Week 23 - Frias

Monday, March 17, 2014

Buenas Tardes! 

Como están? Estoy feliz que tuvieron una buena semana. Especialmente que tuvieron la conferencia de Estaca. 

So first yes I am doing a lot better. Nothing happened at all the next day. Just started working again like normal. Elder Purser was in the MTC at the same time as me and the McAllen mission. But he wasn´t in my zone there. But we still knew each other. But Claudia and her family are doing a lot better. A bunch of them came to church again yesterday. It was great. 

My super good week!

Monday we worked like normal. We had a good start to the week. Taught five lessons, received a couple referrals and contacted them. We ended the night at about 12 or so preparing all of our stuff to go to Santiago in the morning for Zone Conference. We had to be up at 4 am and leave the apartment at 5 am to get to the bus. 

Tuesday we woke up late. We didnt hear the alarm or anything. We were suppose be up at 4 but we woke up at 7. We completely missed the bus and had no way to get to Santiago. We called a couple people to see if they would be able to take us there. Nobody was answering. So our last option was a Remis which is a taxi. We hurried and got prepared and called a Remis to take us. We had to be in Santiago by 12 o´clock. The Remis came and got us and we were off to Santiago. The bad part is that it costs a lot to take a Remis there. It was $500 pesos. Which is about $80 or $90 dollars. A lot of money :( 
But the conferencia was super super great. It was pretty much all about "acelerar la obra", "espíritu de urgencia". Accelerating the work, a spirit of urgency. It was super great. What the lord expects of us is to talk with more people every day. Doing a lot more contacting with people that we see in the streets and asking every single person for referrals, those that they know that we can visit. It was so great.

Wednesday we returned to our area and started working. We had a great day. We had a lot of excitement to be able to apply the things that we had learned in the conference. We had 9 lessons that day and received about 10 referrals. For lunch that day we had cow tongue. I dont remember what the dish was called but it was cooked with vinegar, oil, and it had carrots and a couple other things with it. It was all right. Not like tacos with tongue which are super super good. 

Thursday we had our weekly planning all day and in the afternoon we worked. I heard a couple American songs that were oldies. It was interesting to hear them. I dont know if the guy knew English and just liked the songs or not. I am pretty sure that he does know English. That night we talked a little bit more with the daughter of Debora about baptism. She is 10 years old, and super awesome. She will be getting baptized Saturday. Well she wasnt able to come to church yesterday. But we have to talk with President Levrino because she can still get baptized. Possibly two other people from the family. 

Friday we walked a ton. Almost everything failed. All of our lessons. But we were able to contact a lot. We received 11 referrals that day.

Saturday we also walked a ton but we were able to have a little more success than Friday. We also received 11 referrals again and contacted a lot. We were walking down a street in some fields and we saw a super super big pig. I took a couple pictures of it. It was really tall. It came up to my waist. Which is pretty much the [waist] height of Andrew and dad also. HUGE. The biggest pig that I had ever seen in my life.

Sunday not a lot happened. We had a couple lessons in the morning and had church in the afternoon. Seven investigators came to church. It was really good. We had a good number of people in total at church including Claudia and a number of people from her family. 

We ended the week with 31 lessons which is the most I have had in a week. We had 44 referrals. We found a lot of new investigators. And we are going to work harder this last week of the transfer. 

Transfers are on the 24th and I will most likely be changing areas. I will let you all know where I will be. I have six months here in Frias. Time to say bye...

But thats all to my great week. I am excited to start another and a new transfer. 

Also on the 24th. I complete 11 months. Wow. 

I love you all and hope you have a super week also. Besos :D

Les amo mucho! Chao!

Su hijo, 

Elder Dawson

Week 22 - Frias

Monday, March 10, 2014

Buenas Tardes! 

Como estan? Estoy feliz que tuvieron una buena semana! 

Its interesting to hear about all of the changes that have been happening back home. It sounds like there are a ton of church activity going on. It will be interesting to see how the ward is when I return. 

So yes we have been able to go and visit with Claudia more. She is doing a lot better. Still a little bit sad but she is doing a lot better. We are working with them a lot. She is a super great person. 

I have zone conference tomorrow. Usually when we have district meetings it is every two weeks but sometimes we aren´t able to do it because we will be doing other things or its not worth the trip of 3 hours there and 3 hours back. But we usually try to do it when we can. I dont know anything about the mission. I am at the very last area. Three hours away from anyone. I will learn a whole lot more when I go to a different area. 

Alright, so here is my week!

Monday we started out not to well. We weren´t able to really get anything done. We walked a lot. 

