Short and Sweet

I was considering today splitting up my emails and doing personal emails only. then I decided not to in order to keep this as a log of things that happened to me each week of my mission.

This week Elder Fernandez was quite sick a few of the days. He is lactose intolerant but loves yogurt; so, he got himself way backed up and then took a hard laxative so we were in the apartment for a couple days.

There is a new elder in the pension, Elder Perkins. He has four weeks in the field and is being trained by Elder Freeman. Yeah. lots of changes. Not a lot of time.

There is an investigator in the area of the other elders who has a baptismal date for the 25th of this month.

We made an asado last Monday. I think I mentioned that already in my last email, but regardless I mention it again because it was great.

The spiritual thought I have for today is from the book of Ether; As I was studying this chapter, preparing to leave it with a less-active member, it impressed me that Ether is concerned immediately for the salvation of others after his own prayer is answered. I brought to my mind that many times, although we may not hear a voice as Ether did, our answers to prayers may come in the form of feelings we might not expect, for example, love towards others, or a desire to go about doing good.

Anyways, have a good week,

Elder Backstrom

El. Backstrom saves the goal and other news!

Well folks at home this will be another edition of Elder Backstrom's weekly letter. Still exciting, or are they loosing a bit of novelty already? That's right! always exciting! Yeah!

Well today I have pictures.

You see the three elders in this photo? they've all been special transferred out of here. I alone remain in San Martin.

Here is my new companion Elder Fernandez. I'm not sure if I sent this photo before so I'm sending it now.

It rained and it doesn't usually rain so I took a photo.

I got a much needed haircut and I am very much more attractive and less messy now. it is very good.

Here is a picture of the time that I did math and found out all the days of all the transfers for the rest of my mission. My mother wanted it and I don't know if anyone else but there it is.

Last p-day we were playing football and I made an AWESOME dive and successfully saved the goal and have a trashed hand to prove it (Ha it was actually not bad at all)

Coins from Argentina! I have collected all of the kinds.

Here is a picture of Elder Freeman flossing. I am sending it because he is one of the new elders in the pench but this is the only photo I have taken and have not taken a group photo yet... so. that's why.

So, today I am writing in the afternoon because we had to go to Mendoza this morning. then, for lunch we did an asado which is kind of similar to a barbeque but involves smoking the meat for a long time over hot coals. It is super extra delicious.

The spiritual note that I considered sharing today is from the Doctrine and Covenants. I was having a bad morning, then I read this scripture and it really impacted me a great deal:

Doctrine and Covenants 84-

60 Verily, verily, I say unto you who now hear my words, which are my voice, blessed are ye inasmuch as you receive these things;

 61 For I will forgive you of your sins with this commandment—that you remain steadfast in your minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer, in bearing testimony to all the world of those things which are communicated unto you.

Anyhow, have a good week everyone!

Chow chow,

Elder Backstrom

"Listen Together" D&C 1:1

Wow! so this week, It was general conference. For me, that's got to be the best weekend of the year (ha, and it happens twice every year. What about that.) It is an inspiring and motivating opportunity to receive training and strength, as well as revelatory warnings from seers and revelators who it has been given from God to know through revelation the words they must convey to us. I was particularly impacted by many of the messages, Including Jorg Kelbingat's discourse on spiritual confidence, and also many of the messages that focused on building testimony (President Uchtdorf's and Tad R. Callister's to name a few.) There was also a remarkable talk in the priesthood session given by President Uchtdorf about introspection and how to take a moment to evaluate ourselves in the gospel. I really enjoyed that one and found it helped me to apply the rest of the messages from the conference better to myself.

Ha! If I keep linking in talks I might as well direct you all to the whole stream of the entire conference! But, in all seriousness, I would encourage everyone to watch or listen or read the messages from conference again. There was an abundance of powerful talks on a wide variety of topics. Remeber that "the greatest blessings of general conference come to us after the conference is over" (Robert D Hales, General conference: strengthening faith and testimony). As we re-study and apply what we have been taught we will gain additional light and understanding about the messages; we will have our testimonies strenghtened and we will begin to see the blessings promised by the prophets fullfiled in our lives and applied to our personal circumstances. Remember that the inspired speakers in the general conference have the right to revelation that will guide us and protect us from things that we do not know may be coming. Like a watchman on a tower they can see the enemy approaching long before they reach us and tell us to prepare ourselves adequately. I was particularly impresed by the large number of talks dedicated to strengthening our testimonies of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the reality of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I would move to suggest that in coming times our testimonies of these precious, important and fundemental doctrines will be tested to the breaking point. We will be "backed up to the wall of faith, and there [we] must make [our] stand." (Ezra Taft Benson, The Book of Mormon is the Word of God) 

So this week, that's that. I Had a wonderful experience with general conference, and hope that as many of you as possible willl be able to share the joy that comes from listening to and studying the words of living prophets as well. Also, Conference is a unque opportunity to be able to practice foreign languages; I would encourage all of you who know a different language to use this as a chance to brush up on your language skills by listening to a talk or two in that other language. (Mostly this is for those people who speak french but I'm also looking at you mom, Thai is on there too)

Okay, everyone have a great week,

"I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel..." (Jeremiah 31:9)

El. Backstrom

Alfajors and other notable news (it's always about food with Dallin)

It's another Monday!

Look at that. Weeks leap by like nothing and I'm not sure if it pleases me.

