Week 19- "Cena de los Verones"

Hey everyone!

     This week went great! It was my first week with Elder Fisher and we are working together well and teaching a lot. Adela still hasn't been baptized but we are hoping this week. I cant wait for this coming week to teach more and find more people to the knowledge of our savior.
     Tuesday we started teaching and had a nice reality check when neither my companion or I could understand or speak Spanish very well. To be honest that lesson went pretty horribly. I was just talking all the time and didn't let my companion really teach or the contact talk. But we mess up for a reason, right? We just have to learn from them and be humbled by them.
     Wednesday we went running (finally!) and then had two lessons! Then in the evening we had another lesson with a lady. Our lesson got cut off by her running one of her sick kids to the hospital, and then when we passed by another day her family didn't want anything to do with us. Then we had a cena de los verones (dinner for the men) at the capilla and it went great!
     Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we had divisions and that was really great! We had a branch activity and it was given by the primary. They got me dressed up as the good Samaritan and we played it out, I wish I had gotten it on camera!
     Sunday, Jose Alegre came to church! We also found and taught a lady María who defiantly is getting baptized!

Thanks for the prayers, letters, and support.

Tenga una buenísima semana!

 Elder Mason Tuttle

Divisiones con Elder Sears in Pasos

Rio a cerca de paso de los libres

 Elder Curtis, I, and Hermana Silvia

 Elder Curtis, I, and Hermano Ricardo

Hamburguesa durante divisiones con Elder Curtis

Pathway in Pasos

 On the bus leaving Pasos

 On the bus leaving Pasos

Elder Fisher and I

 Campo - Mercedes

 Park - Mercedes

The fattest dog I have ever seen

The fattest dog I have ever seen part 2

 Making a copy of our key

Making a copy of our key

We found Jesus of Nazareth

Week 18- Transfers Week

This week has been super busy! 

Monday we finished up like a normal pday.

Tuesday we had a lesson and then went over to the hermanas apartment because the were having trouble with the water flooding their apartment. We looked at why it would be flooding and noticed that all of the downspouts had been plugged. Come to find out the spouts were draining into the neighbor's yard and he didn't like that. So instead of running the pipe into the drain on their porch, they just plugged them all. Therefore when it rained, the water just overflowed the gutters and spilled over and into their sliding door, and then into the apartment. We ran to a hardware store and got a 12 foot piece of 4" PVC pipe, 2 elbows, and a tee for 180 pesos (or like $10)! That's soo cheap! But anyways we got it fixed and wow, it works! Until the next problem hermanas! After we fixed the pipe we ran and grabbed our stuff from our pension and went to the terminal. We got on our collectivo to Resistencia and a few hours later got off and went to Elder Daniel's apartment to sleep. 

Wednesday and Thursday were all in Resistencia getting my paperwork done for my ID here. Lots and lots of sitting. We got back to Mercedes late Thursday evening and were able to have a charla with Adela she should be getting baptized this Saturday!

Friday we went to Curuzu and had district meeting. Apparently the company who we usually use to go back to Mercedes doesn't go back so we had to change companies and they were like an hour later so we went and got ice cream!

Saturday we had two great lessons and also talked to one of the sisters in the branch who just got back from receiving her endowment. She was so happy and it was awesome! When we were leaving from her house we walked out and there was a giant go kart race going on and so we stopped and watched it for a few minutes and got some pictures and videos!

Sunday I gave a talk in church about the fortifications of Captain Moroni (my favorite BOM person) and how we can use his example to protect our lives and families from Satan. Moroni protected the Nephite cities with dirt walls, timbers, pickets, and towers. Like him, we can go to church (dirt walls), read our scriptures (timbers), say our prayers (pickets), and always be watching ourselves and our situations to be ready for temptations of Satan. We had an activity Sunday night and were supposed to bring cinnamon rolls so I start making them and realize that we didn't have enough milk or any eggs.... soo I just put some water in and substituted in mayonnaise (its egg right?) the dough didn't taste too bad so I let it rise. 20 minutes later, it hadn't changed at all.... bad yeast. Sooo we rolled them out into tortilla type things and brought them to the activity hahaha! They tasted pretty good. 

Monday we got up at 3 in the morning and caught a bus to Resistencia for transfers. Sat there all day, and came back with my new companion, Elder Fisher, who roomed with me in the MTC!

Thanks for all the letters and support!

Elder Mason Tuttle

 Adela

Felix, a member that is deaf and can't speak, but is always at church

 Sunday night activities

Hermano Ramon, recent member of the hermanas

 Everyone watching the race

One of the racers

Week 17- No Washing Machines!

Monday- I had my first experience washing my clothes by hand... makes you thankful for a thing they call a washer machine! haha. nothing much else happened Monday.

Tuesday/Wednesday- Elder Sears, our zone leader, came for transfers. The next day we went and taught a bunch of people. Hopefully Adela is baptized this week. We still don't know with her.

