More Photos

Keith sent these photos last week.

Attempt at a home made Thanksgiving

 Showing off the calves

 Nasty sweat marks

 Better view of the sweat marks

Mosquito bite

Trying out my Spanish

Hey my beloved family!!!!

 

Trelew is doing amazing as always!!!!! just cause i am here is why!!! ah jk. So for the 26th. I will be "calling" through skype at about 3:00 my time. so i think thats about 11:00 am your time. just fyi. daniel added me so i dont think their should be problems. I am super excited to see you folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha funny story. So we were in Gaiman on Friday and we were walking and i saw this 9 year old driving a huge fruit truck, so i was starring at him (yes its a keith thing to do is to stare, thanks dad) and i was walking and walked right into a metal post. hard. split my head open. BUT........im ok ;) we went to a hermanas house and i bandaged it all up and what not. now just waiting for the scar to form. blood was all over my head. super funny. but i am ok mom. no worries.

 

so my week. tuesday we had interviews with president Peterson. We were there for 5 hours cause president showed up late. i was playing piano and Hermana peterson didnt know i played and she was impressed. Check that out kids. I almost played myself to sleep. But then i went on divisions with Elder Roldan. It was super fun. He is so funny. He is from Mexico. Wednesday we were on divisions that day too. ate some good ice cream in Gaiman with him. Taught some kids at the church. turns out we think those same kids burned the books of mormon that we gave them and threw them on the roof of the church cause we found two books of mormon burned on the roof of the church. but anywho. on divisions we went on divisions with some members. Thursday was planning. Friday was gaiman with elder newey. saturday was divisions with the zone leaders. and sunday we practiced with some members to sing on christmas. ya i sing tenor in the songs. yeah baby! just whooped the dream american voice out for the folks. no big deal. haha. but yeah that was my week. look forward to hearing from ya fam. Love ya. Keep reading and praying. I promise you will recieve blessings.

 

Elder Ross

It's all I have

FAMILIA!!!!!

 

It sure it just wonderful to hear from you folks every week!! so first things first, I think I will be skyping on Monday the 26th. Our schedule is different then it was last year it looks like monday is when we can skype. So just fyi. For sure this upcoming week, so next p day i will tell you the time and all.

Yeah its super hot here. I get these sweat marks on my shirts from my backpack that are all brown and such, i Think i will send pictures, its pretty gross. Yes my feet are somewhat better, they stink super bad. Elder Newey makes jokes about them every night. And the mosquitos here are ridiculous. Right now i think i have 10 bites. In the past week, pretty sure I had around 25. but what do ya do. Its the mission. I hope my package comes today, we always go get the boulsa (mail bag) on mondays in the morning but this morning we had to go pay our rent and power bills. so we will get it after.

How is the ol 7th ward doin? i got a letter from the primary here a couple weeks back. Sister Willardson put a bunch of argentine words, foods, and soccer teams in it. It was super fun to read. Tell her I am a River fan. Not boca jr´s. she´ll know exactly what your talking about. How are the missionaries from the ward doing? i really dont have any other contact with missionaries execpt for hayden and a few in my mtc group.

 

so my week this week wasnt that exciting, someone got hit on a bike outside of our apartament this morning. The drivers here are absolutly nuts and super impacient. on wednesday we went on divisions, i went with elder zamora. It was pretty good. We went to these members house in their ward and their kids love me. they were drawing pictures for me the whole time. I was doing magic tricks for them and all. Cute little kids. but thats about the only exciting thing that happened this week. a really boring week it sounds like but we really do make it lively in our companionship, making jokes and just laughing. The language is coming along. I can finally understand everything people say! and i can talk alot better. Thanks to alot of prayers. The investigators are doing well, we havent seen them in a long while. They always dont show up to our appointments. Buttfaces. Oh well. We love them anyways.

 

This mission experience is somthing else, something I had never dreamed of. Yesterday we had a cool experience, we went to find a lady that was a reference from a member. We knock her house (clap outside the gate) and the neighbor who is a member Hmno Gonzalia looks out his window and says "hey she isnt home, want to come in" so we did and he was just tellin us about the mission and all these super funny stories. He is the coolest member ever. He is like 30 and just a studd and the elders quorum president. Then we start talking about hymns and how much power they have and i start singing my little harmonies like my ol pops taught me how to. And he and my companion were super impressed. so we now want to do a musical number together one sunday. but while listening to the hymns he says "pay attention to those words, wow. What power" and we started talking about gods creations and how we couldnt believe that people dont believe in God. How could someone not believe in God. and again my purpose as a missionary kicked in. Thats what I am here to do. To prove that their is a God. You wouldnt believe the amounts of people that bash on us "Mormons" as they call us. How many people dont believe in God.

Im glad to two amazing parents who brought me up in a home where I knew that everything came from God. All that I had was from God. And that their was a God. And i am here to testify as a representitive of Jesus Christ, Their is a God, he loves us. He sent us here to this earth to see if we loved him enough to keep his commandments, make and keep sacred covnants and return with him. In return, we can be like him. A God. If we live our lives worthily to return with him. I know this church is true. No doubts. Words cant describe the experience i have had here as a missionary, the things i have learned. Thanks Mom and Dad for everything to get me here, I am forever in debt to you. and thank you God for letting me have this experience of an earthly life to live with such an amazing family that i can be with forever.

 

Cuidense!

 

Elder Ross

Our news...what's yours

HEY FAM!!!!!

