Con Dios, Todos es Posible {Week 27}

We made tacos

HOLA! Okay I don't know where to start.  The weeks are starting to blend together and I can't remember what I have already wrote, and what I haven't.  So this week was just a "normal" week.  Nothing odd really happened... But about mi querido amigo, Nahuel, we are working with him, but he doesn't want to progress.  He knows that the Book of Mormon is true and what happened with Joseph Smith is true, but he doesn't want to leave his religion. (He's Catholic.)  Down here in South America, at least in Argentina, Catholicisim is more of a tradition than a religion.  By being baptized and becoming a mormon, he would be separating himself from his family´s tradition.  We are still visiting him, but right now he doesn't want to progress.  But I know without a doubt, all he needs is time.  The seed is planted.  At some time in his life I know that he is going to accept the gospel.  I still pray for him everyday.  He has become one of my greatest friends.  He wants to come to the states to live and now he wants to come to Utah!!  I still have faith and hope that he will accept it.

 

Yummy lunch last P-day

Also, this week we had a "capilla abierta" open chapel.  Which is where we open the doors to the chapel and have banners and stations and everything for the public to come in and see how our church is.  We got a lot of references from it and it was really fun!  My part of the tour was me and Elder Rojas were dressed in baptismal clothes and stood by the font and talked about baptism.  We actually challenged people to be baptized and a lot of people accepted!!  Miracles come from open chapels!  I'll send pictures.

 

Everyone who helped run "Open Chapel". The guy next to me used to be a mission president in Chile

Capilla Abierta

I love our branch president!  President Lettieri (He's Italian of course!)

Also, for my 6 month cumple mes, we bought 14 empanadas and had an "empanada cake" with a 6 candle in it!!  haha It was really fun and really good!!  I'll send a picture of that too!

Empanada cake for my 6 months!!

I'm really loving Elder Warner as my companion! He's so awesome!  We are SUPER similar in everything that we do.  It's super weird actually.  But yeah, just a usual week in the service of the Lord.  Speaking of service we also helped weed a yard that was COVERED in weed trees that were prickly!  

Giant prickly weeds before the missionaries helped!

After!

This week I challenge everyone who reads this letter to go out and serve someone!  Serve someone random or someone you know.  It can be simple, but DO IT!  If you do it, send me an email and tell me what you did!  I'm excited to read them!

 

Outside of our pench

Our kitchen...after I cleaned it!

Our front room.

Stairs going up to the bedrooms

Love you all!

Elder Cook

6 Mesas ya? {Week 26}

Wow! The 15th of January is my 6 month mark!! That’s so weird! I feel like I just started my misión (sorry computer is autocorrecting in Spanish) and now I’m a quarter of the way done!  It’s super sad!  But this week was awesome!! I’m really enjoying my time with Elder Warner! He is awesome!! haha We are SUPER similar and think the same way, so I'm basically just living with a clone of myself! haha Super funny!

 

So hot!! Ice bath...water running on his head haha

This week was amazing, but also sad!!  We taught Nahuel (the kid on the moto).  So he wants to learn English so he can go to the states, so we taught him English at first then we taught him the restoration!  Oh my goodness!  It was the most spiritual lesson I have had on my misión yet.  We got to Joseph Smith’s experience and while Elder Warner was relating the first visión, the spirit came into the room SOOOO STRONG!!  We waited in silence for a little while, and then asked how he was feeling.  He said "muy raro" (really weird).  We asked him to describe it and he said he couldn’t, it was just in his heart and he felt really weird!!!   We told him that it was the spirit and how it testified of the truth of things.  We finished teaching and asked him to offer the prayer and pray to know if these things were true and the spirit was so strong!!  He said amen and we were just surrounded by the spirit.  We sat in silence for probably 2 minutes while the spirit was working in his heart.  He started to cry and said that he had never felt a feeling like this is his entire life!  It was amazing!  We challenged him to be baptized but he said he didn't know, and that he wanted to wait to see.  We went by the next day and he had read the chapter in the BoM that we left him and he told us that the whole time that he was reading the chapter he had the same "raro" feeling!!  He said that he knew what happened with Joseph Smith was true and the BoM was true!  So AMAZING!!  He said he had never felt what he’s feeling right now from doing these things in his life before.  I have truly grown so much love for him and I can feel the greatest joy in my heart!

