Traveling

Hey team! How are you all doing? 

I had a fantastic week! Even though I wasn't in my area all that much. This Tuesday we took a 4 hour bus ride up to Rio Gallegos. Elder Bednar was doing a transmission to all of the missionaries in Argentina, Chile, and a few other countries. I think in total we were 6000 missionaries. Elder Bednar was up in Buenos Aires. It was one of the coolest things ever! I felt the spirit so extremely strongly. He basically turned it into a question an answer type of thing. 

One thing that I learned; the only thing that can stop us from reaching our potential is our own doubts. We truly have no limit to how spiritual we can become. We have the potential to eventually become like God. But many times we have thoughts like "I'm not good enough". Thoughts like this distract us from the atonement of Jesus Christ and make us rely in our own strength, making our doubts a reality. So don't doubt. We can do anything, we can achieve any worthy goal. If we kick out our doubts, we will have divine help to achieve it.

Also! Other cool thing that happened. We went to 28 de Noviembre, and they organized the branch there. The church is new enough that it wasn't even a branch, it was just a group of people that had authorization to do the sacrament. But we now have a branch. They meet in a small house with maybe 20-ish members. It was a very cool opportunity.

Well team! I love you. This is the true church. There is no doubt about it in my mind. I know that Jesus Christ Lives. He loves us so much and is always there for us! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

PS. More details about the glacier. ITS GIANT! You can walk around on boardwalks on a hill directly in front of it. You are still pretty far away from the actually glacier, but we got a really good view. I saw it break a lot. Maybe every 15 minutes. You would always hear a big CRACK! Then everyone turns there heads to look and splash! There it goes.

Feltival del Lago

Hey team! How is it going? 

This week here in Calafate they had a giant celebration called the Feltival del Lago. There were concerts everynight this week. Last night Ricky Martin came. He was really good! Just kidding, we didn't watch him. But we heard it was really cool.

This week, we started mutual with the youth of the branch here. We made banana pancakes and played ping pong. It was pretty cool. But I need all of your help! I need simple ideas for mutual activities we can do. That would help me a ton!

I love you guys a lot! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Pictures!

Today was the first week of transfers here in Calafate with my new companion Elder Cano! He is such a homie. For those of you who know spencer sandberg its basically his dopleganger: So we are getting along pretty well.

We are doing a lot of work down here. And seeing lots of miracles. This week in the chapel we had a ton of visitors. One couple from Utah, one from Northern Argentina, one from Buenos Aires, and a family from Chile! It was the most full I've ever seen the chapel. 

Also, side note, along with learning a lot about the gospel, and teaching, and many other cool spiritual things, I am becoming quite expert at the baking of home made breads. Last night I made these really good things that a called torta fritas. Its kind of like scones. And then we ate all of them. It was delicious. 

I love you guys a lot! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Baptism!!!

Gonzalo is a gangster

I learned hot to make home made bread!

Glaciobar

Hola team! 

I'm doing really good down here. Although I think that this week has been the hottest week I've had down here in Argentina! But its all good, I'm going to appreciate it cause pretty soon its going to be cold down here!

We had a really good week down here. Lots of miracles. This week we found a really awesome family from Bolivia. They are some extremely humble people. The mom told us that she had to start working when she was 8 years old when her dad died. Right now there are 6 people there living in a tiny house with a giant garden out in front. When we found them they were cooking fish, it was pretty obvious that they didn't have a lot. They didn't even know us, but they gave my comp and I a bowl of rice and fish to eat with them. It was a very humbling experience. 

Today we all went to the Glaciobar. It is a room that is made completely of ice. And, crazy news, it was really really cold! I went in a short sleeved shirt. Hmm, not my best Idea. But it was really cool. They gave us cups made out of ice, and we could drink as much coca cola as we wanted. Fun stuff.

Team! I'm loving the mission. There is no place I'd rather be. I know now more than ever that God loves his childeren so much, The gospel is the only way to true happiness. Because of the attonment of Christ, everything is stacked in our favor to win. We just need to let go of our pride and accept him. I love you guys so much! Keep on being awesome, and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Himes

Five Thousand Words Worth of Pictures!

Hey team! How is it going for all of you? I'm doing really good! We had an awesome week down south. There are some really awesome investigators that we are teaching right now. This area has a lots of potential!

Some cool things that happened this week...

I got an eye infection! 

Ok thats not really cool, but its different I guess. I woke up and my eye was all swollen. I looked pretty ugly. But I'm all better now, although I'm not sure if I look any more attractive. (Don't worry Mom, really I'm all better now.)

We traveled to Viente ocho de Diciembre for a zone meeting. 

We are 8 missionaries here in this zone. Very small. But it was fun. On the way back we got to Calafate at like 1:00 in the morning. That was fun. 

I ate the Calafate berry. 

Its a berry that grows a lot here. They say that if you eat Calafate berry while you are in Calafate, you are going to return to Calafate. Also is stains your tongue... like gushers. 

It was a great week! I had lots of fun! I hope that you are all doing great! Love you loads!

Love,

Elder Himes

I Love My New Area!

Oh my word! How is it going? I am doing great! I love my new area. 

My companion is such a cool guy! He is from Guatemala, he teaches really well, is super funny, and just an all around nice guy. I love him so much! 

Our pension <apartment> is a castle! I have carpet in my bedroom. Carpet! That doesn't exist in South America. 

Calafate is so beautiful. There is so much green here, and from the window in my bedroom I can see a huge lake. There is a lot of light here, meaning it is light out side at like 4 in the morning and still light when we go to bed at 10:30 at night. 

My new district is awesome! We are 4 Elders; My comp and I, and two more Elders (one from Peru, and the other from Mexico.) We have lots of fun together. 

Calafate if very touristy. You can walk through centro (Which is the "down town" area) and hear like 4 different languages. In church there was a family that all looked like they were gringos. I talked with them and it turns out they are from Brazil. I guess we get a lot of visitors here. 

I am very excited to work here. Its going to be awesome!

Love,

Elder Himes

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