Thursday, December 2, 2010

Hola from the A.B.A.S.M. Awesome Boys Always Serving Mightily

Hey everyone!

Have you ever noticed how fast time goes by when you are having fun? Of course you have! But I am noticing it more than ever right now. This week I will hit 6 months on my Mission! Crazy! For me, it seems like I was just eating at Winger’s before going to the MTC. And now here I am, in the heart of Argentina, speaking a different language, talking to complete strangers all day long! I love it.

This last week was interesting. Dad, I too got really sick. The kind where your body just hurts and you feel sick to your stomach. I think it’s what they refer to in the NBA as ´´flu-like symptoms´´. We had district meeting Tuesday morning, and about half-way through that I started feeling horrible. I hadn’t eaten breakfast, and when we went to lunch after the meeting, I still didn’t have an appetite. So Elder Atwood and I went back to the pench to rest for a while. We tried leaving in the evening, but I couldn’t even think straight, so we went back. Wednesday was similar. We left a few times, but kept having to go back. Fortunately, I woke up Thursday morning pain free, but I also didn’t have any energy. But we did get to leave for the whole day! And that day, we had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators, Lucas Gonzales. He is 15, and his grandpa is a member in our ward. He has been going to Church, and asks his Grandpa questions every day about the Scriptures and the Church. We had planned to set a baptismal date with him for later in December, but during the lesson, we both felt prompted to move it up. As such, we invited him to be baptized this Saturday, the 4th. And he accepted! We are going to have the service at 5:00 PM our time on Saturday. Please pray for him, and his family. He does not have is parents, and has been raised by his grandparents. He is a great kid, and the Church is going to save his life!

A few questions. Dad, did we end up being for sure that President Asay, the last mission president here was the doctor assigned to your heart while you had cancer. I couldn’t remember for sure.

Have any of the Summit Ward young men submitted papers or received mission calls since I left? Or anyone else we know?

How is Martha doing? She gets to read this, right. I miss you a lot. I miss showing up to family activities where you and I were the only ones on time, every time. haha Let me know somehow how you are doing, and what’s going on in your life.

Shalet, how is your school work coming? Hanging on to those straight A´s? All of your classes sound so fun, it almost makes me want to go back to middle school. But not really. haha. How are you doing with your Young Women Personal Progress? The young women in our ward gave a presentation yesterday in Church all about the virtues, and goals, and blessings of the Young Women Organization. I was thinking about you the whole time, and how you have the chance at this point in your life to learn and grow so much. That program is inspired by our Heavenly Father to help you grow into the best woman you can be. If you are doing it already, nice work. If not, get on it! A huge part of it is help from parents, so Mom and Dad, get involved if you aren’t already. When I get back, you will already be in High School, and you are going to need to be strong to get through all the junk in this world. If there is anything I can do to help you, let me know. I love you!

Random side note, can someone show Mom how to remove the ´´sent from my iPhone´´ signature when she sends emails from her phone? haha

So, I actually didn’t remember it was Thanksgiving until Wednesday night. Obviously, it’s not celebrated here. We wanted to have some turkey, but it’s hard to find here. And we didn’t want to have to cook it. So we went and bough a couple of facturas (pastrie type things) and stood in the shade for about 5 minutes eating them. Apart from expressing gratitude in our hearts and prayers extra that day, that’s all the celebrating we did for Thanksgiving. Who all went to the new house to celebrate? Is it big enough to fit everyone?

Another question off the subject. Dad, can you write and send me the words to those Italian songs you always sing? I remember the tunes, but not the words to all of them. I have the hunchback one almost down, but I’m missing a few words. For some reason, the people here love it when I sing in Italian. My companion found out I know Italian songs, and now he tells everyone. But I like singing, so it’s fine. Yesterday we were eating with a family named Frol. They are all in different stages of learning English, but they can all understand when we talk clear and slow. We were talking about America’s Indepence Day because they are going to the States this summer, right during the 4th of July. We were talking about the national anthem and I told her all about Francis Scott Key, and how he came to right that poem. They like music so they asked me to sing the National Anthem. They have the English Hymn Book, so I tried to sing all the verses, but it was strange trying to sing the other two. Anyway, it made be feel very patriotic and proud of our country, and I was happy to share part of our history with them. They all are very patriotic here, but they love other countries too. They wanted to learn more and more about the United States. I feel very blessed to be among these amazing people.

It is time to, again. I love you all so much, and I think about you all the time. Yes, you.

Hasta la próxima vez.

--

Elder Scot Daniel Stobbe Jr

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

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