The Last Consejo

Hey there Everyone. This week we had my last meeting of consejo. When people in the mission are finishing the mission they always give their "final testimony". In the last meeting with president, I had to think a little bit about what I've leaned here on the mission. 

I thought a little bit about when my stake president set me apart as a full time missionary. He said, "I hope that your mission is so hard that It drives you to your knees." 

I don't think I understood what he was saying at the time, but through my time here I've grown to understand it. My mission has been really hard, for so many reasons. And through it all it has driven me to my knees time and time again. And that has helped me realize how much I depend on Christ. 

If it weren't for Him I would be nothing. I have come to know him so much more here. I'm so grateful that my mission has been hard. I'm so grateful that I fell to my knees. 

I love you all so much. I hope that this week you can all fall to your knees and get to know your savior a little more.

Love,

Elder Himes

Happy 25 de Mayo!

Hey there everyone! This week we had the 25 de Mayo! It is pretty much the 4th of July for Argentina. So we got together with all of the member in the church. They made a pot the size of my body of a drink called mate cocido. And then they made grilled tortilla and fried bread and we watched a bunch of traditional dances. It was really cool. 

At one point in the fiesta my comp and I had to go outside to make a call. It was freezing outside. And we saw a guy in the bus stop looking at us. We asked him if he wanted some hot mate cocido. He said that he was good, but he did want to learn about our doctrine. Wow! 

Okay, so we taught him a little about the restoration right there it was really cool.

Anyways I love you all a lot! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Back To Old Stomping Grounds

Hey there everyone! How are you all doing? This week was really cool! 

At the beginning we went to Las Heras, my first area. It is as ugly as I remember, but I feel like I love the people there even more now! Ha ha maybe it has to do with the fact that I understand them now. 😉

I found Cristian Piccinini there, the first boy that I baptized here on the mission. It was such a special experience. I literally almost started balling when he said that he never will forget about me! Goodness! 

My comp and I have been seeing a lot of miracles.

A family that we gave a Book of Mormon to three weeks ago, said that they were reading it together as a family.

A woman that we contacted at her door gave us tamales .

This week we did an activity with the youth. We wanted to show everyone how to share the gospel with Facebook. How did we do it? I put a fake beard on, and told everyone about how I used to preach the gospel in 1592 and how I baptized a bunch of dinosaurs. But the other missionaries taught me about the videos of the church and social media. It was really fun!

But yeah! I love y'all Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

My Week

Hey there everyone! I'm sorry that I didn't get a weekly email out last week! We had consejo <conference> on Monday ( a big ol' meeting in Comodoro), so I didn't have a ton of time to email. But, here I go.

This week was crazy. We went to Comodoro for the meeting on Monday. Then, we had to return to Comodoro el Miercoles for another meeting with President and all of the missionaries. So we had a lot of traveling this week!

Last time I said I was going to tell a little more about Jose and Ferndanda. They are the people that we baptized two weeks ago. the missionaries met Jose and Fernanda a year ago. The contacted them in the street on the way back to the pension. They said that they could go by. And they started teaching the whole family. Fernanda wanted to get baptized a long time ago, but to do that, they needed to get married. She was all for it but Jose was not so sure if he wanted to get married or not. 

When I got here to Caleta Olivia, Jose was here, and Fernanda was in Buenos Aires with her son, cause is very sick. He was having a sort of chemotherapy ( his name is Tino and he is about two years old) While she was gone we taught Jose while he was by himself. He changed a lot while Fernanda was gone and he realized what was really important. He decided that he wanted to get married and baptized when Fernanda got back.

But when Fernanda got back, she wasn't so sure. She told us that she had felt a little angry at God for having her little son so sick and in the hospital for so long. So the situation flipped. Now it was Jose saying that he wanted to get married and baptized, and Fernanda wasn't so sure! We shared with Fernanda about the holy ghost and told her that she would feel that it's what she needs to do when she started going to church again. She went to church and yes! She felt it enough that she told us that she wanted to get married and baptized, so we helped them get all of their papers ready and we helped them get married, and the next day they got baptized!

