Microwaves

                                                                                                   January 27, 2014

I miss microwaves. Dang. Warm food...instantly. Mmmm.

Well, I did a really bad job at writing down the things I wanted to email about. And by that I mean I didn't write anything down hahaha. But, it was a good week! We have been focusing a good portion of our efforts on Ezequiel and Milagros. We are set to baptize them this Saturday! After them, we will most likely be baptizing their grandma and their aunt. I'm so excited for them. Such a cool family!

So this week, Elder Murphy got a recipe for his dad for mashed potatoes. Long story short, we bought all the ingredients, 2 kilos of mashed potatoes, and got buuuuuck. They were sooooo dang good. We also
had steak with them, which was incredible. We cooked that exact meal after church at the house of Luis. Luis is an investigator of the hermanas. He is super rad and loves all of the missionaries. Not sure why he hasn't been baptized yet haha. He has like a million church attendances. Anyway, the sisters also had another one of their
investigators there. We cooked and ate and it was awesome!

Flip...I really can't remember the funny things that happened.

I just remembered one. So, remember how we were hiding pomelos in Elder Sotelo's stuff? Well we had been stockpiling them in one of his suitcases. We were going to call him when we moved out and tell him to
look inside. Long story short, he found them one morning this week hahahaha. Like 20 dang pomelos! We ended up drawing faces on them and making arms and legs for them. We have Pedro Pomelo, who ended up
losing a leg and gaining an eye patch so now his name is Pedro Pirata Pomelo. Then his wife (who he really doesn't like) is named Pabla Pomelo. She really just annoys him more than anything. I will have to take pictures for y'all.

What else...my Spanish is getting better! I'm understanding and talking with people waaaaay better than I was before! El don de lenguas, yanno. Transfers are on Tuesday...so...I think Elder Murphy and I are staying here, but you really can't be sure with President Heyman. He has been making transfers like crazy and I think we have
some big changes coming to our zone, due to a couple things going on with a few missionaries. By the way, our zone is a district and a zone rolled into one. It's weird. But yeah. As of last Monday, we were the best zone in the mission. Haciendo PERCHA. That's slang for doing work.

Straight walking my feet off, though. Not sure how much we walk, but needless to say my calves are toned and handsome as ever. On Sunday we went to get Ezequiel and Milagros for church. Ezequiel was like...oh I don't have any shoes. So we said great! We'll drop off Milagros and the Benitez family and we will get some shoes and bring them to you. He was lying, but we did it anyway haha. So we went to the church, which takes about a half hour from their house. Then we went to the pension, which is like another 10 minutes. Then we got some shoes and flip flops and went back to Ezequiel's house, which is another half hour. Then when we got there, he had his shoes on, but we still pulled out all of the shoes and asked him which ones he wanted haha. Poofta, nada mas. Poofta is a word that one of Elder Sotelo's Australian companions uses. It just means a dummy. Long story short, we walked back to the church again and got there just in time for sacrament. Ended up being a great day, though!

My apologies for not writing down the things we did! We had some good lessons and have been doing some good
work with the members. Or at least trying to haha.

One cool thing I noticed this week. Obedience really does bring
blessings. I have been trying to be more obedient to the little things
that we're supposed to do as missionaries. As I have done that, I have
been able to experience the gift of tongues, amongst other blessings.
I know that as long as we are doing our best to be the best we can be,
we will receive blessings. It's really simple but very powerful.
Anyway, I love you all so much! Cochinitos Mojados 2k14! Estamos en su
ciudad, mira su espalda! Haciendo percha cada día, siempre caminando,
siempre transpirando. Love you allllll soooooo muuuuch.

Love,
Elder Sipple


PS - Mom, that package is seriously unreal. The other elders are
always asking for a little American candy haha. The Pop Tarts have
been a huge blessing. The Kool Aid, Crystal Light, dang. We are going
to get wiiiiiild with that package. You're the best! Those Jolley
Rancher crunchy then chewy things are amazing too. The Peruvians love
them too. De diez!! De diez pretty much just means like perfect, 10
out of 10. Goodbye! I will send pictures later today.

Our steak and mashed potatoes dinner. So delicious, so American. I look like one of the Latinos.

