week 8

So, this is my second week in Argentina. I have been asked by every us missionary at least 5 times, for each one, how I am holding up and liking it here. A little funny, cause I don't feel any different that I did back home, except a little warmer. We played soccer on p-day with some other missionaries. That was...interesting. Fûtbol is not my sport I don't think. The people here are super cool, and short. i have never felt so tall as I do here, except maybe in young mens and it was me, chase, shawn, and a handful of deacons. The food is pretty awesome, but since they don't have good water we drink soda whenever we are not in our pensione. i have drunken more soda in two weeks here than I have for my entire life put together. The thing we eat most is probably just beef. We eat a lot of pasta and a lot of chorizo also. Christmas was different cause everyone celebrated on Christmas eve instead. They lit off a ton of fireworks and partied all night, and on Christmas they slept all day. Empty streets. We had a christmas eve dinner with familia Coro, and Hermano Coro decided that I was the cook, so I cooked somewhere around 45 pounds of meat for 28 people. It was pretty good, we had two different chorizos, ribs, steak, chicken, cow tongue (which was gross), and some other meat that I liked but didn't recognize. For Christmas we had a service project and met some future investigators, tried to skype but that didn't work, and ate dinner with Hermana Claudia and her family. They gave us Messi t shirts, which are super cool, but a little big. We were able to talk to our families on the 26, pretty happy about that. Our oldest investigator told us that Joseph Smith saw the Devil, not God and Jesus, and that god doesn't have a physical body, and that he was the prophet cause white people are not part of the tribe of Israel. Pretty sad, but Moises is doing a ton better, and is getting baptized in two weeks. Jaime and Christina are getting married, so that they can be baptized in enero also, pretty stoked. Oh, almost forgot to tell you that this girl in our ward asked me to marry her, with the help of her mom. A little awkward situacion. i said no, in case you wondered. I hope you all had a happy Christmas, I like it here a ton, and am learning super fast. 

Hasta lunes,

Elder Winkel

Week 7

Well... I am here in Argentina. I like it here, especially the temperature. Sorry for my spelling, I don´t have spell check, and spanish is killing it. For spanish, you know how everyone says that  ¨that´s not the language they taught me in the mtc¨, well, my trainer told me that this isn´t the language I was taught in the Mtc. Here people speak casa juano, and you can´t understand if you speak perfect spanish. Me padre is super cool, his name is Elder Rosti de Brasil. He speaks english pretty good, which is a major blessing for me. I thought that i would miss music or some other thing most, but no, I miss english most. The food here is awesome, and a little lacking in green things, which is okay with me. We mostly just eat pasta, cause of our area. Me and my comp have El Faro which is the highest baptisms, and most dangerous area in the mission. We have this part called Campo Tongui, I don´t know if you could find pics online, but it is pretty poor. We are not allowed to carry cameras, and I had to get rid off my bag because it was too big and attracted unwanted attention. The people here are super nice, and nobody has called me peche gringo. We have 21 investigators, and 4 with baptism dates. i invited one of them, Moises, who is an amazing guy. The others are roberto, who has been investigating for a year and a half, and familia chencun, who have been investigating for one month. The parents need to get married, but we are baptising their two oldest boys. We flew for 15 hours, kinda long, and I was a little tired when we got here. Our MP is super cool and nice also. We have a walking area, and walk kinda a lot. My shoes are not holding up, but oh well. Someone stole my watch, that was fun. Me padre helps me a lot, and is super excited cause I guess argentinos like americanos. Everyone wants me to teach them english, so we may start a class to get people to investigate. Teach Engilish and the gospel at the same time, and ¨lead them carefully down to¨the waters of baptism. Our house is alright, i am being eaten alive here, because there are kinda a lot of bugs. Our water got turned off today, so we don´t know when they are going to fix that, but hopefully soon.

Hablo con ustedes pronto, 

Elder Winkel

The district leaving the MTC for Argentina

Week 6

So, this is my last week at the Mtc, I got my flight plans on wednesday. We leave on monday 

the 14th at 930am and get dropped off in Argentina on Tuesday at 430pm, so we'll see how 

that goes. 

We had Sister Oscarson,  the yw pres, speak to us, she was alright. I really liked the Christmas 

devotional. 

