Been Busy.

Hey Megs!

Thank you so much for writing me! I hope all is well in Hawaii! How´s
classes? The kids? Tell me everything! This week seemed a little bit
better. Or at least my comp didn´t push me to the ground that many
times. I don´t have much time left so I am going to tell you the
miracle that happened this week. Elder Neyra and I were at a bus stop
after a lesson and a lady came up to us and asked if we were from the
last days church. She said that her daughter is a member of the church
and that she would like to know the church a little bit. We set an
appointment for later that day. We found out their names were Cristina
and her daughter´s name is Jennifer. They are from Paraguay.
Jennifer´s dad is actually a bishop in Paraguay and calls every week
to check up on her and see if she is going to church. We taught the
first lesson and took out a date for the 19th of April! So the 19th of
April we will have another baptism! I hope anyway haha. But yeah that
is basically what happened this week. Also, I heard about 50 gun shots
outside of our apartment on Saturday haha so that we pretty exciting.
This country is crazy haha love it.

Love you Megs! I wish I could write more!

Con amor,
Elder Evans

NINE MONTHS and MY FIRST BAPTISM!

Queridos Todos!

This week marked 9 months I have been on the mission! It has gone by so fast! But I still feel like it´s forever away. But I am enjoying every second that I have. The members in El Faro are super great! All have good hearts. There are a couple people who are gossiping and that´s not good. We don´t want to be like the Nephites by the end of this. But yeah! El Faro is doing great! I guess the only scary thing that happened this week, was that we got gun pointed again. This time, we were at a bus stop and Elder Neyra made a phone call to see if someone could cut his hair. After the call, a guy who was standing behind us grabbed Elder Neyra and pointed a gun to his side and told him to give him the phone. I saw the gun and thought to myself, that is definitely not a real gun. Elder Neyra stands up and says to the guy, in spanish, "You want to rob me with your toy?" The guy´s face was hilarious! He looked like he just got caught with drugs in his pocket. The guy told Elder Neyra that is was just a joke and then he walked away. It´s was pretty sweet. I actually found out this week that the Argentina Buenos Aires South mission is the second most dangerous mission the world. The first is like India or something. But yeah, it´s pretty exciting. Not a dull moment in Argentina. I swear though. This country is so corrupt and the government too. I give this country 20 years until it falls or something happens. But at least the people are super nice, well most are though. The culture here is kinda European, but at the same time it´s Latino.

 

I also had my first baptism this weekend! It was actually a scary moment. The first family, Natalia and Marcos, arrived on time, but the other family, Martín and Rosa, weren´t going to come. Martin said that he had to work at 6 and said he couldn´t make it if he wasn´t baptized first. And Rosa said that if Martin wasn´t going, she wasn´t going. Satan was winning the battle, but it wasn´t over. It was super scary until the Savior came to the rescue. Elder Neyra called Martin again and found out that Martin just had to be in work before 8 and the baptism was at 5. They actually showed up an hour late to their baptism. Latin standard time. Once they showed up, we all took pictures and then went into the chapel to listen to the talks and hymns. Elder Neyra baptized Natalia and Marcos and I baptized Martín and Rosa. Rosa came into the font after Elder Neyra baptized those 2. She was like screaming that the water was so cold! This family is a little slow, but they are pretty funny most of the time. Anyways, I had to baptize her 3 times! I felt pretty bad at the end. I just think of her getting clean 3 times. Then Martín came in and I had it all down by that time. Only one time haha. But I can now understand the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants how it says that how great will your joy be if you bring one soul unto me and how great will be your joy if you shall bring many souls unto me. I kinda feel like Ammon and him rejoicing God in Alma 26. I will always remember the Lord my God in all good things that happen in my life and for the joy I feel when I am studying and sharing the Gospel. I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ and that through His Atonement we can be perfected. I sure hope you guys are helping less-actives in your wards and help them feel the Atonement in their lives and forgive others and forgive themselves. I promise that the blessings will be huge! I love you all so much and pray for you every single day. Have the best week ever and open your mouths and share the Gospel. Love you!

