Everyone
in the chapel knew that I was looking for her, and when she came on
(multiple times) everyone in the chapel was so happy for me!!! I have to
admit the last song she sang made me tear up. It was like saying
goodbye again. But honestly seeing her really felt like the reward after
the trial. I am so grateful she was blessed with that opportunity to
sing and remind me of my motivation here on my mission, my family.
Okay
so I am way behind on pictures and my mom said she wants to see more
pictures, so I am just going to share some for the next little bit!
Okay this is last week looking out towards Argentina! (We were in Paraguay!) I was super excited to finally go back to Argentina!
All of "The Original District" is reunited! We were so excited to get to spend some time together! (And have the opurtunity to speak some English) Aaaaaaaaannnd we had Mcdonalds! I know I never liked McDonalds back in the day, but eating there made me feel soooo at home for some reason!
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3. Send letters through the Church Pouch Mail Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes).
Fold the letter in thirds, secure the long side with tape about one inch in from each end. Do not seal the ends. Stamp and address the blank side as you would an envelope. Use the following mailing address:
Elder Taylor Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT
84130-0150
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4. Physical Mailing Address.
Due to exorbitant costs incurred in the country of Argentina by the church, He can not receive packages :-( - not even a bubble envelope. Please refrain from sending anything other than an envelope/letter - anything else will likely be returned to sender.
Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina
Okay this is last week looking out towards Argentina! (We were in Paraguay!) I was super excited to finally go back to Argentina!
All of "The Original District" is reunited! We were so excited to get to spend some time together! (And have the opurtunity to speak some English) Aaaaaaaaannnd we had Mcdonalds! I know I never liked McDonalds back in the day, but eating there made me feel soooo at home for some reason!
Here are the AP´s of my Mission! They are so fun and I got to be with
them for a couple of days and learn from their awesome example! This is
us right before going on a run. A real run. Not me running back and
forth on 50 meters of street, but a real run. Through the city, on the
beach, across bridges, dodging crazy drivers of Argentina. It was
awesome! And they are actually fast! This day was the best day of my
worst week :)
Okay you have to excuse how dead and goofy I look, it was 1:30
in the morning and had about 40 minutes of sleep that night and was
borrowing clothes of an Elder who weighs about 250 pounds...but this bus
is super funny! Because in English it says "Proud to be a Missionary"!
When I first saw this bus I was super confused,. But then I realized
that we are in the Province/State of Misiones. So every one who lives in
that province is technically un misionero. HAHA
Okay I took this picture because I dont think you guys understand how
truly insane guarani is. I know I have explained before that it is
nothing like Spanish, but it also is not like any other language known
to man...
Here is a random picture of me holding a bunny...
This is a picture of us and the Lopez Group who traveled to Natalio
(3 hour drive) to watch conference. On a good week we have 3 or 4
investigators attend the church, but this week we were praying all week
that we would have a good turn out to Conference. Even though it is so
far, we had 10 investigators make the trip to watch conference!!!!!!! We
were so happy!
The man on the far right is
Named "Apolonio". He is near impossible to understand and is 83 years
old. We found him and could not understand a word we were saying. (Not
just me, my companion from Peru neither). I was under the impression
that he was just uneducated and this was going to be very difficult to
continue to teach him. But my companion had more faith than I did at
that time. He decided that we should bring a member to our next lesson
with him. We did, and it was amazing. They talked in Guarani the whole
time (I understood about 8 words in 35 minutes) and he clearly was
touched by what the member had said. Now that we know that he truly is a
very smart man, just speaks a different language, we are going to
continue to bring members with us to visit him.
The
boy in the red shirt with white sleeves is who is going to be baptized
soon. His name is Armando. The Brother of Fernando. His Baptismal date
was moved to Octubre 11 to allow us to teach him a little more (because
we haven't been in Lopez). Unfortunately, we again have been rained out
of Lopez. We had such a bad storm today I don't know if the roads will
EVER dry! Because we have a mission conference on Thursday
we wont be able to get back to Lopez until the day of the baptism or
the day before if we are lucky. If you all could please pray for us so
that it wont rain and that the baptism can go smoothly.
Okay a couple more things.
Again,
going back to seeing my mom, as I watched her sing from 6000 miles
away, I realized something. I had the thought, the impression, that if
the only thing I learned on my mission, was that I love my family, the
way I now realize that I love them, it would make it ALL worth it.
I
love the prophets, and was so grateful to hear there inspired words. It
was very interesting to here the talks in Japanese, Portuguese and
especially Spanish. I hope you all were able to learn from this
conference.
I love you all!
Elder Graves
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Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways:
1. E-mail - tgraves@myldsmail.net
Write to Elder Graves in 1 of 4 ways:
1. E-mail - tgraves@myldsmail.net
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2. Send mail through www.DearElder.com
They will print and mail it for you at no cost (without a stamp). This is a free service.
www.DearElder.com Instructions:
Select the "Argentina Posadas Mission"
They will print and mail it for you at no cost (without a stamp). This is a free service.
www.DearElder.com Instructions:
Select the "Argentina Posadas Mission"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Send letters through the Church Pouch Mail Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes).
Fold the letter in thirds, secure the long side with tape about one inch in from each end. Do not seal the ends. Stamp and address the blank side as you would an envelope. Use the following mailing address:
Elder Taylor Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT
84130-0150
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Physical Mailing Address.
Due to exorbitant costs incurred in the country of Argentina by the church, He can not receive packages :-( - not even a bubble envelope. Please refrain from sending anything other than an envelope/letter - anything else will likely be returned to sender.
Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina
It was hard to say "goodbye" to you too, Taylor. I cried after the last song knowing that our connection was over. I love you so much, son.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Mom