Week 5 - Jujuy

Monday, April 28, 2014

Buenas Tardes!

Como están? Estoy agradecido escribirles nuevamente esta semana. Me parece que su semana fue buena!

Presidente Levrino goes home in July. The new presidente that is coming is Presidente Chaparro. He is from Buenos Aires. 

It sounds like your week was pretty great. You all did a lot. I like how everybody is doing good with Boy Scouts. So my week was good and bad. We had a horrible week as far as numbers. We had little lessons. We didnt find a lot of new people. I would say that has been one of my worst weeks. There were two days where nobody let us in, two days when we didnt have any lessons at all. We started out bad on Monday. But we also made 360 cookies and gave them to the members of our branch that are in our area. 

Tuesday it rained super hard and for a long time. We were at the very end of our area. We started contacting in a new neighborhood that we hadnt visited before and on the second door they let us in. We talked to Antonio and Carolina. They are super cool. Carolina said that Antonio usually tells people that they are busy and they dont let people in but they did with us. They were awesome. Antonio reminds me of a little bit fatter version of Bruce Willis. 

Wednesday was one of the days that we didnt have any lessons. The people just wanted to argue and just show us how great their knowledge was of the gospel and the scriptures. They would talk to us and not let us talk. Or when we would talk, they would interrupt us and start talking more. I got tired of it after a little.  

Thursday was weekly planning. In the afternoon we went back to Antonio and Carolinas house. We taught about the Book of Mormon. It was an awesome lesson. They had read the intro and randomly read Moroni 1-5. They liked it and they wanted to go to church. After the lesson they wanted to take pictures with us. When we left we went to the terminal (bus station) because we were going to Salta. We started traveling at 9:10 and we got to Salta at about 11 or so. We stayed the night with the elders that worked in the offices of the mission. During the night more missionaries came. It was because we all had to get stuff done for our documents. Like I.D. from Argentina.

Friday morning we traveled all over Salta to different places. We ate 10 dozen facturas for breakfast and right before we left for lunch we ate 10 dozen empanadas. SOOO GOOOOD! We got back to Jujuy at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. I have to go back to Salta again this week to finish with everything. 

Saturday was a good day and on Sunday we went to church in the morning. Nothing really happened. 

So that was pretty much my week. I will see what I can do about some pictures. 

Oh so for my year mark I was in Salta. I had a pretty good time there. 

Espero que tengan una semana muy buena con muchas actividades. Que andan bien en la escuela con sus clases y también con su trabajo. 

Les amo mucho!

Cháo!

Elder Dawson

Week 4 - Jujuy

Monday, April 21, 2014

Buenas Tardes! 

Como andan? Que tal es su día? 

So I am in a branch. There are about 100 members give or take. I think a little bit less. Recently we have been going through the directory of the church to contact everybody on it. We still going looking for and contacting the referrals that we get. It is a huge area and there are a lot of people. We are struggling a little in our area. We dont have steady investigators. Some are progressing and some are not. We have to constantly try and find. Its a lot harder here. The people are a little less receptive to the gospel I think. But I was in a tiny little dot on the map before in Frias. So now I am in a really big city. There are two zones here in Jujuy. Probably about 50 or so missionaries in total. Our district meetings are here. Sometimes we go to our building or others times we have to go to other buildings. 

Thats super weird that Jessica is going to get married. I havent seen her in a long time and the next time I see her she will be married. 

I dont remember a whole lot about what happened this week. Last Monday we made epenadas there in the apartment. And during the week we made dulce de leche. They were all super good. I cant wait to make it at home. You guys will like it all. Today we are making 300 cookies to give to the members here. 

But this week I have been studying in PMG chapter 4 and 6. I have been learning a good bit about the spirit and the important role it has in this work, in my life, and in everyones life. I also studied a lot about faith. There are a lot of things that I have to do to become better in every way. 

So I will try and see if I can send some more pictures I am not sure if I will be able too.   

I love you guys a lot. Its about 4 weeks until I talk to you again. It will probably be on Skype again.

This week on the 24th I reach one year in the mission. It has passed by so fast and I still feel like I have a ton to go. But I am so happy I am here and have this time to serve the Lord and to have happiness and joy in my life as I help those that I come to love here. I am forever grateful for this opportunity. Thank you for your love and support. I probably wouldnt be here without you all. 

Les amo un montón. Espero que tengan una buena semana! Hasta luego!

Elder Dawson

Week 3 - Jujuy

Monday, April 14, 2014

Buenas Tardes. 

Voy a empezar a contestar sus preguntas.

