Una Otra Semana en Argentina

Hola Familia!

This week was sooo great! So many things happened and we had a lot of progression to finish out our last week of the transfer! We didn't teach a lot of lessons, but the ones we did, were great! This was a week of quality not quantity.

Before I forget, yes mom that was me, i took out some money from the card, like i said before its a lot easier to just take out a lot at a time. And yes, some missionaries have sleeping bags but I am very happy with the blanket i have. In the winter I have been using another one too. also....... Happy Birthday this week mom!!! Saturday! I wish i could send you something like a jersey but its just really expensive, can you wait a little while? haha

I just found out I am getting transferred and I will now be the senior companion in my area.  My new comp went to lone peak high school. I will be serving in the north part of my mission in a small branch.... oh boy.

So the highlight of the week for sure was John and his family! We have been talking with him a lot and he came to church for the 4th straight week. He and his girlfriend decided this week that they are going to get married in order to be baptized. We have not been teaching her very much, but we think that they whole family will be baptized in this next transfer. They are so great. He is always willing to do the things that we ask him to do, and because of that he is having some really great experiences and seeing some great blessings in his life. He quit smoking and is progressing a ton! He also let us try this drink from Columbia and its sooo good! It is called agua panela and i really enjoyed it both times!

The weather this week was very odd. It was like a teeter-totter. warm cold warm cold. But today has been pretty cold so far. But I think that spring is just around the corner so that is a great thing. Summer is gonna be so hot! hah

We have been a lot better at doing our work outs in the morning. I have seen a direct line between the weather and my desire to do it and get out of bed. 

This week I read a really great scripture in D&C 112:10, Pres Hinckley said that this is his favorite scripture! super good!

Yes the explosion was in Rosario but about 30 blocks from where I live so it didn't even affect us.

Sorry I am super scatter brained now that I found out I am leaving.... I will probably have a lot of updates next week. I love you all, have a great week! :)

♥Elder Sisk

Week 29 of the mission!

Hola Mi Familia!

This week went by super fast!! we have still been working really hard and I learned lot this week along with some great spiritual moments! I am trying to enjoy what could be my last little bit in Las Heras because we have transfers next week and it is almost expected that I will be transferred. I guess we will see, but with that Pday will be on Tuesday next week, just so you all know.

The highlight of the week was for sure John!! He is amazing and is progressing really well in the church! We got to church on Sunday and he was already sitting in there just waiting for us to get there. He also was reading and participating in the classes. He even prayed in Sunday school! Then we went over to his house for lunch after church and we were able to meet his girlfriend. They are amazing and I have no doubt that they will be baptized. It is just a matter of time because they are not married and they don't have citizenship here. But they are doing very well. we are going to start teaching her.

The family from the DR, is also doing well. They were not able to come to church but I made them promise me that they would all be there this week! They are super fun.  I would love to keep in touch with them. They told me that once they move back to the DR i have a place to stay if i ever visit! haha

This week we had 2 exchanges. That is when we change companions for 24 hours. I did and exchange with elder gomez (who served 9 months in chile before getting sick, he was in the same group as Cole Finlayson and he knew him, or knew who he was) I learned a lot in that exchange because he is really shy and doesn't talk much. I was forced to be the one teaching more and talking more so it was a great ¨growing outside of my comfort zone¨moment. Then I did an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders Elder Josh Millheim. he went to Lone Peak and I have gotten to know him pretty well because he has been my ZL the whole time here in ARG. They were both great experiences and I learned a lot!

I decided this week that I am going to start focusing on chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel to become an overall better person. This is the chapter about Christlike attributes and I chose to focus on Charity first. It is already making a huge difference. Mostly just where my mind is and how i take things. I would recommend this to anyone, it has been amazing and its only like day 6.

This week I have been a lot better at doing my exercises in the mornings. I feel so much better, I would love to go running but its still just a little too cold in the mornings to be THAT motivated ;) haha

So this week as we have been walking a lot, I have random aches and pains in my hips.... thanks a bunch Grandpa Tom :) haha Its  nothing very bad though.

This week we both bought these fuzzy socks to sleep in and they are super great! A little small for my feet, but i will send a picture. I went with he green, but my comp chose the bright pink. 

