Sad to be in the office SO early!!!
Elder Taylor gave me a mate (bien amargo eh!)
and then I was happy, then MATE SWAG!
Sounds like you guys are doing good on the homefront! I'm glad that Mom is loving her job, and Sofia got a 29! You've got to come to BYU with me now!
On this side, it's pretty good as well. I had a fun dream last night where I talked in Spanish with all my high school friends, it was super weird, but oh well haha!
This week was super crazy! As always, it's all a bit of a blur, but I'll try to put it together. Tuesday, we flew to Buenos Aires. President didn't want to leave the airport, so we just stayed in the airport, making calls, until the flight to Ushuaia. On the flight to Buenos Aires, I'm pretty sure I was next to Elder Popa (I literally can't remember XD) What I do remember though is that I sat next to a girl named Romina on the way to Ushuaia. She was really nice, from Salta, and was going to visit her brother. She was the typical Argentine, not interested in the gospel, but I still found a ton of chances to slip things about the gospel into the conversation. We ended up talking our way through the whole 3 hour flight! It was cool :)
When we got to Ushuaia, we ate dinner with some members that Elder Popa knows (to celebrate his birthday, which was the 17th) The dad was from the Dominican Republic, so I enjoyed the Caribbean accent. We ate fried chicken. It was awesome! We stayed the night with the Lideres de Zona, and on Wednesday, we spent 3/4 of the day doing interviews, then the other 1/4 working on the traslados (transfers). We worked on traslados (transfers) in the hotel of President. It's called Arakur, and it was the most cheto (expensive) hotel that I have seen in my entire life! He gets a huge deal there because he's a frequent guest, and they consider him to be an important contact. Look up fotos!
President Salerno's Arakur Hotel in Ushuaia
On Friday, we flew back to Buenos Aires, accompanied by Elder Campopiano, who's finishing his mission tomorrow. I sat next to Rodrigo from Buenos Aires, and had a very deep conversation about the gospel with him. The questions that the guy was asking were awesome! We talked about everything from Setentas (Seventies) to Eternal Marriage! It was fun, and I invited to watch general conference.
In Buenos Aires, we had a 6 hour layover, and you better believe that we hit the town! We took a taxi to a shopping center where we ate MCDONALDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The best part is that when I ordered the McFlurrys, I found out that the girl working there was a menos activo, so I also invited her to watch General Conference :) After eating, we walked to a botanical garden and w'ere blown away by how green it was. I had seriously forgotten what plants looked like and I didn't even notice XD It was really pretty! Don't get mad, but I might not have taken many fotos... like any... But maybe I did. I currently don't have my camera, because I was tragically torn away from my home this morning, but I'll check later today. Overall, the trip to Buenos Aires was fun though! The flight back to Comodoro was tranqy, I sat next to 2 guys that didn't want anything, so that was fun.
On Saturday, I passed through one of the craziest days of my entire mission. In the afternoon, we did some service for the city by cleaning up a part of the beach. While we we're cleaning, 2 ladies passed by, and offered to help (good citizens do exist in Argentina! BIEN ALLI!) They were really nice, and we invited them to come to the baptism that was going to happen after the service project. It was hilarious because Elder Richards was cleaning with me, and by chance he ended up picking up like 5 diapers! Every time he grabbed one and noticed what it was, he dry heaved, and I cried laughing!
After the service project, we assisted the double baptism of Damian, an investigator of the elders that live with us, and Astor, Daniel's son, (yes, THAT Daniel). It was a really nice bautismo, the elder that baptized Astor did a great job ;) 1 Wohtasik down, 3 to go.
