AP, Zona Comodoro Norte - Week 28... Last trip to Ushuaia

Hey everybody :) 

I'm glad to hear that Madi's funeral was so beautiful! I'm grateful for the Plan of Salvation that Heavenly Father gave us! He really does love and has a plan for us! 

This week, once again, is a bit of a blur. What happens is that I've been in the office, and now in the mission in general, for a loooooong time, and the routine just makes everything mush together haha! There are a couple things that I remember though...

Earlier in the week, we flew to Buenos Aires, then flew to Ushuaia. Elder Singh couldn't come because he hadn't finished the tramites that he needed to complete to be able to travel. He snoozed and lost! Poor kid though haha! Aaaaanyways, one pretty cool thing that happened in Buenos Aires was that we traveled, for the first time, on a Tuesday. Aeroparque was FULL of missionaries coming and going from their respective missions. It was really cool to meet all of them! 

The craziest part of the day was that we were sitting in the airport McDonald's, waiting for the next flight, and I see a couple of hermanas gringas that were obviously new to the country and didn't know anything about anything, so I went to help them, and BOOM, when I get closer, there's Hermana Soper, from Herriman! I think her name is Ally Soper, she said that she knew Sofia. I recognized her as someone from Herriman, and it was WEIRD! I got really, really nervous, I don't know why, to the point of trembling! I think that seeing someone from home just sent me for a loop. Just be ready for me to be freaked out that first Sunday that I'm home haha! 

Ushuaia went well. The pace of everything lately has been, as the Argentines say, "a las chapas". Consejo, and boom, conferencia. We didn't have much time to plan anything, so it all seemed last minute, but the Spirit has been sustaining me a lot lately! But all in all, everything went well in Ushuaia. The sad part was saying goodbye to Elder Popa. After extending his mission for 4 weeks, he's now headed home. He was a great companion! 

Con el Popaso!

After finishing up in Ushuaia, we returned to BA, and had to stay the night because there were not any other flights that day. We were able to go to Parque 3 de Febrero, which was cool. This is where Melvin J Ballard dedicated South America for the preaching of the gospel, and then, in 2014, Russell M. Ballard, his grandson, dedicated Argentina. 

Parque 3 de Febrero

We also ate Wendy's, which was really, really good. There's nothing better than a Baconator after a 23 month Baconator fast! After sharing lessons 1 and 2 on the flight home, we made it back to Comdoro. 

These past couple days have been more tranqy. We were actually able to get out and proselyte a good deal, which was nice. Even though it's still sometimes hard for me (surprisingly) I really can see that talking with people, even if I know they're going to reject me, comes a lot more naturally now than before. You've gotta love it! 

Overall, I was a very full week! Today we're going to go to Madryn to continue with the conferences. In all that I'm doing, I can see the hand of the Lord. He really does guide this work. The mission once again had a good month, beating last month by a baptism! If we continue like this, the missionary work in the Patagonia will be changed forever! How grateful I am to have been a part of this great work, and how even more grateful I am for the opportunity that I'm going to have in 2 weeks to hit the pavement running for my last 6!

I love the Lord, and I love this work!

FAMILY! I love you guys! I'm happy that you were the chosen souls to be my mother, father, sisters, and brother-in-law. We're going to be an eternal family! MOM! I love your endurance, even in these times of stress and much work. You really are a big hero of mine, and a role model for me. I LOVE YOU! Love all of you guys :) - Elder Jimenez

Congreso Nacional, it's cooler in real life, and not from a car window

Hermano Romano, my Buenos Aires taxi driver (he's a patriarch!)

AP, Zona Comodoro Norte - Week 26... Working On All Cylinders

Dear family (and the few other people who actually read these letters still XD)

I really loved the mail this week! I was so inspired by Jenn's blog post. The faith you guys have is incredible. 

This week was WORK. Lots of it! We started the week planning out Consejo, which is going to be a super consejo (with both the lideres de zona and distrito) and it's actually going to be this week not last week. The reality that unless, President Salerno plays a sick joke on me, this is my last transfer in the office has been making me tired. I'm dying to get into the field for my last hurrah! But luckily, I'm not one of those elders that gives up and dies when he's tired, and Elder Ekblad and I have been working on all cylinders.

We're going to focus on refining the plan that we put into practice this last transfer, and it's a tedious task observing the results and feedback and deciding what needs immediate changes, gradual changes, and trial changes. And all of those are terms that we're making up as we go, so we essentially have very little idea of what were doing, but it's working. This past week was the highest achieving week in mission history, so it's pretty obvious that the Lord is backing us! I feel like I'm in this big and demanding bussiness. I'm gonna get stir crazy when I get home and don't have to constantly be thinking about what I have to do and how I'm going to do it. 

