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!