Quote of the week:

"The Lord doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called"


Monday, November 14, 2011

Week 15 Santa Fe, Argentina

" el centro"
(basically means downtown Sante Fe)


Brother Antoniazzi.
He's the ward mission leader and is so nice!



Brother Trejo- my favorite guy.
He's so cool and so wise and so funny!



Mail Time,

I don't know if this should be my favorite part of the week...but it is! I love hearing how all you guys are doing and what your doing! It's so fun to see you guys doing missionary work too! That's something that I never realized before my mission and it's a HUGE part, that members have in missionary work. Now that I think of it, all baptisms come from friends or relatives of members! We're trying really hard here to work with the members and show them how big of a role they have in helping people come unto Christ!

So, I don't really know where to start cuz theres a bunch of stuff that I wanna talk about, but I think first and foremost...WE ATE TACOS!! WOOHOO! haha Hermana Suvilia made us tacos this week and they were pretty dang good! They didn't have taco seasoning but she made some AMAZING salsa(got the recipe) and their tortillas here are pancakes! haha Seriously, like exactly what we do to make our pan-crapes! That was the food highlight of the week.

I hope you all enjoyed the luckiest day on the Universe on 11/11/11! Dee and I always talked about that day. For me the day was very unlucky. Of course. I have no luck. But ya, I wasn't doing so good. I think I ate something bad cuz I was all weak, my stomach was killin and had a really bad headache. But It passed pretty quickly! I took an hour nap and drank a ton of water, some tylenol, and PRAYED! It worked! I know that prayer is so so powerful. Remember how we've all been prayin for Elder Riveras family to write him???!! THEY WROTE HIM! His ex-girlfriend went to his house, had them all write a letter, and then she typed them and emailed them! He was so happy!

So you know we meet a lot of people as missionaries because we talk to a ton of people. We met a member that's a Native American (from South American) and he bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon! So Cool! He said that he knows it's true because he knows the end of the story. He said that according to his people there were 2 sides, people that believed in God and others that didn't. Eventually there was an enormous battle and the bad guys wiped out the whole other civilization, and spread out all over the land. Definitely a cool and testimony building experience! I love the Book of Mormon and know that it is another testament of Jesus Christ. With the Bible, they both testify that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.

My favorite scriptures of this past week were Helaman 3:35 and Joshua, 22:5.

In Helaman 3:35 it says,
"Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God."
I love this because it shows that our testimonies are like a plant that we need to take care of! We need to fast, pray, become more humble, live according to our faith, and obey the commandments! With these things we will have joy and consolation! I know that I need to give more of my heart to God. That will always be the fight for me, I think. When His will becomes my will.

And I love Josh 22:5
"But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."

this scripture stresses how close we need to be to God. To walk in ALL His ways, to CLEAVE unto Him, and to SERVE Him with ALL our HEART, MIGHT, MIND and STRENGTH. Dang. You got a lot of work to do Elder Hjelmstad. I could go on forever about this stuff but really, all we need to do is become a little better every day. Improve ourselves in every which way and we will come closer to Heavenly Father.

I think the relationship between Jesus and Heavenly Father while Jesus was in His ministry was so amazing. They're so close because they have the same purpose. Christ knew Him perfectly. The ultimate example of this, I think, was when Christ was atoning for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane and said, "Abba." Elder Jeffrey R Holland said that this can be translated as "Daddy." The more I have come to know God, the more I see Him as my Father. I hope all of us can come to know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in our lives and I know that by doing so we will be happier.

Funny thing of the week...We were teaching Diego and his kids were watchin a movie in the other room and I literally heard one song and KNEW that it had to be Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan. I was tryin to focus on the lesson and kept finding myself daydreaming about what part they were in and how many times we watched that movie when we were little kids. Good times. Sometimes in my room while were studying I have little Country concerts and sing to myself some Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, and Lady Ant. haha My comp thinks it's funny. Also, we taught this guy this week that looks exactly like Doc from back to the future! hahaha he's crazy!

K, I don't really have anything else except that I love you all so very, very much and still get teary-eyed when I talk about you guys. I pray for you all every single day and I can feel your prayers for me. Thank you so very, very much.

Try a little harder to be a little better.
Stand a little taller.

LOVE,
Elder Hjelmstad!

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