Argentina! ARGENTINA!

Dear Everyone,

Well, like I said in my short letter home last week, everything is crazy. I am now training Elder Warren. Everything is just going great with us. It’s kind of funny hearing him speak Spanish because he is still learning. He definitely is very friendly with everyone, like with greeting them but after that, it’s a little more difficult. He just loves working even if we have nothing and at this point, it’s getting difficult to find people because of the winter time. It is freezing cold here. But I can’t say much, I’m here writing in just a shirt and gloves. I have gotten used to the cold, kinda. This past week we have just been running around getting to know the members and we worked a little bit this week because I remember my first week here in the country and I was exhausted. So I had a little sympathy for him. Anyway, nothing really happened this week other than that. We are just doing the missionary thing.

Elder Warren, mi hijito...

World cup on the other hand.... YAHOO!!! This world cup is crazy. President Benton is going to let us watch the game on Saturday because we have now made it far enough to where it gets dangerous to watch. Yesterday, we were told to stay indoors for the game. We happened to stay in the house of a member and kinda watch the first half of the game. We then left to the pench to escape any drunks and guns that were going off. We chilled in the pench for the rest of the game and my comp took a nap that happened to go for four hours because his stomach was a little uneasy. But after the game, there were fireworks, guns, etc., anything that makes a banging noise like that, it was going off. Everyone was honking their car horns and flying huge flags out their windows. I am sad that I didn’t get fotos of it because it was hilarious.

World Cup fever


Elder Sabey went home...

Yesterday, we also had stake conference. We had an area seventy speak to us and it was a really good conference. There were five people that spoke and four of them spoke on the family and how we need to raise the youth to love the gospel. The fifth speaker was the area seventy and he didn’t touch the topic of everyone else. He spoke on worrying about ourselves because the way we judge is the way God will judge us. It was a really cool talk. It was hard for my companion to understand a lot of it so he studied Preach My Gospel and the white bible the whole time. I feel sorry for him because sometimes people tell funny jokes in Spanish and then I sometimes have to translate them and then they aren’t funny. I remember those days, a little. I am so glad I knew Spanish or por lo menos understood it a lot more than normal missionaries.

I am loving Argentina more than ever right now. I am actually considering coming back and living here. I like it even though the system here is so crazy. Maybe my mind will change in a year. Who knows! Christian, open your call now!! I want to know where you are going!!

Oh, happy anniversary parentals. Hope you enjoyed your day together. Happy 4th of July next Sunday everyone. AGUANTE ARGENTINA!!! VAMOS A GANAR SÁBADO!!!! I hope everyone watches the game and enjoys it. I love you. Sorry this is short again.

Elder Pickett

Short and Simple, Sorry...

Dear Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in writing. I will explain, after I tell of a few other things. Well, we had a baptism on Sunday. We finished the transfer with 5 baptisms. We won for the most baptisms in the zone for the transfer. We got the mission tie for that. YAHOO! We are the best.

And as Dad perfectly guessed, we did finish the transfer this past Monday. AND, my companion left. I am with a new companion. But not just any companion.... I am training!! I have a newbie and that is my reason for not writing because everything has been really crazy. Monday I found out that I was training and then I had to stay with another elder in another area so it was really crazy. We didn’t have time to write. Yesterday I went to the trainers meeting to receive instruction and to receive my newbie! Well, my newbie is an American. Straight from northern Utah. Elder Warren!! He is about 8 inches taller than me and so it is kind of funny walking down the street. He is a really obedient missionary and it is going to be really great working with him. I am really excited that I get to train. He is learning Spanish little by little and is still in culture shock. I don’t have much more to say. I am just in a frenzy right now. Hopefully next week I have more to say. Just things are really crazy right now.

And just to let you guys know, well, more like, do you remember Virginia in 9 de Julio? Well, she got baptized this past Sunday also! The family Henderson did a little documentary of it and gave me a copy of it because she mentions my name in it. I was crying when they showed the video yesterday. It was really really cool to see. I am so happy for her. Anyway, that's all I have right now. I’ll talk to you all next week and Ill send some pictures of me and my new comp. Love ya!



Elder Pickett

Ole Ole Ole Ole !!!

Dear Everyone,

I sit here, another week in a cyber, just passing the time on P-Day. Today is really rainy and cold and windy and thundery and just miserable to be outside. So it doesn’t look like we will do anything fun today. This past week has just been a normal week of missionary work, except…. MUNDIAL!!! It has been just a great atmosphere to be in. On Saturday, we knew everyone was preparing for the game. At about the 10:30 mark is when we are supposed to be outside to start contacting people. When we got outside, everyone was shopping like crazy. A lot of people in the streets. When 11:00 hit (when the game started here), it was empty. It was like a ghost town. So what do we do? We park ourselves in front of Credito Azteca and watch ourselves a little futbol. And let me tell you, I got some really good videos of the national anthem and of the goal. The people inside that little TV store were going nuts!! I’ll send all that I have next week because I didn’t want to take my camera in the rain. The umbrella was basically useless because of the strong wind too. We watch the first half there and then we went to a members house to “eat lunch”. We watch the second half over there. And I think you all already know what Argentina should have done in the game so I won’t talk about it. But que golazoooo!!!! CABEZAZO!!! HEINZE!!! After the game, we went and did the normal thing. We went and did some visits and some contacts. At the end of the day, we watch the USA vs England highlights. What luck we had! Alright, enough about futbol or else I would go for days. But just so you all know, I am very happy that I am here for the world cup.

