Tuesday, November 29, 2016

December Is Coming =O

Hola Querido,

I love when I lay down in bed at night, and I am just exhausted.  My feet are a little sore, and my body is just a rock.  It is a satisfying feeling that you worked hard that day.  Well... that is just about how we feel every day.  It is a good time.  I wouldn´t have it any other way.  
We are all pretty excited here in the mission for Christmas.  Elder Llanos and I bought some Christmas lights for the apartment and it is looking NICE.  Christmas music is already starting up.  Every day we offer to sing Christmas carols to contacts in the street.  Some of them give us funny looks, but most of them accept.  Maybe by the end of December I will be a good singer.  It is pretty fun.  Just by singing to people we have found several nice families.  We have invited all of them to see the church´s new Christmas video. (Check it out: https://www.mormon.org/christmas/light-the-world?play=hero)  Everyday we are trying to do things to Light the World.  We saw an older man shoveling around a pretty good sized tree this week.  We ended up cutting down the whole thing for him.  It was awesome.  He now sees us in the street all of the time and he now wants to give us lunch.  I will cut down a tree any day for some lunch.  So if anyone needs a tree to be cut down, you can call me in about 6 months.  
We are working to get some more investigators progressing towards baptism.  We have one really awesome lady named Liliana.  She has been a work in progress.  We have done several service projects for her and she has made us a few asados. (Barbecues)  We were able to teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week.  Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end.  She told us,  ´´I will get baptized, but not right now.´´  So we said, ´´Ok, how does the 24th of December sound?´´  And she said, ´´Dale´´ (Alright) hahaha  It was so funny and great.  She sends us text messages all of the time just to see how we are doing.  She is a super kind lady.  
Fun things that happened this week:  We ate turkey and mashed potatoes for thanksgiving.  There was a huge thunderstorm that got us soaking wet and cut out the power.  Elder Llanos made 2 kilos of Rice.  I gave an elder in the district a haircut just because a Sister in the ward said that I know how to cut hair when in reality I do not haha (It turned out ok), Alejo passed his interview with the Bishop and will be ordained a Deacon this following week, and we bought a big can of nesquick to make chocolate milk. :)
The mission is awesome!!!  I love you all tons!!! Have a great week and enjoy the start of December!! La Navidad viene ya =D

Con Amor,

Elder Maynard

TORMENTA!!! WE got soaked, it was great





The new costanera crew
This is what happens when you have a peruvian comp.  3 pots of RIce.  He is crazy hahaha
BARBEQUE CHICKEN!!!

 PDAY with Elder Llanos





 CHRISTMAS!!!



 Donut filled with dulce de leche.  Argentina meets america and it is beautiful



TURKEY DAY!!!  We bought the turkey!!!! 



 Thanksgiving!!!


 Hermana Chiapello never lets me wash her plate, but I made a deal with her.  She always wanted to fiz my torn pants,  so I made the deal that she can fix my pants if I can wash her plate hahaha
 COBBLER


LLAMA

Elder Llanos caught a toad


Light the World

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Semana de Fiestas

Hey Everybody!!!

My mom thinks that I do not eat enough in the mission.  But many times I eat too much.  This week was a week where I ate too much.  I was never hungry but I kept on eating anyway.  The great thing about being a missionary is that we walk a ton so we can always fit another plate or two in our stomachs.  It is a great experience.  It was party week with lots of meetings so food is an important part of that.  Now I am just thinking about food because it is lunch time haha But we had a pretty cool lesson this week with a few guys named Lucas and Manual.  They are the guys who play basketball with us sometimes on PDay.  We were talking about Faith.  They arent too sure if they believe in God or not so we used lots of analogies for them.  Elder Llanos, my new companion, used food as an example.  Every day our bodies need to eat, and everyday our spirits need to eat too.  I love the little things in life.  Praying and reading the scriptures are simple things, but they give our spirits the nutrition that we need every day.  One of my favorite hours of the day is when I have personal study.  It doesnt matter if I am a little tired or if I am down a bit.  i always leave my personal study feeling good and uplifted.  So my invitation to everyone is that they can increase their faith every day this week!  We are going to be working to increase the faith of some of our investigadores!  And yes mom,  I do eat lots of food!!!
The highlight of the week was that our new family in the faith, Mariana and Alejo,  got confirmed!!! After their confirmations, Mariana said ´I feel like you guys have super powers.´ and Alejo said ´I feel like the Holy Spirit entered inside of me.´  I love seeing people change.  It is the best part about being a missionary.  It is the miracle of missionary work.  The miracle of a change of heart.  I am so grateful for the mission.  I say it every week and I will say it til the end.  I have learned so much and I am excited to keep on learning. 
i hope that everyone eats more than me this week and that you guys have a great Thanksgiving!  A seminary teacher of mine gave me a challenge to say a 15 minute prayer of thanks every Thanksgiving.  Ever since then I have done it.  There is so much good in the world if we look for it.  There are so many things to be grateful for if we look for them.  Be full of gratitude and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! I love you all!
Besitos,

Elder Maynard

 I gave this elder from Brasil my Jordans and he was the happiest guy in the world.  he has basically told the whole mission that I gave him jordans hahaha
 My grandson and My great grandson!!!
 Lunch after meeting with newbies and trainers
 Other pic of lunch
 We all scream for ice cream
 The great grandson
 Lunch after mission council


 MONEY!! Ask Brittney if she ever saw one of these bad boys.
 I had to take a picture of this baby in the ward
 Lunch with the Santa Fe family
 MCDS with elder llanos
 New missionary dinner