Baptism

Hey family how is everything? Things are going good here in Dorrego. Yesterday we had the baptism of Daniela!! It was a bit of a miracle because at the beginning of the week she wasn´t going to get baptized. We had gone by here and she still had a few doubts about the law of chastity. We tried to help her solve her doubt and it just wasn´t seeming to really have effect so we had moved her baptismal date back to the 19th. Then we were talking to Elder Horton our district leader and he decided to come up to do the interview anyway so that Daniea could realize that she was ready and that she can keep all the commandments that the Lord asks us to keep. So on friday we have the interview with Daniela and Elder Horton. They were in the interview for about an hour talking and when they came out they both said that she was gonna get baptized on sunday! Elder Horton is an awesome Elder and really patient and loving. She had the fear basically that her boyfriend was going to leave her cause that´s what he had said. Apparently she was pretty attached to the guy but she decided at the end to do what the Lord wants her to do! It was an awesome experience and for some reason she hadn´t told us anything about that. I´m not really sure why cause we had felt like we´d done everything we could, but I guess sometimes you just need someone else to come in and say it and it has more of an effect. It was awesome though and she is doing really well. We also have some baptisms planned for the 26th of this month which will be great. They´re 2 kids of a less active member so we´re hoping that this will help to activate the entire family and get back strong. The kids names are Tobias and Franklin and they´re great. They have kind of a crazy story because both their parents are members, were sealed in the temple but then later got divorced and both of the parents sadly went inactive and the kids never got baptized. They´re really cool kids though and they could be the spark plug to activate the family again which would be awesome cause we need to activate some families here to help the ward get back to where it used to be. Elder Thomas and I are doing really well together but he´ll probably be leaving here on the 26th as well. He´s been here almost 6 months so it´s about his time to go. He´s great though and we´ve worked really well together. Oh I almost forgot, Jonathon got the Aaronic Priesthood this last week which was great! He´s progressing really well and has been really blessed since he´s been baptized. He´s awesome and my love for him grows more and more everyday. I´m glad you all got the packages! I hope you like them. We´re going into Bahía tonight so hopefully I´ll be getting the stuff you all sent me tomorrow when we go to district meeting. Thanks for all the love and support!! I´ll let you know all the details about the call on Christmas next week.

-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hey everyone Happy Thanksgiving!! Glad you all enjoyed it. Turns out my companion and I had an almost american like thanksgiving lunch with a member on thursday so it all worked out. And I´m pretty good at keeping secrets huh? haha thanks mom. Now I can publicly say congratulations alex and tara!!! I´ve been telling all the members here how I´m gonna be an uncle so if you couldn´t tell I´m pretty excited as well. This week was pretty good. Maria, Sebastian and Daniela finally came to church yesterday which was awesome! It was so cool to see them there and they seemed to really like it as well. Daniela has a baptismal date for the this weekend so please pray for her so that she can get baptized this week. She´s a way cool girl and has been making a ton of changes in her life to be able to do this. Maria and Sebasitan are going pretty well too, a little slower but their going well. For Maria to get baptized she has to get divorced, her husband lives in Bahía but they don´t know where so that whole situation could get complicated. Even more with the fact that Maria has to go into the doctor every once in a while in Bahía. We´re gonna find a way to do it though and make it through everything. Jonathon is doing really well too. We´ve been getting to know him more and more every time we go over to teach new member lessons and he had a really tough past. I tell you all more about that on Christmas because it´s gonna take forever to type. This week was pretty good for the work too. We found a bunch of new investigators but had to end up dropping a few and a few others dropped us so that was kinda tough, but we did find this one lady named Nieves. Nieves is about 40 and has a bunch of kids. She´s evangelical but doesn´t really go to church and is having a bunch of problems in her life. We´ve been talking to her a lot about the Atonement and how it can help us with everything that goes on in our lives, especially the trials and difficulties that we are going through. It seemed to get to her and we´re hoping she gets better. She´s reading the Book of Mormon so that´s always a good sign. Besides that there´s not a whole lot of new stuff going on. We still keep finding crazy catholic people that tell us they don´t believe in God or aren´t interested in hearing about Him which is kind of a bummer but hey that´s their decision to take. We found some people with some crazy beliefs which was fun. We taught 2 of Sebastian´s friends this week, one was Guillermo who believed in God but not in Christ cause he saw something on the discovery channel. And his other friend Ian who believed in the Matrix. Those were some interesting lessons to say the least but I had a good time. It´s cool to see that even in little tiny towns, Argentina is never boring. Love you all and I´m gonna be sending off a Christmas package pretty soon!
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Baptism!!

Hey everyone how was your week! This last week has been awesome! On saturday we had the baptism of Jonathon Reyes which was an amazing experience. He was baptized by the bishop and had some family members who weren´t members come so that was really good for them to be able to see a baptism and feel the that strong spirit that is always in a baptimal service. Jonathon is an amazing guy as well. Yesterday he told us in church that he was up until 3 am reading the scriptures/the gospel principles book. He has done a complete 180 and is really a new person in more ways that one. When I met him I honestly didn´t think that he was gonna get baptized all that quickly if at all. He´s really a great guy and has been really converted. His dad had a big influence on him and this last saturday when Jonathon got baptized was also the month aniversary of his dad´s death. I think it made the day even more special for him and I´m sure his dad is extremely happy with him in what he has done. Maria is struggling a little bit. She´s been traveling a lot back and forth between Dorrego and Bahía cause she has to go to doctors that are in Bahía and it makes it tough for her to go to church. Her son Sebastian is about the same cause he says he wants to get baptised with mom so until she settles down and gets into a routine it looks like it´ll be a little tough for them. Please pray for them so that they can get everything settled and start progressing. We do have a baptismal date with Maria´s daughter, Daniela. She´s a way cool girl who really wants to do things well. She´s 19 and has 2 kids already which is tough but she´s working really hard and wants to change her life which is awesome. She´s really willing to make changes and do what the Lord asks so please pray for her as well so that she has the strength and help that she needs. Besides them it´s somewhat slow as always. Thing´s here in Dorrego are pretty much all the same but Elder Thomas and I are doing well. We are working well together and I´ve probably gotten along better with him than almost any other companion I´ve had. I´ve been really blessed with good comps and Thomas is a stud of a missionary. We´re doing a lot of contacts and I´ve started to realize that a lot of people already have decided if they´re gonna let us in or not before they even open the door. The other day we knocked a door and I asked the lady who answered if we could come in and share a message. She said no so I asked her why and she said she didn´t believe in the same things as we do. I said "Do you believe in God?" and she responded "No I´m catholic". That kinda left me thinking/laughing a little bit. It´s kinda funny cause sometimes we could say almost anything and it´s like the people don´t even listen to what we say. Interesting stuff. Well I gotta get going, we have a family home evening set up with a member and she was gonna invite a bunch of non member people to it. Thanks for all the love and support you all give me. You guys are amazing and I really appreciate it!!! Con amor

-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

After I wrote...

Hola familia cómo están? Everything is going good here in Dorrego. This week was a little slow but we´re recovering and gonna have a much better week starting today. On monday right after I wrote you all I got a call from one of the members here and she told us that Maria took a bunch of pills and was being taken in an ambulance to Bahía and they weren`t sure if she was gonna make it or not. We all starting praying like crazy cause she wasn´t conscious. On thursday we went to that members house to see if they knew anything more and they told us that she had woken up! Apparently during the week they were also in Bahía and they went to go get some missionaries to give Maria a blessing, they did and she´s been getting better and better. The doctors had done everything they could before that and there was nothing else they could have done and then they went and got some missionaries (who just happened to be our zone leaders) and they gave her a blessing and slowly she started getting better. So on thursday Maria woke up but still couldn´t talk, then we went back to the members house on sunday cause we had lunch with them and they told us that Maria started talking, they took her out of intensive care and that she keeps slowly getting better. And from what else they´ve said to us, Maria´s son Sebastian really wants to get baptized! Looks like we´ll be taking care of that as soon as they get back. We´re still not sure when they´ll be coming back here to Dorrego but we hope that´ll it´ll be soon so we can keep teaching them. So that was the crazy stuff that happened this week investigator wise. We also had zone conference on friday which was awesome!! I learned a ton and it was a really good experience. Now we only have zone conference every 3 months so they´re a lot more intense and hands on which is great cause I think we learn a lot more and it´s a lot more personal. My interview with President Detlefsen was really good and just things that were said in conference really helped me put things more in perspective and I´m starting to see more the purpose of everything and the sometimes mysterious ways the Lord works in our lives. I felt like I knew there was some lesson for me to learn here I just couldn´t figure out what it was yet. President is amazing though and he helps me out a ton, it´s kind of a bummer cause we only have interviews every 3 months as well and the interviews are only 15 minutes long or so. Not a whole lot of time but hey it´s what we´ve been given and we gotta make the best of it. Besides that things are going pretty well here, a little slow but well. Thanks for forwarding that email from Daniel, it´s cool to see how he´s doing and what´s going on with him. Oh I also heard that Pedro and Angelica got baptized this last weekend, how cool is that!!!! Elder Dominguez sent me an email telling me they were gonna get baptized which was way cool!!! Thanks for all the love and support!!
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Dorrego

