Week 11 - Salta

Monday, March 30, 2015

I dont know what to do... I cant believe that its my last week in the mission. I am happy and sad. I will get to see all of you next week but it will be a long time before I get to see some of the people here that I have gotten to know. 

Sunday was good. We are really exciting the members to work with us. They are great. We got a new ward mission leader that is also going to blow the ward out of the waters with success. Things are going to change here for good. 

I am really excited to watch general conference. I will be taking a lot of pictures with people and saying goodbye!

I am excited to see Allison and all of the family. I am excited to give mom a great big hug! 

Johnny is going to the same mission as my mini missionary from Tucuman. He will surely see him! They will get to know each other. 

I want to eat a Chick-fil-a chicken egg and cheese bagel meal with waffle fries! <3 oh how I miss Chick-fil-a!

Thanks for the pics. Sean is different.....and Johnny...jajaja

I will probably send a little tiny message next Monday! If not! I love you all and I am really excited to see you!

I am counting down now!!! woohooo jajaja ;)

Nos estamos viendo la proxima semana!

PS. I am looking forward to the customs people telling me "Welcome Home" :D jajajjaj

Elder Dawson

Week 10 - Salta

Monday, March 23, 2015

My week was good. Sunday was good too. We had stake conference. We had the visit of Elder Romeu of the seventy. 

So yeah its raining. I dont like it...but we are the ones that have to look for the apartment. We arent finding anything. 

I literally shouted when I saw that Bro. Holderness is the new stake president! I bet that dad is the new bishop! 

I am stoked to get home just to see how much everything has changed. Im a little nervous because Allison leaves this week and now its my turn.

We will see. I got to go. I got a surprise. jaja Its my last agenda. 

;) But yes I got the informacion for the flights. Its going to be a long trip.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you tons!!!!!

Elder Dawson

Week 9 - Salta

Monday, March 16, 2015

I had a good week. We are working a ton. We are finding a lot of people. We are working for a baptism for the 28th for a guy named Facundo. He is cool and he is excited. 

We are still looking for an apartment. We dont have any luck in finding one. The other two elders also go to our ward. Elder Evans is from Canada and Elder Sellman is from Bolivia. 

You have got to send me a picture of Sean going to Prom! Weird. 

Yes it has been raining a good bit here. I usually do wear my boots when it rains a lot. I still have clothes. But I will be leaving almost all of it here because its all old. My shirts are not yellow yellow but there are not the color of a new shirt. jaja  

I have no idea what my flight is from Salta to BA [Buenos Aires]. All the missionaries go on the same plane to BA and then to their homes. I am pretty sure that normally they are there in the airport here at Salta at about 9 am on Tuesday.

I love you lots! We are almost there :D  jajaja nos vemos pronto!

Elder Dawson

Week 8 - Salta

March 9, 2015

I had a good week I am working hard with my comp. We are finding good investigators and we are focusing on setting baptismal dates so that they can get baptized. 

Its been raining a lot here. We are looking for a new apartment because when it rains outside it also rains inside of the apartment. A lot of water falls in quite a few places inside of the apartment. 

I will send you a picture of my comp. He is my first comp that is taller than me. 

I am stoked for Andrew. I miss the temple so much! I want to go! 

Do you guys have whats up on your phones? Everybody here uses it. It seems cool. I hope that I will be able to use it on my iphone 6 when I get home;) [Ha, Ha, very funny!]

I will send you some pictures now. The flowers are for mom :)

Week 7 - Salta

March 2, 2015

Hola Hola Hola!

Buenas Tardes mama y papa! Last week was transfers and I wasn´t able to write for that reason. I got a new comp for my last transfer in the mission. So he will be killing me. His name is Elder Harris. He is from St. George [Utah]. He has 18 years. He is super great. He almost has 6 months in the mission. Its his second area and I am his third comp. He doesnt have fear of anything! I love it. I think he works harder than I did when I had his time in the mission. jaja He is helping me a lot so that I dont get really trunky! It´s a blessing!

We had a good week. We worked hard! We had a church attendance of 143 people on Sunday. The most I have ever seen here! 

I am super super super super super super super super super super super super excited for Andrew and Sara! I am seriously speechless for them! I am especially happy that I will be able to see them go off. But I am not happy that he leaves the 10th of June. That means that he will be taking away from my birthday! jajaj :D Its the best that he will be leaving to serve a great mission. In the second best mission in the world! There is nothing he can do about it now! He got seconds! jaja

So I wrote a letter for you guys! I was going to send it last week but I wasn´t able to write!  But now you have it! 

