1/26/09 Letter

Wow I think I am going to burn to death here. What a great week full of trails and blessings!Monday: we went to Merlo where the other Elders in our district live and the bus we were going to take was full so we had to take a bus that dropped us off 10 miles away and we had to find a tour bus to take us into town. We had a big asado and then had our district mtg.Tues: We did exchanges with them and the elder I was with is quite shy and doesnt talk. I ended up having to do everything, but the Lord blessed us. We found alot of great people. We had one guy come up to us and say "excuse me" in english and said he just moved here from italy and wanted to go to our church. He didnt speak very good spanish or english but was really cool. We had lunch with a family that just got baptized about 3 months ago that are SO SO SO AWESOME!! They had a little organ in their house so I played them some songs and then we had a great lesson with them (their daughter and son arent members yet).Wed: we worked really hard all day knocking doors trying to find more people to teach. The ciesta here still just kills us. The people dont leave their houses in the afternoon until 7:30 or 8. It makes it really hard to find people that are awake and want to listen.Thurs: We decided to go by the Rojas Family again and we taught her about the sabath day. We flat out told her she needs to not work and go to church. I can tell that she is really worried and it will be a very big trail of her faith, I hope we can help her with that. Brother Quevedo is their friend and is really helping with the dad. He went over the other day and the guy has pictures that arent very appropriate in his shop and brother quevedo just told him that he didnt like those in his shop and the next day they were gone. I think it will be by the help of the quevedos that they get baptized.Friday:(THE DAY OF PATIENCE) We got chewed out all day by everyone for so many different reason (all of which didnt have anything to do with what we had done). My comp was getting really frustrated listening to all it so he would just stay quiet and make me handle the problems. But the Lord blessed us, We had a lesson about 30 mins in bus away from Villa Dolores with a lady that a member has been talking with. She was so nice and understood everything about the restoration. We were able to set a baptismal date with her for the 21 of feb and she was really excited about it.Sat: (THE DAY OF HEAT) I think it got up to about 110 or 115ºF. I just about fried, but we continued to work.Sun: we had a very good turn out to church and all of the people that had talks came so thats GREAT!!! The Pres changed our branch into a basic branch where they dont have the youngmens or youngwomens classes and instead they just go in with the priesthood and relief society. We´ll see how that work and hopefully it will be good. So now the sad news. Next week is transfer week and from what the Zone Leaders say Ill probably be leaving the area. I have really come to love the people and even more have come to love working with and as the leaders of the branch. I have learned so much.This week we are going to have our fathers and sons bbq (hey what a couinsidence thats my birthday, who could have planned that ;))So anyways I have to go and I´ll be writing next wed.Thanks for all the prayers and letters
Love ya tons
Elder Veenker

1/19/09 letter

Dear Family and Friends
Well another very fast week. I´m all better health wise so thats good. I hope everyone at home is doing well too. Thanks dad for all of the Snowmobiling Pictures and We all know that yes I would have made it up Avalanche Hill without any problems :). Its so weird to hear about snow because its been WAY WAY WAY HOT here this week. Luckily saturday night we had a big storm come and bring some cooler air for today. This week has been pretty goodMon: We had a great family home evening with a family in the branch. The mom and the two girls were baptized about 3 years ago and the mom is very very sick with all sorts of problems: Cancer, Skin Problems, and everything else you can think ofTues: The Zone leaders came and we had district mtg in the morning and then all went to lunch. After lunch we had exchanges with the zone leaders and just about burned to death from the sun. It seems like everytime the zone leaders come that all of your appointments and plans go down the drain, but we still had a good time.Wed: We decided to go to a city that is about 30 miles away to try and find some members that havent come in many years. The city is a very touristic tour with lots of rivers where people swim. We found the family after about an hour of asking around everywhere and then I decided we shouldnt work there anymore, like I said there were ALOT OF PEOPLE swimming everywhere. We came back and worked a little with the time we had left.Thurs: We went to the Rojas Family and had a great lesson with all of the family and then she offered to make us lunch so we ate with them too. I´m affraid that they arent progressing so we might have to let them go. We came back for our planning mtg and then had our mtg with the branch pres and helped him with the trimester report and sent that in.Fri: In the morning we went by a few less active members and then had lunch with Quevedos. We called him to be the Branch mission leader and their daughter to play the piano in church, so I´m off the hook :). After lunch we went and visited a few members that have been inactive for about 3 yrs (They came to church this week!!!!).Sat: We loaded up a bunch of beds and other stuff from our appartment to send to a few elders that moved appartments. Then we had service with a family and we dug a trench for a wall. It was about 1 1/2 ft deep and about 50 yds long. WE GOT FRIED!!!!! We were there from 8 in the morning to 12:30. Its always good to serve. At night we were suppose to have a family home evening with Quevedos and Rojas but Rojas didnt show up because one of their boys got arrested for driving their 4wheeler on the road without a lisence.Sun: We didnt have any visistors come this week but we had a good turn out of members that havent come in a long time. The person that was suppose to speak didnt show up so I got to speak for about 20 mins. I spoke about "The Gospel" Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End. After church we had an asado with the Tello family and Pres Zelada Today we were suppose to go to Merlo for pday and to do exchanges but the bus was full so we are going to go a little later.I hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for everything!
LoveElder Veenker

