Falcano Season

Everything had a thin layer of ash and the skies were "foggy"...

Well the answer to why my title is falcano season is because it is starting to be fall hear because the leaves are changing color. And if you haven't heard by now there was a volcano in Chile. But at least the leaves are changing colors. 

Mon- It was pday and we played some soccer so that was fun. We then had a family home evening with a member family in the ward. 

Tue- We had zone conference with president. and then we had mission correlation metting.

Wed- We visited a recent convert. We tried to visit a less active but they were not home. We went down and helped with the youth and mutual. And there was the volcano in Chile so we went and bought some food and made sure we had extra water. and we went to the pension. 

Thur- We were in the pension ALL day because of the ash in the air. It was super weird. Like it looked foggy but it was ash and you could see a little ash floating around.

Fri- We were in the pension again. We eventually got to leave but there was another explosion so we had to go back to the pension. 

Sat- We were in the pension in the morning. And in the afternoon we left and tried to visit a couple people. We visited an investigator so that was good. But the other people weren't home. 

Sun- We had church in the morning. We had 51 people there. We had to go to the pension again in the afternoon because the ash was coming back fairly thick and we were stuck there all afternoon. 

This week one thing i thought about was having a good attitude in all things. In all of our trials that we have to have a good attitude through them. Praying and thanking our Heavenly Father for the opportunity we have to get better and if we do that we will always have a good attitude and be happy. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Con amor

Elder Opfar

1.  How much ash is on the ground in your area?

it was like a layer of dust. it wasn't like absolutely A lot. we saw a picture of San Martin yesterday at lunch and it looks like they got a lot of the ash there. 

2.  How long have you had to be indoors?  What have you done? 

well the volcano erupted on Wednesday so we went and bought some food and went to the pension. We were inside Thursday, almost all day Friday, half day Saturday morning and yesterday in the afternoon all afternoon 

I have studied a lot. tried to keep ourselves entertained. We had an onion eating contest, yes we got that bored. 

3.  Is the ash darkness weird?

yeah it is. it is like not like super dark, kind of like foggy. I don't know its weird

4.  Do you think that you will have some service opportunities to clean things up?

i have no idea. i think so. we are going to look for service this week and try to help people clean up

5.  Did you have extra water and food in your pension?

yes we went and bought some extra food and filled up all the bottles that we had

6.  Where were you when the ash started to fall or when it got dark, and what did you think?  What was it like?

We were in the pension. Some hermanas from the ward called us to tell us the cloud was coming and the zone leaders texted and told us to buy food and get to the pension. The ash started falling at night. but the next morning it was falling a little. It was weird

7.  What was your most significant tender mercy this week?

uhm I don't know. we were able to find an investigator that we hadn't seen in like a week

8.  What are you looking forward to this coming week?

getting out of the pension and doing stuff

9.  What is your favorite smell in your area?  What is your least favorite smell?

uhm I have no idea. I don't know if there are any super awesome smells that I have smelled. I haven't paid attention to that. 

10.  What have you been studying and what have you learned?

I restarted Jesus the Christ and have been marking the references. so that's been interesting

Bariloche

On the shores of the Nahuel Huapi Lake.

They live on the second floor of a home.  This is the slanted ceiling in their pension.

Mon- Today was pday. We cleaned up the pension a lot.

Tues- We did a little family histroy work. We didnt have mission correlation this week... We were able to visit an investigator.

Wed- We did some service today. We helped clean the yard of a member. Then we were able to visit a couple less actives with a member in the ward so that was really good!

Thurs- We contacted and had a little success. We also visited an investigator.

Fri- We contacted a little in the morning, We did a choir practice for a song we are singing for conference with President this week. We also had english classes

Sat- We did some contacting with a little success. We visited a recent convert. And tried a few other people but they werent home...

