Despidida( Farewell) to a wonderful Mission President and Investigator...

Hey, Everyone,

            So this week has been up and down. First off, a little old lady we were teaching the gospel to passed away. They had her viewing at her family’s house and we were asked to give a despidida, (Farewell) so we shared a scripture and said a prayer. This old lady had great faith in Jesus Christ. She was super sweet, but anyway, apparently the old lady wanted us to come to the hospital to visit and the family said we were one of the last things on her mind before she died. We didn’t get a chance to visit her. I felt like I had failed her, like maybe I missed a prompting that told me to go visit her in the hospital, I don´t know. I was feeling a little depressed about that, and also this week I was feeling a little depressed about learning the language. I just felt like I really didn´t know it as well as I should. I am almost up to half a year in the mission and I don´t know if that was how the first half a year was supposed to be. Maybe I am supposed to know more of the scriptures, or maybe I was supposed to baptize more people. It just scared me a little. But, a little later in the week we found this family and I was able to speak to them in Spanish really well, and understand them and they complimented me on my Spanish! I also, finally had a dream in Spanish. My dad who went to Venezuela on his mission said that if you start to dream in Spanish then you are not always trying to think how to translate the language in your head so much and that its starting to sink in. I think the Lord knew I needed some encouragement. I just need to keep going and keep working at it.

We also had a Zone Conference this week to say goodbye to our wonderful mission president, President Franco, who is leaving at the end of this month. President Franco shared some stuff about the Book of Mormon. The new president will be at our next Multi- Zona in a week or two. At the conference, I was able to meet Elder Afane. His mother and my mother became friends through Facebook Messenger. We got to talk to each other a lot, and he is really cool.

Anyway, that is pretty much how this week went. Country is still coming to church, everyone thinks he is so funny! Haha! This week, we haven´t been able to find our investigator P at home. We tried to find her at home four times but she wasn’t there, we are going to try to keep working with her. We hope she is still trying to quit smoking.

             I am hoping after this next six or seven weeks I will get to train an Elder. I think it would be a good thing for me to train, to really have that extra push I need to talk to people. My companion and I hang out in the stake center on P- day a lot because we write our letters home there. There is also a pool table, a ping-pong table, and a fooseball table. There is also a soccer court to play on and all the other missionaries also go there on their p-days as well. It was a little hard this week because I had a cold all week. So with all the worry and me being sick, this week was a little bit rough. This week we also found a lady who was going to get baptized a couple of years back, but right before the baptism the rain became crazy and flooded a bunch of houses, so she had moved away and was never baptized. Hopefully, we will be able to get her baptized soon! Love you all!

Chao,

Elder Pendleton

Zone Conference

Meeting Elder Afane...

My Comp and I in our rival soccer jerseys...

Chao! : )

My First Baptism!

Hey, everyone!

            Things are still good here in Argentina. This week I was asked to baptize a child in the ward who turned 8. It was awesome!! 

       

I also had some very spiritual lessons this week! We had the most spiritual lesson I have ever had with P and her daughter. It is one of those moments where you have to be there to understand how powerful the Atonement and the Book of Mormon really are! At the end, I’s prayer was soooo good and soooo sincere. I have never had a lesson that good! It was so amazing! They accepted a baptismal date, P just needs to quit smoking.

            The Hermanas investigator, Country, is awesome! He calls me Johnny Cash, still, Haha!  So, we got offered marijuana a couple days ago. The dude that offered it to us was sooo stoned! He was like, “Oh, you are from Arizona. Elder Hopkins is like, “Yeah, it is in the United States, and then the dude was like,” Noooo, you don´t know what you’re talking about, Arizona is in Asia” Hahaha, We then gave him a Word of Wisdom booklet, Haha! Hopefully, he reads it!

             I have been on my mission for 5 months already, as of yesterday, so that was cool! I gave a talk in church this week, my testimony has really grown a lot out here! The choice I made to go on a mission is the best choice I have made in my life, but there are still some days it is really hard to think about how long I have left and also about how much I still have left to learn.  

Gotta love those selfies!

            My companion, Elder Hopkins has this gift of just being friends with anyone, anywhere. He is an amazing hard working missionary. We truly get along well. He is so amazing at the piano!!! He shreds, the piano, he is crazy good!

           Tomorrow, we get to go meet with President Franco for a Multi-Zone Conference before he leaves to go home from the mission! He has been a great Mission President.

            I love you all and I hope all is good back home! I love hearing from all of you!  

Chao!

Elder Pendleton

The rain finally stopped and the sun came out!

  Hey, everyone,

Everything pretty much stayed the same here this week through all the transfers. I will be staying here in Formosa and keeping my same companion, Elder Hopkins. The new Mission President is here and so is President Franco, still. The baptism we had scheduled this week was amazing! I am so glad Gloria was able to get baptized! Our other investigators are doing well, also. We finally were able to get some lessons in because the sun came out! No one wanted to talk while it was raining, but then the rain stopped and we got a ton of lessons, so things are picking up!

The food here is great but they drench everything in oil! Haha. We are going to make hamburgers this week and we have made french fries a few times, we also make pasta a lot! This week I am going to try cooking some different things, but the member meals here, are awesome! This week the Florez family made like a billion Empanadas! I ate so many! Haha. They told us to eat them all until they were gone, haha. It was so good!  

The members here are great and most of them are converts. There are a lot of inactive members here too. But there are a lot of awesome people that do go to church.  We always offer service to everyone, but everyone says ´´no that's okay´´ We almost got to help someone move this week but then they didn´t end up moving. Service is hard to get here, but we did shovel some sand for this one guy, so that was good. 

We have all sorts of stuff happen to us when we teach whether it is Micheal Jackson playing really loud across the street while we are teaching or drunk guys kissing their tattoos.

We get a lot of people saying " I am Catholic " every day here, haha.

I have learned that, If the Mormon church wasn´t true there is not another religion on the earth that is! Haha. But, I do know the Church of Jesus Christ is true! and The Book of Mormon is proof and the more I read it the more it testifies to me that this church is true!

I have learned that I am a super shy person and it is hard for me to make small talk but once we get into the lesson I am in the zone and I can testify like crazy! I am a very straight to the point kind of person, I don´t like to beat around the bush. I think I get the point across pretty well. I am learning of the blessings that come from living like God wants me to.

We met this investigator of the Hermanas (Sister Missionaries) at church and he changed his name to Country, Haha, because he loves country music sooooo much! We sat there and talked about Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson and John Denver, forever. He was awesome!

 Also let Amy Carbine know that she cuts hair better than the entire country of Argentina, haha!

We had divisions and I went to a different part of Formosa Capital. Out there, were these Government houses and they are all the same house over and over and over and they are all like 15 by 20 feet so they are tiny! It reminded me of the neighborhood in

 Edward Scissorhands, Haha!

The mission is destroying my body! Without hot water, my face is dying out from shaving and I feel like I am being rapidly aged out here, haha. I have probably lost hair and I need to work out harder or I am going to get squishy! I am just so worn out. I hope my body can hold up and my hair stays in, haha.

I finished reading 2 Nephi this week so I am still going strong reading in the Book of Mormon.   Anyway, I think the mission is teaching me a lot I just hope I don´t come back bald and ugly, haha! Thank you for your support! Love you all!

Chao!

Elder Nate Pendleton

Filling up the font...

G's Baptism...

Grateful for the sunshine!

Hurrah for Israel!!!