Sister Alex Solomon

Zone Picture

Well, I officially hit my 6 month mark this Friday! Woohoo! I am currently the most experienced missionary in my apartment and am constantly having to answer the other sisters' questions but I don't really mind. It's kind of nice because I call all the shots now....MWAHAHAHA! Anyway, the newest sister who just moved in this week is REALLY struggling. President Griffin came up to Sister Bauer and I at transfers and said, "Sisters, I want you to know that I am putting her in your apartment for a reason. I know that you two like to work out a lot and eat healthy and she needs to get healthier and lose some weight. Don't let her give you any excuses and have a fun time biking." So we are working with her...slowly....although it stressed me out because we were going through our cupboards yesterday and this was what her whole shelf was filled with: Oreos, ovaltine, chocolate breakfast smoothie powder, chocolate covered almonds, Nutella, and a cake. Literally, she fit a full-sized cake in there. She is really nice, she just needs to be taught how to do things and how to work hard. Wish us luck!

Side story: Sis Bauer and Sis Haws (our newbie) are in a full biking area so they don't have a car at all. Bauer came home the other night a full ten minutes before her companion. When Haws showed up, they went into their room for planning and we could hear Sis Bauer through the door raising her voice saying, "It should not take us AN HOUR to get anywhere! You bike SO slow and you need to work harder. Do I need to get an air horn? Here's a new rule. I'm going to bike behind you and I won't even go fast, I'll go an average pace. But if I pass you, THEN we have a problem." HAHAHAHAHAHAHA we were dying! The poor girl has never done any sort of physical exercise her whole life and now she's with Sister Bauer who does not take excuses. (Sister Bauer worked as a personal trainer at BYU). Sister Bauer is amazing and I'm sure she will whip her into shape but it has been a pretty stressful week in our apartment!

Something really cool happened this morning. We go to the gym at our apartment complex every morning and there's this blonde lady who is there every other day. She and I always run side by side on the treadmills and then we say "Bye! Have a good day!" at the end when we leave. I have been wanting to talk to her for ages but I just didn't know how. Well, this morning as we were leaving, I finally just asked her what her name was. She said her name was Liz and then asked for our names. Since they all started with "Sister", I said, "we're all missionaries so we don't go by our first names". She said she had guessed we were missionaries because of all of my BYU t shirts. Anyway, we just chatted with her for a minute and then, out of the blue, Liz said, "Well, you guys are missionaries and I'm actually going through something right now. Do you think we could get together and talk sometime soon?" It was just amazing to me that I had been feeling prompted to talk to her for MONTHS and I didn't do it! Finally, I mustered up enough courage to just ask for her name, and she wants to meet with us. I don't know what will happen, but it just goes to show that Heavenly Father places prepared people in our paths; we just need to learn how to recognize them.

Iris and Eva Capshaw are going to get baptized on February 6th! Score! And, the husband, John, is going to be the one doing it. I'm so excited to finally see some progress and I hope everything goes well with that. We also have a new district leader and I am actually motivated more to work on our goals and numbers because we have someone who is actually going to be checking on them! Things are going well and the weather is perfect!

On a different note: I still can't believe we lost David Bowie and Alan Rickman in the same week! I was pretty upset. We must never forget our beloved goblin king or Alan Rickman's iconic role of that

one bad rancher in Quigley Down Under. Really, though, I was sad. Also, a ward member may or may not have shown me the newest Pride and Prejudice and Zombies trailer and I LOVE IT. Go see it and tell me if its good, dad!

LOVES

Out to dinner at Olive Garden

Conger Family Fun

Our weekend trip to Brianhead. 

With Shane having a fever, a mouse scurrying around the cabin in the night, 

watching the Broncos beat the Steelers and getting our car stuck in the snow....twice...

it will be a weekend we won't forget!

Elder Kannon Evans

Dearest people that live where AC exists,

First week in Parque patricios! Oh my goodness Im already in love in this area. The members here are great. The food is the best Ive tasted on my mission (my companion gained 10 lbs last transfer here so we´ll see how this goes).  And we have 5 people being prepared for baptism for the 30th, and then two more the next week. We even have one investigator thats going to EFY this week. She might as well just jump into the font now. 

