así pasa en Pasos

Hey everyone!

So, it was a pretty crazy week here in Paso de los Libres for sure!

We were able to have 2 baptisms this past week. One for a girl named Oriana and a boy named Leo both happened on different days due to a family emergency, so Oriana was baptized on Thursday and Leo on Saturday.  I’m just going to leave it to pictures since pictures say a thousand words no?

But meanwhile all of this went down we had the biggest storm of my time here in Argentina, flooding our pension and everything. but I’ve gotten accustomed to tropical storms here already so it wasn’t the first time I had to clean up after a storm.

But that’s it! I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Peters

Hey fam. 

No we don’t get negative stuff about trump.. they ask us about it and stuff but no one feels weird about it towards us.. it just kind of annoying when we go and clap someone’s door and they just want to talk about Trump though...

But in terms of your questions about what they do for a living I will whittle it down to the 2 C's... Changas and Campo. Changas means people go out and do small jobs just to get a few pesos to get by, and then Campo means they go out to do ranch work for 15 days at a time…they basically do the bare minimum to get by instead finding a real job... the women are domestic cleaners, which means they clean their house and the government pays them..

I’m glad the temple opened back up.. it sure would suck to not be able to go for an extended period of time…ya know like 2 years....

I asked about the apartments in raintree just making sure i got signed up and everything, cause everyone else said that they had.  And are you guys going to be driving me down to Utah in that new car??:)

But in terms of this week we had 2 baptisms! And they come with stories! because no baptisms come easy...so both were planned for Saturday, so we waited all week for these baptisms to go down...come Thursday we do divisions with the elders of Mercedes here in Pasos. So it was a normal day, Elder Butler and I went out to visit one of our investigator that lived really far... like outside of the city far... and so while we are teaching the lesson we get a phone call from Elder Curtis:

Elder Curtis: "Hey dude I was just talking with the Cardozo family and we have to cancel the baptism this Saturday, they have to travel to Buenos Aires for a family emergency"

5 minutes later  *Phone rings*

Elder Curtis: "Hey dude we’re having the baptism TONIGHT, get on the next bus over here!  We’re going to fill up the font!!"

Turns out that the dad of the mom of the girl getting baptized (grandfather of Oriana it would be) went to the hospital and wasn’t looking too good, so the family had to leave that night to go down to Buenos Aires, and decided after some talking that they would do the baptism that night then leave as a family all together

So Elder Butler and I leave the charla and start making our way to the bus stop when it just starts POURING down rain, black clouds, lightening, and everything. Well I spent the next 2 hours running around in the rain going to and from our pension to the chapel.  Meanwhile, Elder Curtis and another elder were in the chapel filling the font as fast as they can.. we finally had sufficient water at 8:30 at night. And so, we held the service with the 4 of us Elders and the family of 4. It was really nice even though most of the lights in the capilla didn’t work and there was a terrible storm outside but we did it anyways. Right after the service we do the confirmation as well and try to get all the paper work done before we head out, when all the sudden we hear Oriana and her mom screaming at the top of their lungs, the abuelo in B. A. had passed away during the confirmation. So the Dad grabs his screaming daughter in his arms, grabs his wife’s hand says "thank you elders, we'll let you know if we need anything" and they left.. Not the perfect end to a great service. So, we walk back to the pension in the dumping rain in silence and go straight to bed.

The rain did not let up all night and was easily the worst storm I have seen in my time here in Argentina…when we woke up the next morning there was water everywhere and had flooded the pension.  So, we spent all morning using squeegees to push the water out. it was safe to say these divisions were the most exciting of my mission. It was a week of a lot of highs and lows. Luckily Leonardo was baptized Saturday without any major problems!

But overall we are all fine! I have been walking around sick as well these last couple of days after our adventure in the rain a few days ago, nothing too serious but it has been draining me of my energy for sure.

I will be putting pictures in the weekly email of the baptisms so don’t worry

But we are all fine here!

Have a great week!

Jon

Happy Birthday Oregon!

So, this was a pretty crazy week to be honest. It all started with a trip to Corrientes Capital AGAIN for a meeting with all the missionaries here in the province of Corrientes. It was pretty fun but the travel still kills me.  We had to leave at 11:45 Monday night to go to a city called Mercedes then at 4 in the morning in Mercedes we hoped in a travel van with all the missionaries in the zone to start the 5-hour trip to Capital.  By the time, we got back (midnight on Tuesday) everything had changed and we spent the rest of the week trying to pick the pieces back together.

But we are doing just fine and have another action-packed week ahead of us! Enjoy a great February 14th back home! It only the greatest holiday of the year, Oregon birthday.

With love from Libres

Elder Peters

Sunrise

Sunset

Well this week was a crazy week. We didn’t have the baptisms that we were waiting for this week.  We left Tuesday for a meeting and when we got back Wednesday stuff went down changing everything. One of the pioneer members in the rama here has been in the hospital these past weeks and sadly passed away this past week while we were traveling, so out of respect the family of the people getting baptized postponed the baptism without letting us know…so we went all of Wednesday without any knowledge of anything that happened, started making preparations for the baptisms and everything, then found out at around 8 PM that the plans had changed.  The week definitely has felt pretty different, the death definitely took a toll on a lot of the members here. But we have been trying our best to animate all the members again! Hoping that the baptism this next week of Oriana and Leonardo will turn everything around again! BTW Edgar won’t be getting baptized, he still has some things to work on.