 

oh such a good week here. as always haha. well it was an ok week, alot of people let us down on appointments which is pretty usual. But we just keep truckin along and keep working. nothing big thats a big story writter happened this week. No I have not gotten your package. Yes i did get dads letter. He like knows my area better than I do. So yes um mom we are comming up on christmas and yes i do get to skype home. Yes that means internet video of me. WE GET TO SEE EACH OTHER!!!!! i am going to set up a skype account today and next week i am going to send you the information. I need your guys information to talk to you. I dont know the exacts of what time and all that but i will talk with my companion about it and tell you next week.

Yes it is smokin hot here. Its usually in the low 90's. nothing too big. but super hot. i have sweat stains on my shirts from where my backpack rests on my shoulders and back. its pretty gnarly. and yes my feet stink a fool. oh goodness. but thats the mission. you just get mission feet. and we are getting eaten alive by mosquitos. just a big ol jumbled mess of happiness is what it is. haha :)

 

Our investigators are mas o menos right now. They dont have a fire desire to be baptised or know things about the church. but we are hoping to change that. we have a cita(appointment) tonight with a guy that stopped us on the street saying he has been waiting for us to come buy so we will see how that goes. A member gave me some Jordans (michael jordan shoes) for free. they said they dont fit him, they dont fit me either so i am going to give them to Elder Brown one of the other elders in our zone.  yes.

 

I had a cool experience this week teaching a menos activo why i am on my mission. I just bore testimony to her that I am here to save souls who are lost and dont know about the truth. I am here to bring their family who had been away from the church for a long time back to church. Thats why we are here as missionaries, cause God provided a way we could learn about the truth to live back with God again after this life. God provided a way to be clean from our sins by being baptised, partaking of the Atonement, taking the sacrament every week. God provided every way to be back with him, we just have to find that way and do everything it takes. The big thing that always runs through my head is this question "If Jesus came this moment, would I be able to say "Yes lord, I am cleanof my sins"." I hope and have no doubt that each of you are living a worthy life but we need to make sure we are always doing good things so we are clean in the last day. I love you family, be safe and take care"

 

Elder Ross

Good 11-28-11

HEY YERD!!!!

 

OH THANKSGIVING!!! OH HOW I MISS THANKSGIVING!!!!!

 

So transfers came......and.......(drumroll please)................. I AM STAYING IN TRELEW!!!! hahaha o ya baby! Christmas and New Years with my trainer!!!!!! No one in my district left, its all the same still, which is pretty unheard of. So my thanksgiving.......kinda sucked haha. the only good part was that i got to spend it with my trainer. an american. haha. We had noodles and tomato sauce hahah spaghetti and reminised about the days of thanksgiving before the mission. Uh yes i did eat some turkey. IT WAS BOMB!!!!!! the people at the activity were all over it like it was nobodys buisness. The smores they loved also. Those were pretty good also. So ya.

 

so my week, nothing big happened, spent alot of time preparing for the activity on saturday. We did divisions on friday, i went with elder Zamora. He is from Santa Fe (a provence here in Argentina)  It was interesting, we taught a testigo (jahovahs witness), well i taught him and elder zamora just kinda sat there. But it was sweet. Just went on alot of visits. saturday was the activity, the tour of the church didnt work out but oh well, we had a good turnout. Then sunday  elder osborn, our zone leader finished his mission so we saw him off but a cool expirience on sunday, we were planning what to do after studies. and i thought, hey lets go visit a menos activo family. so we went to this one family, the dad is pretty active the son is kinda active adn the mom doesnt go to church. the son is 21. we talked with him about the mission and if he has thought about going on one. he said yes and he wants to but its hard. so we talked about it for a while and shared some experiences and testimony. the spirit was really strong. He committed to start comming to church more often and reading his scriptures and praying daily. We challenged him to pray about a mission. we said the closing prayer and at the end of the prayer he was crying. he said that this visit with the missionaries was just what he needed. for a very long time in fact. and we were able to fufill that by a listening to a prompting by the spirit to go to his house. i´ve never been one to know what its like to get a prompting by the spirit. but it was by a simple thought, that we were able to answer someones prayers. Follow those sprititual promptings, the lord will bless you. Love you guys!!

 

Elder Ross

Package is on it's way

FAMILIA!!!!!!!!!

ITS TURKEY BOWL WEEKEND!!!!

We just played our own little turkey bowl this today with all the greenie elders, it was way fun! Our thanksgiving plans are to......knock doors baby!!!! haha jk. i am not sure. its probably just going to be like anyother day on the mission. But this coming saturday. we are having an activity with the other wards and my companion and i are making turkey and gravy and SMORES!!!!! yes we bought a turkey and stuff for smores so all of friday we get to prepar for this activity. its a international dinner night. we have a bunch of different elders from different countries cooking different things. hopefully it works out

 

This week.....so i will just tell the exciting parts. Tuesday my companion cut a members hair. it took like three hours cause our hair cutter thing sucks. and we visited the girl that we have a baptismal date with. wednesday we did divisions. i went with elder cori. he is from peru. it was interesting but a fun time. every thursday we play ping pong at the church with a menos activo family. so i am pretty much just bomb at ping pong. look out. friday we bought all our stuff for the activity this coming saturday with the bishop and then went to gaiman. saturday we taught english then had a baptism for the other elders in our area. I played all the songs for the baptism, a musical number and accompanied two songs that other elders sang. Yeah its impressive i know. i did it all on the spot. they asked and i did it. sunday we had to talk in church. every third sunday is missionary work sunday so we talk. then we went to gaiman for a "tsunami". any returned missionary will appreciate this. its where you take a bunch of elders and go and whipe out an area. so we had 12 elders and we just went visiting a fool. ( afool is a saying here that means alot.) so ya that was our week

 

Hope your thanksgiving is fabulous. say hi to all the family for me. miss them and have fun. tell ol sis kayla to eat my fair share of food for me. she is just a big eater isnt she. haha love ya sis.

