Week 32?? wow!

Hola Familia!!

Wow what a crazy week we had this week but it was super good! We were kinda all over the place this week. We had a few days with a lot of traveling but we pulled off a pretty solid week in the end! 

So last Monday I had my first experience cleaning my own clothes by hand! haha that just shows how lucky I was before. But its alright, I don't mind too much! maybe I will start cleaning a little throughout the week or something, I guess we will see!

So like I said we had to travel this week a little. We have our district meetings in the city of Victoria. Our DL is a stud by the way, he is from Honduras and he speaks perfect English! He went to an English School so he speaks like an American. but anyways Victoria is about 45 minutes by bus. So that took up a lot of the day on Tuesday and then on Wednesday night we had to go to Rosario because Elder Lindeman had his tramites to get his Argentina residence and stuff so that took up time on Wednesday and most of Thursday. But we had a miracle on Friday!

Our miracle of this week was a man we found named German. We went to his house on Friday and taught a really good lesson. At the end of the lesson I felt that I needed to invite him to be baptized, and HE SAID YES!! That was the first time I have successfully done it on the mission! He asked us if we could come by for about an hour each day to keep teaching him (is this real life?) and we went again on Sat. and he told us that he already invited his friends to his baptism and everything! haha its so great, he is a big guy and loves going to the gym so he is pretty swoll! He didn't go to church but we saw him on our way to the ciber today and we are gonna go visit him at 6! I will keep you posted!

So this Sunday I had the Sunday school lesson (like always) and we both had talks in sacrament meeting. I think they both went really well! I talked in sacrament about charity and the difference that it makes in our lives. But I wanted to share a little bit from the lesson I taught. It was about sealing our testimonies and it used a lot of examples from Joseph Smith because he is the golden example of sealing a testimony. During my lesson I had the question come to my mind and it kinda guided the rest of the class "What is the difference between having/sharing our testimonies, and living our testimonies?" It went really well and we talked a lot about being an example through our testimonies and how we are not fully converted until we are living our testimonies. I really liked that question, sometimes we are able to receive personal revelation through what we are teaching or saying to others! The spirit is amazing like that!

The other thing I read this week in D&C was in D&C132:19-24 about eternal families and I was thinking how blessed we are to really have an eternal family and how big of a blessing that will be forever. I really like in verse 24 when it says "this is eternal lives" because really it is reached with others so it is always lives not just life. Love you guys!

So Dad that picture was pretty funny from your Bday, I hope you had a great day! Im glad that you all toughened up and went on the big boy rides at Lagoon! ;) That is all for this week! Love you all, have another great week! We are doing well here in Nogoyá :)

♥Elder Sisk

Our church building here in Nogoyá

On the bus headed to District Meeting

Waiting to do tramites (hermana Muller was in my MTC district, then I got to sign as her witness. pretty cool)

Taking a little rest in the bus ;)

Getting to Rosario

Beautiful Sunsets here!!!

7 months in the mission!!

Hola Familia!!! 

Mom I am so glad you got the letter before your Bday and that you had a good day! :) That golf tourney sounded super fun, dad you gotta stop being old, mom is gonna start kicking your butt! ;) Dad, google didn't do toooo bad on the translation! haha I was able to understand it all, thank you!  

So yes the big news of the week was the transfer! I am now serving in a little pueblo called Nogoyá. It is about 1 hour and a half away from Rosario but I ended up taking about 6 hours in the bus to get here. Just how it works out with the buses sometimes. We went up through Santa Fe and then over to Parana which is where our zone leaders are and stuff. Then Elder Lindeman and I came down to Nogoyá and got going! I really like it here a lot, it is very chill and has that nice small town feel to it. Our apartment is not the nicest but we have a pretty decent shower and hot water. Packing was kinda hard, (it is actually the opposite mom, everyone says in each area you seem to have more and more stuff, but i got it done!) As far as investigators here in Nogoya we have next to none right now but we are working hard, yes I am now the senior comp so I speak most of the time in Spanish. Elder Lindeman has 1 transfer less than I do in the mission, and he waited in Nashville for his visa for 12 weeks so this is his second transfer here in Argentina. He went to Lone Peak high school and played football for them, its funny because we have a lot of friends in common! We get along really well and we are gonna work really hard!

So tomorrow, Happy Birthday Dad!!! I sent a letter to you to, but from the sounds of it, its not there yet. I hope you get it soon! keep working hard! But from the sounds of your emails I have to ask if you are working hard or hardly working! haha spending a lot of time on the golf course, i am super jealous! 

So leaving Las Heras was really hard if I am being honest. We spent all of Tuesday visiting the members and saying bye to everyone. I found myself tearing up after every house that we left, but I think i kept it together better than I expected to! haha I have a few pictures that I can send with a few of the families. I learned so much in that area and those people are truly special for me.

So here in Nogoya it is a little different, I will not be eating with members almost everyday... haha we will usually have 2 lunches each week so sounds like we will be cooking a lot in the apartment. There just are not many members that we could eat with but I will talk about that when I talk about church. The other thing is there is not a huge supermarket like I had in Rosario so our options are slightly limited, that's when we will have to get creative right??

So church yesterday..... what a humbling experience to say the least. Everyday of my life before now I have taken for granted the fact that we have a big, well operating ward and a nice church to go to on Sundays. In our ward here we had 20 people in church and 6 of them were visitors from the stake. Of the 20, 5 were priesthood holders (us 2, the branch pres, and 2 stake guys) We dont have a church, we just rent a building to use for our meetings. It is kinda weird for me to see and to participate in it like that but its great too. I will be teaching Sunday school every week and sometimes priesthood and sometimes giving talks, so I will have a lot of practice on my Spanish. A few weeks ago, they had a week with 8 people in church counting the missionaries. We have decided that our first priority right now is working with less actives in the area because there are a ton, and we need more in church to keep it running! 

We had lunch on Sat. and i had some of the pictures of our family, and the first thing Hermana Arrua said was, is your dad related to Elder Holland?? hahaha I was laughing so hard, i guess its true, they kinda look alike!

This week we have both seen many miracles. My Spanish literally improved faster in the past week than any other short span of time on my mission. I know it was a blessing from the Lord because he knew that I needed to be speaking a lot better for us to get by. My comp said he saw the same in his own spanish, It was such a testimony for me that He really is watching out for us and that I can do this! I am to the point that I understand about everything people say to me, its just the random uncommon words that lose me, I am super excited for this chance I have to serve here. 

It sounds like you are all doing really well, I am so glad to hear that! I am glad to know you are all happy and having fun! I really cannot believe how fast the time is going on my mission! don't blink or before you know it we will be skyping again and then the next thing we know I will be home! I love the mission and I love the work! I know this is exactly where I need to be and I am so grateful for all of you helping me get to this point in my life! I love you all so much, have another great week!!

♥ Elder Sisk

Alex with Elder Lindeman

Saying goodbye

More goodbyes

More goodbyes

Saying goodbye

New tie

New Apartment

Meeting place for church

"We're not in Rosario anymore :)"