2/23/09

Sorry this is a little late of a post but here it is.


Well it sounds like mom and dad are the only ones that really care about getting my letters every monday since they were the only ones that wrote me after not getting anything yesterday. O well, at least they love me.I forgot last week that yesterday we were going to have a mission conference in Cordoba, so Sunday night we had to make the 5 hr bus ride back into cordoba. We stayed with the elders that are work in the offices and I got to sleep on top of a bunch of Boxes of Books of Mormon (very comfortable. . .not). We had a member the Pres of the Seventy come and speak to us, Elder Jensen, and also another member of the Seventy Elder Zivic. They gave way way good talks and made it very interactive. Elder Jensen talked alot about the power that is in The Word, and also about how sometimes the missionaries get inbetween God and the Investigators, or the investigators look to us more as god and dont really seek out the real answer. Thats when we end up having "Eternal Investigators". He also talked about how we need to get out of that line as soon as possible and gave us a few suggestions on how. Overal it was a great conference. I was able to say goodbye to my trainer that will be going home in 3 weeks, Which is crazy cause I swear I was just with him and he had only been in the mission for a year.This week has been a good week full of alot of good flat out hard work.Tues: the zone leaders came as well as our district to have our district mtg and then the zone leaders were going to do exchanges but they didnt have time so they just called it good. So the rest of the day we just worked trying to find new people and inviting members to an activity that we had on friday.Wed: We had a lesson with Juan Carlos about the Word of Wisdom and he says he already lives it, haha he even doesnt drink caffine, its amazing how the Lord really is preparing so many people and when he prepares them he does it very well. That night we had our mtg with the Presidency.Thurs: Was THE HOTTEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!! It got up to about 120 degrees. My comp got a little bit of heat stroke so we tried to spend alot of the day in doors, but we had to walk alot because where we worked was about a 45 min walk from the pension and thats where we had lunch too. haha mom I dont know what you would have thought about this kitchen. We were sitting there eating and this girl comes to the door and needs some gas for her scooter so the lady goes over to the shelf (in the kitchen) and gets the gas can and pours her some gas right there in the kitchen, I just had to smile and remember all those times that mom told me the kitchen wasnt a garage or a work bench.Fri: I think the temp drop about 40 degrees. It was a great day probably a high of about 85 so we were able to work really hard and found some good people to teach. We stopped this one guy and we taught him the first lesson and how to pray. He said how do you pray, can you pray where ever? I told him yes and we said a prayer right there in the street. After lunch we went to San Javier to teach Jorgelina. We taught her about the Law of Chasity and she accepted it very openly. She told us the other day she left her little boy with the old man that she takes care of, and when she got back the little four yr old boy was sitting there teaching the man out of the pamphlets that we use. She says he definitely will be a missionary when he is older.Sat: In the afternoon we had an activity for the branch. We did a night at the theater and watched a movie (madagascar 2). Everyone really enjoyed it and asked to have another one next week to invite all their friends to it.Sun: I gave a talk. I´ve decided they must like listening to me cause the first speaker always leaves me with about 30 mins to talk. This week sister Quevedo gave a talk for the first time in probably 4-5 yrs. It was great, but she still left me alot of time. I talked about the Great Value of Our Message and how many members dont realize it. I shared a few conversion stories from the book of mormon and showed how after every really conversion, they always have a great desire to share it with others. Then I shared a quote from Elder Bednar´s talk from April where it says that members are fulltime finders and missionaries are full time teachers ( I LOVE THAT QUOTE ). Then we went to Cordoba that night. Mom I got your package and also Wendy´s. Thank you to both of you!!! I LOVED the Root beer and Maple Surup. We made pancakes and maple surup the other day and everyone loved it. I also love the ties and the football! thanks for everything!At the conference I got some really good news. Some of the investigators from my last area got baptized. And the Gonzalez family finally got their papers to get married so now they have to do it.O another cool fact I found out last week. My comp has a step counter that he wears every day and in one year in this mission we walk over 2000 Miles!!! That means in the last year I have put more miles on my feet that I put on my snowmobile in 3 seasons of riding!!! Pretty crazy huh? and I thought I rode a lot.Anyways have a great week I love you all!!
Love,
Elder Veenker