There were points this week where I was thinking, "Dang, this is going to be a long transfer..."

Sunrise in Santa Teresita, Argentina

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

All is well down here on the beach. This week was a challenge but it turned out really well! This place is kinda like newport beach/balboa close to the shore. A lot of tourist stuff and places to eat and cool stuff like that, but the thing is is that when its not summer practiaclly all of it is empty. When you get out farther from the beach its kinda like villa montoro becvause its a lot of fields but its just less people and all the streets are just sand pathways. Because its kinda empty out here its a bit of a challenge with the work. When i got here we didn´t really have any people we were teaching it was kinda hard to fill the day with things to do, but we went to work. 

There were points during this week where i was thinking, "dang this is going to be a long transfer" but luckily we found some fruits. We ended up finding 6 new investogators and we commited 3 of them to get baptized! It was super awesome! It goes to show what happens it you just put your shoulder down and go to work. In those points when i was feeling down i could feel the spirit there with me comforting me and telling me that if i keep working and dont let down my work ethic that we will have sucess and that brought me peace. Like it talks about with the sons of mosiah in Alma 26: 27-30. It was pretty sweet. Two of the guys we are teaching Luis and Nahuel are super awesome. They have both been through a lot of really hard stuff but its awesome to see how they are looking for the truth and how they just want to know how to find peace and that is exactly what this message brings.

The branch here is pretty cool! our president of branch is super awesome! Its like having Elder Calhoune from the best two years for a branch president! As his second concilor we had a leadership conference in another city in La Costa, Pinamar, and it was super cool because President Thurgood was talking to us. Our mission President is the best. So humble but he knows so much. I love learning from him. I also happened to see Hermana Jordan Engle, a friend from my stake, because pinamar is her area! it was pretty crazy to see somebody from back home! Atr church this week we had 39 which i think is pretty good for this branch and hopefully we can keep it growing. I got to go down to the beach twice this week which was pretty awesome. I can picture trey saying, "dude, i could be getting shacked on those waves" hahaha love ya little bro. Well im basically out of time. love you all!

Elder Whitaker

Ty eating a jellyfish...?

Adios Villa Montoro, Hola Santa Teresita!

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Well this week was bittersweet because i left my first area, Villa Montoro, after 4 1/2 months and I am now serving in a city on the beach, Santa Teresita. My new pench is the bottom floor of the branch presidents house and its like 12 blocks from the beach. It is a pretty sweet area. It is a branch here with like 50-60 people that attend every week. I am now the second councilor in the branch presidency and english teacher. Its pretty sweet. We are going to need to work hard to find people because it is a tourist town where there are a ton of people during the summer and now they are all back to their lives. (winter is beginning here) So we need to find a lot of people but there is a lot of potential here.

Well my last week in villa montoro was really good! we built a roof for the bathroom of Mari and we did the foundation of a new wall for her house. It was fun to be working eith tools again. We also had some really good lessons with some of our investigators. We have really been trying to focus in on how the gosple can help somebody personally and not just try to apply the same thing to everyone. Because of that we had some really good lessons and found out how to help them. I wont be there to see it but i think a lot of them will get baptized.

I have now finished 6 months of my mission. Its pretty crazy how fast time is going. I feel like i just started but i am already a quarter done. Hopefully my time in La Costa is going to be goood and we are going to accopmlish some good work down here. 

Sis Farrell's seminary class sent Valentines to Ty & his companions.

Elder Whitaker

"This week was a solid week..."

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Como anda con todos? This week was a solid week. It wasnt a week where we taught a ton of lessons and stuff but we accomplished a lot. Part of the reason is that we dont have people we are teaching that are willing to act on what we are teaching. Its sad to see that you have something that can help some one more than anything else but God always takes second place to them. I have been studying the old testament a little during language study in spanish and i am at the part of the 10 commandments. I think if people really understood the 10 commandments and lived them it would change a lot. A lot of people say they know the 10 commandments but the only ones they keep are thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not steal. If people understood that the first two of the 10 commandments meant that if you put God ahead of your other persuits or problems that He will help you with the rest it would change some peoples lives.

Well anyway it was a good week. We spent a lot of time trying to find people that are ready to hear our message. Its kinda natural if you have the option to not go door to door clapping doors you take the other option, but this week instead of just looking for another person on the other side of the area we stayed where we were when plans fell through and clapped doors and we had some really good results. We are going to pass by some of them this next week. It shows that if you are willing to put your faith ahead of whats convinient you will recieve the blessing.

I have been getting some running in every morning which is great. I miss  sports so bad. I miss lacrosse like crazy but its worth it out here. plus I am learning a little bit of futbol. I was just playing with a bunch of latinos. they are all ridiculously good but i scored a goal so thats progress hahaha. Well this next week is transfers so we will see what happens. I could leave me area or i could recieve a new comp. you never know with transfers. Well nos vemos

Elder Whitaker

Wow, this week was crazy!!!

