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