HI!

Well, I sure did enjoy reading your email this week! Thank you once again for the weekly letters that are just full of random good stuff.

The weather here can't seem to make up it's mind. Today is, literally, perfect. But earlier in the week it was horrible, so I guess that means we are in fall. Hmmm.
Today is actually a holiday (think, memorial day) and we went down to centro with the rest of the district and kinda just walked around and did some fun shopping. I bought my first mate (a big deal, mate is like the national drink. It is a type of tea thing, not sure how to explain it actually, but EVERYONE drinks it, and you use special cups made out of wood, glass, etc.) What is my mate cup? Well, I took the liberty to buy a cup made out the scrotum sac of a bull. Yes, I did.
I also bought a pair of casual shoes, since my tennis shoes are kinda dying from painting, running, etc. What was my choice of shoes? Well, logically, converse all stars. I like them quite a bit. These are some of the benifits of budgeting your money, you have extra at the end of the month. Poor Elder Palmer has no money...hehehe
So, all those meats you listed have so much more meaning to me now. I have seen every single one of them for sale except for the testicles (but I own a testicle as a cup now, so it's ok, although it is impracticle to drink out of, more for decoration) Tongue I hear is very good, and I now that heart, sweetbreads, and tripe are quite tasty. Brains look really nasty, not gonna lie. Not as nasty as the bag of nerves I saw though...
But all in all we really don't eat a ton of weird stuff. ALOT of pasta, and I mean ALOT. But with alot of different sauces and meats, and bread is a given at any meal. Actually part of the cutlery...
You sound really happy! And I am jealous of your spring break. Missionaries get no such luxuries!!!
Ben is in scouts, and getting baptised...this is weird to me. We just had a baptism this weekend! Matias Bartellone! And the family is now back in church. It is very nice to see something like that because of what you did.
Favorite investigator huh? Brisa, without a doubt. Very smart, cute little 12 yr old girl who comes alone every week with her younger sister. She has gone to alot of churches, and just feels better in our's! She will read, pray, and kinda takes the normal questions we ask as ''well, duh!'' She is just very, ''well, that makes sense, yeah.'' Her and her sister Rocio are way cool. We want a baptismal date with them, but at the same time want their parents baptised too. A predicament...prayer anyone?
Everyone is doing well here though. We found a few new people, we'll see how it goes. And a member's husband who is nto a member told us that he wants to change his life and have his family be better and needs the church for that. We agreed and are helping him to do just that. :)
Well, it depends, we usually attend priesthood, but if we have no one in church, we will go out and knock doors and talk to people in the street to find someone. But we go to the gospel principles class for the investigators and recent converts. Sunday school is not for the misionaries...but the other class is was smaller and fun anyway!
Odd random stuff.
Apparently mosquitos here are resistant to cold (from the lips of a member, not making this up!)
I feel that I have made a big step in my spanish by knowing the slang for flip flops and being able to understand the macarena
Hmmm, what else. Man, I feel so boring, my emails are getting shorter! But yeah, just plugging along still! Oh, we do not switch for daylight savings time, nope.
So, Mom, I have a question for you, what are your two favorite pictures of church related stuff, Jesus, etc?
And tell Ben I have a present for him.
Well, until next week! I love you all and am praying for you always. Thanks again for everything.
Love from Argentina
Your missionary son and brother
Elder Joshua Wartena

Ugh, thank you for such a happy email, it has not been the happiest week here.
Since sunday I have been in bed, with the exception of refusing to yesterday because we had an appt with Richard. I had been having bad headaches that were effectgin my sleep, and we were at our neighbor's when sis. Bartellone brushed my arm and said I had a fever. Well, find out it's a 101 degree fever...so I was ordered to bed and my comp took one of the YM Bartellones out to work. Well, yeah, that is about the story of my life since sun. Full of nights not being able to sleep, trying to nap during the day, and just wanting to bang my head against the wall.
Then for about two days before that it just rained and poured, and no one was home or would answer, and now it turns out that someone in the ward accused Elder Palmer of trying to do stuff with Virginia Fazzorlari (who is married to Fernando) This is of course ridiculous, I am always with him, and were with them alot because half of our progressing investigators are their friends, and so we teach with them and they come with us to contact their friends. Great couple. But, they have been having marital problems (easy to have when you get pregnant twice before turning 20 and don't really have a solid grip on life) and we didn't know. Now, the bishop and the ward mission leader both know and the mission leader has told us that we don't have to worry about anything, that he understands.
The worst part, the only reason that anyone thinks something is because Virginia is 19 yrs old, and very pretty. The other families that we work with (just as much as them) have no problems because they aren't the same.
Well, as well, a year or so ago we were told that something like this happened but that the missionary was alone with a lady for a few minutes and he had to have an emergency transfer.

