Un Poco Tarde

Hey everyone how´s it going? Sorry I´m writing so late, we had interviews with President Detlefsen today and we just barely got here to the internet place a little while ago. We were last in interviews so we had to wait a ton of time but it´s all good. Things are going pretty well out here in Mar Del Plata. The transfer is flying by I can´t believe it, now when we have General Conference we have transfers the same weekend. Things are going really well after the conference, we came out of that with a ton of excitement and desires to get better and now we´ve found that putting it into practice is a little harder, but it´s worth the pain and struggle. Interviews tonight for me at least helped me keep the focus on our new goals and the changes we are making as a mission. It´s gonna be a great time. We have 5 people that are gonna get baptized next Saturday the 25th which is going to be awesome. We have Viki, Magali, Pedro, Angelica, and Agustine the son of Adriana. We´d put a baptismal date with Adriana as well for the 25th and she´d accepted, but a few days later she said no cause she wanted to be really sure about getting married to Luis. She says she wants to strengthen the relationship that she has, bla bla bla to be honest I stopped listening a little bit. It´s ok though, she´s still doing good and she´ll definitely get baptized. It´s just an insanely slow process. Besides that we´re just working on finding new people, we have a new mission standard of finding 15 new investigators every week, we´ve been averaging around 5 or 6 so it´ll take some work but it´s gonna be great. President is amazing and gave me a ton of faith that we can actually do it and that we will do it!! Things with the district are going pretty good as well. All the missionaries are really good guys and are working hard. We can always get better and there are a lot of things that we need to improve and we´re looking for those things so we can be more effective and be better all in all. The visit of Elder Aidukaitis has basically changed everything but we´re headed in a much straighter line towards our goal. The mission is great let´s just put it that way. Yes it´s really hard, there are days that are really difficult, but it´s amazing. I know I´ve said it before but I´ll say it again, I wouldn´t change this for anything. I love this job, I love this country and the people even when they don´t wanna listen or they´re stubborn, or they´re lazy and don´t fufill commitments. At the same time you still gotta love them. Ok I gotta get going but I love you all!!! Thanks for everything and all the support!!!!
Elder Gaughan

Pictures

Elder Egbert and Elder Gaughan

Elder Dominguez and Elder Gaughan

Conference in Bahía: Elder Alberca, Unzaga, Gaughan, and Cox 

Elder Bills and Elder Gaughan

Conferencia con Elder Aidukaitis

Hey everybody what´s up? Well this week has been pretty eventful to say the least. On friday I went on divisions with Elder Alberca the zone leader in his area. It rained harder than cats and dogs if that´s possible but it was still a pretty good day. We taught a one of their baptismal dates named Cristina and her less active husband Fabian. It was a way good lesson. Fabian got baptized when he was 17, went on his mission to Paraguay, was assistant, got home and went inactive. It was pretty crazy to see and helped me to realize that we always need to keep going after everything that we already know. Enduring to the end is the hardest part, but also the most important. Cristina is awesome, she´s a golden investigator and is gonna be a great member of the church. After that we went over to Belgrano to do some more baptismal interviews, this time the guy passed which was pretty sweet and the kid that failed the interview I did kept learning and got interviewed by Alberca and also passed so that was really good to see. On saturday I went on divisions once again in a town called Batán which is right outisde of Mar Del with Elder Gilvonio. He´s from Perú and a pretty interesting guy. He´s got a great testimony and works hard but is in a pretty tough area, we were doing contacts almost all day and didn´t really get much. It kinda reminded me of Santa Rosa haha but it was a good experience anyway. Sunday I was finally back with my comp in Newbery. We went to church, the day was going pretty normal. Mirta finally came back to church which was awesome to see and we went to go visit her after and started teaching her friend and boyfriend. Then we went to Pedro and Angelica to see how they were doing, right after we get there they said that Elder Alberca had called. He´d gone to Bahía for a meeting with all the zone leaders that they do once a month. About ten minutes after we get there Alberca calls again and tells me that I have to pack my bags and jump on the 1030 bus to Bahía that night with the other district leader from the zone. Elder Aidukaitis from the 70/area presidency was there and wanted all of the district leaders there too for the conference on monday. We take off for the house, I threw a few things together, run over to the bus terminal buy a ticket and take off for Bahía that night.
The conference was awesome!!! Aidukaitis is from Brazil and said that really great stuff that we needed to hear. The mission hadn´t really been doing all that well numbers wise which is never good cause that is how success is measured and he basically told us that the mission was the way it was because of us the leaders. He talked a ton about paying the price, setting the example, being more obedient and after doing all that, teaching the other missionaries of our districts/zones how to do it. Everything has to start with us first. It was interesting cause at the beginning he asked us if he could be frank with us, we said yes and he definitely was. There´s a phrase that they use a lot down here which is "drop the cane", that´s what he did with us. But he did it in a really good way, cause after absolutely destroying us, he built us back up and helped to realize that we´re capable of doing everything that he asks and that President Detlefsen asks of us. Amazing conference I must say. I also saw Elder Johnson and Elder Schmidt, two of my good buddies from my MTC distict which was great. I´ll be sending pics soon I promise, things have just been kinda crazy lately and I haven´t had a whole lot of time. I gotta get going but thanks for everything, the support, love, prayers, packages, all of it!!!! Que tengan una muy buena semana
Elder Gaughan

Enfermo=No Bueno

Hola familia cómo estáis? Things are going pretty well here out in Mar Del. It´s funny that you ask me how I´m doing fisically and to tell you the truth I´ve been pretty sick for the last few days. On monday I woke up with fever and all kinds of fun stuff, didn´t go out in the morning and went to a few appointments in the afternoon and called it quits. Yesterday I was feeling quite a bit better and I worked the whole day which could have been a mistake cause I fell back into the fever and all that fun stuff today, not cool. Aside from that we´re doing pretty good out here. We finally set a baptismal date with Angelica and Pedro, the paper they needed should be getting here this week so within the next few weeks they should be able to get married and baptized!!!! WHOO!!!!! We´ve been working with them for a super long time and they´re finally almost there!!!! Pray for them so that they can make it. We´re also gonna baptize 2 sisters of Carlos on the same day so that should be pretty amazing. The date for right now is the 18th of Sept. We´ve been finding a few new people but they haven´t really been progressing at all so we´ll just have to wait and see what happens with them. I can´t remember if I said this last week but the mission is going through a ton of changes and it´s been awesome. Now we have to set a baptismal date in the first lesson and we have a goal of teaching the restauration once a day, way cool stuff. It´s tough some days but it´s awesome. I had my first baptismal interview last thursday and the kid failed. He was going good and then said we wasn´t willing to keep the law of chastity which is kind of a big one. Supposedly the kid didn´t understand me too well and that could´ve been a reason but he´s gonna have another interview this weekend so he should be good. It was a pretty interesting experience for the first time doing a baptismal interview but there you go. I have to go do some more on fri so that should be awesome and we´ll have to wait and see what happens. Oh remember when they robbed my coat like a month ago? Well it had my plaque on it and apparently the kids used my tag to rob some old lady. We had to do a ton of reports and stuff and my name made it to the area presidency or something like that. Cool no? So far nothing´s happened on that point and we´re gonna keep hoping that nothing comes up. Well it seems like everything is going well out there which makes me quite happy I must say. Tell alex happy late birthday for me cause the kid doesn´t write me. I love you all, thanks for everything!!

Elder Gaughan

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