Working along, Doing great!

Hey everyone how´s it going? It was great being able to talk to you all on saturday too!!! Since then not too much has happened. Sunday was Elder Thomas´s last day in church so they asked him to get up and bear his testimony. Quite a few people were sad to see him go. He´s an awesome kid and a really good missionary and he´ll be sure to have a lot of success throughout his mission. So last night we had transfers. Elder Thomas and I got into Bahía around 8 PM and there were already a bunch of missionaries there at the bus terminal. My new companion Elder Walker wasn´t gonna arrive until around 530 AM cause he was coming from Mar Del Plata. So I stayed in the terminal all night with Elder Stout my zone leader seeing people off and looking out for new people coming in. I think I slept a grand total of 5 or 10 minutes the entire night, it was pretty long but in the end everyone left and got in somewhat smoothly so that was good to see. My new companion is Elder Walker who´s from Salt Lake. He´s got just over a year in the mission and came from the other zone in Mar Del Plata. He´s seems like a really nice kid and a hard worker. He´ll have some enthusiasm to get going in Dorrego which will be great. We worked hard in Dorrego with Elder Thomas but he was also there 6 months and being 6 months anywhere can get tough towards the end of that time. We´re gonna do good though, I´m excited to get going with Elder Walker. Tobias came to church on sunday by himself which was awesome. We´ll be baptizing him this weekend and hopefully baptizing his brother Franklin next weekend. This week we also found this really cool guy named Miguel who I think I already told you about him but we went back to teach him on thursday and he´s doing really well. He read the part in the Book of Mormon we left him and when we asked him what he thought about it he said "looks like I need to get baptized" so that was awesome! He´s a great guy and got a ton of potential to progress and do really well. And if we baptize him he can go on a mission cause he´s only 22!! So pray for him so he makes it to baptism and keeps going strong!! Again it was great to talk to all of you, I miss you guys a lot but I´m excited to keep working. Everyday I realize I don´t have a whole lot of time left till I´m done here so I gotta get going to reach my goals and keep having the Spirit to help change lives of people! I love you all and am glad to see that you´re all doing well! Hey alex you should name your kid Fernando.
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Patience and Diligence

Hey everyone how´s it going? Well this last week was pretty interesting to say the least. Let´s just say it was a test of patience and diligence. Daniela got confirmed yesterday which was great. She´s doing well and really starting to change her life around which is great to see. We went to her mom, Maria, and tried to take out a baptismal date with her and the less active she´s living with and let´s just say that it went pretty rough to say the least. We had a few suggetions of what they could do so that she can get baptized now instead of waiting 6 or 8 months and hoping that a bunch of other things haven´t happened to distract her and it doesn´t ever end up happening. Well they didn´t really like that idea too much and to make the long story short we just ended up dropping her cause she´s not really progressing and will not progress for a long time. We´ve already done everything we can, taught her everything, the only thing she falts is baptism. Besides her almost everyone else has fallen too. We were gonna have two baptisms this coming sunday the 26th but now it´s looking like we´re going to have to push them back cause they didn´t make it to church. Their the baptisms of 2 kids, Franklin and Tobias, who are sons of less active members. They´re going good though, they just need to make it to church and they´ll be set and at the same time we´re hoping it´ll help to activate the family and get them more involved. Besides them 2 we don´t really have many other people. We went out and started doing a bunch of contacts but it didn´t result in anything. We did 180 contacts and taught 5 lessons the entire week which is not that good of a ratio. Before we were doing about 100 contacts and teaching around 20 to 25 lessons a week if not more. We´re hoping that this week turns out better and we get back on track cause since I´ve got here we´ve started working hard with Elder Thomas and things we´re getting a lot better. Now we´ve fallen a little bit and need to lift ourselves back up. This week is the last week of the transfer too so we´re hoping to end well finding a bunch of new people to get back to where we were and see more success here in Dorrego. Today we found a really cool guy names Miguel. We had knocked his door yesterday and talked to his younger brother, then we went back this morning and Miguel was there. He let us in and we were able to teach him the Restoration and take out a baptismal date for the 9th of Jan!! Hopefully we keep going like this and keep improving. Things are good overall in Dorrego. Frustrating at times, but good. I´m gonna be calling on sat at 6 PM local time here which will be around 2 at home if I´m not mistaken. Thanks for all the love and support. Keep praying for us down here cause we need it!!! Con amor
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

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