Unexpected Aerial Strike from Crazy Steve // Feb. 5, 2018

Well it has been a complete 2 week turn around here in Goya... but always with a little drama, I mean what is a weekly email from argentina without a little drama. We will start out with the good news. Nahuel Britez got baptised this past Saturday and confirmed Sunday. We found him and his family on the 3rd of January contacting. They have been progessing very fast and Nahuel was the fastest out of his entire family. The mom, Sandra, has to get married so we are working with her on that and Nahuel´s brothers are planned to be baptised next week. Turns out they are a little slower in their ability to learn so we have ti explain things a little more simpler to them. But the mom Sandra has been looking for this message for a long time... but just didnt know she was looking for it. Also, the Zone has made so much improvement. We have been doing a zone tournament to motivate the missionaries to go out and work. We corilate key indicators and obedience with a basic point system. For example, If you find a new investigator=1pt if you wake up on time= 1pt. If you get investigators to church=1pt, etc. And the winner of every weak wins a kilo of ice cream!!! Yeah and the champions of the tranfer will win a free dinner. YEAH!! if you dont want to work to get blessings, you might as well work for food.... It honestly has been a huge difference maker in the productivness of the zone and the numbers show. But now that the issue with missionaries is taken care of, of course another obstical had to take its place. 

**Cue story**

So there is this guy in the branch, his name is Pedro(names have been changed). He is 35 years old and works as a fishermen in which he leaves his family for 3 months out of the year to fish in the mar de argentina. He and his wife has been members of the church for much of their lives and raise their 3 kids in the church. But turns out that Pedro, despite the fact that he seems and looks like a normal guy, has mentle issues and a major case of anger managenment disorder. At least that is what Elder Teves has been telling me for some time. And also turns out that Pedro does not like the other members in Goya... in fact very much dislikes them. And according to the branch president, has caused 3 men and their families to go completely inactive for the way he brutally mistreats, judges, and critizises them. So fast forward to yesturday when I entered into priesthood a little late because we were sending a baptismal record to Resistencia through email, and they were doing a council thing that now they do on the 1st sunday of every month. Well, I sat down and started listening to Pedro, and within 30 seconds Pedro when from talking about sharing the gospel with friends and neighbors, to completely attacking one of the other members of the quorme... Juan. Juan was taken off gaurd and started diffending himself from the unexpected aerial strike from crazy steve.. I mean crazy Pedro. Long story short, Pedro progessed from saying sly, mean, indirect comments, to standing up and yelling at poor juan with a face redder than my 99 VW jetta. Juan stood up, look crazy pedro in the eyes and said, ¨Pedro, you need to see a psychiatrist´´ and walked out. We promptly got up and followed Juan out because he honestly has been struggling the past 2 months and has shown desires of going inactive for the way the members and the leaders treat him. So we went out with him so that he wouldnt feel alone becuase the whole time, The branch president and district president were silent during the whole encounter and didnt do anything. In fact the district president told them to Fix the problem themselves..... hahaha ridiculous, luckly there werent investigators present. But honestly, this branch has a weird feel to it. It is definitly the weakest I´ve been in. Seeing all of the things done incorrectly is frustrating and the way the people here look and critisize each other is incredible. I know it happens in every branch/ward, but I feel like here it is a little stronger. So if there is one thing I would say this week. It would be, Dont be so critical of others. Love them for who they are, accept their imperfections, and try and show them some love and friendship that they are most likely lacking. The 2 greatest commandments, Love God with all thy heart, might, mind and strength. and Love thy neighbor.

But that was my week. We are planning on 2 more baptisms this next week. I hope you all have a great week.

Start from a Clean Slate // Jan. 30, 2018

Well we had transfers (YEA!). I´m sorry if my last email seemed a little down... But this one will be better!! We are going to have 3 baptisms in our area this Saturday of Alan, Nahuel, and Luis. There are 10, 12, and 17 years old brothers. We are teaching their family and those three are ready and able to be baptized. The mom still has to get separated from her ¨spouse¨. Her spouse has 14 kids with 3 different women and they are living together still. But things are kinda rough right now so it is possible that they part ways. The zone had 2 baptisms this past weekend and I did the interview of one of them... his name is Rodrigo and is 37 years old and his family got baptized a year ago but he didn’t because he had a hard heart and was a devote catholic so it was harder for him to be open to the message of the restoration. But the hermanas had been working diligently with him and he received his testimony. It was cool talking to him... the excitement he had. He was going 7 days without smoking when I interviewed him soo he was really had to put his effort and faith into action to be able to be ready. But he was and it was a great baptism. He got baptized with his 8 year old son. Federico unfortunately decided to take a break from our lessons. We had 2 lessons with him this week and in the 2nd he told us that he want to take a break and start going to the Pentecostal church so that he could ¨close some doors¨ with them and then in a month come back and talk to us... kinda weird. The problem with him is that he, along with other evangelical based religions; believe that one true church cant be completely true and that the way to receive the grace of God and be saved is by straight faith. Therefore he doesnt feel a necessity to find the true church of Christ and so he looks for a church that will provide the most benefits and ¨Luxuries¨. But he´ll keep reading the BoM, maybe not with real intent, but he´ll keep reading it. 

