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