We Out Here .........June 25, 2014

Hey, how's it goin', Elder Sipple here again. Not too much action this week, but I have a couple of gems.

We saw two tucans in Fontana which was SO real. Second time in my mission! They were in a tree fighting. I will include a picture, but it's not very good. Also, one night, a friend of the Sire family brought them a little armadillo that they found in campo. So that was neat. But I was super sick so I didn't take a picture...which leads me into my next story. I got sick again!

CAUTION: THE FOLLOWING STORY MAY CONTAIN GRAPHIC MATERIAL ONLY SUITABLE FOR ADULTS

There I was, Friday morning. Uneasy feeling in my stomach. I wasn't feeling too well, but I thought it would go away by the time we had to go to the colony. Totally didn't! When we got to the taxi to take us to the colony, I stood there for like five minutes trying to decide if I should go or not. I decided to sacrifice for la obra misional, for the sweet, fiery gospel. So we get to the colony and I'm already sweating, feeling like I'm on the brink of death. We walked for a bit and contacted a woman who really didn't understand Castellano. We started to talk with her and introduce the message. While I was explaining part of it, I felt like I was going to throw up, so I told Elder Vera that he had to talk haha. Shortly after, I excused myself, went to the bushes surrounding the house, and just let it all it. Multiple times. All while Elder Vera carried on the lesson haha. I didn't make it too far from them, maybe like 50 feet or so. The worst part is that all of the starving colony dogs instantly swarmed me and started eating like it was 1999. :/ SOOOO gross. But, I immediately felt better, went back and finished up the lesson with some sweet testimony and a "Mas vale." Then like an hour later I started to feel worse and got a fever. But I made it through the whole day, even though I probably shouldn't have decided to work haha. But the good news is that it passed and I was better the next day. But now all of my dog friends are going to be expecting tasty snacks whenever I show up, so that's a real pain in the buns.

The other highlight is that we had our mission conference to say goodbye to President and Hermana Heyman! It was fantastic. I spent most of my time with Elder Murphy and some other buddies. OH! Also, P. Hey ordered SUBWAY for the whole mission! There is a Subway in Corrientes and he had them bring sandwiches for everyone! I wasn't a huge Subway fan before, but after being here I'm just a fan of food in general so I was stoked. But yeah, we had a really neat program with some righteous musical numbers and testimonies from President, Hermana Heyman, their son who came from his mission in Chile (Jake Siaosi's mission) to go home with his parents, and one of the counselors from the mission and his wife. Then we took a mission picture, ate our dang Subway, then waited in a huge line to say goodbye to the Heyman's and take pictures with them. They brought all of the leftover food from their house and gave it away. I won some passionfruit jam. ;) But anyway, that was neat. Did a lot of traveling, had to leave at two in the morning on Monday to get there and then we got back to Pirané at 3 in the morning yesterday. We stayed there for the district meeting and finally got back to Fontana yesterday at 7:30 pm.

Anyway, that about sums up my week. I hope the States are just as fertile and blessed as ever and that wars and rumors of wars haven't begun yet. Things are wonderful here, just dirt and smiles. Keep it real out there and I am praying for you!

Love,
Elder Sipple

P. Hey and Hermana Heyman

 Elder Murphy, Sotelo, Sipple

 

The entire family of Papa Sufia from New Zealand! 

La gran zona Ibarreta!

 Tucans!

 Elder Sipple and Elder Vera, steady balling in the colony

 Wearing some Argentina gear after their "super cool" victory over the incredible Iran

 Me with Randy Curtis on an old pass along card!

 The old Clorinda gang!

 Some handsome Yankees.

 A little Parsons, Trotter, Naumann, Murphy and Sipple

Hey hello! June 16, 2014

La Castaña here. This week has been a little wild with World Cup and everything. It's a real battle. Makes me wish the World Cup was more important in the States. :/ It's been harder to teach people since it's getting colder and everyone is inside watching fútbol. But, all is well!

