Post Christmas- December 30th

Wow. What a week! I got to see my family! Nothing in the world compares to my family. Except for maybe a nice powder day or a good round of golf....just kidding. Still not even close. There is a reason family is a huge part of the gospel. What a blessing to have the family i have. You are all seriously the best I cant even describe. I had a hard time turning off the skype if you couldn´t tell. I just felt home for the time when I was on there. Loved seeing the kids, the judds, tasha and andrew, tyler, heather, and of course mom and dad. I love you all more than you know and think about you lots. 

This week was stellar. I got to sleep inn until 8 on christmas! So nice, but it was more of just waking up at 6 30 and laying there until 8. But still a nice little break there. Lets go back to christmas eve. We had lunch at Muchelas house. (family) Then they invited us for Chivo at night. We were allowed to stay out until 10 30. So we had Chivo and played ping pong and guitars and ate a lot of food. So nice. Chivo, or lamb, is like what everyone eats for christmas. Also, in the night, we toasted with glasses with martinelli type drink. Then we got drove home in a car. A CAR! so weird to be in one of them. But nice. We got back and just ate some more food. Then at 12, outside tons of fireworks just exploded. Literally every rooftop was shooting off fireworks. The sky was filled every inch it seemed like every corner. It was cool. We just hung out on the roof and watched in amazement. Very cool experience. 

The next day we slept in as i said and just hung out and went to lunch for pollo or chicken. So good again. Then went to the stake center to play some futbol! I scored 2 goals. Not that it matters, but you know me, im competitive. I broke an elders wrist on accident by kicking it at the goal and he put his hand out to stop it but hit the pole and well, it was gross, his wrist looked like a bendy straw. Oh well. What can ya do. He will be ok though. Still here. Then after futbol we went home and relaxed and played guitar and then went to bed. 

The next day we had lunch with fam. sura. We just pick it up and take it home and eat it. It was chivo again. Pretty good. Then we went to skype MY FAMILY! that was very fun! Then after we had an amazing lesson....

It was with Horacio. The guy we finally found. We brought bishop and his wife to join Horacio and his wife. It went ok. Horacio struggles to feel anything. He has lost his daughter in accident 15 months ago so he is very stubborn and you can tell he is hiding his pain. Its very hard to teach him cause he believes we turn into ballons in the air when we die. Because he died for a moment and then they brought him back. He said when he died he was floating in the air and thats it. So thats what he thinks happens when you die. We explained to him that he in fact is still alive, and didnt die. we shared the plan of salvation with him and it was just rejected super hard. He straight up just says no creo. or i dont believe it. But guess what. Were going to change that. We just need a little more time. 

The next night we visited Diego and Alison. Alison is a member of 6 months. Diego is the boyfriend. Alison is now pregnant. They have been talking with bishop and both love the church. So they are working through that situation right now. Diego has a baptismal date now for late january. Thats very exciting. He has changed so much since we first met him. First time i saw him he called me a nerd and made fun of us. But then i started talking to him about the world cup and yadadadada. And now he invites us over to teach. He has been to church 3 weeks in a row now. He is progressing and he has felt the spirit many times now and he knows and recognizes it. I also get the priveledge to feel the spirit very strong everyday. It strengthens me and builds my testimony as i teach and help others. THIS truly is a blessing from god. 

Last story i dont want to bore you all with a novel. Our ward mission leader was inactive. Brother Sandoval. He is 60 years old and very hard hearted. He has a great testimony but he just is tired of working. We have 6 missionaries for the ward so he is sick of us. But i have been stopping by his house every week and finally! I found out he problem! He is not very involved in our work. So we got him involved with diego. He came to church to teach gospel principles and he is basically excited now to help the missionaries and keep coming back to church. The guy is obsessed with Isaias unaturally but he is a great help to us now! 

I dont have time to write you all the miracles i have seen. But i promise you. The church is true and feeling the spirit is directly from god and its amazing. Our area is getting fun now. I love it. Once i realized its not about me, and that its not my mission, its been a lot better. So we are going to keep working and hopefully get up to 80 people at church by the end of the month. Its great.

I love you all. Let me know how BYUI goes Lindsey, you know i love hearing about the good old rexburg. Heather, Tasha, let me know how the kids are doing as well. I love my neices and nephew! Tyler and Derek too. I love hearing it all. I love you all. Have a great new years! 

Love, Elder Westensee

December 23rd

Hello everyone. Feliz Navidad. I miss you all like crazy. I am excited to skype on thursday at 2 pm my time. Should be a great time. I am jealous of all the snow. I also have to say that i laughed so hard when i heard about dereks story (sorry derek i know that sucks) but its super hilarious to me because i remember he called me once to come pick him up in rexburg. He was driving and a spark plug fell out lol. Oh thats funny. good good times for sure.

Well i dont have a whole lot to say. I will be talking to yall in 2 days so thats cool. I am glad to hear everyone is doing good. please travel safely!

This week was a good one. Nothing spectacular really happened though. A couple dissapointing moments when we got dropped by our investigators. Really. We are doing all we can to help these people and if they dont want to accept Jesus Christ we cant do anything about that. Its very stressful sometimes, but, we cant control a lot of the things that happen.

