Elder Robert Allen Pickett

Monday, April 26, 2010

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful...

Dear Everyone,

Another week passes in Paraiso Terrenal. There were a lot of things that happened but it’s going to be a little bit hard to explain. Hopefully it all makes sense. Keep track of names and who they are because I am just going to start throwing names out left and right.

So last Monday I was feeling a little but under the weather. I got a sore throat and I didn’t think anything of it because I went and played ping pong with my comp and I didn’t feel much. But it got really bad when we went out to work that night. We went working igual. I worked through it. We went to District meeting like always. We have now changed it so it is now in Chivilcoy every Tuesday. Then the rest of the week went pretty normal. Saturday we got the opportunity to meet an ex elder that was Branch President also out here. He served four years ago there and he was just visiting with his wife.

Sunday, oh yeah, Sunday. So the past week has just been FREEZING! And Sunday morning wasn’t any different. It probably wasn’t that cold but the humidity just killed us. I had my gloves and sweater and a shirt under my white shirt and a jacket. And I had my long johns on! And two pairs of socks. Wow, I was wearing a lot. So we did the whole church thing. I taught my lesson on Balac and Balaam. Cool little story that I don’t think I have heard about. It was hard to teach it in Spanish to the youth. I don’t think any of them got it. Well, I tried. I told them that basically we need to do what the Lord says or else. That got through their heads better.

One of our investigators, Victoria, didn’t show up and we were really hoping she would show up. We are afraid that she is getting “cold”. Cold meaning that she is distancing herself from the church. We are going to be working frantically this week to do a NDH [Family Home Evening] with her and some of her friends in the church. Her Mother is inactive and that doesn’t help us much either so it’s been a struggle to try and get them both to church. So Victoria and Julia (Mother) is project #1.

Project #2 is a bit more difficult. We have an investigator who is golden. She comes to church every week. She doesn’t go to gospel principles but to gospel doctrine and participates. She is just golden. But the problem is she is not married and she is living with a guy. The guy is the excommunicated member that I think I have talked about before. His name is Ruben and her name is Virginia. Virginia is ready to get baptized once they get married. So this Sunday, my comp had a conversation with her and asked her what the progress is on making the decision. She said that this is a really difficult decision for them to make because of stuff that has already happened. She would be the third woman that Ruben has been with and second married with if they get married. He has six kids, three from each of the previous. She has one from a relationship she was in before. Both of their last relationships ended pretty bad. There is saying here and I will do it in English for everyone. It goes like this: “When one is burned by milk, they cry when they see the cow.” So it is in this situation. But when my companion was talking to her yesterday she said something that surprised us both. She said that she doesn’t have a commitment with anyone else but with God. And that in order to be good with God, if she had to leave Ruben, she would do it. Our jaws dropped. So we are now in a situation where if Ruben and Virginia don’t get married, It is only going to be Virginia going to church with her daughter Sofi (7 yrs old). To make things even more exciting, the oldest daughter of Ruben from the second, we’ll say, wife, is attending church and all the activities and she wants to get baptized too. Her name is Milagros and she is 12 years old. So we are working with her so that she can get permission from Ruben, her dad (easy), and her mother who is against the church (not as easy). So we have our work cut out for us.

We had 32 people at church yesterday which is an average day. And then to make the day better, we had District Priesthood meeting in Bragado and 4 [came?] in the afternoon. It was such a good meeting. We had one person from our branch receive the Melquisedec Priesthood. Well, not received, but got sustained and he will be getting it on Thursday. In the Priesthood Meeting they talked about always having a current temple recommend even though we cannot go for another year. They also talked about the blessings of being full tithe payers. And the last one I liked the most. The last speaker, President Abrea, talked on the importance of the priesthood and each of the responsibilities that each office has. It was so awesome and I am sure that it helped out some members of our Elders quorum. We had five men from our branch go which is the most ever they said that had gone to a meeting like this. We went in a convey [combi?]. It was fun. So that was Sunday. And now it is P-day. We are probably going to play ping pong right after we write these letters. Anyway, nothing too exciting but enough to keep me occupied.

I received a card from Miss Erica, thank you very much for being very consistent even though I am very, very inconsistent. I very much appreciate your letters. Mother’s day is coming up so you know what that means family… I’m calling! I don’t know any plans yet or what is going to be happening that day because it is also the last day of the transfer so we don’t know if we are going to be traveling to BA or not. We probably won’t because we will probably stay together for a third transfer. That is unheard of. So who knows. I’ll let you know with more details next week. So anyway, Talk to you all next week.