 

Love you all

 

Elder Ross

Family!!!!

Family!!!!!!!!!!

 

Oh goodness it is sooooo good to hear from ya!!!!! yes alot has happened this week!!! so first things first. I have some very exciting news.......I GET TO USE SKYPE FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!! (so we are pretty sure) so looks like i will be talking with the fam on live feed this christmas!!! k so if you send a package just send it through the post office cause nothing else gets here. and mother i need a pedagree chart if you just have some quick access to something like that and could just somehow email that to me? maybe? uh a hermana just came into our mission from kearns. Hermana Heather Larson. Pretty sure i know here cause the name totally rings a bell. we are doing a activity on the 26th of this month that is called "cenas internacionales" (international dinners) and we are making a turkey and smores. its going to be legit. we have elders from mexico and chile and peru and all making dinners or food from their country. Elder newey and i are trying to find out what to do for thanksgiving. Probably nothing. just eat noodles and sauce like we do everytime when we dont have luch with a member.

 

So this week. Tuesday we went on divisions with the zone leaders. Elder Osbourn who is from Roy, Utah, i went with him. He finished his mission on the 28th. which i think is divisions. so we had fun. worked hard and got a FECHA!!! (baptismal date) with a lady named Claudia. She is the most amazing investigator i have had. She was asking GOLDEN questions. Finshing statements for us. We have the date for Dec 3. We talked with alot of people that day. Wednesday was a marvelous day. We reunited, Elder Newey and I. It sucks being away from your companion when you have as good of a relationship as we do. We are best friends here. I love that kid. We have SOOOOO much fun together. Thursday we got a new investigator. she is golden too. Rocio. She is a friend of a young girl in our ward. Elder newey sneezed on me too. All over my face. nasty. then friday was amazing. we celbrated 11-11-11 at 11:11 and 11 seconds. It was a party at our apartment. no one else in argentina knows what we wer doing but it was a partay. haha. I got it on video. pictures and all. and we passed by some jehovas witnesses girls that were missionaries or what have ya and we heard them say we were hot. so definatly they were going for the lds missionaries. Saturday was Jennifers baptism. It was the other elders baptism but we wrote it in our preach my gospels as our baptism cause we taught her everything. I played a musical number that i made up. and the members gave me a 10. this week has just been awesome. We just got to get our heads back on for next week and whoop trash. got to get those baptisms. OH yes and i got dads letters today. I am so amazed that he knows all that stuff about our area. he knows more than i do. maybe you guys can se my pench. its on 9 de julio and pelligrini on the corner. tell dad to look it up. love you kids. thanks for everything!!!!

 

Elder Ross

Photos with no description.

Todo bein?

Family!!!

¿Como estàn? ¿Todo bien? Todo bien aqui en Trelew, estamos trabajando afool como siempre. Teníamos una semana muy buenicimo. Nuestras investigadores estan progresando poco a poco. Mejor que nada.

Alright I guess i can speak english now haha. Just practicing up on my spanish skills. You know how i roll. So ya. Good week, our numbers are up since last week. We have been visiting and finding a lot of Less active members to work with and trying to get them to go back to church. A lot of people down here just think that any ol  church is good as long as it talks about God. Every single day more that I am down here I start to see how different Utah is then the rest of the world. I always knew growing up that just about anyone who i knew was LDS or was LDS. But everyone here is mostly Evangelica\o. I didn't even know what that was until I came on the mission. I didn't know what they believed in or anything. But as you look into it they find a lot of crazy stuff they believe in. We have been trying to find people to talk to that we would tell them if they came to our church that we would go to theirs cause my companion says its really fun. Sounds fun. anyways. A lot of people once again didn't show up to our appointments which isn't a big surprise. These Argentines will tell ya they will do something and they don't ever do it. Its super dumb. But we ended up having pretty good numbers for the week. Nothin super crazy happened this week. Their are so many slang words here its unbelievable, i love it. Elder Newey and I just use slang all the time. We have these sayings like "yerd" and "viste" and then you have all your argentine slang that we use. Not with people but just between us missionaries.

We were supposed to go to see the penguins today but obviously that didn't happen. We have to find transportation, the hardest part. We are hoping next week. We just went and bought a bunch of string today to make bracelets. We found out how to make THE SICKEST bracelets. They are huge down here. We get to do divisions tonight also with the zone leaders.  

So yeah nothing exciting this week. Maybe next week. just so you know, i might have got your email while writing this. It popped up as one new so maybe i did get it. But just for the doubts i have not read your email as of now. Thanks for all you do family. Love ya and miss ya!

Elder Ross

Good Monday Morning!

Hola from bright and beautiful Trelew, Argentina!!!

 

The weather here is magnificent. Its starting to get hot which is good. Im sick of it being cold. Besides I get a nice sunny christmas this year. whooh!!!! Its so weird talking about the months and the seasons that correspond with that month. But today for sure it was pretty hot. Hey question mother, what year did uncle michael serve?