Funny story. We were walking in the barrio and all of these drunk people were outside their house listening to music. One approached us and asked for a prayer. We told him we would pray for him tonight, So we kept walking and another one stumbled up to us haha. He could barely walk or talk. He was mumbling about the aboriginal people in Argentina and Paraguay. Elder Murphy was like, "Hey! Do you want a picture with Elder Sipple?!" and the guy goes, "SIIIIII!!" He was so stoked haha. So at first he had his arm around me, then was just full on bear-hugging me. We were laughing so hard. The bear hug is on a video I have, so you'll have to wait two years. Anyway, super funny and random. Also another time, these guys in the park called us over. They were high as knives and just smoking a ton of weed right there. They had cartons of wine and were just absolutely gone haha. Stuff like that happens all the time. So weird.

                                         

Typical neighborhood street. This one is a little nicer, though.

Eating at la casa de la Familia Ohando. We had gizo, which is super common here. Meat, noodles, and sauce. 

We live on the top 

After Elder Sotelo found all of the pomelos, I made this beautiful arrangement for our meal.

  

Que tal!                                                                                                January 20, 2014

Well, I got pooped on by another bird. Michael Phelps is back, sweatier than ever.

So here's the week. First, we found a new pension!! Right in our area, super nice, brand new, and no one has lived in it! Holy smokes it's righteous. The only thing is that we won't be with Elder Sotelo anymore and we are farther away from the main street with all of the stores and what not. But this will be suuuper convenient! Also, we have some snakes in the area! The lady who owns it has a daughter and a niece or something that are pretty snakey. The daughter is a worm, though. I better explain these terms. Here, we have three different classes of women. First, you have the dragons. They are the older ladies who are really flirty and stuff like that. Next, we have the snakes. They are anywhere from their mid-teens to about 35 years old. Super flirty and they only want to talk to us because we are Americans and handsome beyond belief. Finally, we have the worms. The worms are a lot younger. Their age group is 14 and under. They are the ones who will most definitely be snakes in the future and are already kind of creepy. Anyway, new pension is straight baller.

Cool story. One day, we went to the wife of our branch president, Hermana Rojas. We wanted a reference from her, so she told us to go to Hermano Orlandí. He was the first branch president there in Clorinda and has been branch president three times. She said he is inactive now because he thinks that the people in Clorinda are hypocrites and he is perfect. So we checked it out. We were super nervous because she said he is the devil and breathes fire and stuff. Anyway, we eventually clap his house and sit down and talk with him. He is sooo cool. He was telling us all about his life, his near death experience, and why he KNOWS that God lives aqnd loves us. He bore such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the Church. He knows it is the only true church. He was reading scriptures out of the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. So cool. We aren't sure exactly what happened with him and the people in the Clorinda branch. He said that he doesn't have any bad feelings for the people. He said that Hermana Rojas thinks that they're enemies, but he doesn't have any feelings like that. He is soooo awesome, though. Fetch. We are just trying to be his friend and fellowship him back into the church. He told us that we can always come to his house whenever we want. So we will work on him.

We found another awesome investigator. We were walking one night and this kid was like, "Hey, are you the Mormons?" So we said yeah and started talking and walking with him. His name is Alexis Verda and he is 15. He is having some problems with his parents right now and is living with a friend. He was saying how he couldn't find a job, but the next time we met with him, he had found a job at an empanaderia or something. He makes bread. So that's awesome! He also came to sacrament yesterday! He is super capo (cool) and loves talking and learning about our religion. He is down to keep commitments and actually has a desire to learn and improve his life. Superrrrr great experience.

A couple more funny things. Romona has been flirtier than ever before. The other day, she asked why Elder Sipple is more handsome than Elder Murphy hahaha. She always is trying to hold onto my hand after we shake hands. She always tells us how beautiful we are. Elder Murphy told her that it's inappropriate to talk to us like that haha ahhh it was weird. Anyway.

The shirts here are SOOO funny. Most of them are all in English, but no one knows what they say. There are tons of spelling errors. Half of them don't even make sense. In one of the clothing stores by our pension, there is a shirt on a mannequin that says "WITCH" in block letters and that's all. Also, there is one that says "Meow" in block letters. We visited a less active member yesterday and he had a cut-off t-shirt on. The style of the words was kind of Affliction-esque, but it said "funky punk 07" hahaha holy smokes. I dibs that username when I get back. Another one of our investigators had a shirt on that said "<3 your blog"....like what the heck does that even mean?! Sooo classic.

Yesterday, we also had Ezequiel and Milagros at church with us. They are brother and sister and live across from Romona. Ezequiel is almost 12 and Milagros is 13. Their abuela wants to be baptized as well. They have an uncle who is an inactive member. Super cool family and I will send pictures of them from yesterday.

