Week 29 Santa Fe, Argentina

The Companions!!!

Elder Hjelmstad and his "Greenie"

Mom's not there to do his laundry!!! Haha

(look at those pants!)

Josh is feeling the "Latin" flavor!!!

HEYY!

Another week has gone by! Craziness. This week was actually pretty good! We had more lessons with members and, teaching a new guy, and have people that we need to go back and see! I wore Andrews cool tie this week, which means that I had to invite someone to be baptized. We went to a teenager’s house that we had talked to before with his cousin. We taught him about the restoration and then he accepted the invitation to be baptized if he receives an answer from God if the church is true! I was way excited but...problem...haha we don’t know his name! We know his brother’s name and his cousins, but his names so weird and hard we didn’t understand it! But were going there tonight, so I really hope he’s there and we can find out what his name is cuz I feel bad!! Another cool thing this week was when one of our investigators, Ezekiel, told us that he wants to be a missionary! He’s only 20 years old so he could definitely serve a mission in the coming years! That made me really excited cuz serving a mission is so fun because you are blessed just as much, or even more as the people that you serve. I love being a missionary!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk in church, which was really fun! I wasn’t that nervous too! I was given the open topic of missionary work and choose to talk about something we lack in our ward...LOVE!! I talked about how Christ said that the greatest commandment was to Love God and the second greatest was to Love your Neighbor. So first off we need to love God and if we love Him, we are going to love our fellow brothers and sisters like it says in 1 John 4. But how do we love our neighbor? By serving them temporally, as well as spiritually! We have all these blessings and we need to share them! When we come to the understanding and have a testimony, we will realize that we need to share this JOY! Dee and I always talked about how we would feel selfish if we DIDN’T go out and serve a mission! After I read from President Eyring´s message, "How great shall be your Joy" from the Feb 2011 Ensign. I love this quote, "Few joys in life are sweeter and longer lasting than knowing that you have helped others take the restored gospel of Jesus Christ into their hearts. Having that joy is the opportunity of every member of the Church. When we were baptized, we made a promise that we would “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death, that [we] may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that [we] may have eternal life” I love the beginning because there really isn’t anything better! I know that we can do it! I know that the most important part is just being an example, being different. I’m thankful for the good friends and sister missionaries that my parents had to guide them to the truth. I love being a missionary even if we have to sleep wet in 100-degree weather and walk miles a day. It’s great! And going fast!

I love all of you guys and hope that you can all be an example to the people around you and don’t be scared to share what you know is true. You’d be surprised that a lot of people listen.

I love you so much!

Elder Hjelmstad

p.s. Mississippi Girl by Faith Hill came on in the grocery store today, I sang the whole thing loud and proud. haha