Sun- We had church. we had 56 people today. There were 2 people visiting from Utah. One of them served in this mission like 20 years ago. We did another choir praqctice for the song. and we visited a member family and had a great lesson with them,

This week i listened to a talk by Todd B. Packer called ¨True Doctrine Understood Changes Attitude and Behavior.¨  It was just such an amazing talk. You can find it on speeches.byu.edu

Have a great week!

con amor

Elder Opfar

1.  Tell me more about your new ward and what you love about it.

we have been having more people at church than in Cipolletti. In Cipo it was a struggling ward and here I love that we have a few members who are excited for the work and to go out with us

2.  Have you been able to do any exploring and see the lake or visit any of the cool things around town?

the lake yes, part of the lake is our area cause the lake is HUGE

3.  How are the ward leadership and members?  Are they helpful in finding people to help and teach?  Are they supportive of missionary work?

Yeah some people yes. The bishopric is all awesome. and so is the ward mission leader

4.  What color is the carpet in your pension?  Is it soft?

it is like a darkish color. like what is in churches. not a lot soft but its carpet

5.  Who has been your favorite person this week and why?

Uhm I have no idea. the ward mission leader came out with us this week so that was great

6.  What has been your biggest success?

we found a couple potentials. but we also had some less actives come to church yesterday! so that was good! 

7.  What has been your biggest challenge?

trying to find new people

8.  Are the streets in Bariloche all paved?  Or do you still find yourself on dirt roads a lot?

in central yes. in our area we have a lot of dirt too

9.  What are you looking forward to this coming week?

uhm I have no idea, 

10.  Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

alma 42:22-23

11.  Have you gotten any letters or packages from me this week?

no. but I havent checked the bolsa today. I am after I email

City of Chocolate

The Atkissons from SLC.  

"There are 230 steps... it is a lot." (above)

 "This is right outside our door to the left! So awesome!" (above)

Monday- I traveled 6 hours on the bus to get to Bariloche. I unpacked and emailed. And we were able to visit a member family in the night. 

Tuesday- We contacted a little in the morning. We had district meeting and then mission correlation meeting. Both of those went good.

Wednesday- We did service in the afternoon. It rained on us a couple times. We pulled a lot of weeds and threw away some trash. we tried visiting a member family but they weren't home. 

Thursday- We were able to visit an investigator and then a member so that was good. 

Friday- We visited a recent convert. And another member family. Both of those lessons went well. We finished up the service from the other day. It was a lot of work. There was a lot of trash. WE filled up like a huge container.

Saturday- We contacted but didn't have much success. We tried visiting a couple old investigators and a couple members but they weren't home. Some old lady saw us walking and started talking to us in English. It was weird. She was kind of rude about it. We tried sharing a card with her but she said no that she didn't want any of our church stuff. 

Sunday- We went to church. And then we had ward council. We did our weekly planning and we went to choir practice for the stake conference coming up in a few weeks. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Con amor

Elder Opfar

Hey mom! Things are doing good! I like it here. It is pretty awesome and beautiful. Yeah there is a lot of chocolate here. And there are a lot of hills. 

1.  How is the weather??  It looks like it is quite a bit chillier in Bariloche and that you might have gotten some rain.  Do you have the things you need to stay warm and dry?  If you need anything, there is money in your account.  Please make sure you are warm.  And dry.  :)

It is chilly. Sweater weather. Yeah I have been fine. I think I am going to buy a sweatshirt, I forgot to bring one. so yeah

2.  How are your shoes?  Are they wearing out at all or are they holding up well?  Are they comfortable?  Do they keep your feet dry?

they are good. they have held up well so far. pretty comfortable too. yes my feet are dry

3.  What is your pension like there?  Is it clean?  Does it have a washing machine?  

yes I have a washing machine! We live above a family. It has carpet too. Yes it is clean. And we cleaned today

4.  How was the ward?  Are there a lot of members and are they active?  

we had like 49 people at church yesterday. the members are great! 

5.  Do you get fed regularly in Bariloche?  What did you eat this week?  Have you had anything new, or especially yummy?

yeah we have lunch 5 or 6 days a week. this week was 5. I ate milanese, spaghetti, and yeah. nothing new. I had some flan that was homemade. I haven't liked flan a lot but this was pretty delicious

6.  What will you do for p-days there?  Soccer?  Will you be able to go with the zone or district and do a little sight-seeing sometimes?