We had an all day class called in-field orientation that was super fun,we learned a ton of stuff, 

and nobody spoke Spanish at me, all day. 

I tried to send some pics, but they were all exceeding 15mb, and wouldn't send. 

One of our investigator/teachers talked to me and elder Vergara after we had given his 

investigator the last lesson we would give him. He said that he was amazed at how far we 

had come, with 

Spanish and with teaching the lessons. He told us lots of nice things that I wrote down 

somewhere else, and went up ten notches in my teacher estimation pole. 

We got a new girl in our district, and we named her Loco Rojo because she told us a lot of 

impressive but not believable things, like she has a four foot vertical, and speaks fluent Latin, 

and that she won state for girls boxing, etc. The funniest part is nobody believes her, but she 

doesn't notice. 

We are learning subjunctive in Spanish, which is evil. Whoever said Spanish was an easy 

language to learn never did past subjunctive. it's alright though, I'll live. 

 

until next week,

Elder Winkel

week 5

This is my fifth week at the Mtc! We got to host this week, which means pick up new mss and show them around, give them their stuff and where their room/class is. Spanish is killing my spelling, esp. when I don't have spell check! Sounds like grandma and grandpa were the stars of the show this year for sure, I think almost everybody emailed me about their super cool talent! It snowed a ton here and made a lot of slippery ice. After the snow melts on the sidewalk it leaves these little white rocks, pretty weird. Our devotional this tuesday was by Craig C Christensen, he was pretty impressive, talked a lot about who you are going to be when you return from your mission, and a lot about working hard w/ the spirit. I finally got up to 147 here, but it was right after lunch that I weighed myself. We are getting into these complex tenses in spanish that are super hard. I can do present, preterit, and future, but imperfect and conditional are killing me. We had our last lesson with Jose, he said he would be baptized on the 4 of january, but I kinda think he might already be a member. He told me and elder Vergara that we were the best mss he had ever had, super cool experience. i hosted a mss that was 6 8, kinda tall. times up, 

Hasta luego,

Elder Winkel

week 4

Hello, how was all your's thanksgiving? Ours was fun. Dallin H Oaks came with his family. His five year old great grandson is super good at guitar, and his seven year old great granddaughter is super good on cello. He talked about how we need to be grateful for all things, even our adversities, especially if that adversity is the Mtc. The whole Mtc did a service project, feeding children. We made around 360000 meals in fifty-five minutes, most ever according to the mtc presidency. It was fun, we watched 17 miracles and had a talent show. It was almost as good as ours usually is, there was a real live rubber duckie song, a yodeler, a on the spot blues jam. There were some other ones, but those were the best. The blues had one guy come up and ask if anybody was comfortable jamming with him, and then this other elder said he could do it with him. One of them was from provo, and the other was from laguna. This week went by somewhat quicker than last week, we seem to finally be falling into a groove, they will probably switch our schedule to keep us from getting too comfortable. I am learning spanish way fast now, and can teach the lessons for book of mormon, apostasy, restoration, and atonement, although i am no too good at understanding when they ask questions. Fortunately my companion can. On Sunday we had a funny speaker, talked about satan pushing our buttons. He had a volunteer come up to the mike, and he happened to be british. Our speaker burned him alive, and had his companion come up to translate. He also talked about how when he was a stake pres. he was getting a drink at one of those double water fountains, and a little boy came up. There was nobody around so for half an hour he amused himself by changing the water pressure whenever the five year old tried to drink, getting water all over his face. The little boy never figured it out or got mad, he just kept trying to drink.

