Out of Control

Hey everybody how are things? Ok this week, like it says in the subject was pretty out of control. On monday night I get a call from one of the Elders in my district, Elder Esparza, who told me that they were taking his companion, Elder Beyer, to the hospital to get checked out. He had been pretty sick for a while and had been complaining of stomach pains and they kept getting worse. So they go to the hospital and later they call me again around 1030 or 11 and tell me that they´re taking Elder Beyer to a clinic cause he has apendecitis and they have to operate on him!! Elder Esparza is from Chile and doesn´t speak any english at all and doesn´t understand very much either. So I end up calling President to see what he wants to do cause if they operated on Beyer and he wakes up speaking english no one is gonna know what´s going on. President and I come to the conclusion that it would be better that I go cause the zone leaders were already traveling for Bahía because they had Zone Leader Counsel the next day. So at 11 at night I end up getting dressed, heading down to the clinic and spending the night with Beyer because supposedly they were going to operate on him that night. So I get down there and turns out for some reason they couldn´t operate that night and were gonna wait until the morning. I end up spending the night there with Elder Beyer and got about 2 hours of sleep so the next day was an adventure. We wake up the next day and the area doctor from the church wanted a bunch of tests and stuff done to be sure that it was the apendix. That ended up taking a bunch of time and they finally decided that they were gonna operate at 7 PM. I had to leave at 630 cause I also had to go to Bahía that night for a capacitation the next day. So at 1030 tuesday night I took off for Bahía and Elder Beyer got operated on at 7. The good news is that he´s doing good now. He´s out of the clinic and back home the only thing is that he can´t work for a while. So that was pretty crazy. Then Wednesday we had a capacitation with President and the assistants which was really good and I was able to learn a lot of stuff that´s gonna help us get a lot better as a mission. For this month of March we have the goal of 180 baptisms!! It´s a big goal and something we´ve never reached before but we definitely have the potential to do it and we have been getting better and better as time goes on. This is a really exciting time to be in the mission cause a lot of things are changing and we´re getting better and better everyday, every week, and every month. So thursday of this week I just recently started working and we were getting ready for Licia´s baptism!!! She got baptized on Saturday and it was an awesome service!! Her grandson David, who´s getting ready for his mission, baptized him and it was really cool. David´s dad who isn´t a member was also there and he seemed to really like it too so we´re hoping to start teaching him here pretty soon. Licia is an awesome lady. I call her my argentine grandma cause she is the sweetest lady ever and you can´t help but love her. She is literally the definition of a sweet little old lady. Sunday she got confirmed a member so that´s one more for the new stake here in Mar Del Plata and another person who has found the truth and made covenants with our Heavenly Father. I love this work and that quote that you sent me mom is really true. The greatest joy ever is missionary work. I don´t care what anyone says. This is the greatest time ever to be in the service of the Lord!!! Oh on sunday a random homeless guy we talked to in the street came to church which was really unexpected. He was pretty drunk so that was interesting but luckily there was no harm done. This week was full of insanity and not a whole lot of time to think which is good but now I can´t really think of anything else to write cause I don´t really remember what else happened this week. The mission is going by way too fast and it´s hard to believe where I am in terms of time. A missionary just barely returned who left from Santa Monica and he said it´s super weird not being a missionary and talks about how he misses it and how he wants to go back haha. We´ll see if I´m like that, I would guess yes!! I hope everyone is doing well. 

Love you guys! 

Thanks for all your help and support!!!!
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Finding Great People to Build the Kingdom of the Lord

