Week 20 - Frias

Monday, February 24, 2014

Buenas Tardes!

Yes I have a package [at the mission office] but I dont have it yet. They werent able to send it to Santiago last time. I have to wait until the next time I go which will be in about another week or two. We will be having zone conference this transfer but I dont know when.

[We sent him a small package on January 16, and we are excited just to know that it at least got to the mission office!!!  The package we sent to him last November for Christmas that got stuck in customs in Buenos Aires  is suppose to be returning  back to us]

I use the internet at the church usually. Sometimes we use the internet at a little internet café place. The internet is usually good but the other weeks they all had problems. 

Tell Sean Happy B-Day! I was thinking about him this week. And yes it is super weird that he is 13 years old now! haha no 16 ;) 

So I had a pretty eventful week!

Monday I wrote to you all and then we left and started to work for the night. We were out working and it started to rain. At first we didnt think anything of it because we didnt think it was going to rain much. We had a lesson with some people and when we left it started raining pretty hard. So we walked fast to another investigators home, but by the time we got there we were all dripping wet! We got there and she let us in. We dried ourselves off and talked for a little and had a quick lesson. We could hear the rain pounding outside. The wind and rain even pushed the door open a couple times. But we were there for about 30 minutes or so. When we opened the door to leave the water had risen over a foot or two and was about two inches away from entering the house. All you could see outside was water. You couldnt see the ground at all. We had to walk home and so we left. We walked almost a mile with water up to our knees the entire time. It was the most water I have seen in my life. All the streets were like rivers. Well all the water drains on that side of the city too so that made it worse. We got back to the apartment and we didnt have electricity. It came back on later in the night. 

Tuesday we got up early to take the bus to Santiago for Zone Meeting. It was still raining in the morning and so we were wet again by the time we got to the bus station. We got to Santiago and we went to a bench in the bus station to wait. I noticed that a couple people were laughing silently at me when my back was turned. I thought for a second and asked my companion if there was anything on my butt. I turned around and he said like a brown stain above the belt. Then I started to mess with my shirt, and he said holy crap and said I had a huge stain on my shirt. Later when we got to the church we went to the bathroom to check my shirt. I pulled my pants down and there was a super big giant stain on my pants and underclothing. There had been something in my bus seat that soaked into my pants and everything. It looked super bad. So I went all through the day with that. Then we traveled back to Frias and then I changed. I was so happy to change.

Later in the week on Friday it rained again. We werent prepared for that either. We were walking and it just started pouring. We had little lessons that day because its hard to talk to people when it is raining. 

Saturday morning we were walking and it started pouring again. Third day that we got completely soaked. We didnt bring anything because it looked like all the clouds were disappearing. but we were wrong. It rained all morning. Later when we got back to the apartment we got all dried. In the afternoon we worked like crazy! We had some super good lessons and received a lot of referrals that we contacted too. 

Domingo [Sunday]! At church we had nine investigators come! It was good. One of them is going to be baptized this Saturday! :D Possibly two of them! We are going to see. Unfortunately we werent able to end this week with a baptism we are going to have one now! 

Oh and the Zingales family is doing good. They came to church, they are still reading. Marcelo, the dad, asks a lot of deep doctrine questions. He is a teacher and so he analyzes practically everything. But we are doing good with them. They dont want to get baptized until they are sure about it! He says he wants an answer that is going to make him call us and be like "Hey, I want to get baptized right now!" But we are helping them so that they can recognize an answer however that it may come! 

I have had a good week. I hope that you all have a great week! I read this last week the story of Ammon and his brothers that were teaching the Lamanites and converted cities of them! I love those stories! You all should read them!

I love you all!

Elder Dawson

Week 19 - Frias

Monday, February 17, 2014

Buenas Tardes!

Como estan? Estoy feliz que su semana fue buena. Recibieron mucho nieve! :) I am glad to hear that you guys had a good week. Its awesome that you all got a lot of snow. Sounds like you are all having fun back home.

