Transferring to Bariloche

Hola hola a todos! Gracias por su correos o cartas. NO se. Pero esta semana fue re copado y deficil a la misma vez. Bariloche es super bueno y muy bonita. Espero que podemos tener exito aca!

Hello everyone. This is the first time i have spoken or read or seen english this week. WILD week. But really it was a stresssful hard tasking week. 

It all started with the transfer . I left my companion at 10 pm in the terminal for the buses. hes a great elder. So we waited in the terminal until 2 am playing the guitar, ate a hotdog, played the guitar a little, and just hung out. A couple familys from my area came to say goodbye! I was surprised! And found out there are some hardcore snakes!!! But i loved my area truly and i hope the best for my comp there. But we took pictures and chatted and said goodbye. 

Then the bus came finally. We packed our bags up and boarded teh bus. I put my guitar above the seats (the bus is double decker and we were on top) so i didnt have to worry about it. Elder Bennett my amigo from neuquen in my district for 4.5 months. Was sitting next to me and we talked and joked. (im writing his sister by the way haha) Then we fell asleep. 3 am. woke up. 3 10. woke up. 3 20. woke up. I think you get the idea. But then one time i fell asleep and woke up and it was 7 am.

We arrived in BARILOCHE!!!! With burning eyes and messed up hair and a tattered suit, i got off the bus and gave elder Figueroa a hug, my companion. HEs great. Chileano. Talks super slurred and fast. But i can understand him. Hes great i dont know. Whart do you want to know about him? he has 3 months on this area and is a capo. A little weird but its whatever. Sometimes i cant understand him cause he starts laughing when hes talking. ANd I just start laughing too cause his laugh is super high pitched and funny. Its great.

Anyways. After the hug with my companion i hugged everyone else including the sisters, haha just joking handshake of course. Then my zome leader came up to me (Elder randall) and said in spanish of course ëlder westensee! welcome. Hey you have a district meeting today at 4 oclock! Well be there with you! good luck!

I had nothing prepared. I cant just train for an hour! My district is all older than me and very smart and better at spanish than me. It was very hard. But i did it and it felt good to be over. But tomorrow de nuevo another meeting haha. Oh well. Its whatevs. I can do it. 

But this week was hard for sure. But grteat as well. We set 4 dates and found a new family to teach! Super greaT. tHE work here is tough but possible. All we can do is our best. The rest in in the hand of the lord.. 

My pension is nice. Not sure how to explain it. its like a cabin i guess. Again im up stairs in the second floor. I will send more picts later. ummmmmm...the area, BARILOCHE!!! is super beautiful. Mountains, and hills in my area. Lots of walking. The roads are dusty and gravely. But the ruta, or highway thats 1 lane each way runs down the center of my area. Its not like a highway. Its like a hilly road but it goes into chile so theres always a ton of people and cars zooming past.

My area is up in the hills a little bit about 20 minutes in culli. But its super boring. The names here are NUTS!!! I swear they took a basketball and rolled it across a keyboard and then they took the name from that! For example the family guichainaui like what the crap is that! you serious! The names are so hard for me. And the are is going to take time to learn. But its all good. I have my guitar and i have my lord. Im set. Not sure what else to put....

Things are going along. Its very hard sometimes and im not alone as elder shearer came with me from my zone in neuquen and he is struggling as well more than me. I hope i can help him out this week with an exchange, Well seee.

My district has 8 of us. 4 sisters and 4 elders. Hermanas aguero, gonzales, rojas, woodruff, and elders cruz, shearrer, and me and my comp, figueroa. Each caompanionship has a gringo and native. So its a nice mix. But ya...

Any questions? a lot has happened. IM scared haha. I have no idea what im doing half the time but i just laught at myself and realize what im doing and where i am. Like im speaking fluent spanish with a dirty accent haha its kinda of sick. I like it. But its been so rewarding i am learning so much! so grateful to be here and i know its for a great purpose! there is no greater feeling than bringing people unto christ!

After all has been said and done, The greatest duty is to preach the gospel. Joseph smith.

Love you all. Cuidese y aprovecha los estadom y tiempo con la familia!

Le QUIERO!

Elder Westensee

Y sis tiene preguntas! Por favor pide!

February 10. 2014- Tranfers

Well hello everyone. This week was a fun week. We had a blast, and we found new investigators and taught a ton of lessons. It was the perfect mix. As you may have seen my fotos with the whig.....ya no comment lets just say i agreed to something i didnt fully understand but its ok....It was fun. 

This week we had a baptism! So much fun and great experience. We were at the church most the day cleaning and filling the pila. or faunt i think its called. It takes 5 hours. And then you have to prime the pump to empty it. Its was a cold baptism tho. Water temp wise. (wow this keyboard sucks the keys stick down) 

This week, as you may know we had transfers. I will be going to Bariloche down south as a district leader there. I am nervous and a little scared but i will be fine. I have confidence in the lord! I know i will be fine and i know im not alone. SO thats that. I go to the terminal tonight (of buses) at 11 pm and should arrive in bariloche at 6 am. My companion is Elder Figueroa from chile. He was in my district in san lorenzo and....i dont know i guess well see. 