Astor asked me to baptize him :)
After that, we had some last minute changes to make in the traslados (transfers), but we couldn't set them in stone because President was in Buenos Aires, and his nieto (grandson), Noah, had come to visit him, so there was a 0% chance to get in a good phone call. Then, President was on his flight, so we couldn't call. At 9:15 when he was supposed to arrive, we had all 18 lideres de zona (Zone Leaders) waiting in ciberes (internet cafes) and freaking out, and the plane was ATRASADO! (DELAYED!) I was sweating bullets, Elder Popa had a "que se manejen los lideres de zona!" actitud ("let the zone leaders wait" attitude), and when President finally got in at 9:45pm, he didn't want to know anything. When we finally started talking about the last changes in the car, he couldn't come to a solid feeling, so we ended up dropping off Hermana Salerno in casa (at home) (because even though we were in a time emergency, she was not going to be stressed for even 1 more minute!) and then we booked it to the office. When President got there, the oficinistas (office elders) had the transfer board waiting, and President took a seat at the computer. That was when the magic started, We ended up making a lot more changes than we had thought we would make, but the ideas just started coming. The best part was right at the finish, President in 10 seconds had direct revelation, made like 5 clutch changes, and we finally had it! He took a good look at it, then got up form the chair, and said "Don't call me until at least 10 tomorrow. I slammed into the chair, worked out any other technical errors that remained, and then went into commander mode. We ended up having to do announce the traslados (transfers) by phone from the office, because it was already 10:15 when we finally finished, so I dished out a couple zones to each oficinista (office elder), and we got to calling. It was fun to get to announce the changes even though I'm not an LZ so I wasn't too mad, just super stressed. It was fun though, especially because we changed over half the mission, so there was a lot to announce. We ended up getting to bed at 12:15am, which was crazy, but I was just happy to have finished all the craziness.
Sunday was tranqy, and this morning was this morning. So yeah, fun week :) I know that the Lord rewards the righteous, even in the smallest of ways. I think the best part of the week, among all the craziness, was a spirit filled inventario entre compañeros (companionship inventory) that I had with Elder Popa yesterday. It was unplanned, and ended up happening right after we decided to be diligent, and get out and work a bit in the field when they cut the power yesterday. It built my testimony that the Lord really is watching, and He's waiting eagerly to bless us as we exercise our agency for good.
FAMILY! I'm so grateful to have been born a Jimenez! We might be normal folk, but I feel like I was born through a royal lineage :) You guys, Sofia and Nikki and Kevin included, are all role models for me. KEEP AT IT!
MOM AND DAD! Thanks for being two model parents. I see so many people here in Argentina that choose to live in dishonorable ways, so I feel very blessed to have two smart, righteous parents. I can definitely relate to Nefi 1:1 :)
I LOVE YOU GUYS! Have a good one :)
- Elder Jimenez
And to Jose...
Hey Dad :)
It was a pretty boring week in sports then? Who did the Pats lose to? You didn't tell me anything about Puerto Rico, but I heard that it got a direct from one of the hurricanes (Maria?) so that was sad...
Thanks for the advice on the work side. After a full transfer (6 weeks), I feel like I'm getting a feeling of how things are going to be. You know that I love to be working in my area, but this mission is huge, and although I want to, it's going to be very hard to find time.
On top of that, President puts more importance into making a lot of calls than going out in divisions, so it's going to be interesting. But I'm going to try and get out a bit in weeks 2 and 3 of the transfer. But, it's like you said, I've been called to a different calling for now, so I'll magnify it.
I'm also really happy because I think with her ACT score she'll si o si (certainly) be able to get into BYU :D I really want to go to freshman year with her...
Aaaaaaaaanyways, times flying on my end. I miss you guys too, but the end of the tunnel is already in sight, so I'm going to cherish the time I have.
Elder Popa told me this morning "Anoche, cuando estabamos hablando, y usted estaba hablandome, hubo un momento cuando usted dijo algo, e hizo un gesto, y vi a su padre en vez de usted. Ahi pense, ahhhh, realmente es el hijo de su padre...´" ("Last night when we were talking, and you were talking to me, there was a moment when you said something, and made a gesture, and I saw your dad instead of you. Then, I thought, ahhhh, he really is his father's son...") It made me feel really good, because he saw you in me, and that's what I'm trying to become in my life.
I LOVE YOU! - Elder Jimenez
No comments:
Post a Comment