BOSS IN ARGENTINA
2016-2018
COMODORO RIVADAVIA MISSION
2016-2018
COMODORO RIVADAVIA MISSION
 Felt like a week on vacation! We did so much traveling for baptism interviews we hardly had any time to work here in Pico. The week was so fun though and tons of cool stuff happened. Monday our investigators were on vacation so we had to make other plans. Tuesday we spent the whole day in Las Heras eating steak provided by President because we are the best district in the mission. My companion cooked the meat and one of the sisters from Paraguay made some other way good stuff. Wednesday we went and visited a ton of inactive members with Hermano Oyos, he is a stud. Thursday I packed all morning for transfers. Packing is the worst! I have no idea how but I have more stuff than when I got here! Oh thats right, my Mom, haha love you Mom! Then we had a baptism interview here, and following that we took a bus to Las Heras for the second time. Had a baptism interview that night, and then got the call for transfers. My companion is staying and Elder Sudweeks is coming down from Trelew. He came in with my group, and I don´t know him well but he seems like a good kid. Tonight I am headed to Rio Gallegos at 9 and I will be in a bus all night. I will be in Gallegos at the very least until June so lets hope its cool. I am excited for a change and excited to go further south out of the heat. My companion is from here, Elder Gonzalez. Never met him but I am just glad he´s not a gringo. Haha los odio. The change is going to be weird but good! I have loved my time here and have learned so much and grown so much as a missionary and as a person. Friday we spent the day in Perito Moreno and had a baptism interview with Nahuel. Then slept in the hotel and the baptism was Saturday at like 1 in the afternoon. Drove out to the lake and saw fresh water and the mountains in the distance. First baptism there and Nahuel is such a stud. His wife is a member and they have been waiting a long time for him to make the decision. They have plans to get sealed and it was so cool to see them so happy. They are both Doctors and they have so much love for each other, for others, and for the gospel. Super neat. Yesterday spent the day saying goodbye to all the members and investigators! Milton, who has been an investigator since last October, and my really good friend wrote something really cool in my journal. He said that he knows that we were friends before this life and that I promised him I would find him and teach him the gospel. That this isn´t ¨Adios¨ but ¨Hasta pronto¨. He has such a strong testimony and I am so grateful for the time I had to share mine with him and his family. I know they will get baptized soon and he will be a great leader to help strengthen the Lord´s kingdom here in Patagonia. Our Savior lives! He really did come and he really did pay for all our sins and pain in this life. We are so loved and I have loved these almost 7 months already sharing that love with these amazing people. I hope you all know how much this Gospel means to me. I invite you to ¨Come unto Christ¨ and feel of His love and the healing power of His sacrifice. He knows you better than anyone and wants so much for each one of you to receive these things. ¨And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.¨ Alma 26:30 Elder Hollingsworth  Dope crew selfie in the hotel in Perito Moreno
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Alright not too much to say! This week we worked our butts off legit. We taught 32 lessons this week and I am feeling it in my legs for sure! Three days in a row we taught 7 every day. We saw a ton of miracles and had way cool experiences just trying to talk with everybody and knock every door. The family that we have been teaching sorry to say are just in kind of the same place still. The guy is such a stud honestly he has such a huge testimony and wants to get baptized so bad. The problem is that his wife is super feminist and everything we teach she is against. She just doesn´t want to get married and I just think it will take a little more time. I have learned a ton about the Gospel and God´s will as well as strengthened my own testimony so much while we have taught them. I get so frustrated sometimes because I know people are feeling the spirit but they just won´t listen with their hearts. I have learned that you just have to present the message the best you can and if they accept the spirit or not is up to them. Yesterday I gave a talk about true conversion in church it went super good I think. Had a super fun day on Thursday because it rained. We knocked a bunch of doors while it was raining and we forgot our jackets so we got super wet. It hasn´t rained in like 3 months so it was awesome. We were outside these apartments on some stairs and it was raining way hard and we were getting soaked and so a guy let us in his house for a second. Ended up teaching a really cool lesson with him, it was legit. Then later when we were knocking some more doors, this old lady walks out, way nasty with like purple dyed hair haha, and then like told us to go away before I could even start talking. Just as she was about to go back in inside I yelled ¨Arrepientense! Él Señor vendrá!¨ haha like ¨Repent!¨ haha we died laughing it was super dumb but way funny. Also when we couldn´t get anyone to open the door I would just start singing How Great Thou Art super loud in English until someone would come to the window. Got a few contacts like that actually. Odette & Armando invited us over on Friday and we ate mushroom pizza holy it was so dang good. She is from Brazil and he is from here. They don´t really want to come to church but they are super nice. Had a lot of experiences testifying of the Book of Mormon this week and just want to say that I know it is true. We really had almost every type of argument possible but the best was when I could just bear testimony and promise them the same answer if they really ask in faith. The book is either the word of God or it is not. Joseph Smith was either a prophet of God and all his successors, or they were not. Everyone has to get their own answer and más vale que they get it sooner rather than later! I have gotten mine and it will shape my life forever. Just one more week here! It would be a bad joke if I stayed here another transfer but I already know for sure I´m headed out because I talked to President on the phone the other day. He called to say he is going to pay for us to buy some steak and cook it because we are the best district in the mission haha. ¨But this is not all, they had given themselves to much prayer and fasting, therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God.