I know that this Gospel is true. I love studying every single day and learning new things. I love teaching people and seeing the peace and comfort that this message brings. I know that we can return to live with Heavenly Father with our families for eternity. I'm so grateful to be here in Clorinda. Teaching the Gospel makes me so happy! Also, teaching it in Spanish is amazing. I am getting a lot better and I can understand a lot more of what's being said to me. I can finally start to be myself and kind of talk regularly with people. I'm so stoked to be fluent haha. Anyway, PAZ Y BENDICIONES!

Love,

Cochinito Mojado numero 1 AKA Grandma's Gold AKA Elder Sipple

Back on for a sec haha. Elder Murphy came back because he couldn't get his computer to work earlier. We are also with Elder Naumann and Elder Morrin. Elder Morrin is from Alpine and knows the Ricks family! He's super funny and loves soccer too. He played on Lone Peak and has also played club his whole life. We have a similar sense of humor, so it's always a good time when we are with them. Aunt Shelly knows Elder Naumann's uncle who was their stake president in Washington! Sooo crazy.

But yeah, I love the people and I'm glad they're all nice and loving. The kids are awesome, just like you said! Ware is in Resistencia and Coates is in some other area. I saw them at the new missionary training a couple weeks ago, but other than that you don't see other missionaries too often. Except the ones in your district.

I just took a picture of the street before we went into the supermercado. It's pretty much what most of the main street looks like. I'll take pictures of others and send them when I get a chance. Also, I meant to ask you for some shower things...loofa? Not sure what they're called haha. But the scrubber things. Just some cheap ones because they don't have them down here, AND I have only been in one store that has actual body wash. Weird. And the deodorant is weird too. It's the roll-on ball kind or just anti perspirant spray. But I'm fine with using those because I know it's dang expensive to send packages.

We get mail like once a month. I got your package today!!!! HOLY SMOKES! You really hooked it up fat! Thank you so much, seriously. It´s like straight gold. Candy, seasoning, peanut butter, marinade, dang. I am going to send pictures next week. I´m just on right now for a minute because Elder Murphy needed to come send an email. What else...oh, we had lunch with a member today and his wife. His dad is Hermano Rodas in the branch presidency. He is also in the branch presidency haha. He likes Blink 182 and a bunch of other bands like that. He is 26 and his wife is 29. Super awesome family. Anyway, we have some exciting things coming up so pray for us and for our investigators!!! Love you and again thanks for the package, it was seriously amazing. So heavy too haha. Lovezzzz.

In this picture we were at la casa de la familia Lopez. They live across from Romona. They made us tortas fritas and it was fantastic. From left to right we have Abuela Lopez, Romona Benitez, Milagros Lopez, Maira Benitez, Ezequiel Lopez, and Barbara, who I believe is the aunt of Ezequiel and Milagros. She has some mental issues, but she is sooo awesome and loves when we come over. In my right arm I have Lorena Benitez with the and in my left is Sabastian Lopez. Crazy kids. Love these families to death!!

Super cute puppy at a less active member's house. I miss puppies.

#SunsetPrincess

Me trying to give Elder Sotelo a haircut before they left this morning for their meeting in Resistencia.

                                      

#ThirstyGirl2k14

                                       
Mom, here is the beautiful river that you have been asking about! Haha this is the closest river to me. Clorinda is a border city, but we aren't anywhere near the big river in our area. But sometimes I can see Asuncion when I am on splits in a different area!

 

There are these eel things in the sewage ditches outside of the houses. Super weird, super gross.

Me with the new Elder Sipple!

                                       
After lunch yesterday at the Rodas household! Heck of an almuerzo, pizza game straight amazing. They have a really nice house for the area.

  

Me holding this different kind of toucan that this girl had. Pooped on m'hand two seconds after this picture

Our sUpEr kEwL new bunk beds! So much room for activities! 