But even with everything that happened, yesterday at church was a big day! There were 50 members at church and we had 4 investigators with us. The people did seem kind of down but things slowly turned cheery by the end of the day. Elder Curtis and I gave the sacrament talks (like we always do) and most of the member commented that they really helped them out.

But other than that we are all doing well!  The crazy week is over and we look forward to another good one this week with 2 baptisms! They fixed the light and the water in the church as well so we don’t have to do the baptism in the river.

But all is well!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OREGON

Jon

A week for once in Paso de los Libres!

So, this was a pretty good week in Paso de los libres! considering we actually spent the whole week here without much interrupting us from working!  But I don’t really have much to fill you guys in on!  It’s been tranquilo here in the jungle with Elder Curtis! We are still getting pounded by storms every weekend giving us a nice break from the heat!

Thanks, I made sure to mention this in my weekly email to Presidente Franco, I will also see him tomorrow in Corrientes and I can let him know!

That's not actually a river, that's a sewage system...

After the big storm

Hey fam

So, we actually had a pretty good week this week!

So, this week we did emergency divisions with Mercedes after a weird chain of events, but it ended up blessing us more than anything, giving Elder Curtis and I Wednesday to Sunday to work and focus on our area.

We had our district meeting in Mercedes on Tuesday and we have an option of 2 buses to take, one at 11:45 and one at 12:45 (both by the same company) we usually take the 12:45 bus so that we can work all morning long then have a short lunch before the viaje. Well it turns out that, that day we had to for sure take the 11:45 bus so that we could go, have the meeting, then take a 4 o’clock bus out of Mercedes so that we could get to some important charlas we had later that day. Well we get on the 11:45 bus and drive for about 3 minutes before we see that the other bus going towards Pasos (the 12:45 one) broken down on the side of the road. So, we turned around, picked everyone up, and went to Pasos again. After back tracking an hour it seemed like we were in the clear until we got to Mercedes. Until the Gendarmaria stopped our bus (the Gendo is basically like the drug control part of the military) they inspected identification and started checking bags and things like that. It was the 2nd time that I was stopped by the gendo and the first time it didn’t take too long to do their thing.  But this time they took an HOUR AND A HALF! I got so restless sitting on the bus for so long.  So, we finally got to Mercedes at around 4, a 2-hour ride turned into a 4-5-hour ride... it killed me.... So, we had no choice but to take a 10 o’clock bus back to Pasos since there was nothing else in the afternoon... So, we did divisions and it was fun for what it counts!

But with more time to work in our area we got some quality work done (if you want to know in numbers, we had 8 lessons, 6 of them with a member present... I know how you guys are about that...) But we are now waiting on 3 baptisms in these next 2 weeks! This week we hope to have 2 and the next week another one! So, things have really been turning around here in Paso de los Libres!

Other than that, it was a pretty good week! We got a new blender in the pensions after our other one broke! My comp loves making frozen yogurt shakes so I’m not ever mad!  Elder Curtis also had his birthday today! he turned 20!  We played ping pong to celebrate!

Thing in the capilla are finally getting fixed, we got all the windows fixed (only to go back this morning and they had broken one of the brand-new ones...) but things are looking up around here honestly! It was so dead and depressing when I got here. But now the members are doing their visits, people are coming back to church, and were just throwing people in the water these next couple of weeks, so all the members have really turned their attitudes around and we have been seeing some major changes!

But that’s it! Sounds like you guys are having a great time back at home!

But have great week

su Hijo

Re: Mom's Birthday

Hey!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM

So, all is going well for us here down here in Paso de los Libres!  This week we made a trip down to Corrientes Capital (is that even a surprise anymore?) to see a worldwide mission broadcast where they announced a change in schedule.  Now P-day starts at 8 am on Mondays! In our mission the schedule didn’t change too much, so nothing else super exciting. In terms of spiritual experiences.... no... there ain’t a lot of that here....

Edgar is doing just fine and progressing ALOT! He loves coming to church and participating in the classes and him and the teacher have become best friends. And our comp study doesn’t really happen when we have to travel so much... This past week we also made a trip out to Curuzu Cuatia to do divisions with the Elders there, and the only buses that leave to go there leave during our study time.

There hasn’t been much else on my mind about school.  As I already said I am fine with what everyone else thinks, but in our group, email it sounds like Raintree is a popular choice!

But it sounds like everyone has been staying busy for the most part! 

But we are doing well and I hope that all goes well for you guys this week!

Love

Jon

wow sounds fun... there’s a bunch of lightning and thunder out right now... so we will be looking forward to some pretty humid days these next couple of days....

My Team!

Hey everyone!

So, this week was a good one!  We basically just travelled all week long as always. We had to make our way up to Resistencia for a meeting and then this next week we have another trip planned to go out to Corrientes Capital with everyone in our zone for another meeting... The count of hours of traveling in this area has easily surpassed 60 hours....

But we are doing well!

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Peters

The new zone of Paso de los Libres

Benefits of long bus rides

You hate to see that the snow is gone… here it’s still freaking hot everyday… I’m not sweating as much as I did last year so I think I have finally become Argentine and gotten used to it! 

But this past week was traquilo… we basically spent all week going to and from Resistencia for our leadership meeting so I got to see all of my old companions and stuff and it was fun as always! I’ll send pictures in the group email… but we are doing fine out here!! All is well!

Love                                              

Jon