Rhett - Gainz gainz gainz

What's up Guys!

I hope you all had a great week. It's been raining a ton over here still, it's crazy. We will leave in the morning and be sweating and then all the sudden it just starts pouring rain haha.I seriously don't understand the weather here...But me and Elder Prina are working super well. It's been pretty cool having an American comp for the first time. We have been setting some goals to get some gainz too! haha This week we made a bunch of eggs and potatoes and made some giant breakfast burritos. Also with some protein shakes. We even have some brick weights to work out with, pretty sick! Maybe I can get rid of all those empanadas I ate when I first got here..

But as far as the work goes we are working super well. We have seen a lot of miracles already. A lot of investigators progressing and preparing to get married and get baptized. I'm super excited to see the change in them. This week we taught this lady in Trinidad who came to church last week. We got to her house and she told us about how she really likes church and she felt good going, but then the whole rest of the week everything just went super bad. It made her think about how she wants to make changes in her life and be better so she can have a better family and life. We told her about how a lot of times when we find something good in our lives like the gospel, Satan tries to throw in all his winds to make things go wrong because he doesnt want us to be happy. But if we continue with our faith and trust in Heavenly Father, we will get past the ostacles and that's when the blessings come. Jesus Christ allows us to change and become better. She seemed super happy afterwards and told us she wants to keep coming to church. It was super awesome. I know God puts trials in the way, but it's to make us stronger and better. If we trust in Him it will all work out. I hope you all have a great week. Love you guys!

Elder Reilly

Trent

*Trent has not been sending a group email the last few weeks so these are just excerpts from his parents letters. 

Everything is great here. Elder Salazar just left today. He was doing great but got transferred to another area. Prez just called and said he needed him somewhere else so he went! We had a baptism before he went though! Una chica named Milagros. It was really great. Elder Salazar baptized her and I confirmed her. We keep going with the members and sharing stuff with them and inviting them to invite. This Friday we have an appointment with the Paredes Family with their friends. It's gonna be sweet. We are continuing to work on gaining the trust of the ward and getting them going. Sorry I haven't been writing the group letter mom! I have so little time! Ill try this week. Loving the mission! It's been flying by now.

I think I want to extend my mission until the 19th of December. That's the date my converts have set to go get sealed in Buenos Aires. If I leave from there the 19th I would get home the 21st. I'm gonna do it haha! I'll still be home for Christmas and school don't worry!

I LOVE missionary work! Its the best and it brings the most joy! Love you! Till next week!

Trent

This week was awesome! Very successful! Elder Salazar is doing good haha. He is 24 and a recent convert before the mission. He doesn't know the doctrine very well haha but we help him patiently. But I've seen a great change in him. Before he would always get mad like every two seconds over everything it was a little awkward actually haha but now he's become a lot better. It's so awesome how just a little hard work and obedience can change things in a second. We came in and started working and visiting all the members and then the few investigators that the past Elders left us and contacting and it was sweet. The members are hyped to work with us now. There was pretty much one investigator with potential. She had already come to church but she just didn't want to commit to baptism because she didn't understand a few things. We went and visited her and had a an awesome powerful lesson and now she will be baptized this Saturday! Miracle! And her name just happens to be Milagros which means miracles haha. When we were contacting we found a really cool woman named Adrianna. She said she had been waiting for us! She prayed the night before for guidance and then we showed up! She came to church and loved it. We assigned members to wait in the door for her and sit with her and now she already has fellowshipping and everything. She'll be baptized the 27th. What a great week! To answer the questions, we are about 30 minutes walking from our old area. Confluencia is a neighborhood of Neuquen.

Our new apartment is horrible haha! It's like 100 degrees at night and we all sleep in the only room haha. Our president told us to be looking for another apartment haha and he might buy us a little portable air conditioner thing so that should be nice! Everything is great here! Vamos arriba! Love you and miss you!!

Rhett

Hola Familia!

I hope you all had a great week, and a good start to the New Year. It's been a good start over here. I just want to start off this letter by saying Terevy`aiteke Ra'y!! Happy Birthday to the best Dad in the World! Thanks for all you have done for the family and for me personally, and for always showing us how it's done. I hope I can be a father like you one day. Love you Dad! 

This week was a good one. One of our investigators Sandra is progressing a ton. She has been wanting to get married and baptized ever since we first taught her but has had to wait some time to work things out. We have been teaching her and she loves it and has been coming to church. She now has a baptismal date for the 3rd of February to get married and then baptized the same day. She is so awesome, It has been so great to teach her! Every time we come by she literally jumps up and runs in her house to pull out some chairs so that we can sit down and share. I have been able to see the change and the light take place in her that the gospel has brought. I feel like that is one of the greatest things about being a missionary. Being able to visit people and see the change that Christ makes in their lives, and the joy that comes with it. 

We had transfers this week. There were a lot of changes that were made. The mission with 4 APs wasn't working too well with us being here in Paraguay and the communication and with us having to travel a lot we wasted a lot of time, so President decided that were gonna go back to 2 APs now in Argentina. So we're in an area near Obligado called Capitan Mirando. I will be Zone Leader there with my new comp Elder Prina from Temecula, California! It's gonna be sweet haha. Pretty crazy that he's from Temecula right by VC. I never knew him before the mission, but he's a cool dude and has a love for the people and work! I'm so pumped. It will be my first American comp and he is like 7 feet tall. Haha everyone is gonna be asking us what are we doing here in Paraguay, and we are gonna be able to tell them that we have the best message in the world that will literally change your life! Something cool about it too is that when I was talking to President about Obligado he said that since it's super close, we can go wherever there are baptisms. There are gonna be only sisters there so we are going to basically have 2 areas and will be able to work with our investigators progressing in Obligado and also work in Capitan Mirando. It's gonna be a great transfer!