Coley great job toughing it out at girls camp, I know that the experiences you had will help you grow! Don't forget to keep up your prayers, Heavenly Father wants to hear from you, and wants to bless and help you! :)

It was a really fun week, I am enjoying my time with my companion especially knowing that we only will have 1 more week together. I hope you all have another great week! Keep working hard in everything you do, hard work really pays off. Especially when we are serving God´s children. I love you all!

♥Elder Sisk

By the way, tell Wyatt congrats about making the golf team. That’s super cool!!! That’s pure proof that hard work pays off! 

New socks

Zone Conference

Alex with John

Another week bites the dust!

Hola familia!!!

This week was great!! I have some good updates for the week! But I will start with your questions!

Mom: I will buy shoes if I have the chance, if not, its all good. welcome to the mission :) and we have transfers coming up and I think i have a good chance of getting moved. After 3 transfers in 1 area it is almost likely. But Elder Clavero could get transferred too so we´ll see.

Dad: The humidity is..... different. Its not that cold so I don't notice it a ton. I think I will notice more in the summer. And yes we have been working with the members a lot and its great, they help a lot! 

So the highlight of this week is we found a family from the Dominican Republic and we taught them twice and one of them named Carlos came to church on Sunday! They are super fun and they seem to be interested so lets hope that continues! they have the cutest little daughter, We have a lot of fun with them and I LOVE their accent in Spanish! I have pics with them!

John the Columbian also came to church again this week! He is awesome, and he is showing a ton of interest in the church. After church he told us that he was planning on quitting smoking. We didn't even know he smoked and we didn't even teach the word of wisdom lesson yet, but he is just constantly progressing and he likes the Book of Mormon too!

Mom, in the package you send, will you send a bunch of pictures? just of everything, I love having a bunch!

So this week we had Interviews with the President. It was great to talk with him and he seemed to be happy with almost everything I am doing. Another great thing was I was able to do 99% of it in Spanish. I only said 2 words in English so that was really good. My Spanish has been improving a lot. He mostly just asked about the area, my comp, and how I'm liking the mission. Then after we went and got Pizza with a bunch of the other missionaries it was pretty fun!

We have been spending a lot of time lately with the Bustos Family! They are super great and they have not been members for too long, but they are all starting to get involved in the missionary work and one daughter invited her friend to church this week as well!

So we had really weird weather this week! It started out really cold and super windy! then to top it off, the outlet where we plug in our heater during studies broke so we ended up doing our studies downstairs with the stove on full blast trying to stay warm. You just do what ya gotta do! we are gonna buy a new outlet.

The Abonizio family has been going all out helping us with the missionary work lately. They have given us 2 very good refs and I think one of them will end up progressing pretty quickly. It is amazing how much better, faster, and easier the work is when the member help us find people to teach, they have been a real blessing to us as well as many other families in the ward.

It is amazing how much happiness comes from having investigators in church! yesterday was so great and it was started because of that! Missionary work is true happiness! 

Last night we did a fireside with the ward and we gave a 40 minute lesson which went really well. Our ward and stake are starting to show a lot of interest in jump starting the missionary work and to start helping all of the missionaries a lot! Afterwards I got a few comments on my Spanish wish was really cool. They were telling me that its impressive that I can speak pretty well because usually when  missionary starts in this area they leave before they speak very well. I really love this area!

This week was great and I think we are on track to have another great week! Its so great to start seeing our hard work pay off. Sometimes we just gotta get through the trials and hard times then we really start seeing success and joy! I love the mission and it really is going super fast! Thanks for all that you guys do for me, I am really blessed to have you all!! I love you all, remember this week that Heavenly Father is listening and wants to hear and answer prayers!

♥Elder Sisk

Hola Familia!

Hola Familia!

This week went really well. We have been teaching a little more which is just way better than contacting!

We found a guy this week named John. He is from Columbia and is a total stud!! The problem is he is living with his girlfriend and I don't know if they have plans to get married. But he went to church and loved it so I have a lot of really high hopes for him!! I love his accent too!

We are now in a new district. They reopened an area in our zone and they changed the districts to make them more even. Now we don't have to travel to go to district meeting on Tuesdays which is perfect!

One of the missionaries in the new area is from Peru and was actually in the same district as Mckay in the MTC there! I am going to send him a pic.

we went running a couple mornings this week!!! That was great I love getting as much exercise as I can but it is really hard to be motivated when its really cold in the mornings.