But yes another fine week here in the south. Nothing really big happened this week. It was a Fodgetastic week this week (when people dont show up to our appointments we say that they fodged us. hence the fodgetastic week) yeah we had really good plans for this week but no one showed up. punks. we had Zone Conference this week on friday. It was pretty much sweet to see all the Elders. I met two new elders. Elder Roper and Elder Brown. They are the new greengo elders of the 8 that we have here and they are sooooo sweet. We just have a blast hanging out with them on P day. So much fun. Last p day we played greengos vs latins in soccer and whooped their trash. This week we are playing american football and are still going to whoop trash. Im pretty much a legend down here in the ol football. the kids call me "palermo" which is a player on one of the argentine teams down here. cause i am just that good at football. football meaning soccer. just fyi. but anywho. but zone conference was great. we learned new ways to get references out of members and it works. And had argentine pizza. Its not good. But you just eat it and know that its food. They also eat down here cat food. alot of it. they use it to spread on their bread. so we eat that alot but only if we have to. its so gross. hahaha. nasty. then friday we went to Gaiman and hit it up with ol Hermano Quinchen. Capo. then we had stake conference here on sunday. the members just love us. their was a couple that served thier missions here that came on vacation from the states down here to visit thier areas. so it was nice to talk to some white people for once. But yeah just another week here. it looks like me and my fine companion will be having thanksgiving together. just us two. so we are trying to think up of some stuff to eat. its crazy to think that its already november. and in two months i will be at my 6 month mark. check that out uh!!!!

We didnt have alot of study time this week but I did remember having read in "search for happiness" a story that elder ballard tells about him being in a conference with 45 ministers from all different faiths. He had 45 minutes to explain his religion and what they believed in. So one of the ministers asks "if you had the gold plates right in front of me, then i would believe you" but its not about the proof. we have proof. the book of mormon. the reason we pray about it is to know if joseph smith really translated it by the power of god or if its his own words. we discussed this with Anai and Fabian. A couple that we are teaching that have doubts and we challenged them to read it, ponder it in your mind, and pray. (for the 80th time it feels like) so we hope they do. I hope you do family. Really do read the book of mormon. and find out for yourselves once again if it is true. i know you know but a stronger testimony of something never hurts. Hugs and kisses from the beatiful land of Argentina hahaha love ya guys.

 

Elder Ross

 

ps no we did not see the penguins yet. its like a 3 hr drive. but i know we will trust me.

Hello Elder

Hello Familia!

 

Just another fine week in the mission field. :) may i add today we went to this burger place thinking the food wasnt going to be that great. but it was costed 43 pesos so i was going to be pretty upset if i didnt get something good. and turns out......IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! ah my first burger here and it was actually legit. The bacon was legit, so was the fries. my companion was freaking out cause he was like "it took me a year and a half to find a burger and you found one this soon on your mission·" oh it was just fabulous. it took me back to yesteryear when i used to eat burgers alot.

 

so yeah. good week. our numbers were pretty low but thats because our planning session last week wasnt very good. but besides that we had a good and fun week. so we have been teaching this girl Jenifer. she is like 20 years old. our age. we found her through our english classes that we teach, she had some questions about what we believed in and what not and we started teaching her. the first lesson we brought a kid named leandro from our ward to be their with us and turns out they hated each other in high school. so the next time we brought his brother in law Enirique and he left early on us. so the next time we invited enrique again and he didnt show so we went across the street to get an hermano in the ward and he comes and totally teaches the lesson for us and whoops trash. it was crazy awesome. she immediatly made a friendship with him. he made everything make sense to her. so we taught her again with him. he taught the lesson and whooped butt again. and turns out he made a baptismal date with her that she accepted. she went to church yesterday. but the problem is....she isnt in our area. its the other elders area. answer to the problem (so we think) she said she wanted to ask elder newey a question. we are thinking she wants him to baptize her. which would be totally awesome. she is super funny and fun to teach. we are pretty sure she is getting baptized. our investigators arent really progressing in our area in trelew. but we are now teaching Barbara´s brother Martin in Gaiman. He is a studd! we played soccer with them the other day for like an hour and i whooped trash. I had like 10 headers. and with my other shots making about 15 goals that i made. i kick trash at street soccer. these kids are impressed at how good us white boys can play. i leaned how to make bracelets here from one of our investigators this week. no big deal.

 

I have been thinking alot here on the mish. satan does alot here on the mish to try to get us to give up. he works on me alot. tries to make me think that i am inatiquite with my language, or that i cant teach. we have alot of people that yell at us but i just blow it off. alot of people here do not want to listen at all. i do not mean for this to sound like a trunky letter that says the mission is hard. cause its not. i love it here. but i say this to warn my family of the power satan has. a set apart person as myself can feel satan at his hardest even on the mission. he is working with my investigators. thats why they dont progress. satan has so much power. but the forces of the good and the power that god has is even greater. i find so much power and comfort as I read the words of the prophets every morning in the general conference issues of the liahona. they are called of god and they know the answers. the scriptures also have an amazing power. i have never loved this gospel so much as i do right now. i may not be able to express my love for this gospel 100% how i want to in the language of this people but i hope i carry that power in my testimony. i hope you carry that power in your testimonies as you share it with those that need it. I challenge each of you to find a friend or work member who does not have the blessing of the gospel in thier life. bear your testimony to them. the power of testimonies is great. it can change lifes. i know that. the church is true. keep choosing the right!

 

miss you all

 

Elder Ross

Happy P-day

HEY FAMILIA!!!