1/12/09 Letter and Pictures

Dear Family and Friends Well I´ve just about had a week full of everything, a lot of ups and a few big downs. Its amazing how everything that happens in this life testifies that there is a God.Monday: We went by The Rojas Family to teach them and she told us that everytime we come by that her little business has a ton of orders afterwards. Its kinda funny because ive heard that from every person that has a store that I´ve ever taught. She is a really chosen lady! We just need to work with the guy more to help him drop some habits. They are so so nice. He is a Mechanic and is always working in his shop at his house. The other day we went by and just talked with him while him and his 17yr old boy took apart a big diesel engine. I told him how bad I wish I could just get my hands dirty and work with him. Haha he told me whenever I want I can come over and fix something just to have a little fun (who knows maybe i´ll take him up on it). They have been through a lot of big trials and I think the Lord has prepared them to receive us. I wish we had more time in areas to help people because I think I´ll be taken out of this area before I can see them baptized.Most of this week has just been fun of trying to find more people and doing the responsibilities from the branchThursday: we had another GREAT lesson with Sister Rojas (haha that sounds so funny to say sister ___ instead of Hermana) We just about all left the lesson in tears. I know the spirit is working really hard on her. We need to help her get to church.Friday: I got out of bed feeling like I had been beaten up. We went to a few appointments in the morning and then lunch with the quevedo family. After lunch we had a great talk with Brother Quevedo, I think this week we are going to call him to be our Mission leader in the Branch. There are so many members that need a responsibility in the branch and I think that will really help brother quevedo and his family return. He even told us that if the branch pres asked his daughter to be the pianist in church that he thinks she would so I think we will so they´ll have another reason to come, and so I wont have to play all the time haha. After lunch I barely made it back to the pension because my stomach and body were just killing me. I went to sleep at 5 and woke up at 12pm the next day.Sat: All week we had invited people to play soccer saturday night but the electricity got cut at the church and they couldn’t cut the grass because they all use electric weed eaters, so me and my companion went with some big shears and started cutting the 1ft long grass. The pres showed up after about an hour and gave me a blessing and then helped us finish. Nobody ended up coming so my comp and the pres played against each other while I finished cutting the grass in the front of the church.Sun: Probably one of the saddest sundays I have seen. We had about 16 visitors and about 14 members that came to church. I think the visitors are more worried about the branch than the some of the members. The visitors decided to organize an activity for the primary this week and one of the guys asked us if he could go out with us this week and do visits. He is a member of the stake presidency in Buenos aires and I would guess he is only about 36. he is a really cool guy so wed we are going to go out with him. I hope everyone is doing great! The Work is going forth, eventhough at times we cant see the progress right now. I´m so grateful to have been raised in an area where I had so many great examples to learn from. We don’t realize the blessing it is to live in utah sometimes until we move out and see how hard some members have it.Thanks for everything!!Love Elder Veenker

New Years

There are only a couple pictures here but I will add more later.








Here are some pictures that I took at the cabin if you have more you would like to send me feel free to do so.

