Finishing Transfer 2 in Jardines

February 11, 2013

Hello, family!

I realized the other day that I have been with Elder Wing longer than with any other missionary! We´re just finishing up two 6-week transfers together. The next closest was Elder Correa, whom I spent 10 weeks with. It´s been a fun time!

We had a good week this week. We´ve started consistently reaching our goals in everything except getting investigators to church, (which the whole mission is struggling with). I´m not sure whether I´ll be staying here in Jardines or moving to a new area. President Carter informed us that there will not be many changes this transfer, but we´ll see! Part of me wants a change - a new companion, or a new area... but we´ll see what the Lord has in store for me.

I´ve been a little bit discouraged recently... it seems like none of the people we´re working with here are progressing to the point of baptism! Elder Wing and I have found more than 30 separate people/families in our two transfers here, who started investigating and eventually, for one reason or another, stopped. It´s tough to see investigators that were progressing stop progressing.

Last week, [one of our investigators] totally disappeared and wouldn´t answer us all week long. When we finally found him again, he was pretty bad - the light was gone from his eyes and his hope that he could change had disappeared. But, we worked with him a bit more, and after he started praying and reading in the Book of Mormon again he got better - back to how he was before. But for some reason, he wasn´t in his house yesterday when we went to pick him up for church. Discouraging! I know I need to have faith, and patience... I can take the example of Ammon and his brothers here. They endured disappointment and discouragement with faith, and the Lord gave them success. The important part is to keep having faith and working hard, and to know that eventually someone will change their life for the better. And apart from that, it´s good to know that my friends and family at home are praying for our investigators, and for us. So, thanks!

We did however, have some good parts of last week. A lady who at first seemed like shewouldn´t progress has been progressing - she´s feeling the Spirit in our lessons and that is giving her what she needs to continue to listen to us. She came to church for the first time yesterday, and I think she liked it. But it was quite a large step that she came to church, and a great milestone! I was very glad that she came.

And, maybe that´s it for today! On Tuesday night I´ll find out whether Elder Wing and I are staying or leaving, so... wish me luck, whatever next transfer holds! Thanks for your letters! It´s great to hear from you.

Love you all so much! Mom, give my love to Grandma, and to Scott! And tell Delbert I say hello and send him some warm Argentina air.

Take care!
Elder Stockton

February 18, 2013

Hello, family! The electricity just cut in the cyber that I am writing from, and the computers are running on backup. I´m not sure whether I´ll be able to finish, so I´ll send this along while I´m sure I can.
 

How was your week?

As Mom & Dad have seen (how do you know? Is the transfer video on the blog?), I will be remaining here in Jardines for at least one more transfer (and probably more than one)! The other exciting news is, I´m training!

At the transfer meeting -- reuniting with Elder Bower,
who is also from Tucson North Stake

A little red box around Andrew's face ...
only a Mom would search that crowd!

[Andrew's time with Elder Wing has ended. They worked very hard together, and saw some success.] We developed a very good friendship. He´s a good guy and I thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

But now... I´M TRAINING! Or, about to be! At this moment I´m with a mini-missionary. A mini-missionary is a local member who decides to help out by being a missionary for a transfer. This helps fill some empty spots where missionaries are still waiting for their visas in other countries. As it turns out, the mini-missionary that I am serving with was baptized... three months ago! Woah! (By a friend of mine, coincidentally: Elder Hutchings, who I arrived with.) So he´s still a very new member. But despite being a new member, this is his THIRD time serving a mini-mission. Wow!

He´s really funny. His name is Hermano Medina. He´s 24 years old. He is studying to be an English teacher, and is a really advanced speaker. But the fun thing is this - In Argentina, they teach British English, so he speaks with a British accent. He´s a fun guy. And, he teaches really well! I´m picking up some good techniques from him. It´s nice to be with an Argentine companion again. I could tranquilamente spend the rest of the transfer with Hno Medina and be perfectly happy. He gave a standout talk in Sacrament meeting this week. 

This week, let´s see...
We found lots of good people to teach! We taught a lady named Julia, who committed to be baptized and to turn her life around after we taught her that God has a plan for our happiness. Let´s hope something comes of it!

The ward had a talent show. I played ´Into the West´ and my companion did stand-up comedy, which was awesome!

And, other fun things happened, but they´re hinting at us that we should leave, because the power´s cut and the computers are running on backup. So... I´m glad to hear that you´re all doing well, and I´ll look forward to hearing from you next week! Love you all!

Elder Stockton

Oh, yes - one more experience I wanted to write about.

I got sick on Saturday - just a cold, I think, but I was sick and had a stuffy nose and not very much energy. We still went to work like normal, and I hoped I would get over it quickly. The next day after church, we ate with Elder Decker and Elder Sampson in their house. Before eating, I went to their room and said a quick prayer, asking God to help me feel better so that I could work hard. I felt the prompting that God had provided a way to help me be healed - if I want God´s help I should ask for a Priesthood blessing. So I did. After lunch Elders Sampson and Decker gave me a blessing. Elder Decker blessed me that I my energy would come back to me and that I would be able to serve the Lord with all my strength. As he blessed me, I felt my strength come back to me. I didn´t feel sick anymore! And very soon after, my stuffy nose unstuffed and never got stuffy after that. I was able to go out yesterday and work until the end. And, today I feel back to normal.

Another testimony to me that God approves of my work here, and that He wants me to be at 100%. I´m grateful for Priesthood blessings!

Bye! Love you!

And from Sister Carter's Mission blog:

Never even knew Andrew had a RAYA!

The RAYA!

Pronounced rah-jjjjjjjjjjjjaaaaahhhhh

When we arrived in the mission, there was a tradition that the missionaries wear a raya in their hair. The word actually means streak, line or stripe, but in this case it used to designate a part in their hair.

The white handbook for elders reads:

Hair. Keep your hair relatively short (not clipped too close) and evenly tapered. Extreme or faddish styles—including spiked, permed, or bleached hair or a shaved
head—are not appropriate.

Presidente was pleased to carry on with the raya tradition. He has had the same hairstyle since he first had hair. (Nowadays, I have to be grateful that he still has hair to part.) The missionaries seem to enthusiastically embrace the raya. Certain missionaries have such a distinctive raya that they are known for it mission-wide. Not only are we the best mission in all the world … our missionaries have the best rayas, as well!