A highlight this week was we had a zone activity at the stake center. White elephant. I gifted a huge scarf i found in the pension and my companion gifted a maleta. or a small luggage bag. Pretty good gifts ill say! But there was like hot chocolate peanut butter a yoyo, Jenga the blocks game, and other fun stuff. It was a good time. We got an alfajore and some rocklets candy (basically crappy version of mnms) but still very good. It was a good event.

Oh, we finally found Horacio!!!! Your probably wondering huh? who? Horacio is an antiguo investigador. I visited him and his wife and daughter last transfer but i forgot wehre they lived.AND we have been seeing them pass by on biks near our pension but never had the time or situation to stop them and talk. I felt like i was being taunted!  So we have been in the general area looking for a month. FINALLY. one evening i was just like hey, magana, lets go find oracio. And like always hes like ughh. Again? were never going to find him. (my companion really doesnt have faith in finding investigators or anything) Sin Embargo! We went and we were looking and.....couldnt find the house again. heads down, we walked away back to the main road when i look up and hear a high pitched ¨heyyy elder Westerhootz, Como Le VA! Thats the best high pitched argentine i have ever heard in my life. It was the short and stubby Horacio!!! Horacio is tough however. He rejects everything we say but always is willing to listen. he wants to find the truth! we have our cita tongiht with him.- So that was a miracle no doubt! oh and get this, after we found him my companion says Yo le dije. im just like En Serio Che! (he said i told you so) I cant even believe my companion sometimes he is so full of himself its stupid. He thinks hes the cats pajamas for real though. BUT i dont say anything i just say hey good job elder! He really is not a good companion but im trying my best to keep things calm and smooth.

This week at a lunch the MEMBERS called my companion out and said. Elder, Elder, Elder, please stop talking. I dont care about your 2nd uncles job in the church lol. He talks about how much better mexico is than argentina and how the language here sounds gay. Oh wow its a handful when we talk with members ay yay yay. But hes getting better. Im trying to make it through without doing anything out of line!

Not sure what else to tell yall. I will fill you in on thursday! Any other questions yall gots write them down and let me know! love you all.

Elder Westenhootz

Charlie bit Me

Hello Everyone. Its good to hear from you all. I am very excited to skype next week. I am able to skype any day of the week, so let me know which day and time works best. I can do it your time from 7 am until about 3 pm. So whatever works for youall. I want to see everyone, so whenever thats gonna be. 

Im glad to hear my beloved blazers are tearing it up. Im glad to hear everyone is healthy and doing well. I love everyones emails and look forward to reading them every week. My spanish is coming along slowly. but coming along. Im learning the guitar a little as well. Its a good stress reliever and keeps me focused. Its been hot as junk over here in Patagonia. I cant escape it. We finally get a fan this week!!! Hallelujah right! our pension is dirty hot and i cant sleep at night. 

This week was good. The work is progressing. Still planty of ups and downs, its never just a normal solid week. Always ups and definatley always downs. But at the end, im still here and still going. 

Tuesday we were just chillin in the streets talking to whoever and whatever thing we saw. We came across a casilla and it was the familia Avila. We clapped and she came out and said oh elderes pasen! Which mean come in. So, i proceeded to do just that. I started walking from the road, about 25 feet from the door. Walls outside on both sides. Anyways, i was walking in and failed to see the massive German Shepperd on the yard on a chain. Next thing i know the dog is on my leg. He bit me. He bit me good and strong. Right above where the knee bends. I jumped away to the left and went in the house shocked. I played it off cool as if nothing happened. It was throbbing and i could feel the blood dripping down my leg the entire time we were there. (about 15 minutes). It was an awkward visit cause i was just trying to get out of there the whole time. ANyways we got home and i ripped off my pants to check out the damage and wow. It was ugly. Already bruised and totally just a piece of my leg mangled. With 4 deep holes where the teeth sunk in. 

The next day, my other leg was throbbing, i thought i might have rabies. Nah. I dont have rabies i promise, it was a members dog, tame. But still protective is all. Anyways, i found out (and this is hilarious) that the dogs name is CHARLIE. Guess what guess what, CHARLIE BIT ME! So classic oh i crack myself up. But no, my leg still hurts i have been limping cause it hurts to bend my leg, but its all good. I am now scared of all dogs. Paranoid. For good reason. That is all for that.

 We have 7 investigators now for a previous 0. So im happy with that. we have a member, or recent convert se llama Nicco Sura. La familia Sura. Amazing familia. They have shared the gospel with their parents, and sisters and cousins, its great. It helps having hem on our side. Milagros en realidad. Great to see. 