Hey everybody what´s going on? It seems like everything is going well back home which is good to here. It´s crazy for me to think that alex and tara are gonna have the kid soon. How´s alex handling that? That´s good that everyone is doing well though, I´m really glad to hear that. Things down here in Mar Del Plata have been going pretty good. This last week we found a couple new people that are pretty legit. We starting teaching the grandmother of one of the members. The member´s name is David and his grandmother´s name is Licia. Licia is the sweetest old lady I have ever met. She listened to the missionaries a little bit a really long time ago in another part of Mar Del Plata. She´s amazing and has a baptismal date for the 5th of March so that´ll be awesome. Yesterday she came to church and seemed to really like it. In the Gospel Principles class she was super atentive and was answering a bunch of questions. She already knows a lot about the church cause most of her family are members and the missionaries have been going there forever and I guess they just never really tried to teach her or the opportunity never really presented itself. Her grandson, David is an awesome kid too. He turns 19 in May and he´s getting ready to go on a mission. This kid is great. We went over to his house on one of my first days here and I loved the kid from the start. He´s a champ and I´m really excited to have him in the ward and be able to work with him. He took his grandma to church on sunday and is a super great kid. He´s really excited to go on a mission and he´s always asking us questions about the mission, what it´s like and what he can do to get better prepared. We also found this lady named Andrea who was pretty cool as well. We found her knocking doors and she was really excited to listen to us and have the chance to learn more. She loved what we taught and was really interested and involved in the lesson. Unfortunately she didn´t go to church this weekend but we´re gonna go by her today to see what the deal is and for now she´s also gonna get baptized on the 5th of March. I think I already told you all about the goal to have the new stake out here in Mar Del Plata so we´re trying to work really hard and have a lot of success in order to get that new stake and help the church grow out here. We got an email from President today that said there hasn´t been a new stake formed in the mission for 16 years so we´re gonna try to break that skid and do what we can to get a temple here in this mission. Mar Del Plata would be an amazing place to have it too. I love this town and I´m super excited to be here and be able to work and help build the kingdom of the Lord. The more time I get here in the mission I realize how little time I the mission lasts and how although I have 6 months left right now, it´s gonna feel like nothing cause time has been flying by. I can´t believe I´m at the time I am. It´s crazy to hear about Josh Davies going out on the mission and all these kids preparing for their mission calls. Ahh!! Well I gotta get going. I hope everyone is well and that this email was somewhat coherent. I love you guys. Thanks for everything you do. The mission is amazing. Hay que hacerlo. Chau!
 
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

BIG News.....

Hey everyone how´s it going? Well let´s get the big news out of the way, I GOT TRANSFERED!! I´m back in Mar Del Plata but in the other zone. My area is called Santa Monica and it´s actually pretty close to Jorge Newbery which is pretty cool. My new companion is Elder Rivarola from Paraguay. Today´s the first day so I still don´t know him all that well but he seems like a pretty cool kid and we´re gonna do work here. There are also now 2 other Elders in our area so we´ll be 4 missionaries in one ward. Apparently Mar Del Plata is really close to making another stake so President is putting a bunch of us out here to do everything possible in order to baptize/reactivate people quickly so that the 3rd stake is made and the church keeps growing strong. I´m really excited cause we´re trying to get another stake here in Mar Del Plata, another one in Bahía Blanca, as well as make one of the districts a stake which would be amazing. This last week with Elder Walker was the best week we´d had yet. To start the week off we did divisions with the Elders from an area called Pringles who was in my district. I worked with Elder Nolan who is actually my grandson in the mission (Elder Thackeray who is my kid trained Elder Nolan, hence he´s my grandson). We had a great time working together too. We found 3 new investigators who were all really cool people. Elder Nolan is still really new and I always like working with new missionaries cause they´re always full of energy and ready to try anything. Elder Nolan was great because although he couldn´t speak all that well, he taught and did everything that was asked of him. When he taught he bore his testimony more than anything but he did it in a great way which brought the Spirit really strong. Then I got back with Elder Walker and we were able to keep having success and finding a few new people. Elder Walker is gonna be training is Dorrego so he´s really excited and it´ll be a great opportunity for him to keep learning and growing in the mission. Saying bye to people in Dorrego was weird but it´s always kinda tough saying bye to people. More than anything it´s tough saying bye to converts cause those are the people you grow closest to and you see all the changes they make in their lives to come unto Christ. It´s was also tough for me saying bye to the bishop. He´s a great guy and working hard in a tough place. I worked a lot with him and was able to learn a lot from him about humility and diligence. As missionaries we come and go and we´re only in those tougher areas for a little while, but he´s always there and everybody looks to him when things aren´t going well and how to solve all the problems they have. The bishop is a great, worthy man who always had the Spirit with him and was someone who I really looked up to in my time there. Well I´m excited to get working here in Santa Monica. From what I´ve heard it´s a good area and we´re gonna get to work to have some success and help build the 3rd stake here in Mar Del Plata. It feels like just yesterday I was here only in Jorge Newbery. Thanks for everything, I hope everyone is doing well!!!
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Working along!