We're just so excited for sunday.

Would you pray for these people?

Juan and Celia (still great, especially her, she is just eating up all the reading and defending the church and her decision to people)
Martin (still plugging along with teaching)
The Bartellone family
Brisa and Rocio
Patricia (we have another friend of the fazzolaris! She came to the first 2 hours of church, but was sick and couldn't stay for sac. mtg.)

Oh, not to make you nervous or anything, but I guess in the larger buildings in Centro you could feel the earthquake. But, this area has absolutely no lines or plates or anything for...along ways. Much more chance of having an earthquake in UT than here.
There were also a murder down the street this week (maybe the Lord was protecting me by being sick) and one in Santa Monica (the other half of our dist.) Something to do with drugs and money, and family problems. We actually went to an appt. and the lady said she couldn't stay because her friend just got killed and she had to go help. (that was a first hearing that one...)

Just a happy time here in Argentina for the moment. Nothing like migranes, earthquakes, murders, and neighbors getting shot at coming home from work to give you motivation to do better.
:D
Please don't worry though, I am fine.

Oh, address, yeah, the office changed, and there are two addresses for some reason, one for the stake center, and one for the office (but please just send them to the office)

I think you just forgot the bahia blanca part

Elder Joshua D. Wartena
Casilla de Correo 70
Bahia Blanca 8000
Buenos Aires
Argentina

I actually will be able to go to the temple before I leave! I will be making it just in time.

Well, you all sound busy, and I am glad to hear it. Hopefully next week will be a more exciting email with more stories. Thank you for all the prayers, letters, etc.
I love you so much.

Your son and brother
Elder Joshua Duveau Wartena

Wednesday is my favorite day!

Dear Family and Friends,

It's funny how a day of the week becomes your favorite. For 8 weeks I loved Fridays. Then the favorite changed to Monday. What do ya know? Now I love Wednesdays. I'm just so fickle. Oh, well. You never know how much you're gonna miss them until they're gone. Even if you've been imagining this separation since they were two weeks old, and crying about it on a regular basis, you don't know how bad the hurt is going to be or how large the whole in your life will feel when they are gone. Every Wednesday we write, read, chat, and laugh. Then the email is turned off and the momma cries for a little bit. Some weeks are more tear stained, some are less.

Now don't worry. I'm fine. We're all fine. We just miss each other's daily company. It is truly the very best feeling in the world to know your kid is Choosing The Right. It makes a lot of the hurt better. Those times when I get to feeling real lonely and sad, I take a few minutes to read conversion stories of people. To read about a person who didn't have the gospel in their life who one day chose to listen to LDS missionaries can change your whole perspective. I feel a connection to the people Josh is teaching. We pray for them. We see their faces in the pictures, hear their stories, and have joy in their changed lives. A mission is a good thing after all--and for a while there I really didn't think I was ever going to be able to say that.

So here is another weekly partial letter from our missionary to share with you. Please enjoy this journey with us.

Sincerely,

Stacie

It's MY MOM!!!

Well, I am glad you had an exciting valentine's day, yup yup. Sooooo, yeah. We are tired! We are working very hard, it's nice, and odd at the same time. The ward is all working together with their mission plan and telling us to come over because they will have someone to teach, etc. Very awesome.
Let's tell you about our peoples here.
Juan and Celia will be baptised as soon as his divorce papers go through and they can be married. In the meantime we hope to baptise their kids!
Paula and her family. Her two daughters just come to church and will be baptised as well. We just need to teach the lessons and get the Mom in on it.
Richard wants to start coming to church, but he is a security guard who gets home at about 4 or 5 am, and is very tired but comes to church. He is going to get married to the member who he is living with and will be baptised.
Laura and her daughter Deborah are bomb investigators who just need to pray and come to church.
Martin is the 18 friend of a member who goes to church, youth conference, and will be baptised as soon as he prays
Then we have the Beloqui family who has some friends they have been teaching about the temple and are all amazing apparently.