I will send a couple other pictures!

I love you lots! Cuídense! No se pongan locos! :D [See picture below . . . He knows his mom gets mad when he does not wear sunscreen, we we think that is why he said this!].

Nos vemos!

Elder Alec Dawson

Alec's previous companion

Empanadas Alec made!

Asado! the Argentine bbq

Sunburn - Now imagine what
 his face & neck looked like! 

Missionary Board in mission office

Release date: 4/7/15!

Week 6 - Salta

[Alec did not send an email this week. We relayed the news in our email to him about Andrew's and Sara's mission calls (which they opened yesterday) and were hoping to get his response. Sara opened Andrew's letter and read to him and Andrew opened Sara's letter and read to her. Andrew is called to the Angola Luanda Mission speaking Portuguese and Sara is called to Peru Lima Central Mission speaking Spanish. They both leave in June, but Andrew goes to the Provo MTC (10th) and Sara will go directly to Peru (30th). We are all so excited for these two cousins to join the other cousins in the field! We'll just have to wait to see what Alec says next week!]

Week 5 - Salta

Monday, February 16, 2015

Yeah sorry that I didnt get to write you last week. I dont remember what I did jaja. I think that I went to the Hill San Bernardo again. But last week was interesting. I couldnt sleep at all for almost the whole week and I also got sick on Saturday. Out of nowhere I got sick and my temperature went up almost to 102 degrees. But now I am good.

This week I had my first dream about returning home. I was walking around with Justin Hall and then I ran into you guys and we were all taking pictures cause I had just gotten home. 

Its weird because in the next transfer is my last. I feel like I know that I will just be going to a new area and continuing my mission buy I also know that I am coming home. 

Today we did an asado. it’s basically a barbeque and we did it with 10 missionaries. We had about 10 or 15 lbs of meat. A ton of meat. I am super burnt. We played a lot of soccer. 

We are having to drop some of the investigators because they dont come to church. We have to work hard to find the people that are willing to go to church at least. 

Thats cool that Andrew is going to SC. He will have a good time there working. I am excited for him to receive his call. 

This is seriously the best thing that I have done and I love it. 

I will see you next week. Promise. jaja

Elder Dawson

Week 4 - Salta

[There was no email from Alec this week. We assume he probably went somewhere fun on his P/day and didn't have time to send anything.]

Week 3 - Salta

Monday, February 02, 2015

My apartment is about a 5 minute walk away from the grocery store. Its a really big place. Its called Libertad. It even sells Nutella! What?? But I dont buy it because its expensive. I buy milk and mate cocido. Super good. You will all try it. Cereal. I try to go cheap to save money. I dont need to buy water. 

We have a young couple that is living together. Federico y Rocio. They are great. They are reading and accept everything. That have prayed and feel good. They just need to go to church. They are not sure about marriage because he is leaving to do some military school on the 24th of Febrero and apparently they ask that you arent married. But we had a super good lesson with them about marriage and temples. So we will see what happens this week. 

Technically its already 22 months according to my leaving date. Its weird how fast that its gone by. 

Thanks for the letters. [We scanned and attached the letters everyone wrote to Alec while at the beach in Alabama after Christmas.] They are super great. How did you like the mountain dew code red story from Uncle Steven? His letter made me laugh super hard.

A cake that I made this week. I cant download the other picture. Sorry. 

Week 2 - Salta

Monday, January 26, 2015

My week was good. I am getting to like my area more every day. Especially Salta!

We are 6 in the district. I dont know how to explain how big my area is. I am about 20-30 minutes away from the mission home in bus. I really like Salta because every morning it is cool weather. It reminds me a lot of how Kamas is in the morning. Tucuman and Santiago are hot all day. Jujuy was really cold. I was there for the winter. And Salta gets hot to but its cool in the mornings. We still play soccer on pdays. Not on all of them but often. 

