Tuesday, September 30, 2014

1 Year!!!!!!

Hey everybody!! 

 I officially hit one year in the mission this past Thursday!! I´m over half way done! Crazy how fast the time went and I´m sure that it will go even faster now that I´m on the downhill part. Now, there´s only one bad part to that. There´s an urban legend in the mission that every missionary is magically forgotten after one year. People write to them and everything is going well and then they hit one year and nobody writes them anymore except for their mother. So, please don´t let that happen to me. If you´re part of the email list then that means that I would love to hear from you and hear whats happened in the last year and what all is going on. 

This week ended up being a really awesome week. I hit the year mark on Thursday, so we did a little celebrating that day. The work day went well, and then we finished it all up with an awesome dinner. I bought 2 new shirts and a cool hat that day and then for dinner I bought a dozen empanadas, 3 hamburgers, a pizza, a 2 liter of soda, and a pound of ice cream....and yes, I did eat it all :D haha And, as like a one year present...Francisca Amarilla got baptized!! That was super cool to have happen this week. She was ready this week and everything went really well and a lot of people came to the baptism. Elder Aguirre baptized her and it was good to see that she could finally decide to do it. So I hit one year in the mission and then had a baptism two days later. On Friday, we did mini divisions so that Elder De La Peña could do the interview, so I got to work in the area of Elder Zúñiga for a few hours until the branch activity and that was fun! The branch activity went well. A lot of people came and the game was really fun. 

Overall, a ton of stuff happened this week and it was all exciting and fun. I´m just tired now from everything last week. But, I´m still excited because we are working with the rest of her family to get baptized and I really hope that all her kids and grandkids can get there too. So, I´m pretty happy with how the week went to hit my one year mark. 

The quote I wanted to put in this week comes from John U. Teh and it reads, "If we are not careful, we will begin to chase after the temporal more than the spiritual." I love this quote and believe that a lot of thinking can be done in respect to this. The material things that we have in this life are not nearly as important as the happiness we gain from being true, honest, and virtuous people.Thank you to everyone who wrote me this last week and for everyone who wished me a happy one year mark and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine

Monday, September 22, 2014

Formosa

Hey Everyone! 

This last week was pretty good actually. On Tuesday we passed by a part member family whose little boy just passed away and so we´re helping them to understand the plan of salvation and the parents are really determined to come to church and get to the temple to be able to be sealed to their child. And, Elder Zúñiga from the other part of Pirané was with us all day on wednesday because his companion had to travel to Resistencia for the day. It was pretty fun being in a trio for a day, but there is definitely not enough room in any of the apartments for 3 20 year olds to be living. But, it was only one night. 

So then we had to travel to the capital of Formosa on Thursday for a special conference from Carlos Gonzalez from the 70. That was pretty good, it was just a ton of traveling for one day and we had to wake up at 4 AM to leave. And Elder Aguirre was a little sick for the last part of Thursday and then Friday until about 3. So, that was the down part of the week, but he´s all good now. 

And then we had the branch activity on Friday and had empanadas again and I always love those. The game was fun and we got to eat a ton of empanadas because they are super cheap here in Pirané, only $2 a dozen. The bad this week is that we had to stop teaching la familia Benitez. They are still good people, but they weren´t progressing. They just wanted us to come over as friends and they didn´t really want to learn anymore about the gospel. But, la hermana Amarilla came to church and it looks like we´ll have her baptism this saturday!! :D So, keep your fingers crossed. Also, we are going to call the stake president or something about getting a piano here, because we just sing the hymns acapella and most the people don´t even know the hymns or can´t hit the notes if they do. But, we probably won´t get one, at least for awhile. 

Anyways, the quote I wanted to share this week comes from William R. Walker and it reads, “The more connected we feel to our righteous forefathers, the more likely we are to make wise and righteous choices.” We can all look into our past and find an awesome great grandpa or grandma or uncle or something and we can use their example to be better people ourselves. I love this quote and how it encourages us to do family history and to follow the good examples that others have given us. Thank you to everyone who wrote me this week and I hope to hear from all of you soon.[ Still waiting on the pictures ): ]

Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine

Monday, September 15, 2014

Pirane

Hey everybody! 

This week went pretty well overall. We had to travel to a place called fontana on tuesday to go to a meeting and it´s about 2 hours away, so that was a long day, but it was a meeting. And, the assistents to the president came to our area and did divisions with us for 1 day and we got a ton of teaching done with them. We got to work in both areas of Pirané and we found some cool new families and we´ll see how they progress. We had the branch activity on Friday and we made milanesa sandwiches. Elder aguirre and I spent about an hour before the activity to cook everything and we did about 70 sandwiches! It was a good activity and we had fun playing some guessing games and just talking with the members. 

La familia Benitez, Amarilla, Elsa, and Elisa and the coolest families that we are teaching right now and they are all doing well. They are accepting our invitations and reading and praying to get an answer. The only problem is that this week it rained a ton on Saturday. And, since no one has cars here, they were all going to walk to church. But, the roads are like sand here. So, when it rains there is always like 2 feet of mud, and so they couldn´t come to church yesterday. But, they are all really cool people and I know that they´ll make it to church this week. Nothing too exciting really happened other than that and things are just going well here. We are still finding a ton of new people to teach and I´m excited for the success that we´ll have here. 

Oh, and the computer that we use can´t read my camera for some reason. so, this week I´m going to see if we can move my pictures onto another device and then send them that way, because we haven´t had pictures now for like a month, but just know that I am taking pictures and I´ll get them up as soon as I can. 