Hasta luego,

Elder Winkel

week 3

Third week at the CCM. It is getting pretty cool here. I am finally getting used to my schedule and these other people I am around. I haven't gained any weight but a kid in my district that comes to the gym with us has already gained eight pounds! We got three new districts in our zone, pretty cool. It is amazing to see them, and how little spanish they know, compared to how much I know now. Gift of tongues i guess. I have learned a ton here, and can now pray, bear my testimony, and teach the plan of salvation and restoration. We have a TRC investigator who is awesome. He's name is Jose, he is probably 55, and 5 foot 4. Him and his wife are from Honduras. My zone had a hand wrestle competition, and I came in third out of around forty kids, pretty fun. It was okay because our branch president started it. Nobody could beat him, but he didn't participate ibn the competition. To play you stand across from each other and then put your right feet next to each other. You then shake hands and try to make them move their feet while only touching that same hand. Super fun, since it is probably the only competition we have had here. Kim B Clark from the seventy spoke to us, he said lots of pretty cool things, and also gave us 4 things we have to do to be a mega-successful mss. They are 1 obedience, 2 work hard, 3 be worthy of the spirit, and 4, to love the people. The fourth is probably the most difficult for me. I am reading the BOM in spanish, very s l o w l y, but still reading it. WE watched Elder Holland give a cool talk on being worthy. He told us some pretty interesting things. he said Salvation is not a cheap thing, the road to heaven leads through getsemaní,and also why would missionary work be easy for us, and bringing salvation to others when nothing was ever easy for him. We must all suffer a fraction of his pain when bringing others to him. Nearer my God to thee, e'en though it be a cross that lifteth me.

Here is a picture of our district with Hermano Nielsson, he is super awesome, I don't know if you can see it or not, but the link works here. Good luck!

-Elder Winkel

week 2

It is P-day, yay! This week was pretty cool, Sunday was awesome. My whole district joined the choir because you get early dinner. I think the entire MTC has joined the choir. The director is the younger guy who does Mormon tab. I shook his hand, got some luck I hope. We had Elder Hugo Montoya come to speak to us, which was pretty cool. He talked about being nice and friendly to everybody that we meet. He also shared a Yaqui captain's oath, which was pretty cool. We were the Yaqui captains. It talks about there being nothing in front of or more important than your duty. I have gotten a little bit tired of my companion, but we still get along pretty good. I am struggling a little with never being alone, but ill get over it. Never eat anything here that might resemble chocolate. It is not that. The chocolate pudding and milk especially. On wednesday we had super good ice cream, which I appreciated. While here I have felt the spirit stronger and more consistently than in my entire life. It has really strengthened my personal testimony of the Holy Ghost. We study in the same room for 12 to 13 hours a day. I used to think that I could be patient and sit still for a long amount of time, but I have been proved wrong. I start to bounce of the walls after a couple of hours. I have learned a ton here, not the least of which is that a laundry bag is kinda important, for laundry. i am teaching a kid in my district how to wrestle, which is a great way to relieve stress and relax. Almost forgot, on sunday we watched an older bednar devotional to the mss, called character of christ. It was super awesome. He talked about mss being the cookie monster, and did an imitation, super funny, "I want cookie/baptism NOW!" He also talked about how we need to be less selfish and try to always focus on others, like christ did. We need to be genuine, and if we need to imitate somebody, then imitate christ. The temple was pretty cool, but they only have one room in it. 

Love you, talk to you all next week

Elder Winkel

P.S. If you write to me using dearelder.com that would be pretty cool, they send it in a letter to me, and I will have more time to respond to everybody. but just st the MTC

Week 1

Sorry, I didn´t mean to send that last email, I am not familiar with this computer. I seem to have forgotten a ton of things. Most Elders here have remembered to bring laundry baskets and more than one set of P day clothes. I think that I may have accidentally left those cool books Katie gave me because I can´t find them anywhere. This Place is freezing cold. I think it has snowed every day since I got here, if I die before I get to Argentina it will be because I froze to death in my sleep. I got made district leader, so now i have lots of extra stuff I have to do. I leave on December 15th. It is hard to believe this is only my third day, I feel like it has been half of my life. It´s crazy how quickly you forget the outside world here. My companion is a workoutaholic, so we have been doing that every gym day. It´s been fine overall, although I hated the first day and the first half of the second day. We are doing things from 7 am to 10 pm, so we are kept pretty busy. I am suffering joke withdrawal, because nobody here understands my humor, and I can no longer say half of my jokes since they are not super nice to everybody in the whole world and I have to be that. I have found it easier to just be boring and tired at all times. Hope you are all suffering in the rain, and crying your eyes out missing me. (I got my whole district with that spell yes, what does e y e s spell joke, so I got a temporary respite from this world of Mormon puns.)

Hablo tardes,

Elder Winkel

P.S. My mailing address is

Elder Adam David Winkel
DEC15  ARG-BAS
2005 N 900 E Unit 118
Provo UT 8460