The grandma of Fernanda, and her aunts and uncles are all anti-Mormon, and have been trying to tell her really ugly things. The same with Jose. But they have not let that affect them at all! They are both so happy now. Jose is going to be getting the priesthood soon. Fernanda is already going out and visiting less actives and inviting them back to church. 

The faith and testimony that they have gives me so much animo <spirit? energy?>. I love their family so much.  

I love all of you back home have a great week!

Love,
Elder Himes

Little Post Because Little Time...

I have very little time today. 

The baptisms were awesome. They are named Jose and Fernanda. I will talk more about them next week. They are the coolest though. It was very special. They both told us that we are now part of their family. It was great!!!

Love,

Elder Himes 

P.S. There was also a wedding

Rainy Days and Baptisms

Her there everyone! How is life going? We are going good over here! 

This week it Rained a little more, but not as bad as last week. It didn't hit as hard as it did in Comodoro, but my comp and I still got pretty darn wet. 

But the greatest was this Saturday! We had three baptisms in the branch. Fernando and Dario were investigators of the other Elders and the Hermanas. And then our baptism was Roxana. My last comp, Elder Clark Found Roxana like 6 months ago. They talked with her son first and then she started listening to us. We have been going by every day for like the past month. She had some very spiritual experiences.

I remember One day my comp and I were thinking about what we could do to help her. We said a prayer to know what she needed. I remembered about something that I did in the MTC in a practice. We invited our practice to do a prayer and ask specific questions. Like if God loved him. If this was the true church. Then after the prayer we just waited in silence for a few minutes to see how we felt. There in then MTC we felt the spirit really strongly after that prayer. So we decided to do the same thing with Roxana. 

We taught her a lesson about the atonement and told her that Christ had suffered for her and loved her so much. She said that is hard to believe. So we challenged her to do the prayer right there, and it was awesome. She talked about how the next day she felt so good, even though it was just a normal day. She said that she felt different. It was so awesome. That is something that I've learned here on the mission. We don't convert anyone; the spirit does all of the work . All we do is invite the spirit. Now Roxana has really good prayers, she is always very sincere. 

Thanks everyone for all of the prayers! You are the best have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Fernando and Dario's baptisms:

 Roxana's baptism:

Post baptism celebration cake...

A video of the rain in Comodoro last week:

The Tempest Was Raging

Hey there everyone! Wow, wasn't General Conference just awesome? I absolutely loved it. The coolest thing was that there was one talk especially for investigators. Sunday afternoon session by Elder Costa. During that talk we had 3 investigators listening! It was so great! 

We had a very interesting week. This week we were going to have a consejo <conference?> with all of the zone leaders this Thursday. Instead we had the biggest rainstorm we've had in 40 years in the city. Here in Comodoro they are not all that used to rain. The city is not prepared for it. This week it rained all that it usually rains in a year here in 2 days.

So we traveled up to Comodoro the night before, not knowing it was going to be so bad. When we got there we had to stay in the pension <apartment> all day. We couldn't even leave to buy food. In some parts of Comodoro it took cars away, flooded streets, and even dropped some buildings. (it took all of the dirt our from underneath of them.) So Thursday we were in the pension all day. Friday also. Except for the end of the day, President let us go play ping pong in the church. Then at last we were able to go home Saturday morning.

We got to conference a little late cause the roads were destroyed but we were able to watch it! It was awesome. It was really cool when the 70 who was the mission president in Washington talked about looking up and opening your mouth. So right after that session we took a picture doing the same. 

Here in the city were I live, Caleta Olivia, the rain came but not as bad. But the missionaries that live in Comodoro I think will probably be doing a lot of service in the next month. Life for us here will go on pretty normal. We are just going to open our mouths and look up!

Love,

Elder Himes

Look to the sky and open your mouth!

On the way to General Conference with the Zampa family:

8 Elders, 1 Apartment, 2 Days: