Christmas Tidings

Hey team! How are you all doing? Are you guys just so pumped for Christmas? I know that I am. 

This week we had a family home evening in the chapel. We did karaoke. I learned two things. 

1. I can't sing. 
2. I especially can't sing songs that are written in Spanish and that I have never heard before. 

But it was really fun. And I beatboxed into the microphone and the president of the quorum started breakdancing. That was really cool.

I hope that this Christmas season we can do something to remember the Savior a little more. I know that sometimes there is a lot of stress this time of year. But if we remember the Savior, we will know that everything will work out in the end. Because he came to this earth, lived, died, and was resurrected, all of us have access to the atonement. Please remember that this Christmas Season. We are never alone. There is someone who knows us perfectly. I love you guys. I testify that Jesus Christ Lives.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Zone Meeting, FTW!

Hey team! How are you all doing? Im doing so good!

This week we went up to do divisions with some other Elders in Caleta Olivia. It was pretty cool. I went up to Comodoro with my comp so he could go to the dentist. Always brush your teeth. It's important.

Then after that we had our zone meeting. It was so good! I really love our zone here. We are really tight. One of our zone leaders talked about winning the day. I really liked it. Every single day that we have on this earth is a precious opportunity. We should do everything we can do win it. (Does that make sense in English) 

I love you all very much! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Capilla Abierta! (Chapel Open House)

Hey family and friends! I had an amazing week down here at the end of the world! 

This week in our zone we had a chapel open house. They just finished building it in Pico Truncado. So they pulled all of the missionaries together in our zone to help out with it. The first day when we got there, we just contacted all day long, handing out invitations to come to the chapel. Then (Friday and Saturday) we had the actual open house. Our job was to bring people in. So we went around and asked if we could walk with people and give them a tour of the chapel. It was really cool. 

The chapel is so beautiful. It looks like a temple on the inside. The spirit was so strong inside even before it was dedicated. 

It was a great weekend. We all worked so hard trying to get people in. And had so much fun doing it. By the end we were all exhuasted. But we had so much fun too!

I love you all! I hope that you guys have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Giving Thanks

Hey Team! How is it going? I'm doing great! 

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving, and then took a nap on the carpet. Did you guys know that there isn't carpet down here in Argentina? It is illegal to have it down here. 

Well not really, but no one has it.

We had a great week! This Sunday I had to give my fist talk in Spanish. It actually went pretty well! I spoke about the holy ghost. I invited everyone to be humble like little kids. It was pretty fun!

Then! Oh my word, I did not agree with this. But They cancelled the rest of church cause there wasn't water! So we just had sacrament, and then everyone went home. We were by our pension <apartment> when one of our investigators called us and asked where everyone was. Oh my goodness, that is so bad. So we ran over, and gave them a tour of the chapel and had a really awesome lesson with them! So even though something really bad happened, the Lord was able to work with it and let us feel the spirit. 

I hope you are all doing great! Have a great week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Himes

Transfers!

Hey Family and friends!!! How is it going? 

Big news!! Transfers happened!! WHOOOO! I finished my training! Im finally a real missionary! Ha!

My  new comp is Elder Barrion Nuevo! He is awesome! He is 26 years old, and from Buenos Aires. He has 4 months left in the mission. He is super nice. He bought me a dos corazones, which is a little chocolate with a love poem inside. That was really nice.

A while ago We found a kid named Lucas. He is a member that moved here from Salta. But he didn't know were the chapel was, so he never came to church. He is the only member in his family. We have been working really hard with him and his brother. They are awesome. His brother Brian really wants to know which is the right church. Lucas is such a little capo (boss) cause he basically testified about the restoration to his mom and bro! AHH So dope!

Also! The mission is doing a 40 day fast! We are fasting to be able to teach more people and help them come unto Christ through baptism. So I invite all of you to join us. A day of fasting, or even just prayers. I know that heavenly father will listen to us!

Thank you so much team! You are all great! Have a stellar week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Out Of Time!

Elder Himes is out of time, but just know that he had a week full of miracles and cake shoved in his face!

I love you all!!

Your Typical Argentinan Baptism

Hey Family and Friends! 

Wow! I have had an incredible week! I hope you guys are doing great too! This week I had my first baptism!! His name is Cristian Piccinini. He is 10 years old and his mom was less active in the church. ( If a kid waits till after 8 years old, they need to have the missionary lessons in order to get baptized) So we have been teaching him for the last little while, and he is just a little stud! He is so awesome! 

Eventually the day of his baptism came! This day, we were on exchanges with the district leader and his companion. I was with Elder De Olivera, and Elder Boyd was with the district leader Elder Wilhelm. After lunch we all met up in the chapel, to fill the font and teach classes of english. When we got there though we found out that the water was off. And the font had about 3 inches of water in it. Ahhh! That is important, we need water! But My comp and I had to go visit someone else. So we left, Elder Boyd and Wilhelm to try and figure it out. When we get back the water is still off and we don't know what to do. Eventually president shows up and messes with a box in the sidewalk, and water starts coming  out of a spigot in front of the church. So what we do for and hour or so is use two 5 gallon buckets to fill the font! It was slow. Eventually the water is about up to my mid calf, and we call it good.

We get in and I do the baptism, It was really awesome! The only thing was the water was sooo cold. So poor little Cristian came up gasping for breath! But, It was all good, and it all worked out in the end!

After the baptism we had to drain the water from the font, the same way we filled it up, with 2 five gallon buckets! When the water gets low enough we move the font closer to the door and I go to tip it on the side. All of the water came rushing out, It was actually really cool. Then I looked at the legs of the font and realized I broke one of them. Ahhh! Thats not good. Oh well, we can probably fix it. We will just need to find someone who can weld!

Well It was an amazing stressful beautiful exciting fun experience! It was super awesome! Family friends, I love you guys! I hope you are doing great! Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Happy Halloween!

My dear family and friends!! Oh my word! I just love you guys so much! You are all the best!

Ok, this week was the bomb! The mission just keeps getting better and better!! We had a Halloween activity with the branch this week. I went as Santa Claus. (I just stole my comps Santa hat) But it was way fun. We all just got together in the chapel and played a bunch of games. It was a good time!

Other cool thing that happened this week; we were walking down this street and this random little kid that we had never seen before calls us over. He starts showing us his handstands skills and his sword fight moves with a pipe. So, I had to show him that I could do it too! He gave me a pipe and I just started going crazy with it pretending that I knew karate and stuff. There was a big group of little kids and they were all amazed. Im glad that I can be a missionary and a dork. 

We also had interviews with president this week. That was awesome! I got some really good advice from the AP's about how to bear testimony in contacts. Sometimes we have less than a minute with people, we need to make it a spiritual minute.

Team! The mission is awesome! I love you all! I miss you, but Im glad Im here!

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Himes

Waffles!

Hey Family and Friends!! How is it going! I'm loving it down here!!! This week we was an Hermana´s birthday in our district. So we got together with some members and made waffles for everyone! Holly heavens they were so good! The only problem was there isn't syrup down here... they put dulce de leche on their waffles here. But I guess that's not the worst thing that can happen!

Oh my word! We have had some awesome lessons this week! We had one miracle lesson with Fabian and Deborah. Fabian was baptized when he was 14 but hasn't been to church in years. Deborah isn't a member. During the first lesson we invited them to be baptized. And then we couldn't find them for a long time. Then we finally found them again. We taught them the Plan of Salvation. And Deborah understood everything! She understood why we invited her to be baptized, and why in is necessary. When she said the final prayer she said ´thank you thank you thank you for the words of these boys! What she was feeling grateful for was the spirit she felt! 

Ah! So awesome! I love being a missionary! It is awesome! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Feliz Día De Madre!!!

Hola Familia y amigos!!!

How are you all doing! I am stupendous!! We had a really good week with lots of ánimo! (cheer)

This week we were able to teach a lot! Not a ton of work with Investigators, but lots with menos activos (less active). None of our investigators are really progressing. But there are some less active families that are really doing great! It has been awesome to bear simple testimony to try and help them!

So apparently Mothers day is in October over here. So that's cool. I tried to Skype home yesterday but no one answered.... Oh well. Just kidding! But really though, yesterday was dia de madre! It was awesome! We went and had a huge asado with some people in our branch (Asado is a traditional Argentinian meal. Basically you just put a ton of meat on a grill until its done... I'll cook it for you when I get back) It was so good! I am definitely going to get fat down here.

It was an awesome week! We just need to find some investigators with a desire to progress! I hope you are all doing really well! I love you all a lot! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

PS. I made French Toast last night in my pension (apartment) and it was really good

Miracles and Sea Lions!

Family and Friends!!! How are you all doing? I hope you are so good! I know I had a good week!!!

The other day we found this guy named Damian by knocking doors. He told us that a lot of stuff just happened in his life and he would be interested in listening to us. Then a few days later we decided to try and find him again. But we could not find his house at all!! It was so frustrating, we were just walking around in circles. And then it started to hail. Oh my goodness! What in the world is happening. But then when the hail was coming down hard, we found his house and knocked on his door. And (I think) because it was hailing he let us in! We had a really awesome lesson with him and he is really interested! What I learned is miracles come in many forms. Sometimes they come in hail storms, we just need the patience to realize it is a miracle!

This Monday we had a Super P-day! We all got together with the zone and went and saw the sea lions! It was super cool! Sea lions are cool cause they make funny noises and nap all day. But it was sooo cool doing it because we were in nature for a bit! Then afterwards, a member cooked us an asado (traditional Argentinian barbecue), and we got Ice cream at Grido (one of the best helado (ice cream) places in Argentina) It was an awesome p-day.

Well team! I hope you have an amazing week! Keep on praying everyday! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Himes

La Conferencia

Hello Family and Friends! I don't know about you all, but general conference blew my mind! Oh my word it was soo good! I was more excited to watch general conference, than I would to be eating cinnamon roles in Disneyland! It was so good! 

We got all together in a stake center to watch it. All of the gringos got to watch it in English! That was so awesome! Then after the first session the members gave us a really nice lunch! It was super cool! 

I think that my favorite part of conference was the testimonies of the three new apostles. They really expressed a lot of my feelings right now. I felt a lot of comfort to know that my mission call is from God. Even though I am week, God can make me into something great. I just need to turn it all over to him. That was really special for me!

Also the one about Moms was really good! Everyone who reads this, call your mom and tell her that you love her!

It was an amazing weekend! I definitely need to study the talks again! 

I love you all very much! Have so much fun this week!

Love,

Elder Himes

I Became Legal in Argentina

Hello family and friends! I have had another fantastic week at the end of the world!

One cool thing that happened this week is I became legal in Argentina! My comp and I woke up at 245 in the morning and took a bus to Comodoro. And then did a bunch of legal stuff. I didn't really know what was going on, but after a month in the mission you kind of get used to that.

After Comodoro we went to have a Zone Conference with President. That was sweet! We played a game of PMG (Preach My Gospel) chase. You have to find which page contains a certain phrase in PMG. It was super fun.

This past week we taught a new investigator named Deborah (Sorry Mom not you.) She is super prepared for the gospel! She said she likes it when we visit her because she feels peace in her house! Oh man! So cool! She has a baptismal date set, and I think she is really going to progress.

Yep! It was a great week, and it is just going to get even better cause it's GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! Oh my word, I am so excited! It is going to be so good! I encourage all of you to watch it with a question in mind!

Well Family and Friends! I love you all, you are all great! I hope you have a fantastic week! Go do some random service! It will make your day!

Love,
Elder Himes

PS. Yes, I ate that whole sandwich

Hey Team Avatar!

Hey Team Avatar! No one watches avatar down here. So thanks for letting me say that!

I had another awesome week at the end of the world! We have seen some miracles and good times down here!

One day we were contacting and we came across these people who had lessons from the missionaries a year ago. They used to go to church but stopped a long time ago. The mom told us that she wanted to start going again! And they are married. This is incredible! We are going to start teaching them soon! My comp and I were so amazed by them that we stopped and said a prayer of gratitude afterwards. It was awesome.

Imagine a Tic Tac instead of a cookie on top...

We did a noche de hogar (Family Home Evening) based off of the scripture Helaman 5:12. We played the game were you make a tower of flour with a Tic Tac on the top. Then you take turns cutting it, and who ever makes the tour fall has to find the Tic Tac with their mouth. I was
 that guy. Ew, so gross! But It was still awesome! And I felt an overwhelming happiness being in there with that family!

This week was great! I hope you all have a great one too!!!

Love,
Elder Himes

PS. Tender Mercy this week I ate peanut butter! Oh my heavens it was so good! It was from Paraguay.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Hey Everyone! It snowed today!!! Yay! Actually it was really cold! But its all good! This week was a pretty sweet week! I hope it was awesome for all of you as well!!

This week we were teaching this lady about the restoration. As she was reading a part of the pamphlet, I pulled a Book of Mormon out of my bag, and put it on the table. My comp looked at me really weird and made me put it back and he pulled out his own to give to her! What the heck! That was weird. After the lesson he laughed and said, Do you know why I had you put it back? I looked at the book again and it was in English! Ha! That was pretty funny. Now I always check to make sure it's in Spanish!



Just to let you all know, dulce de leche is so good! I think I probably eat way too much here, and I'm probably going to get fat, but I don't even care.

This week we got to watch two baptisms. They were both 9-year-olds being taught by the Hermanas! It was super sweet to watch!! The spirit was really strong there!

Guys, can I just say that Heavenly Father is awesome! His plan for all of us is so so so cool! We all have the opportunity to follow Christ and have eternal life! That is so cool!

I hope that you are all doing well! Have an awesome week! And take a little bit of time to get to know Christ a little more. I have been reading in the New Testament and I feel that has really helped with that! I love you all! Until next week!!