Elder Veenker Wish List

IF anyone is looking for ideas to give to elder veenker for his birthday or something just for fun here is what he suggested in his same words
Wish List:
Root beer Extract,
Maple Surrup Extracta,
Football (you cant buy one here),
Ties (You never can have too many)

1/5/08 Letter

Dear Family and Friends What a GREAT WEEK! Ive learned so much this week and have had so many great experiences. I´m glad to hear about all the fun that everyone had at the cabin and I wish I could have been there but I was having more fun learning and teachingTues: Pres and sister Olsen came and we had interviews. It is always so great to receive advice and revelation from him in interviews. Mom in your last letter you reminded me to be bold. The week before that I read through pres Trents blessing and that really stuck out to me. In my interviews, in the middle of everything Pres Olsen just stopped and said Elder Veenker I feel that you are an Elder that can be BOLD with people. I had thought I was being bold with people but decided to be a little more bold.Wed: IT RAINED LIKE CRAZY. We went out anyways and started to knock doors in the morning. We got some really hard rejections and were just about ready to go to a members house for lunch when we decided to knock a house that had a little covering over the door. This nice lady came out and we talked for a few minutes and then she invited us in to talk with her and her two daughters. She made us hot chocolate and gave us some bread and then we shared our message with them. At the end she told us that she knew that what we taught her was true but she had a lot of traditions that would be hard to change. I have strong faith that she will change with time. We went back on Sunday and they had read what we left them. Wed night we had an asado (BBQ) with quite a bit of meat which in total would come out to be about 5 dollars a person  what a deal huh. That night the people went crazy with fire works for about 4 hours. Thursday: Was a normal day of work for us. In the morning we had to buy tickets to go to Cordoba for our Zone Conference and then had lunch with a member. We were suppose to do service but it rained the member told us not to come. That afternoon we took the very long ride to cordoba and stayed in the pension of the assistants because they were in the mission home.Friday: we had our Zone Conference that was just EXECELENT!! After the Conference we went to the bus terminal and waited for the bus. While we were waiting there was this little cute 4 yr old girl by me with her mom, so I asked where they were going and they said to Brazil. They had already taken an 8 hour ride to cordoba and then had to wait about 8 hours in the terminal and then take a very very long ride to brazil to go to the beach. I gave the little girl a picture of Christ and the little kids and then when we were leaving I gave the mom a restoration pamphlet to read on the bus. There are so many great people everywhere to share the Gospel with and think of all those that we just pass up because we get alittle scared. Also in the terminal we were walking and a Lady said hey Elders (in English). She was a member that had just got off a bus and didn’t know how she was going to find a church in the area to go to. We talked with her for a while and found out she had studied English since she was about 6. We got her the address of the Church and then said bye. The Lord Blesses his people so much!!! On the way home on the bus the driver pulled over to go to the bathroom. Well he pulled over right in the mud haha. So that is what the picture Is of of the bus cause we got stuck. A few of us got out to help tell him how to get out. (wow did that bring back some good Bronco Memories haha)Saturday: We had a lesson with the Rojas Family. We taught the mom and a daughter but the dad was busy fixing a tractor (which I debated teaching over getting my hands dirty haha rough choice). So we taught the mom and the daughter and had a great lesson. There are so many people that just think that all the churches lead to the same place and sometimes it is hard to help them see why its not like that.Sunday: The lord Blessed us again. We had about 3 families come and visit and each of them brought a great spirit to our meetings. There was a family and came with their sister to try and help her get reactivated. She has been a member from probably 15 yrs but fell in active along time ago so her sister and brother-in-law came to help her feel good. Her husband and daughter both aren’t members and she wants us to teach her to help her remember some of the things she has forgotten over the years. One problem, she lives about 2 hours away from villa Dolores so we´ll have to see how we are going to do that because its actually in a whole different mission but we are the closest area to her. We also had a little 11 yr girl that has been coming with her friend to church that looked to interested while everyone was giving their testimonies. I talked with her after about what her parents say and if they would like to listen to us and she said yes so when her mom gets back from Cordoba we´ll start teaching them too. There are some many blessings coming to us that I sure hope I can talk Pres Olsen into letting me stay here another transfer (o well if I don’t go up as Senior comp).I hope everyone has an amazing week. Thank you for your prayers and letters!