Hey everyone how´s it going? Things have been pretty good here in Dorrego, a little slow as usual but good. We´re almost done with another transfer which is hard to believe. We have this week and next week and we´ll already be at transfers once again. Not a whole lot of stuff goes on here in Dorrego. This week we were able to find quite a few new investigators and have a few people with baptismal dates but it looks like we´re going to have to move them back because they´re taking a little longer to progress. We have Maria and her son Sebastian for the 14th of this month but they didn´t make it to church yesterday and Maria was telling us that she felt like it was a little soon so we´ll probably be changing that in the next few days. She´s way cool though and you can already see the changes that the gospel is making in her life. Before we started teaching her she had a ton of problems and it was almost like she didn´t know what to do with herself or everything that was going on. Then we started teaching and she looks happier everytime we go over there. Her son Sebastian is the same. When we first got there he was way quite and didn´t really talk much, now it seems that we´ve gained his confidence a bit and he´s a lot more open and talks to us a lot more. They´re way cool people we just need to get them to church, that seems to be the only thing they struggle with for now so please pray for them so they can do that. We also have another lady Betina for the 21st of this month. She´s a super nice lady who we actually found knocking doors. The missionaries had taught her a few years ago but they both got taken out at the same time and for whatever reason the new missionaries never went by her house. Talk about being guided by the Spirit cause we almost went right passed her house then I stopped and said to Elder Thomas, "hey let´s knock this door". We knocked and she basically let us in right away. Please pray for her as well cause it will help her a ton. That´s pretty much it investigator wise. We keep finding people but not a lot of them are progressing so that´s gonna be the new trick, to help them progress or find those who will progress. Things are going good though and Elder Thomas and I get along really well, which is really good being in a small town pretty far away from everything else. Yesterday in church was a bit of a shock. Only 15 people showed up including us, I had never seen so few people in a sacrament meeting before. Looks like we have our work cut out for us and I think it´s a little more than I thought but it´s all good. We´ve been working with the members a lot more which has been great. I´m getting a huge testimony of how important it is to have members in the lessons with us cause they had a whole new aspect that makes the lesson a lot better and much more powerful cause investigators are hearing testimonies and experiences from people that don´t walk around preaching all day. I think it helps them see how the gospel applies more in everyday life cause sometimes we explain one thing 5 times and they still don´t fully understand it, but then the member comes and gives testimony and it they have a better understanding of that principle. That happened with one investigator we have called Marta. We had a lesson with her and a member Hermana Molina. Marta has a ton of challenges in her life and the Hermana Molina has had similar challenges. Having both of them together was amazing, the spirit was way strong and it was one of the best lessons I´ve had in a long time. Marta didn´t want to pray cause she said she was angry with God for all of the things that had happened in her life. Hermana Molina beared testimony and helped Marta feel like she´s not alone and needed to pray to God to get help and to have more peace in her life. Marta committed to pray and we saw her yesterday and she was way happy!! Much happier than she had been that day we taught her. Stud members are the best. That´s all that´s really been going on out here in Dorrego. Thanks for all the support and all the love. You guys are amazing and I love everyone of you! Mom I can´t believe your in NY!! And dad thanks for all the advice and encouragement. John your sweet, keep being how you are bud. Love you all,
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Week 2 in Derrego

Hey everyone how´s it going? Well the second week in Dorrego has definitely been an interesting one. On sunday we had someone in church which was great. His name is Jonathon Reyes and he´s the son of a member. His dad, the member, is in the hospital with cancer which is really sad. We´ve gone to visit him a few times and he´s not doing too hot but we´re praying for him every day hoping that he gets better. Jonathon is a pretty good kid. He´s 21 and has already listened to a bunch of missionaries before so teaching him is fun. In church it was just me, my companion Elder Thomas, and him. We started talking about the lesson we had assigned but then I randomly decided to ask him why he hadn´t been baptized and he started talking about why and saying how good he felt in the church and how it helped him to feel calm and relaxed. So we started talking about baptism and how that´s gonna help him feel like that a lot more often especially with the companionship of the Holy Ghost. We couldn´t take out a baptismal date yet cause Jonathon says he needs to talk to the bishop about a few things he´s been involved in so this coming sunday he´s gonna talk to the bishop and we´re gonna take out a baptismal date for next month. Jonathon is a really good guy and you can see that he wants to make changes and be a better person. We also have another lady named Noelia who we just started teaching this week as well. She is the girlfriend of the grandson of Elder Thomas´ convert here (hopefully that connection all made sense). We were there to teach Elder Thomas´ convert, Maria, and Noelia happened to come into the room while we were sharing the scripture. We starting talking to Noelia a little more and my companion asked her if she wanted to learn more and she said yes. We taught her the restauration and set a baptismal date with her for Nov 7!!! Please pray for her so she can make it to that day without any problems!! Things are getting better here in Dorrego. We´ve bee working hard and we´ve been trying to work with memebers more so we´re gonna see how it goes and what we can do to keep improving. We´re trying to teach more lessons with members as a mission so this will be good to help us get better. Besides that not a whole lot has really been going on. This place is super calm all the time, it´s still been kinda of an extreme adjustment from Mar Del Plata to here but it´s all good. The members are good and there are some that are really willing to help up so we´ll be working with them a lot. I´m glad everything is going well with you guys. Sounds like your all busy but doing well!! Thanks for all the love and support!!! You guys are great and I love you all!!!!
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

New P-Day for Elder Gaughan!

Hey everyone how´s it going? Your probablly all wondering why I´m writing on monday. Well we´ve have quite a few changes in the mission that they just told us about this last thurs. P day is now on monday so start expecting emails and all that fun stuff on mondays now and not wednesdays. They also changed the day of our district meetings and now we have to work during the siesta which here in Dorrego should be pretty interesting. Everyone here in Dorrego sleeps from about 2-5 or 6 and the as it gets hotter and hotter the longer and longer people here sleep. We´re gonna have to get creative in terms of what we do during that time but I think we´ll be able to find something.
Mom Matius is a member from my last area in Newbery. They were super awesome and helped us out a lot in missionary work. His parents know some people in the government or something and helped us speed up the whole process of Carlos´ marraige so that he could get baptized. Matius went to BYU and lived in the states for a while, he´s an awesome guy and a stud. I told him one time if he ever went to california to let me know and I would give him your guy´s info so that he could get in touch with you and all that fun stuff. He told me like a week before I left that he was gonna go to the states and that´s when he asked me for our phone number so I went ahead and passed it to him. He´s a great guy and is one of my favorite members there from Newbery besides the people I was able to baptize. I´m glad he called although you guys couldn´t actually talk.
Things in Dorrego here are going good. It´s weird being in such a small place and it´s still taking some getting used to but I think that´ll happen eventually. We´ve been finding some people here and there but we haven´t really found anyone that is willing to keep committments or progress. The missionaries have been here for a while now so it´s proven a little though to find people that don´t know the missionaries or people that are willing to listen. A lot of people already know the missionaries and don´t even really let us talk that much when we knock the door. It´s ok though, what can you do? There are a lot of incomplete families and less actives so we´re thinking more about taking that route and hopefully we´ll be able to find success. Please pray for the town of Dorrego cause it really needs it. Especially the members. This place is way small and as one member told me "everyone knows everything about everybody" so they´re not always that optimistic about the mission work cause most of their friends have already listened to the missionaries before and nothing´s really happened. We´re gonna see if we can change that though. We got good members we just need to animate them and get them excited which could be the biggest challenge. Please pray for us cause we need all the help we can get and then some!!
 Ok thats all for this week cause it hasn´t been all that long since I´ve written. I love you all and thanks for everything!!!
Elder Gaughan

Transfer!

