Week 21 - JuJuy

Monday, August 25, 2014

I got my MRI, I go to get the results on Tuesday then I will have to go back to the first doctor for him to tell me everything. 

My finger is fine.[His hand was kicked last week playing soccer]. It got dislocated. Its still a little fat, and hurts if I bend it a lot but its doing good. I still play soccer. I dont think I will stop...hahah We played again against all of the Latin’s today and we won!!! We are killin it down here. I think I will be playing in the 2018 world cup in Russia! ;)

Thats cool that Andrew is a ward missionary! He better work hard to help in the work! I know that it could be hard sometimes with the schedule but everything thing that he does with his calling with help him receive many many blessings. Thats cool!

So I am just starting another week! I want to work even harder. These are probably my last two weeks in Jujuy. We have transfers on the 8th. 

Yesterday I hit how many months mom?? haha yep 16. 

I dont remember what else happened this week... SO I will send a couple pictures.

Oh its been really hot. But the temperature thing I have was exaggerating the temperature! haha can you tell me how hot it really was yesterday? [54 celcius = 129 degrees?] You will see the pictures.

Week 20 - JuJuy

Monday, August 18, 2014

So it has been a pretty hard week for me! The work has been hard. It has been difficult this last week to enter in the houses and find new investigators. But we do have a couple people that we are working with that can be baptized. One is a lady named Sara that first met the missionaries in 2010. She is doing great and set a baptismal date for herself for the 6th of September. We talked to another kid who is 19. His name is Ezekuiel. He could be a possible baptism for the 30th of this month. He is thinking about it.

So I will be getting the MRI on Friday this week. Then probably the next week I will be getting the results. I am not sure.

So last week when we talked [Skype on August 11] afterwards I went to play soccer! It was super fun! The missionaries played against all Latinos. Tres Gringos y un Chileno contra cuatro latinos. We started off beating them 3 to 0. We were amazed at ourselves because it was a miracle that we were winning against them. Then it went to 4 to 1. Then all of a sudden to 6 to 9. We were playing to 10. They finally just started kicking our butts. Then miraculously we scored three lucky goals and won the game! We were so proud of ourselves. We definitely should have lost. People here are really good at soccer. 

Today I was also playing soccer. A kid kicked my finger.....It might be broken or its just dislocated. It was bent to a 45 degree angle and then I just snapped it back in place. It made a snapping sound. Its swollen right now. But we are going to the hospital to get it checked out in a little bit.

I am really thankful for you guys and that I have you as my family. I love you all and thank you for everything you all have ever done for me! I know that our Father in Heaven loves each and every one of his children and his willing to help us with anything as well. I am really grateful that I have this opportunity to be here and to serve Him. I am thankful for His support and all the support that you have all given me. It is my dream to see Andrew, Sean, and Jared leaving on a mission and coming back two years later! I love this work, I love Christ’s Church, and I love Him!

I have pretty much written this email with 6 fingers. All the rest I have wrapped up right now! haha

Espero que todos tengan una buena semana! Andrew prepárete para la misión! 

Les amo! Besos! :)  [I hope everyone has a good week! Andrew prepare for mission!

I love you! Kisses! :)]

Elder Alec Dawson

Week 19 - JuJuy (Special Skype & Tribute to Grandma Wilde Walker)

Monday, August 11, 2014

[Alec's Grandma Walker passed away Sunday, August 10, 2014. Neil called the Mission Office in Salta to notify the mission president and have them relay the information to Alec. The mission president gave Alec permission to call us or skype.  Susan had already flown out to Utah and was staying with her brother, Dale and his wife, Cheryl.  We were blessed to be able to have a three-way skype and share this experience with him.

We certainly feel it was the Lord's tender mercy for our family to have been able to fly to Utah for vacation the end of July and be with mom (not knowing it would be our last). I wanted to include in Alec's blog a small tribute to his grandmother --- including his Aunt Wendy's blog entry, a picture that --- to our family --- describes Grandma Walker to a tee, along with her obituary.  She truly was an incredible person.  We love and miss her]. 

Week 18 - JuJuy

Monday, August 4, 2014

I am glad that that you had a good trip in Utah. What did you all do? 

So I went to the neurologist today and they did a test on me. They covered like my entire head with wires and did some sort of an electric test. I didnt feel anything. They just told me to keep my eyes closed and then to breath rapidly and then open my eyes. It lasted for about 15-20 minutes just sitting in a chair. I have to go back Friday to get the results. Then on Friday I also have to try and do a Cat scan. 

I dont remember where in Chile he [Elder Contrares] is from. He is from the southern part a little more where its colder. 

I am glad to hear that Grandma was taken care of good. I want to see her when I get back!! I hope that everything will be alright from now on. 

I had a good first week of the transfer with Elder Contreras. I want to keep working hard to have success. I hope that he will be able to learn from me and that I can learn a lot from him. He is a great missionary. He has about 9 months in the mission and I have a couple days over 8 months left. Wow! 

I am excited for this new week!

I dont have much new things to say. I am really rushed on time because all of the internet places were either closed or full and so we are in the house of a member writing. My companion needs to write now. 

Espero que todos tengan una buena semana! Mucho éxito! Disfrutan la semana! Les veo en la semana que viene! [I hope everyone has a good week! Much success! Enjoy the week! I see you next week!]

Hasta Luego!

Elder Dawson

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