The quote I wanted to put in this week comes from Boyd K. Packer and it reads as follows, "I wish to share with you those truths which are the most worth knowing...like most things of great worth, knowledge which is of eternal value comes only through personal prayer and pondering." the message I love that we can take from this is that of an eternal perspective. If we take a step back and think and truly ponder on what is important in this life, we will find more easily the things of true value. Thank you to everyone who wrote me and for all being patient with the pictures and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine

Monday, September 8, 2014

Pirane week 2

Hey everybody! 

This week was pretty good overall. We´ve been playing basketball every morning and I love doing that. And, most of the latins here can´t play basketball or don´t know how. But, Elder Aguirre is actually really good and it´s fun to play with him. On friday we had to travel about 3 hours away to a city named ibarreta to go to a zone conference. That went really well and I got to see Elder Cannon there since we got put into the same zone! He´s not in my district, but he´s in my zone. So, I´ll get to see him once or twice every month. And, we had the branch activity on Friday and that went really well. We got a ton of empanadas and soda and got to eat those while we listened to a spiritual thought and then watched a bunch of mormon messages from mormonmessages.org. So, it was a fun activity and it really helps the area out to do the activity every Friday. 

Also, we found a ton of people this week! We found 21 new investigators!! The people here are a lot nicer! Only one person in 2 weeks has turned us down and not let us share the message. Leonicio is still doing really well. But, his boss made him work all of saturday and sunday. So, we´re going to try and do his baptism as soon as his boss gives him some time off to be able to do it. And, we were going to have the baptism of Amarilla, but it changed. We ended up talking to her whole family and they all really liked what we taught and want to be baptized together as a family at the start of october. So, that will be a lot cooler with 5 or 6 of them! And, we found a new family, la familia Benitez. The kids are really cool and want to come to church and learn and everything and there are 6 kids. The parents are also really nice, but they don´t really want to come to church and they smoke and aren´t married. So, it will be a little harder with the parents, but we are still going to work with them and see what happens!! 

That´s pretty much it for this week and the quote I wanted to give you guys this week comes from President Thomas S. Monson and it reads, “We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey.” I love how important it is and how magnified it becomes that we must all help each other to overcome the difficulties we have to pass through in this life. Thank you to everyone who wrote me and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine

The computer is refusing to read my camera...so we shall hope for pictures next week. :(

Monday, September 1, 2014

Crazy Week

Hey Everyone! 

This is a long one, I think, so get ready. I got transfered against all odds!! even though I wanted to stay in Goya and train, it didn´t happen. I got transferred to Formosa to a place called Pirané. I was sad and a little upset to have to leave Goya, but when I got here it got better. My new companion is Elder Aguirre from Columbia and he´s super cool and we like basically all the same things and so far we get along really well. So, they "whitewashed" goya, which is when they change both missionaries, since Elder Mauricio went home and I came here. So, I said goodbye to everyone on Tuesday since I found out monday night and it was sad, but everyone was home so I got to see them one last time. I said goodbye to la flia Cuevas and she gave me one of her homemade baskets, la familia vera, la familia Melgarejos and their neighbors, and then finished off the day with la familia oviedo and la hermana bought us a chocolate and strawberry cake and it was the first time I had/saw strawberries in almost a year...it was pretty awesome. And then I had to leave at 3 am since it was 10 hours in 3 different buses and I didn´t get there til 7pm. The apartment was pretty cool, but it had a ton of spiders that I had to kill (I don´t have a fear of spiders anymore in case anyone was wondering) and I even found a nest. And then on day 2 I saw a cockroach...and I went to kill it, and 20 big ones came out of the same hole which was gross. So, we bought cockroach killer and aired those bad boys out and they were running everywhere and it was pretty gnarly, but now the apartment is bug free and looking good :) And, it´s like a billion degrees hotter here. It´s technically winter and I´m sweating like crazy even when I´m just sitting doing nothing. But, I love the new area. The people are super nice and receptive and they have a branch activity every friday with games and food which is really fun. Also, there is a basketball court close to the apartment and I am companions with the only latin who loves basketball and doesn´t like soccer, so we play basketball every morning. And, we went looking for some old investigators of the church that had come to church twice and we got them super excited and they both came to church and it looks like they will both get baptized this week. Their names are Amarilla and Leonicio. Different families, but both super awesome and if all goes well this week, the next time I write you they will both be baptized. And I met some really cool members, La familia montiel and la hermana Pastor. The only bad thing is that la familia montiel lives over an hour away walking. but, la hermana Pastor wants to go out teaching and contacting with us every day. It´s super awesome. And the branch president here is really cool and super humble and I already love the guy, he´s so cool. And, people think I´m good at spanish or something. Everyone that I´ve asked where they think I´m from have said Spain, Italy, or Buenos Aires and that´s always cool to hear and not have them call you a gringo. The church here is really small...it´s basically a big house, but the members are awesome and I´m super excited for this transfer here and I hope that elder Aguirre and I stay together for awhile. I´m kind of out of time, so that´s pretty much it for this week, but the quote that I wanted to add in this week comes from Gary E. Stevenson and it reads, "Your [life] will pass quickly, and you´ll have eternity to think about what you did in this life." I love this quote and the eternal perspective it gives us on the choices we make and how they will affect our eternal happiness. Thank you to everyone who wrote me this week and I brought my camera, but forgot my cord to connect it, so I´ll have a ton of pictures next week!!
 
Les Quiero,
Elder Joshua Clarine