Andre Solomon update....

Alabama has been great! We have a nice house on post and I've met lots of friends here. I only just started the initial phase of flight school which is my Basic Officer Leader Course. Essentially, officers come from many different commissioning sources so we do this initial course to get everyone on the same page. I have a dog named Lucky. She is a black lab puppy. We have a good time together!

Andre and roommate Matt Nielsen

New puppies :)

Caught in a downpour!

Doc rockin' the LunchBox

Transfers!

Dearest People where people play other sports other than soccer,

Howdy y'all! How goes it? All is well here in Buenos Aires.

Well. First transfer. FINISHED.  Pretty much the longest 4 weeks and then the shortest 2 weeks of my life. These last two weeks passed by in like 3 minutes I swear.. 

But yeah! Elder Garcia got transfered to capital today. Sooooooooo my training is pretty much finished haha. Technically I still have another 6 weeks of training, but Im the only person that knows the area and the people, so Im going to be doing pretty much all the planning and such for the next few weeks haha. So excited, and Im going to learn SO MUCH. But at the same time Im scared out of my pants haha. My new companion is Elder Santos from Brazil. Capo!!! Hes an awesome guy and we are going to have an awesome transfer :) 

Thank you all for your love and support! Stay awesome!

Elder Evans

Because Chorizo

First Transfer Down!

Letter from Sister Alex Solomon:

I don't even know where to begin...so much has happened this last week! To start off, amazing things are happening in our area. We have found approximately three more investigators since I wrote you last! I have lost count but we have like 11 new investigators now. We actually got to teach the Restoration to people this week. It happened 3 times and we asked them to pray about it and WE ARE ON FIRE. I can't tell you how happy we have been. This week, our goal is to focus on inviting to baptism. It's a terrifying thought but I'm sure we can do it. One of the ladies we taught usually lets us in and has us clean for a little bit. We went over a few days ago and helped do her laundry. When we were done, she sat on the floor next to us and asked for a scripture. We read one and she asked for another. We asked her how much time she had and she said, "an hour". So we taught her and her granddaughter the restoration and gave them 2 copies of the Book of Mormon!

So here's a fun fact: we met and started teaching a lesbian couple and their family! Hahaha! One of the moms (?) used to be LDS but was excommunicated in 2001 because of her relationship. However, she says she knows the church is true and she wants her kids to get baptized and married in the temple. It's an odd situation. So we are preparing her children for baptism! The funny thing is, she is probably the only super stereotypical lesbian I have ever met. Like, she wears men's clothes and always has her hair in a ponytail and looks like she played softball in high school, ya know? 

We are still just trying to meet lots of members and have lessons with them. Soooo we went to meet this family this week and they are SUPER AWESOME! We didn't get to meet the dad because he is a pilot for Southwest and he was gone. But we met his wife and their two sons. They have travelled all over the world on their dad's flight benefits so they told us some awesome stories. They also gave us these great mints from Finland. They were so good! The youngest son, Scott, really wants to be a flight attendant someday! (I don't think he'll be one of the gay ones though....he loves hunting and fishing and stuff. Apparently his room looks like Cabelas) Anyway, he's like 9 and now he always comes up to me at church and talks about all the places he's been to. It's awesome! I HAVE A NEW FRIEND!

Just a few more fun facts from this week.....a few days ago, I woke up with hives all over my body. Yeah, that was awful. I could not stop scratching myself. I still have a couple but they are slowly going away. I have no idea why I got them though. How does that work? Also, last Friday, we had zone meeting where we all get together as a zone and sit in a room for 5 hours and talk and set goals. It's so long. Well, they always try to have a musical number in there somewhere so they called me on Wednesday night and said I would be singing a duet with an elder from my district. The sister I live with who has been out for over a year said she has never seen that happen before....so we sang I Stand All Amazed together and it actually went really well. It was just awkward because this is like the third time our zone leaders have paired me and that elder together for something. It's okay though, I guess, because he's easy to get along with. It's just odd.

Ya know how I really like pears? Well, for the past few years I have talked about how much I wanted to try a pear pie. I don't understand why that's not a thing. I imagine it to be just like an apple pie but with pears! That sounds great! Well, this week, I mentioned that to the sisters we live with and they came home from a member's house THAT NIGHT with a pear pie! It's better than I thought it would be.

More things happened this week but this is getting long and my thumbs are tired. So I will just leave you with an assignment. This is to anyone that is reading this letter (because I'm not entirely sure who all reads it or has it). I have been asked to speak in sacrament in a couple of weeks on "the blessings of church membership". I am really excited and am going to invite all of our investigators to come hear me speak. But I need to know some of your experiences/blessings you have uniquely received that may be relevant to my talk. In other words, if you knew investigators were coming to sacrament and you were asked to get up in front of them and explain why they needed to be baptized into this church, what would you tell them? 

Let me know what you come up with and have a great week!

LOVES

AWWWWW YEEEEAAAAAHHHH

Dearest people where peanut butter exists,

HOWDY Y'ALL.

Hopefully you are all having a wonderful week! Its been just dandy here in the lovely Grand Bourg, Buenos Aires, Argentina! Saw the sun for the first time in about 3 weeks so thats good :)

Don´t have too much time so sorry this is going to be a little short. But it's been a pretty good week! Had 3 divisions in one week so thats crazy. But I learned a lot! Other than that pretty much nothing happened haha! But good news! We have a baptism scheduled for an investigator next week so thats freaking awesome! I have like zero time so ill talk about it next week :)

Love you all!

Elder Evans

*huge sigh of relief*

Letter from Sister Alex Solomon:

First of all, before I forget, next week is my first official transfer week! So, my p day will be on Tuesday. Don't be sad when I don't email on Monday!