One more story. I woke up saturday morning sweating like crazy as normal. And went out at 6 30 for my normal routine of push ups and guitar until 7. All was normal, but i just felt like i needed a blessing. Of course my stubborn self, i ignored these feelings that i needed a blessing, i was just fine. Well. Nope. No sir. I wasnt fine. 10 am hit and i exploded into barfing and dry heaving and sweating and dizzy and just the most sick i have ever been in my life. I was laying on the nasty bathroom floor i threw up 9 times and i dont even know how many times i used the bathroom. Horrible time. It was then when i was like...oh...hahaha ya i guess i need a blessing. Im so stupid. I was just laughing and throwing up because i knew i should have asked for a blessing when i was being told i needed one. I learned my lesson. i hope. I probably lost a good 5 pounds. Which is like 10% of my total wegiht anyhow haha. But i couldnt eat the entire day so i am still recovering there and trying to make it back to regular. It was a painful 2 days. But im better now and moving along. 

Thanks you all for reading. I hope to see everyone on skype the week of christmas. Let me know when you can! 

Love, Elder Westensee

Hola ...week 20 something

Hello everyone. What a week. If i could just take a moment to tell you all that these weeks i have been having are just.....uncomparable. They are like nothing you could ever imagine. Success, failure, great food, crappy food, tears, joy, exhaustion, etc. EVERYTHING. It has been crazy here. Nuts. Kudos to mom for rigging the debit card, that was genious. Im glad to hear everyone is doing well. Stay sife driving in the snow (heather) and stay safe through the holidays. Its worth going a little slower.  

This week was a duzy. I dont even know where to begin. We had a lesson! I havent taught in a while. My first ever lesson where i found the person, set the appointment and taught the lesson as Sr. Comp. It went so perfect. so perfect. It started with the drunk father jabbin the whole time and just saying shananagins then, we steered away satanas and brought the spirit with the restauracion. After sharing joseph smiths 1st vision, you could feel Christ himself in the room. Unbelievable. UN. Believable. Diego, 20 years old, was sittingthere just frozen like ¨wow, this is true¨ Cause he is catholic and he only wanted to take the lessons cause his girlfriend, but now. He is telling us he wants to know more for himself. We have the plan of salvation tuesday with him. Should be great. 

Nicco, a convert of 6 months has been coming with us and he knows the area very well. So thats helping us bigtime. The area is picking up and its getting fun. But also hard and strwessful as always. 

The policia here went on strike so we have been on lockdaown as the streets were a free for all for 3 days. Very interesting. We just played guitar and read scriptures haha for 3 days. It sucked but its ok. 

Not sure what else to say....Things just keep going. I miss everyone a ton. I just want to hug you all. Go blazers! keep working hard and stay safe everyone. Chao!

Love, Elder Westenhouse

P.s. Mom, thanks for helping me as always with the debit card, huge relief. 

Can you spot Elder Westensee? 

What about in this picture ? Clue. Purple Tie. Right Side,

Evans companion he is currently training. 

Dia De Gracias

Hola familia esta semana estaba mas o menos normal. Estoy hablando un poco mas cada dia y yo puedo entender mas tambien. Esta es ayudando la obra tambien porque puedo llegar a ser mas junto con miembros y con nuestros investigadores. Muchos milagros!

This week was good though. My companion and i finally tipped off. We had a long talk or argument at first, then a talk and now we understand each other better. Also we finally ave investigators. Working with the members works. Do you have missionaries in the ward? If so, hook them up with referencias, or refferals. It helps a lot and its your job. 

My Card is still broken but i have money from the mission card for now. I dont know what to do to fix it. The last thing i can even think of is calling you while your at the bank and passing the phone over. But i dont even know if i could do that. But as of this week its ok i have plata. 

We have been busy. We have 2 new investigators. Alejandro and su espousa. They are great people and we are connecting well. Niko, a convert of 6 months is helping us! He is so scared but he knows everyone in our barrio so were bringing him totalk a lot and its cool to see the exito. Really, sharing the gospel can be scary. Especially with close friends. But its totally the best way to do it. And it brings miracles. So that was a great experience. Also we have 2 more new investigators. But were waiting to visit with members. 

This past 2 weeks has been so hard its just a joke. So over the top hard thats its just laughable. My  card didnt work, im training a companion who knows only spanish and weve been lost a lot. But somehow, someway i always end up where i need to be and say the things i need to say. The spirit is everything, If you ever feel lost, seek after the spirit for comfort and guidance. 

Sorry i forgot to write about my card, but im really busy and dont know what else to do. It doesnt work still. The mission office is no help and nobody cares so im alone on this one. But im alone on everything basically so its ok. Im used to it. just me and the spirit down here in argentina trying to do my best. 

I dont really know what else to say....home sounds heavenly. Golf, and maybe a nice meal. Im hungry. IM sick of mayonese on everythingand bland food. Its not that bad, home is justthat much better. BUt ya.... any questions? Im horrible at remembering what to write. Let me know! Love you all and miss you all very much! Peace. 

   L0ove,

    Elder Westensee

Week 25

hey everyone and mom i dont have much time this week. I got lots of emails. BUt this week is good. Not too much new.

As you know this week was transfer calls. Im staying right here in my pension jewkes is going home and Quinonez is opening a new area. My new companion will arrive friday. My son. For the meantime, i have to stay with elder bennett, another gringo in my area.

Things are great here. BUt its going to get harder. I got a lot on my plate and a lot to worry about. But im ready for a challenge. Im really sorry i have no more time. 