Con amor,

Elder Grant Evans

FIrst Week in the Villa!

Queridos todos!

This week has been pretty great! We first started to week by going to a conference in Captial o sea Buenos Aires. We had the conference with Elder David F. Evans of the Seventy! It was SUPER long, but super great! Elder Evans talked about establishing the church and bringing the less-actives back. He said there are too many less-actives in Argentina and that we need to bring them back. He also said that the First Presidency and the Apostles are concerned that we are not teaching repentance and that is why there are so many less-actives. He told us that just marriage isn´t repentance and that they need to live the law of Chastity before marriage even occurs. And that they need to confess their sins to God and to be living the law of Chastity before marriage. It made me really think about how I am teaching. The next lesson that we taught, we taught the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom to some investigators that are going to be baptized on Saturday. Afterwords, I invited them to repent of the sins that they broke if they have ever broken the Law of Chastity or Word of Wisdom. Right now, they are super set on being baptized and super excited about it. This family´s name is La Familia Pollini. To be honest, they are kinda slow. But they have great desires to be baptized and to follow God. There are 3 in the family. There is a man named Martín, who is pretty slow mentally, but has the biggest desire out of all them. The wife of Martín is named Rosa and she is pretty smart at remembering what we have taught. She has a daughter named Rosio. She is 14 years old and I am pretty nervous about her. She has desires to be baptized, but it´s kinda like, ehhh sure...maybe it´s because she doesn´t have many friends in the church. So we are starting to get that going. Anyways, I am super excited for this Saturday that it is going to be my first baptism! Woooo! There is going to be another family that is going to be baptized. Natalia and Marcos. Elder Neyra has been working with them for 4 months and now they are finally prepared to be baptized. Natalia had a problem with smoking, but now she is super awesome and will be a great member. Marcos has a habit, where whenever he watches a BOCA game, he drinks one bottle of beer. He says he has a desire of 5 to quit. We told him he needs to stop right now or can´t get baptized. He has a testimony, but is a testimony of a kid. Small, but it is there. So 5 baptisms this weekend! Ahhh! It´s crazy! I´m actually super nervous.

We also had a wedding this week. One of our investigators named Angel got married to a menos-activo. Weddings in Argentina are kinda lame actually. All they really do is sign a paper, say a couple words and people throw rice on them. Pretty exciting, right? Then we went over to their little house and had mini pizzas and sandwiches. Weddings here are pretty rare because everyone lives together and live with their girlfriends and boyfriends. They live together for like 10 years too without getting married. There´s no price in getting married, people are just too lazy to do it. Kinda lame really.

We also did service this week with Martín in his house that he owns. Sorry to say, but it was the grossest house ever...It was full of trash on one side and full of trash on the other side. So instead of putting the trash in a dumpster, we put sand over it to cover it up and make it look nicer. I don´t know if that is good or not. But it was pretty easy because we did service with 6 other Elders. At least I got to wear normal clothes again hehe. 

Well...I didn´t get robbed, shot or stabbed this week. I did hear a lot of gun shots this week so that is pretty exciting.

I started reading Ensigns again and I found a talk by President Monson again. I will send the link to it, but it talks about having compassion on people. After I read it, I just wanted to make cookies for someone and give it to someone that was having a hard day. I invite each and everyone of you to go to a less-active and befriend them. Our job as children of God is to help others return to the iron rod and receive eternal life. I promise that if you guys do this, you will have so much happiness in your life that you won´t even describe it. I love you all so much!

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2007/03/the-gift-of-compassion?lang=eng&query=compassion

Besitos,

Elder Grant Evans

EMERGENCY TRANSFERS.