I had a little tender experience this week. We're teaching this lady who is about 55 or so. She had met with the missionaries before, but it's been a long time. She is living with someone right now and isn't married, so that's a little bit of a challenge. But anyway, when we first met her, we taught her really slowly and simply so that she could understand. She told us that we have to teach her like we would a little kid. She forgets things really easily, so we reviewed the lesson like 5 times haha. But I loved it! When we finished, we taught her how to pray and she said she would pray about the things we had taught her. When we showed up this week, we asked her about how her prayers went and if she remembered how to pray. She got really excited and told us to wait where we were, so we did. She came back with an empty cigarette carton that she had opened up. Inside on the blank part she had written her prayer that she wanted to do. She told us that she wanted to read it to us to see if it was alright and if she had done a good job. I started to get all teary-eyed like a dang girl because it was seriously just the sweetest thing ever. Two young men teaching this woman, who has almost three times our age, how to pray and communicate with her Heavenly Father. I offered the opening prayer and had some hot, salty tears running down my face as we prayed together. Dang, just a real tender moment.

Other than that, we're just working on planting some seeds and finding new people that will progress. It's tough and we are doing a lot of contacting and even more walking, but you KNOW it's worth it, MAS VALE! Mas vale. We've really seen how Satan has destroyed marriage and is making his attack on the family. Basically all of the people here think marriage is for clowns and we just straight testify so hard that families can be together forever.

On Sunday, as you all know, it was Father's Day. Also, Argentina had their match at 7:00 here. But everyone starts preparing a couple hours earlier. Anyway, we were trying to find a way to the colony to have sacrament meeting and we straight up got hung out to dry. We chased down buses and other automobiles, but no one wanted to stop or help us out haha. That and all the people were getting their pre-game on. We finally found a remis and were able to get there on time. We started the meeting off and got to the first hymn. We have a little stereo that we use to play the hymns. While we were singing, the CD started to skip and then turned off. When that bad girl stopped playing music, the only sound was the terrible trio of Elder Vera, Elder Sipple, and Ernesto Flores, leader of the group in the colony. Then, the CD started to play again and just destroyed the timing hahaha it was classic. We just opted to turn it off and hit it up a capella. Then we had the messages! Your boy Elder Sipple was scheduled to speak as well as another member. He always has bailed at the last second, so we were banking hard on his talk this Sunday...and he came in SO clutch! Then Elder Vera gave a talk and we began to wrap things up. I was directing the meeting and announced who would pray. Before the meeting, I had asked one of the young women of the colony to pray and she had agreed. Now, when we finished the closing hymn and needed her most, she sat motionless in the back of the chapel, staring at me as I stared back at her. She moved her hands up and covered her mouth. I'm not sure why. After a sweet, incredibly uncomfortable three minute silence, I stood up and closed the meeting. Hahaha classic colony shenanigans. Closing prayer bailed HARD. One other funny/scary thing is that the natives have been using the same sacrament cups since 1879. Not that many years, but seriously...for a really long time. There are lipstick marks, spiders, dirt, pebbles, bugs and every other type of thing in those dang cups. Yes, we have it in our agendas that we need to bring new cups to the colony.

But YEAH, other than all of that good stuff, things are rockin' here in ARG. We have our mission conference in one week where we get to say goodbye to President and Hermana Heyman. Wild stuff. My companion and I get along really well and we have some good laughs. When I was in the MTC, I was really nervous about getting a latino companion because I thought that I wouldn't be able to communicate and that the cultural differences would make it hard. But it's sooo dang fun and I'm learning a lot of Spanish, so mas vale. Life is good, the Gospel is true. Families are eternal. Shoutsout to all of the dads out there. HMU HMU!

Love,
Elder Sipple

           A #TenderMoment in the colony. A cat seeks refuge from the cold on the back of a dog.

 Elder Vera (or Elder Banana because he is from Ecuador) and me!

Me on divisions with my Chinese/Hawaiian DL. He is from Sandy

 A neat picture in the colony

me quedo en Fontanaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa June 9, 2014

Yes, Elder Alec "La Castaña" Sipple will be posted up in Comandante Fontana for another transfer! I really do like this small town. Lots of dust in the teeth, but I like it.

So with the new transfer came a new companion. His name is Elder Vera and he hails from Ecuador. He's pretty funny and we already get along really well. I'm hoping that my Spanish will really be rock solid after this transfer.

