8/6/17

Well Hello fam, 

This week was a  great week! Fabiana and Celedonio Cano got married!! That was super exciting and fun to see! They got married Friday morning and so we were just planning to do the baptism Saturday.... but celedonio had to go to Chaco for some reason. So we will most likely be having a baptism next Saturday the 12th. I hope they will be prepared... because Celedonio is still smoking... so are meeting with him tonight to have a frank lesson with him to see if he is willing to throw those things away! I really hope he has the will and motivation and testimony to do so. 

Signing their wedding contracts

The Cano Family

Speaking of cigarettes, Saturday night we made tacos and watched videos with an inactive member here named Alejandro. He is like 28 or 30 years old and we wanted to make tacos with him and his non member friend Gaston... but only Alejandro showed up. But to give you some background, he was baptized about 4-5 years ago and has sensed falling into a bad cigarette and alcohol habit. But has a true testimony and conviction in Christ and the church. I remember the first time I met him like 4 months ago, I clapped at his gate and he came out with a cig in his hand and as soon as he saw us, he threw the cig and said, ¨Ah, I am sorry, im sinning right now¨. Which was so frank and straight up that it made me laugh a little. But anyway we said the prayer over the tacos and right when we said ´´amen´´ he came to me and gave me his pack of cigarettes and said he wants to get back on track! It was so awesome to see that. 

El Potrillo

We also did another potrillo trip last week and was pretty basic! Nothing to crazy to report from that trip. But yesterday, Elder White went to resistencia and will be staying there for a couple weeks to do some tests for his health. And Elder moreira will be coming back up tomorrow with a new companion. Sounds like if things dont improve with Elder White, he might be going home. Which is difficult to see because he has such a big desire to be here in the mission. But whereever the Lord needs him. 

Elder White and I

Yesterday we were able to confirm Lucas Lopez in the Colony Ensanche Norte. He is 10 years old and was baptized 9 days ago but wasnt able to go to church last Sunday. We didnt think he was going to come to church either yesterday because yesterday was a National Kids Day in Argentina and a lot of families were in Ibarreta at a festival with clowns and things for Kids. And we actually had a low attendance in the Colony because of it... 15 people. But it got me thinking, Why doesnt America have a national Kids day?. Then I realized, looking at Asher, that he is always at the library, hiking, swimming, eating cool food and I concluded that almost everyday in your childhood is national kids day. But anyway, Lucas literally showed up 2 minutes after the closing prayer, so we grabbed a chair, confirmed him and also gave him the sacrament. 

Well I am entering into my last week(I believe) in Ibarreta and I have a bittersweet feeling. If this is my last week, I will be eating lunchs with families for the last time. One thing that is cool here is that ever week, you eat at the same houses, for example every wednesday with the Gusevich family, and every Friday with the Albronoz family, etc. So I will most likely be eating my last meals with them. So I will have my P-day on Tuesday next week because of transfers. 

But that was my weeks adventures. I will have a lot more to update you on next week. So stay tuned! Love you all! 

Corbin Keicher

Weird Dream and Baptism 7/31/17

Me with another GOAT

Well this week was very rewarding. 

It was also pretty unplanned. Last Monday after P-day, we were walking with Elders Moreira and White back to our place and we were trying to figure out when we could go to Potrillo. Well, we ended up going that night and spent last Tuesday in Potrillo. It was a good trip and I went with Elder Moreira(the branch president) to do interviews. He had to visit a lot of people and families to get them ready for the temple trip in September. But then we went back to Juarez to wait for a bus. We couldnt eat with the Fiestas family because the mother of Brother fiestas past away and was in Peru. So we waited outside of our favorite restaurant there called ´´El Aleph´´. But then later found out it was closed.... so we had to go eat at ¨Karens¨ a really good but really expensive restaurant. There we ate something called ¨Lomitos¨ which is a type of sandwich. But Karen´s mom(the owner of the restaurant) gave each of us 1 empanada GRATIS to try. And it was literally the best empanada I have every eaten. SO  GOOD! I wish you couldve tried it. 

