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