(Selfie with elder Poveda as we were sending Elder Evans off in a boat to his new area)

In transfers, there were 6 missionaries that left out of the 14. So I am excited to have the zone start from a clean slate. Elder Hannah came and is now in the zone.. he was in my MTC district so we will most likely end our missions together here. This morning we played uno, but we did it in the way that you had to do something if you lost. One elder had to drink a mouth full of fry sauce, another had to do 50 push-up... kinda fun. I took a pick with an elder from Esquina that had his face drawn on by all of us with a marker. Kinda childish stuff we do to have fun without technology and with alll the rules we have haha. I am excited for this week, even though our leadership council got cancelled this transfer.... no trip to resistencia or McD´s :( but its alright. That was my week... let me know if you want anything from ARG in these last couple months and I will do my best to get them .   Love you all 

(Me with 3 missionaries from Buenos Aires playing Uno this morning.)

Elder Keicher! 

Truth to Be Hard // Jan. 22, 2018

Well this week was filled with a lot of drama that I wont be able to fully express the details of what happened. Well we have had some controversy in the our zone between the elders, and it has been kind of taxing on me and my companion as we have to deal with these matters and usually ends with the missionaries disliking us. It all started with interviews this past week where my comp elder teves and we had to put an informe together of how the zone is doing and how each companionship is working. Our situation is that there are many elders in our zone that don´t work, literally dont work and stay in there apartment for most of the day, and some elders that have filthy mouths and others that just push the boundaries on every solitary rule or norm. So we put everything in an informe and advised president in interviews. Well now, every elder that has been behaving out of line is cold with us now. They continue talking behind our backs and just being very immature. But I have learned a lot from this. I was reading a scripture in the BoM this week that comforted me and helped me stay motivated. 

2 And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.

Obviously, I wouldnt consider these elders ¨the wicked¨ but this scripture made me think of this situation that I am in. Those who dont keep the commandments and do things like they should... when someone corrects them, they take the truth to be hard because it requires change. 

This week we were able to have a couple really good lessons. A couple weeks ago I contacted a guy with an elder in a plaza who was super interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon, and it turned out that he lived in the hermana´s area. So we passed the reference to them. Well this week we talked to him at a branch activity and he told us that he wanted us elders to teach him because he lives by himself with his elderly mother and he doesn't want his neighbors to make assumptions when the sisters come over to teach him. haha so We taught him this week and it turns out that he studied 5 years in a Baptist seminary and was about to become a pastor in a Baptist church. But he ended up turning down the offer because the church leaders told him that he had to break up with his girl friend he had and go live with a girl from their church.... kinda weird and some other things happened and he wasn't able to because pastor. And now he is at ends and has been reading the book of mormon that a member gave to him last month and is super interested. The lesson was one of the funniest lessons that I have had in my mission because the dude is super intelligent and knows a lot about the gospel and so we dont have to dumb down church terms and we can explain things without him getting confused. He is actually progression. His name is Federico so I´ll keep you updated on him. ALso, this week, we were able to find and have our first lesson with Ezequiel, the dude that picked me up from the port of the river when I got transferred here. There is a pic of him in my first week here. He gave me his address because I told him I would make him a Banana bread as a way of saying ¨thanks¨ for picking me up and taking me into town. So I think this week at our next lesson I will have to make that banana bread. But during our first lesson, we started out talking about fishing because he loves to fish. He thought it was crazy that I used to go ICE fishing with dad.... just hard for them to understand cold haha. But then we introduced the BOM and he was super intrigued. So I am hopeful for him! 

But that was my week. This is the last week of the transfer so I will be writing on tuesday next week! 