Hey everyone how are things going? Hopefully pretty well!! Well first things first, I got transfered!!! I´m now in a tiny town called Coronel Dorrego that´s about 2 hours outside of Bahía. When I say tiny, it´s literally tiny, like about as small as our neighboorhood tiny. Kinda crazy and it´ll take some getting used too but I think I´ll be ok. It´s just me and my comp, Elder Thomas from Ogden Utah. He´s a way good kid and a good missionary. He´s got about 7 months or so in the mission but is way smart and works really well. There´s a ward here but only 25 active members so we´re gonna have to get working pretty hard to change that. Leaving Newbery felt pretty weird when I finally heard that I was leaving, but I also felt that it was just time and there wasn´t a whole lot more there for me to do that I hadn´t done. Pedro, Angelica, Adriana and Luis still haven´t been baptized but I´m confident that they will be in a short amount of time. Elder Schmidt from my group replaced me there in Newbery with Egbert so they should be going pretty well. We´ll just have to wait and see. Conference was amazing as always!!! I loved Elder Uchtdorf´s talk about pride, everything that President Monson said and a couple more that I can´t really remember right now. Amazing though and I loved it. It was kind of bad timing to have transfers the same day as conference, it made it hard to say bye to everyone and let them know I was leaving but maybe it´s better that way. I loved Newbery though and now I´ve got a new challenge here in Dorrego. We´ll have to wait and see how it goes here, we wanna work hard and have success to try to help the ward out. One last fun story from Newbery, last friday we went to go contact a reference we´d gotten from a member of another ward. Here in Argentina it´s "good manners" to clap your hands at the gate and not go up to the door and directly knock it. This gate didn´t have a door, we clap our hands but nothing happens. So we decided to go knock the door cause they probably didn´t hear us when we clapped, we go up and knock the door and the neighboor who has his house on the same plot of land starts yelling at us from his window saying how we need to be out front at the gate and I don´t know what else. Ends up that he comes out of his house with a big old butcher knife to chase us off the land, so we go ahead and leave right there. There´s never a dull day in Mar Del Plata that´s for sure. Here in Dorrego on the otherhand is the complete opposite. It´s super calm all the time all day long. We´ll just have to wait and see how the adjustment goes. Well I gotta get going but thanks for all the support and love!!! You´re all great!!!

Elder Gaughan 

PS next time you send me a package for christmas or whatever could you send me some teenage mutant ninja turtle sheets? Random request I know. Also what is Ryan and Molly´s address? and how is mike doing? he hasn´t written me in a while?

Gonzalez Family

 Romi (convert)

 Carlos and his family

Adriana and Luis

Take Advantage!

Hey everyone what´s going on? Well this last week was pretty crazy to say the least. Ok so basically we were doing divisions the entire week and I hardly even saw my comp which felt quite weird let me tell you. It was weird having to bounce around and work with a ton of different people but it was also pretty cool cause I had the opportunity to learn a lot from each one of them. I think my favorite day was friday cause we went to Balcarse, a little town about the size of Poway or a little bigger about an hour outside of Mar Del. It was way cool, I went out to work with Elder Carter who´s from Utah and we had a really legit day. In the morning we went to go teach a few older ladies for the first time and we were able to take out a baptismal date with them which was awesome!!! In the afternoon we went to do a baptismal interview which is always a great experience for me to be able to do that. At the interview there were a couple people there who weren´t members so when I finished they were all waiting outside to see how the kid did. He passed and then after I just randomly asked the people if they wanted to listen to our message and they said yes!! Crazy but it was way cool, we had 4 new investigators that day which was awesome, basically just taking advantage of opportunities that were there in front of us. On sat we had the baptisms of Viki, Magali and Agustín!!!! That was an awesome experience. I was able to baptize Viki and Agustín and Elder Egbert baptized Magali. It was a crazy/really good day cause that day in the morning I had to run over to Belgrano with Elder Dominguez to do another baptismal interview while Elder Egbert and Elder Wilkes (Dominguez´s comp) went to go set everything up for our baptisms. Kinda insane but it all worked out well thankfully. On sunday we had the confirmations and we also were fortunate to have Elder Patanias who is an area 70 come to church in Newbery and talk to us in sacrament meeting. He gave a really good talk about preparing the family for everything that we´re seeing and how important it is to strengthen the family and use all the tools we have to do so. Also we´re in the last week of the transfer so we´ll be finding out what´s going on this friday. I´ve been here for 6 months which is pretty hard to believe, it feels like a long time, but at the same time it goes by really quickly. It´s kinda hard to explain. Newbery has been a great area though inspite of all the hardships and random things that have happened. I´ve grown here a ton and I´m really grateful that I´ve been able to be here and learn from my comps, leaders in the mission, local leaders, and the people that I´ve been able to teach. It´s weird cause Newbery feels like home and leaving sounds good but also not at the same time. This is one of the best areas in the mission and I´ve loved the time I´ve had here and the people. I´ve been fortunate and blessed with a lot of success. I was talking with Egbert the other day about how crazy the mission really is when you sit back and think about it. I think as missionaries we don´t fully comprehend the what it is that we´re doing here. In other words, we do but at the same time we don´t. It´s hard to explain and I feel like I´m kinda mumbling so I´m just gonna stop. I love you all. Thanks for all the love and support you give me!!!! Have an awesome week!!
Elder Gaughan

Un Poco Tarde

Hey everyone how´s it going? Sorry I´m writing so late, we had interviews with President Detlefsen today and we just barely got here to the internet place a little while ago. We were last in interviews so we had to wait a ton of time but it´s all good. Things are going pretty well out here in Mar Del Plata. The transfer is flying by I can´t believe it, now when we have General Conference we have transfers the same weekend. Things are going really well after the conference, we came out of that with a ton of excitement and desires to get better and now we´ve found that putting it into practice is a little harder, but it´s worth the pain and struggle. Interviews tonight for me at least helped me keep the focus on our new goals and the changes we are making as a mission. It´s gonna be a great time. We have 5 people that are gonna get baptized next Saturday the 25th which is going to be awesome. We have Viki, Magali, Pedro, Angelica, and Agustine the son of Adriana. We´d put a baptismal date with Adriana as well for the 25th and she´d accepted, but a few days later she said no cause she wanted to be really sure about getting married to Luis. She says she wants to strengthen the relationship that she has, bla bla bla to be honest I stopped listening a little bit. It´s ok though, she´s still doing good and she´ll definitely get baptized. It´s just an insanely slow process. Besides that we´re just working on finding new people, we have a new mission standard of finding 15 new investigators every week, we´ve been averaging around 5 or 6 so it´ll take some work but it´s gonna be great. President is amazing and gave me a ton of faith that we can actually do it and that we will do it!! Things with the district are going pretty good as well. All the missionaries are really good guys and are working hard. We can always get better and there are a lot of things that we need to improve and we´re looking for those things so we can be more effective and be better all in all. The visit of Elder Aidukaitis has basically changed everything but we´re headed in a much straighter line towards our goal. The mission is great let´s just put it that way. Yes it´s really hard, there are days that are really difficult, but it´s amazing. I know I´ve said it before but I´ll say it again, I wouldn´t change this for anything. I love this job, I love this country and the people even when they don´t wanna listen or they´re stubborn, or they´re lazy and don´t fufill commitments. At the same time you still gotta love them. Ok I gotta get going but I love you all!!! Thanks for everything and all the support!!!!
Elder Gaughan

