Here are the most recent emails that Paul has sent from Argentina. Due to being out of the country myself, I have been very negligent about updating this blog. I will try to be better.

October 7, 2009
I got transferred to another province, and here in Chaco. Don't really have a whole lot to say about my new area, as I don't really know it that well. I have two companions—Elder Johnson and Elder Callaghan. They're both really hard workers, and I'm excited to be here with them. I miss my old area, but Chaco is a whole lot nicer than Posadas. The city is a LOT cleaner. The people here are generally a poorer, but my area is in the richest part of town and we have basically everything. The apartment even has washing machine and an oven!! Looks like I don't have to fry anymore. Today we went to the store, and they have Snickers bars. Man, was that exciting. They also have brownie mix. Still no peanut butter though. That's okay though, because WE HAVE HOT WATER!!

Conference was amazing. I loved every single talk, but I think that the most powerful was the one in which Jeffery R. Holland testified of the Book of Mormon. I wash I could duplicate the power with which he spoke. Every single one of my investigators would already be baptized. Unfortunately for them, they only have me. I do the best I can though. I also liked one of the talks from Elder Bednar (I think it was from the priesthood session) in which he talked about what we should do with our families. It made me feel like my whole letter writing has been a bit of a failure, in that I hardly ever bear my testimony to you guys. I´m going to try to do better though, so here I go.

This last week when I was reading in my scriptures (something missionaries do quite often, actually) I found a scripture that explained a lot of the questions that I've been having in my life. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it again afterward. It might sound silly, but it really bothered me that I couldn't find this scripture, and I had even begun to think that I'd imagined it. It was very discouraging. During conference, one of the twelve started talking about the same subject that this particular scripture pertains to. I prayed that he would quote the scripture I was desperately looking for in his talk, so that I would have the reference when the Ensign comes
next month. In answer to my prayer, the speaker concluded quoting the scripture that I'd been seeking.

That story might seem very simple to other people, but it was very important to me. I know that the Lord loves each and every one of us enough to have one of His servants answer our prayers. When we pray with humility and faith, everything is possible for us. I know that
God loves you all and is watching over you.

I was also touched by something that President Monson shared about doing a good deed every day. I would like to start sharing small acts of kindness with each other so that we focus more on the good that we do every day. When we focus on the positive, we are blessed with better lives. This week (don´t get mad Mom) I did the dishes twice for the six other elders that live in our apartment. Everyone is supposedly supposed to do their own dishes after using them, but things rarely work out like that. This week, when the dishes piled up, I cleaned them.

October 14, 2009

The area here is really nice. The toilets all accept toilet paper and everything. In my old area it wasn't always quite so simple. In our apartment the toilet worked fine, but in some of the members houses we just had to throw it away in the trash. Some missionaries have a little bit of trouble adjusting. In my last area we could shower, we just had to use an electric shower head. They work okay most of the time, but they're a lot more finicky than ones that have a hot water heater.

I had a very interesting experience last week. We went out to go work with one of the local members, and he was so excited to be out with the missionaries that it bordered on ridiculous. He jumped at every opportunity to contact people in the street. Not only that, but he seemed to be looking for exactly the people that our mission president tells us to contact, families, potential priesthood holders etc. By the end of the night, this brother was actually singing in the streets the hymns of the church. I'm not exaggerating. He taught better than I did, and seemed to follow the things taught in Preach my Gospel better than me to. The worst part was when I realized that this brother was not a returned missionary, and that he was baptized only two years ago.

Being out with Brother Marcus was very humbling, he's a much better missionary than I am. Unfortunately, he has a family to take care of, so the people here are going to have to settle for me. All I can do is try to take the excitement that he has for the work and apply it in my mission. My point is, we have to try and improve ourselves as instruments in the hands of the Lord rather than compare ourselves to others.

Today I want to bear my testimony to you guys about the power of scripture study. As Elder Holland quoted this conference, those who hold to the rod and treasure up the words of Christ will not be deceived and will not be failed by their testimonies in the last days. I would like to add my own humble, personal testimony of the Savior. Living the gospel is not easy. It requires a painfully acute awareness of ones own faults. Sometimes we become discouraged and think that we can not do anything. Last week, I had a day like that.

I woke up completely on the wrong side of the bed and was angry with people for no reason whatsoever. I got discouraged and started to think a lot about my shortcomings as a missionary. I barely found the energy to study, but as I did so I began to receive comfort from the scriptures. I read from Moroni 7:33 and realized that all I needed to do was ask the Lord for help and he would give it to me.

When we show our faith in God by reading the scriptures, He can help us with guidance in our lives.

Well, summer vacation's comming to an end. I hope it went well for everyone and that you all had enough fun to last you through the next school year. I'm pretty sure that 5 months have never flown by this fast in my entire life. It's pretty strange that pretty soon I won't even be very new in the mission. Weird.

Anyway, the woman that got baptized is named Ramona. She has 7 kids and a very strange family. Four of the kids are Evangelical Christian, and one of them doesn't know that she is an investigator yet. Ramona is very nice, and it has been amazing to see how the spirit has affected her life.