LOve you all stay doing well, love yall tons

Elder westensee

Week 23

Sounds like home is good. Good to hear. I miss you all. Tyler, your going to have to help me get back into the real world! im gonna be weird like you were haha. Eventually. But i miss you all very much and am excited to see yall again. Pero, ahora, voy a trabajar ;) 

well. It was a good week. We had a baptism! whoo! That was a good experience. We had a district meeting and zone training this week! Very good and i learned a lot about how the spirit assists us if we allow it. Something funny that happened is Elder Quinonez my companion was standing under the tree outside the church gate with us at 7 am (we were waiting for the ZLs to open for zone training) and out of nowhere a bird poops on his head lol. It hit his glasses and streaked down his glasses. He got hit and just blinked and stood there with a scrunged face lol. So funny I almost cried. But i felt bad too. No one likes getting pooped on. 

As far as the work, its slow. It is a very european mission. The people, the lifestyle, the gospel work. We have 0 investigators. No one wants to hear our message. But that doesnt mean were going to stop trying. Were going to make it happen one way or the other. I am sick of people complaining here and saying ¨We just cant do anything else¨ or ¨The work sucks here¨ im here to change this area to a ¨whoa! i want to go to that area¨ Thats the plan. well see. Im ready to bust my butt. I want to just fall on my bed at night and pass out. Thats the goal. 

So hopefully it can happen.

Sounds like Utah is going to have a good winter. i hope not. in fact i hope it rains in the mountains for 2 winters.....ya....then in the winter of 2015, it snows a lot. that would be cool. JK andrew would be super bummed. I wish the best.

Oh, real quick, the other elders in san lorenzo told us a story. And this is elder Bailey from Oregon, North Plains, hes 18. Elder Ogden, my MTC comp and elder amaru from colombia, the District leader. They were walking one night home, and a car came drifting around the corner. Followed by a motorbike with a 9mm in his left hand. He shot at the car 5 times as the elders were walking right on the sidewalk. They ran away and hid for dear life. Meanwhile at 8¨55 we were in the pension and we heard 5 shots go off.So glad they didnt get shot AT. We are protected here i have seen many different times where things could have gone south in a hurry. But thank goodness we´ve been ok.

In other news......ya. there is no other news. Argentina is still smelly, dusty and windy. Dragon Ball Z, sonic, and Ben 10 are big down here. The bishops son gave me a little paper drawing of sonic and Dragon Ball Z guys they are going on the front of my agenda. or planner in ingles. But hey, hows Derek been? Whats everyone up to? 

I am going to spend more time on putting pictures up now. And exp`lain the pictures if i can. Love you all. Peace. 

Love, 
Elder Westensee

I have to send them all seperate. lo siento. 

After 28 hours of traveling

Building a house

He has a wooden carved gun

Yuuuuuummmmmm

His companion is an amazing cook... Here is Evans omelet. 

What tracting looks like everyday

At a ward party

30lbs of meat

At a members house on a Sunday 

Getting to the mission home at 10pm.

Week 22

Hey mom i miss you. Hello everyone as well. This week was the most humbling week of my life. I guess i got what i wanted right? A sketchy foreign mission where theres gunshots and swap police with ak 47s on the streets. Its not what i thought. it sucks. But really. its doesnt suck cause guess what. I am working for the reddemer of the world. I am working for the right purpose here. SO that gives me comfort over ewverything. I think a lot about all my family. Andrew and tash, heather and kev, Tyler down in provo, and the judds often. I LOVE our family. Seriously though holy crud were lucky!  I cant even describe how great our family is. Well enough about that.

I lvoe you all and i love your emails. How is it possible that i have already been gone a solid 5 months!!!!! HOW!! I feel like i just left yesterday. We were just at pizza pie eating some good pizza and now boom. Dougs going into the MTC, mom and dad are in Hawaii and BRooklynn has blonde hair almost! How can this be? I am super pumped about our family, we rock.

Here in Patagonia its getting hot and im talking TEXAS hot baby! I sizzle at night! I wake up drenched in sweaty G´s. Love it. Makes the morning shower so great and its easy to get up and start killin the work! The language is not good still really. I cant understand but i can understand more of the scriptures. reading the spanish scripps is like watching paint dry or grass grow or a snail crawl. Its hard but its teaching me spanish and patience so its good. My companions bug me cause they dont want to work, They just walk to walk cause they want to lose weight. I keep telling them if we just keep losing weight im going to blow away. Well see. 

I know i am losing weight. Its not good. But i dont know what else to do honestly! Im trying to survive. I will survive, i will survive! (like that song) I know the lord will look out for my subtle frame. 

Anyways sorry im in a rush this week i really love you all and im glad your all doing stellar. Hawaii sounded splendid and marvilloso. Love you all again. Nos Vemos Chao!

Hasta proximo semana! 

Love, the paperweight, 

Elder Westenhouse (as they call me here)

Argentina October 28th 2013

hey mom, i dont have tons of time this week cause its loaded here at ciber. so i will try to fill you in quick and answer your questions. 