Pictures

Elder Egbert and Elder Gaughan

Elder Dominguez and Elder Gaughan

Conference in Bahía: Elder Alberca, Unzaga, Gaughan, and Cox 

Elder Bills and Elder Gaughan

Conferencia con Elder Aidukaitis

Hey everybody what´s up? Well this week has been pretty eventful to say the least. On friday I went on divisions with Elder Alberca the zone leader in his area. It rained harder than cats and dogs if that´s possible but it was still a pretty good day. We taught a one of their baptismal dates named Cristina and her less active husband Fabian. It was a way good lesson. Fabian got baptized when he was 17, went on his mission to Paraguay, was assistant, got home and went inactive. It was pretty crazy to see and helped me to realize that we always need to keep going after everything that we already know. Enduring to the end is the hardest part, but also the most important. Cristina is awesome, she´s a golden investigator and is gonna be a great member of the church. After that we went over to Belgrano to do some more baptismal interviews, this time the guy passed which was pretty sweet and the kid that failed the interview I did kept learning and got interviewed by Alberca and also passed so that was really good to see. On saturday I went on divisions once again in a town called Batán which is right outisde of Mar Del with Elder Gilvonio. He´s from Perú and a pretty interesting guy. He´s got a great testimony and works hard but is in a pretty tough area, we were doing contacts almost all day and didn´t really get much. It kinda reminded me of Santa Rosa haha but it was a good experience anyway. Sunday I was finally back with my comp in Newbery. We went to church, the day was going pretty normal. Mirta finally came back to church which was awesome to see and we went to go visit her after and started teaching her friend and boyfriend. Then we went to Pedro and Angelica to see how they were doing, right after we get there they said that Elder Alberca had called. He´d gone to Bahía for a meeting with all the zone leaders that they do once a month. About ten minutes after we get there Alberca calls again and tells me that I have to pack my bags and jump on the 1030 bus to Bahía that night with the other district leader from the zone. Elder Aidukaitis from the 70/area presidency was there and wanted all of the district leaders there too for the conference on monday. We take off for the house, I threw a few things together, run over to the bus terminal buy a ticket and take off for Bahía that night.
The conference was awesome!!! Aidukaitis is from Brazil and said that really great stuff that we needed to hear. The mission hadn´t really been doing all that well numbers wise which is never good cause that is how success is measured and he basically told us that the mission was the way it was because of us the leaders. He talked a ton about paying the price, setting the example, being more obedient and after doing all that, teaching the other missionaries of our districts/zones how to do it. Everything has to start with us first. It was interesting cause at the beginning he asked us if he could be frank with us, we said yes and he definitely was. There´s a phrase that they use a lot down here which is "drop the cane", that´s what he did with us. But he did it in a really good way, cause after absolutely destroying us, he built us back up and helped to realize that we´re capable of doing everything that he asks and that President Detlefsen asks of us. Amazing conference I must say. I also saw Elder Johnson and Elder Schmidt, two of my good buddies from my MTC distict which was great. I´ll be sending pics soon I promise, things have just been kinda crazy lately and I haven´t had a whole lot of time. I gotta get going but thanks for everything, the support, love, prayers, packages, all of it!!!! Que tengan una muy buena semana
Elder Gaughan

Enfermo=No Bueno

Hola familia cómo estáis? Things are going pretty well here out in Mar Del. It´s funny that you ask me how I´m doing fisically and to tell you the truth I´ve been pretty sick for the last few days. On monday I woke up with fever and all kinds of fun stuff, didn´t go out in the morning and went to a few appointments in the afternoon and called it quits. Yesterday I was feeling quite a bit better and I worked the whole day which could have been a mistake cause I fell back into the fever and all that fun stuff today, not cool. Aside from that we´re doing pretty good out here. We finally set a baptismal date with Angelica and Pedro, the paper they needed should be getting here this week so within the next few weeks they should be able to get married and baptized!!!! WHOO!!!!! We´ve been working with them for a super long time and they´re finally almost there!!!! Pray for them so that they can make it. We´re also gonna baptize 2 sisters of Carlos on the same day so that should be pretty amazing. The date for right now is the 18th of Sept. We´ve been finding a few new people but they haven´t really been progressing at all so we´ll just have to wait and see what happens with them. I can´t remember if I said this last week but the mission is going through a ton of changes and it´s been awesome. Now we have to set a baptismal date in the first lesson and we have a goal of teaching the restauration once a day, way cool stuff. It´s tough some days but it´s awesome. I had my first baptismal interview last thursday and the kid failed. He was going good and then said we wasn´t willing to keep the law of chastity which is kind of a big one. Supposedly the kid didn´t understand me too well and that could´ve been a reason but he´s gonna have another interview this weekend so he should be good. It was a pretty interesting experience for the first time doing a baptismal interview but there you go. I have to go do some more on fri so that should be awesome and we´ll have to wait and see what happens. Oh remember when they robbed my coat like a month ago? Well it had my plaque on it and apparently the kids used my tag to rob some old lady. We had to do a ton of reports and stuff and my name made it to the area presidency or something like that. Cool no? So far nothing´s happened on that point and we´re gonna keep hoping that nothing comes up. Well it seems like everything is going well out there which makes me quite happy I must say. Tell alex happy late birthday for me cause the kid doesn´t write me. I love you all, thanks for everything!!

Elder Gaughan

1 Año, 2 Areas

Hey everybody what´s goin on? Ready for the big news.....I´m still here in Mar Del Plata!!! Big surprise right? I was shocked too I´m not gonna lie; I´m gonna pass my year mark in my second area. It´s all good. Things have been going pretty well here in Newbery. It was weird cause I thought I was gonna be leaving so I was all ready to say bye to everyone and then transfers come and I find out I´m staying, oh well what can you do? I´m still with Elder Egbert too and we´re excited to keep working together and keep having more success. We have two little girls that we´re teaching that are gonna be getting baptized on the 11th. They´re names are Magali and Victoria and they´re both super smart. Magali is 9 and Victoria is 11, they´re younger sisters of carlos and we just met them at his house one day and starting teaching them and it all took off from there. Pedro and Angelica should also be getting married soon. They´ve been having some crazy family problems lately but it looks like things are starting to cool down and we´ll be able to get back to normal. Hopefully they´ll finally be getting married in a few weeks and then they´ll finally get baptized the next day. We had a pretty crazy experience last week too, we were out looking for less active members and we went to knock a house and this little kid who was playing in the street told us that no one lived there. Then as we turn around to leave he says "hey go to my house" so we did and we found his mom and his brothers and sisters and ended up teaching all of them. The mom´s name is Sandra and I don´t remember all the kids but they´re pretty cool. We´ve taught them a few times and hopefully we´ll be getting them to come to church this week. Oh I also got made District Leader this transfer. I´m in charge of half the zone and the other district leader is in charge of the other half. It´s a pretty cool job but it´s not a whole lot different from being a regular missionary. The only difference is I call at night to see how the day went and I take datos (datos are the numbers of the day, how many lessons taught, contacts, that cool stuff), I also work a lot with the zone leaders, do baptismal interviews and deal with any problems in the district if there are any. So far we haven´t had any, but I´ve only been doing this for 3 days, we´ll have to wait and see how it goes. It´s pretty fun, at least so far I´m enjoying it. Tomorrow I get to go do some baptismal interviews for Elder Dominguez and his new comp Elder Wilkes so that should be pretty interesting. Besides that not a ton has really been going on, not that I can really remember at least. It´s kinda crazy that I´m gonna be in another area for 6 months but I´m suprisingly ok with it. I love you all and thanks for the letters and support!!!
 Les quiero a todos!!!!
Elder Gaughan

The Hardest Part...

Hey everyone what´s going on? Well this week has been pretty decent. It´s weird cause it´s the last week of the transfer and we´re thinking that I´ll probably be getting sent somewhere else. On friday night they let us know everything but I´ve kinda been preparing anyway. There´s been a lot that´s going on here lately it´s kinda hard to know where to start. Ok firstly the Gonzalez family is having a pretty hard time right now. Jared has been having a bunch of problems with his Angelica and Pedro so they ended up sending him to live with his Dad for a little bit so he could see the difference. Apparently his dad isn´t all that great of a person and they sent Jared there so he could see everything he has back there are home and how he needs to cherish it a little more. Pedro and Angelica are also thinking about seperating which has been a pretty tough situation. Who knows if it´ll actually happen, we´ll just have to wait and see. Personally I´m hoping they don´t cause it would be really hard for the kids and they seem like they can be really happy together. Mirta has also been having a tough time. She´s been coming to church but not every sunday and according to her son Nacho she started smoking and drinking again. That´s been pretty tough to handle so don´t worry mom I know how you feel. We just gotta keep helping them all we can. They know what´s right and what they need to do, but the hard part is actually doing it. Just keep going mom, the convert will be fine. Keep going over there and visiting her and try to get her in with the Bishop, he could probably help her more than anyone. This is the hardest part for converts is right after they get baptized. It´s when the enemy throws everything at them all at once to try to get them to fall off the straight and narrow. I´m seeing with both the Gonzalez family and with Mirta. They need us right now and they need the Lord even more because this is the time when they always fall. Satan knows that it´s worse for them if they fall after they make these sacred covenants because God has to be just and if they don´t keep their covenants it´s even worse for them. Keep going and doing what you can and don´t lose faith. I know it´s hard but it´s our calling to help these people when they fall. They can always pick themselves up, sometimes it just doesn´t always happen the way we want.
Apart from that not a whole lot is going on. I´m getting along with Elder Egbert really well and we have a good time together. He´s a great kid and he´s taught me a lot. Is dad ever gonna come home from alaska or has he just moved there? Just kidding. Ok I gotta get going.
I love you all!!! Thanks for all the love and support!!!!!!
Elder Gaughan