Service

Service

 

We did service-built a house

I remember my seminary teacher, Brother Christiansen, told me, "You will experience the greatest joy that you can ever imagine" (in my misión).  I hadn’t experienced that joy until now.  Wow I can’t describe it!!  It’s just a continuous joy and love!!!  I’m so sorry I want to write more but I’m out of time!!  Just Nahuel is a miracle!!  We are just working with him on the baptism thing because he’s really Catholic.  So we have been praying and praying and fasting for him!! 

That’s the miracle of the week.  Sorry I can’t explain it more.  I will next week!!

The misión is THE BEST!!  Experiences like these are definitely worth any and all of the trials and hard times!!

Love you all!! Have a great week!!

Elder Cook

Mercedes B With Elder Warner {Week 25}

Wow this week was crazy!! First of all, sorry that I haven’t sent out an email for like 3 weeks.  Things have been really crazy and I had a ton of emails to respond to and didn’t have time!!! So late Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! haha 

So on Tuesday I got my new comp! Elder Warner! He’s from Provo and he has 1 year on the mission!! He’s awesome!! We are super similar and get along really well!!!  We have been having a really good time here in Mercedes.  Something that I have learned so far on my mission is that patience and perseverance are key in life! haha December was a really hard month for me in a lot of ways, but I have learned that if we are patient in our afflictions, and keep going, things will get better!  Sometimes it’s just hard to be patient! haha.  But I truly know that God knows exactly what we need at the exactly right time.  

 

Elder Warner and I 

So this week we found someone awesome.  What happened, was a couple of weeks ago, we were waiting at a stop light on our bikes, and there was a kid on a motorcycle that was waiting too.  We were both trying to turn right (but here it’s illegal to turn right on a red)  So we were waiting and all of a sudden he turned to me and yelled "Where are you from?" in English!! That really caught me off guard! So I told him the US, then we started talking, but the light turned green, so we kept talking as we turned the corner. It was the weirdest contact though because after the light turned green, we kept talking after we turned for like 4 blocks! Riding side by side!! haha finally we pulled over and started to talk a little more. Turns out that he really loves English and wants to live in the states.  He was only 18 but he looks like he’s 26! He’s really cool! So we got his direction and went to the appointment that we had.  Later that night we were unlocking the door to the pench and all of a sudden a car honked at us!  It was him!!! He was driving to the store and he saw us opening our pench door! haha super weird!! 2 times in one night!! He’s awesome and it was a miracle to find him!! Tonight we have another appointment with him!  I’ll let you know how it goes!

We love our green Spanish books! (For all of you learning Spanish for your missions, use this! IT IS THE BEST!!) It is what makes you fluent faster! haha

Also, oh my goodness I am DYING OF HEAT!!! hahaha It is seriously SO HOTTT HERE!  I have a thermometer on my alarm clock and in our room it’s a good 90 degrees 24 hours a day!!  One night I wasn’t able to go to sleep because it was so hot and I was just laying on top of my bed until midnight.  Finally I had an idea, so I got up, went to the freezer and put some ice in zip lock bags.  I made 2 icepacks and laid them on my face/body in order to fall asleep! haha I’ve never been so hot in my life!  Then, that same night I woke up at like 4am dying again, but that time I was able to fall back asleep!! But it’s so crazy! I never thought that I would be this hot here!!  It’s also SUPER HUMID!! Like 90-100% every day here in Mercedes!  I’ve gotten used to just taking pure cold showers morning and night!! haha Elder Rojas my old comp always takes ice baths, I took a picture I send it (he takes them in his clothes so his clothes can stay wet and keep him cool) but yeah.  That’s the weather in Argentina right now.  How is it for you guys? haha

 

Downtown Mercedes, in front of the Catholic Cathedral

Well I love you all tons!!  I hope that you all have an amazing week!!

