February 25, 2008

Hello!

This week flew by pretty quick. Sunday was excellent! We had lots of people in sacrament meeting and many investigators too. An excellent family and others!

The work is going very well! Elder Petersen and I are working hard to improve our teaching and other aspects of the work and we are seeing the benefits.

Anyways, next P-day or the one after will be Tuesday. The P-day is changing to Tuesday for a mission reason.

Also, this is the last week of the transfer so I could be leaving the area but I'm pretty sure that I'll be staying for another transfer with Elder Petersen. I will let you know one week from now!

Take care!

Elder Kelly

February 19, 2008

Hello!

Well a great week... Start from last Monday and a sad story..

Well, I got those baseball gloves and that squishy t-ball for Christmas.. I thought to myself "I wonder why mom didn't send a real, hard baseball, but oh well this one is just fine." So me and my comp went to the park last Monday to toss the baseball a bit. Then we started practicing a little pitching. There was a fence right behind my comp as I pitched to him. The park was almost completely empty. I whipped out the 4 seam fastball, and the ball flew over my comp, over the fence and went directly into the leg of the only person visible within a mile...

...a three year old with an ice cream cone. You should have seen his face.... As a frantically searched through my bag for candy to give the child to curb his pain, I said a silent prayer of gratitude for the wisdom of a mother who knew her son´s 4 seam fastball well enough to send him a soft baseball instead of hard one. Thanks mom =)

That was Monday...

Yesterday was an excellent Sunday!! First we had a baptism. The baptism was excellent. The spirit was so strong. But before the baptism we had been praying every night so that the Father of the kids who were to be baptized would come. He is a very inactive member and said he was not going to come to the baptism.

A week of prayers with our Ward mission leader took place. Finally, right before the baptisms (during the service but right before the ordinance) he showed up. Our ward mission leader and the bishop teared up because they all knew him and our hearts were full of gratitude. The two children who were baptized are incredible and have strong testimonios, los dos. What's more, we had 3 inactive families and 3 families of investigators in the sacrament meeting and they all enjoyed it.

We had an incredible lunch and then ended the night with a FHE with an excellent family in which the mother teared up as she felt very much love for us and felt the spirit of the message. To top it off we got home and received a call from a youth in the ward who said his mother who was once very against the church was talking to the mother of his friend who is member and they were fixing up for a FHE.

All in all we were floored and humbled with the blessings we received that come through hard work and persistence. Our testimonies were strengthened and we know even more so that this is the Lord´s work and he directs us... I love you all, I'll send pictures next week. Thanks for your prayers!

Elder Kelly

ps.. In March my P-day switches to Tuesday... just a heads up

ps, elder wake.... A donde va en dos semanas!? Cuales son sus planes??

February 11, 2008

Hola!

Happy Valentine´s Day! It's nice to have something to celebrate every week, though I don't think we will be celebrating Valentine´s Day this year.

A great week. The mission as a whole is starting to work much more with the members. The focus of the mission is changing. We are having success in exciting the ward for the work. It is a great ward and we get along with them very well!

Elder Petersen is a great elder and already is doing divisions with the members! He's learning fast and doing great!!

We went to the Worldwide Leadership Training meeting and it was excellent. Not too much talk about the missionary work but great counsel for the family. I took lots of notes for later on... If you have the chance to see it again, I highly recommend it.

Not too much else has happened. We will be having a baptism this next Sunday and it will be great.

I hope everything is going well, that Ian and Jeremy and Dad are all recovering... Love you all!

Elder Kelly

February 4, 2008

Hola buen dia,

Great week has come on gone. I got two packages this week, the 12 days of Christmas package and Marion´s Christmas-birthday package. I was floored. Thank you very much, Tim´s Jalapeño chips are my favorite and the baseball gloves are a smash hit with the youth and my comp. We throw the ball at night to rest a bit and it really helps with the normal mission stress.


We didn't see the funeral of president Hinckley because we were working but the sacrament meeting was very nice. Everyone shared their testimony on what they had learned from President Hinckley and we all sang "God be with you till we Meet again". Very spiritual.

We will be praying for the family. But the work of the Lord continues!! and we anxiously await the calling of President Monson in April!! My comp is awesome and we are working well together. He is learning very rapidly and soon we will be teaching 50/50.


I hope your week was great and that the next is even better.

With love,

Elder KELLY

January 28, 2008

Hello,

Happy Birthday Michael!!!! Everyone make him have an awesome time for me! South America misses you!

Anyways, just for a quick perspective check.... I am in the area of Parque Leloir in the Zone of Castelar. This is my second transfer here and this is the first week of the six-week transfer. I´m training Elder Petersen who arrived in B.A. one week ago. He´s from Pleasant Grove Utah and is an excellent guy and will be the next assistant. (He kind of reminds me of Quince). Parque Leloir is my third area and Elder Petersen is my 8th companion in the mission. (Elder´s Decker, Rutter, Foster, Bracken, Zamora, Gavilan, Pollock, and Petersen). Let me know if you want to know more.

The area is excellent and Elder Petersen´s first week was too. We are working very hard still with the youth of the ward and they are great! We have some baptismal dates and some soon to come. Elder P understands alot and is already speaking very well even though he wont tell you so. We are going to be working even harder this next week to keep up the excitement and have a great transfer. I'm running low on time so I have to cut this email short, but know that I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!