I have been eating tomatoes a lot more now and I am to the point that I don't even notice them anymore haha crazy huh??

This week I felt like my Spanish has gotten a ton better. I had a few times where it just felt like I was talking not like it was hard or different to be talking in Spanish. Yeah i am still a long way off of being pro or anything but it is coming a long really well!!
 

I'm sorry that I don't have much this week to say. It was a good week, but we didn't have any huge things happen! I will do better this week of writing down more things to tell you guys. But I am doing well, healthy, and loving it! Time is seriously flying and I love being a missionary!! :)

I love you all, have another great week, and don't forget to search for the little blessings each day!

♥Elder Sisk

Can you believe it will be 6 months tomorrow?!?

Hola Familia!!

First can I just say how fast time is on the mission?? I can not believe that it is 25% over! I feel like I am just getting started and have so much more work to do! But its because I do! hah

It was a good week! We are still running a little low on investigators but we are working our butts off to find more! That is our number one priority right now! Alright, on to my random list of things that happened this week!

I sent my ipod up to welsh in the mission offices and he put on a bunch of new music for me! It was rough not having my ipod for like 2 weeks but worth it to have new music that they have on their computer!

I did get the package and I don't think it was opened! I loved it! Everything was perfect, except mom you mentioned the Ensign in your letter but it was not in the package? maybe you forgot, no big deal! But the package was great!! I also found out that DearElder is really slow. I don't know if it is only this mission or what but I have not gotten them yet, and Clavero told me that DearElder is always slow.

We found an old investigator this week named Romina. We have a lot of hope for her and her family! I don't know if they are totally prepared but they are at least listening so that is a start right? We have been working really hard to find an entire family that we can teach because our ward has a lot of potential to retain a family because the members here are very strong!

We had zone meeting this week (pics coming) it was really fun, but right after I had my first solid Argentina rain storm! after not very long some of the streets were flooded. After that it was suuuuuper humid for a few days! It annoying to walk around when the ground is always wet, and your pants and shoes get dirty hah (also a pic coming). Updates from zone meeting are, 1. The number of contacts that we are asked to do is now lower. was 140 now its 80. They want us working with the members more and spending less time contacting in the streets. 2. We are no longer allowed to perform the baptism or confirmation of people. It all needs to be done by a member. I really like this rule, because I helps us to invite more members to visits and stuff so they have friends.

Funny contacting story of this week. We rang the doorbell and when the lady came to the door she yelled ¨what do you want???¨and slammed (really slammed) the door before we could even say a word. We both died laughing. 

Random thought I had : are grandma and grandpa gonna move before I get home from my mission? and Amy and John too?

We met a crazy lady this week!! She was all over the place and we saw this little house behind her house and we asked her who lives there and she told us that that is ¨where we keep the smokes, drugs, and narcotics¨..... wow haha we were shocked and never going back! 

There is a guy named PF who was baptized last year. He was the first lesson I taught in Argentina. He has been progressing a lot and is on track to receive the priesthood soon! :)

Yesterday, we had lunch with the Abonizio family. It was so great! We talked with them this week about helping us with the missionary work and they stepped up to the plate! They invited a couple to have lunch with us and everything! We are going to meet with them next Sunday at their house again!

I have done really well and making my contacts last! I am at 6 months and I just started my 3rd pair today. The ones I have should easily last!!

I got the Ruckus Newsletter this week! I loved it! I love seeing how they are all doing!

Pamela gave a talk yesterday in church and it was like perfect!!! You would have thought that she is a member of years and years. Just looks like a total natural! Then today she and Carla hung out with us in downtown and stuff!!

So yesterday right next to our house, they had and Anime convention... holy nerd central!! And to top it off, they had music blasting and it was practically shaking our house! You can imagine studies were slightly hard to get done! haha

Mom, SanFran sounds super fun!! I am jealous! Dad and Coley, I am glad that you guys had some fun while mom ditched you guys! ;) 

That is it for this week!! I love you all and don't blink or I will be home! Time is flying and I hope it is flying for you all as well!! Love you guys and have another good week!! :)

♥Elder Sisk

Zone Meeting

Dirty Pants from all the rain

New way to tie a tie

Alex always loved Subway!

Downtown on Pday