It's been like the busiest week that I've ever had in my entire life. Ward conference was this week, so everyone was excited for that. We also have a ton of investigators that are progressing really well. Because of ward conference, there have been a ton of member references lately too, which is pretty cool.

I've had a ton of testiments this week of how it is that the spirit strengthens us when we're not good enough in and of ourselves, which is good, because I am pretty much never good enough. If there's ever anything that you feel like you need to do, just do it and rely on the Lord for your support.

I love all of you and hope you miss me a ton.
Love, Elder Rasband

I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping this blog up to date, and I apologize. Paul has been doing really well in Argentina and is enjoying his time there. His first companion, Elder Nichols, finished his mission on July 31st and since then Paul has been serving with Elder Hatton from Kentucky.

Here are a some pieces of his recent emails:

07/08/2009
Elder Nichols is a hard worker and he is my trainer. Sorry for the confusion. He and I are really good friends and Ill be sorry to see him go home to the states this month. He and his family are going to have a trip through the US at the end of the summer and I told them they could stop by. You can ask him about all of the silly mistakes I make. I'm sure he'll want to disillusion you.
Right now we are teaching a lot of people. One of them will probably get baptized this month if we can get some way for him to come to church--which by the way has been cancelled in all of Argentina for the next month because of the Swine Flu. Were trying to work something out where we invite him to the houses of the bishopric instead.

07/16/2009
Last week was a lesson in blessings in disguise. Because of the whole Swine Flu scare the government here asked the churches to stop holding meetings. This made Elder Nichols and me a little frustrated because we have a couple investigators that had to attend sacrament meeting in order to make their baptismal dates. Later in the week however, we got an email from the President (of the mission) that said that our investigators could attend the little family sacrament meetings instead as long as someone from the bishopric was present. It took a lot of work, but both of them ended up coming to sacramant meeting!! Not only that, we ended up having more investigators in the church than we have had since I got here. Plus, it was really cool to feel the Spirit that the members invite into their homes when they participate in preisthood ordinances.
Lately, we've been teaching a lot of young people, which has it's own set of challenges, but I find very rewarding. Strange things happen sometimes though. For instance last night we went to visit Marcello, a 14 year old that we found while we were teaching his girlfriend's family, and I looked over to the table and saw a Linkin Park album. Marcello had been listening to it before we came in, but had turned it off because he didn't want us to criticize his music. He was really surpriesed to learn that "people like us" (which is to say missionaries) like the same kind of music that he does. Unfortunately he decided to play the album after he found that out, and we had to ask him to turn it off.

07/22/2009
It was cool to have sacrament meeting in the members houses. It was really special to see how the spirit in the homes of righteous families can be the same as the spirit in the chapel. The Stake went ahead and changed everything back, though, so this week we had church in the chapel as usual.
Elder Nichols and I have been really busy lately. We have a couple of investigators that are getting close to baptism, and we are visiting them pretty much every day. It makes our day a lot more complicated because between Ramona and Julio and our Lunch we have to go to every part of our area every day.
I'm also very tired because we can't run in the mornings and I have much less energy than usual. We can't run in the mornings because our shower is broken and we are having to heat up water on the stove to bath. It makes me feel like a really hardcore missionary. Also a little smelly.

07/29/2009
We're working really hard. We have a bunch of investigators and they're progressing pretty well. We've started teaching a girl named Camila who's a friend of one of the youth in the ward. She's really cool, and she wants to get baptized, but her mom said the Spanish equivalent of "Over my dead body." We're working on that though.

08/05/2009
Life here in Argenina is amazing. I'm really happy to be here. Elder Hatton and I are going to have a ton of success. Being able to see people change their lives really is incredible.

08/12/2009
One of the people that I've been teaching since my first week in Argentina got baptized, and my new companion and I didn't really have a ton of experience in planning everything. Plus, it ended up raining really hard the day of the baptism and the day of the confirmation, so almost nobody could come. That might have been ok though, because we found out at the last minute that the Bishop's mom had made us a cake,and we didn't have utensils to eat it with. Everyone just had to use their hands.

Thanks for your patience! I will try to be better about updating frequently.

Life here in Argentina is fun, although a bit hectic. Sometimes I feel like we do more walking that anything else, but we're making progress.

I've also been learning about the importance of member missionary work. What I've learned is that no one will come to church or be reactivated or take any steps in the Gospel unless they are invited, and inviting is NOT "Well, maybe, if you wanted..." If you truly love someone you will do everything you can to persuade them to take steps towards their own salvation. In the scriptures, the greatest members of the church spread the gospel at every opportunity with all of the power they posses. We cannot expect to be called "blessed" by the Lord unless we are diligent. I've come to realize that all of the relationships in the world mean absolutely nothing unless they translate to friendship and fellowship in the world to come.

About half of the active members of the ward can say my name now, which is cool. Who knew that "Rasband" could be so difficult? Unfortunately, the other half of the ward has decided to call me Elder Batman. I guess that nickname is going to stick after all.

Love,

Elder Rasband