This week has been slow. We almost died on tuesday. We were just walking down the street and a guy started yelling at us and we ignored and kept walking. Then he was yelling in spanish right next to us and i didnt understand what he was saying. all i heard was  TELEFONO but i said i didnt have one and kept walking then he grabbed my bag. Apparently before he grabbed my bag he said he would shoot us if we didnt give him anything. i didnt see his gun either. so i ripped the bag out of his hands and we started booking it around the corner. I thought for about 5 seconds i was gonna get shot and dropped. But i dint thank goodness. SO now we have been a little struck with fear and are never carrying anything but a Book of mormon. So im a little mentally whack right now with the change and the people here are nuts. Im honestly fine all together but its just super hard at this time.

I feel like im the only one whos not learning spanish. Its there in my head it just doesnt process. I cant understand people either very well. But im doing my best and thats all i can do. 

Other than that im doing fantastic. My companion elder jewkes is a pro chef. he has made bread, pancakes, fried rice, eggs, omlette, and all sorts of pasta. So its nice having him around but he goes home in 3 weeks. But i do my OWN laundry. it takes about 5 hours in the machine thingy and then we hang it up on the roof to dry. Can you say CRUSTY SOCKS! ahhhh. super funny how crappy our pension is too. I love it. 

Ummm. As far as the landscape...its flat and all the building are bricks and cement sloppy done up. ANd theres a slight rise in neuqen in the city i can see it from the window. Its exactly like the pictures on google. Its all dirt roads with just desert feeling to it. I dont it isnt too hot yet but its kind of nice. we are building a house out of cement and bricks. im basically a brick mason its fun. were doing more tonight as well. It is nothing like the states. everything is just crappier and makes no sense. Every day from 12 to 6 everyone just sleeps and has a ciesta. so we just walk around and tract. We clap to knock on the door basically. we clap outside the fence and they come out and yell at us haha. Its super fun. Theres dogs all over and they are scary thank goodness for rocks. We usually eat lunches with members and its usually milonesa or breaded steak basically. its really good. With rice and warm nasty mayo salad. they eat mayo with everything. P days, we just email and hang out and play ping pong at the church. They have ping pong tables at the church and all churches instead of basketball. Thats like the staple here. I dont know if im losing weight i feel like i am. NO idea. I hope not. But ya i hope i answered your questions.

Im super jealous your in paradise right now. I feel like im in the enferno. But its great at the same time. I dont have a whole lot of time left.

Sunday, we broke a record for attendance with 55 peoplle there including our baptismal date. She is getting baptized in 2 weeks. Augustina. She is 9 years old. She is awesome. We taught here the 10 commandments on thursday. We used hand motions for each commandment in a fun way so that was great. 

Love you all hope all is well and i will hopefully have more time next week! 

Love, elder westensee

Argentina Week 2

Hello everyone thanks for your sweet emails. I love reading all of them. So good. My nieces and nephew are getting big and will be talking perfect when i get back. That. Will be fun. Glad to hear things are going. Sounds like Hawaii is gonna be a blast mom and dad. Tyler! throw a house party! just kidding dont do that. ANyways things are good here having crazy fun time and having fun experiences!

I dont even know where to begin or what to say. BUt this week was slow but great also. We are almost finished building Nico´s house. We have 4 walls up and are preparing to roof it this week. Its been like a humanitarian mission so far more than teaching right now. But we are enjoying the service opporutunity. 

Down here we eat lunch with members cause thats the big meal. Some lunches have been....interesting. Nothing here is sanitary. They will just grab your cup and take a swig and then give it back to you.... kind of odd. Same thing with food. They eat salad out of a community bowl. Its been a little gross but im used to it now. I love the people here. So humble and happy going. Well. The members at least. 

ON wednesday we visited and taught a family about a story in the book of mormon. In ether about The brother of jarerd. The 9 year old girl is wanting to be baptized so we have that coming up. Although i hardly understand whats going on i still feel the spirit so strong its cool. 

My spanish is coming along slowly. Castellano is not spanish. Its its own language. completely different vocab and stuff. And slang im learning. I lvoe the language tho it flows nicely. 

Funny stories this week. We were walking home one night and a car hit a big bump in the dirt road. They lost their exhaust tip! like a 3 foot piece just fell off. Then they didnt notice and drove off. A guy comes running in the street, examines the exhaust pipe and walks off with it lol. Super funny. 

Another funny story is we were walking home another night at about 9 20 and we were just walking and heard a gun shot behind us and started booking it. For some reason we felt totally protected and we got back safely and started laughing cause its just so rediculously ghetto.

I milked my first alfajore. You freeze it. Then get a bowl of milk. Bite one und of the cookie, then the other. You proceed to suck the milk through the frzen cookies until milk is gone. Then you eat the milked alfajor. Incredible.

Final story. Sunday night, we all felt sick and just feverish and hot and we passed out after dinner in our apartment. We woke up at about 7 and took Nico some bread. and visited a few families then that night. I pooped my pants for the first time. It is uncontrollable when your stomach has to get rid of something. All night i was up just going to the bathroom and sweating and almost throwing up at the same time. Its normal to get it here though and im fine today. Just the adjustment. but that was interesting and a trial for sure. 

