First Week in Barrio Jardin

Wow...What a week in Barrio Jardin. My Companion and I have been working like dogs and we have for sure seen the miracles. Speaking of Companion I guess now that I know a little more about him I can tell you all about him as well. Elder Gomez is from Paraguay and he is basically on the border between Brazil and Argentina. He knows three languages and is starting to learn his fourth. I am starting to teach him english. He is super fast at learning English. We are just starting and he remembers a lot of things but we are still working on the forming of certain vowels. oh the joy of teaching. Other things that have passed for this week was all the things that we have done, but for sure the one thing that I have loved for sure was my first week in the big city and the goals that we are making, to make our little branch the best it can be. We just set up the ward mission plan and we are planning to set up everything for counsel and hoping that this not only helps out the branch now, but for the whole year. As well as making new goals we have been finding new people like crazy. Contacting people for more than two hours a day in the sun and let me tell you I can testify that sacrifice is equal to the return blessings. This week we were able to teach a young couple. We were able to teach them for the first time this last week and they both have a desire to be baptized and we are hoping that we can help them. We have a lesson with them both today and we are hoping to set a date for them both and help them resolve some doubts that they told us about this last week. We are super excited for them. One of the blessings of working hard. Well everybody I don´t have much to say because the work is the same, just in a new place. We talk to every one, and now there are more to talk too. We work our butts off in the sun. My companion and I work amazingly well together and can´t wait to see what miracles we produce in our time here. I love you all. Till next week. Elder Cook

Transfer Days have come and gone and so have I to Barrio Jardín

Transfer Days have come and gone and so have I. I was called to a different area. A very sad filled weekend saying goodbye to investigators, members, and basically all of the good friendships that i had made during my time in Rio Segundo. And now for the news of where i am now. I am in the City of Cordoba. not in down town but more city than the fields of Rio Segundo. It is called Barrio Jardín. it is basically a little city connected to the main city. I am like 15 minutes away from the center of the city. a lot different. I have a new companion as well. His name is Elder Gomez, he is from Paraguay as well. Two companions from Paraguay there are only 7 in the mission. What luck do i have. anyways i am quite excited, as much as it was sad to say goodbye to friends and basically family i am now in a new area. This week was just filled with a lot of different things to do. With the new year basically a lot of things are being established. New goals, new things to do, new things to work with and everything. The first thing was establishing the branch in Rio Segundo. We were working a lot with him to establish the missionary work in our little town. It was super cool to work with him up close and personal. He is a really nice guy who has a huge vision. The other thing was we tried to put everything into this week because we thought that one of us might leave. We didn´t know who but someone. It ended up being that Elder Aquino and I left our area to the other two elders that were there but we worked our butts off to make sure that who ever was going to be working in the area had something to work with. We ended up finding a super cool family in our efforts. A family of 4 people who as well had been investigating the church for a long period of time. We ended up finding them and once again having a true desire to have the missionaries back in their house. they basically think the missionaries as their kids and have had missionaries celebrate birthdays festivities and all of those kind of things in their house before. They were waiting to be married but something happened where they weren´t ready at that moment and now we are back to work with them. I know that i can´t really be part of that anymore, but maybe one day. Anyways besides the new area, nothing really too exciting happened. After all the festivities and all that these weeks have been pretty calm. I love it all, sad to leave an area that i love with all my heart but hey, the lord needs me here. Elder Cook the picture of the family is the Chilenos. They are the ones that have the bakery next to the chapel. and the other is just a funny pciture of the fields of Rio Segundo. There are horses every where. more member picture sof the members in Rio Segundo. and the other with all of the missionaries is the one with the family that we were wth for christmas

Happy New Year everybody!

Happy New Year everybody! what a time of the year. A time to make goals and act upon them. I have been thinking a lot about what has happened in the last year but it is really hard to believe that about this time i was really itching to leave for the mission. Had the call, getting things ready, and only waiting for march to come around. And now a year has passed by. I am on the mission. Celebrating the major 3 holidays in Argentina with 3 people from completely different parts of South America. Who would have guessed. Speaking of the New year, ours was celebrated in one of the best ways that i could think was possible. We celebrated together as missionaries of Rio Segundo. We didn´t have the same permission as compared to Christmas to be out in the streets until 12 oclock but we decided as a pensino to celebrate it in our pension with a nice good ole Asado and some good old fun between us all. we came home after a good day of work and started to cook the meat of course. As we all prepared the things for our delicious meal we just had a ball all night long. I can´t describe how much i think that alone just helped us grow closer as missionaries here in Rio Segundo. There is something special about spending these holiday times together. The strange part was i usually imagined this time to be with Members, but in all reality i couldn´t have asked for anything better than what we had together that night. We were all awake at 12 oclock to celebrate the new year and just watch what we could from the windows or our pension. The fireworks were amazing. I couldn´t have asked for anything better. The second best thing was the miracle that we had the next day. Our president has kind of set a new goal for this next upcoming year. He has challenged us all as missionaries of the Cordoba Mission to search for Ideal Situations for our investigators. Especially to find teach and baptize a family in one month. To find in the first week, teach in 2, and baptize in the final week of the month. We as a companionship made it our goal to find this family in any way shape or form that we could think of. Knocking doors, asking members, formers, whatever we could do. We were blessed this week with a miracle. A family that had talked to missionaries about 8 years ago. A family that when the last time they had talked to missionaries they were still a new couple with their oldest at the age of 5. Now a nice calm family that wants the Spirit that we bring as missionaries back into their house. The strange thing was, we couldn´t find their house in the beginning. We passed it like 4 times before we found it. They admitted to us in our next visit every time we passed by they were wishing that we were there to talk to them. It is crazy. They are super cool family. They invited us over to eat with them tomorrow. It is strange how fast you start feeling the pure love of christ enter into your heart when all you want is the best for the people you serve. Anyway, this is the last week of the transfer and our District leader is telling me that i need to start prepping for a weird transfer. I am pretty sure that i am going to be staying but you never know. I don´t really want to leave. I have fallen in love with Rio Segundo. The people, the feeling, and just the branch that i am serving. I love every single one of them for their faults and strengths. it may be that we are a small branch of a this grand church of ours, but the smallest of seeds can grow out of a strong rock. I still prepare myself for the things that may pass in the next week and what news we will receive, but non the less i am going to work my heart out and hope for the best. I love you all and i hope all of you are starting off your new year with a running start. I feel like that is what i am doing, but in the life of a missionary, you aren´t really allowed to stop working. I love it. Elder Cook