Alright family what's up!
To start it off, I'm still alive which is good. I'm also a lot more emotionally stable this week, so that is also good. As far as things that happened this week. WE WORKED OUR BUTTS OFF. It has never been harder in my entire life to get out of bed, but our hard work payed off. This week, Elder Wilhelm and I taught 20 lessons (the standard of excellence) and had 150 contacts (50 more than the standard of excellence, as well as by far the most that Wilhelm has had in a week on his mission). We also found 19 new investigators, and set another fecha. The numbers are great because they help me recognize that I'm working hard. I'm also focused on helping the people too, because we teach people not lessons.
Anyways, our previous fecha, Luis, can only meet on weekends, and he went to Rio Grande to look for work, so we didn't see him. That's the problem with people around here: 1) They're all super flaky. We've got a brand new army of investigators that want to meet with us, but half the time they don't answer the door, even if they're home (that's an Argentine thing... uggg) and 2) They all want to talk about religion, but most of them believe that they'll be saved in their sins (dang evangelios) so they're all un-invested or lazy. The goal is to just be patient, work with peoples schedules, and be consistent with visiting them. I really have faith though that some of these people are gonna progress, so we're gonna keep hitting it.
As for food this week, I ate a ton of empanadas which were super good. We also had a vianda (take out lunch) that was pollo with alfredo which was incredible. The two main families that feed us are the Zeniquels and the Vidals. Pretty good people, really grateful for the food. Elder Wilhelm also made some fried chicken that was bomb this week. There's a famous panaderia (bakery) in Tolhuin, so I bought some bread from there for sandwiches. So if I'm not eating with members, it's usually a sandwich, some cereal, or some rice with hamburger patty (even though we ran out of hamburger yesterday). So yeah, livin' the life out here. We did get one less active to church which was good, but no investigators. So with the two guys that came up from Ushuaia, there were 15 people at church (including us).
Tell Nikki I say happy birthday (even though I'm gonna send her an email) and wish Sofia good luck on that Spanish project cause it sucks.
Know that I love you guys, and pray for you guys every day. Thanks soooo much for your prayers! Oh and by the way, read the talk The Fourth Missionary. Really good.
I loooooooooooove you guys, so glad I get spend eternity with a family like the one I have!
- Elder Jimenez
I asked Alex for more info on the church and members in Tolhuin...
It's a weird mix. The Vidal's are made up of Hermana Vidal and her kids, her husband is living in Buenos Aires. The Zeniquel's have 3 kids, but one of them just moved in with her boyfriend in Salta, and the other two don't come. There's the Amarillas, who don't bring their kids, Hermano Cruz, who hates the group leader haha, Hermano Sieles, the group leader (wait... what's a group leader? does he mean Branch President?) from Rio Grande, and his wife (they drive an hour and a half to go to church down here). Also, we had Dora Jara, one of the less actives, who came the other day, and then there were two guys from Ushuaia who are part of our stake. All in all, if you take out the non-locals, there were like 9 people from Tolhuin. Some old. Some kids. No young men. So yeah, that's what were working with haha!
So do you have a Branch President?
Nah we don't have a branch here. There is no one that lives in Tolhuin that would be a good Branch President, Hermano Sieles is from Rio Grande which is an hour and a half away. We are technically part of one of the Rio Grande branches (so I guess he is in the Tolhuin Group of the church!). That's one of the huge problems the church is having here. The structure is horrible because there is no local priesthood leadership, so it's a struggle. That also means that we don't have a ward mission leader, or ward council, so essentially, me and Elder Wilhelm have to keep tabs on every member and less active and do all the visits according to our own knowledge which is a total struggle.
And do you have an Area Book to keep track of everyone? Where do you meet? And where do you baptize people?
The Area book is a mess, so were trying to sort it out. We meet in a rental building next to my pension, so that's nice. As for a baptismal font, we build it and fill it up for each baptism haha.
Yep, Elder Wilhelm is really awesome!
Anyways, I need to go. Mom, I LOVE YOU. So lucky to eternally have the best mom ever. If you guys need want anything that I can give, let me know. I love love looooove you! Tell Sofia that I love her. And Nik and Kevin and Dad and Abuela. And you. I love you. I'm gonna work hard this week!
- Elder Jimenez, ALEX
Finally... in his letter to Jose:
Sounds like you're having an absolute blast back home. You can probably sympathize with me, cause I'm pretty sure were both at the same hard work party right now, or something like that. Anyways, thanks for the sports update! I'm surprised the the Thunder are doing so well... I hope that Cleveland can finally get their title... Thanks so much for the tips, I wrote down Zions Camp, so I'll look at that. I'm also gonna make sure to be completely unapologetic, so well see how that goes. Dad, I love you. Thanks for the good example that you always set for me. I think about you all the time! I'm learning the things here that I think you'd want me to learn. I miss you!
- Elder Jimenez
P.S. I thought I'd let you know, tell Abuela and the fam too, that Abuelo is doing good :)
Here"s some pics by the way:
The sky this morning.
A family of dogs out by the church a couple days ago. BTW, I hate dogs. Hate em. Those ones were cute, but still, if they died I wouldn't cry haha.
And, last but not least... Alex :)
check out those shoes...
he's only got about a week on them in the field and they are looking well used!
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