We have some cool investigators. We are trying to focus on finding because we didnt have that many when I got here. I am replacing a missionary that ended the mission here in this area. The ward is big. It has about 120 people every week. Its got full functioning organizations. On Sunday I gave a talk. I didnt know I was going to give a talk. I was putting something in my bag after the sacrament and they announced who was going to talk and I heard my name. I thought "what? Did he just say that I was going to speak? On what topic?" I grabbed my BoM and walked to the pulpit and asked him again just to make sure what I heard was right. Then just started talking. I remember talking about the destruction of the city of Ammoniah in Alma and thats all. Afterwards the members said it was a really good talk. I just got up and had no idea of what to talk about. I got caught off guard. I usually know like 5 minutes before of something but this time nothing.

I am super excited for Andrew. 

I cant send pictures again. But I will do it next week. 

I love and miss you all! 

Nos vemos la próxima semana!

Elder Dawson

Week 1 - Salta

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

So everything is good with my companion and I. Our area is big. A bus ride is 2.50 pesos. But we travel 4 times at least. Its cool to be in Salta. Our apartment is part of an apartment complex. They are all apartments. It has a washer and dryer. My bed is good. Its the best that I have had so far in the mission. We have a bathroom and a shower. We have to take two buses to get to church. Its about 15 minutes in bus. On a good day. I like being a district leader because it helps me to work and trying to serve the best I can the other missionaries. 

I am super stoked for Andrew. I hope he leaves a week after I get back. jajaI 

I gotta go. I will write and send some pictures next week. I love you all!

Elder Dawson

Week 18 - Tucuman (TRANSFER TO SALTA!)

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

I am doing pretty good. I got transferred yesterday and so that it why I wasnt able to write you.  I am now in Salta Capital. Zone Salta and my area is called Independencia 1. I live outside of my area and then we have to take the bus every time we go somewhere weather we come or go. There are four of us in the apartment. Elder Evans is from Canada and is going to train a new missionary. My comp is Elder Romer. He is from Texas. It is super weird because he is 18. His birthday is also June 9th. He is only one month older than Andrew...He left like a week or two weeks after his birthday and now has almost 7 months in the mission. The apartment is bigger than what we had in Tucuman but its still kind of small. 

I gave my suitcase away to a kid named Carlos. He just got his wisdom teeth taken out last week. He is just about to send in his mission papers. He has a sister that is in Mexico on her mission. She gets home in June. In Santiago a kid left on his mission to Mexico last June. I left Santiago the last week of March. In Jujuy a kid is going to Bahia Blanca. its also in Argentina. A girl got back from the Mendoza Argentina mission a couple others were preparing to leave. In Tucuman well I told you about them first. My mini missionary is now serving his real mission in Brazil. He left in November. 

I got the two letters and the package on Friday. The package was in good condition. I was super happy to get starbursts and skittle and the Nutella. I shared with some people and we have already eaten the skittles and the Nutella. I am saving the starbursts. 

How are Andrews papers going? Have you already sent them? 

I am super stoked that Nate is home. Tell him hey for me.

Lately we have gone over a lot in the mission and I have taught a lot about our attitudes. It’s always great to have a good attitude and to keep working despite of the challenges because nothing that happens to us should matter. Our attitude is to keep going and doing the best that we can trusting that God will show us the way and what to do.

I am still the district leader. Its a district of elders now. I have the zone leaders too. Its hard but its fun and I love it

I am not able to send pictures now but I will do it next week. Thanks for being the best family in the world. I love you all!

Nos vemos la proxima semana. 

Elder Dawson

Week 17 - Tucuman

Monday, January 5, 2015

I am glad that you had a great time at the beach! I would have loved to be there with you! I miss the family reunions. 

We are only 4 in the apartment. Elder Dalsing is from Heber City and Elder Rodriguez is from Peru. Elder Rodrigues goes home in a week and Elder Dalsing has almost 6 months in the mission. We put the camera on a wall to take the picture. 

I havent given away the suit case yet. This week I have to organize everything good to do it. We have transfers this coming Monday and I am pretty sure I will be going. 

I received a package. I will be getting it on Friday. I will probably be getting some letters too. I will let you know on Monday or whenever I write you again. 

I thought that uncle Jim died before Aunt Latrese! I am sorry. I loved him a lot. I remember going to his house! I remember Ross. Thats cool that he and Geoff are both in the mission field. [My Uncle Jim passed away on January 1. His wife, Latrese, died a few years back. He is the youngest of 12 children, and the brother to my dad (Alec's grandpa). There is still one sister living].

Its been a slow week with the new years stuff. Yes the parties, music and the fireworks are crazier for new years! It was good though! 

Here are some pictures.