All jokes aside, I am loving this incredible country and area. The people inspire me and help me to be humble and appreciate what i have. We have so many spiritual experiences. Nico, our less active we are helping get to the temple (he got the aaronic priesthood sunday) and also helping build his house. But he has a cool story. He saw the missionaries walking 6 months ago and felt he needed them to talk to him and his family. He told them to come over and teach his family. They did. He was ready to be baptized the next week. Its amazing how the lord prepares people for us as missionaries. I look forward to finding some more people this week.

LOve you all. We have the most incredible family and i am so grateful to be a part of it. Keep working hard. I love 2 nefi 2. I just read it this morning all in spanish. i think it said something along the lines of ¨´we  have opposition so we can fell happiness¨´ sorry i dont quite understand spanish entirely. but it said something like that and its sos true. Its hard for me right now but im trucking over the hard times because its not only helping me grow but its helping me realize how good we truly have it. 

LOve you all. Hasta proximo semana! Chao! 

P.S everyone calls me westenhouse pronounced (Wet-in-house) Super funny. Love the people. also theres women breastfeeding everywhere its gross.

Love, Elder Westenhouse

First Update from ARGENTINA.

Monday- October 14th Elder Westensee wrote:

hey i am here in Gran Neuquen. After 6 days in my suit, 2 nights on a couch, 1 night on an airplane, and 2 nights on the floor, im here. I got to go dang it. I will be on tomorrow. Lets just say this is the hardest thing ive ever done. Talk tomorrow. Chow.

Tuesday- October 15th Elder Westensee wrote:

Well well well. Im in Good old Argentina at last.Its been crazy. I dont even know where to begin... Sounds like home is the same and things are good and BYU is still just ok at football. Im glad im not missing much. I am emailing from like a hollywood video type store on a random computer. Its 6 pesos an hour. We took a bus here. 

Well...As you know i arrived here in the mission after many plane rides and a bus ride. Im glad i got to fly to neuquen. But before neuquen, we took a bus around buenos aires (all 60 new missionaries) and took pictures and saw the temple and what not. Then, we flew down to Neuquen and got in around 8 p.m. We then met president and went to the mission home. Slep there that night. Then the next day, got our companions. I am with Elder Jewkes and Elder Quinonez. Jewkes goes home after this transfer, hes from west jordan and Quinonez is 8 months. But we are a trio because we are serving in Gran Neuqen. Gran neuquen is a scary dirty crime ridden place. Ugliest part of the mission. My first day on saturday, we built a house. It was awesome but tasking. I am falling asleep very fast. But my companion has told me stories about the area and what has happened and....ya its gonna be interesting. Theres bars on all windows and the houses are all gated and tight right next to each other. There is a dog like every 10 feet. Havent been bit yet but i will at some point. Pit bulls, dogos (illegal in the states because they are mean and huge), and rotweilers. All. Over. Scary. Not mention the labs and german sheppherds. Not a single paved road in our area. Its  interesting.

Our apartment is tiny. About the size of our weight room. NO washer. no dryer. Bucket of water and soap. The shower is frigid. Theres no carpet. And jewkes is sleeping in the floor. Its hard to get food here. But i finally have Pesos so i can get food and eat!!!!!! Its been a rough few days. But its getting better. I have had 8 alfajores since ive been here. They are like a really good moon pie with dulce de leche. or caramel. I like them. I had lunch with a lade today we had massive piece of flat meat. like a big square of meet like a base, in baseball. and rice. I almost threw up it was so much. But so good. The food here is like. Hotdogs or Chorizo sausage, and just carne meat. Its ok but fatty. They have like what called interlagos which is like a 2 liter of sprite. So i got one of those. So good. We have water jugs like in medford. Good water. Its hard to find water here. Elder jewkes made and i quote ¨´Jew-fa-jores´´ and Jew bread. Both were really good. Its just his own recipes haha.

ummmm. not sure what else i can say. Theres dogs all over, its getting hot, there is not a single stop sign. The people cut off the mufflers on the cars so they are loud. Crazy drivers. Theres no lines. Its basically just a free for all down here. I see why following rules are so important. Tomorrow is zone conference. should be a good day. But ya im doing well so far. Loving it here although its a challenge.  I cant wait to learn the language. Its much different than mexican spanish. If you have any questions just ask me! 

Sounds like home is good and everyone is just swell. I should be able to email monday cause that is my p day. Ciber pronounced (SEE-BURR) was closed yesterday so thats why we couldnt email. But love you all stay safe and keep doing good in life!

Love, 

Elder Westensee 

.pictures of elder westensee's arrival.

The Missionaries have landed!!

 Can you spot Evan in the next few photos?

 Where's Evan?

We are SO excited to hear from Elder Westensee this week. We are SO proud of him!

The One, and Only....Elder Westensee!!!

.arrived in argentina.10.10.13.

.we are happy to announce after 12+ hours of flying on an airplane, evan has made it to argentina.

.he may still have a 12 hour bus ride ahead of him (or he has already done it). 

.LOTS of traveling for him.

.he arrived with 38 other missionaries!

.can you spot him in the picture?  (you may have to make it larger)

Last Week In Poky.