I have no idea

7.  What has been your biggest success this week?

We worked well with the ward mission leader and the ward counsel pretty well this week

8.  What has been your biggest concern or challenge?

we need more new investigators

9.  What has been your most significant tender mercy?

there was a couple who from Salt lake who was down here on vacation. and yesterday in church we met them and they told us they wanted to take us out to dinner. so last night we went out to dinner with them. they took us to a pretty nice restaurant and we ate a pretty delicious steak. They names are Ann and Kurt Atkisson. They are recently married. she has a son from the previous marriage and he lives in McKinney. They were awesome

10.  What scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

uhm I don't know. not only just one scripture.

11.  Is your journal filling up?  Let me know when you need a new one, and I can get one off to you.

it is almost full. but I have another one. and another after that. I can get them from the mission home

Bariloche!

A few last pictures in Cipolletti:

Argentina has some beautiful sunsets. 

This was his pension.  They lived on the first floor.

Cipo 1 District

Elder Opfar and Elder Shearer.  Elder Shearer is coming home on Wednesday!

Cipolletti Zone Interviews with President and Sister Lovell

(These next few pictures are from Sister Lovell's blog.)

These next two pictures are the two chapels in Cipolletti.

Today Tyler ran into Elder Davis Madsen at the Bus Terminal today...they went to elementary school together in Farmington and they played baseball together!  So fun.

Tyler's first views of Bariloche from the bus today.

Monday- pday. we played some soccer. and when we got back to the pension we were about to leave again but the other elders called and we got a few things for them and gave Elder Shearer a blessing. He wasn't feeling super good. 

Tuesday- District meeting. We visited Axel and put a baptismal date with him. So that was good! We tried to visit a less active and then went to visit a member.

Wednesday- We tried to find a less active family. Walked down a long road and didnt find them. It was starting to get dark so we headed back. Tried a recent convert but he wasn't there

Thursday- Once again tried to visit the less active family. Walked a lot but couldnt find them. Visited Axel but he wasn't home and then we visited a couple members

Friday- Missiopn correlation meeting. We visited a less active and then an investigator. We went to the church for a thing we did with the missionaries before transfers

Saturday- We had English class. And then General Conference! That was great! And then we got transfer calls. They closed our area and I am now in Bariloche! More south! 

Sunday- General Conference! and then said bye to the other missionaries who were leaving. 

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend! And if you missed General Conference you can watch it on lds.org

have a great week! 

con amor

Elder Opfar

1.  Were you able to watch Priesthood session or was it too late?  If so, when will you see it?

no. it was too late. 9 pm here. im going to download the talks to listen to them

2.  Did you watch all of the sessions in Spanish?  And were you able to understand them?  I will send you the Ensign as soon as it comes.

No we watched them all in English. we were in the church of Cipo 2 and all the gringos were in the secretaries office watching it in English

3.  Did you have a favorite talk or subject?  

well I noticed there were A LOT about marriage. I liked a lot of them. I liked the one by Anderson

4.  Transfers!  What is new?  Are you staying in Cipo?  If so, is your area bigger and is Elder Saldivar still your companion?

no. I am in BARILOCHE! companion is Elder Turek from Layton UT

5.  When I look at the map of your area, Cipo looks like a pretty big city.  How far away from each other are the two churches?  Do you always walk?

Always walk. well sometimes we took the bus to get to a part of our area

6.  Who or what helped you the most this week?

I really liked the conference! 

7.  Did a lot of your ward members go to the chapel for General Conference?  Did any of your investigators come?

we had one investigator come. and yeah some members came. I think most went to the stake center in Neuquen

8.  What has been your most significant tender mercy?

9.  What has been your biggest challenge this week?

All the walking and contacting

10.  What has been your biggest success?

we put a baptism date with an investigator

11.  How did you celebrate Easter?  Who did you spend the day with?

in the church of cipo 2. watching conference. saying bye to the other missionaries

12.  Did you get the email I sent about Rincon being made a branch?  So awesome!!  I am so happy for them and excited that Brother Arpones is in the presidency.  Are you excited???

yeah i heard that too on Monday! so awesome