Brad... cuales son sus planes ahorra? Se va a estudiar? Lo que puede hacer Ud. es escribirme noticias en los comentarios en Español en mi "blog" porque yo puedo leer este "blog". Bueno, mucho amor y que descanse de sus labores =)

Elder Steven Kelly!

January 21, 2008

Hola!

That´s it for another transfer. Last Sunday was a crazy one, for many reasons most of which aren´t really worthy of note.

We have been working a ton with our youth and have been doing divisions twice a week. They are a great group of youth and they will make great missionaries. We also are teaching some of the youth english on saturday´s.

Well I still cannot keep a companion. Elder Pollock is leaving the area to Merlo. I will be training a brand new Elder. I don´t know his name yet, tomorrow I will meet him. Right now he is in an airplane somwhere over Central America I´d imagine. Or on the other hand he might be sitting in the Buenos Aires MTC. Either way tomorrow we will meet.

We are looking forward to an excellent transfer and I am excited to work very hard to have success. We are still teaching a ton--it´s just the progression that gets us. I hope you all have great weeks and enjoy your trip to San Antonio.

Congratulations Brad!! Child of Light!! Seriously what an incredible accomplishment, I'm way proud of you and your accomplishments and thanks for your great example. Seriously, good form. Escuchá un poquito de EWyF por mi, y nos vemos en un año y pico. Te Amo hermanito.... y bueno no hay que casarse antés que yo llego. Todavía tenemos que relajar en una pileta en Provo gritando a los estudiantes.

I will talk to you all soon, much love to you all!

Elder Steven KELLY

January 14, 2008

Hello!

Good week! The work is going well, we are still finding lots of people to teach the trouble is finding them a second time and getting them to church, but still things are going well.

This might be the last week of Elder Pollock and I. The transfer ends this week so we will find out next Monday.

This week we havent been able to find the family that had a baptismal date. We made two more baptismal dates this week and we are very excited for them. They are both in the month of February.


This last week we went to the temple as a zone. It was most excellent. I had forgotten how much I love the temple and the spirit felt therein. The day after I had sort of temple withdrawls, but it was a great experience.

There was a missionary there who had just finished his mission in Bahía Blanca and was there with his Mom and family who didn't speak Spanish. It was pretty humorous to watch them get by.

Yesterday we had lunch with the Bishop and it was excellent! Not only did it taste excellent but Bishop´s family is great! It was the first time since the states I could talk music with someone! The bishop´s wife is the choir director for the stake and she loves MoTab as does the Bishop! They also know who the King Singer´s are! We talked for 30 minutes on the subject and then they put in a video of the MoTab singing for the 200 Anniversary of Joseph Smith Devotional and the Bishop did what Dad does, He turned up the volume of the Sound system till your ears hurt. It was Phenomenal. We are going to watch some more MoTab later on.

Well, The work continues I hope you are all doing very well, and enjoying yourselves. You are all so busy it sounds like. Take time to be holy...

With Love,
Elder Kelly



Happy Birthday!.... and Elder Duerden two christmas eve birthdays in the same zone...

January 7, 2008

Hello!

Happy New Years and Happy Birthday Mom and Darryl!

A great week here in Parque Leloir. We have been working very hard on getting people to come to church. It seems to be our main difficulty here but we plan to see improvement this next week.

The family who was going to be baptised moved away and we cant find them so we are praying that they will come back so we can know what happened to them.

We did divisions with two young men from the ward and it was enjoyable. This week we will be going to the temple and we are very excited. My third trip in Buenos Aires.

Me and Elder Pollock just finished a round of Golf!!! In Argentina!! It was excellent! It was on a military facility so we had to go ask the army personnel if we could play. They said yes but I had to give them my passport photocopy. Then they gave me an access badge. We played nine holes of Argentine golf... No fringe, greens like fringe, fairways like rough, rough like mountain meadows, and angry Argentine birds that attack you when you approach them. For the golfers, I shot a 48. It was a great little bit of P-day fun. I'll send pictures next week.

I hope you all have a very enjoyable week and love you all!

Elder Kelly

December 31, 2007

Hello Family!

Well Christmas has come and gone (por fin). And what a christmas it was. Christmas Eve Night we ate with a family a huge feast and this was after the lunch feast we had earlier in the day with our zone. It was excellent. That night we fell asleep a bit late and couldn't sleep because of the constant fireworks that were blowing up. Then we woke of Christmas morning and went to Ramos Mejiah to paint the fence of a hospital with our zone. Then I called home (which flew by!), and then we tried to go out and work but it was rather unsuccessful.

After Christmas I got a bit sick with migraines and fevers and had to stay in parts of Thursday and Friday and all of Saturday but by Sunday I was better. I attribute it to the powerful Sun and humidity and my stupidity in not taking care of myself with proper protection and water, I just wanted to be latin. But 12 advil and a couple lortabs later another lesson had been learned.. the hard way. I´ve decided thats the way I always learn, and i need to stop doing that.

Elder Faust said in a conference talk that learning comes much quicker and easier when you learn from the mistakes and advice of others... They started up daylight savings time again down here so now the sun is out until 9 ish. I heard it has something to do with conerving power. I'm fine with it. The mission might change the schedule up a little bit, well see.

With that I wish you all my best and a very Happy New Year for 2008! Talk to you soon!

Elder Kelly

[In the picture, he's in the front left sitting on the floor]

Christmas (St)eve pictures

This is the family of Daisy and her 5 daughters before i left




Nothing says Argentina better than goats and burning garbage