Well, my visa came. I have known for 5 days now. Im heading to the mission home today to fly out tomorrow orwednesday. But, we got a call at 6 pm at a members house. We didnt anser. Then we went out onto the people deck and called the AP's back. They said "Elder Westensee, you excited to go to argentina?" I says, i says, "Yes" They say: "YOUR VISA IS HERE" I proceed to scream and jump for joy and high five Finau. my adrennaline was pumping. That was awesome. So yep. im heading out of the country!

This week was slow especially after the call on tuesday. We basically said bye to everyone and they were pretty sad. Finau is transferred up to Rigby as well, so carlos and the Maria family will miss us dearly. We helped them out a lot. Carlos brother, JOHNNY, has a baptismal date that i hope the other elders can help him get to baptism. We worked hard for that. Also, we set another date wioth a woman named MAYA. Shes about 23 and has a newborn. She wants her baby blessed too by one of the missionaries in church sunday. But.....im out. Right when we get a bunch of rewards for our work we have to leave. Pretty par for the course i would say. It does not matter though We are all on the same team as it said in conference. We work together. 

I was going to post tons of pictures, but i dont have time. When we told carlos we were being transferred, he just about got teary eyed. And johnny said in a sad face looking at the ground "what about soccer" in broken english. Cause we have an activity every saturday where we invite members, less actives and investigators to play and we make it wayyyy fun for them. i wear my messi jersey and im getting good at soccer. 

Conference was nothing short of spectacular. I took notes on color coded note cards. Green=Q12

Orange=70 Pink=Women Other=Bishoprics, what not. So i took tons of notes. about 30 cards worth. It was tiring but worth it as i have ammunition for the next 6 months. Satan is stupid. The guy is just a piece of work. but we can beat him if we put on the armor of god and trust in the lord. 

Well. not sure what else to say. Im getting more facial hair. Like lamb chops now. MOre of a thick stache. You know. Just the usual. I think im fatter? Not sure. I eat a lot. But ya not much new. Im excited to do work in ARGENTINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you all and appreciate all you do for me. Mom, thanks for the satchell. I now have #SatchellSwag 

I will try to send pics in the future, but for now i gotta head out. Love you all and i am very appreciative of what you do for me. Stay true to the faith!

Also, add "Sione Finau" write Maui Hawaii, and he shoukd come up. He posted pictures on facebook and you can see my comp. 

-Elder Westensee

Poky Week 9

Well, sounds like San Antonio SUCKS! just kidding, but its too hot for me as you know. (I almost died of heat exhaustion if you remember!) At the Alamo and stuff. But that's cool! I miss my neices and nephew. They are funny. Enjoy family time! cause there is no better time in the world! 

Well. My days have been good here. I'm tired of writing long emails. And by doing the daily report thing. Its basically the same everyday. Not too much new has happened. But we have just been absolutely working hard and making work and new investigators. We should be having around 8 baptisms by the end of the year hopefully. Which is unheard of. Your lucky if you get more than 3 in a year for spanish work. So i dont want to leave in that sense. But i know its not going to last and this isn't my mission so its frustrating in that sense. But i love the people and love being here. Its hard but worth it. I learn so much everyday. 

So this week was pretty normal. Visited lots of people and taught some good lessons. Also, this week a spanish guy, the Cuevas, father, was trying to hook me up with his daughter......He asked me what kind of girls i like? And i said. It depends, but im on my mission sir......lol. He was trying so hard but i just kept laughing and telling him....no. But they are less active now. When i got into the area, they were helping us and stuff and then they stopped. Also their neighbors, the family of 5 who dropped us , the suarsz. Apparently 2 months ago there was a fight at the church between members yelling and slapping, and the suarsz family witnessed it and so now we have to try to fix that. Mexican ladies are loco. So we dug up some information there. Thats why a lot of people aren't coming now. 

The members can either help us a ton or hurt us a ton. Theres no medium. They can invite people and be friendly and welcome people are do the opposite. So we constantly give talks about this and the impact of members. But its all goooood.

This week, we had Menudo again ;p gross! Its the lining of a cows stomach. It smells like flippin Maneur! But i downed it and acted like it was the cats pajamas. Also this week, we had cheek Tacos of a cow, and cow tounge twice. Talk about making me want to hurl. They act like its normal to eat this junk. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its gross. But I eat it and think abuot how much i miss Vindaloo, Hawaiian Hay-Stax, and Sweet n Sour Chicken and Cafe Rio and oh I miss your cooking mom. 

We had a good experience last night with the sandoval family. We went in and the dad was on the phone, so we watched TV with the wife while he finished. Then i took the lead in All spanish (yay me) and asked if we could share a message. So we shared a scripture, my companion did, from Alma 34:33. "This is the time for men to prepare and perform their labors, or something". Then we talked about baptisms and we asked deep questions and got them thinking. They love us and felt the spirit strong and want to be baptized but we didn't feel ready to invite them. So next time maybe. That is something i have learned out here. You cant do what YOU want when teaching someone. The spirit does it all. We just are like a clarinet. An instrument. The spirit is the air that runs through it and makes it happen. So We would have loved to have a date, but the spirit knew they werent quite ready. But then we closed after 20 minutes of talking and Sis. Sandoval said the closing prayer. Their son, miguel is in jail and is getting deported and she was balling so that was sad. But she loves the feeling she gets when we come over. (a.k.a the spirit!) OH! on a side note, they have a littel PUG! I got hair all over my MR. Mac jacket liner. Took a while to roll it all out. But that was cool. I got hair all over me to make me realize tank was just too hairy. So now i dont miss tank AS much but still i miss the boo. 