Thursday- Was zone conference and we reviewed a lot of the rules of the mission the AP's want to reenforce. 

Friday- It was super hot and we didn't get much teaching in. We did have a really interesting Mother's Day activity (it was their Mother's Day) and had a Chamame band come. That was cool!

Saturday- Elder Peterson and I were soaking wet but we worked really hard and went to see a bunch of people. The streets were super flooded so Elder Peterson had to carry me across some of the streets cause I haven't bought boots yet!

Sunday- I got the opportunity to teach the BOM class again! It's fun but hard at the same time and teaching the class helps me realize how little Spanish I actually know. We had an asado (a grilled dinner) with the Bordon family and I think I ate a whole cow and drank 2 liters of soda!!

The mission has really taught me how much we need to rely on the Lord and put in our work. But no matter how much we work we still can't make others do what we want them to do. It's their choice, but we can pray to help them feel the spirit!

Elder Mason Tuttle

Diapers?

Blindfolded children with whipped cream and FORKS!

​Some of the pictures are old but I thought I would send them anyway! -Mason

Week 16- Hermano Omar y Hermano Bordon

This week has been noticeably less stressful as we were finally done with the apartment and could relax (which is just a joke because relaxing on the mission just means you change what you are working your hardest on). So we are now relaxing in missionary work! 
We were able to visit a few of our investigators but it kinda feels like we are starting over again with some of them because of the time that has passed. We got assigned to be home teachers with a priest and we visited one of our families. Kinda a coincidence after Elder Holland's talk haha. But everything is going well here. It's been great to dive back into serving others and sharing the gospel. 
To answer some questions about the branch: The branch is pretty small as far as people who actually come, there are actually about 200 members but only 30ish come on a regular basis. It seems like there are a bunch of members and then there are the few who just are pillars that anchor the branch. 
These are our pillars of our branch:

The first pillar is Jose Omar: Hermano Omar is such an amazing member and member missionary. He has given us a ton of references and even invited the mayor of mercedes to church! He just got called as our Elder's quorum president and is doing an amazing job!

The second pillar is Javier Bordon: Hermano Bordon was baptized a few months ago and I'm pretty sure he knows more about the gospel and early church history than I do! We are trying super hard to get his wife to be baptized. 

Thanks for all of your support, letters, and prayers!

Elder Mason Tuttle

 Building a bunk bed for the new apartment

 Closet

 Desk area

 Kitchen

 Bathroom

The dryer

Week 15- The Move

Hola Todos!

Honestly this week has been more of the service to the mission than to the people as we have spent the whole week repairing, cleaning, and replacing things in the apartment. Talking with Elder Peterson we have fixed or replaced every aspect of the apartment possible. The only thing we didn't repair or replace is the floor, which could use it haha. 

Conference was amazing and we were able to watch it in English so I was able to understand it! I'm organizing my notes this week and will write about what I learned next week!

Sorry this week's letter was extremely short but honestly nothing else happened this week. Hopefully this coming week is a little more eventful.

Elder Mason Tuttle

 Finished apartment

Finished apartment

 Finished apartment

Finished apartment

 Finished apartment

Finished apartment

Finished apartment

 Elder Peterson and I on the roof of our new apartment

I caught Elder Peterson with the flash on haha

Week 14- 3 Month Mark

  This past week has been a lot of getting ready for the move that should happen this week. A lot of time was spent inside our pension because there were workers working on our bathroom and windows and we can't leave when they are there. So we have been packing and painting. Because nothing much happened I won't separate the days out. 
In our district meeting we talked a lot about the Characters of Christ and I learned a lot from that. I recommend going to the Character of Christ page in Preach my Gospel (i'll put it in the attachments) and doing the activity! We had to get prices of a bunch of furniture and send that to the office. 
Thursday was spent helping a recent convert with his computer. The power supply was bad and the motherboard also burned up so he bought the parts and we put them in! I also made some really good tacos, and hit my 3 month mark!
We found out that because of health problems Adela wouldn't be getting baptized but I did get the opportunity to baptize two of the sisters converts! On Sunday I confirmed one of them and Elder P. confirmed the other! It was a little scary because of the Spanish but it ended up going really well. 
On Saturday we needed to get our church key from the hermanas but they weren't answering their phone, we had to get into their apartment building so we knocked on their door. A lady came up and we wanted to go into the building with her, and instead of saying we needed to talk to the hermanas I accidentally told her we had a date with them..... so the Spanish strikes again. 

The week wasn't too exciting but I was reading in Alma and learned about missionary work with Ammon. While this is shared often I really noticed how all of the elements of a good lesson are in there! Also there is a lesser known story about the maid servant of the Queen. Look it up!!

Elder Tuttle

 Argentine tile job

 BAPTISM!!!

 Giant black widow's web

 Branch president office

 Capilla

 Concina

 May have killed the yeast in the cinnamon rolls

 Service

Tacos!