 

Sorry I didnt email yesterday. The email was down in all of Trelew so we didnt get a chance to do emailing. But today yes we can. The past week was pretty good. Started a new transfer. We had really low numbers because we had to do alot for my companions 'tramites' which are for his renewing his citizenship here so that he doesnt get kicked out. We had to spend alot of time going to different places to get those papers done. Its such a pain, I am not looking forward to renewing mine in a year. Yes I am a partial citizen of Argentina, I dont have my Argentine ID but i will get that in about 6 months or less. So yes a really slow week, nothing too exciting happened this week. I cut my hair. Well better yet, my companion cut my hair. This week on Friday, we did divisions with another companionship in our district. I went with Elder Gomez. He is from Rosario, Argentina. Super cool. Had polenta for the first time with him. I really didnt like it but I ate it anyways. Also last sunday I had flan for the first time here. It was different. I know it`ll grow on me. This past sunday Barbara was comfirmed. It was pretty sweet, her mom who is inactive, was crying the whole time. When we were on divisions Elder Newey went and visited their family and one of her brothers said they were going to get baptised before Elder Newey left so we are going to be working alot with them. On P days, we normally go get the boulsa (mail) at 1030 then we go and do compras (shopping for food) then we eat lunch, then go run errands, usually go play football at the church or hang out with the other elders. Then just kinda chill til 1800 when we have to go proselyting. not even sure i spelled that right haha. yeah i bought some trucho jerseys. which are like low end soccer jerseys. they are legit. like 25 US dollars. no i dont keep my body toned. i have no way to keep it toned. we wanted to go to a gym on p days but that hasnt happened yet. We have big plans for the next upcoming p days. to go see.........PENGUINS!!!!!!! yeah thats right kids. be jealous!!!!! but i will find a way to keep somewhat in shape. my legs are bomb tho. we walk EVERYWHERE. my area where we live is in the city. we live in centro. downtown in a apartment. but our area goes out into kinda the ghettos. but outside of out area is like country. like vernal. outside of trelew. towards gaiman. uh i would like just lots of good american food. we miss american food. but the bread here makes up for it. this bread here is out of this world amazing. Only next to moms bread which is number 1 :) love ya mom :) but the bread here i just snack on all day. bomb. sounds like everyone is doing good. which i like. oh uh next time you email can you tell me how much is in my checking account. i just took out 400 pesos. which is 100 US dollars. but yeah.

 

Thanks for everything family. I love it here with all my heart. This church is true. Please keep reading scriptures as a family and personally. Pray everynight. Dont forget it. I love you.

Hi-de Ho

FAMILIA!!!!!!

 

So first things first.............drumroll please............I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

It was soooooo sweet!!!! ah the most amazing thing ever!!!! Little Barbara was baptized yesterday! it was the most amazing thing ever. it was in gaiman. and turns out that we broke a 3 year drought of baptisms in that area. we were the first elders in three years to get a baptism in that area thanks to an awesome ward mission leader Hermano Quinchen and Presidente San Pedro. Her family is inactive but we are looking to get her two brothers baptised next. such an awesome experience. hermano quinchen baptised her.

 

good week this week. we just kicked it into gear and were doin work here. tuesday after district meeting and wednesday we went on divisions with the zone leaders. i was a little nervous at first but it ended up being really fun. I went with Elder Cortéz. He is from Santiago Chile. So once again i spoke spanish all day. but he knows a good bit of english cause his companion is from utah. so he spoke english and spanish to me and i just spoke spanish to him. we had some awesome lessons with him. super fun time. this whole week almost everyday we were going to Gaiman to finish teahing Barbara everything she needed to know, so we decided to start doing contacts on the bus to get our contact numbers up and we met alot of awesome people. we did get turned down alot but thats ok. its not easy getting turned down but i usually just laugh and go on to the next person. my spanish is improving because we usually split up and each take one side of the bus. so i have to do one side on my own and my companion isnt there to back me up. its scary but we just do it out of habit now.

The investigators here in Trelew just arent progressing. They dont keep committments and dont have a real big desire now to be baptized. its super sad cause the flame that was once in them is now gone. they still have us over but they dont have that same flame. the members dont do a whole lot here either. we had maybe 20 people at church yesterday. it was fast and testimony meeting and these people here dont like bearing their testimonies so it was just alot of silence. and no investigators showed up to church. we had 8 that had committed. no one showed up. we had 3 new investigators show up in Gaiman. That place is just blowing up with awesome people. its crazy. haha. saturday we had a talent show for the stake. the missionaries danced haha and i played the piano. it was fun. these brothers played some guns and roses and we were going crazy. singing and screaming. the members were laughing their heads off at us. taking video. they loved it. i love the people here. so it was a good week. very successful. 

I know do see the power in the book of mormon. Thats all i want to do know is read, read the scriptures, jesus the christ, conference talks, all these church stuff. its amazing. Brad was right. their isnt enough time in personal study. I love this gospel. It works miracles. their is so much power in this gospel. The church is true. keep studying those scriptures. Love ya all!!!!

 

Elder Ross

Familia!!!

FAMILIA!!!

 