But anyway that was the trip. After that we prepared the rest of the week for the baptism of 3 kids from the colony here by Ibarreta. But really only two got baptized because one of the girls didnt get approval from her mom. The Cano family is still doing ok. The mom still needs to go turn in all of the papers to get married.... but things have been hectic for her because a month ago her 60 year old mother discovered that she has a tumor in her chest and it is cancer. She is starting Chemo Therapy this next week... So the family has been dealing with that and the fact that celedonio still is smoking........  A lot of things are going to have to happen for them to be baptized together as a family... Keep them in your prayers. 

I had a weird dream last night where I was back at the MTC.... but it was like a situation where they let the missionaries who have 1 year go back to the MTC... well anyway I was there with my comp elder freeman and we were with my same teachers. Then when we had to go back, We ended up missing the bus back to Argentina. So we ended up just hanging out in the MTC and they reassigned me to be an MTC teacher for the rest of my mission. I remember being so mad that I couldnt go back to Argentina haha It was a weird dream!! 

But that was basically my week. Pretty basic. I want you all to have a great week, whether you are in Utah, Idaho, Colorado, or wherever! I also want to share with you a video I shared with the youth called ´´The Music of the Gospel´´. Not sure if you have seen it or not. But basically talks about being self-sufficient or spiritually independent. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju8S2vswhjY

Love you!

Corbin Keicher

Dominos Pizza & More Marriages 7/24/2017

How's everyone doing this week? 

With a 1-week old goat

 Well I had a great week. It started out very well last Tuesday with a call from the mission office notifying me that the birth certificate of Celedonio Cano arrived!! I was so happy!!! On Thursday Elder White brought it back from resistencia to Ibarreta along with a package. I think my favorite part of the package was the maple extract that mom sent... now I can make maple syrup and Mable oat meal!!! But this past weekend was filled with really awesome things. First things first was the temple trip the district of Ibarreta took to Asuncion Paraguay. They left Friday at 2pm and got back Saturday at 10pm. But before they left, we gave the branch president Falcon 408 pesos to buy us Dominos Pizza that is 2 blocks from the Paraguay temple! And at 10pm Pres Falcon knocked on our door and we opened it to see 2 dominos pizzas!! It was so good! But remember back in the day when dominos pizza wasnt very good? Yeah that is the type of dominos they have down here. The garlicy and very tasty dominos that is in the states  hasnt made its way down here yet!! But it was still so good in comparison to the pizza here. 

But before we ate the pizza, Elder Freeman and I went to The familia cano to have a lesson with them and to give them the birth certificate. The past month has been very difficult for them because the grandma has a tumor in her chest and they have constantly been making trips to and from the Formosa hospital and have been lacking in their church attendance and reading and praying. But we had a great lesson with them, watched a video clip and gave them the certificate. So now things are all set for their wedding and baptism. They will be going to the civil registers office this week to schedule a date to get married. So we will have more details soon. Then Sunday came and I walked into the church at 9am and the cano family wasnt there. I was pretty disappointed. As usual I had to direct the music from the front of the chapel, and during the last verse of the sacrament hymn, The whole cano family walked in!! I was so happy to see them there. Made my sunday! Then we had church in the colony were we had a normal 16 people there but it was a great meeting. One of the first members in Ibarreta, Sister Juana, came to the colony and gave a great talk. I talked on sacrifices. I had been thinking alot about sacrifices lately and the colony really needs to understand the concept of sacrifice. And in reality this part of Argentina needs to learn a lot about sacrifice and really turning outward in the service of others. 