It's a good time

And those aren't counting the less actives we are working with and the members, bishop, ward mission leaders and missionaries, etc. etc.
It pretty much rocks.
We had 6 people in church, that we didn't know were coming or brought.
We had a good cold night and rain this week, so the bugs have gone down quite a bit, which is nice. I was becoming a mosquito farm I swear...
We have a zone conference tomorrow, I will let you know how that goes.
Sorry this is like bullet points, the week just flew by and I don't have my ''email notes'' to write the stuff I wanted to remember.
Elder Palmer and I are still doing well, we are teaching well together, studying, yeah.
Anything specific you would like to know?
Yesterday was really cool, we went to a recent converts house to teach paula's kids the restoration, and one of her kids (the member) brought a couple friends! So we ended up watching the movie and teaching a ton of people the lesson. Felt like primary!

Yeah, if you haven't gathered, I am doing very well. Spanish, teaching, everything. Helps as well that the bishop told us that we shouldn't waste alot of time knocking doors. So we haven't, and have had alot more success finding and teaching worthwhile people (they are all worthwhile, but some won't listen, ya know)
Maybe it sounds like I am counting my chickens before they hatch, but I'm just happy!
What else, dang it..
I am officially playing futbol with Argentines, and being pitied...My poor comp, he played soccer in college, and loves it, but I never have, so I just get put in the goal half the time! I'm alright with it though, I learn alot watching.

Hmmm, studying the JSH this week, really good! Every time I read it I am just so impressed with how crazy his story is. I mean, the church is true. All these people don't join a church because a 14 said he saw God and was given gold scriptures buried in a hill 1400 years unless it's true!

Jon Bytheway is way good! I listened to a whole bunch of his talks in Tres Arroyos, I love how he talks about the scriptures. He teachs them like they are as familiar to him as his journals, and that personal.

Yeah! I think that is about how I am doing this week, just great.
Thanks for all the prayers, support, and just everything.

I love you so much, Mom!

Your missionary son
Elder Joshua Wartena

Little Piglet writes again

Dear Mom

I love the song!

Insert here a portion of the email and the song he is referring too:

(Now, you must put yourself into a singing mood for the time being and sing the following to the tune High On the Mountain Top. Just do a syllable per beat and all will be well. : ) )

High on the mountain top

A banner was unfurled

The mother sat and typed a letter to her son.

She typed and typed and typed

Quite early in the morn

Just so he'd have some mail

Not be forlorn.

My favorite teaching moment? I was doing divisions in Santa Monica, and a recent convert asked a question about something he read in Revelation. This guy just has shelves of great philosophers and their books, tons of notebooks full of notes, and is probably one of the smartest people I have ever met. (Very humble conditions though, you would not expct it) He is very very smart, and is just soaking up the gospel. His wife (they just got married) is a member and I think he because converted a few weeks ago from athiesm because of her. He said how he knows it is way important to learn the basics, but he is just learning so fast! He asked a question about something in Revelation though and wanted to know the answer. I never thought all my random knowledge about that stuff would come in handy. The guy is just so cool! He is absorbing the gospel and just devouering (spelling, yeah) the scriptures and gospel principles. But he also wants to know about the other stuff he finds! Just an incredibly smart person who is using his brains to gain this knowledge. We connected well, and he told Elder Pranter to bring me back soon.

Most difficult? Probably the Jehovah's Witnesses who lie to you and switchstuff up about their church. Doesn't help that most of them aren't allowed to talk to you. You have to be at a certain level to talk to a mormon. But last night we were with a less active lady and her boyfriend who is living with her and her two friends (one of whom spoke english so well she just sounded like she was from louisiana. She ended up giving us a ride home from dinner, and we just got to speak English the whole time. It was cool to explain what we do and the church in English!)

gmail shut down and my computer froze for about 10 minutes, so it is even shorter than at first.

Don't worry! All good answers to your list this week.
We had a BBQ with our neighbors this weekend, it was awesome. Even though we ended up spending alot more on meat than we would have liked.
We also went fishing this morning, it was fun.

And now it must needs be that we go to a meeting with the ward, and I have to stop. I have not really responded to everything you have written, but thank you. You are the one link I have to everything that is going on i the family, Mom! (well, Dad of course, but it is different) Thank you so much. I love your emails, they make my week, you have no idea!

I love you so much, Mom!
Your little piglet with a plaque on his pocket.

