Grateful for the little things..

Hey everyone how are things going? So yes I did get one of the packages you sent so THANK YOU! Really loved it. The tie is great, I definitely sported it the next day and the pics are awesome too! Thanks! This week in Dorrego was a little slow like always but we´re looking to start turning things around. So this last week we thought that two of our baptismal dates, Facundo and Gisela had dropped us. We were going by a lot but never could find them. Then on friday we went by and Gisela was totally there! Turns out they had traveled and just didn´t mention anything for some reason. But when we went by she told us that she had been reading and that a bunch of crazy good things had been happening to them. For example Gisela needed contacts cause she didn´t have contacts or glasses but didn´t have enough money for them. So she goes to look and see what she can do to get them and she finds out that she had a 1000 peso scholarship for good grades cause she had been going to school to be a kindergarden teacher. Well turns out her contacts cost 950 pesos more or less so with that scholarship she could buy the contacts she needed! Basically their lives are turning around cause Facundo also had a job interview to see if he could get a better job and not have to keep working nights! So we have an appointment with them on tuesday to see how their doing and see if they´ll progress. They´re great and we were super excited when we found them again! So things are still going kinda slow but we´re doing ok. Our biggest challenge right now is that it´s summer time and a lot of people have gotten up and gone for summer vacation and when you´re already in a small town, and then half the people go on vacation it feels like there´s no one there. We´re figuring it out though, with a little divine help we should be ok. This weekend we also had stake conference which was way good. We heard from President Detlefsen and his wife which is always great cause they´re just amazing and then we stayed here in Bahía cause we were gonna have to come back down to Bahía tonight so we talked to President and stayed to save money and a bunch of traveling time. Apparently there´s a little bit of a money crisis here in Argentina right now. More than anything there are just never money in the ATM but we´ve been getting lucky so that´s a big blessing. Things are still tough like I said but we´re pushing along and trying to make things better. We´re being blessed and trying to realize those blessings more so we can be more greatful for the little things that happen. Thanks for all your prayers and all your support. It really helps!!!! I hope everything is going well with you guys. Con amor

-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Tough Stuff

Hey everybody how´s it going?!?!! Things in Dorrego, like it says in the subject are a little tough as of the moment. Well to start things off when we went into Bahía I woke up the next day not feeling too hot, went and did district meeting. Then we head down to the bus terminal to buy our tickets and come back to Dorrego. Well turns out there were about 25 people in line at the place where we needed to buy and we had 15 min to get out tickets and get onto the bus. Turns out we miss the bus and have to wait until 515 to come back to Dorrego. Get back here to Dorrego around 7 or a little after, head out to an appointment we had with Facundo and Gisela. Had a pretty great lesson with them, taught about going to church, why it´s important and why we do it. We invited them to church and set up a return appointment. Then wednesday comes around. I wake up on wednesday and have a fever of 99.5. Needless to say I didn´t feel all that great So then we head out to lunch with bishop cause he said he had some news for us. Turns out the news hadn´t arrived yet or couldn´t tell us for whatever reason and he and his wife kinda scolded me for being outside at all. So wednesday we couldn´t really do anything cause I was passed out trying to get that fever to go away. Then the rest of the week just resulted kind of tough. We´re still struggling a bit finding new people and we´re trying to work more with members but they´re not super animated either. Things are just challenging lets say. But it´s ok, nothing we can´t handle with a little divine help right? Right. On the bright side Franklin and Tobias went to church and got confirmed which was legit and we were really happy that they finally got confirmed and that we don´t have to worry about that huge detail anymore. Facundo and Gisela were doing really well but we haven´t been able to find them since we went on tuesday so that was a bit scary/weird. We´re gonna keep going by them cause they´re amazing and were doing so great. We just gotta find them again and get back into their house and I think they´ll do find. The district is doing well too which is always great to see. One of our areas, Pringles, who historically doesn´t really baptize that much finally baptized yesterday which was great!! The Elders out there have been working super hard finding a ton of people and it´s finally starting to pay off for them. My grandson, Elder Nolan, is out there and got his first baptism which was way cool to see. I was way happy for him and excited that he is starting to see success and learning a lot. I can´t believe how fast the mission flies by. I swear it feels like just a couple months ago I was in Santa Rosa just barely starting. It´s great to hear from Eric and I can´t believe he is almost done! It´s so weird for me to see all my friends starting to end and go back home. I´m not gonna lie it kinda scares me/gives me a weird surreal feeling. That´s just life though I guess. Thanks for all the support and love you guys give me! That christmas card was awesome and it was great to hear from everyone! Take care y nos estamos hablando!
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Interesting Week

Hey everyone how are things? Well like it says in the subject this week was an interesting one to say the least. We don´t have a whole lot of people that we´ve been working with so we´ve been doing a lot of contacts and a lot of looking without much finding. Dorrego is an interesting town cause it struggles economically, in the sense that it doesn´t progress. Because of that a lot of the young people that grow up here end up moving cause they can´t find work or they go out to study and preaching the gospel to older people is a little more challenging because they´re more set in their ways and not always really willing to change. We´re doing ok though and we´re keeping in there. Things are going really well with Elder Walker. He´s a great kid and we get along well. This last week we had a meeting with President Detlefsen. Because I got made district leader again I have an oportunity to go to these leadership conferences we have once a month as a mission. This one was great. I learned a lot from President as always but I also learned a lot from Hermana Detlefsen. She is an amazing lady. President let her teach a lot in the conference and I learned a ton! She has so much love for us, for the gospel and for our Savior Jesus Christ. It was amazing to be able to listen to her and have the oportunity to learn from her words and her example. She actually reminds me of mom quite a bit, just an argentine version. Elder Walker also came with me because the missionaries that are going to train also are invited so it looks like Elder Walker could train and I might be out of Dorrego at the end of this transfer. We don´t know anything for sure cause anything is possible. They could put 4 missionaries here or send Elder Walker somewhere else to train. Like I said at the beginning this week was a bit of a tough one but on saturday we were really blessed. We went to the house of a contact we did and they let us in!! That was amazing cause we hadn´t been getting in hardly anywhere all week! They´re a young couple named Facundo and Gisela and they have 3 little kids. They´re way cool and super prepared! Facundo lost his job a little while ago and has had to work as a taxi driver at nights which has been really tough on him. We were blessed enough to show up just at the right time to be able to start teaching them. We taught them the Restoration and it went really well. They were super involved, asking questions, making comments and just participating a ton. They´re both great and we were also able to take out baptismal dates with them for the 29th!! It looks like they need to get married but hopefully we´ll be able to take care of that quickly and there´s not a huge wait to get married. They had almost stopped believing in God for everything that had been happening and we showed up and seems like we´ve helped them to keep that faith and hopefully strengthen it in the end. They´re great people and we´re praying really hard that they progress well. Please pray for them so that they can progress and be blessed by our Heavenly Father. On the other hand sunday was a little tough. Franklin and Tobias didn´t make it to their confirmation which is a little nerve racking. We gotta focus more on them this week to make sure they make it and get that second part of baptism that is so important. Basically they just slept in and their mom did too so that didn´t help at all. It´s ok though, we´re gonna get them this coming week and then hopefully not have to stress about that as much anymore. Well I hope everything is going well and that everyone is doing good. Thanks for all the support and all the love!!!

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-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

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