Soooooo on Wednesday, I went to Pirané to send off Elder Zivic and wait for my companion with Elder De la Peña while he waited for his companion. Elder De la Peña is soooo dang funny and such a stellar missionary. We visited Tucan, the guy who makes leather scripture cases and whatever else you want. He makes wallets, shoes, belts, ties made out of yacaré leather, you name it! He has yacaré, iguana, snake, emu, lion, gato del monte, otter fur, carpincho...it's wild. I ordered some scripture cases with yacaré on the front and back. On the front, the spines go down in a 'v' pattern and it's sooo sweet. The sides have iguana leather. The inside has otter fur, fur from un gato del monte, emu leather, carpincho, and iguana. I'm sooo stoked. I'm hoping he'll be done before the transfer. Also, we visited some members in the area. I was selected to give the prayer in English. It was sooooooooo bad haha. Not the prayer, but my English. I couldn't put my words together. But I'm stoked about it.

Presidente Sire's parents moved to Fontana from Buenos Aires and we did a little service for them. I will include a picture.

Right now, we're basically focused on finding new investigators and reactivating members. It'll be tough, but we both want to work really hard so I'm pretty excited for this transfer. Also, I had the opportunity to eat locro again! The cow intestines and stomach reeeaaalllllyyyy aren't that bad.

It's crazy how fast the time flies by out here. There are times where it seems to be super slow, but when you get lost in the work it FLIES and the happiness that comes is incredible. It's odd to me that I really don't miss you all that much haha. That's not to say that I don't love you and look forward to seeing you all, but I know that while I am out here serving, the Gospel and this amazing work fills in the gaps where all of my family and friends are. I am so happy to be involved in such an important work and I know that the mission is an incredible blessing - not only for the missionary, but for the people that are waiting to hear the message of the Restoration. I love all of you back at home, love you SO good and I hope that this summer is a fantastic one. It's weird for me that y'all are in summer...anyway. My clown companion is taking pictures of me. Now he's taking pictures of himself and saying, "Ooooo voy a mandar mis fotos a TODAS las chicas." Peace, blessings, and BBQ spare ribs.

Love,
La Castaña



P.S. As far as I'm concerned, the barbeques in the States are better than los asados here. LOTS of fat on the meat. USA! USA! USA! Oh, one other thing. We have a special schedule for world cup. When Argentina is playing, we have to be in our pension studying. So that's neat. Anyway, that's all. Luvzz.



Elder Sipple visited the infamous Tucan and ordered some scripture cases! This is some yacaré leather that I'm holding.

 Elder Vera and I prestando a little service

 We showed up to Hermana Regini's house and this was on her table. Kind of sad because yaboii luv da animals (as I order scripture cases made from like 20 different animals), but they are really poor and apparently this armadillo thing is pretty delicious.

I got down with the sickness.....June 2, 2014

Seriously. Totally got pwnd with a sweet, sweet cold. And you already KNOW that all of the people here want to give me their little home remedies and injections in my buns. Haha these people are DYING to take me to the hospital and let them give me an injection. I called Hermana Heyman to ask if I should do it and she said, "No no no no no no no no, and no. They want to give injections for everything." So that was kind of a bummer. But, I've been taking some honey with carpincho oil and some other oddities in it. I'm pretty much better now, but I straight zombied out for a while there.

Last Monday, I utilized my taco seasoning (spice game ballin') and had a sweet taco dinner with some members. The Argentines are straight babies when it comes to spicy things. They think that this taco seasoning is spicy haha.

One of the elders in my zone had an old pass along card from the Church that had RANDY CURTIS AND HIS WIFE ON IT! I was like, "Hey! That's my boy Randy!" and then I forgot to take a picture. But yeah, that was neat!

I have come to the conclusion that one of my eyebrows is stronger than the other and tends to dominate it. I have since implemented (I've spent like 5 minutes trying to remember how to spell this word and I'm still not sure) a rigid exercise program for my weaker eyebrow. Bless his heart.

I swear something always happens with spiders haha. One night, I woke up to use the little boy's room. I was still more than half asleep because when I entered, I saw a tarantula on the groud, proceeded to take care of business, looked at it again, and went back to bed. So, long story short, we may have a loose tarantula in the pension.

We also had multi-zone conference which was a real treat. We had to catch a bus at 4:30 in the morning, but when we were en route to the terminal, the ZLs (who were on the bus) called and told us the bus just didn't even stop for Fontana. So we stood on the side of the road for an hour and waited for another bus to pass that was headed for Formosa. In the early morning. In the freezing cold. A junky little van-type thing showed up and we took that. Had to sit on my feet the whole 4 hours or I would've gotten frostbite haha. But the conference was awesome and I was able to talk to the Clorindians again!