The Adventure Continues

Hey everybody what´s going on. What´s new back home. Things are kind of starting to get back to normal here in Mar Del. Well kind of but not really at all. On thursday night we went to the church to talk to the bishop about everything that had been happening cause on thursday nights he´s always there. When we get there we see a bunch of the windows in the church broken and we thought we heard kids inside so we took off for the house of the Gonzalez family to call the cops but by the time they got there the kids had already taken off. They broke like 25 windows, which is basically all of them, and stole the frames to sell them. Pretty crazy stuff. Then on sunday we were in Mirta´s house visiting with her cause she hadn´t been to church in 2 weeks and as we´re there talking to her, her son Nacho comes in and tells us that some kids tried to burn down the church. They threw a bottle of gas with a hankerchiff through one of the busted windows and lit the sacrament table/bench on fire. Luckly one of the neighboors who lives by the church saw and called the firefighters but it´s still just kinda crazy to see everything that´s been going on lately. We´ve been having a ton of success in thw ward with all the baptisms and also the ward here is gonna have 5 missionaries in the field which is really rare for Argentina so it looks like Satan is trying to disrubt the work and progress as much as he can. We still have to be home earlier than normal and we don´t really carry anything with us anymore, also we have a conference tonight and someone from the church in Buenos Aires is coming down to talk to us about security and everything so that should be pretty interesting. On the plus side we´re gonna have a baptism this sunday. Alejo, the youngest of the Gonzalez family turns 8 on sunday and he wants to get baptized on the same day so that´s gonna be pretty awesome. We´re still waiting for Pedro and Angelica to get married but we´re gonna be helping them with that so hopefully we can make it happen quickly so that they can get baptized. We´ve also started teaching the younger brother of Carlos. The kids name is Lautaro and he´s pretty legit. He´s 14 and actually wants to go to church which is pretty cool to see. He already knows some of the young men which is way cool and he seems like a way good kid. He´s read part of the Book of Mormon we left him and it looks like we´ll be working with him a lot more. Adriana and Luis are kind of in the same place. They´re really great people, but we´re going over there a little earlier in the day so nothing really happens and we don´t leave when it´s dark. Aside from that not a whole lot is going on. We´re just trying to find new people to listen which is always the hardest part but we´re doing pretty well out here. Elder Egbert and I are getting along really wel in spite of everything that has happened and everything that seems to keep going on. The members here are awesome and take care of us like crazy. Seriously this ward is amazing and it´s awesome to see how united they are and how they work together. Well I gotta get going. Cuidense a todos
y les quiero mucho.
Elder Gaughan

Everything is Good

Hey everyone how´s it going out there? Things here in Mar Del aren´t going too bad. Things have been pretty interesting caused we got robbed again on Sunday. Don´t freak out I´m ok, they took our phone that had gotten to us the day before and some cash. It was pretty ridiculous to tell you the truth. I´m not gonna lie, I was pretty mad the rest of the day and since then it´s been kinda tough to work. For now the Assistants have told us that we need to have a member with us everywhere we go and they´re gonna get back to us on what the long term fix is gonna be. Not really sure at all what´s gonna happen. Some people are talking about us getting taken out but I´m not sure if that´s really gonna happen or what the story really is. Also going on this week is a big conference in Bahía for all the leaders in the mission so President and the Assistants have been really busy with that too. We should find out tonight what exactly is going on and what President Detlefsen says and everything. For this week I´m in a threesome with my comp and Elder Dominguez who´s in Belgrano. Dominguez´s comp is District Leader and Dominguez couldn´t find a member who could do splits with him the whole week so he´s with us until Friday night or Saturday morning. We´ve been switching off working over there in Belgrano and here in Newbery. I´m not gonna lie it´s really weird being in a threesome. Mostly just cause it breaks the routine so much and I´m not really sure what to do. Teaching is probably the toughest thing to do with three cause it´s hard to have a good flow going back and forth between all three without a lot of practice. Everything´s going good though. Adriana told me on the phone on Monday that her and Luis are going to get married!!!!!! They when to go pick out a date and here the government gives you the date of when you can get married. They´re date isn´t till November but the important part is that they´re gonna get married and they´re making progress. It was really great to hear that from her especially after everything that had been going on, it was like a beam of light in the dark. And don´t worry mom, all the members here are freaking out for us including the investigators and they´re all super preoccupied and worried about our safety. We´ve been keeping in touch with the ward mission leader and the bishop letting them know what´s going on and how we´re gonna have to be doing things. They´ve been great too. Our ward mission leader´s name is Mauricio Villalba and he´s a stud. He´s 27 and really pumped about missionary work and helping us out and basically doing all he can to magnify his calling which is really cool. He was with us all day monday. We had to go down to the police station and do a report on what had been stolen how it happened and all that good stuff, it took up pretty much the entire day which was a bummer but it was something we had to do. It´s kinda funny cause you go and do that and then the cops don´t do anything anyway. Even the Argentine people here say that the cops don´t do anything which is basically true, they´re pretty much a joke unfortunately. I´ve learned a lot about Argentine government as a plus I guess you could say. La familia Gonzalez is doing really well too. We need to get over there but with everything that´s been going on lately it´s proven kinda tough, but we´re thinking about getting over there tomorrow to see how they´re doing. They should be getting married in a few weeks and then getting baptized the day after which is gonna be awesome. Both Pedro and Angelica are super excited to get baptized. Oh snap I totally forgot to tell you guys last week but we went over to their house one time and Pedro had a little wine drinking problem. He didn´t drink a
lot but it was every once and a while and we talked to him and he knows it´s wrong but he just couldn´t really stop completely. So I asked him to pull out all the wine he had in the house, he did, and then we took it all into the kitchen and poured it down the sink and he hasn´t drank since. Pretty cool experience I must say!!!! All in all, things are going pretty well here despite everything that´s going on. We´re just having to be a lot more careful and we´ll basically just be waiting to see what President says. I hope everything is going well over there with everyone!! I love you all!!! Con amor,
Elder Gaughan

Finally... An update!

Hey everyone how are things? Ok first things first, I didn´t get transfered but Elder Espinoza did. He took off to his last area where he´ll finish out his mission and now I´m with Elder Egbert. He´s got 6 months in the mission and has a lot of energy which is gonna help me a ton. He´s from Spanish Fork (the same place as my MTC comp Elder Banks) and this kid is a stud. He´s willing to work and has all the desires to do good and help the people. He´s always telling me how cool Mar Del is cause he came from a small town outside of Bahía which was his first area. We´re gonna have a lot of fun though and I think we´ll have a lot of success as well. Basically our goal is to keep this model of success that we´ve been having and we´ll just have to wait and see what we can do. The baptism of Antonella turned out to be somewhat of a disaster. I say that because there wasn´t hot water, it´s been freezing cold here lately and not a whole bunch of people were able to come. But the important part is that it happened and she feels good about it. Now we just need to baptize Angelica and Pedro and the whole family will be members of the church. We´re working on that and they´re finally about to get this paper and when that happens they´ll get baptized the next day. Adriana and Luis are doing good. We have an appointment with them tonight so that´ll be good. It´ll be the first lesson we´ve had with them since Espinoza left so that´ll be interesting because he´s been there from the beginning when they found them. I´m pretty happy that I´m staying here in Mar Del for one more transfer cause there are a lot of really good people here. There weren´t a whole lot of changes in the zone. Elder Stout the zone leader left along with a couple other guys but most of us stayed here. Oh I almost forgot, it´s wicked cold here. Seriously I´ve never felt cold like this in my entire life. The part that kills you is that it´s really freaking cold, and it´s humid so it doesn´t matter how many layers of clothing you put on, the wind still cuts right to your bones. Knocking doors has turned out to be interesting to say the least. I´ve decided that I´m not a huge fan of the winter here but there´s not a whole lot I can do about it.

Mom, I totally know what you mean about the sacrament too. Being on the mission has really changed my point of view on a lot of things related to the church and it´s interesting to see how I´m growing and gaining more knowledge all the time. The other day I was sitting in church and Espinoza was giving his testimony right before I left and I thought "wow, I understand everything he´s saying. I´ve actually learned a second language. This is crazy". Just random experiences like that happen every once and a while. Oh so you know I haven´t gotten the packages yet but they should be coming this week or next week. When I get them I´ll be sure to let you know.  Well I gotta get going but I love you guys and hope everything is going well.
Con amor
Elder Gaughan

Be An EXAMPLE!

Hey everyone!!! How´s it going? First of all, thanks for forwarding me Daniel´s email. That was way cool to see how he´s doing and I´m glad he´s doing well and liking the MTC. I´m not gonna lie though, I kinda laughed when he said it was good to get out into the city after only being there for a week. Ok now for the most important part of the email. I´m gonna be calling home on Sunday probably around 8 or so local time here. If I´m not mistaken it´ll around 4 PM there, but you might wanna check what the time difference is just to make sure.

