A visit from a family in Utah, Tacos and saying good bye to Elder Olmos...

         A family who lives in Midway, Utah visited the mission here in Argentina this week! It was so cool getting to visit with them. The parents both served their missions here 22 years ago and they brought 5 of their kids here to see where they had served. It was so fun to get to talk to them. They bought us tacos and we got to eat the tacos with them! It was just so weird to just have a bunch of people here from Utah, visiting! Haha! It was really, really cool! I couldn´t believe it when they walked in. I was like,

“What the heck, you all speak English! “ Haha! The wife served her mission up in the Puerto area, the same place that I have served. She served there 23 years ago. We got to talk to each other about all of the members up there. 

The Cope Family...

         The multi zones we had been planning went well. I got to meet up with Elder Ashby and Elder Nipko and Elder Olmos. Elder Ashby is just "killin’ it", here with his missionary work! He is such a good missionary! I can´t believe he already has 7 months in the mission, now. It is flying by!

         Elder Olmos, who I served with here in the office, is going home on Tuesday so we are getting together and we will be eating dinner with him and President Patania on Monday! 

         We had a lesson with G. Friday morning and he is doing well. He is still progressing. He had a baptism date but we still need to teach him a lot more. I am thankful that God has kept him as our investigator even though we don´t have a ton of time to go out and teach him.

         We actually had another lesson with two new investigators that we found. The husband was in the military and he served in “Las Malvinas” I definitely didn´t mention the “British” in our conversation! Haha. They talked sooooo much, we talked with them for hours. At first they were reluctant to let us in, but then without us even asking they just said, okay you guys can come in and share a scripture, so we were able to have a lesson with them, so the work is improving!  

         So yeah, that is Elder Moore and Elder Steele that are hugging their new mattresses Haha. We are all finished getting the mattresses and washers and dryers out to all of the missionaries, so that is good.

(Picture swiped from Elder Moore's Facebook post)

It actually hasn´t been too hot here lately, it is about 88 degrees, typically. It is mostly the humidity that is hard to deal with, but it has been nice the last few days.

The pastries that I talked about in my letter last week were called Facturas. They are really good! The word “Factura” also means bill, as in “I have to pay the bills” Haha. I don´t know why they are called that. Also, there are these cheesy bread things called Chipa here, they are also super good.  

Chipa's...

Burritos we had last week...

I love you all and miss you so much and again Happy Birthday, mom!

 Que la cumpla feliz!

Chau,

Elder Nate Pendleton

Missionary work this week...

A sign that says “We fought with honor and we will return, the heroes of the Malvinas” 
The saying on the back of the truck says, "Everything I achieve in life is not luck, it is God moving things in my favor"

Say goodbye to the chimichangas! Haha!

So, fun things this week, we went to Corrientes to give out the rest of the washing machines and dryers and mattresses and we also had to move a bed out of the Hermanas pension from the second story of their building. So as the Hermanas laughed at us, we lowered the bed off of the balcony and only one person died, Haha! Not really, just kidding!

It was fun to go around to all of the pensions this week; we even visited the most dangerous area in the whole mission. Haha! We almost fell into a Zanja (that’s an uncovered canal containing raw sewage) at one point in our truck! The back wheel started to fall in and we were just barely able to keep it from falling in! Haha!  After that, we went and bought a bunch of pastries from this place that sells them really cheap in Corrientes. It was nice driving back over the bridge with the sunset over the river.

I had to get things ready for Multizonas in Corrientes and Formosa this week. 

I couldn´t go to either of them, but everything went smoothly with them. We have been getting ovens fixed for missionaries and we have been doing legal paperwork for missionaries that are not yet legal in the country. I got to help out a little with that the other day. I had to go to the bank a lot this week and also there was a bank strike going on and a holiday (Carnival) all in a row, so there was no bank service for like five days.

That is great that Monte got a new calling at church and he is now the 1^st Councilor in the Sunday School Presidency, he will do great with that!  
Love and miss you all!

Chau,
Elder Nate Pendleton

(Nate’s Mom and Dad)

We asked him if he ever gets Mexican food down there in Argentina and this was his response;

The food is not at all Mexican here, but it is funny that you mention that because the Elders in Rio Negro found a guy that is from Mexico and he has a Mexican restaurant that we are going to go try out tonight! They said it is really good! I have not had a burrito for over a year, so when I get back from my mission say goodbye to the chimichangas! Haha!

Sorry, no pictures this week...

Road Trip to San Martin and El Colorado...

Hey Everyone,

              I wrote to Cole, my cousin that is going on his mission to Modesto, California this week and I told him about what to expect at the MTC, I hope it helps him out. I can´t believe he is in the MTC now! I know he will do a great job as a missionary!