Todo esta bien en Trelew, Argentina! Me encanta esté area. Great week here once again. Alot of good things happened this week. and a few sad things but thats ok. so funny story at the begging of our week. so we got done knocking doors and this drunk guy walks over to us. he says how great he thinks we are for studying here. and we told him that we were missionaries and that we dont really study. at least not for school. but we told him what we did and the message we had. asked him if he had a couple of drinks. he says ''mas o menos'' which means yes i did drink alot. even tho he said not really. so we asked if we could stop by his house and he agreed. we asked where his house was. he pointed a direction and that doesnt help us. so we asked for his address. he didnt know so we said we would walk him home. we start walking with him and he cant walk straight, he was running into us and he was just crazy drunk. so we finally get to his house and we set up an appointment for the next day. he agrees and we walk away. walking away i thought we should make sure he gets inside ok. as soon as we both turn around. this guy trips over the curb and goes face first in the ground. we run over. and he gets up with blood just pooring out of his nose and mouth. we helped him up and he was able to get inside ok. the next day we return to his house and him and his wife (so i would imagine it was his wife) hide from us by the window. we knocked (here in south america if someone has a gate in front of their house, you clap outside the gate and they come to the door thats what we call knocking. :) ) but i could see them hiding by the window. crazy people. but its all good. friday i did divisions with elder roldan. he is from mexico. i could only speak spanish to him. it was kinda hard speaking spanish all day but i did it. alot of people here say i am at a way big advantage where i am at in the language, they are super impressed. but divisions was way fun. he is super funny with his little spanish accent when he speaks english. it is soooo funny! i love elder roldan. such a studd. saturday and sunday were obviously conference. me and elder newey watched it in english in our own room in the church. it was pretty sweet. alot of fun. between sessions on saturday me and elder roldan went on splits for an hour to visit a less active lady in our ward. it was a super cool experience. elder roldan is an amazing teacher. so we walk in to her house and she has two boys. we went to see if any of them were baptized is why we went. we sit down and elder roldan asks how long is been since she went to church. she starts to bawl. she said it had been 10 years since she has been to church. and that she had a son die and thats another reason is cause god took something away from here. she feels bad for not going. then we explained the atonement and prayer and how god wants to hear from all of us. how the atonement can heal her pains that she feels for a lost son. we told her that her son was in a good place. she needs gods help. elder roldan shared a touching thing with her. he explained to her that his dad had died five months ago. this was while he was on his mission. but he knows his dad is in a good place. he felt her pain. but he said how much church and the atonement helped in this process of healing for him. and how the atonement helps everyday so he stays out here on his mission. such an awesome experience.

I loved conference. such an amazing thing that we had. the feelings i had and the things i wrote down are unexplainable. my testimony has grown so much. these are the words of god. through a prophet. so that we can know how to live our lives worthly to return to live with god again. what a blessing conference is. i wrote down three questions before conference and all three were answered. very clearly. i hope that you go back and look and study these words on a daily basis. these words are amazing. they have truth. i felt of that truth when they were being spoken. i challenge the young boys in our family who are preparing for missions to study the talk of the japanese speaker on sunday. (sorry cant remember his name) but it hit me when i was listening that that was the most plane, but true talk on how to prepare for a mission. those boys need it. tell them their cousin keith told them to read it. it has helped our investigators with questions they have. study those talks!

we met with our investigators Anaí and Fabian. last night was a very difficult night. we felt like the lord let us down. we prayed with them about if this was the way for them. they didnt recieve an answer. i was hoping for the typical missionary experience but it didnt happen. they didnt get an answer immediatly after we prayed. i was very down about this. they are great people. they want the truth in their life. then fabian throws out this out of nowhere doubt. he said all churches were good. but we explained only one had the right authority, making it the true church. i left that lesson feeling let down by the lord. but those conference words brought me words of comfort. everything happens in the lords time. everything happens in the lords time. not when we want it but when the lord makes it happen. its my testimony to you. i know the lord lives. those are his words for us. if we follow him, we will have happiness and blessings without number. i know this church is true. i wouldnt be out here if i didnt. this mission has changed my life in a indiscribable way. i love these people with an amazing love. this is the only true church and i am here to tell these people that the gospel has been restored and they can recieve salvation.

 

the language is comming along. the food is AMAZING!!!! no the meat isnt everything peole said it was but they do have good food and drinks here. i got some sweet food for ya to eat when i return home. i miss you family. May God bless you as you keep his commandments. so keep the commandments!!!! :)

 

Elder Ross

More missionary photos!

 Missionaries with one of the teachers

 Same missionaries, different teacher

 Guess...

 More missionaries

...

 Elder Ross & Elder Garfield

 I don't know...

 Blurry airplane shot

River Something

Don't mess with me!

 See! Messi... haha!

Kinda cheezey

It's official...I now have mission feet!!!

Hey family!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Ah another glorious p-day here in Argentina. And yes my feet are super gross. My feet ache every single night cause we walk EVERYWHERE. But when the morrow comes they magicly dont hurt so it works out just great. The only time we dont walk is when we go to Guiman. That is about 15 minute bus drive from Trelew. The buses here are legit. They are pretty nice to United States standards. We rode a double decker bus when we went to Neuquén from Buenos Aires.

 

Anywho. First things first. I need more pictures like PLEASE. pictures of the family, pictures that are on the computer, pictures of me. like i need alot. por fa please. My good companion wrote ol shannon a letter. So tell her to be expecting one here in about a month. And today we played scripture golf for companionship study. Its pretty legit. you gotta know the book of mormon like a genius to win tho. Its super fun. so this week....stuff is great here. as always. we have a new investigator. Jenifer. she is like 19 or 20. she comes to our english classes and the last english class she had some questions about what we believed. she is evangelica. which is evangelist or whatever they are called. and she just doesnt believe in all there teachings, alot of people here are like that. they believe alot of churches have good teachings but they belong to one. and never go. so we met with her the first time and ended up just helping her with her math homework. well my companion did. while I talked with leandro. he came with us. turns out, jenifer was really mean to leandros girlfriend in high school so they kinda arent very fond of each other. so i just kept him entertained. then the next time we met with her we brought leandros brother in law with us. and we taught her the restoration. and she was really accepting of it. she kinda teared up during the first vision and we knew that she felt the spirit. no doubt. so we gave her the pamphlet and 3 nephi 11 to read and she reported back to us this past saturday and she read them both. and she liked it. so we meet with her next week cause she has to work all this week. but we are going to keep checking up on her.    Oscar and Irma. there divorce papers finally went through so they are waiting to get a paper to go get married. but their son just got out of jail and is back into stealing things and drugs. we were invited them to general conference with us and told them to have a question in mind and the lord would answer them. we were going to make a baptismal date for right after general conference on sunday at 7 so we hope we get a baptism this week on sunday!!!    Anaí and Fabian went to a baptismal service with us on saturday and fabian loved it but Anai is a catholic and is scared of what her family is going to think so she is blocking out the feelings she needs to feel. Then then came to church with us yesterday and it was a big sucess. the kids loved primary and they loved their classes. we taught gospel principles class about prophets and invited them also to general conference. we also are looking to set barbara up with a baptismal date. she lives in guiman. her parents are super super super menos activo. but she came to church again and we are going to set up a baptismal date with her this week. the people here are slowly progressing. but i have faith that the lord will bless them all with a desire to be baptized.

