Week 17 - JuJuy

July 28, 2014

Como les fue la semana? Que tal es Utah?

I knew that Rick served in Salta. He told me the last time I saw him. In all of the areas there are sheets of names of missionaries. When they went into the area and when they left. They can date back to a long time ago. I was wondering if I would ever see his name but I couldnt remember it so I didnt know. That is really cool that he served there in Frias! I wouldnt be surprised if some of the people remembered him.

So the pictures, these were the pictures that we took on Sunday the day of the world cup final match. Everybody was in their houses. All of the streets were empty. The one elder decided to lay down on the road to show that nothing would happen because nobody was outside. 

Some random kid.

The branch was big. It was about a foot around or so. It took a while. But we did it. I dont have any scabs or anything from hitting the fence. Nothing actually broke skin. Just hit me good. But this last week we went back over and finished cutting down the tree. We pulled the rest of the trunk down and then started chopping it up into pieces. We didnt get it all done so we are going back again this coming week. It is a lot of fun doing it. It makes me want to finish cutting down all of the pine trees back at home when I get back. 

I have a doctors appointment for next week on Monday morning with a Neurologist. I havent had any other problems so I think everything will be fine. We will see what happens. I will probably be getting a cat scan. :) woohoo.

I am glad that you are all having a good time in Utah. 

This week we had lunch every single day. It was great! haha we usually dont have lunch maybe one or two times a week. But its all good. I love this place. We also had transfers today. Elder Schellenberg left to Tucumán. My new companion is Elder Contreras. He is from Chile. Just right next door. He has 9 months in the mission. So that means that I am senior comp now. Frick! haha no. I am way excited to work with him for this next transfer. I hope to learn much from him and to be able to have some great success. 

Espero que su semana les esté bien. Que tengan un buen tiempo en Utah. No sé cuando van a salir. Saludos a todos. Les extraño mucho. Les quiero un montón.  

How is Daniel doing? What is he going to be doing about a mission?

Also, Andrew, have you started papers yet?

Hasta Luego, 

Elder Alec Dawson

Week 16 - Jujuy

July 21, 2014

So I will start this email off by answering all the questions from the last email. 

First, we didnt watch the Argentina game either. We left church and had lunch with some members and stayed in the apartment the rest of the night. We left the apartment to take a couple pictures in the streets that we so empty. During the game Argentina scored but it was called off sides so it didnt count. Not much happened when they lost though. The people still had parties because it had been 24 years since Argentina was in the Finals of the World Cup. We still had a couple investigators that went to church. 

In the pictures that I sent of the jerseys was Elder Mckee (who was also with me in Texas) and Elder Acevedo. My comp was the one taking the picture.

So the jerseys. My jersey is authentic. It cost 750 pesos which is like 70 or 80 dollars. I can buy other jerseys that are fake but I dont like them very much. It would just depend on you guys if you want the jersey´s or not. 

So the food here isnt very spicy. Not a lot of people like spicy food. But we can get it.The food is pretty much the same as it was in Frias. We have been eating a lot of chicken lately! I love whatever is put in front of me! 

How was Andrews senior trip? I want him to write me when he can and tell me everything! Seriously like every single detail! :D

So yeah we did some service helping a family move to a different house. I really like doing service. We usually have a lot of fun doing service. 

Alright so now here is my week, 

Last Monday was when we went to check on Pamela´s marriage and that was when they said they couldnt. After that we left to meet up with other missionaries to play soccer. I had a pretty bad accident there (I forgot to tell you, haha) So I was running as fast as I could to stop the ball for going out of bounds. I kicked the ball backwards right before it went out and then about 5 feet after I slammed into a metal fence. I was going to fast to stop myself fast enough even with my arms out. Its not like a chain link fence. It was solid metal bars. But so I hit it hard and kind of bounced off. It hurt so bad. I got lucky though because my face went in between two bars. One bar hit my left cheek. But if it was an inch to the left or right I would have crushed something. I walked away and was about to play again when I started to feel dizzy. I sat down and said that I was going to rest for a second when I passed out. The other elders woke me up and were talking to me and then I passed out again. This time they told me that I started to have seizures. But they woke me up again and I put myself against a wall and then after that nothing else happened. I had hit part of my face, a horizontal bar hit the side of my neck, I had bid marks on my arms, I hit my right hip hard, my left knee and my right foot. As of now only my hip, knee, and foot still hurt a little. Everything else is fine. I have talked with Hermana Chaparro and I will be going to get checked out just to make sure nothing super bad has happened. But I feel good now so dont worry. 

Tuesday nothing happened and on Wednesday for lunch we made bbq chicken empenadas. They were really good. Thursday we ate with Cristian and Pamela.

Friday we had Zone Conference. I liked it a lot. Presidente Chaparro is taller than I am, and is balding a lot. Half of his middle finger on his left hand is gone. He is really cool. So is his family. He has 5 kids i think. Two that are in the mission. One in Brazil and one that is going to Mexico City North. Three other kids are with him here. I am excited to work with him for the rest of my mission. 

Saturday morning we did some more service. We helped to cut down a tree. We climbed up in the tree and started cutting this huge branch and then we pulled it down. Then we cut up higher and pulled down the higher part of the tree down. It was a lot of fun! We made sure that we were being safe. We used a hatchet machetes to cut it down. People mainly use machetes to cut stuff down here. 



Sunday was a good day! We had empenadas for lunch! And then we worked for the night. 

We are focusing more on Recent Converts and Less Actives more! There has been some changes as for mission work.

