First week in Glew/ Happy Thanksgiving

First of all holy beard Brad! [His brother Brad is growing a beard for our Stake's Christmas Musical pageant--he is a wise man] Second, nice pics! Thats so awesome that you guys got to go to visit Aunt Bobette and Uncle Mike in Virginia. As for down here in Argentina we had a really normal week. For some reason nothing special happened.
Well lets start from the beginning, First of all I am with Elder Acuña and we get along really well. We have gotten to know each other really well because the members here never feed us, so he cooks lunch every day and we talk, then I do the dishes :) So ya. Um que mas...We are on bikes and the bikes are way old without gears and have old fashion back breaks. Ha! We are always having to put the chains back on cuz they always fall off. It also rained cats and dogs over here this past week. I think that's what made the work go so slow, so we tried to have some fun in the rain one day and had some bike races in the mud (we were already dirty because of the dirt/mud roads) so we just went crazy with that and doing fun contacts. So that night we got back to the pinch and I was calling the district like I always do at night as DL (District Leader) and one of the elders after our conversation said, O ya and Happy Thanksgiving. I had totally forgotten it was Thanksgiving that day, so Elder Acuña and I had some vegetables for dinner and said one thing we were thankful for. Then on Sunday it was just storming like crazy which made the assistance in church (people in church) a grand 24 members plus us, and zero investigators... so that was pretty much the first week... kinda boring, not much going for us. But we are not discouraged I can just feel there are tons of people waiting for us to clap their house. But its a nice area with a lot of dirt roads. Time is absolutely flying its crazy. I cant think of anything else to write, ask me some questions :) sorry its so short I'm just kinda tired and cant think of anything else.

lvlv

elder schupple

Transferred to Glew with Elder Acuna/ Ezezia farewell

OK the monitor in this computer place doesn't really work well. It works...but you just have too keep your finger on the button the entire time to see anything so I will be typing this letter blind this week. First of all to answer your question about the packages no I have never had to pay tarrifs and 2nd thing I was transferred which is sad but it happens. I am now in an area called Glew with a Chilean elder named Elder Acuña, so I'm kinda excited to be able to speak just Spanish now. I'm excited for that.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves. First of all this past week was absolutely awesome. It started when we went to Cristina's house and her husband was finally there. He wasn't very happy. He sat down lit a cigarette and started telling us all the stuff that Cristina had already told us. But he was a little more angry about it. He was mad at god and just everything and everyone, telling us about how many houses of his have fallen down and burned down . So we listened to him talk. After a bunch of this he said he started using cocaine to release the pain and just a whole bunch of bad stuff. Luckily he said he stopped doing that and now he just smokes a lot. On top of all this he is a taxi driver and his car isn't running very well so he's losing a lot of money. So we looked at his book of mormon that was saved from the fire and opened up to Helaman 5: 12. He read it and started crying and got a lot more calm and said wow tthis is talking exactly to me. We had to go to another sita (appointment) but promised him blessings if he would read and pray. The next time we went back with my camera he wasn't there so that was a bummer. We only got a picture with the rest of his family and the book of mormon. I'm sending a whole bunch of pics of people that I'll miss from Ezeiza. When I told the bishop I was leaving, he had me bear my testimony in Sacrament meeting. After that meeting we all went to our classes and during priesthood or at the end of priesthood we started to sing God Be With You Till We Meet Again. Suddenly, the entire ward started flooding into our room. Everyone was singing this song. It was such a cool experience. I felt so loved. After the closing prayer they gave me a bunch of letters and drawings and hugs saying how much they will miss me and how they were grateful for the work I had done in Ezeiza. It was hard leaving Ezeiza.... pretty much everyone cried. I just felt so loved and appreciated.

As for Elder Bednar's visit.... that was a very very cool experience. We were told before hand to read 2 talks from him and then come up with questions to ask him. There were a couple of very good questions and he answered them all of them with just the strongest spirit. When I come home I'll have to open up my journal and show you the notes I took. The first question was a very personal one and he asked us if we would like the true answer. If we did we couldn't write the answer home because there are moms out there that take their missionaries emails and put them on the internet and he didn't want it to be so public. So he took the vote of who wanted the straight forward answer and of course everyone raised their hands "Yes". So he made us promise not to write it home. So I'm honoring my promise and you'll all just have to wait 8 more months till I get home to look in my journal and see what he said :) Torture huh?! :) Well that's pretty much it, I gotta go. Ill take pics of my new area and send it to you cuz it looks like a really pretty area.

'Hope everything's going well at home. You're all in my prayers. I love you all!

Elder Schupple

Elder Bednar coming!