Querido todos,

Well, from you guys now already from my "subject," I am get ET´d. So I got to stay in Gutierrez for 2 weeks. I am now going to Banfield, where President lives, and going to a place called El Faro. It is a Villa o sea, a place where people get robbed, stabbed, and shot. Hopefully, none of that happens here. I´m gonna be praying a lot. We are getting ET´d because there are a ton of sister missionaries in the mission and they need to be in safe areas. And our area is safe so we are getting the boot. My new comp is Peruvian. I can´t remember his name right now. Apparently, he has had a lot of success over there. So maybe I can get my first baptism there! That would be pretty awesome. To be honest, I´m kinda nervous to go over to a Villa. I have heard some crazy stories. I guess this is my test to put my trust in the Lord. Just having some fun in the Buenos Aires South mission. At least Spanish is getting better.

 

Another crazy thing that happened this week was that a TORNADO struck our area! It didn´t do much, it just flipped a car and that is basically it. People were starting to freak out though. We went to go do some contacts and nobody was out on the streets! They were so scared to come out. Pretty sad actually. This week kinda blew too. We taught 5 lessons total. We had about 5 lessons set everyday and nobody wanted to talk to us, except for a couple people. But it´s all good. Elder Kilgore and I have missed the states this week. He loves talking about girls, sports and home. So it was a little trunky moments every now and then. And saying stuff about Argentina and how weird it is. Maybe it is just weird in our mission. I heard that northern Argentina is beautiful. Maybe I will go there one day.

 

Wow, this letter is really short today. I am continuing reading the Bible and it´s funny see some people and say, ¨Yeah Jesus taught that we can make babies whenever we want" and stuff like that and think to yourself, yeah...He didn´t teach that, sorry. I have been reading True to the Faith and it is super interesting! Pretty inspiring at parts too! Well. That´s all I have for this week! Elder Kilgore is doing great and he is headed to a place called Chascamus. It´s a place where there are more cows than people so he is going to love it. Total Redneck he is. I hope you are all reading your scriptures! We need that "daily bread" in our lives to stay happy! Praying is very important too! I´d love to hear from all the family next time. I feel like I haven´t gotten a letter from some of you in a while. Love to hear from you!

 

Besitos,

Elder Grant Evans

Transfers!

Hola todos! This week was pretty busy. First off, I want to everyone single one of my family and say that letters are 100% true. I am writing honest letters. Argentina is kinda lame with computers and I can´t send pictures every week. Second, I got transferred! I am in the zone of Quilmes. It´s in the capital basically and my area is called Gutierrez A. Finally in an A area. I was always in like Jonesboro 4 or Villa Gesell B. Basically the last area. Not saying that is bad or anything like that.

 

We went to the temple this week too. It was a pretty crazy story. So Thursday, La Familia Behotas, gave me and Elder Robison a farewell type thing. We had food and took pictures. The way Mormon Argentines have farewells. We stayed pretty late and we had to take a bus to the temple at 230 in the morning on Friday. So the whole night I just packed until 230 in the morning and we took the bus to the temple. Except there was a problem. There are 18 people in our zone and 19 seats in this bus. We have 10 suitcases with 5 backpacks to add to that. There wasn´t any room to put the suitcases in the trunk. So we put the suitcases in the aisle of the bus. Most uncomfortable 7 hours I have ever been in a bus. I slept on the bus about 1 hour. We finally arrive to the temple and we put our luggage in the visitors center and go do a session in the temple. It was a really good experience. Even though it was in Spanish, I could still understand what was happening. Got some prayers answered and it was great. Afterwards, I went to the distribution center and bought The Restoration DVD for investgators to watch. After that, taxi took Elder Robison, Elder Castillo, and I to Banfield. Elder Castillo and I stayed with some missionaries to work for the weekend. While Elder Robison went with the assistants to go do stuff before he left to Utah. While I was working with the Elders in Banfield, bunch of little things happened. I saw a dead animal in a pile of garbage on the side of the road. I think it was a dead cat. A little mini-flood happened, good thing we were teaching a lesson as it happened, and...a boy pulled a pistol on us! These three boys were playing on the other side of the street while we clapped a house and so the three boys came up to us and one said to the other, "Dale, Dale!" and so the other boy took out a gun and told us to give him our money. Lame thing was, it was a toy gun. It looked so fake that I can´t even explain. So we just kept walking and they left us alone. The next day was church and the Elders that we stayed with, 9 investigators came church and they all have baptismal dates. I have never seen anything like before! Then, after church, we tried to contact some people and as we were walking, the assistants picked us up and told us that Elder Castillo and I were going to stay at their place for the night before transfers. So we went to the offices and Elder Robison and hung out while they were doing numbers for the mission. We had 23 baptisms this week. Wooo! I thought that was pretty good. I hear that the area I am in right now that nothing happens. It´s a bunch of fields and not much city. The bishop here isn´t very nice. A lot of members have been offended by him, but I hear that the members are great.