Love
Elder Pickett
[Edits]

Monday, April 19, 2010

Elder Pickett wins the Green Jacket

Dear Everyone,

What a week! I always say that but it is always true. There happens to be at least one thing interesting every week. I will start with what happened last P-day. After I sent last weeks letter, we went and did our compras and ate some lunch. We then sat and wondered what to do the rest of P- Day. P- Day is a very special day for all missionaries. It is a day where you can rest for a bit and do some fun things in your area if there are any fun things to do.

Well, we had heard a rumor that there was a golf course in our area. So what do we do? We went searching for the golf course! We found it and we ask ourselves, golf now or next week? It didn’t take very long for us to make a decision. We got inside the club house and ask about all the prices and stuff. It was going to be 30 pesos each person for as many holes of golf as we wanted. WHAT! To make things even better, they GAVE us clubs to use. No rental fee. We did have to buy some golf balls but those cost 2 pesos each ball. Oh man did we hit the jackpot! So we went golfing for P- Day, in Argentina! We just did 9 holes because of time but that was so much fun. My companion and I tied. The score was 61 to 61. I know that is a horrible score for you golf people but for us being missionaries who don’t go golfing all the time, that was amazing!

Then came Tuesday and it was normal for the most part. Wednesday was a half day because we had to travel to BA for a Zone conference in Moreno. We did the whole zone conference thing which was OK. The topic was use the Book of Mormon as much as possible. And so, this week we are going to try and use the Book of Mormon as much as possible. We then went back to 9 de Julio Thursday night. We didn’t get back home until midnight. We were so tired. When we got home, we went straight to bed.

Skipping now to Saturday because Friday was normal also. Saturday was a half day also because we had a service project in the afternoon/evening. Our service project was to clean the back patio of the church which was just a huge mess. Branches and vines everywhere. We found a huge frog but it escaped somehow. But we started working at like 5 and didn’t finish until 715 or so. By that time, it was really dark. As you can see, it is starting to become winter here. So it was a tad bit chilly for my liking. But we got a whole lot cleaned up. Now we have a huge pile of branches and weeds and stuff that we need to take out this week. And then after that we are going to repaint the back of the capilla. This place is just rocking with service opportunities and I love it! Doing some good work out here is fun. I know that sounds weird seeing as I would hate to do work at home. But work out here seems more fun.

After we were done working, one of the hermanos cook us some homemade pizzas. They were really really good. He used to work at a pizzeria and so he knows the tricks. But I can’t tell you how good it was because it was just that good.

Now yesterday, Sunday, Día de Reposo, and boy did I need a reposo. I was asked by the Primary Presidency to teach in primary the first hour on the Restoration of the Gospel. That was fun because I made the kids draw! Ha ha. Then I went and taught my classes, the youth, about Moses raising up a serpent and how it was a symbol of Christ being lifted up on the cross and how we need to have faith to look unto Him and be healed. Great.

Then sacrament meeting I had to give a talk. We had a speaker who spoke for 5 or 7 minutes, something like that, then the intermediate hymn, then I had to speak. I had literally 35 minutes or so. For those of you who were at the sacrament meeting where I gave my “farewell” talk, know that I spoke there for 10 to 12 minutes. So here I am, I get up and I tell people that I have 35 minutes to speak, and that it was going to be the longest talk I have ever given in my life. They laugh of course because I am Elder Pickett and everything is funny. So I ended up talking for 30 minutes and Elder Sabey had to get up and say a couple of words. I literally ran out of material and was rambling about cualquier cosa about the church for a good 5 to 10 minutes after all my material ran out. It was kind of embarrassing but it turned out good according to some people. I think they were just trying to be nice. I talked about Unity in the branch. I talked about if we are not one, we are not of God and this topic has been a bit of a problem here so I think what I said in my talk should help this branch a little. Other than that, I have survived another week in the mission. I haven’t passed out from exhaustion, yet.

Thank you everyone for you support. I didn’t receive any snail mail from anyone so I am assuming everything is great. I did receive a letter from one of my converts who is now attending seminary so I am very proud of him. He is 14 yrs old and waking up at 5:30 in the morning to go to seminary at 6. What a KPO! Anyway, thank you for the pictures. I love you all and keep doing the thing you do.

Love,

Elder Pickett

Monday, April 12, 2010

Pictures!!!

Here are the pictures Allen sent this week. They were too many to include inside the body of the mail without being distracting. A special thanks to Rob Kelsey for teaching Allen how to paint!