Sorry to tell you... but today I do not have a lot of time to write because we have to go out and work now. Our Preparation day was cut short because Elder Bednar is coming on Thurs and is going to be talking with the west mission and our mission. So that's why we have to get back to work early today....and it's way worth it! So ya the update this week is that we took out a fecha (baptism date) with Cristina and her daughter. The other family members weren't there or we would have taken fechas out with them also. However we did service for her 14 year old son who has a 16 year old pregnant girlfriend. We were helping him build or start to build his house for the both of them. (interesting situation which will interfere with him getting baptized) But we are pushing forward with him and the family and we are still very excited about them. I'll be sure to send pics this next week when we have more time. I miss y'all a lot and cant believe how fast time is flying. The church is true and we can live together some day! Isn't that great?! :)

lvlv

elder schupple

The Book of Mormon miracles

Happy early Bday mom and yes I got the package. It was a wonderful surprise, and is Joe Mcgrath going on a mission if so where? Brad is looking very..... scary in his Halloween costume. Did he go out with some friends or go trick or treating or just use that in the house? Other than that all those pics are so great. I cant believe Bobby and the Cluff boy are already home and that Steve Branham will be back in just a few months! This is crazy! Time is going way fast, and how great that you saw Mrs Miller and Mrs. Rosko... def 2 of the nicest ladys on the planet!

OK I have a lot to type and very little time to do it so lets get started. So we went to Cristina's (the house fire/ book of mormon lady) this past week and got to know her. She said she had been listening to the elders a couple years ago and then for some reason stopped. She told us that the other day when she stopped us she had seen us a few blocks away and really wanted to talk to us about her Book of Mormon experience and stuff but decided not to because we were 2 or 3 streets ahead of her and she was a little embarrassed too. But as we kept walking she said we were taking the same streets she had to take to go to her house and when we stopped and clapped a nearby house (another investigators house that wasnt there for our appointment) she came closer and closer and really wanted to say something so the girl she was with helped her out and told her to just talk to us so she did. And now here we are passing by her house and teaching her whole family who all love the Book of Mormon. The amazing part of this story is that the night Elder Holladay and I got lost and were looking for this other investigators house I was so frustrated at the time. I have been in Ezeiza for 7 months now and I know my area very well and so at the time I could not believe that I was lost. Little did I know we were supposed to get lost so this lady could follow us and now listen to this wonderful gospel again. God works in mysterious ways. When she told me what had happened and I told her how we had gotten lost she told me another story of how a while back she had a dream, and in this dream there were a bunch of religious books. She said that a hand (she thought it was the hand of God) took her hand and put in on the Book of Mormon. This lady has had so many experiences and answers regarding the Book of Mormon and she started sharing her testimony of it with us. It was a very cool experience this past week. It was just a great testimony boost on how I know the Book of Mormon is true. I really hope I stay for another transfer so I can see them get baptized.

Hope everyone is doing great and all is well at home, your all in my prayers.

lvlv

elder schupple

PS: tell Brad to write me! dang it!

Baptismal interviews, baptisms, Miracle of the fire and the Book of Mormon

Awwww my nieces are soooo cute in their Halloween costumes and wow dad and mom lookin..... ummm....young again in your 70's duds..... ha no jk but your both looking very skinny so very nice. As for this past week it was crazy like always :)... new experiences. First of all I did my first interview for Ezeiza B and that went well then I asked this sister who would be doing her baptism. I asked if her brother could and she said no and the bishop said he couldn't and neither can my dad. So I was like ¨Oh OK well how about elder Calderon or Adair?" and she said, ¨No you¨ Ha surprise! (I had taught her once or twice before we split the area so she kinda knew me) so I asked the zone leaders if I could and they said yes so I baptized her this past Saturday. It's always fun. Speaking of this past week; it was a very good week for us here. We found a bunch of great investigators. One guy took a baptismal goal the second visit for Sat the 21st so he has a lot to learn and stuff but it'll be really great. I'm excited for him and for Elder Holladay to get these experiences of the good and the not so good. As for Elder Holladay he is doing great in the language and he is talking a lot more in lessons and helping me to remember little things especially like doing contacts because those are one of my least favorite things to do. So he's helping me keep those up. So ya he is awesome. This last Wednesday morning we had a little scare. As we were walking there were these three guys and one of them asked us for a peso so he could buy wine. I told him no but he started following us saying bad words and telling us to give him a peso and our money. So after saying no again he gave my bag/butt a kick. I turned around and he backed off and we kept walking as he kept yelling bad words but luckily nothing happened. We went on our way and had a great day. Then after that I had to do 2 more interviews that went well. OH something that was cool this past week was this lady who came up to us and started telling us that she needed to talk to us. She told us that her house had just burned down and she lost everything except this one book she had that someone gave to her a long time ago. It turned out that this book was the Book of Mormon! Everything in her house burned down but this book was untouched by fire or water from the firefighters. How awesome is that miracle? So we have a cita with her this week and I think that she will probably get baptized in a week or so. So that's exciting. Well got to go. Hope every thing's good.
love you all.

lvlv

Elder Schupple