 

I am really bummed that Elder Robison left today. He seriously was my best friend here. Now he has to be lame and go back to Utah and find a wife. I told him tht before I get back, he is going to be married. I can´t write about my feelings for him, but I consider him to be my brother and love him just as much as I love you guys. I know you don´t think I don´t love you very much because I don´t send photos every week and my letters are very short, but I want to make one thing clear. I love you guys. I love you more than you can even imagine. I wish I could write you hand-written letters every week and send pictures, the truth is that I do not have the resources to do all you guys want every week. I appreciate your letters every week and I am super excited that I have the opportunity to read them. Don´t ever think that I don´t love you guys because that is a lie. I love you each and every single one of you with all my heart. Please keep sending letters and your love. I know the church to be true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.

 

Con amor,

Elder Grant Evans

Transfers

Hola todos! This week was pretty busy. First off, I want to everyone single one of my family and say that letters are 100% true. I am writing honest letters. Argentina is kinda lame with computers and I can´t send pictures every week. Second, I got transferred! I am in the zone of Quilmes. It´s in the capital basically and my area is called Gutierrez A. Finally in an A area. I was always in like Jonesboro 4 or Villa Gesell B. Basically the last area. Not saying that is bad or anything like that.

 

We went to the temple this week too. It was a pretty crazy story. So Thursday, La Familia Behotas, gave me and Elder Robison a farewell type thing. We had food and took pictures. The way Mormon Argentines have farewells. We stayed pretty late and we had to take a bus to the temple at 230 in the morning on Friday. So the whole night I just packed until 230 in the morning and we took the bus to the temple. Except there was a problem. There are 18 people in our zone and 19 seats in this bus. We have 10 suitcases with 5 backpacks to add to that. There wasn´t any room to put the suitcases in the trunk. So we put the suitcases in the aisle of the bus. Most uncomfortable 7 hours I have ever been in a bus. I slept on the bus about 1 hour. We finally arrive to the temple and we put our luggage in the visitors center and go do a session in the temple. It was a really good experience. Even though it was in Spanish, I could still understand what was happening. Got some prayers answered and it was great. Afterwards, I went to the distribution center and bought The Restoration DVD for investgators to watch. After that, taxi took Elder Robison, Elder Castillo, and I to Banfield. Elder Castillo and I stayed with some missionaries to work for the weekend. While Elder Robison went with the assistants to go do stuff before he left to Utah. While I was working with the Elders in Banfield, bunch of little things happened. I saw a dead animal in a pile of garbage on the side of the road. I think it was a dead cat. A little mini-flood happened, good thing we were teaching a lesson as it happened, and...a boy pulled a pistol on us! These three boys were playing on the other side of the street while we clapped a house and so the three boys came up to us and one said to the other, "Dale, Dale!" and so the other boy took out a gun and told us to give him our money. Lame thing was, it was a toy gun. It looked so fake that I can´t even explain. So we just kept walking and they left us alone. The next day was church and the Elders that we stayed with, 9 investigators came church and they all have baptismal dates. I have never seen anything like before! Then, after church, we tried to contact some people and as we were walking, the assistants picked us up and told us that Elder Castillo and I were going to stay at their place for the night before transfers. So we went to the offices and Elder Robison and hung out while they were doing numbers for the mission. We had 23 baptisms this week. Wooo! I thought that was pretty good. I hear that the area I am in right now that nothing happens. It´s a bunch of fields and not much city. The bishop here isn´t very nice. A lot of members have been offended by him, but I hear that the members are great.