The entire familia Cano after our lesson Saturday night

Then to end our day Sunday we went to a totally inactive sister who was a faithful member for like 4 years, then with the death of one of her kids, blamed the church and the members here for everything! So, knowing this, we watched 2 two minute video clips that talk about christ and how he lives today and then ended with the 10 minute video called ¨the hope of God´s light¨ which was amazing. After the videos we just stayed silent and she went off for 10 minutes about how the members mistreated her and didnt comfort her in her time of need and stopped wearing her garments and how she doesnt need any of that to find happiness and to overcome her problems. she got done with her rant and then we talked very carefully about a couple simple but very powerful facts. but basically to be brief, we talked about how we came to talk about Christ and that we didnt want to talk at all about the church. It turned out to be super spiritual once we got to teach and talk about Christ. We talked about the priority list that we must have in our lives which is 

1. God & Jesus Christ

2. Family

3.The Church

That helped her understand that, in reality, there is a difference between the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints and our relationship with God and our Savior Jesus Christ. It was a very simple and powerful lesson and we left there very satisfied with what happened. 

But that was my week. I am excited to keep working here. There are 3 more weeks in this transfer so we will see what happens. It is very likely that I will leave ibarreta so we will see what happens. There are 22 new people coming so it is possible I will train or that I go be a ZL somewhere else. So We will see what happens. I hope you all have a great week!! Go Rockies. 

Corbin Keicher

Ibarreta´s Birthday 7/17/2017

Well what a week! Both for me and even more for the fam bam back at home. I thoroughly enjoyed the pictures of the wedding and I feel very happy knowing that everything went well according to the plans. It seemed like it is a day to remember for the rest of our lives. For me, wedding day was just a normal day of proselyting... and actually I was on divisions with and Elder who is from Paraguay. I did wear the grooms men tie and had mackenzie and the entire fam in my thoughts. It was probably one of my more trunkier days in the mission but that is alright. I am just glad everyone is happy and kenz and spenc are married.

Me wearing the wedding tie

This week was interesting. I didnt mention last week that last Sunday night, I got a call from the assistants, asking me if there was anyone in our zone who knew how to play the piano for the multi-zone conference that wednesday. I reviewed who was in our zone and quickly realized that I was the only person who could find middle C on the piano. So I reluctantly told them that I was the only one and then they asked me to play the opening hymn. Luckly I have been trying to learn hymns since I have arrived in Ibarreta and at that point, only had ¨God be with you til we meet again¨ and ¨Nearer my god to thee¨ mastered. I was in the process of learning ¨count your many blessing¨ so I gave them those three options to choose from. Elder Tuttle(assistant) gladly choose ¨count your many blessing¨ and so last pday I spent a lot of it practicing that song. Wednesday came and we traveled to Formosa for the conference. Luckly the piano was electric and had a volumn bar, so i put that volumn just low enough to where peoples voices drowned out the piano playing. Which turned out good cause I messed up two times, but no one noticed because they were singing loud enough. I was actually pretty nervous though cause I havent performed any type of piano since Mrs. clover´s piano recital days in elementary/middle school days. Apart from this, I indulged myself after the conference at the main grocery store in Formosa where they sell a few american imported items. So what did I buy? $600 pesos of tostidos chips and salsa!! SO GOOD!! You just cant find that stuff anywhere. except at like 3 major grocery stores in the mission. 

Cool sunset on our way back to Ibarreta from multi-zone conference

Last tuesday was the Ibarreta´s Birthday. Ibarreta turned 97 years old.... and it actually was a lot of fun. Tuesday morning the governor of formosa came to watch a parade and to basically preside over it. And literally all of ibarreta was participating in this parade and show. 

Main stage for the parade

A donkey and a llama

So Elder Freeman and I decided to set up a table in the plaza right next to the stage and give out book of mormons and talk to people who wanted to talk to us. We ended up getting like 4 references and gave out 10 books of mormons. It was a fun day and after wards we made tacos with the youth at the church. 

Where we were set up in the plaza

Our table set up

 We have been seeing a lot of progress in the colony here and are planning on 3 baptisms there on the 29th. So we will see how that goes. Thats all from me this week. I hope you all have a great and safe week! 

Corbin Keicher