Well, I hope yall keep doing well. I am doing well and can feel your prayers so thank you. Thanks MA for sending the bag your the best. I need to send my bag back. Well, I love you all and miss you dearly! Dont get heat exhaustion and keep studying the scriptures!!!!

Love, Elder Westensee

p.s. Tell Lindsey to write me. Text her or something i love getting emails from her! Plus My companion wants to write her haha

Poky Week 9

Hello everyone! Good to hear from you all. I hope your enjoying the new football season as it is killing me. Probably my favorite time of the year. But i love the lord more than football. Sounds like everyone is doing well. Good to hear. I didnt know tyler was applying to the mtc? Thats cool. He would be awesome. My spanish is getting good now as well so thats a positive. Hope the cabin isnt un-accessable. Not much has happened at all this week. The work is slow. Were struggling to find people and keep people. But with that being said there has been many miracles. I am ready for argentina however....i want to see my mtc district elders and sisters. 

Tuesday- district meeting, then lunch at china buffet as always. We then had exchanges with elder Morales and cooley. I went with Morales up to firth. We taught 5 lessons that night and set a few dates. Then we woke up the next morning to play ball with the old dudes. The old dudes have this pride issue and they actually foul us hard and play dirty. They beat us 3 out of 4 games. I dotn know how but i was mad after haha. They are cheap dirty swasty old dudes that cheat. But its all fun and something to do. 

Wednsday- We met the sister at the church at 10 am after playing ball and gave them keys or something then met Finau and Cooley at Wingers for lunch. Where a member payed for us. It was very good as always. We later went tracting and helped a lady get a washer and dryer for her new house. She was a busy body. I was tired after being around her for 2 hours. We had tacos for dinner outside and it started raining. Quite awkward. My cup was getting water down by teh rain. Juice wasnt as good after that. But its ok. It was fun. Then we went to Rupes Burgers cause i was starving. We get free food there always but i still leave a tip cause we go there a lot. That night we got home and called our dinner appointment for the next night and he said he was out of town so he would call rupes and pay for us that way. So yay! Rupes again! Its good by the way.

Thursday- Boring as junk. But I read D and C 129. It was cool. Talks about how you tell if someone is an angel, or spirit, or demon or something. Crazy stuff. The D&C is nuts about berries! Crazy stuff. But then we weekly planned. Went to Rupes again. Payed for again so it was free! Not much happened later.

Friday- Rupes...yet again for lunch. Elder abbott wanted to for his B-day. So we went. LAter, we had a mexican party. Carlos, with the red truck, brought his subs and DJ mix system thing and played music at the church loud. Everyone would pull in the church and look at us from the busy street there in blackfoot. Non members as well. But we had good food and corn on the cob with mayo and cheese. It was flipping gooood. I had 3. Then we went home and gave elder butler a blessing because he was sick.

Saturday- Went to an appointment at 10 am. This guys name was RED. Long beard, red hair, freckles. He tried "teaching us" a message about how we are like flowers and how we need land. I have no idea...he was a whackadooodle no doubt. He is moving to lebannon because thats where its at apparently. He can grow his own farm and feed himself lol. I told him the USA is where i want to raise my family. He was pretty dumb but we were nice and taught him about the restoration. He laughed when i testified about Thomas S. Monson being a latter day prophet today and i got mad and told him that wae dont laugh at him and i told him he was mocking god by laughing. He shut up the rest the time. Not very christlike for such a "spiritual" dude. He said he read the quran and all other bibles/books and they are all true cause they are of god. He was nuts about berries. 

Sunday- Got up at 6 for a early meeting. Then appointment with crazy red again. Then church 1-4. Then a member brought us chicken dinner. It was good. But that was all that happened. We play nerf basketball in the apartment at lunch haha. You sit in a chair and throw it in the hoop. 3 chairs. 2 points for the longer ones and 1 point for the shorter chair. Finau is at 15 im at 11 Abbot is 9 and butler 8. Its our way of coping with football season. We will accumulate points throughout the transfer. So ya thats whats been going on in blackfoot. OH! last night (saturday night) RICARDO called us and asked if we could help him learn the scriptures better. So we will be helping him tuesday night and hopefully re-set his date. He needs to come to church though. He works 70-80 hours a week! but hopefully he can get around to baptism. He has already prayed and he knows it s right.

Love you all. Love your emails! Tell Lindsey to email me! I want to know whats up! Mom, i got the package, thank you very much! I appreciate all you and dad do for me! and am trying to do my part and work hard. i look good with my shades on :)

Love, Elder Westensee

p.s. i attached a pic of the nerf hoop !