Elder Joshua Wartena

He's been Tranferred!!

HI!
Ok, I got the call this afternoon to where I am going.
Drumroll please....
Punta Mogotes...yeah, less than climatic, I know.
It's in Mar Del Plata, and apparently is a very touristic place.
I am with an Elder Palmer, which is kinda cool actually, because he was Elder Wiltbank's last comp. When Elder Torres founds out he said ''you just won the lottery, Palmer, in Mar Del Plata.''
Yeah, our area is very large from what I have heard, but good. I leave tomorrow night around 6 pm. Mostly all packed already, just going to visit a few people, go to church, then head out!
Elder Hatton from the other ward in Tres Arroyos is going to Balcarce Rama 1, and is going to be district leader. hehehehe...So we will be together to travel until MDP.
Another Peruvian is coming to be Elder Torres' comp (and he is not too happy about it) and another Latin to be our dist. leaders'. So Tres Arroyos will have no English speakers!
But yeah, that's the big news, wanted to let you know, and will talk to ya'll wednesday.
Oh, Hay fotos en flickr.

I love you!
Chou
Elder Wartena

This week I shall update on the day it happens--WOW!

Dear Friends and Family,

For Christmas we got to talk with Josh for over 2 hours. It was fantabulous! He sent a package full of letters, coins, and a few presents. Jeff and Chris look totally awesome in their new Argentine soccer jerseys. He is doing quite well, and they had their first two baptisms the Friday before Christmas. Josh is hoping for a transfer in January and to be a trainer in March. He is also starting to dream in Spanish, but I'll let you read about that below.

You'll want to be sure to visit the Flickr account link and see the new pictures of our boy. Most of the new ones are of the missionaries during their 8 hour wait at the Mar del Plata bus station.

Mom!

Ok, I'm not worrying to much about writing alot, because we talked so much! I also said most everything there.
I love the pictures!

All I have to say, very exciting. Go working out! We have started to do that in the Tres Arroyos house, and it is quite fun for some reason.

I started having dreams in Spanish this week! Definitely weirding me out though, even if it is a good sign.
Our investigators are doing well. Slower week with Christmas, parties, and new year, but good! We are teaching a Jehovah's Witness family, Veronica and Gaston. I actually enjoy it, they ask hard questions and pay attention. Not sure if it's because they are genuinely interested, but they are fun to talk to. Working alot with Blanca's family now, and her daughter Andrea even said the prayer after reading 3 Ne 11 and watchign the testaments!
Yeah, just plugging along. I might be training in march! We have over 20 missionaries dying, and alot of leadership that will need to be filled. Chances are I will be out this transfer, get a comp for one transfer, and then train one of the newbies. I really hope so, that seems like so much fun to me.

I love you Mom, I hope you like the pictures I added this week! Thanks for all the good wishes and the quote. I love quotes, you know...
haha, flyaway! Don't worry, I'm still doing very well.
Thanks again for talking to me so much. I'm praying for you all and love hearing about everything
I love you!
Your missionary son
Elder Joshua Wartena

Signing off for now,

The Mama

December 2, 2009—a short update

Woohoo...

Alright, I have a full 10 minutes to write you this week. Due to miscommunication, not knowing where people are, lots of walking, and bus schedules, Elder Torres and I have 10 minutes. Yeah...I'm kinda mad about it. I had alot to write to you guys.
Mom, thank you for the email, it was great! Even though I can't respond to everything.
Dad, thank you for the scripture study outline/ideas. They really correspond creppily well with what I'm studying in pers. study.
Chris, do you like Argentina Nation Team or River jerseys better?
I will be writing you all an actual letter about things here and sending it next Pday, so it should get to you by christmas. The big news of this week is that we have 3 baptisms scheduled for the 20 of december. Yay...kind of. I think only one of them is going to be ready. The other 2 are extended family of the screwed up Branch pres.' wife, and it is a bad situation that I do not feel good about. Missionaries have the keys of baptism in their area, and I do not think they should be baptized this soon and with this situation. More about that as it unfolds though.

I love you all!
Thanks again for everything, sorry about the email this week.

Elder Wartena



Josh was attending an area pday and things got cut short. He had to take a 8 hour round trip bus ride to Necochea for the event. I guess it's worth it for the missionaries to spend time together. He sounds much happier these days.

Signing off for now,

The Mama