Un Abrazo,

Elder Cook

Christmas!! {Week 23/24}

Temple Picture

So we were able to talk to Elder Cook on Skype on Christmas!!  It was so good to see him and hear his voice!  He looked good and sounded good and his Spanish sounds amazing! He bore his testimony to us in Spanish and said a family prayer with us.  

He explained his area as similar to Provo.  There is a Mercedes A, Mercedes B and a Mercedes C (This is where the sisters are, it is in the middle of the city and is more safe.)

Elder Cook and his companion have the bigger areas, Mercedes A and Mercedes B.

He said that the missionary book about these areas had not been updated since last July, so him and his companion have been trying to figure it all out.  On transfers (Dec. 29th) he will be getting a new companion and be given either Mercedes A or B and his current companion will also get a new companion and be given the other Mercedes area.  The four of them will share the same pench.  

Christmas Eve

1.   How many people are in your new ward?  Is it smaller than your last ward in Castelar? 

 It is bigger, but most EVERYONE is inactive.

2.   How was your trip to the temple?  It was amazing!!  I loved it,  but I forgot my camera.

3.    What did you get to do on Christmas Eve?  We had dinner with the sister missionaries at a member's house.  What about on Christmas?  It was just like a normal day for us.  Christmas is hard for all the missionaries.  The calls are for the families.

That was all we got from him this week!

December 14, 2015 {Week 22}

If any of you have time, please send Elder Cook a letter or card to wish him a Merry Christmas!  HE WOULD LOVE IT!!!!!

Please send any mail to:

Elder Hunter Cook

Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission

C.C. No. 92

1702 Ciudadela

Buenos Aires

Argentina

This is all we got from him this week!

We had a multi-religious choir!! Catholics, Methodists, Evangelists and Mormons...
These are all the Mormons!!  The Mercedes Branch

-Elder Cook

FLASH!!!! {Week 21}

Last night with Elder Starr on the roof

Okay so this was the weirdest and hardest week of my mission probably!!! haha

So on Tuesday we got a call from President who said that he was going to open up Mercedes B (we are supposed to be in a pench of 4 but there is only 2 of us, so we are running the whole city by ourselves.)  So he said he was going to send 2 new elders out on Wednesday to open up the other half of the city.  We went home to start getting everything ready for them, and then 2 hours later we got another call from President and he said that he needed Elder Starr to go be a zone leader in Marcos Paz so I was going to get a new companion too!!  (This is called a flash because it's not in line with transfer meeting.)  So on Wednesday, Elder Starr left and 3 new elders came to Mercedes.  My new companion is Elder Rojas.  He is from Chile and he has 16 months on his mission.  This is good because now I really am going to learn Spanish haha!

My new comp. Elder Rojas from Chile

But then on Thursday, President called us again and took the 2 elders out of Mercedes B so he just left me and Elder Rojas!!!  SUPER WEIRD!!  So I just swapped companions basically!! haha 

Elder Dye and I on divisions!

Catholic Basilica in Lujan

But this has been super difficult for me because I don't really know the area very well or any of the people!!  But I'm expected to because I've been here for 2 weeks.  So it's been really difficult to know where to go, who to visit, and explain to my companion, who speaks Spanish, about all of our different investigators and menos activo familias that we are working with!!  Super FRUSTRATING!!!  Oh my goodness!! haha.  But yeah.  This has by far been the hardest challenge that I have had so far.  One of the hardest weeks of my life!!  I was sick on Saturday too throwing up, so that was a plus! haha 

Then on Sunday we had to go to Lujan for a training from the AP's.  But we didn't know how to get there by bus since we are both new!!  Finally after waiting at the bus stop for an hour we got on the right bus and got to Lujan, but then we didn't know where the church was in Lujan or where to get off!! hahaha So we got off like 40 blocks away... We went to call the elders of Lujan and we realized that we left the cell phone on the bus!!!!!  ahhhhhh!!! hahah so many problems!!  So we ended up taking a taxi... and luckily the taxi driver knew where the Capilla Mormon was! hahha  But yeah so the struggle has been REALLY REAL this week!  haha So I'm hoping that this week will be a lot better!  I know that after the trial and sacrifice comes the blessings, so I'm trying my hardest to hope for the best!!!  I know that Satan is trying really hard to discourage us, which means that we are close to finding "Nuestra Querida Familia"!!! 