I am excited for another week. It is the last week of the transfer so by next Monday I will find out whats going on. 

I hope that you guys all have a great week! And especially a fun time in Utah! Tell grandma that I love her and miss her!!!!

Les quiero mucho y espero que tengan un buen tiempo en Utah! Hasta Luego! 

Elder Alec Dawson

Week 15 - Jujuy

July 14, 2014

How was your week. I am sure you had a lot to do. Especially that Andrew had his 18th birthday on Wednesday! How is the summer? 

I forgot to ask you but Grandma W. sent me a email a little while ago and she mentioned about going out to Utah. Are you guys taking a trip to Utah to see grandma? How is she doing by the way? Has she gotten better? 

So I had an alright week. We werent able to have a whole lot of éxito. We couldn´t really find very many more people to teach. We were able to have some good lessons with a couple people. We are teaching a guy named Cirilo and we tried to have his baptism on Saturday. He is an old guy. He had a siezure a long time ago and so he can barely talk. He can say a couple of words. He cannot read or write nor can he walk around for a long time. We talked to his family about baptism and that they need to fill out the baptism record since Cirilo cant do it physically. But his kids arent going to let him. We are going to see what we can do with him this week. We are also teaching Pamela. Last week we went to the Registro Civil (I dont remember what it is in English) to get her married. We went last week three times and all three times they were on strike. We went today in the morning but they told her she had to do a lot of documents that would take about a year to do. She was wanting to get baptized this coming Saturday. But now we cant. We are going to see what we can do. 

So this last week we had the last couple games of the 2014 World Cup. Brazil played against Germany and got destroyed. Brazil 1-7 Germany. It was such a big blow. That kind of losing is super bad here. It is literally worse that a NFL team losing by 50 points. Then Argentina played the Netherlands and won. Argentina 4-2 Netherlands. It was in the penalty kicks that they won. Brazil played again against Netherland to go for 3rd place. Brazil had another let down. Brazil 0-3 Netherlands. So on Sunday Argentina played against Germany for the World Cup. Soo yeah, Argentina lost and got second place. We were all so sad... I was so stoked to say that I was in Argentina when they won. hahah but unfortunately no. 

We also made another type of Empenadas. We have been inventing empenadas. We made breakfast empenadas. With Chorizo, potatoes, the big green and red peppers, cheese and some other seasonings. It was super super good. This week we are going to make BBQ Chicken empenadas. 

We did service at a members house and took out like a tree/vine thing. 

This next week we are having Zone Conference with our new Mission President. President Chaparro. My 4th one. I am excited. I want to meet him. 

So I will hear about you guys later. I hope you are all good. I miss you all and love you!

Hasta la semana que viene! Les amo!

Elder Dawson

Week 14 - Jujuy

July 7, 2014

I will start off by answering a couple of your questions. 

A Remis. Yes, its like a taxi. I dont know if I could really describe how much a Remis costs but we use them every time we have to leave our area. 

When we sang the song [If You Could Hie to Kolob], we sang it together. There are many members who took videos so we could probably get a copy of it. The activity started at about 9:30-10 pm. It was supposed to start at 8:30 but in any kind of latin place everybody pretty much shows up late. 

We have sacrament meeting last in church because of that reason. I am pretty sure that is why. haha

So about facturas! I love like every kind. The n0rmal traditi0nal 0nes have a white/yellowish cream 0n them! I L0VE THEM! haha

There are b0th paved and dirt r0ads. The Sh0es are h0lding up g00d. I w0nt need anything else. We have blankets and stuff in the apartment we can use. We d0nt feel the c0ld during the night but the m0ment that we wake up we are soooo c0ld. I usually wear an undershirt every day and thermal pants things. We have a heater in the kitchen but it takes f0rever t0 heat the entire kitchen. Y0u have t0 be within 5 feet 0f the heater t0 even feel it. In 0ur r00ms it is super c0ld. We drink a l0t 0f mate (herb drink) 0r h0t ch0c0late. 

We had a pretty g00d week. We are talking t0 a number 0f pe0ple. We are planning a cu0ple baptisms f0r this m0nth 0f July. 0ne we will have f0r a girl called Pamela. She is 0ne m0nth 0lder than I am. But she is super awesome. We are g0ing with her t0day t0 start s0me paper w0rk t0 get married. She is getting married t0 Cristian which is a member als0.They are great!

Yeah, the US l0st. I kn0w that they were really cl0se a c0uple 0f times t0 tying the game and making it g0 int0 penalty sh0ts But they never g0t anther g0al. Argentina w0n. Which is super awes0me! They beat Belgium. Next they are playing Holland 0n Wednesday. If they win they will be playing in the champi0nship game 0n the 13th! Brazil plays Germany t0m0rr0w. If Brazil wins they cu0ld als0 play Argentina. Brazil and Argentina is like the biggest s0ccer rivalry ever. The place w0uld be g0ing abs0lutey crazy. We w0uld pr0bably be having t0 g0 in early if that happens. 

I am st0ked f0r an0ther week. As 0f t0day I have 9 m0nths left in the missi0n. It is flying by s0 fast. I cant believe that we are already in July. 

Andrew, feliz cumpleaños. Espero que pasaste el día de diez. Te invito a empezar en tus papeles para la misión ahora. Debes salir lo más rápido posible! Te quiero mucho! Quiero lo mejor para ti. 

I h0pe that y0u all have a great semana! I l0ve yu0 all s0 much! Hasta la semana que viene! Chaú!

Elder Alec Daws0n

I had t0 use 0´s f0r all the letters because the 0 key d0esnt w0rk. hehe