Now, about those pictures with the peluca (whig). Long story short. There is a CD in a members home they put on called yani. Its a man named yani who has a concert band and he conducts it. We watch the concert live on cd every wednesday cause its like classical music and we make fun of yani haha. hence the whig. NOw, the mustache was real, i am a man now, just kidding i didnt understand them when trhey said hey lets draw a mustache on you. Well.....i didnt want to do it but then they handed me the pencil so i just did it really quick. I am not proud of it lol but it was after our fdamily home evening with them and we had like 20 minutes before going back home. So thats that. 

Not sure what else to include. We visited with a lot of members saying goodbye this week. Maybe the saddest moment of my mission was saying bye to nico sura and gabriel, my 9 year old buddy. He has a baptismal date and is so ready and excited that i will be passing off to my companion and Elder Kenley who is coming in my place. I hope they take care of gabriel. Nico is just a stud and im going to miss him a lot. Same with the familia parra and obispo and the mellado family. I loved this area and i feel like i will be leaving a lot of work behind for the new elder coming in. So i am very satisfied.

I am going to put some pictures on here now. 

I love you all very much. If you ahave any questions. ASK. I will answer them all. I hope you all have a great week! I will let you know how this week goes with the change in Bariloche!! Chao!

Love,

Elder Westensee

Can you spot Evan?

 Evan and Gabriel.

 Walking home from Church

THEY FOUND PEANUT BUTTER!!!

.never a dull moment with elder westensee.

.i got a message from a girl who is in Evan's area. 

.and she sent me pictures.

.if you want to have a good laugh, and maybe cry a little from missing this kid, continue reading.

.this is SO evan. and his fun self.

.we sure miss this kid. 

.i give you.

.....elder evan westensee....

February. 3. 2014

Wow i have no time this week to write. I apologize. But quick rundown. I lvoed all the emails. I will send picutres next week. Next week is transfers. iam still in gran neuquen. I still am with elder magana. 

As far as the work goes it was dissapointing this week, but super fun. I went on an exchange with District leader Elder Langfors. We are writing sons on the guitar that are super weird but its fun. He went to BYUI as well and he is going after were probably going to hangout after the mission. But that was fun. Wee did some service  and i poured 4 coulums on the top of the roof with cement. It was fun they handed me buckets and i just smacked it right in the columns. took about 4 hours and im very sore but i lvoe service. I cut my finger mildly but the funny thing is there was rust just powdering the metal barb that cut me. I was cut and then rubbed the cut and rust was just all over it. But it wasnt deep enought o infect so no biggie. Kind of funny though really. Irony. But 

,,,lets seee. 

This week we couldnt find a single new person but we are so happy to have a new baptismal date with a9 year old gabriel. He just needs one more day at church and we can baptize him. Elder Magana Y moya visited gabriel friday during the exchange and taught him commanddments and they asked who he wanted to baptize him and he said me! Wow! I was surprised but i love that kid and hope i will be ablt ot have my first real baptism. So thats a happy spot. 

This area is being uplifted now. We had ward council friday night at 8 until 9 30. We had 12 leaders there. not including missionaries. It was a big meeting that stressed the missionary work. What a pleasure that was to see!!!! The area is coming together and hopefully we can keep working and filling seats until we need another ward or possible anohter building to be built around here!

One more weeek and its transfers so next email you will see whewre I will be going. But for now im sorry i got to head out! I lvoe you all and enjoy the emails! Any questions i know im missing a lot of stuff im sorry! But just ask and i will answeer the best i can!

Love, 

Eder Westendee

P.s. Londsey needs to write me. Im waiting. (smialey face) becauase the comps here dont have smileys like in the states. CHao love you all.

January 27th 2014

Hello Hello. I hope you are all doing great and i hope you had a great week. I know tasha and park and b were sick and parker trashed his cast, but what can you do? Life goes on. and it will always just keep going on. 

This week was slow. We taught about the normal amount but couldn´´t seem to find anyone new. Our baptism dropped because he was not willing to seperate or marry his pregnant girlfriend. He has a testimony though and he truly believes it so its sad to see him choose a different way. But oh well life goes on. 

monday was a normal p day. We had a lesson with gabriel about the plan of salvation. He is our 9 year old. We brought a white board paper type thing and drew it out for him simply. He is excited for his baptism but still he hasnt made it to church with his parents. The tough thing is his dad works 14 days on 7 dasys off. So it stinks when the dad is home he takes the mto the river and doesnt really like us. but were gonna keep trying. 

Tuesday. On tuesday i got a call from the assistants that my companion had to go to bariloche in the night time at 1 am. So we went to the (bus) terminal with elder bennet and munoz. Waited in the terminal until about 2 30 and then went back home after my companion got on the bus with elder hernandez and trujillo 

I slept on the hard ground in my pros clothes because i forgot to plan ahead. 

