One Phone Call Away

Russ at zone conference

Russ and Elder Scipert

Hoy, Hoy!

Greetings from the crappy cyber with the shouting, swearing, stinky 11 year-olds playing “Left For Dead” and the computer with a horrible broken keyboard. Glad to hear things are good on the home front. The lacrosse is lacrossy, the chives are chiving, and it’s almost the end of the school year. That’s what I love to hear (:  Oh, and yeah, that on Wednesday I’ll be a fourth done with my mission. F'reals, time flies, its crazy! 

I’m glad your week was splendid, so was mine; it was a nice, tranquil week. Nothing much exciting happened until the weekend. We had a pretty good work week: Taught a few folks including the sister of Ivan (the kid who just got baptized) she’s very cool! She is about ten years old and is kinda like Lauren’s twin. We’ve just started teaching her this week.  Other than that we just kinda taught our regulars: Maxi and Noelia, Laura, Manuel and his brother Victor, and Gisela. This week was very exciting 'cause this week Gisela (the girl with the funny 3 year old I talked about) wanted to be baptized! We had the interview at Maxi’s and Noelia’s house and ‘cause Elder Scipert is the district leader, the zone leaders had to do the interview. So I waited outside with Maxi and Noiela while Elder Scipert went with one of the zone leaders to go to a cita (appointment) we had. One of Maxi's and Noelia's neighbors named Lidia (who is a member) came out to talk to us. I held a 45 minute conversation with her. Half of it was about childbirth ‘cause she’s a baby doctor. But, none the less, it was a conversation!

Gisela passed the interview and we scheduled to have her baptism on Saturday. We were at the church prepping for the baptism and a weird, chunky little kid came up and tried to steal my tag. I tried to take it back and he started biting me! Not hard but still nasty! I got the tag back (without punching this kid in the gut bag, I might add). After the baptism being delayed 3 hours (I think its a law that baptisms are not supposed to start on time in Argentina) we got things under way. She was baptized.  The person that baptized her seemed kinda nervous at first but once he got in the cold, sketchy water, he got her whole long name right, baptized her, and the baptism was a success.  Oh, I may have forgotten to mention, the person that baptized her was me.  Yeah, that’s right, your boy’s first baptism! IT WAS SOOOOOO COOOOL!!!! I felt so great! The water was incredibly cold but it was a huge honor! I'm so happy for Gisela. She really needed the gospel in her life. She just was so in need of peace in her life. The gospel is what she needed. We are now teaching her little brother who seems pretty interested.  His name is Lucas. He’s got a Spencer Hulsey vibe to him—super cool kid!

Now onto the sad news:  Maxi and Noelia (who are not baptized only ‘cause their wedding papers are super complex! Yet they know just about everything about the gospel. For example: Maxi read the Book of Mormon in 2 days and read all of PMG, Gospel Principles, Our Heritage, etc. Heavens knows what would happen if he got his hands on Doctrines of Salvation by Jos. F. Smith) but they are super legit and pretty much my best friends. They didn’t show up to the baptism. Strange, ‘cause they are at every baptism, church function, bar mitzvah, etc. so we went yesterday to go talk to them. Turns out Maxi went to the hospital on Saturday ‘cause of back problems and he got a test and this test said that its a 50% chance he has a kidney infection or a 50% he has kidney cancer. He is super scared and just doesn’t know what to do.  His baby is due next month and he wants to live and help raise his little baby and be a good father, a good husband, and a good member of the church. I gave him a blessing.  It may have not have been grammatically correct but the sprit was there super strong when I gave him the blessing and that’s all that matters.  It kinda helped me realized a little more that its the spirit that counts in the conversion.  He’s going to Salta next week to get some tests done so I hope everything will be all right. I made sure to tell him that "its all good" he said it really is all good. It will be (: 

Well, that’s just about it for the week guys, its time for some questions!

• What do you want in your birthday package?

Betos!!!!!!!......Maybe some more candy (Cadbury, non-sour gummy worms, Airheads, etc).  Maybe another long-sleeved Missionary Mall shirt and some pictures. I’ll let you know if I think of anything else.

• What’s the biggest difference you’ve noticed between Argentina and the U.S.?

Hmmm, tough question...Here there are no copyright laws, underage drinking/ driving/ smoking/ everything laws. Everyone has a “moto” like Rod had in Hot Rod and the sky—its pretty much another world over here.

• How are things going with you and your comp?

He’s pretty chill now. I think the stress of him being a district leader kinda made him crazy for a few weeks but now he has settled down.

• Do you ever get to play futbol anymore?

Not much, every once in awhile. Its still fun to play but we hardly play it anymore.

• Tell us something about teaching.

I’m liking that promise we have in D&C about knowing what to say, when you need to say it. It really works. Its like you don’t need to think about what you have to say next, it just comes to you. That and I like just teaching in general. I’m starting to be more ‘laxed and everything in the lessons, it’s awesome!

• Are you still teaching Griselda and her son?

Nope, not as much, they just aren’t available to talk as much anymore.  They always say "come back another time" or something like that. Sad but we'll keep trying.

• Are you ready for a transfer?

Yes...no....I love Jujuy!!!!!!!!!!!! But a change does sound exciting. Scipert is a good teacher, he knows his stuff but a new comp does sound exciting. I’m just gonna live up my last week here. Nothing but wine boxes from here on out!

Well fam, I best be going. This kid next to me has been playing the same Cumbia song for an hour and I’m going to kill him. I believe this Sunday I’ll be calling you guys around 6 p.m. here. which is like 3 p.m. for you guys so be prepped for that. They are being super Nazi about the phone calls so it can’t go over 40 mins. but oh well, I guess. I hope the phone calls all work out. I’m a little bit worried about how to call but I’ll be guided through it. I’m more than incredibly excited to talk to you guys. I love and miss you so much. I can’t wait to hear your amazing voices this Sunday! I can't believe its been 6 months. Thank you all so so much for your prayers and fasts in my behalf. I love and miss you guys more than you know. Until this Sunday! I love you, its all good!

Con Amor,

Russ