It talks about in Mosiah 6 i believe, about how the only way we can recieve salvation is through partaking in the atonement and believing in god. and the only way these investigators can be fully cleansed from their sins (atonement) is through baptism. and thats why i am down here is to offer the message of salvation and how they can recieve it to these people. and its sad to see how many people dont want to listen. or the peole that think they are already saved. i just wish they could see just a tiny bit of what lies ahead for them if they accept the gospel. but we cant do that for them cause everyone has their agency. some times i wish i could take that from some people cause i know how much the gospel would help them. but i cant. and thats not my job. but we just keep praying for little oppourtunities. i really do love it here. the people are amazing. they will do anything for the missionaries. besides listen to our message. haha. but they are somethin else down here. i love it with all my heart. and its just such a blessing to be here. at this exact time. keep reading the scriptures as a family like a know you do. brad was right. their just isnt enough time to study the scriptures. i love them soooooo much. there is so much information in there about how we can return to live with god. its all in the book of mormon. i promise. keep praying also. the lord answers prayers. he really does. i love you family and miss you but its only 2 years.

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Ross

What's Up?

Family!!!! :)

 

ah another great week here in beautiful Trelew, Argentina!!! first off yes you just send the packages to the mission home and also letters I believe. and second off i need you to send me some pictures of me and of the family and of me and some friends. just send a bunch in an email and i can put them on my companions flash drive and go get them printed off. reason being is that i need pictures to show the investigators so it "breaks the ice" between us. so ya.

 

But its been such a good week here. some of the highlights being, I MADE MY FIRST FECHA!!!!!! (baptism date) its with this guy Horacio. he is sooooooo cool. he is a police officer and is just super super cool. really receptive to the stuff we teach. he doesnt always do his committments but he is waiting for a sign to have god tell him this is the right way to go. and we know that god will. we have 3 other fechas. Oscar & Irma. they are a couple that are waiting to have his divorce papers from his ex to go through so they can get baptised. so any day now. and the other is a girl named barbara. she is like 9. she lives in that place that we go to 2 times a week. its called Guiman. its kinda a small town. we are working with the members there to get some menos activos (non active members). the ward mission leader there is soooo tight. its this way old guy named hermano quinchen. he is a goucho (argentine cowboy). he is super old but way funny. the mission leader in our ward is super lazy and doesnt do anything and neither do the members. we have 400 members in the books but we had a record high of 42 come to church yesterday. that is like amazing for this ward. so yesterday the bishop asked me if i would talk in church after the ward mission leader. so yes dad i did talk in church my second week here. and i dropped cane!!!! (told them whats up) i read them the section on what the members part in helping the missionaries. it was intense!!!! i just told them whats up. so hopefully they have a change of heart and want to help us here. so it was a long week. lots of walking as you would imagine. its super south america here. like its like the ghettos but its the safe ghettos. i love it so much. the people here are amazing. they do anything to feed the missionaries. when we visit houses they always make sure they have food for us. its nice but they are really poor. but good news......the food here is super good. its definatly not american but its super good. the dulce de leche is freakin sweet. so good. and the facturas. oh my word. AMAZING!!!! its like a pastry. we get them every p day morning. FRESH! and the bread here is super off the wall amazing.

 

we got a new investigator from this girl in our english classes. yes we teach english classes. well my companion does. i just study spanish. but she asked the total golden investigator questions. like she thinks there has to be one true church and she knows god would let her know that. its super fun to be able to see the progression of everyone here. the different stories. and how i can see the lords hand in everything here. he truly does bless us when we have faith in him.

 

our good buddy Leandro just showed up. he knows english. he learned from MTV. he is such a studd. he just turned in his papers for his mission. and there is 1 other kid that turned in his papers too. he is the ward secretary. he is 19. what a capo (studd). the youth here even though they are small in numbers are super awesome. we talk to alot of little kids. they just ask where we are from. and they try to speak english to us. they say "hello! what is your name" is soooo funny. it sounds so dumb but they dont know better. we play alot of soccer with them in the street. or in the fields of the apartments. im getting alot better. we won the latin missionaries last week at the church. its way sweet here instead of having fields at the chuch. they have a soccerfield on the cement by the church. we call it FIFA street lds version. haha. i really do love it here. somedays its a little difficult but most days i just love it here. alot of people dont want to listen to us. but we just keep walking and doing our job. missionary work is amazing and i love my calling. i love this country. and i love this people.

 

Miss you and i send my love.