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Wow this week was crazy. Super hard but with miracles mixed in. Its hard because none of the people we are teaching are progressing. We had 6 people that were willing to be baptized but all but one fell because they didnt feel like going to church. Its dificult to see sometimes but i know i can only give my best effort and i can´t control the rest. 

I started out this week kinda scared because as an idea my comp had to help Gustavo quit smoking he had this idea from another missionary to make the tabaco from the cigarette into a tea type of thing, with the intention of nasting him out so he doesnt want to smoke. After he drank it i realized, "Oh crap, cigarettes kill people and we just made gusavo drink this stuff and we dont know what it is going to do. Its just a rumor." well, turns out he lived! but for the first two days he threw up when he smaelled a cigarette. worked but kinda sketchy. never going to try that again hahaha. Whats good is that he actually is progressing and that he was smoking a pack a day and now he is only smoking two cigarettes a day. We are hoping he will be done this next week.

We did a lot of walking and clapping doors this week because we had a lot of appointments fall through. we taught half the lessons we taught last week. but we did have a couple really powerful lessons where you walk out, and you are just thinking, "wow, that was a miracle" 

First one was we were looking for a guy we had taught and we found his uncle an evangelical pastor instead. It was one of the first intelectual investigators I have taught here that has read the bible. He came at us hard trying to twist our words in the lesson and use scriptures against us, but as it says in D&C 88, we spoke by the spirit and were given what to say. We weren´t confounded because our doctrine is solid. The only true doctrine because it is the only doctrin that is whole. The same church that Christ established when he was on the Earth, restored. It was super awesome when at the end of the lesson he didnt have any words left to say and we commited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to get an answer nfor himself that our message is true. It was awesome.

Second miracle lesson. We were walking around without plans because all of our plans had fell through. we were talking about where to go next and all of a sudden this man dressed in all black comes out of his front yard and starts asking, " are you from the devil of Jesus'" we answered that we are from the Church of Jesus Christ and that we are here to spread his message. He told us he didnt believe there was a god so we asked if we could share with him why we believe there is. He told us to follow him inside and he began to tell us how he and his friend had been robbed and how he was sick of all the injustice and that he had a friend with a gun and he was going to kill all the "pibes"(thiefs/punks) that live on his block. We began to teach and his questions were "where do we come from?" "why are we here?" and "where are we going after this life?" It was crazy. We taught the plan of salvation but not like a lesson. just answering his questions. At the end of the lesson he had changed completely. we had convinced him that it wasnt right to kill all those guys and that there is a God and that their is justice in the end. He told us that he is looking at a lot of diferent beliefs but that he thinks that we spoke "mucho verdad" So intense. when we spoke we felt the spirit so strong. When we walked out of there we were shaking a little and just like, "what just happened?" pretty much we saved a bunch of lives because the spirit put us in the right place at the right time. He told us during the lesson that when we walked by a voice told him to approach us and talk to us. So crazy to think what would have happened if we werent there and he hadnt heard that voice.

Well it was a pretty crazy week. Long but we worked hard and were where we needed to be. Next week hopefully we can help the people more.

Elder Whitaker

Ty's new ride

"Todo tranqui aca en Argentina" or "All is well in Argentina"

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

Todo tranqui acà en argentina. This week was a lot better than last week because we actually got to teach. Teaching always beats walking. Well this week we took out another 2 baptisimal dates which puts us at 5 people on the road to get baptized so thats awesome! the problem is, is that a lot of them are having difficulties progressing. They don´t feel the need to do anything more than just listen to us when we come over. They all like the spirit they feel when we teach but they don´t have the desires to get up a little earlier and go to church or read. That is always super dificult and its hard to not get frusterated because I know if they do these things they will be a lot happier but they can´t understand ntil they do something. Gustavo is having some dificulties with quiting smoking which is hard. He doesnt have it in his mind that he can do it, and until he has that mindset nothing will happen. we are going slow with him.

Well fun things that happened this week, We got to build two walls of a house out of bricks and cement. There isnt a cement mixer so we do it all by hand with shovels. Its a pretty good way to get jacked. It was pretty fun. Also they game the guys and I loved back home "what are the odds" has caught on in the pench so my comp and Elder Peterson and Elder Myers are having a good time with that. If they have orange jelly back in the states dont buy it. it is basura. We also taught a schizophenic lady that the other elders found. that was ... interesting. Well keep in touch. Love you guys. Im loving life out here serving the lord and serving the people of argentina.

Elder Whitaker

Ty has always loved dinosaurs!  I guess he found his way to a dino museum in Argentina

He captioned this, "Why do stegosaurus' get invited to so many dinner parties?" haha