That's pretty much all that went down. We get the call about transfers tomorrow night and then we have transfers on Wednesday. We'll see what happens! It's been a tough transfer and we haven't been able to work like I would have liked to, but I am looking forward to this next one. Super stoked. Anyway, the Church is true, we live in a blessed dispensation, the Gospel is here to stay, and these are the last days. We have all of the day to labor, but the night soon cometh. Peace and blessings to all and to all a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Sipple

Alba's baptism!

 Elder Sipple keeping warm on the stove lolz

 After church in the colony yesterday. #LamaniteNation

Hace FRIO! May 26, 2014

Holy smokes, careful what you wish for because you just might get some
really cold weather and a pension that hangs out at about 50 degrees
without a way to warm it up!

Yes, I finally experienced some cold. Finally got to use my jacket.
Also, Mom, I got that package that had my sweaters just in time for
the cold. You are the BEST.
I'm not exactly sure how cold it was, but I'm pretty sure it was in
the 40's. Dang cold for this part of town.

Last week, we had our zone meeting. Elder Buhler is in my zone and it
was fantastic to see him again. I had a suitcase full of stuff
waiting for me because the mission office pulled out all of the
packages and what not. So I had two of those big bubble-wrap envelopes
and then all of the stuff that that lady brought to the mission
office. I was stunned haha! Soooo much stuff. I was walking around
like Santa Claus. I shared a lot of the candy and stuff because I
still have a ton. But anyway, that was sweet.

A couple of cool things happened last week. I opened up that Sriracha
hot sauce that was in the package I received and squirted it right up
my left nostril. Some of the splatter shot into my eye as well. It was
so fun! Had a pretty wild burn going on. Next cool thing. I guess I'm
just a truster. A believer. Believer in the little guy. In the
under-dog. I keep trusting these women to give me a good haircut and
they just can't deliver. They can up hang all of their certifications
from the local school for adults, but that doesn't really make a
difference. This lady's name was Nelly. Heard some really positive
reviews about her. Experienced some pretty negative results. It looks
like I have a yamaka cut into my hair haha. Oh well, what can you do?

Waged war on the spiders again. I finally found Raid to combat
spiders. But this time, something in me changed (The Wonder Years). As
I poured out my aerosol fury upon the spiders and watched them
struggle for life, I actually felt really bad. It was like a "Grinch"
type of scenario. Except in this situation, the Grinch was
annihilating all of the Whos insteading of just ruining Christmas
haha. Anyway...that was kind of a weird experience for me.

I think I have mentioned this before, but maybe not. Teeth aren't
really "the cool thing to have" here in this part of the world. It's
really weird because I'll be talking to someone and their "teeth" are
moving up and down or it looks like their gums are about to fall off.
Then I remember that all their teeth are fake haha. But in all
honesty, that sounds like a real sweet life. I was thinking about some
of the benefits and I came up with a few really good ones. Picture
just being able to drink smoothies and eat ice cream without having to
worry about your teeth feeling cold. If you're a little kid, when mom
tells you to brush your teeth, you can just take them out and put them
in a cup. That's pretty much it, though.

Anyway, other than that...we had ALBA'S BAPTISM ON FRIDAY! Por FIN!
The water was cold, but the Spirit was warm haha. We pretty much spent
the whole day cleaning and battling with the baptismal font. After the
baptism, she shared her testimony with us. It was soooo righteous.
Super cool experience.

We have multi-zone conference tomorrow. We have to leave for Formosa
at 4 in the morning. Yaaaayyyy! So that's fun!

Other than all of that, things here are awesome. It's colder, we just
bought a little tiny heater today, I have hot sauce, and my seasoning
game is straight RAW. I'm sure I've got the illest spice game in the
whole mission. One other thing I wanted to tell everyone. If you write
me and I don't respond, just know that I read it, loved it, and it
meant a lot to me. The computer situation here is a real lucha
sometimes, but I really do appreciate every email. Love hearing from
my mains. Anyway, keep on keepin' on. Love you all.

Love,
Elder Sipple

Just a small town girl......May 19, 2014

A really applicable lyric to my current life.