 [In our letter to him, we did ask a lot of questions, so you probably won’t understand some of his answers.]

1) Yes I did get to stay and watch the Priesthood. 

2) Elder Acevado, he is from Logan Utah. His dad is from Guatemala. Elder Alvarez is from Honduras. [These elders are the ones he shares his apartment with].

3) The apartment is good. A lot smaller than Frias. But its good. I have a bed and mattress. I have to buy a new frame because mine is broken. We have a washer and a dryer that just gets all the water out and we have to hang up our clothes.  [Maybe he meant to say he does not have a dryer?].

4) The church here is about 10-15 minutes away walking. The stake center is about 20-30 or so in a taxi. Church starts here at 9:30 until 12:30. 

5) My schedule is 30 minutes earlier. We get up at 7 instead of 7:30. And in Jujuy they dont have a set time for the siesta for everyone to sleep. Places are still open. 

6) Sight seeing I have no idea. We have a downtown place thats cool. 

7) The sister was right. Usually you clap. But we will knock doors with your hands but it is usually just clapping. [We heard from a sister on a YouTube video who served in the Salta Mission that instead of knocking on doors . . . you clap, and we asked Alec about this.]

I am glad you guys had a good week. I was happy to know that David got his mission call. Please tell him that I am thankful for his desire to serve, he will always love these two years for the rest of his life and that I am proud of him and love him. 

So I will tell you a little about my week. I dont have a lot to tell. Just a couple events. 

One night we had a huge deep doctrine talk it was super interesting. We talked about all sorts of things. We also know when the world is going to end and when Christ will come :) It is the 6th of April 2025. So we still have a little bit of time left, haha.

In church yesterday a funny thing happened. We were sitting up in the front and a kid was up playing in the front. He fell over on his side and then rolled on his back. Then he didnt move for like 15 seconds and looked like he had died. Then a sister got up and was checking him starting to worry. Then the kid jumped up and screamed because she scared him.

I have a little more but I dont have time.  

I love you all so much. I will see you next week. 

Elder Dawson

Week 2 - Jujuy

Monday, April 7, 2014

Hola! Como Están?

Si yo tuve una buena semana. Me gustó mucho las conferencias Generales. Aprendí mucho y estoy muy agradecido por el tiempo que tuve allí. 

So it sounds like you have all had a busy week! 

So I had an alright week. Not a whole lot happened. We had some good lessons with a couple of people. We tried to find a bunch of members in the directory of the branch in Los Perales. It was a super rich area that we were searching in. We saw a HUGE house that was like three stories and and a huge pool and had a almost three story high slide to the pool. It was giant. I also made an amazing discovery...I saw Voldemort!!! It was literally him...bald, tall, white, the menacing face. Everything. I know where he lives..We also saw a dinosaur dog. It had a wierd deformed head. It was super wierd looking.

I dont have much to write this week but I will write more this coming week when things are rolling a little smoother. 

I love you all very much!!

Oh by the way dont send packages. There is a problem with packages for almost everybody. The church is doing what they can to get them and they are saying dont send more packages for now. I can just withdraw money and buy things when I need too. 

But thank you very much! 

Oh yeah! Sean needs to email me still.!!!

Alright! I have to go!

Bye love you all!

Elder Dawson

Week 1 - Jujuy

Monday, March 31, 2014

Buen Día!

Están haciendo muchas preguntas! :) 

So the transfer was good. It took about 7 or so hours to get from Santiago del Estero to the terminal en Jujuy. It is a lot bigger than Frias. I am in a Branch still. There are two companionships though. We live with two other Elders. It is a good sized branch. Almost 100 people I think that attend regularly. My companion is interesting. He is kind of a nerd...But he is cool. He has 16 months in the mission. But geographically we are close to a bunch of tall mountains. And yes it should be getting a lot colder. This past week I have been cold almost every day because I am used to the heat now.

My area is made of of neighborhoods. Chijra y Los Parales. Los Parales is a rich area. Super awesome houses. Chijra (chi- like in Chip and jra- like hdra) and Jujuy (who-huoy) like buoy (water buoys - dont know how to spell it but with the sound of H) I dont know if I did it good. 

I have been meaning to write both Casey and Alex but its hard to find the time. I really hope that they make the decision to go [on a mission]. It is something that they will never regret and will bless their lives eternally. 

I am excited for General Conference. I will be watching it at our Stake Center. 

But I will be doing my best to send pictures now. But I have to go! I love you all very much!

Tell Sean to email me!

Chaó!

Elder Dawson