                                         

January 13, 2014

Flip, y'all. Heck of a semana. Alright. Hee wee go.
So, we had a pretty good week. We taught, we saved souls. We are meeting with an inactive family which is sweet because they have a grandson who is 8 and they want him to get baptized! They all still have super awesome testimonies, but I think they just got lazy...who knows. But it is a perfect situation. Reactivation and baptism! La Familia Perez. I love them. My main news - WE BAPTIZED LA FAMILIA BENITEZ! Hooooly smokes, it was a real chore. Romona has these neighbors that just hate the church and they keep telling her not to be baptized. So every time we showed up, we had to remind her of her testimony and that she knows this will bless her family. It was a little sketchy for a bit, but everything worked out. So on Saturday, their baptismal date, we spent the morning cleaning and preparing the font for the baptism. Later on, we walked to her house to make sure they were ready to go. We got there and they were kinda ready, but just hanging out. Romona came out and kept saying it's a little difficult because her family doesn't like the church and neither does her neighbor. After a BUNCH of coaxing and reminding, we were on our way. I think her family has a couple Olympic medals for walking slowly, because for real, slowest walkers ever. So we're trying to get to the chapel, but it's like a half hour walk. Anyway, we get there with minutes to spare. From that point, everything went super well and we dunked them SO HARD. Gosh dang it was so cool to be a part of their baptism and see them enter into the sweet sweet waters. So stoked about it. One part I forgot to mention is that Romona has been a real snake the last couple of visits. By snake, I mean that she is real flirty with us elders. During the baptismal interviews of her daughters, she was asking Elder Murphy and me if we had girlfriends and if we were allowed to have them. We both immediately said we had girlfriends back home hahaha. Then she was telling us that a lot of women here think we're really handsome and beautiful. She kept using the word "conquistar" soooo...real awkward for us. ANYWAY, after the baptism, she didn't want to walk home without us, so she told us she needed money for a cab because they couldn't walk. Eventually I paid for a cab and they left. The next day was even crazier haha. I went on divisions with Elder Morrin, Elder Naumann, and Elder Yaicate to help Morrin and Naumann round up investigators for church. Meanwhile, Elder Murphy and Sotelo were going to go by Romona's house to get them for their confirmation. When the tried to leave, the door wouldn't open. I guess when we left and locked the door, it broke haha. So they were yelling (from our third floor apartment) for help hahaha. Some 70 year old came but they couldn't do anything. So they unscrewed the metal grate in front of the window and craweled out that way. We are still using the window to get in and out of our apartment. It's sooo annoying haha. So after that, they were WAY late. They were running to Romona's house, but ended up taking a cab. When they got there, Romona wouldn't answer the door. Elder Sotelo wen't and knocked on every door and then slid open a window and was like "Romona! We need to go!" hahaha she was sitting in a chair and said she didn't hear them. Long story short, we got them confirmed. She weaseled her way into getting the other missionaries to pay for her cab home again. Oh well. I baptised Romona and her daughter Myra. Super awesome, super real.
We are in the process of getting new beds. We got new bunk beds, but they are pretty much meant for children under 6 hahaha. They are yellow, green, and red and I already broke off a piece of wood just from laying on it. Sketchy. We need new mattresses but we can't do that until we can use our door. So I still have bed bugs. We got the new stove, so that's baller. There are a ton of other funny things that happened, but here are a couple others.
Elder Murphy and I love to mess with Elder Sotelo. So when we are walking home, we pick up pomelos, which are grapefruits, and put them in his stuff. We make sure they are green and totally unripe haha. We just hide them all over. It's classic. It's the small things. Today, Elder Murphy owed Elder Sotelo 40 pesos. He wouldn't pay him and Elder Sotelo was getting super mad. So we went to a thrift store and bought a womens shirt for 40 pesos hahaha. He gave it to him and he threw it on the ground and argued with him for like 15 minutes about it. It's this button up shirt with no collar, yellow, red, and green stripes, and 3/4 sleeves. SO FUNNY. We fight about some small thing every night. It's a really good way for me to learn Spanish and have fun. I love arguing in Castellano. The greatest ever. There are so many other things and I always forget them right when I sit down to write. Hmmm. Anyway, that's all I can think of.
Kyle, I want you to send me some of your pictures that you have been taking. Ally, FETCHING WRITE ME. Mom and Dad, I loves you and remember the whole package thing. And money thing. I can get 10 pesos to every
1 dollar here, so if you send money, just be careful! I will try to send pixx of the baptism later because I am out of time. I have other good pictures, too. Say hi to the whole family and all the friends. The Church is true and I love serving. God bless you and God bless the USA.
Love for eternity,
Elder Sipple
(Later that day)
Our branch isn´t terribly big. We don´t have a very big congregation on Sundays. It´s like maybe 40 people or less. Mostly less haha. The people are awesome! I seriously love them. They are friendly and patient with the two gringos. The food is really good! Today we helped the family of one of the counselors in the branch put up their pool. They have a nice house for the area and seem to have money. Like their house would be a pretty decent house in our area. Not like suuuper nice, but pretty nice. Terrible description haha. But it´s clean and the nicest house I have been in so far! After we put up their pool, they gave us sopa de something...it was like squash, carrot, and onion. Super good! Then we had like four different pizzas! Best pizza I´ve had here. One with ground sausage, one with pollo, and the others were cheese. Suuuper delicious and the closest to American pizza I´ve had here. Also, down here they have a Fanta apple soda and it is seriously insanely good. Anyway, that family is super cool. La Familia Rodas. Yo creo that´s how you spell it. I´m excited for the new president because we will most likely be able to play sports! So stoked. Also, I think I´m just going to buy a nicer backpack here. The ZLs were saying that if I don´t, the lesser quality ones will fall apart. So I don´t know. I still have personal money that I changed in the airport. But dang, that´s sad to hear about that elder. That would definitely be tough. Good advice, though! Thank you! I had other stuff to tell you and ask you about, but I ALWAYS