Tuesday we were able to do a little bit. We had only two lessons the whole day but we were able to find five new people to teach. For lunch we ate with the Ballespín family. We had steaks and pig. Just slabs of meat, with a salad and bread. The pig was super good! Then that night at eight we had to travel to Santiago because my companion was going to travel to Salta again. When we arrived we got a call from the secretary that he won´t need to go because they lost one of his papers and it will just be a waste of time. So we stayed that night with our district leader Elder Santa Maria and Elder Purser who is from my group. He was also with me in the other mission [Texas McAllen]. 

Wednesday we arrived back in our area at three in the afternoon. We have a good day of working. We were able to have a number of lessons with some people, we received some referrals, found a couple others to teach. It was a good day.

Thursday was alright. We did weekly planning all day and for lunch we ate hotdogs with guacamolé with Pepsi! Yum Yum!

Friday we worked a ton! Had some really good lessons. We received a bunch of referrals and contacted all of them. We found some new investigators. We set a couple baptismal dates, and we had some LARC [less active recent convert] lessons. It was a great day.

Saturday! Woohoo! Baptism of Debora Moya! She is also the sister of Claudia. But she got baptized and she was excited for it. Some of her family members came for her baptismal service. It was really great.  

Sunday was interesting. So it got pretty hot yesterday and in the morning I started to feel a little sick. My stomach hurt but it wasn´t bad. I ate KiPi (thats not how it is spelled but that would be how its pronounced) and it was really good. Then in the afternoon we worked and went around to visit a couple people before church at six. We contacted a person and later we left and were walking down the street. I walked to the side of the street and threw up three times. Once we went out to work I felt bad. At church afterwards I threw up three more times. My companion said I looked completely yellow. During church a storm came through super fast. It didnt rain but there was a ton of lightning. That also a reason for why a bunch of people didnt come to church. We only have two investigators there and also Debora was confirmed which was good. But in the night I felt a lot better. 

And right now I am doing fine. I dont have any problems. Just need to make sure that I keep drinking enough water.

Well I will talk to you all next week. Tengan una buena semana! Les amo mucho! Chao!

Elder Dawson

Week 21 - Frias

Monday, March 3, 2014

Buena Tardes! Como andan? [Not sure, but we think he means "How's it going?"]

So its been raining on and off this past week. But yes I have been using my boots and umbrella and jacket. Sometime the water rises and my shoes get soaked including the boots but we have a heater in the apartment to dry them. The person that was going to be baptized is Debora. She didnt get baptized on Saturday because she had to work and had a bad family situation. But she will be baptized this Saturday for sure. But no I havent gotten sick or anything. 

So now I will tell you of my week. It was a good week but turned bad at the end. 

On Monday it rained off and on all day. We had a good start to the week. Had a couple lessons and one was with Debora that was going to be baptized.

Tuesday it rained all day long without stopping for even 10 seconds. So we went out in boots, umbrellas, and everything. It got pretty cold too. We worked a lot and later bought facturas. The lady also gifted us a cake to eat! We were so happy. We had almost no lessons because of all the rain. We went back to Deboras house, shared a scripture and watched a church movie with them and then ended the day. 

Wednesday it was cold outside so we had our sweaters. We received a ton of referrals and were contacting a lot of people. We found a good number of investigators also. 

Thursday, I dont think much happened because I didnt write anything down. I know that we did weekly planning that day and for lunch we ate hot dogs and we made guacamole! Super good!

Friday the main thing was that we had a lesson, good lesson with the Familia Zingales. They are doing good. We learned a lot more of their needs and what they need in order to progress to be baptized. Also we were walking down the road and you couldnt guess what we saw! We saw a Chevrolet Camaro! Holy smokes it was sick! White, with dark windows and wheels! It wasnt a basic Camaro, it was a super good one! Its like the first super nice car I have seen here. Very rare, and you can only have it if youve got $$$. 

Saturday is where things got bad. We got done eating lunch, and we started doing our afternoon studies. We got a call that the son of Claudia Moya, my recent convert, had died. During the entire day everyone in the city was talking about it. That night all of the family was in the grandmas house. We passed by for a while and we talked with them. 

Sunday morning. It rained heavily all morning. The family of Claudia called us and asked us to come by and say a prayer. We went by and there were a ton of people in the house. Erik, is the sons name that died. His body was there. They wanted us to say a prayer before they all went to the cemetery. We said the prayer, and everyone was crying super hard. I cried because I had known this kid for almost six months. He was 19 years old and I saw him almost three times a week. But afterwards they all went to the cemetery. They had to wait to bury him because his grave was full of water. 

Church came around. None of the family was there. We had three investigators there. But it was a good testimony meeting. 

I am excited to start a new week and to work hard and to help all of Gods children come unto Christ!

Aside from all that, I hope that you all have a good week! I love you tons!

Elder Dawson

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.]