This week has been pretty good. We had baptisms of 3 kids of less active families which was way awesome to see. These kids have basically put the example and made their families active again. It was amazing to see the effect that an 8 year old can have on an entire family. I baptized one of the kids whose name is Lucas, I´ll send pictures when I can (this computer doesn´t have USB). Apart from that we´re teaching some really cool people. There´s this family of 5, la familia Gonzales, and they´re way cool. The mom listened to the missionaries a long time ago but couldn´t get baptized cause she wasn´t married. But now she´s moved and is with a different guy and he´s super cool. We´re gonna see if we can get them married and baptized cause they basically already have testimonies and are basically driving themselves. Besides them we´ve been doing quite a bit of looking, trying to find new people which has been a little tough but we´ll get there. We just have to weed through everyone to find the people who really wanna listen to us. Carlos is still doing well. We´re just working on getting all the papers they need to get married so that he can get baptized. He´s awesome and went to an activity by himself and the members have been awesome about welcoming him in and making him feel comfortable. The truth is there hasn´t been a whole lot going on besides that. We have some really promising people that are doing well, we just need to tie up some loose ends before they can get baptized. This is a really cool place though. The people are humble and we have a lot of people that want to listen to us which is always good. How´s everything going out there. How are alex and tara doing? Ok I gotta get goin but I love you all. Nos hablamos en algunos días!!!!

Elder Gaughan

Some Pictures!!

Matias, stud investigator from Santa Rosa

Elder Gaughan on the beach in Mar Del

Elder Gaughan and  Elder Thackeray

Nadia and Alejandro

A Busy Week!!

Hey everyone how´s it going? Things are pretty good out here in Mar Del Plata. After my first week I´m starting to feel more and more comfortable in the area which is pretty nice. I still don´t always really know where we are but I at least know the people and am getting to know the members and investigators and different things like that. Elder Morrell is an awesome missionary. He´s not afraid to talk to anyone and he already speaks spanish really well. I really like the way we work together and we´re gonna have 2 baptisms this sunday of kids of less active families. These kids are awesome and super smart. It really blows me away sometimes but they´re way cool and I´ll try to send some pics of the baptisms next p day. The dad of one of the kids, Aliana, wants to get baptized. I think I already told you about him, his name is Carlos and he´s an awesome guy. He told us a little bit of his life beforehand and he has made a complete 180. Seriously it´s amazing to see the change the gospel can make in the lives of people. His wife was less active for a long time but she starting coming back to church and Carlos came this last week which was way cool. The only hiccup with that is that Carlos and Molena aren´t married. So that´s something we´re gonna have to take care of before he gets baptized but I don´t think it will be a problem. They want to do everything that´s right and keep the commandments. They even told us they were talking about marriage a while ago. So that´s Carlos, he´s awesome and we´re gonna put a baptismal date with him after they get married.

Another crazy thing happened to us this last week. I can´t remember if it was on Sunday or Monday but we were walking down the street and this little girl asked us if we were Jahova´s Wittnesses. I told her "no, we´re Mormons", and she said "oh my mom wants to talk to you. Follow me I´ll take you to my house". So we go and meet the mom and she´s an ex investigator from a long time ago. One or two of her kids got baptized when the missionaries taught them way back when, but she couldn´t cause she was already living with a guy and they weren´t married. Her marido wasn´t home at the time but we have an appointment later tonight so we´ll see how that situation turns out. Pray for us! Just crazy random things like that have been happening since I got here. Mar Del Plata is a pretty cool place. I´m really grateful for the chance I´ve been given to serve here cause it´s been an adventure so far. I gotta get going but I hope you are all doing well! I love you all, cuidense!!

Elder Gaughan

Doing GREAT!!!

Familia!!!! Cómo están??? Everything is going pretty good here in Santa Rosa. Working with Elder Thackeray has been a really good experience for me. I´m not gonna lie, being in charge of things has been kinda random and unexpected at this point in the mission, but I like to think that we´re doing pretty well. I can´t remember exactly what I said in my last email but we are completely different. And when I say completely different I´m not exaggerating. He´s a really great kid though. One of his brothers is getting home from his mission in Albania this week and that made me think of how the situation is in our family. That it´s possible I won´t see Mike for 4 years and the same with him and John. That would be kinda crazy but it would most definitely be worth it. No question about that. We´re doing pretty well in the area too. We had an ezfuerzo last friday in the afternoon in our area and it worked out really well. An ezfuerzo is when we do divisions but all work in the same area. We were 4 companionships in Barrio 5 and it helped us out a ton. We found 4 new investigators and have some other people that were busy when we knocked the door but we´ll be going back later to see if we can start teaching them too. I worked with Elder Gomez who is a Mexican from Provo. He´s way awesome though. His parents moved to the states from mexico and he speaks both languages perfectly and without an accent which is pretty rare. He´s an awesome kid though, he´s been my district leader this transfer and has really helped me out. We taught this couple Juan and Noelia who are awesome people. Juan used to play soccer in the stake center a lot but now they live by our church. We taught them the all about the restoration and they had a bunch of questions after which was awesome. I love it when people ask us questions because it gives us a chance to see what they´re interested in and what we should teach them the next time. Also Matias is an awesome kid (I told you about him right?). Last thursday we taught him the first lesson and he really liked it. Then we were out working on sunday afternoon just knocking doors and I had a little prayer in my heart about who we could go pass by, and Matias came to my mind. So we ran over there and found him at the member´s house that lives accross the street from him. We get in the house start talking, asking him if he´d read and prayed and he said yes. And he feels that he recieved an answer about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon!!!!!! It was the coolest thing ever!!!! We went on to talk about why we go to church and baptism and he´s gonna pray about May 2 as a baptismal date!! All we have to do now is get him to come to church and he´ll be good to go. He´s such a cool kid. The only sad part is I might not be here when he gets baptized. Transfers are on Sunday and I have a really good chance of leaving cause I´ve been here for almost 6 months. Elder Dominguez has been here the same amount of time as I and President told him in his interview at zone conference that he was leaving, so that probably means that I´ll be going too. It´s ok though, as long as Matias gets baptized it´s all good.

I love you all!!

Elder Gaughan

Running around like crazy.... And loving it!

Familia! Que tal? Ok firstly, that whole universal healthcare is ridonk! Now that that´s out of the way we can focus on other things. Firstly, my kid still isn´t here yet. I was talking to my zone leader the other day who had been talking with President and he said to hope for next week. What does this mean you might ask? Basically I´ll only be with the kid for 2 or 3 weeks and then take off. There´s almost no way I´ll be staying here next transfer cause at the end of this one I´ll have been here 6 months. And that´s crazy enough to hear about as it is. So I´m gonna be with my kid for a few weeks and not really have a whole lot of time to teach him anything and is second comp will probably be more like his trainer than I will. But hey what can you do?
As you probably already figured out, I´m still with Elder Dominguez and we´re still running around like crazy between our two areas trying to find new people, trying to keep the investigators that we find going and progressing, and not going crazy from all the traveling and running back and forth at the same time. Turns out it´s actually pretty fun. And although all that seems kinda crazy it´s really not that bad. We´ve made it as simple as possible and so far it´s worked out fairly well. Right now, especially in my area, we´re focusing on finding new investigators. So that means knocking a ton of doors and talking to a bunch of people to find the people that will listen to us and are actually interested.
Yesterday was a pretty cool day. I went on divisions with Elder Murillo, from Chile (don´t worry his family´s ok), and it was awesome! Right now he´s in one of the pueblos just outside of Santa Rosa and they came in yesterday to do divisions with us. So Elder Murillo and I got to go out to this neighborhood called Los Hornos (The Ovens). They call it Los Hornos cause it´s this neighborhood literally out in the middle of nowhere and there are brick making ovens all over the place. Kinda random but pretty cool at the same time. So the neighborhood out there had never been knocked before by missionaries cause it´s super far away from everything and I guess no one ever really wanted to go out there. So we head out there and start talking to some people, they give us the same typical random excuses that everyone else does. But we totally found this family of 4!! It was way awesome. They said they didn´t really believe in anything, their dad had just died from cancer and they were having a pretty hard time. So we taught the Plan of Salvation and it was way good! Murillo is a stud of a teacher and we had a really good lesson. One of the sons was all excited to go to church this week and everything!!! Only thing is.....there in Elder Dominguez´s area...dang it. But who cares, it was a way cool experience. Murillo is a stud, he´s always super happy and talking to everyone he sees. He has this genuine niceness to him that seems to have been somewhat lost these days. He´s from some pueblo in Chile, him and his family are converts of 8 years or so, and he taught me a ton. And here´s the part I like the best, he´s only in his second transfer in the mission! I have double the time he does and I felt like I was just learning every 5 minutes with him. Super legit.
Well I think that´s about everything for now. It sounds like everyone is doing well and I hope it stays that way. Thanks for all your prayers, your support, and especially for all the birthday wishes!! You guys are amazing! I love you all,
Elder Gaughan

