Sleep Walking

Hola familia!

Something weird, I sleep talk and walk a lot. Haha I guess it's been happening a lot on the mission and all of my comps tell me about it in the morning. I guess nobody mentioned it to me before because I had a room to myself and far away from anyone else haha! But my comp told me that one night I jumped off the top bunk and said 'guess what happened!' and stood there, then I picked up his sandals and walked in a circle, then put his sandals back down and jumped back on the bed. How bizarre is that? haha my comp was scared out of his mind! I guess you learn stuff about yourself every day... especially on the mission :) haha.

We got a little surprise from the Assistants this week! They stopped by and watched us do daily planning and gave us some suggestions. Since the mission es un poquito bajo the assistants have been going to all the district leaders to try to help. Which is good! They gave us a bunch of good advice, really helpful stuff. I was freaked out, heck they just showed up out of nowhere haha but it turned out well.

There are a few families that we've been really focusing on, as well as the whole ward. There's a family in the ward and they are all active except for the dad. The parents aren't married and aren't members either, but the wife goes every week to all the meetings and participates and is an active 'member' haha, and all of the kids have already been baptized. The dad went to church a couple of Sundays ago and now everyone is super excited for them! I don't know how interested he is, but it should resolve the big marriage issue, so that Mariana can get baptized. All of the ward leaders pray 'with us' at 10:30, and we all pray for this family, as well as all of the families we work with, but especially for this family. Whenever we go by the house the husband goes to work, or is already there, so it's been pretty tough to find him. He's always really nice, he just seems like someone who doesn't know God or has ever tried to know Him. But since we all crave that light and peace I think all he really needs is to try to get to know Him a little, and his life can be changed. We got his phone number, so now it'll be easier to get a hold of him and meet with him!

There's another family we've been visiting that always let us in and we have a great lesson but they never keep their commitments. But just last week the mom's oldest son got his moto stolen and got shot in the head. He's been in the hospital under serious condition and they've asked that we pray for them. They've admitted that they have felt a lot of God's help and help from a lot of friends and neighbors. They've been grateful for our help as well, which is really nice :) Theyre a really awesome family, and the youngest kid reminds me EXACTLY of Jaxson, like it blows my mind haha. He looks so much like him, except dark skinned, and they both act the same. It is so bizarre to me! 

I got my haircut this past week from an old investigator. She's really nice :) and we were talking to her and we gave her a baptismal date and she accepted. Her husband has lived his entire life and doesn't even really want to try to get to know God. They like to say they're too old to change :). I always like sharing about Aunt Carrie, who is a pretty great example about how it's never ever too late to change. How is she doing by the way?

On Saturday my companion and I were invited by the stake president to go to a stake young woman's desfile activity thing, where they walk down an aisle with modest clothes and do a little model shoot thingy. We were pretty surprised haha! But they stuck us outside and had us set up a stand with pamphlets and Book of Mormons to hand out. We didn't hand out much, but there was one kid who wasn't a member, and we passed him as a reference to some other elders in our zone. And we also met a Brazilian lady who teaches Portuguese! So we might me taking lessons from her, since my companion really wants to learn Portuguese and Italian. So that should be interesting!

I love you guys! I'm so excited for all of you and your individual accomplishments :) It sounds like you are all doing awesome which makes me so happy :) something that helps me is the promise that my family will be blessed while I am out here, and that brings me lot of comfort.
Cuidense, Los amo!

Elder Alek Clubb

October 9, 2012-Transfers Today

Hola familia!

WOW what an incredible Conference! I love Conference so much! I felt myself anticipating Conference more than a new movie, book, or music coming out. New talks to listen to and read and to learn from. And every talk has to do with eternal life and being able to receive it with our family. So they are of greater importance! I felt like it was a spiritual feast, and I received so much of God's strength through it. I felt like I could do no wrong through His strength, that I will be His humble and faithful servant forever, that I can take any challenge that comes through His great mercy. Well, I guess all of the Spirit wore me out because I completely slept through the alarm and woke up late the next day :P so kind of a rough start haha. But I still learned so much from this conference!

We didn't go to the Priesthood Session this time around, haha I learned my lesson. (the Priesthood Session gets out at 11pm in Argentina! Too late for missionaries to be out.) and how about that announcement from President Monson?? All of us were freaking out! All of the missionaries who speak or understand English were in the English room listening to Conference haha and we just went crazy! That's Dallyn and Katherine next year! What a big surprise, I can see a lot more missionaries leaving now with this great opportunity. Also to me it's a sign of the last of the last days, and that God really needs to find every prepared child and bring them into the security and joy and peace of the Gospel.

A lot of talks were based on the family and strengthening testimony (conversion) and constantly striving to improve, which was really great :) We were blessed to be able to go to all of the Conference sessions, except for the priesthood, and all of the talks really touched me. It's almost like a weird obsession you can say, all of the talks I have stacked together haha. But I really do love hearing the modern day word of God from His chosen prophets and apostles.

Elder Bravo my trainer called me on Sunday to say goodbye. He's going home! That was really weird and I got smacked with random memories in Venado Tuerto with him when I was still really new to everything. He's a great Elder and I think the coolest thing is that he's really excited to keep doing missionary work and serving after the mission! I also saw a random girl from Venado Tuerto who is now going to school in Rosario, that was a really neat surprise! She got back from her mission the day I got into the mission field, haha :) a funny little tradeoff.

I heard my old pench in Pergamino got into a lockdown. In their pench some guys have some really contagious virus thingy and ca'nt leave! So I guess I left just in time :) I learned about transfers today and I'm staying with Elder Argueta! Which most likely means that I will kill the guy (send him home haha), since he only has two transfers left. He is an awesome Elder and I have a lot I can learn from him. It's still just us in our little two man pench, still trying to find a new pench close to our area. I work in a ward, and so far my church building has always been the stake building, so they've all been pretty big!

So far the church is a lot stronger out here in Rosario, although there are still tons of less active members, like an incredible amount actually, so that's too bad. The members are so great, we get lunches every day and we have a member who does our laundry and sometimes even sews for us! There are members who come with us to lessons, which is a huge help! We still see Pablo twice a week at least, and we still bring a member so he can get to know all of the other priesthood holders in the ward. I'm so grateful to know Pablo, and be able to teach him a little. Last night we had dinner with him and his family, who aren't members. While we were talking about the Book of Mormon he started talking about it, too, and explaining it to his family! You can tell he really loves them, so it was really neat to see him share the gospel with them.

On P-days we usually hang out with the other Elders and usually play some soccer, which is awesome! We buy food for the week in La Reina, which means 'the queen'. We also get on some computers here and write home. I don't live close to the mission home, like an hour collectivo ride, it's on the opposite side of the city haha. I get letters and packages just as often as everywhere else, when the Zone leaders have a meeting in the mission home. There, I think that answers a few questions! :)

I'm so grateful for all of you family :) I love you and I hope you all felt as close to Heaven as I did during Conference. You're always in my prayers.

Cuidense, Los amo :)

Elder Alek Clubb