River in Campo

So thanks so much for all of your prayers!! They really do help a ton!!

That's something that I have learned from this past week is the power of prayer!  We can pray at any time for anything!!  I don't know how many countless hours I've spent on my knees so far on my mission.  Especially this week!!  I love the song " Sweet Hour of Prayer."  "Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from a world of care, and bids me at my Father's throne, make all my wants and wishes known.  In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found RELIEF"!! I love my Father in Heaven and I am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to speak with him!  I know that he hears and answers every prayer that we offer!!  I know that he "matches with his own, the tears his children shed." 

We got caught in the biggest rainstorm ever and the roads all flooded

Rain haha

I testify that I know that trials really are what make us stronger.  They are HARD and HORRIBLE sometimes, but they really are for our good!  They are "The Lords mercies in disguise".  So to any of you who are going thru a tough trial, DONT GIVE UP!!  Christ is there.  Your Father in Heaven is there.  Just a prayer away!!

Love you all!! Thanks so much for all of your prayers in behalf of me, and all the other missionaries throughout the world!!

I love it here!

Elder Cook

Happy late Thanksgiving!!! {Week 20}

Okay, I dont know where to begin...  This week I had my first division with a Latino!  I was super nervous because I didn’t know how well I’d be able to communicate, but it was AWESOME!!  I was able to understand everything and speak everything that I wanted too!  I was with Elder Churasco from Chile.  He’s 26 and he’s awesome.  I’ll send photos!  

Elder Churasco

Also, I LOVE Mercedes!  It’s awesome here and the people are super nice!  It’s super weird though.  It's completely like a little Europe!  Everyone here is from a European descent.  Mostly Italians.  So I get a lot of good food!  They are nice too.  But they have their European pride haha. That’s a little difficult to work with, but we’re doing our best!  We have this awesome family in our branch who have a deep Italiano descent and they gave us lunch on Thanksgiving!  That was super awesome!  Hermana Cappacio made us a stuffed turkey with rolls and mashed potatoes, and we brought a gravy mix packet that we had!  It was super good and she made PUMPKIN PIE!   She is super awesome!   I love that family a ton!  So that was sweet...  

 

She dressed up like an Indian and has us be the cowboys haha

Thanksgiving dinner

Pumpkin pie!!!

Thanksgiving dinner--best meal from Argentina yet!

This week was a tough one though.  My comp, Elder Starr, was really sick.  We weren't able to teach as much as we would have liked to.  His body has problems with Argentina and the climate.  Right now it's getting better though because it’s getting A LOT warmer!  It seriously is like 100 degrees and a lot of the days feel like 100 percent humidity!  But I guess that’s just Argentina for ya.  I’m glad I’m not freezing in Utah right now!  

Today we went to the Lujan Zoo!!!  That was AWESOME!!  I got to get in the cage with Lions and Tigers and Bears and Elephants and a bunch of animals!!  It was sweet and I have a ton of pictures!

Something that I learned this week and put into practice because of Thanksgiving, is about how strong gratitude actually really is!  I have found that every time that I feel a little down, sad, or tired I offer a prayer just of thanks.  Thanking God for everything that I do have and everything that I really am grateful for!  It really changes my way of thought and my feelings EVERY TIME!!  I challenge you all to try it.  It seriously helps a ton!  I’m grateful for all of you and for everything that you guys have done for me in my life!  I’m grateful for the opportunity I have to serve my Savior and help my brothers and sisters.  I encourage anyone who is thinking about going on a mission to DO IT!!!  It seriously is the best thing ever!  Don’t get me wrong, it’s the hardest thing that I’ve ever done, but it definitely is the best!  I’m grateful for this opportunity and it’s already going TOO FAST!!  I’ve almost been out for 5 months!!  So crazy!!

Well, I love you all!!

Elder Cook