 

I am really bummed that Elder Robison left today. He seriously was my best friend here. Now he has to be lame and go back to Utah and find a wife. I told him tht before I get back, he is going to be married. I can´t write about my feelings for him, but I consider him to be my brother and love him just as much as I love you guys. I know you don´t think I don´t love you very much because I don´t send photos every week and my letters are very short, but I want to make one thing clear. I love you guys. I love you more than you can even imagine. I wish I could write you hand-written letters every week and send pictures, the truth is that I do not have the resources to do all you guys want every week. I appreciate your letters every week and I am super excited that I have the opportunity to read them. Don´t ever think that I don´t love you guys because that is a lie. I love you each and every single one of you with all my heart. Please keep sending letters and your love. I know the church to be true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.

 

Con amor,

Elder Grant Evans

EIGHT MONTHS!

Hola todos!

Well this Wednesday, I will have 8 months in the mission and 4 in Argentina. I am so surprised that I only have 4 months in Argentina and I can speak to people pretty well. So a crazy thing happened this week, well not really. I have lost about 37 pounds on the mission. I am now 213 pounds. I like the way I feel and everything, the problem is just that my clothes don´t fit anymore. Well, I have had my pants tailored and everything, but my suit from Christensen´s does not fit anymore. The one that Mom and I just bought. Maybe if anybody is just looking to lose weight. Just do the Argentine missionary diet. Walk about 3 miles everyday and eat only breakfast, which is 2 eggs and a big lunch and drink lots of water. 100% guarantee with no interest. This week was pretty good. First I was sick, but I am a lot better now. There was another storm that happened here. So I totally got wet again. It´s okay because it is supposed to be wife points right? That´s what they say anyway. So it is kinda weird working in the coast. Everywhere you go, people just don´t wear shirts. Whether you are a guy or a girl. You just don´t wear them. It´s not cool to wear shirts I guess. But it is a whatever thing. Kinda used to it by now. 

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges this week with Elder Robison. We didn´t do very much that day, but we did go to eat some ice cream. The ice cream here is good, it´s just missing something. American ice cream is where it is at. During the exchange, Elder Flores went to go see Carmen Sosa to see how she was doing and it turns out, she knows the Book of Mormon is true and the José Smith was a prophet! She said she is still willing to be baptized, she just wants her husband to participate in the lessons with us. Her date is for the 22 of Februrary. Transfers are on the 10 and I would really like to stay here for one more transfer just to see Carmen´s baptism. 

During my exchange with Elder Riboldi, Elder Robison´s companion, we talked to a lot of people but none of them had a lot of potential that have been prepared. But Elder Flores went over to Fabian and well, Fabian knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that José Smith was a prophet. His date is for the 1st of March. We committed him to come to church, but sadly he didn´t come.

Church was pretty exciting though. As we were having fast and testimony meeting. We hear some people yelling outside. Turns out, a guy had robbed the restaurant next door and went to the church to hide from the police. Ya know...I´m not even surprised that even happened. Weird stuff happens in Argentina. Super weird that I am calm and happy in the mission. Argentina doesn´t contribute to it at all. It is what I am doing here that makes me happy. The church is definitely true. If you do not have a solid confirmation that this the church of Jesus Christ. I invite you to kneel down and ask God sincerely if this is the church that Jesus Christ established. I love you all and hope this letter was better than my other ones.

Con amor,

Elder Grant Evans