Experience Like None Other // Jan. 15, 2018

Well what can I say... Time continues to go by, experiences continue to pile up, and the tempurate seems to keep raising. I have been doing a lot of reflecting reciently on the last year and a half. It´s truely is an experience like none other to do this and honestly is kinda crazy to think that Im entering into the home stretch of it all. Outside of the religous things and the rewards that one gets when he dedicates all his time and energy serving God and teaching others about our Savior, When you just look at it without that perspective, it seems completely insane what thoundsand of young men and women are doing around the world. Leaving their families and their promising studies and careers, packing 2 large suitcases and living out of them for 18 months to 2 years, many times in a foreign country speaking a foreign language... idk it doesnt make any sense to me why one would do it without that perspective. Obviously, every missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter saints leaves with their own reasons and motives.... but I promise that every Elder or Sister out there serving, asks themselves why they do it all.And they all have to look deep inside and decide that they are doing it for the right reasons. For members of the church, it is what is expected, We see missionaries all the time in the street and in our wards and we dont think much of it...and it has become common ground that i dont think that many understand the true sacrifice that it takes to wake-up everyday, put on the tag, and work. Here, over there, and in every part of the world, there are members of the church that dont appriciate what missionaries do. Even outside of the context of missioanries, even the local leaders of the church go underappreciated for all they have to do and are called to do. I now understand why it is a commandment to ¨Sustain the leaders of the church¨. I think the perspective will go full circle at the end of this great journey. 

This past week, we had divisions. I was with Elder Potts and worked a little with him. We also went to Esquina because there was going to be a baptism. I was assigned to interview the investigator and when we got to the house, the missionary from esquina that I was with told me as we were knocking on the door, that they hadnt taught Tithing yet and that we would have to teach tithing before the interview..... WHAT! I thought he was kidding me. really? well, we started the lesson, taught tithing and then went to interview her. She hadnt had a clue that she needed to be interviewed and wasnt prepared, and didnt know what the questions were. To keep the story short... she got super nervious, and ended up calling off the baptism. I was pretty dissapointed in the elders for not having her prepared enough or ready for us... and we lost saturday and sunday cause we had to travel to esquina just for the baptism of an investigator that wasnt ready to be baptised... 

We had an activity in the church friday evening, it was a water activity and there was a bunch of memebers and investigators there. I got soaked!! We didnt have investigators make it to church but there is a lot of potential right now in our area. We returned for a 2nd lesson to a family and the 25 year old daughter had read everything and more that we left to read. She was asking questioned and was super interested in the message. Her name is Eli Vigarosa. 

But that was my week. We have interviews with president tonight and then a little training with him tomorrow in the morning. He came to Goya so we didnt have to travel. He brought us new mattresses! I hope you all have a great week. I lost my cabel to charge my camera.... SO I dont have picture SORRY! I will look for a new cabel! 

Elder Corbin Keicher

Things Are Picking Up // Jan. 8, 2018

Well, here we are, another week has passed. This week we have seen a lot of progress. I will start with the success of an activity we did in an area 2 hours from Goya in an area called Esquina. There in Esquina, it´s not even a branch, its a group. The area got reopened to missionary work a year ago. The average church attendance in the past 6 months has been 7-8 people ever sunday. So we decided to try and help out Esquina. We organized an activity with the entire zone of 14 missionaries(8elders and 6 sisters) and Friday morning everyone showed up to the rent churched building at 8:20am. We sat down assigned areas for each companionship and we went out and worked from 9-12pm. The success was incredible. in 3 hours, us 14 missionaries had 18 lessions adn found 22 new investigators for esquina. I personally was with ElderLundgreen from Newbraska and at 9: 45am we contacted into a single 45 year old man who was just sitting in his house watching ¨Vikings¨ on Netfilx. He let us into his house and at first we got to know him and then taught lesson one and even used his TV to watch a short video relating the first vision. After working, we had a BBQ in the church with the members and investigators of Esquina until 4pm. Us missioaries sang 2 hymns for the 24 people that showed up and even had a mini testominy meeting with the missionaries. Yesterday, 22 people ended up attending the church in Esquina. So, it definetly was a help. Elder Teves and I have picked up the pace in our area and this week we found 11 new investigators to teach. We are excited to work hard with these news and help them progress. 

We started divisions with Esquina wednesday afternoon and I had to go to esquina. So I didnt find out about the passing of Thomas s Monson until Thursday evening. Finding that out made me feel super isolated but made me feel at peace, knowing that he is now in paradis and with his wife again. 

Well That was my week. I loved what was said this morning in our district meeting. It comes from Elder Poveda, our district leader from buenos aires he stated, ¨recieving a testimony comes from a  manifestation of the holy ghost that helps one come to know the truthfulness and reality of a gospel princle. Being converted comes from the disciplineand faith to live in accordance of such gospel principle. Testimony is knowing, Conversion is doing.¨ I love you all and hope you have agreat week! Get better! 