This week was pretty radski. I went on divisions with Elder De la Peña in Pirané. He was in my zone in Clorinda. He's from Mexico and he's probably the funniest missionary in the world. He's a straight worker too so it was an awesome experience. Also, his pension is super boss so that was sweet. There's a guy in Pirané who is known all throughout the mission. His name is Tucan and he makes things out of leather. I didn't get a chance to visit him but I'm dying to go get an iguana leather belt, a yacaré leather wallet with some jaguar fur inside and who knows what else.

Something funny that I remembered from the MTC is a really good pick-up line that we had. It would be used like this: "Girl, is your name virtue? Because you have been garnishing my thoughts unceasingly." That one is SURE to land you a wife and I already have dibs on it for when I get back.

I had a lot of fun this week having spiders in my bed. It was really a neat experience to wake up and find some spiders trying to have a slumber party in Elder Sipple's bed. I told them that they couldn't share my bed and then I had to White Bible 'em, but I think that they learned their lesson. Dang clowns.

One other thing is that I have made a vow to never make fun of someone for not knowing my native language hoooooooollllllllyyyyyyyyy smooooooooookkkkeeeeessss. Thank goodness that I can take a joke or I would have had a breakdown by now haha. The Sire family is RUTHLESS. I really am so grateful that I have been blessed to be easy-going or else I probably would've chopped a fool or two out here haha.

Soooooo I found out this week that between Fontana and the colony, we have about 470 something members. Of all of them, there are about 12 that are active in Fontana and like 15 in the colony. Fontana used to be where the district was. I don't know what happened, but I want to get buck wild with MLS and really start focusing on finding and activating. It's kinda crazy being a member of the branch presidency. We are involved in trying to arrange like three divorces right now haha. It's a little stressful having the responsibilities to the branch added to the mission work, but it'll be a really good experience. I hope that we can help get the branch to start making progress towards where it was in the past.

Something that I have been thinking about a lot lately is how sometimes people tell us that they don't feel worthy to pray, that they don't know enough or that their prayer isn't good enough. NOTHING could be further from the truth. Heavenly Father is our FATHER. Would our earthly parents have a standard of worthiness in order to talk to them? No! As our Father, Heavenly Father wants to hear from us. He wants to bless us. He wants us to have all that he has and more. Those thoughts of unworthiness or incapability are from Satan. We can always pray to our Father in Heaven. We can always talk to Him. How sad to think that there are people who feel like they have lost the ability to communicate with their Father. I hope that we can all remember the importance and power of prayer in our lives. For me, this week was an example of relying on prayer. It was a tough one, but when we turn everything over to our Father and let Him in, that is when we will really be able to see the power and influence of the Spirit in our lives.

Other than all of that, just a pretty hot week here in Fontana. Had some storms, had some lightning, ate some pomelo, got that vitty-C. I hope all is fantastic for all of you and I love you all to the States and back. I am currently surrounded by screaming kids in this cyber playing Minecraft and standing uncomfortably close to me. With their arms and chubby little stomachs touching my back and shoulders. Swearing in Spanish and English. Breathing really hard. Anyway, gotta love Argentina. Peace and blessings, y'all.

Love,
Elder Sipple



The lunch we had with the Sire family on Sunday. Making ñoquis. We ate a TON and Elder Sipple almost died. Ñoquis, chorizo, carne, Coke...holy smokes. The next picture is me hanging out on la cama paraguaya after lunch.

 Also, I think I mentioned we have a grapefruit (pomelo) tree. This is how you eat/drink it. It's fantastic.

 A picture from the colony

Happy Mother's Day! May 12, 2014

Happy Mother's Day to all! But especially the moms.                                                     May 12, 2014

Well, not a whole lot of desire to write this week. It's been pretty stressful trying to figure out Skype and everything here. The weather is cooling off...what else...both of our baptisms fell this week, but we have two more next week. So we'll see where we are with that. Anyway, not a whole lot else to write this week. Love you all and I hope that Mother's Day was worth the nine month struggle of bearing a child. Peace and blessings.

Love,

Elder Sipple

                                            Saul's house in the colony (one of the nicer ones)

                                                          into the sweet sweet forest

 Elder Sipple riding in the back of the truck on the way to the colony. A big semi flew by right when we took this picture haha.