We had a special conference this week in the stake centre, which is in Mendoza, in which a member of the area seventy came and divided the Maipu stake into the Maipu stake and San Martin district. that means that the five congregations which are close to San Martin: San martin 1, San martin 2, Rividavia, Tres porteñas, and Palmira, are all now branches that are below the jurisdiction of the mission. the goal is to have the district be able to become it's own stake in the next few years! It's very good because it means that basicaly all the distances are shorter now, and that the general leaders will be local instead of from Mendoza, so able to be more involved. The previous bishop of San martin 2 was ordained to be the District President, one of his former councilors in the bishopric is his first councilor, and the former branch president of Rividavia is his second councilor. Good stuff.

(Also Elias and Janet came to the meeting, which was a happy surprise, because to get to the stake centre the bus left from the chapel at half past eight, which is even earlier than church normally starts. So that was a great alegría para nosotros -- translates as "joy for us")

Hm. other things?

This an alfajor. Being eaten. to make all of you jealous that you do not have access to fun Argentine sweets. but unfortunately it also makes me jealous, because I already ate it about a week ago and now I want another one.

Ah yes, there were transfers.

Left to Right: El. Backstrom, El. Ortez, El. Leguiza and El. Trelease

Anyway! I didn't take tons of pictures this week, but that's  Elder Leguiza there behind Elder Trelease. He's a mini-missionary, which means that he's just a normal youth who's here helping us out while we have an odd number of missionaries fro a transfer. He has his mission call to leave on December 12th for Uruguay Montevideo. He's real radical.

In my studies this week I concentrated on preach my gospel and doing some of the personal study activities from the study suggestions sections after the chapters. It was quite different from how I normally study and forced me to make a little bit more use of my study journal, which I realized I had been forgetting to use. Keeping a study journal is very helpful for remembering things that you've learned in the past, as well as forcing yourself to concrete your thoughts in writing allowing you to ponder the scriptures more clearly.

Anyhow, please all have a good week. And find out if there is anywhere I can obtain alfajors in Canada. Jokes. don't actually do that. I would die horribly fat.

El. Backstrom

(note from the editor mother: if any of you are dying to try an alfajor after all of Dallin's ranting about them; they can be purchased @ Tienda Latina which is located at the corner of 99 street and Argyll road next to The Brick)

Transfer Week, but El. Backstrom stays put

Transfer week!

We're both staying.

Exciting transfers, right? I realized that I may only have one or two areas left in my entire mission. Weird.

But what a week! really? nah, I don't know. We actually have had a lot o stuff come up this week where we had to do things and couldn't work. We did, however, teach a lot of lessons to less active members this week, even though we couldn't have any lessons with investigators-- We taught my favorite lesson in two different family nights with less actives, the ten commandments! We used the account of the ten commandments in Mosiah when Abinadi is teaching them to king Noah and his wicked priests, because it adds a little bit of extra fun and story when the servants of king Noah try to grab him and he resits them and casts them back and glows like Moses. It's Mosiah 12:33 to Mosiah 13:26, if you want to read it it is here.

On to other things, we had an asado with our ward mission leader this week and I thought about it and realized it had been a really long time since I had had an asado, since my last area actually- and it reminded me that that is something I will have to make when I return to Canada. It's something classically Argentine.

The week went really fast and I can't think of any other things that happened to tell about! Oh Dear.

In my study this week I encountered a verse in doctrine and covenants that I really liked but I can't find it right now so I'll send it next week.

Have a good week,

El. Backstrom

Short is the new Black!

So! Here in the world of Argentina I am still.

This week was a little harder. Even though we were very busy we did not teach any lessons to investigators. Still, we were able to bring a young less active out to church this Sunday, which in my eyes is a great success, because this ward has really struggled to hold on to it's young people and almost all of the ward leaders have been working as leaders for 20 or more years and are very tired. Our elder's quorum president  is someone who recently reactivated about 3 months ago and everyone loves him and he is working very hard; we are hoping that we can help the same thing happen with some of the other younger less active members.

This week in my gospel study I started reading the Doctrine and Covenants, studying it rapidly to try and identify patterns in the revelations that will help me to better understand the nature of God. It's been very interesting, and I have found a lot of motivational scriptures.

Unfortunately I left the epistle till last today, so I will have to wrap up shortly (sorry to everyone I didn't get to write to personally.) So have a good week all,

El. Backstrom

Great Week!

Okay everyone, here we have, uh, oh. looks like it's another weekly email from me!

This week has been really, really good. Just a positive experience. We had a zone conference in Mendoza, I got an appointment to see a neurologist about my headaches and dizzy spells, and we had some great lessons.

This week's highlight was without a doubt the lesson we had on Saturday with Elias (Elijah) and Janet Neiras. Elias is a less-active member who wants to return to activity in the church, and Janet is a non-member (I thought I wrote about them before but I conldn't find it in my previous emails SO). We were able to teach a very spiritual lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ And help them to set some goals in terms of their progress. But the best part of the lesson wasn't that, it was the spirit we were able to feel, and that I'm sure they were able to feel too. They also came to church yesterday, which was awesome.

(Funny story about that actually. Janet is pushing 5 months pregnant, so she wears these strange strechy long sleeve excercise shirts all the time. Yesterday she came to church in one that said, "I hate Sundays" on it- in English. of course neither she nor any of the members had any idea what it said.  But my companion and I thought it was rather ironic.)

We also had a delicious potato, carrot and chicken dinner for lunch that turned out extremely well the other day. It was just good food. Speaking of which, this week I have been making a concerted effort to eat more healthily. It's been turning out well, I think- I bought some peanut butter as snack food instead of something sugary and it was great even though it was quite expensive.

This week in my scripture study I focused on studying by topic. It's one of the suggestions in the preach my gospel chapter two on effective study. One of my studies that I particularly enjoyed was "Jesus Christ, Redeemer" in the topical guide.

Anyways, I hope you have all enjoyed this short email update,

El. Backstrom's  scriptures