Week 13

So, this week was pretty similar, nothing super awesome or super bad happened this week. Oh, I gave 2 blessings in Spanish, that was interesting, but I don't know if the person recieving the blessing understood.Here are some pics. I am just sending all of them, so I don't know which you are getting, so be careful.

 

Week 12

Okay this week is going to be a little shorter than normal cause i'm just about out of time. We found Pedro in the street, but I don't think he is interested anymore. The work is progressing in other places. 
I don't ever want to eat fidelos again. 

Elder Winkel

Week 11

Hello outside world. I have survived one transfer in Argentina! You can all congratulate me and send me 

money, or ice cream. I'll take both. 

Pedro is still gone so that sucks. We had a newer investigator come to church for the first time, and she 

brought three of her children and two grandchildren over 8, who are all taking the lessons now, so that 

was pretty awesome. We have been trying to get her to come for 4 weeks now. This week we broke our 

record for most lessons taught in one day, which was sweet also. I met this guy that lived in new york 

for ten years and is named Oscar, he is pretty cool, and cooler cause he speaks english. I am learning 

spanish pretty good. I can understand most people, about half the time now, and they understand me 

about the same, some more, some less. I have one kid that understands everything I say, and when 

people at the church don't understand he repeats the same words, just with a better pronunciation, 

and the people understand, which is nice. 

Our favorite scriptures to share are in the beginning of Mosiah, 2-18, depending on what the people 

need. I am liking here, six weeks passed a liiitle bit quicker than the ccm, which I am okay with, 

learning lots, but I have started to have a little difficulty talking in english, so I can't talk perfectly 

in english, and can't really speak casellano either, so it is kinda interesting!

Hasta lunes,

Elder Winkel

Week 10

This week was pretty awesome, and fast. We taught a lot more lessons than we usually do, and found 6 new investigators! We haven't seen pedro since the incident last sunday, but we will probably find him this week. We had tramites this week, pretty intresting. mostly we waited for about five hours. Had a lesson with these invetigators, Abel y Juliana in tongui, they are usually gone, but we finally caught them! Taught a lesson and after they were like, ¨come back and eat dinner with us, we'll cook salmon for you guys¨. This is super awesome cause I am always hungry here, and also salmon is super expensive. I am excited, and ready. Had intercambios this week with the Dl, that was.. different. He's a chileno that doesn't know english, but always tries to speak it. I don't understand his english,and he doesn't understand my casellano. We got along alright. We had a lesson with a investigator, who happens to be a  jehovah witness, and she said that she would only read the bom if she could find a prophecy, without our help, about it in the bible. A little difficult, but my comp is super excited about her. We took the younger chancans, jack y frank with us proselyting one day, jack is 13 and frank is 12. This day was terrible, cause we had 5 appt. fall through, because for some reason every person we saw, or found was wasted. They liked it anyway, so we were safe with that. Had 2 baptisms sat. for these 2 girls in our ward, but they were only baptized late, 11 and 9, so they weren't really investigators, just needed the lessons cause they are older than 8. I met a guy from New York, named oscar, a little ironic. He speaks english, and is super cool. Talk to yous next week.

Elder Winkel

week 9

So this week was pretty sweet. Moises passed his baptismal interview, and today we ran around for four hours and got a wedding certificate for Chencun family, so they have an interview this week. They are our golden investigators, do all the right things, and look for ways that they can be better without us telling them. For New Years we went back to our pension, and watched fireworks until 1. We weren't supposed too, really, but our dl said it was okay since it is impossible to sleep during firework time. If you guys think people back home like fireworks, you are mistaken. They aren't illegal here so everybody buys a ton. The whole city was lit up from 10 to 1, pretty cool, and loud. We met this guy named Pedro, and taught him a lesson, he is a capo, I think, says that he will come to church sunday for sure. Family Falcon, some other investigators, didn't come to church, the dad got attacked by a dog and had to go to the hospital, so that sucked. i am definently getting better at Casillano, which is awesome, for obvious reasons. I think that we have eaten pasta for every meal we have cooked in the last two weeks, which is not super fun, but it could be worse! I still like pasta. Out of time, talk to you next week!

Elder Winkel

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