Elder Keicher

Stagnant....For Now // Jan. 2, 2018

This whole Christmas and new years has made these past 8 days feel SO weird. This past week, we spent 2 days in Resistencia for a leadership training. Usually it is just one day, but after the training with Patania, we had to turn in the traveling funds for our zone for the months of October and November and they were so messed up... missing receipts and didnt have any of the costs written down. SO we were figuring that out til 6pm and ending up missing our bus back to Goya. SO we had to stay a second night in resistencia and catch a bus in the morning. We stayed with Elder Taylor and his companion. Elder Taylor is the missionary I trained in Ibarreta for 2 transfers. It was cool hearing and talking to him. In the leadership conference, president patania got a little mad with the missionaries saying that there are missionaries that are comparing him to president Franco. and he goes, ¨It´s true, I am not president franco. Pres Franco does pres franco things and I do pres Patania things.¨ I mean, there are definitely differences in the way that they go about the work, but neither of the two are wrong or better than the other. Just each one has their own set of skills and method of doing things. I think this has to do with the way we support and sustain our   leaders. The bishops, stake presidents, mission presidents, and over all leaders of the church are your typical member/priesthood holder trying their best to fulfil the calling they have been assigned. Somethings were changed with our ZL duties. President Patanía has now counseled us to have interviews with the companionships of our zones and report more to president how missionaries are working and behaving. And now we can give suggestions about transfers and mission callings for the missionaries in our zone. So it will be a little different now.

The work here in Goya is... well... stagnant for now. These past two weeks I think we have had 3 solid full days of work with the holiday schedule and the 2 day trip to resi. So it is a little discouraging for me to come to a new area where there isnt any progressing investigators. Just have to start from ch. 9 of PMG and keep working. 

For new years, we did another argentine BBQ on the roof patio of one of the elders apartments in our zone in Goya. We watched ¨God´s not dead¨ again and enjoyed the fireworks at midnight from our roof top. It was pretty low key. Then yesterday, monday, President told us we couldnt leave our apartments, so we were inside all day. One of the most boring days of the mission honestly. But today was a little better and I hope that this week we can just get down to business and start to see some things move here. In the middle of my writing time here in the church, the power went out... so that´s why I´m sending this off now. We just had district meeting and now im finishing this letter. The videos on dropbox were hilarious. Looks like new years was a lot of fun! I hope everyone can get better from their colds too! Love you all and hope you all have a great week! 

Love, 

E´Corbin Keicher

ps- Left the camera in the apartment were we spent newyears.... sorry ):

Roof Top Grilling - 12/26/17

Hey Fam, It was great seeing and talking to you yesturday. For sure the best one oput of the three that we have had. Im happy that everyone is doing great and is happy. For me, after the call got done at 1:30am our time... Elder Evans and I waited for a taxi for 30 mintues but not one came... so we had to walk 6 blocks back to the apartment. Today we had P-Day and honestly slept for a good part of it in the afternoon to catch up on sleep. 

Well this week was super fun. There was a christmas party that the 2 branches did here which was really fun. It was super simple, We watched a 5 minute video on the birth of Christ and then a choir sang Away in a manger. THen we just ate barbque and talked to the members. I attatched a photo of the party. Christmas eve we spent with 2 other companionships. President gaev permision for districts to get together and spend christmas eve and christmas together... so we all got together in the apartment of elders Potts and Lundgreen because they live on the 3rd and top floor of their complex which has a roof balcony. SO we cooked the BBQ on the roof and played X-mas music and enjoyed a tranquilo christmas eve... Like I said we also watched ¨Gods Not Dead¨ and ¨Gods Not Dead 2¨ cause they are approved. They were actually a really goood movies. I would recommend them. But I really enjoyed my christmas this year.. a lot better than last years. 

 

It was also fun to spend time with Elder Potts again. I dont know if you remember but I trained him in his first transfer, and it was a really difficult transfer for me. But now a year later... he is a much better missionary and has changed a lot. He is actually a district leader now... 

But anyway, We have a couple people we are teaching here. One is a family that was going toget married and baptised this past week.. but their blood results came back positive and they have a type of blood infection... so they have to get that treated before they can get married. The couple is Jorgelina and Matias. 

The Ortiz Family ffrom reconquista got Baptised Saturday!! Well, Luciana and Antonella got baptised.. Eugenio couldnt get baptised yet because president has to run a couple things over with the church officials of some of his past transgressions(problems with the Pregunta 4 of the baptiosmal interview). So well see what happens in the next couple weeks with that. 

Tomorrow we leave for Resistencia and thursday is out mission leadership conference. So im pretty excited for that and to see some missionaries. But I hope you all have a great week, and a happy newyear! Talk to you sll next week! 

Elder Corbin Keicher