Wednesday. What a charmer this was. We had a meeting at 7 45 at the stake center. I woke up with my back hurting and a rash on my eye from lack of sleep. We walked to my pension in the mornaing at about 5 30 to get my suit and stuff and then we showered and went to the meeting at 7 45. We had zone conference. Lots of new rules were unvailed and stuff like that. We found out lots of missionaries went home because of sickness in the stomach. So we have to be careful with that. But for lunch we had subway, which we payed 35 pesos each. SO it sucked really. But the conference went until 5. Long day I would say. Then after we went to work with elder langford and moya. It was a good time. We set a noche de hogar (family home evening) WIth the family sure and they are bringing their friends to listen to our message! IM excited about that. Then 9 30 picked up my companion. I was dog tired and passed out on the bed when we got home. 

Thursday was slow. Visited people, didnt recieve refferals and had weekly planning. Exciting.

Friday was slow as well. We had consejo meeting in the morning with our ward mission leader. The ward is a mess. Everyone hates each other. The bishop gets crap the mission leader hates bishop and the 2nd counselor is inactive. So....we talked about how were going to plan activities to bring the ward together. Hopefully this works. Also were going to start to make flyers for english classes at the church on saturday. Its a chance for members to bring non members and menos activos. IN the night we taught horacio. IUt was good, 

Saturday... and sunday were slow. Normal normal days. 

I got to head out but i lvoe you all and i think about ou all very much. Have a great week. Stay safe and healthy. Chao

Love Elder Westensee

January 20th

Hello everyone. I hope all is well. Poor little parker broke his elbow. Wow. I did too so that just means he will be a capo (stud)  like me haha. just kidding. Sounds like your all doing great. Im happy for tyler and his work, i hope he can hook me up with some sort of magic powder that makes me ripped cause i need it. I want to lift a lot when i get home. BUt im glad for him. Also, for andrew and heather, im just happy for everyone we have a great family. I hope all continues well. 

Monday was good. We had p day. Same old. Studied a little in the morning then wento to computers, then jumbo where we had mcdonalds like always, then stake center to check the bolsa for mail and packages and then back to the pension. We had a lesson at 6 with gabriel. He is 9 years old with menos activo padres. (less active paretns) We are trying to reactivate the family and also baptize gabriel he wants to very bad but we want him to know that its a very serious thing and that we need to continue after baptism keeping commandments. Most importantly in this area, going to church. But we taught the restoration and he loved it and is very smart. After we had a long talk until 10 30 with Teo, Alison, and Diego. They are all fighting. Its hard to explain but we helped them out and brought the spirit and left a good message with them all. 

Tuesday. Woke up at 7 (woot) and studies until 9 30. Then tried finding some people to teach tries contacting some refferals but no luck. We did schedule an appointment weith daniela again. Then district meeting at 12. Then we walked all six of us to our normal lunch at the family muchela. We had hamburegers it was ok. Then after studies until 5. Then visited a menos activa lady named benny with her son leo. We talked a while and had apple juice. Talked about cars and it peaked my interest again and got me thinking about cars all day now! haha. oh well. After we had a quick lesson with diego.

Wednesday- Slow day. Just had another lesson at night with gabriel and tracted most the day and visoted members. Nothing special. 

Thursday- Had a lesson in the morning with daniela and set a date with her. She is still curious and is ready to learn more. Hopefully she reads and prays. Then we tried finding all day again and not too much ahppened. At night we had a service activity at the church and we killed a massive spider in the baptismal font. About as big as my hand. And thick like a turantula. Nasty. Then we visited diego again to confirm his baptism. This is when we found out the problem and now he has to wait a little while to be baptized. 

Friday- Visited some less actives and its kind of funny cause they all say they are going to be at church and no one goes. We cant go to everyones house over and around the hill to come to church. Frustrating. But we had a good lesson with Teo, alison dad, and taught hinm a little guitar. He has a really nice 6k guitar that i strummed alittle. I liked it. But he is super hard hearted he doesnt listen i think he migh actually have mental problems.........oh well. We are trying to help him in any way we can.

Saturday- in the morning we had service with elder moya and langford at a members house. We put up a huge black cloth for shade. It was cool and a good project for the family it will help them with the heat. Then we had facturas, like bread that has sugar and like donuts more or less. Super good with orange soda. The n lunch at payelef for milonesa! And rice. I couldnt finish for the first time ever. I think cause the facturas. 

Sunday- We spoke in church and hopefully excited the members. Not sure what i said but i was laughing a lot.....by myself haha. Not sure if the people understood what i was saying but whatever i had fun. I like my jokes. I liked it. So whatever. It was awkward but i dont care. Also, in sacrament meeting I had to re- bless the sacrament 3 times. Once because I was kneeled on only one knee, then i went to two knees. Then i butchered the prayer in spanish of course. Then it was good. Kind of a nice warm up for the talk i would say. But then we walked for a couple hours to lunch and had neokeys. not sure how to spell. Its like balls of pasta with red saucce and meat. really filling and really good. Then we went home and visited christian our other investigator who came to church last sunday and then diaapeared. But we found him, he is good and still hasent read or prayed but well keep trying.

Love you all. Im am healthy alive and hangin in there. I love you all.  Have a great week!

Elder Westensee