I'm just about exploding this week from happiness and gratitude. I feel bad because I know that all of my previous emails have been so full of complaints. This email is going to be drastically different. So to begin, everything between me and my companion and roommates has been really great this week. Last Monday night, we all sat down and had a big talk about all our frustrations and I explained to them where I was coming from and it really helped! I also told them how it really affects my attitude for the whole day when I don't have the opportunity to get a hard workout in. So, they helped me out! When we can't go in the gym because there's a dude in there, we go next door to the "yoga room" where you can do workout videos that are projected on the wall. There are two spinning bikes in there so they showed me how to put on a spinning class and watch it on the screen. It's super awesome and I sweat a bunch! So yeah, this week I biked up a mountain in South Africa....no big deal.

During our big talk, they asked me what my old outlets were. I told them that painting really relaxes me so they took me to the mission office the next day and I picked out a free dresser that I am now fixing and painting in my free time. They call it my "happy dresser". Haha. I really love it so far, but it's taking me forever to sand it! I'm just going to take it back to the office when I'm done with it so other missionaries can use it. I have the feeling that by the time I go home, all of the free mission office furniture is going to be looking real nice.

Saturday was my birthday and it was probably one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. I got packages from Grandma Evans, Aunt Julie, and Mom and Dad! Thank you so much, mom and dad. I got your package on Friday but then my roommates took it and they split up all the things in it and put them in different boxes and made me open them at different times all day Saturday. It was pretty fun. Then, they took me to Panda Express for lunch (only because there is no In-N-Out in our zone) and a member from another ward who I've never met before paid for all of our food and bought me a stuffed panda for my birthday....people are so nice sometimes! Also, my companion made my favorite chocolate pie and when we went to dinner at another member's house, they had cake with candles! It was a good day and I really appreciate everything you guys sent me. I feel a lot closer to home when I have a bag of "sheep droppings" from Reed Point in the cupboard.

I feel better this week because we finally got put in charge of our own dinner calendar and I was able to write on the bottom, "p.s. Sister Solomon does not eat desserts". The people who all signed up asked me about it and I said I was trying to eat healthier and they were all super supportive! Yaaaaaay! 

Last night, we went to a stake youth musical fireside and it was the most amazing thing. My companion couldn't believe I had never been to one before. So that was cool. Also, another random fact, 2 elders in our zone got sent home early this week. Yikes! I think 5 total got sent home early. Yeesh, it makes me glad that I'm getting along better with everybody. Our president does not hesitate to give you a plane ticket if you even so much as hint at not wanting to be here. So it was awkward when we got on Facebook and saw that those elders were all of a sudden at home! We didn't even know!

On the bright side, WE FOUND 7 NEW INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK! Yeah, I'm super excited. I've been trying really hard this past month to be very obedient and not complain and I think it's starting to pay off a little bit. So our district goal for the month was 8 new investigators and we reached the goal because one set of elders found one new investigator too. But 7 of them are ours. YES. TAKE THAT, hardest area in the mission! I just hope we can keep teaching all these people and that they will progress from here. One of them has been going to church regularly for over 8 months but she finally agreed to let us teach her and she already wants to be baptized! We just have to find a way to let her know that it would be okay with her father (who is dead and who baptized her as Serbian orthodox) if she got baptized. She also wants to take us to Cracker Barrel which would be cool since I've never been there. 

This week has just shown me how if you stick it out and do your best and pray that you won't murder your companion, Heavenly Father will totally bless you and send you lots of presents.

Anyway, the point is, it has been a really good week. Thanks so much for everything you have done for me, I really appreciate it. I love you so much and hope you have a great week!

I love my Montana necklace!
Also, you can tell by my name tag that I had just ran through someone's sprinklers.....

ONE MONTH JACK!

Dear people where the toilet water spins the other direction,

Howdy y'all!!! 

First of all, sorry I didnt write a group email last week. Every week we write a letter to the mission president to explain how we are doing, and I wrote it all in spanish.. yeah it took all of my writing time.. which is a lot.. and it was only like 4 sentences.. Yeah I need to work on my writing haha! But I promise you all that Im still alive, doing well, and havent been robbed yet which is a miracle. Striving to set the record for longest time in the mission without a robbery! aaaaaaaaannnnnnndddddd ACCOMPLISHING IT. ;) 

Its been a pretty good week! The language is coming, definitely not perfect! FAR from perfect. But Im learning little by little.

Its been an interesting week as well.. Lots of weird experiences.. First of all.. Horses roam here in the middle of the city. Aaaaaaannnndddd you probably dont want to know this but Im going to tell you anyway we saw some horses eating a dead dog so that gave me nightmares. Also, here in Argentina, when people greet they kiss cheeks. As missionarys we can do this with males, and obviously not with women. Im still not used to this yet so a woman came and kissed my cheek which is a big no no. Yeah I screamed on the inside and repented right there. My companion was laughing so hard. So yeah theres some interesting stories for you!

Ive definitely been learning a lot about hard experiences, as every missionary and every person does, Im definitely not the only one. But this scripture really opened my eyes. 

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into thehands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed uponthee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surgeconspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy;if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elementscombine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the veryjaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee,know thou, my son, that all these things shall give theeexperience, and shall be for thy good.

Everything that we go through. Everything. Is to teach us and give us experience. There are difficulties in this life and its hard. But remember, God is putting these things into your life for your own good and for your own experience. How do we learn anything in this life without difficulties? This scripture has definitely helped me to have a better attitude and to be a better missionary.

So happy to be a missionary, so happy for my trials, so happy for all that Im learning, so happy to be here. :)

Love you all!

Elder Evans