My area is in downtown capital. If you look up Buenos Aires on the internet, with all the statues and theatres and towers and stuff like that, yeah I live like 10 blocks from there. Its incredible and so beautiful. But our area has the nickname Perusalem. Its basically just an old abandoned factory, and a whole bunch of peruvians just started living in it. Its like 1 square block. And weve worked there every single day this past week. Thats it. Thats how many people live in this one block. I dont even know the other parts of my area yet. But we are having a lot of success there and Im incredibly happy to be here and know these people and eat arroz chaufa every single day. Love you all!

Elder Evans

Transfers

Dearest people that dont eat milanesa for breakfast luch and dinner,

Well this is going to be really short, but, I got transfered. Again. As of now I've been in my areas for only 3 months. I'm already in my third area. But I'm still pumped to be here! My areas before were all in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, but now I'm in downtown Buenos Aires! Its called Parque Patricios. I'm so pumped to be here. Its a great area. My new companion is Elder Kelly from LAS VEGAS NEVADA. Turns out he has a lot of family in Moapa Valley, and is related to Dudley Leavitt, so yeah we are basically cousins. Its sad leaving all of the members and converts in Derqui, but I know there are people waiting for me here. Love you all so much :)

Elder Evans

If you don't have a Messi jersey, do you even live in Argentina?

I'm so experienced....*wink wink* not....

January 12, 2016
Sister Alex Solomon:

Hellooooo, it has been a pretty good week. I'd also like to call attention to the fact that on Friday, I will officially have been gone for 6 MONTHS. Weird, yeah? I still feel so new but that is definitely a substantial portion of my mission...wow. You'd think that I would know what I'm doing by now.

First of all, thank you dad for the awesome package I got this week! I have been using my apple slicer like crazy and have made some good recipes from the Eat to Live book. I also finished the spy book and now carry my tactical pen with me wherever I go! My roommates think I'm a little paranoid but I always just laugh because I know I'll be the one who survives in the end.... ;)

Nothing too crazy has happened this week but it's weird because Sister Wood is home now. Out of everything that has happened and changed on my mission, Sister Wood has been the one constant thing. I have lived with her for 6 months and I honestly couldn't stand to be around her for the first 2. But now, I have no idea what I'm going to do without her. As of yesterday, I am the most experienced missionary living in our apartment and I am now having to answer the other sister's questions about how to do stuff. Honestly, I have just been making up answers sometimes.

Because Sister Wood left yesterday, I have been in a trio with Sister Bauer and I love it so much! We really should be companions someday. We have had a lot of fun together these past couple days. The best part was last night when we were bored and waiting on a lesson so we laid down in the middle of the street and started quoting lines from The Notebook. It was awesome but it ended too soon because we almost got hit by a car...just like in the movie...what a coincidence! President Griffin told me he wouldn't put us together because he knows we really want to but I think he will someday.

Good news! Iris and Eva Capshaw are getting baptized!! We have put them on date for January 30th but the date might have to be moved because they want to get baptized by John, the dad, and he needs to be ordained as a priest first. They are progressing at a crazy rate, though! They have been coming to church for only two weeks now and they feel like they have been there forever. Our Ward is so welcoming toward them and everyone is really excited for their baptism. Iris is already talking about going to the temple a year from now to get sealed. She said she wants me to be there but I will have JUST gotten home from my mission! So I'll hopefully have to figure out something there. It's just amazing to me how these people popped out of nowhere and just want to get baptized and go to the temple. I love them! This is why I'm here! We are planning a trip to the Mesa temple with them so I will send pictures when I can.

LOVES

I need to take more pictures....I literally did not take a single one this week

Año Nuevo

Dearest people that know the importance of changing socks every day,

Feliz Año Nuevo! Hopefully you all could enjoy the new year. I spent mine by getting early to our house with a street full of drunks. So thats cool. But as well we were able to see all the fireworks at night because yeah.. its hard to sleep when it sounds like there´s a war outside. And let me tell you, Argentines love their fireworks haha. 

