Elder Hunter Wayne Cook
Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission
C.C. No. 92
1702 Ciudadela
Buenos Aires
Argentina

Elder Cook’s mission cannot receive packages from the U.S. :(

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

First Transfer Done! {Week 12}

Wow I can’t believe that I’ve already been in Argentina for 6 weeks!  It’s crazy!  So conference was great!  I hope you all got to watch it.  If not, go watch it on lds.org haha.  So this week was a lucha haha.  We had a lot of things go wrong.  Elder Paskett and I were both sick throwing up for 2 days in the pench, which was no fun, but we got over that.  We were in charge of holding a noche de hogar (family home evening) for our ward on Friday.  It was supposed to be on the family.  So we decided to do an activity with cookies.  We made bad cookies with no sugar and a ton of salt and gave them to them at the beginning of the lesson, which represented a family that hasn’t put in all the right ingredients (found in The Family Proclamation).  Then we had a lesson and taught about the different ingredients we need and gave them good cookies that the Hermana’s made.  Haha it was really fun but the stuggle was so real with us trying to make the cookies!  First of all we didnt even know how.. we just started pouring flour, water, salt, eggs, and milk into a bowl and started mixing it.  hahaha We dumped a whole bag of salt in.  We didn’t have a recipe so we just guessed on everything.  Then our oven is warmed by fire and there’s no temperature settings, so we were hoping that they would just cook.   They ended up being really salty, flattened rolls with m&ms in them!  haha I guess we accomplished what we were trying to do though, because we were trying to make horrible ones... Luckily the Hermana’s were in charge of the good ones.  

Then of course the highlight of the week was General Conference!  I was super excited for it because Elder Paskett was telling me that they always have an English room for the missionaries to watch it.  But of course, my luck.. they didn’t!  I was super bummed haha. But I was actually able to understand a lot of it.  Something that was really cool is during the hymns that everyone stands and sings together, they of course have it broadcasted in English, with English subtitles on the screen.  But everyone in the stake center grabbed hymn books and sang it in Spanish.  So it was really really powerful to hear the English and Spanish being sang at the same time!  Really neat experience!  Then we were told that they were going to try to get an English room for us for Sunday and we got there, and they had one, but they couldn’t figure out how to set it up!  So we ended up listening to half of it in Spanish and watching half of it in English on someone’s Ipad! haha  I’ll send pics.  All of the yankee missionaries (that’s what they call americans here, but it’s pronounced Shahnkee) were all huddled around the Ipad haha.  

Something that I’ve learned this week is that I need to be a consecrated missionary!  That is the key.  “There are many good and even great missionaries in every mission but there are only a handfull of consecrated missionaries."  There is an amazing talk that we are reading about it and one thing that me and Elder Paskett have been trying to do to help us be more consecrated, is talk to EVERYONE and have a "24 hour smile!”  I have seen this has made SUCH A DIFFERENCE!  Even if we are discouraged or we aren’t having a very good day, when we just force a smile as we are walking down the street, it just ends up actually MAKING YOU HAPPY!  And people see you and are more likely be drawn to you and want to talk because they can see your happiness radiating!  Also it’s a promise that we will be led to those who are prepared to receive the gosepel if we open our mouths and our happy. 

 So.. this Sunday we left the morning session to go get an investigator to come and watch the afternoon session with us.  I realized that I wasn’t smiling as I was walking so I started too.  We walked for a couple blocks and then I started to turn left down a road.  I had no idea why because I knew where we were walking too.  I was confused and I turned back to keep going where we were headed but I saw this red house.  The moment I saw it, I knew that I needed to go knock on it.  I told Elder Paskett that I didn’t know why my body just turned that way, but I knew that we needed to go talk to whoever lived in that red house.  So we did and it turns out it was a single lady that was baptized 10 or so years back that is struggling with 2 kids.  She has been inactive probably since she was baptized, but I know that she needs the gospel in her life right now!  I know that the Spirit directed me to her house because I was opening my mouth and because I was trying to be happy.  We are going to teach her this week!  I’m super excited!
I know that when we do the things that we have been asked by God, he will direct our paths.

Well, I hope that you all have an awesome week!  Love you all!

Elder Cook

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