Elder Keith Porter Ross: September 2011

September 26, 2011

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

September 19, 2011

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

September 15, 2011

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

September 12, 2011

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