Anyway, our area had a couple of miracles this weekend also. Our area is split into two. General Rodriguez A and B. I am in B. Well, the area of A had the miracles this week but we are in the same branch so it’s the same. The elders from A had been working really hard with the daughter of a member. This daughter is 23 years old and has a child. She has been really hard to commit to a baptism date. But on Friday, I don’t know what the elders did or what happened but she said out of the blue that she wanted to get baptized Sunday(yesterday). So we hurried(all four of us) and prepared a service and everything. It’s crazy how the Lord works. And that wasn’t the only miracle that happened.

At church on Sunday, we had just finished with the second hour and we were going to sacrament meeting. A guy buzzed the doorbell and so one of four of us answered. Come to find out, he is a Russian- Argentine. He moved to Argentina when he was 14 and has lived here ever since. He came in and pulled a book out of his bag. That book was the Book of Mormon, but in English! I was the only one talking to him at this point and he looked at me and asked if we could set up a day that he could come over to the church and practice his English. By golly I couldn’t have said yes faster. I then gave him the Book of Mormon in Spanish too so that he can actually understand what he is reading. We are ordering a Russian Book of Mormon too for his mother that he lives with. The only sad part is, is that he lives in the area of the other elders. So tomorrow (Tuesday) he is coming over to the church to practice his English so that he can eventually go to the US and get a job with the company that he works with. He seems really cool. And so those were the miracles that happened this past week. We have two baptisms this next Sunday. They are two 9 year old kids so it should be fun.

Thank you to Mom, Dad, Marcos, Sophia, Abuelita y Grandpa, y Eugenio y Veronica for your emails. I really appreciate you all telling me whats going on in your lives. It makes me feel really good. Lol. Enjoy the games this week! AGUANTE ARGENTINA!!! VAMOS COMPAÑERO!! VAMOS A LA LUCHA!!! - CHE

Love,

Elder Pickett

The moment we have all been waiting for...

Dear Everyone,

Passing another week here and we are trucking through all of the challenges. This past week wasn’t too busy. It is what we call a normal week. We did lessons, contacts, etc. Only a couple of major things happen this week.


Elder Marcos Aidukitis

One happened on Thursday. Thursday we had a meeting with Elder Aidukitis of the Seventy and Presidency of the Area. It was a great meeting. The first thing he said to us was “The Lord is very happy with you guys and the success you have been having, but he is not satisfied.” Our mission is one of the highest baptizing in the area and for him to say that was like, whoa. But when you really think about it, he is obviously right. The Lord wants everyone to come unto Him. If He was satisfied, then there would be no reason for me or any other missionary to be out in the mission.

So from that point on, he just laid down the law on how we should be working. A couple of rules he set were, we can’t go to sacrament meeting without an investigator, we cannot miss sacrament meeting, and we have to baptize every week. Just some of the few rules that he gave us. It was really crazy to hear. The mission is really cracking the whip harder and I like it. It is a new challenge to overcome. Nothing like having a new goal to meet. This next week we are going to see if we can baptize someone. There is a possibility that we can so we are going to work hard for that. We also have a baptism date for the 20th of this month also. We just set that last night which is the other amazing thing that happened but I’ll get to that in a sec.

Elder Aidukitis had everyone that had baptisms stand up. He immediately called on me and asked how many I had baptized. My knees were shaking like crazy and so I said 4. He said that was excellent and then he asked what our goal was and I said 5. My companion and I actually put 3 at the beginning of the transfer but something came out as five. He then told me with his finger pointing at me, you are going to reach it. That put me in awe. I can’t really describe or tell you what happened because there are no words for it.


Elder Pickett and some of the Bolivian children in the area

That is what happened on Thursday. We are now going to skip to Sunday night. There is a boy named Nahuel who is 9 years old. His mom and sister got baptized in February but he didn’t get baptized. Well, the missionaries had been passing by and trying to help him to be baptized. He always said that he wanted to get baptized next week, or the week after, etc. So finally we went to his house last night to talk with the mother about this(we should have done this in the beginning). Come to find out, Nahuel’s sister who got baptized a couple months ago, didn’t want him to get baptized. That is one of the weirdest things I have ever heard in my life. So we then spent the next half hour explaining to the mom and sister that he needs to get baptized because it will do him good and it will bless him in his life. We also told them that he will be able to make decisions with the help of the Holy Ghost and he will make right decisions. So after explaining all that, she then said that she had family from out of town coming and she wanted him to be baptized when they were here because they aren’t members. In the end, we now have a baptism date for the 20th of June. After months of working with him, all we had to do was talk to the mom. Oh, and he agreed to baptized on that day also. Almost forgot to mention that part. So that was my missionary type week.


Elder Pickett loves his Bolivian friends!

Now on to the other important business: Mundial. Friday is the first game of the biggest world wide event ever. South Africa and Mexico. I am hoping South Africa wins because for two reasons. One, I do not like the Mexican National team(I am half Argentine and half from the USA), two, I want to see the home team win a game. Now, besides the beginning of this beautiful time of soccer, we also have Argentina and the USA playing Saturday. I want photos and videos of you guys just going crazy. I want to see if you guys are more crazy than the Argentines. I don’t think you can be so prove me wrong. I already have my Messi and Tevez shirt ready. I have my flag hanging out and I am just so totally ready for Argentina to do what they did in 1986. It is a Pickett tradition. Father in Mexico in 86 and we win. Son in Argentina in 2010 and..... we win? Who knows! Every store is selling world cup everything, every... store. I love it. It’s like I’m living in my own soccer dream.

Well, I have nothing else. Thank you Mom, Dad (kinda lol), and Abuelita y Grandpa for writing me. Everything is going great here in Argentina. Thanks mom for package number two. I already drank all the hot chocolate. JA! I love you all. Until next week...

Love,
Elder Pickett