make canasta. I don´t really know what that would be in english, but it´s like homemade wooden baskets. So that was cool. And we had a good week with la familia Melgarejos. We had a family home evening with them and their neighbors and that went well. We had a good lesson about the restoration of the gospel and then had a good dinner. 

 

And, I don´t know if I´ve already said this, but I will anyways. Elder Mauricio doesn´t know how to ride a bike, a motorcycle, or a car. He just knows how to walk haha Because, no one has a car in his country, not that many people have a motorcycle, and his mom never let him ride a bike. So, this week we tried to teach him how to ride a bike at the house of la familia melgarejos before we ate dinner. And, it went okay I think. He can now at least go in a straight line, he just falls when he has to turn. So, I´m hoping to have fully taught him by the time he goes home!! :) 

 

That´s pretty much all that happened this week, and the quote I want to include this week comes from Dieter F. Uchtdorf. He said, "There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious. We can be grateful!" I love this quote and it´s one of the principles I feel most strongly about. Being constantly grateful not only shows humility, but also a true appreciation of the efforts of others. Showing gratitude doesn´t take much, a verbal thank you, a written letter, an email, etc. are simple things that we can do in our everyday life to show gratitude towards others, even if it is an action that may have been expected. Thank you to everyone who wrote me this week, I hope summer is going well, and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Les Quiero,

Elder Joshua Clarine

 The snake we found while walking.

 Me and the snake