forget! Anyway. Hope all is well and I love you sooooo much, Mom! Thank you for the way you raised me. I am more and more grateful for that with every day that passes! You and Dad have both instilled some awesome things in your children. You and Dad are the greatest. :) Let Dad read this too haha. Seriously, I´m so grateful for my parents. I´m so proud to be your son! I can´t wait to show you up with my Castellano! It´ll be so tight haha. Loveeeee you both forever. I´m going to send pictures

tomorrow! Love you!
Love,
Elder Sipple

(I asked Alec about a picture that his mission president posted on Instagram.) 
Yeah, I´m online again. Elder Murphy needed to send something. And when we get on in the cyber by our pension, I spend like 25 minutes just trying to load the website. It´s awful. And pictures take forever. So I´ve got some time haha. But I think we´re just about to leave. Gosh it makes me happy to hear that you guys love my letters so much! And also,   I'm totally joking about the head thing haha. I´m comfortable with my body, Mom. Anywaaaaaay. I really want a new bed. I´m sick of bed bugs haha. Can you get diseases from them? Shoot. Once we get our door fixed, we´ll be able to get beds. And hey, I do have patience! That´s like one of the only things I´ve got haha. I definitely do need to work on it, but I feel like that´s one of my strengths. But one thing is for sure - I´m super grateful for our country, our house, our area, our church, our ward, our beds, our water, our AC, our showers, our washers and dryers, our dishwashers, our carpet, our roads, our cars...everything haha. Super humbling experience and I´m grateful for it! Also, I haven´t really mentioned it, but my companion and I are great friends. We have similar personalities and can joke around with each other. We both want to work hard. I believe we are going to do some great things here in Clorinda! Anyway, gotta go. Love you! 

Yep, that´s me! Haha my head has never looked bigger. Why couldn´t you have let me lay on my back as a baby?! My head would´ve flattened out!! That lunch was good! Lomito pizza thing and some little empanadas and other things. It was great! -- 

January 6, 2014

Hello, y'all.

If you put it in terms of iPhones, I really won't be gone for that long. Like, see you in two iPhones. Also, we call ourselves the Cochinito Mojados. It pretty much means "The Little Wet Sickos" because we are poor and sweaty. After we do something out of desperation (due to lack of money or supplies), we yell "Cochinito Mojados!" Alrighty. Lots of wild stuff this week. Killed two cockroaches in the middle of the night. I was going to the bathroom and they were procreating and running around. They were big and I hated them. I finally bought a hat! I'll send pictures. Our beds are just on the floor in the room with the AC haha. Pobres. I have been washing clothes by hand in our sink outside, so that's fun! There is a super cool elder in our district that I met after the Christmas party on our way to Clorinda. His name is Elder Naumann and he likes a lot of the same music that I do! His parents 

are 

like Dominican and something else, so he is perfectly fluent in Spanish and Enghlish. Jealous.

We are still living with the Zone Leaders. 