I havent heard anything from the offices yet about the package. I will find out tomorrow because I am going to Santiago.

So this week was the first of the new transfer. It was a good week but we werent able to baptize. We almost did but no. Also in the Church on Sunday we had 2 investigators. It was bad. A ton of people that we had committed to church didnt come. It should have been like 7 or so. The Zingales family is back in town but they werent able to come because they had to travel to Catamarca on Sunday. But on Saturday we ate lunch with the Zingales Family. We had Asado. Which is pretty much BBQ. It was good. We had polló, lechón, chancho. It had rained a couple times and yes, I have had to use my boots a few times. When it rains hard the streets are flooded. But not a whole lot happened this week. I wasnt able to write a whole lot down because I have been using one page of my planner to plan because we dont have more planners. We will get some tomorrow in Santiago.

I will do better in writing you all next week. The internet was a little rough but a lot better. It got fixed.

Espero que tengan una buena semana! Les amo!

Elder Dawson

Week 18 - Frias

Monday, February 10, 2014

Hola!

Sorry that I wasnt able to write last week. The internet was bad again. But I will start with my weeks. I have three weeks that I have to tell you about. 

Week of Jan 20 to Jan 26:

The week started off slow. We walked all over and werent able to have one lesson. Tuesday we still werent able to do a lot. We had three lessons all day. Wednesday we had three more lessons and we invited a chico named Maxi to be baptized on that Saturday. He accepted and all. Thursday we had to do weekly planning for a little bit then we had to leave to go to Santiago. We started fasting before we left too. During the bus ride it was super hot and it made us super thirsty. We got to Santiago and we worked for a little in the area of other Elders in our District. That night we went to the bus station again and my companion left to go to Salta to do some things for his visa. I left with another Elder to work in his area the next day while we waited for our companions. Friday it got super cold during the night and it was raining. We went out in the morning and tried to work but it was super hard. It was raining and it was cold. Later when we went back to the apartment it started raining harder. It rained so much and flooded the streets. We went out to work later but couldnt because we couldnt cross the roads for a while. We finally worked a little. Then on our way back home it started raining super hard again. We were running to get back. That night our companions returned and then we stayed the night with the Elders in our district. Saturday in the morning we traveled back, it was still cold, my clothes were still a little wet. So we were freezing on the way back. Saturday we didnt have the baptism of Maxi. Sunday we werent able to do much either and only 4 investigators went to church.

Week of Jan 27 to Feb 2:

Monday we started out the week good with some lessons and referrals. Later that night I was using the bathroom and then a giant spider like the size of an orange came crawling in to the bathroom by my foot. I freaked out opened the door, it ran out, then I threw a sandal at it and it smashed it. Later in the week we traveled again to Santiago and had district meeting and our interviews with President! We were heading to the bus station later to leave and we saw our bus arrive. So we ran to the bus station to catch it. We barely got it. If we didnt we would have been in Santiago for three more hours. But that night we talked with another chico about baptism and invited him to be baptized. Accepted! On Saturday he was baptized and on Sunday he was confirmed. We also took a picture of the branch for a time capsule of 100 years that the stake was going to do. Super long time. None of them are going to see it but I and my comp because we have the pictures also ;) 

Week of Feb 3 to Feb 9:

I didnt write anything down. But on Saturday we baptized another chica. Erika. Her mom we baptized in December. On Sunday she was confirmed. 

I dont know what the third week was but I have to go. I will have time next week to answer your questions better. We had transfers yesterday but I stayed in Frias still. 

I hope you all have a great week! Congrats Dad, first counselor. I love you All!!!

[Note:  On February 9, our ward bishopric was released and Neil was called to be first counselor in the new bishopric].

Week 17 - Frias

[We did not get an email this week from Alec. Our assumptions are he either did not have internet connection, or he was transferred and was traveling on P-day. We pray he is well and are very anxious to hear from him next Monday.]