Anyways, after getting some solid plans down, we starting doing 1 on 1 trainings with district leaders in Comodoro, then, on Thursday, we jumped in the H1, and after driving through the lane changing wind bursts of the Patagonia, made it to Puerto Madryn to train the northern district leaders. We spent a day in Puerto Madryn, and on Saturday morning, we drove to Trelew. 

The trainings went well, but obviously, my favorite part of the trip was being able to go to church in Union 1, since it's been a looooooong time since I've been able to visit. The members were ecstatic! We invited Luisa to say the prayer in Gospel Principles, and in her prayer, she said (in a totally evangelico way) "Oh Lord, thank you Lord, for bringing me my first elder, who brought me Lord, your sacred word. I am so grateful Lord!" She even started crying! I love that woman! However, one of my good friends from Union, Enzo, didn't make it to church. So, among the trainings and divisions that we did, we escaped for an hour to his house. Turns out that he was doing mas o menos, but we had a really sincere chat. I think it really helped him, and I challenged him to read the Book of Mormon every day, and finish it before turning his mission papers in in April. If that kid gets on the mission, I'll be so happy! 

Overall, its been a super tiring, but great and promising week. 

FAMILY! I love you guys! 

SOFIA! I love you! Remember the things that I told you last week! 

MOM! I'm so proud of the awesome teacher that you are! That call you made is a great example of the pure love of Christ :) Love you! 

I'M SO BLESSED TO HAVE A FAMILY LIKE YOU GUYS! 

Love yall :) - Elder Jimenez

AP, Zona Comodoro Norte - Week 25... Newbies!

Wowza... The emails this week were pretty lame.

I'm really grateful for all the writing you guys do, don't get me wrong, it's just that there was a lot of bad news... However, I believe in the effectiveness of positive thinking!

Boston Knights: You guys are in my prayers and fasts. Read 2 Nefi 2, but put your names in there. The Plan of Salvation is an eternal truth! Love you guys.

Dad: I'm still a Pats fan.

Rest of the family: Alright, this week was a blur. Week 1 is always nuts. The first three nights of the week I slept an average of 5 hours! XD Another one of my good friends, Elder Faundez, went home, so that was fun. He was one of the noble and great ones for sure! The next day the newbies arrived, and some of them are really good missionaries, I can already tell! Up until thursday, we were shuttling them from place to place and doing trainings and what not. 

And then... A TRABAJAL LOCO! (in honor of my Puerto Rican bretheren (we actually pronounce stuff that way all the time just for the fun of it XD)) Friday through Sunday we spent doing chores, and getting out to work when we could. It's been a lot of contacting, talking with people in the street, and more contacting. Daiana said that she was going to come to church yesterday, and we were going to go pick her up in the morning, but she sent a message Saturday night saying that she wasn't going to go, so that was a bummer... However, she did buy a dress to go to church in, so that shows promise. Aaaaand, the Relief Society president invited her to the Bishop's Wife's baby shower, so the members are actually working (church is true!). During all the madness of the week, we ended up finding 1 more potential investigator, so well see if we can make her an investigator this week.

But yeah, pretty normal/crazy week. All the weeks are crazy in the office. I'm honestly pretty excited for that last transfer in the field.

One awsome thing that happened this week was PRESIDENT NELSON. I have really wanted to see the blessings of reading the Book of Mormon every day these last couple weeks, and wow. WOW! My testimony has Sky. Rocketed. Last week, in order to continue with the good vibes, I printed off a ton of President Nelson's old talks about the scriptures, and as I read them, two things were reinforced in my mind. 1) President Nelson is the prophet of God and 2) THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE. He gave a talk a while ago called "Testimony of the Book of Mormon" that is straight fire. The fire of the spirit! I felt my ming being iluminated while reading it, and then he also gave a talk in April 2017 about the Book of Mormon, and while reading about the promises that he gave if we read it every day, I was almost overcome with joy. I had to sit back in my chair and sigh because I was 0 to 100 happy reading that talk. It was really cool to read a lot information from one general authority. I would recommend it!

FAMILY: I love you guys! 

NIKKI AND KEVIN: I hope you guys are going good with everything! Love you guys! 

DAD: I'm still a Pats fan. 

MOM! Thank you for all the support that you give me out here. You really are a super mom! I LOVE YOU! 

See y'all soon, but not too soon, cause I've got work to do! - Elder Jimenez

x