Love,
Elder Himes

Current Address

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Elder Marcos Caseres  

Elder Samuel Himes

Argentina Comodoro Rivadavia Mission 

Av. Fray Luis Beltran 75 

Comodoro Rivadavia Chubut,

9000 Argentina

Padded envelopes and regular letters get through... no boxed packages.

Wind!

There is a lot of wind here!

Hello Beloved family and friends!

Life is pretty good here down at the end of the world! We have been doing work down here. I am tired a lot of the time! But its all good! The members down here are really really nice. So nice that I'm probably going to get fat really soon! But I guess there are worse things that can happen.

This week our water shut off for a few days! It felt good to take real shower after a few days of bucket showers! 

This Sunday I went up and introduced myself in front of the branch and bore my testimony. It was pretty cool. I think its awesome that you can still feel the spirit even in broken Spanish. 

It was a good week! I love you all, have an excellent week!!!

Love,

Elder Himes

Bonus Info from a letter to Mom with more information about travels:

We flew into Buenos Aires. When we landed we had no Idea how to get down to Comodoro. We met up with a big group of missionaries and we were all just waiting there to see how we were going to get down there. Then these random people that I didn't know told me to get into this semi creepy looking van, so I did. And then they drove us to another airport. When we got to the airport we were just kind of standing on the sidewalk chilling, cause we still didn’t know what to do. And then a bus of Latino missionaries drove up and we met up with a few other missionaries going to our mission. Only one of them spoke English, so we all kind of translated through him.

Then we got on another plane to Comodoro. I slept to whole way, except when I was eating Argentinean candy, which is really good!

Then we landed in Comodoro and no one was there.

We waited, and no one was there.

And then still no one was there!

So told everyone that I had presidents number (Cause I was travel leader) and we called him. Apparently, they thought we were going to arrive like two hours later. Ha! So we met the APs and put our stuff in their trucks and started driving. They drove us around Comodoro and then we went to go do street contacting. I’ll be honest, it was so scary! But it was good! I just don’t know Spanish. It’s fine!

Then we slept in some other Elder’s pension (apartment). Next day we did some training and all of the trainers came in and we ate ravioli for lunch with them. Then they assigned us to our areas and companions! Elder Boyd is awesome! He is from Florida and has a year in the mish. After that we kind of just waited for a bit until we took a bus to our area, and didn't really get to bed until midnight! It was like a three hour bus ride. 

The First Pension (Apartment)

Well Hello Argentina!!

Hey team, guess what!!?!? I'm in Argentina!!! That is so weird! I can not believe that I'm actually here!!! The plane ride was awesome! I talked to this guy who lives here (thank Heavens he knows English) And I told him what I was doing. He said that he thinks Argentina needs that right now! So sweet!!! 

Elder Boyd - (From Florida), First Area = Las Heras

The first night we went around a crowded street and did contacting! That was a very humbling experience! But it was awesome!! We actually got two addresses of people that were interested, so that was definitely a miracle!  

Then later we got assigned our comps and our areas! My comp is Elder Boyd and we are in Las Heras! Elder Boyd is probably the coolest missionary that I've met so far! He is really into the work! I'm really happy that I get to work with him!

Our apartment is pretty ghetto. It's actually really funny! One night the APs were sleeping in our pension (place) and some how these dogs got into our house in the middle of the night! When I woke up in the morning there were these puppies sleeping in our hallway and we all had to chase them out!

By the way, tip about dogs. If you are in Argentina, and there is a big scary dog running at you. Just bend over and pretend like you are picking up a rock, then they run away. 

Life is good! Its very humbling being here! Just knowing that I can not do this work on my own! It is not possible! We all need to rely on the savior. He will make us into so much more than we can be on our own!

First District in Las Heras

On last cool thing! Our mission president is a boss! He is so awesome! Our mission scripture is Matthew 28:19-20, the same as my plaque scripture! He knows where we want to go with this mission! We want to build a Patagonia temple! That is the goal! I think its so cool that He has that vision for this people!

I love life! I hope you all do too! Take some time this week to get to know your savior Jesus Christ. It will be well worth your time!

Love,

Elder Himes

 

P.S. It's kind of funny Cause there is only one computer that we can use so as a companion ship we email for three hours!! Cause we get 90 minutes each! Also pics take forever.

What the heck! Umm actually packages do work, just send them in a envelope

not a box.I will give you the address for packages next week! So that way you can send the stuff.

But its not even that cold in the pensions. I don't know, maybe it will be in ushuai. 

Its still loading so I'm still typing. Did you know, I love you! Its true! 

Bye!