This week was pretty good. We were able to accomplish our goals and a little more. We had to move the baptism of Matias to next sunday because its a little hard for him to understand, but he's still excited for his baptism :) 

SCRIPTURE TIME! Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

During this time of the year people are all making goals. Some are serious about their goals, others.. mas o menos. But, if we are serious about our goals, we can receive the divine help of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to be able to accomplish these goals. When you make your goal, talk about it with your Heavenly Father. He will listen, and may even help you adjust your goal a little. But, tell Him your plan, and He will provide a way for us to accomplish our goals, if we are diligent and keeping the commandments. So, talk with your Heavenly Father about your goals, and I promise He will provide a way. 

Love you all!

Elder Evans

Party on Wayne...

Sister Alex Solomon:

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month! (My roommates do not appreciate that tradition) Anyway, it has been an alright week. Let me see if I can remember what happened....oh yeah, it's 2016 now. How weird is that? We got to take the day off on the 31st and the 1st which was kind of awesome. I didn't get any naps in but we played a lot of board games and ate way too much food. We had a New Year's Eve party at Nanette's house which was pretty fantastic. I brought homemade shrimp dip and some Martinelli's and Nanette had lil smokies, a meat cheese and cracker tray, and cream puffs. Oh yeah, and party hats! It was super fun because the other sisters got permission to be there so it was just the five of us. I think we ate, talked, and partied hard for a good 15 minutes and then we were all ready for bed, though! #missionarylife

Playing Ticket to Ride on New Year's. Shout out to Grandma Evans: it was a blast! But we could only find the German version so we couldn't understand anything and we pretty much made up all of the rules.

In other good news, we found 3 new investigators this week! There's this one guy, named Jeff, who we have been trying to take on a church tour since before I got here! Yeah, Sis. Williams found him while out riding her bike in May and asked if he wanted a tour. He said yes but he does odd jobs and we can never seem to make contact with him. We always call him at least once a week even though I had never met him. Anyway, this week I thought I should keep calling and he finally answered! He said he was still interested and that he would give us a call later that week when he had a day off. Well, he called us 5 minutes later and asked, "can we meet at the church in 20 minutes?" So we had a church tour and it was amazing! Nanette was there which was great because she is such a good teacher. He wants to come to church so wish us luck with that!

For our two other new investigators....where do I even start? The husband, John, is an inactive member. The investigators, Iris and Eva, are his wife and daughter. John wants to come back to church and wants his family to be baptized so he contacted us. We went to their house a couple times this week and learned so much. First off, John and Iris eat only organic and whole foods and they do yoga every single day (they are so cool!) They are HUGE health nuts and they thought they were going to freak us out with that and I was like, nooooooo that is exactly what I want to do! They are into a lot of weird stuff though too. For example, they told us that there is a spaceship under the pyramids of Giza and that it can only be piloted by a virgin 10 year old girl. Let's just say we've had a lot of interesting conversations with them! They came to church yesterday though, and they just fit in perfectly. I have NEVER seen that with investigators before. Iris isn't even baptized and John keeps telling her she's in be the next relief society president. People were SUPER welcoming in the Bellair Ward (as I knew they would be) and the Capshaw family are all going to come back. They even participated in the classes and answered questions. It was so great! We are going to teach them more this week and hopefully get them to commit to baptism.

Fun facts for this week: I loved everybody's Christmas cards! Including those I received after Christmas. Nanette and I are related! I don't know if I told you that before but I'll send you the picture. I finished Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol on audiobook this morning. So good. I miss normal books a lot. Sister Moss is getting slightly better at things. I have to make myself back off and let her teach but it's SO hard because she sounds like a robot when she talks to people. Seriously, it's like someone is feeding her lines. She keeps telling me she doesn't know how to talk to people normally and I think, "HOW HAVE YOU MADE IT THIS FAR IN LIFE?" We have bonded a little more but it's still nothing compared to the relationship I had with Sister Williams.

If I think of more, I'll let ya know!

LOVES