 

Elder Ross

From the Mission President

 Dear Ross Family,

We are pleased to inform you your son, Elder Keith Porter Ross, has arrived safely in the Argentina Neuquén mission. We were excited to meet him on September 7th, as he arrived at the terminal here in Neuquén. Enclosed please find a picture that was taken during the mission orientation he was given on Thursday.

Thank you for your willingness to share your son with us as a missionary and representative of the Savior, Jesus Christ. We know it is a sacrifice for you, but also know the Lord will bless you richly while Elder Ross is here in the mission field. We encourage you to write him every week with positive, encouraging news and comments. You should also receive a message from him every week. Missionaries have a limited amount of time on preparation day. Therefore, they are only permitted to send and receive letters by email with their parents or guardians. You can then forward their emails to extended family and friends as you feel appropriate. All other communication to the missionary should be through normal mail channels. Instructions for mailing letters and packages to your missionary are included on the attached information sheet.

For your information, missionaries are permitted to call their family twice yearly for 30 to 40 minutes. These calls take place on Christmas Day and one other time (usually mother’s day). They should not call at any other time or for any other reason without permission of the mission president.

We were immediately impressed with the desire of Elder Ross to become involved in missionary work. On Thursday evening, he left for his first assignment. We are confident Elder Ross will be a faithful, effective missionary as he applies what he learned in the Missionary Training Center.

May the blessings of the Lord be with you and your family as your son serves faithfully in this most sacred calling. Please feel free to communicate with us regarding any questions or concerns you may have.

With sincere best wishes,

President Darwin F Peterson
Argentina Neuquén Mission

Letter from Elder Ross

Sis. Peterson, President Peterson & Elder Ross

Finally There!!!

FAMILY!!!!!!}

 

First off.......I LOVE ARGENTINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the people here are so amazing. so like i said. it was like a combine of 65 hours of travel here. we had a plane to go to neuqen and we were 10 minutes away from landing and the volcanic ash made us turn around. so we called our advisor dude and he came and took us to the bus station where we took a 12 hour bus ride to neuqen. it was intense. then we met the A.p´s and the mission president and his wife. they are super sweet. i loved it. i noticed im a kinda guy that doesnt like change and that i am really uncomfortable with change but after its all said and done that its for the good. then i went to an investigators house and then after to knock doors with a elder from uraguay. he was super chill. then just stayed at the a.p´s house with the other elders. its pretty cold here but i´ll get used to it. so i love it here. then i met my awesome trainer Elder newey!!!!!!!!! he is sooooooooooo awesome!!!! he is from pleasant grove. he is the bomb. its so much fun with him. we went tracting on thursday then that night at 10 we had our bus ride for 10 hours down to my area in Trelew. when we got here we went to some members houses. friday we went and taught a couple families. they are capos. (its pronounced k-ah-poh-s it means like they are studds or really cool) then saturday we went to a place called guiman. its like a half an hour bus ride away. i met the branch president there and the ward mission leader. kin chen is his name. they are super cool members here. so much fun with them. sunday we went to church at our ward then we went to guiman for church. then had lunch with familia kin chen. they went and did some tracting. we are splitting that area with the other missionaries in our district. elder raldon and elder cori. they are from mexico and peru. we are the only white guys in our district. after tracting we went to ward council were we are trying to help the branch president with the menos activos miembros. which is the less actives. but he is being a bum and wont let us help. so we are just going to do it on our own. then after that we came back to trelew and visited some ward families and my companion introduced me to some families. they are soooooo sweet. they give up anything for you. i love these people. they families have lots of kids so i am way tight with the kids. we sometimes play soccer in the street with them on the way to appointments. they are always playing in the street. is super legit. i love this area. soo much fun me and my companion have. i´m getting the language down more and more as i listen to the castillano. we also teach english classes on saturdays. its fun to watch people learn english. i really do love it here. the people are so loving to the missionaries. its great.
so sounds like stuff is good back home. looks like hayden wants to get my emails. the actual letters take like a month to get here. and its by pouch mail. its weird. and the same with dearelders. they take forever too. haha. oh well. you´ll be getting emails every monday from now on. the mission is great. the gospel changes lives. its true.

 

Love elder Ross

MTC Photos

 Elder Ross & Elder Johansen

Not quite sure who he is.

I am guessing these are the Argentinian Missionaries.

 Elder Brown & Elder Ross

 Missionaries @ the Provo Temple

(Check out the little guy in the front. He is Kayla size)

 Elder Ross & Elder Taylor Schmidt

Good friends from Kearns

 Unknown & Elder Ross

Hanging loose in the mirror

 Elder Unknown & Elder Ross

 Top Row: Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Elder Ross, Elder Smith, Unknown, Unknown, Elder King?

Bottom Row: Unknown, Unknown, Unknown

 Unknown & Elder Ross

Rocking the glasses.

Nametag Pyramid

Thank goodness the names are legible!

  

 Napping & looking comfortable

 AFA #9!!

I am going out on a limb and going to say that they are going to Argentina

 Weatherman training

(Insert your own caption here)

 I don't know what this means but I am guessing it isn't a Cinco de Mayo party.

 Elder Ross, Elder Daves, Unkown, Elder Zimbelman

Elder Ross, Hungary Man, Elder Zimbelman

 Elder Zimbelman, Elder Pitt Elder Ross

Elder Ross & Unknown

Working the phones

 Elder Ross & Elder Ross

 A true Vernalite Hick!

Elder Ross & Unknown

 Unknown & Elder Ross

I don't think that Unknown was ready to have his picture taken.

Unknown & Elder Ross

Cocky just like Keith

 Elder Ross & Unknown

(With Unknown creepin' in the background)

Elder Ross & Elder Miller

Friends from SoJo