I just want to end off with my testimony that I know Christ lives and is our Savior. I know that He knows how we feel when we are in pain because He also suffered it. I know that His church has been restored to the Earth. A church that is guided by a prophet of God. I know that God loves us and He has restored Christ's church to bless us and help us return to live with Him once again. I know that the gospel brings us together and allows us to have joy. Love you all, Jajetupata!

Elder Reilly

Trent

Hola a todos!

Today is transfer day and some pretty interesting things happened! I'm staying in the Neuqen Zone as Zone Leader with Elder Eslpin but we got moved to another area in the zone called Confluencia. We are in a trio with another Elder named Elder Salazar from Ecuador. President communicated to us that the reason he wanted us to go to Confluencia is because it's pretty much been in the tank for the last year. It has had very few baptisms and the members don't trust in the missionaries because some disobedient ones have passed through. He wants us to go in and change it all. We have to gain the confidence of the members so they start working with us and we have to find people to teach and just get to work. It's gonna be stressful and crazy but it's

gonna be fun too! I'm really excited to be in an area for a whole transfer and have some good time to just get to work.

Also in our area there's another McDonalds and there's Walmart! We're gonna go to Walmart today and see if we can find some cool stuff from the U.S. Should be fun.

The other day we did this service for a less active member and we got there and he told us we were gonna be digging a huge hole to put his water tank in the ground haha. Oh my gosh it killed us haha. We dug this huge 5 foot deep hole and we were so tired haha, but then the member made us an asado and it was super good so it was all worth it!

I love this time I have to serve God with all I have! feel like he gives me challenges and then teaches me and strengthens me and then gives me more challenges and then strengthens me and teaches me more haha. But it's great. I have progressed a ton and I wouldn't trade it for anything! Love you and miss you all! Have a great week!

Trent

Happy New Year!

It was so fun talking to everyone on Christmas! All the kids in the family look so big! It's gonna be so fun to see them when I get back!...We are still in the same area and living with the assistants. It's fun. One of the assistants, Elder Toledo, was my Zone Leader back in Esquel before I became Zone Leader! He's my really good friend. He's from Uruguay but he's learning English and he wants to go to BYU. His family told him that there's no work where they're at so he has to go to the U.S. I hope we can stay friends after!

Everything is great here in the new area. There's only one member in the whole area so we are just contacting and contacting and contacting everyone we see and knocking doors and doing everything we can to find new people and teach them. This transfer ends in a week so I think they'll change some things. I'll probably stay here with Elder Esplin and Elder Jeffris will go to another area. I'm excited! It was so great this New Year because President invited us to the mission home with the office elders and the assistants to eat dinner! It was the best dinner I've eaten in a long time haha. We were all there until like 11 at night just enjoying the time. It was sweet. 

I can't believe that I've been here for this long. It's crazy. The time is just flying by now. I'm so grateful for the mission. I LOVE that I can just dedicate EVERYTHING for two years. I've learned and grown so much! I wouldn't trade it for anything! I'm gonna kill it this second year with the Lords help!

Love you and miss you! I hope all is well at home! Vamos arriba! Till next week!

Rhett

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Feliz Navidad! Y Feliz Ano Nuevo! Also, Happy Birthday Regan! Love you Regs, I hope you had a good one, thanks for being such a great sister all these years! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. That was awesome getting to talk to you guys on Christmas. I am so grateful to be a part of our family! Well to start off I'll just say that Christmas was great, I think it's so great becasue it gives us the opportunity to think a little more about Jesus Christ and try to be more like Him as the year finishes. I hope to try and keep this same spirit with me throughout the whole year. I like to think that we can light the world and be doing things Christ would do all year around, not just one month or a day. So let's make it a good one! 

But this week was a good one. Christmas was great, we went to a member's house and ate a huge meal and then after played some football. Haha I brought my football and taught them how to play 3 flags up. Haha everyone that passed by looked at us all crazy, like what are these kids doing playing with a ball that looks like a giant egg. And then after I threw it.. haha I'm pretty sure they could tell I was from America. Something cool with lunch. The family taught me how to hunt down and kill a chicken and then eat it. Haha that was pretty interesting. So if any of you want to eat some pollo in a year just give me a call. Haha later that day at night we went around with the sister missionaries to hospitals and a cemetary and sang Christmas songs to the sick. That was a super cool experience as well. I played the Ukulele which was pretty sweet. And after that the week went really well. I think it was the first one where we actually got to work in our area basically the whole week. We worked super hard and saw some big things happen. We have been working a lot lately in Trinidad which recently started the church. We have been finding some awesome investigators. There is a member family that loves missionary work and me and my comp do divisions with the dad and the son so we have been finding and teaching a bunch with them. The work is growing so much here it's awesome. There have been so many miracles in finding and so many people that are so ready for the gospel in their lives. I can feel the Lord's hand in the work so much. We are able to just be led in the right moment, in the right place, to visit people just when they need it. I feel like we see that on a daily basis. We have been able to find a lot of families that want to get married and come closer to God. It has been great seeing the change in these peoples lives and helping them accomplish that and live closer to Christ.

I want to end off sharing a Scripture in Romans. It's Romans 8:35-39. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that with His help life will all be good. It doesn't matter what comes our way, or what problem we face, if we have the faith and are firm in Christ and our Heavenly Father, nothing can tear apart our road to salvation. I love this work and the gospel, I know it is true and that Jesus Christ lives. I can feel His hand in this work. Lets make this year a good one and Light the World! Love you guys

Elder Reilly