Week 10 - Jujuy

June 2, 2014

Hey!

So the weather here is changing. It is getting colder and cloudy. They say that it actually rains more in the summer than the winter. But they say that they usually get a little snow here during the winter. We dont have snow or anything yet. It hasnt rained for a couple weeks either. 

Carolina was actually baptized when she was 8 years old. She just recently found out that her papers for the church got lost and so she had to get baptized again. But yeah she is pretty cool. I havent taught her that many times actually. Her husband is a recent convert and he was baptized within the last two years. 

Wow, I didnt know that Sonya got married again. Tell Sonya hey and I miss her and love her. 

So I had a pretty good week. I am trying to step up my game even more to do better. I want to have a lot of success and we have been given lots of ways do it with the Lords help. One ways is just making sure that i talk to more and more people. Trying to help them the best I can to bring them even closer unto Christ. 

This week we have made buttermilk syrup twice, three German pancakes, and buttermilk pancakes on Sunday (somwhere around 10 pancakes each and there are four of us). We are all so in love right now. 

A funny moment we had this week was me and my comp were in a lesson on Thursday with a recent convert. I was super tired and was falling asleep. He and my comp were talking about the world and how bad things were getting. Then I woke up from a little sleeping phase and I added in "yes, that is why we need the priesthood. It is really important. We wouldnt be able to use it to baptize and help the church without it just like my companion said". After that they were just laughing at me because it made no sense. 

I am excited to start a new week. The Lord expects much of me and I want to be able to do even better than what i have been doing. I want to become better in every way. 

Alright, I will send pictures!

I love you guys a lot and hope that you have a great week!

My birthday comes up this next coming week! 21 woohooo!

Bye,

Elder Dawson

Week 9 - Jujuy

May 26, 2014

Buenas Dias!

Thanks for sending me all of the recipes. All of us are having a lot of fun trying to make some new stuff when we are in the apartment. 

So we had a pretty good week. We had zone conference. Our last one with President Levrino. He will be leaving at the end of June. On June 30th the new president takes over. It was a great conference that we had with them. He will be missed greatly. I am excited to have a new president. It will be interesting. I learned a lot about carrying out what the lord has commanded us to do. A lot about doing my part to help all the people around me come closer to god. We read a lot in D&C 11 which was a really good chapter. It talks a lot about what the lord has called me to do. 

I would send pics but the internet place is full and I cant change computers because mine doesnt have a USB thing. But I will do it next week. I promise. 

2 days ago I hit 13 months in the mission. Wow, I  feel like I just told you last week that I am at a year. I know it will go by fast. 

We had a baptism yesterday. There was a lot of people there. It was for Carolina Guevara. She is awesome. She is also going to be called as a 2nd counselor in the Relief Society. 

Can you tell the Dortons hello. I wish them the best. 

I have to run… I will see you later. I love you all so much! Have a great week. 

Elder Dawson

Week 8 - Jujuy

May 19, 2014

Buenas Tardes

Como andan? Que bueno que tuvieron una semana muy buena. 

Gracias por las recetas.

I am super happy that Andrew was able to go and get his [patriarchal] blessing. That is super great. I just hope he reads it often and remembers the promises that the Lord makes to him as he follows the commandments and his baptismal covenants. 

I cannot think at all right now. I have no idea why but I cant think straight. So I dont have much to say. 

I went to Salta this week to end the stuff for my Argentina ID. We just stood around waiting to sign one paper for about 6 hours. I was tired. I cant remember anything else from this week.

So now I will try to get some pictures sent.

So that is about all I have for now.

Espero que tengan una buena semana y que todo pasa bien. Les quiero mucho! Hasta luego!

Elder Dawson

Week 7 - Jujuy - Mother's Day Skype

[June 23 - We are over a month behind on posting Alec's letters . . . so we will go back to May when we were able to skype with him on Mother's Day].

Sunday, May 11, 2014

It wasn't until about 5 pm when we were able to Skype with Alec. It was a really bad connection:  bad audio and jumpy, blury video.  We tried several times to get it to work, and then decided to wait about 30 minutes to try again.  We actually had two of the elders serving in our ward at our house upstairs talking with their families and thought maybe that was causing the problem, but apparently not..

Third time it worked a lot better but was only able to talk about 30 minutes right about the time he was bearing his testimony in Spanish and then the audio and video went bad again.

It was so good talking with him. He is doing well and looks good [sorry we didn't get a picture while we were talking].  He seems more confident than he did in December.  His Spanish seems better . . . as he would be talking in English and then all of a sudden be talking in Spanish.

Week 6 - Jujuy

Monday, May 5, 2014

So I will make this email short because I dont have a lot of time and I will be able to talk to you next week on Sunday.

It sounds super great that there is a lot of stuff happening at home. I am excited to go back and see how much things have changed. 

All of the Elders helped with the cookies. We cooked all day. [See last week's email . . . they made 360 cookies!]

So yeah that will probably be all for this week. 

Today was transfers. I am staying in Jujuy.

But I want to ask you for a recipe for corndogs.

I will probably call on Sunday after 3 [pm]. I am not sure on an exact time…3 [pm] your time that is. But gotta go. I love you all so much. 

Tell everybody Happy Mothers Day!

Elder Dawson

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