Pure Joy

Hola familia cómo están? So I´ve finished my first week working with Elder Dominguez and needless to say it´s been fairly crazy. Half of the week we´re in Barrio 2, which is the Barrio that Dominguez works in normally, and the other half of the week in Barrio 5 which is my barrio. It´s been pretty crazy running back and fourth between the two wards, trying to find investigators and being able to schedule everything without double booking people and things like that. It´s been a test trying to manage everything but it´s been awesome at the same time. Working with Elder Dominguez is awesome. His testimony is super strong and he´s just a really fun guy to be with. We get along really well together and hopefully one day we´ll be comps for real cause that would be way legit. We´re hoping that our nuevos come next week, but we´re still not exactly sure. We just have to sit and wait until the office calls us and tells us. Then we have to travel up to Bahía to pick them up and have interviews with the President and all that fun stuff.
Yesterday though was awesome. In the morning we found this really nice lady named Beatrice while we were knocking doors. She let us in, but didn´t have a lot of time. I´m not used to having to teach really quickly and it felt kinda weird. Like we had to teach kinda rushed. It was a really good experience though and got me thinking as to what exactly are the most important parts of the Restoration. And then later that night we had a really powerful lesson with a less active family. Seriously the spirit was so strong there it was really quite impressive. I really think/hope that they start becoming active again because the family is just great. I think they´ll come back, it´s just a matter of when not if. When we left that appointment Elder Dominguez and I were really excited. Seriously it just felt like pure joy, almost as powerful as a baptism. There really is no feeling quite like it. It was a reaffirmation more than anything for me of why I came out on the mission. It was exactly the push, spark, wake up call, whatever you wanna call it that I needed/was looking for. Walking out of that lesson we just started talking to everyone we saw asking them if they wanted to listen. Oh man it was definitely a unique experience that I don´t think I´ll ever forget. We´re going back to my area tomorrow and we have a few appointments set up with some contacts we did. We´ll have to see how it goes. I think we may have found some really good people. Our goal before the nuevos come is to just find, find, find. We wanna find investigators so that we have a solid base of people to teach when the new Elders get here. Thanks for all your support. I love you guys and hope everything is going well!!!
Elder Gaughan

Training!!

Hey family how is everyone? Ok well just go with the big news right off the bat......I´m training!! How crazy is that? I´m not gonna lie I couldn´t believe it either when they told me. We got the call about transfers on fri and Elder Hopper talked to them and afterwords told me I´m training. I´m not gonna lie I´m kinda nervous, things are starting to get crazy here in the mission. I didn´t think I was gonna have this much responsibility for a while if at all. It´s gonna be really fun though, I´m pretty excited. The only thing is that my "kid" is coming late. I think he is having visa problems like I did. He´s already starting to be like his Dad haha. Oh by the way when somebody trains their greenie is called their kid. For example I was Elder Hopper´s kid and he was my dad, and now I´m gonna have a kid here in the mission. But yeah he´s coming late so I´m with another Elder in Santa Rosa, Elder Dominguez from Paraguay, who is also going to train but has to wait as well. I´m gonna be with him 2 weeks or so and then we go to Bahía Blanca to pick up our hijos and come back. During these two weeks we´re going to be working in my ward, Barrio 5. And in the ward of Elder Dominguez, Barrio 2. It´s gonna be pretty crazy cause we´re gonna be traveling back and forth between our houses and trying to juggle 2 areas at once is always tough. If nothing else we´re gonna learn a ton about planning well and using our time effectively. Yesterday was really cool. It was my first day with Elder Dominguez and we were also with Elder Rios who´s in our zone and going to train as well. I felt really weird being in a threesome but it was really fun at the same time. Elder Rios is Argentine from Rosario and he´s normally out in a little town so he actually got to go to Bahía to pick up his nuevito cause if not he´d be in his area alone. It was a really good day though. We found this guy named Gerardo knocking doors and he actually let us in and teach. We taught him the first lesson and it went really well. He seemed like he was really interested and we left him a Book of Mormon and set up another appointment for later in the week. He´s a really great guy and I think he could do really well. Besides this not a whole lot happened. Elder Dominguez was feeling pretty sick all afternoon so that was kinda tough for him. It was a really good day though and I´m excited for the time I have to work with Elder Dominguez and see what I can learn. My spanish is gonna get better that´s for sure. Ok I gotta get going but I love you all and hope everything is going well. Good luck with everything!
Elder Gaughan

Wow! What a week!

Hey everyone what´s going on? First of all, yes we did here about Chile here. I didn´t feel anything here in Santa Rosa but it´s what everyone has been talking about lately obviously and we´ve been hearing bits and pieces but I still hadn´t heard that much until you forwarded me that email from Christian. That´s insane! There´s a family in our ward that has a son in the Chile Concepcion Sur mission. We had lunch with them yesterday but they still hadn´t really heard anything from him. We´ve heard that all the missionaries are ok. There are some missionaries from Chile in the zone and they all got to call home to make sure their families are ok and thankfully they are. I went with Elder Veliz, who´s become one of my really good friends here in the mission, and it was really intense. That has to be a really scary feeling to not know what´s going on with your family when something like that happens. But how great is the knowledge that we have of the gospel. That we know that life doesn´t end here, that we can live with our families forever and for eternity. Definitely something that I´m really grateful for and always will be. Also I didn´t know about that Chelsea King girl, that´s really sad though. I never knew her but that´s gotta be really hard for her family. Does anyone know if missionaries have talked to her parents/family? One thing I´ve started really gained a testimony of is of the Atonement of Christ. It´s such a profound subject to study and to try to fully understand. It really is amazing when you stop and try to wrap your head around it. Go read Alma 7. It´s an awesome chapter and verses 11-13 are some of my favorites in all of scripture.
Not a whole lot has been going on here in Santa Rosa. Elder Hopper goes home on Sun and on Fri I´ll know what´s going on with me. I´m guessing that I´m staying here for another transfer cause it´d be crazy if they took us both out of the area at the same time. President Detlefsen also recently set a mission goal of 30 contacts a day, which is quite a bit. It´s one of the numbers they´re starting to take in the mission which is really gonna help us a lot cause the more we´re trying to talk with everyone, the more investigators will get and the more success we´ll have. Yesterday we basically just did contacts all day and I realized it´s something that I could definitely improve on. Other than that there´s not a whole lot new going on. We´ve been teaching a bit more but haven´t really found anyone that will progress so that´s been a bit of a struggle. The mission is great though. I went on divisions with one of the zone leaders on mon and had a blast. I was with Elder Van Wagenen who´s a stud. He´s one of the most loving people I have ever met and is an awesome example for me. I really learned a lot from him and was really glad that I had that time with him. That´s about it from here in Argentina. I love you all and hope all is going well.
Elder Gaughan

Loving Learning

Hey everyone how´s it goin? K to answer the first part of your email my comp is too trunked out. He´s trunky but that´s just cause he´s so close to going home. We´re still working and trying to do everything we can to keep the work going. The work.....the work is coming....slow. The activity we were gonna have we had to end up canceling because it looked like a storm was coming in. And when storms come here they´re pretty crazy and the activity was gonna be outside. So at the last minute we had to cancel but we´re still gonna have it. We just have to find out when we can do it cause there´s a few other things going on in the next few weeks. So yeah the work is going slow, but slowly we´re finding people. In the last week or so we´ve found a few less actives that weren´t even in the member list so that was way cool cause they wanna come back into activity. We just gotta find the way we can help them do that. And one of them has kids that aren´t members so we´re gonna start working with them soon and see if we can´t complete a family here soon.
We had zone conference yesterday which was awesome. I love conference cause I always learn a ton. President and Hermana Detlefsen are so awesome. President has so much knowledge it´s insane. Seriously he can take any topic and teach me 7 new things about it that I never knew beforehand. I love being able to listen to him, and it´s always a nice humbling experience too which is always helpful. One of our focuses was talking with everyone which is something I realized I don´t do all that well. But it´s something that I´m gonna fix cause everyone needs to here this message that we have.
That´s crazy about the Jergensens!!!! Tell them congrats for me, that´s gonna be so awesome though. That´ll be so cool though. I can´t believe Jergie is almost done with his mission, any idea how much time he has left?
That´s way cool about Alex and Tara too though. Well I can´t think of too much more but I´m glad everything is going well there. Take care! Con amor,
Elder Gaughan

Working Hard!