¨ Alma 17:3 un abrazo Elder Hollingsworth  Eating with Odette and Armando  Easting with Odette and Armando  Lorenzo  The legendary Empanadas de Salta por Gimena  Boca - new shirt today! Felicidades a todos los pibes Ésta semana fue un éxito enserio Last p-day was an excellent produce and then we had vacations. We left on Tuesday for district meetings in Las Heras, which is about an hour away towards the Cordillera and Chile. To give you an idea of what it is like, it is the number one city in Argentina for youth suicides. Nevertheless my good buddy Elder Christensen from Logan is out there and so we have a good time. We had divisions with the zone leaders out there and Elder Clark and I made some decent contacts. Wednesday we took an early bus to Perito Moreno, another little city that the Elders from Las Heras are working in. It is closer to the mountains and there is actually grass! Wow it was a long 6 months without laying in some nice green grass so I took every opportunity. I had been there once a couple months ago but this time we got the whole day to work. Had some cool lessons over there and got back really late. Also watched Furious 7 on the bus so what more do you want. Then the rest of the week was filled with really really spiritual moments. I am so grateful of the countless opportunities I have every day to testify of the beautiful simplicities we have in the gospel. We had two pretty sweet lessons with our investigator family, and we taught 22 lessons this week. Starting in January there was a new plan made for the mission in which the focus was to teach at least 21 lessons a week. That really is a lot and takes a lot of walking and diligence to accomplish. Last week we were the first district in the mission to get an average of 21 so we were pretty stoked. We gave two really inspired blessings this week that really made an impression on me. On Saturday we were contacting and we passed by these sort of apartments that had a little gate on the sidewalk. Basically just like 4 little houses and the doors share the same alley. Popa just walked right in there and we started knocking the doors. First one there wasn´t anybody but the second one was totally guided by the spirit. We talked with a guy about 35ish that has some serious arthritis. I have seen some depressed people before but this guy is in bad shape. His ankles were so swollen he said most days he can´t even get out of bed. We talked with him a little and he told us how he can´t work and he can´t leave to visit his 3 year-old little girl that misses him. I felt impressed to teach him about the restoration with the objective of explaining the priesthood of God and the power to heal. We got there and asked if he would like a blessing. We ended up doing it and it was so neat. Then just yesterday we were visiting an older guy who is the father of one of our other investigators. He is a really rough dude and he smokes like a chimney. His wife was a member and she died from an illness about 2 years ago. He is really hurting still and the whole time he talks about how none of his kids visit him and how nobody understands what he is going through. We testified that there is someone, and that that person already felt the pain that he is feeling right now. We taught him that if he just has faith and long-suffering, that he will be with his wife again. We ended up giving him a blessing of comfort and it was a miracle to see the power of the Holy Ghost bring this really hard-hearted guy to tears. Two weeks until transfers and I am having a blast. Super grateful for everything I have been given and it is such a privilege for me to represent my Savior. I would also like to say that the Lord is coming very soon. I hope you are prepared and are keeping your covenants so you aren´t left without time when He comes again, for it really will be like it says in the bible ¨as a thief in the night.¨ ¨Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.¨ Luke 21:36 Elder Hollingsworth     Cooking some chori en las heras  Next 10 Pics are Perito Moreno    when you haven´t seen grass in 6 months   Flowers! Wow grass and flowers in the same day!    A way sick matte that Ricardo gave me he is a member and they went on vacation and he brought me this guy. Todo bien eh Yesterday was the end of a really successful week. We were able to teach 24 lessons and our goal was 21, the boys in Las Heras had a baptism, and we are just happy to be missionaries. The day to day stuff is just details and don´t want to get boring on you guys so I´ll just give you a few post-game highlights. My buddy Julio is back from Salta so we are chilling again and Monday night we shared a neat talk from last conference with them it was sweet. Gimena is pregnant with their second kid they just found out so they are super excited. They are so funny I always laugh so hard I cry when I am at their house. Tuesday the district Primary sisters had like a meeting in the church, so they asked us if we would open it and then come back and close it after. We went back after like two hours and they still weren´t done so we just chilled and swept and stuff. Then two girls from Brazil showed up and tried to sell us health books which turned into a lesson and two books of mormon that we gave them. Cool to see how we were supposed to be there just waiting. Then the one sister from Bolivia that makes us lunch on Wednesdays had made a chocolate cake that was so dang good so we ate a ton of that. Thursday we went to Las Heras so that my comp could do a baptism interview for this guy over there. I hung out with Elder Christensen all day we are good friends. He is from Logan and has a scholarship to play football in college. He is super funny we had a lot to talk about. We taught a lesson to a guy over there and I just felt the spirit way strong and everything the guy said I could testify to personally it was great. Friday celebrated 6 months so we made some oreo cheesecake and I burned a tie. Those are the highlights from this week! Seems short but honestly the weeks feel like days here. Time goes so dang fast its crazy. I shared my testimony on Sunday and I testified of happiness. I said that I am just a 19 year old kid that is very far from my home, my food, and the people I love. That I get called a motherf***** like 20 times a day, I walk almost 10, and the sun burns my face until it is just one giant freckle. How could I possibly be so happy haha? Because I get to walk around all day every day and tell people that their Savior died for them, and that He lives and loves them more than they can imagine. That because He lives, we will live again. That they are as close to heaven as their knees are to the floor, and that the Gospel is restored and families can be together forever. ¨And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.¨ Alma 7:23 Elder Hollingsworth  Visiting Las Heras for Baptism interview  Collectivo  6 month so gotta burn a tie  3 letters from Sister Rees at Zone Conference  Christmas cards, in February? The mail is slow from America! |
Elder HollingsworthJake Is currently serving in the Argentina, Comodoro Rivadavia Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints. He reported to the MTC August 3, 2016. This blog is for family and friends. Archives
April 2018
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