It has been way fun living with them. Gringos vs Peruanos. Classic. I had my first rainy day here! It wasn't anything super crazy, but there was a lot of mud and working in it was awful haha. This week, we had a fire in our apartment. Elder Murphy was trying to cook the sauce for our pasta. All of a sudden I hear "Oh, oh, oh! We got a fire! Tenemos un fuego! Fuego!" No one believed him at first because he is always joking, but I went in there and the back of the stove was on fire hahaha. So we shut off the gas and turned off the burner. The tube that runs from the stove to the gas tank was on fire and had burnt off from the stove. The stove is super old and crappy anyway. but everything is fine, we just can't cook food anymore haha. And we don't have a microwave...so we have to spend money which we don't have so we don't starve. Un dia en las vidas de los misioneros. Sooo funny, though! I just keep hearing Elder Murphy's voice...Aye, we got a fire! Tenemos un fuego! Classico. 

Okay, real quick. So our main investigator that we our focusing on, Romona and her family, bailed on church yesterday. We walked about 25 minutes to her house so we could walk with them to church. We show up and she's like "My kid's aunt and uncle don't like your church so I can't go today." So we were just like...en serio?! You have a testimony of these things! Your baptism is next week! You need to come! Long story short, she lied to us and said her family was coming over. Can you guess what time? Yep. 8:30...same time as church. So we picked up our investigator across the street and took him to church. His name is Ezekiel and he is 11. I think he has some members in his family, but I'm not sure who. But anyway, last night, we were on divisions so Elder Murphy was with Elder Sotelo (our ZL) and I was with Elder Yaicate (other ZL). They visited Romona and she admitted to lying...long story short, we have all of their baptismal paperwork filled out and signed! Same with Ezekiel! I'm baptizing the two daughters of Romona. I believe Elder Murphy is baptizing Romona and Ezekiel. Not sure exactly when Ezekiel's date is. But I'm so stoked! Teaching them has been so awesome and I can't wait to dunk the heck out of them.

There is no better feeling than when you see someone accept the Gospel and progress. Holy smokes, I love it. It makes all of the hardships so worth it. 

Also, I taught primary with Elder Murphy yesterday haha. The teacher was gone and we did a horrible job! Hahaha it was straight classic. Like, the worst! So fun though.

 I love you all so much. SO much. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. Thank you for helping me to get where I am today. I still have so much work to do, but I couldn't have gotten here without you. I know God sent me to my family and friends for a reason. Stay sweet 2k14.

Love,

Elder Sipple

Hoooola Hola Hola, Chamigos. December 31, 2013

Well, you can call me "Bed Bug" now...because I'm pretty sure I have bed bugs. Woke up one morning, legs were just done for. Totally got pwned. Haha anyway...I'm just like one walking mess. Some weird rash on my arm, probably have lice, I look like I just got out of a pool because I'm sweating so much. It's wild. But I am glad to be here in Clorinda.

Where do I even start...So my area is on the border of Paraguay, so a ton of people speak Guarani (?). So thats weird. A lot of them speak it better than Castellano. Crazy stuff out here, man. ANYWAY. I literally always forget everything I want to say to you when I sit down to email. Fetch. Oh yeah, I never thought I'd be a "fetch"guy. Always hated that word. But all of the Latinos say it, so it just catches on haha. So this week, Elder Murphy and I had a real week full of walking and finding. Since we are white washing this area, we have nothing. And we still don't have a pension, so we are living with the zone leaders. It will be way nice once we have our own place so we can organize all of our stuff. We dont have hardly any active members, so references are hard to come by. We spent all of Sunday afternoon and evening using MLS, which is the program where you have all of the members names in your area. You pray about which ones to visit, visit them, find out why you were guided there, either reactivate them, help them with whatever it is they need, or get referrals. Totally struck out. Couldn't find any of the people on our list. Just walked and walked and walked. We asked a ton of people if they knew the family or which house it was, but they all just pointed us in different directions. We tried our best to find them, but we just got pwned haha. Kinda discouraging, but that's okay.

Earlier on in the week, we taught some good lessons. We had this one guy who was saying he liked our church and that he belived faith could move mountains. He then went on to say that his work schedule wont permit him to come to church or meet with us. I reminded him of what he had just barely said...that through faith, all things are possible. He kinda dug himself into a hole there haha. But he said he would meet with us if we are in the area and he happens to be outside.

We had another funny lesson with a lady who is Catholic and doesn't plan on changing. We talked to her about baptism and about needing to have the proper authority and what not. So then we asked her if she would pray about what we had taught her and if she received an answer if she would be baptized. She said no. So we were like...Okay, pretend Jesus was right here. Sitting right next to us. If he said to you "Hey! This is the right church. This is my church. You need to be baptized into this church." would you be baptised? And she goes, "No." Hahaha it was sooo lame. She was super nice and wants to learn more though. She was saying how she learns more from us than she does from her own church. Anyway, we will see how that pans out.

My FAVORITE part of the week was this. We received and investigator from the Hermanas who used to be over our area. The family is the Benite family. The moms name is Romona and she has three daughters and one son. We didn't know about the son until we picked them up for church on Sunday. He can't talk, and I think he may be deaf. Not sure. Anyway. They are super poor. The kids are always outside just playing in the dirt and stuff haha. And they LOVE it! They have a mattress laying out in the dirt that they play on and what not. The daughters are 11, 9, and 4, I think. Romona and the two older girls have baptismal dates, so we get to baptize them! We also are teaching them and preparing them. It has been so neat to teach them and hear how Romona has progressed. Her prayers are straight GOLDEN. Soooo good. I used that wooden Plan of Salvation puzzle when we taught them last. I guess her husband died like 8 years ago, so we taught them about eternal families and what not. The kids loved the puzzle. Solid tool. I believe we are baptizing them on the 11th of January! I'm so excited. It'll be wonderful. It's super humbling to see how they live. The kids are just happy as heck because they don't know any different. It's just incredible!

Gosh dang. So in sacrament, we didn't have a pianist. There also weren't that many people, so you can imagine how it was. Like the worst singing I have ever heard haha. Everyone is starting at different times and with different notes because we didn't have music. We sang "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" or whatever the title is. Hahaha holy smokes, I was hitting up the low part, and I was the only person so it was super hilarious. Ohhh my goodness. Sounded like a bunch of pregnant dogs going into labor. But it was awesome and the people in the branch are great. We also had the Benite family with us at church which was sooo great. Romona originally said she was only going to come for an hour, but ended up staying the whole time with her kids! So cool. I can't wait to baptize them.

Anyway...trying to think of other things. It was Elder Murphy's birthday on Saturday, so that was cool I guess haha. Elder Sotelo is one of the ZLs and he is from Peru. So is the other ZL. But ohhh my heck when they speak English it is the funniest thing ever. They know little phrases and things, so Elder Sotelo always says, "Take it easy, cowboy." It is claaaassic. We all have fun with each other, but we need our own place haha. Elder Murphy and I, since we don't have a ton of members and are brand new to the area, have to pretty much buy lunch and dinner. We have had like one lunch with the branch president. So we bought milanesa and I cooked that for us. We also made egg burritos two nights in a row. We are pretty much the Lord's hobos hahaha. It's so classic. We cook with my Leatherman. The ZLs only have like 3 spoons, a knife, and 1 spatula. We use my leatherman to cut stuff and to grab hot pans. The struggle is soooo real. La lucha es super real. I gave him the rest of my peanut butter M&Ms for his birthday. He was so happy because you can't get that stuff here.

Totally forgot. So one day last week we were walking in our area and this guy comes out of his restaurant and goes "Hey, amigos! Come here!" So it turns out its some American guy who has a restaurant called "Guacamole." He has American food and Mexican food, but the Mexican food is a little different because Argentines don't like spicy stuff so he has to change it a little. Anyway. So we talk with him for a while. His parents are both from Buenos Aires. He moved down here for a girl haha. He is originally from Florida. Super nice guy. Now he has a different lady. He also originally came here to export beef to China, but that went south so he istrying to do whatever he can for money haha. His restaurant is kinda expensive, but we were so stoked. We both ordered chicken quesadillas and a big thing of fries with cheese and bacon. I'll try to send pictures. Aaaaanyway...everything is great! It has definitely been hard, especially because we have to walk extra since we aren't currently living in our area. I am sooo grateful for all of the stuff we have back in the States aha. It's nuts here. OH! One more thing. So when we were heading back from Resistencia last night, we got on this bus. The entire dang bus was full of mosquitos! Whaaaat the fetch, right? Soooo awful. So we sit there and sit there then finally start going. Then we turn around and go back I guess everyone needed to switch buses haha. Anyway...super disgusting. But it was funny. I keep seeing all of these cool little bracelets and rings I want to buy for Ally, but I'll probably do more of that stuff when I only have a couple months left. Also cool necklaces and other things for Kyle. And stuff for Mom and Dad and all of you. Hmmm. What else. I'll hopefully get that package this week. Dang secretaries. Trying to think of other crazy things. Hit me up with more questions, dang!

Just a helpful tip with packages - there really isn't a limit to how many you can send. But I know it is expensive for you to send them. But if you are going to send one, make sure you put like a piece of paper in there that says everything in it is only worth like one dollar. They have to open it with one of the secretaries and if you already have a paper in there saying it's worth a dollar, that's how much they'll charge me to get it. So, don't worry too much about packages! Also, the bubble wrap envelopes don't count as packages I think. So yeah! Also, please let the Dastrup's know I got their card and letters on Christmas Day! Thank them for me and tell them I'll write them back as soon as I can.

Flip, guys. It still doesn't seem real that I'm in another country. In all honesty, it has been super hard. Total change of lifestyle. But the lessons we teach and the people that we talk to make it all worth it. There was nothing better than seeing Romona understand the Plan of Salvation. I am so excited to continue to teach people and tell them about this wonderful Gospel that we have been blessed with. I love all of you so much! Sorry if I missed anything. I have to go, but feel free to ask me questions and stuff! Looooove you all so much and I hope you have a baller New Years!

Love,

Elde Sipple

Alright, family. Here we go. I have to try to be brief haha.                                             December 12, 2013

It has been a good week! It's my first and last week as Zone Leader since I'm leaving next week. Our flight plans got changed from the 16th to the 18th. Kind of a bummer, but at least we haven't been reassigned like some other elders. Hoping for the best! I'll be able to call while I'm at the airport. So if I can get you all on the same call, that would be great! If there is anyone that can't be there, send me their number or something.

There is a district in our zone that is having some issues. They've had problems since day one and still haven't been able to get their act together. There's just a lot of contention and pride. It's a district of just 4 elders. They've had meetings with President Pickering and still are just not working well. I'm friends with all of them, but it's hard to know how to help them. They know how they should be behaving and they know how they should be acting. It's all up to them - no one else can make them change. That's something that I've come to realize here. The type of missionary I am is entirely up to me. I can choose whether I want to be lazy or whether I want to take advantage of the time I have to serve the Lord. I want to be able to look back on my mission without any regrets. Gosh dang, I'm so excited to serve. It's weird haha. I know I'll get to Argentina and sound like a total dummy, but that's okay. I'm not scared...just excited for this experience. 

Also, I've been thinking about how people get kind of upset that people come back from their missions and behave differently. It's totally understandable now haha. When you're surrounded by the Spirit for that long and constantly in the Lord's service, it'd be weird to go back to how you used to be. I'm not saying that I want to lose my personality or anything like that. That would be the worst! But I can see how people change. I think about all of my family and friends and I just want them all to be as happy as possible! I'm grateful to have such supportive people in my life.

Dad, Mom, and Grandma - Thank you so much for the wonderful letters. I love reading about what y'all are up to. Grandma, thank you for the sweet card and the money! You are the sweetest grandmother in all of the land. I love you so much! I always look for Jesse and other family members when I walk by their house! Dad, thanks for writing me! I'll be writing a response later today and I'll send it in the mail tomorrow. Mom, that article you sent me was waaaaay cool! Thank you so much for that! Gosh I hate feeling like I'm forgetting to write something...who knows. 

I'm definitely learning to have more patience and to love people unconditionally. I've found the most effective way to help and serve others is to first establish a great friendship with them and then try to be an example. We should seek first to fix our own faults and THEN seek to help others. I'm trying to make everyone here feel welcome and loved. It's hard having to sometimes get involved in some of the zone's problems, but I know it's a valuable experience to have.

My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ. There are people that are counting on me to bring them the Gospel and help them to progress in this life and in the next. That's hard for me to comprehend. A lot of the speakers in our devotionals have mentioned things pertaining to our purpose. I'm so excited to share this message about eternal families, faith, hope, repentance, love, and God's plan for all of us.

Alright, so some last things. I will attach some pictures, and one will have my new flight info. If I'm forgetting anything, please email me, because I can check pretty frequently now. Also, I've heard some whisperings about riots in Argentina...is that true? Let me know haha. Also, I got a nice treat-package from Grandma Jean and Grandpa Dennis today, complete with a wonderful card and some money. I need to write them!

I love all of you so dang much! I love this Gospel and I love the feelings I get when I teach it and learn it. I am in the right place, doing the right thing, preparing to teach the right people. We are so blessed to have this Gospel in our lives and we need to share it with others! Aaaaaand guess what else is crazy...I'll be in Argentina for my next P-Day...holy smokes! Okay, I have to go.

Hope y'all are doin' well and I hope you have a fantastic holiday season!

Paz y Amor,

Elder Sipple