Hey everyone how are things going? This week has been an interesting one to say the least. My companion and I have yet to pass a full week here in Dorrego this transfer. This last week we had the opportunity to go to a place called Punta Alta for a day to do a baptismal interview for the Sister missionaries that are working there. We were there almost the whole day cause the bus schedules are kinda weird so we left from Dorrego around 11 in the morning and didn´t get back until about 7 at night. We had a good experience there though and were able to help out the Sisters in their area. They sent us to one of there investigators named Antonio who still didn´t have a baptismal date. We went in and starting talking to him. Turns out Antonio is a great guy and really liked what we taught. We talked to him for a while, were able to resolve some doubts that he had and we took out a baptismal date with him for the 19th of Feb!! He´s great and we hope that he progresses well and keeps going good. He lost his wife in Dec and has been having a hard time since then. Here in Dorrego things have been going a little slow still but we´re doing what we can. We had another lesson with Facundo and Gisela earlier in the week and they were having a really tough time. Basically they´d been having a bunch of problems and trials that they had been going through and they started doubting if God even existed. We had a really good lesson with them and tried to help them to keep believing and explain why we have trials in life and how we can get passed them. We set another appointment, when we went they weren´t there and now we can´t find them again! It´s tough and we´re not exactly sure what to do but hopefully we can keep finding them cause they were great people and they were doing good until all these dificulties came and made things more difficult. This week we found a really cool guy named Pedro who´s a reference of some members here. He listened to the missionaries before a while ago but for whatever reason he didn´t get baptized and the missionaries stopped going by his house. He´s great though and we have a baptismal date with him for the 19th as well which was way cool and today we´re going to try to teach his wife and kids if they are there. It was funny cause the first time we went he was working outside cutting firewood and had a big old trailer full of wood that needed to be unloaded. We went up and talked to him and he said that he couldn´t really recieve us in that moment cause he was busy. We asked if he wanted help unloading the trailer and he said yes so Elder Walker and I, with shirt, tie and everything, jumped in and started unloading everything for him. It actually turned out pretty fun cause we don´t always do a lot of service so it was cool to have some random, improvised service there. Then besides that not a whole lot has been going on. Daniela hasn´t been to church in a while which has been dissappointing and frustrating. One day we went over and she was acting kind of weird, just not really her normal self and now when we go by we can´t really find her at home. That´s been really weird and something that´s been throwing me off a bit. The other day we also went by Jonathon and found out that he´s been having a ton of health problems which was pretty shocking. He had some problems with one of his arms, his leg and now his head. He got operated on his head a while ago and they had put staples in there to hold everything together. But in his job he´s been working really hard physically and it´s taken a toll on that operation and now they might have to operate again cause things in his head were coming a little undone. Crazy huh? Please pray for him cause he needs a lot of help. That´s what has been going on in Dorrego. From today until thursday I´m on divisions here in Dorrego with Elder Nolan who´s one of the Elders from my district. He´s in a little town called Pringles about an hour away from here and the only way we could do the change was to take a taxi from here to Pringles and back, it cost 180 pesos which was a bit of a shock. Pretty big taxi ride huh? haha. Well I hope everything is going well with you guys. Sounds like your all doing great and that makes me really happy. Thanks for all the love and support. Mom, sorry I forgot my camera so I can´t send the pictures of my shoes but I´ll do it next week. And tell Daniel I´ll be waiting for him when he comes home in April hahaha I miss that kid a lot! Love you all, thanks for all the support!

-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

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