            As for stuff that happened this week, we had to take washing machines and dryers to San Martin and El Colorado, two cities about 2 ½ hours from here, in Resistencia. The four of us from the office hopped into the truck, and we got some music going. The other elders chose to listen to Disney music, so when Tarzan came on I felt like I was going on a safari across Africa. I actually was really happy just being out of the city and the office and out on the open road.  The Tarzan music was a good touch, though, it made me feel like a world traveler. I had so much fun taking pictures along the way, of bridges and old cars and signs and stuff. The plants along the river we crossed were super cool,  too, I felt like I was in the jungle!

            Also, to travel in Argentina you have to be really careful because the police and the Gendarmeria (Argentina’s version of the National Guard) are everywhere. They stop you all the time and ask for your documents. On the way back we were signaled by the police to pull over and they asked for the registration and license of the car and for Elder Slade’s license. The one cop had a shotgun in front of us. We couldn´t figure out why they signaled us out of traffic, but they just let us go, Haha!

            We got to San Martin and there is a nice LDS church house there but only about 6 people attend church there, it is sad. Back in the day, there were a lot of people that attended church but then a lot of bad things happened and everyone stopped coming. The church just isn´t as strong in the small towns here so there is this giant church building with hardly anyone that goes to it. We then went to El Colorado, which is located right past the border of Chaco into Formosa. We took pictures with the Elders that serve there. The picture with the four of us in the pension (apartment) is the Curuzú Cuatiá survivor group! Haha!

            We saw some cool old cars and it was nice to be in a small town again. On the way out of El Colorado, we asked a lady from the Gendarmeria to take our picture in front of the El Colorado sign, she was so nice. Then we went down to a bridge and took some pictures there; there were some cool places to take pictures. The road along the way was beautiful and I truly felt free from the work in the office.

            That picture of me in front of that orange car was taken here in Resistencia. I saw it driving around one day and I wanted a picture of it. It looked cool in front of the brick wall, the beat up dog lying on the ground makes the picture even better, Haha!

            The Multi-Zones are coming up so we are getting ready for those. I have sat inside and worked in the office all week, so there isn´t much more to say. It has been a pretty normal week. My plants are getting bigger since the last time I showed them to you and my job here in the office is not as hard as it was before.  

            It has been hot here like always, and it is going to rain soon so we will see what happens, hopefully, we won’t get another flood again! Haha!  G. is the only investigator we have right now and he has also come to church 2 or 3 times and so he is progressing. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes and we set a date and everything. I hope he follows through. I have learned a lot on my mission and a lot of it is stuff that I won´t realize I have learned until later in life, but I still have a lot to learn, that is for sure! Love and miss you all!

Chau,

Elder Nate Pendleton

On our way to San Martin and El Colorado...
Cool old truck...

Dropping off new washers and dryers to missionaries...

Road Trip!!!  Trying to contain my excitement!

This picture was taken of us in El Colorado...

On the road...

 Translation ( Call me, I always give credit...God! )

 A cool, small orange car here in Resistencia and a dog who couldn't care less... Haha!

The Elder's who have served in Curuzu Cuatia...

When you get stopped on the highway in Argentina and you can´t tell if they are construction workers or terrorists... Hahahaha. 

RESISTENCIA pictures and hanging out by the side of the freeway...

Resistencia Sign...

Just hanging out by the side of the road, Haha!

Elder Perdernerra...

All five of us... Elder Afane, Slade, Pedernerra Rodrigues and me...

A Palo Borracho tree, they store water in their trunk to use later...

This week went by fast!

This week went by fast! We had some missionaries leave us and we had some new ones come in. It is always fun to have the new missionaries come into the mission. We went around Resistencia and dropped off some of the mattresses and washing machines and dryers to the missionaries. I was pretty busy this week but everything went really smooth so it wasn´t too stressful.

So, I had this idea to go to this place that I saw by the mall to take pictures of some street graffiti, it is so cool, so we went there on p-day. I am sending a ton of pictures of it to you. 

I am glad that Cole did well with his talk on Sunday. He really does look different. I can see that he is ready for his mission.  

Wish Max a Happy Birthday if you can for me. I love the little guy so much. I can´t believe he is 2 already. I hope they all have fun in Disneyland.  

 I literally just read this morning, the same chapter 1 Nephi 13, in the Book of Mormon so we are in the same place in our reading, mom. That is cool!

I seriously love you guys and you are such an awesome example to me. I literally can´t have better parents than you. It is not possible! I love you and miss you all. I know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ died for us. My relationship with God has grown on this mission. He truly is my best friend and my Heavenly Father.

Love to all,

Chau,

Elder Nate Pendleton

We also saw a RESISTENCIA sign that was really cool that we took pictures in front of.

 I will add all those pictures on another post..

Pictures of our visit to the mall and the Rio Negro River park on P-day

Pictures of our excursion to the mall and the Rio Negro River park on P-day...

Lunch at the mall...

The Rio Negro River Park...  We took lots of pictures!!!

L to R Elder Afane, Elder Pendleton, Elder Pedernerra and Elder Slade

 L to R Elder Pedernerra, Elder Pendleton, Elder Afane and Elder Slade

The Lily Pads were gigantic!

Black Name Tags...

My companion Elder Afane and I...

Just me...