Hey everybody!! What´s up? Ok firstly before I forget again, yes mom I have been getting your emails. Sorry if I haven´t really been answering questions. I read everything you all send me first and then write everything after. I should probably change that but oh well. I´m really glad to hear Daniel´s doing a lot better. I got that email you sent me of Kim´s and I was kinda freaking out when I was reading it. That´s pretty crazy but I´m glad he´s recovered so well. That´s pretty nuts about the Saints too. One of our less active members told us that Miami won and I had a hard time believing that one too.
The work here is getting better. One of the new focuses of the mission is finding new investigators. Not going by old investigators that we taught a while ago or going by part member families but finding new new people that haven´t investigated the church before. So that basically means we´ve been doing a ton of contacts trying to find people. It´s worked a bit. We´ve picked up a few investigators in the last week and we´re really hoping that they progress. We also have a ward activity on fri and we´ve asked all the members to invite less actives and non member friends. Please pray for us cause we´re pretty nervous about how it´s going to go and what exactly is going to happen. Hopefully we´ll pick up more investigators from that too. This is our big push to try to get more help from members cause it´s always better to work with them than just go and knock doors all day.
This transfer has been a little crazy cause Elder Hopper is ending his mission and I´ve just barely started. It´s interesting cause of the two points we´re at in our lives and especially in the mission. He´s about to go home and I´ll only have 6 months when he goes. It´s interesting to see how the older missionaries are compared to the younger ones. It´s cool though. I´ll probably be here in Santa Rosa for another transfer too after this one so that´ll make it about 4 months in one place which is fairly rare. It´s all good though. Santa Rosa is pretty cool and the zone is awesome. Well I think that´s about everything. I love you guys and hope your all doing well. Con amor,
Elder Gaughan

Coming Along Just Fine

Hey family how´s it going? What´s been going on lately? How´s winter going for you guys? You were right Dad, it´s been super hot down here lately. It was around 100 for a few weeks straight but we´ve gotten a brake from that for now. It´s been cooler for the last few days which has been super nice.
Sounds like things are going well there. Tell the Killens I said hi and I hope everything is going well with them at the storehouse. The mission is awesome and everything´s coming along just fine. I´ll try to write them more next P Day. I´m glad to hear Bryan´s doing well too. I feel bad I haven´t written him or trev at all really since I´ve gotten here. I´m gonna try to get better about that and hopefully I can send both of them a letter next week. Could you get Bryan´s address for me? I don´t think I have it.
Santa Rosa´s going pretty well. We´re putting together an activity to try to help the mission work. It´s been a little slow and we´re thinking that an activity could boost the excitment and really get everything going a little quicker. We´ve been going by all the members and committing them to inviting a less active family or non member or both. So far that´s been going well and hopefully the activity helps. So please pray for that cause we need some help. The other day we found a really cool lady when we were doing contacts. We´ve been doing a million contacts lately cause we´re just trying to find new people, not go by old investigators or less actives. It´s been a bit of a struggle but hey it´s what it is. But anyway this lady we found is awesome, Valeria, she´s got like 4 kids but she´s super receptive and so far has accepted every committment we have left with her. We´ve only taught 1 lesson and we´re going back tonight to teach more and have more of an organized lesson cause the last one we taught was all over the place. Besides this not too much has been going on. We´ve been talking to a lot of Jehova´s Wittness´lately which has been pretty interesting. They´re pretty tough, like they never let you in or anything but hey you can always talk to them for a while and at least when they reject you they´re nice about it. I can´t really think of anything else that has been going on lately. I love you all and hope everything is going well. Con amor,
Elder Gaughan

Staying in Santa Rosa

Hey everyone what´s goin on? So I didn´t get transfered even though I thought it was going to happen. I thought I was gonna get sent cause Elder Hopper is in his last transfer and if I didn´t go I was gonna be here for another one after that. Basically it means I´ll be here in Santa Rosa for a total of 6 months which doesn´t always happen very often. But hey ít´s all good. What have you all been up to? Sounds like things are going well back home. Oh and before I forget yes mom I got your conversion story, thanks! It was awesome!!
So yeah I´m still here in Santa Rosa with Elder Hopper and he goes home the 7 of March or something like that. I feel kinda weird being here cause I thought I was gonna get transfered but I guess there´s still some stuff here for me to do. We´re doing well though. We´re slowly starting to teach more people and getting busier which is really nice. We got a new zone leader, Elder Taggart, who trained my MTC comp Elder Banks. Pretty crazy connection but he seems like a good guy and I think he´s gonna help us out a lot. There´s also a few other Elders that just got transfered here so it´s been fun getting to know them a bit. Besides that not much has really been going on. We just started teaching this lady named Rita who is super cool. She seemed way interested and we think that she can progress really well. She said she wanted to take her time and all this stuff though so it might be a little longer road with her but that´s ok. I think she just needs to pray and get her answer and if she does that she´ll be good to go. Besides that not too much new has been going on. It´s gotten insanely hot to where we don´t see to many people in the street anymore so the way we´ve been doing contacts has changed a little bit. Sorry but I gotta get going. We´re running a little late and we gotta get to an appointment. I love you all and hope everything is going well. Know that I´m well and doing just fine. Con amor,
Elder Gaughan

Transfer??

Hola familia, ¿cómo están? Everything´s going pretty well here. We´re in the last week of the transfer if you couldn´t already tell by the subject. We still don´t know who goes and who is staying though. We´ll find out who all is getting transfered on friday. The next email you get from me I might be in another place, but then again I might not. We´ll just have to wait and see.
Personally, I´m doing just fine. No health problems really at all so you can stop worrying about that. Everything here is perfectly fine, just a lot of walking and a lot of heat cause we´re in the middle of summer.

The work is still going pretty well too. We´re teaching a few people and of course looking for more. No one is really progressing though cause they haven´t come to church yet. But we´ve only been teaching for one week and the big goal this week is to get them all to church. We recently got a ward mission leader which is way cool cause we´ve been working without one and it´s a lot harder. Our ward mission leader is awesome though, Hermano Arce, was the ward´s bishop before the one that we have right now. Super cool guy and is really excited to work and help the ward grow.
Besides that I can´t really think of what else has been going on. Sorry this email has been pretty short, it hasn´t really been a very eventful week. Nothing crazy really happened or anything. When is Avalon getting married? Tell her congrats for me. Oh and tell daniel congrats for me too! That´s so awesome what he´s doing. Tell him to keep it up and keep his eyes on the prize!!!! Well I can´t really think of anything else. I love you all! Hope everything is well! Con amor,
Elder Gaughan

An Investigator Baptised

Here are a few pictures of one of Nick's Investigators, Celia, at her baptism..

Keep Going & We'll be FINE

Hola familia cómo están? Things are going fairly well here in Santa Rosa. It´s crazy to think that the new year has come and gone already. It´s weird to think we´re already in 2010. Have you guys made resolutions yet? How are Mike and John doing? I haven´t heard from them since christmas. If they´ve been sending me emails I haven´t gotten them. How´s everything going back home? How´s the ward doing? To be honest with you not a whole lot has been going on out here. We´ve been doing a lot of contacting and trying to set up things with the members to invite their friends but it´s proven a little difficult with the holidays and everything. A lot of people have been out of town and others had crazy schedules and stuff so it´s been a little tough. Hopefully as things come calm back down and get back to normal we´ll be able to find more people. It´s kinda funny cause we´re told that the holidays are normally a good time to find people but it didn´t really work out for us for whatever reason. It´s all good though. We just gotta keep going and we´ll be fine. We have interviews with President Detlefsen tomorrow so that´ll be good. I wanna see what he thinks about it and what advice he has. Besides that I can´t really think of anything. Oh there´s one member that we have here named Lorena and her husband, Juan Cruz, isn´t a member. It´s crazy cause they remind me of you guys a ton. Like their story is really similar to yours and I really wanna work with Juan but he´s always working. Seriously the guy is never home. It´s ok though, we´re gonna find a way to get working with him and it´ll all be good. Well I gotta get going but I hope all is going well with you guys. Let me know what´s going on and how everyone is doing. I love you all,
-Elder Gaughan

P.S. There is a new mission address posted to the right for those of you who have been waiting for it!