Lame Weekly Update

So, sorry that this weekly update is sort of lame. I promise that there are good reasons; 1- it's not my p-day since that was moved to Saturday and now I have 2-little time to write.

So due to an inconvenience I am in the mission offices currently. Hopefully that gets solved soon but this whole week I have been pretty bored being cooped up inside here... ah well. That "inconvenience" is maybe asthma so hopefully it's not that but honestly if they could give me a puffer today for the rest of my life and I was allowed to leave the offices or tomorrow I could leave without asthma I would probably in my folly chose option one. (Haha. it's not that bad actually but it is frustrating not being able to work!)

So this weekly update email is lame. Sorry about that. Hope you all are having better weeks than I am.

Elder Backstrom out!

Note from El. Backstrom's mother: Elder Backstrom was diagnosed with recurring bronchitis and was put on medication and is now back in his area working.

The best weekly update email that any of you receive from a handsome man in south america

Well, the subject line just about says it all.

Hello everyone! formalities aside, because I have little time to write, I'm going to dive right into my week. This week we had a ward activity on Saturday! It was a lot of work to organize, and not everything went quite according to our plans, and sadly many of the people we invited missed out on the super-duper fun game evening we did, but everyone who came had a Great time with a capital G! It turned out really fun and we even had a lot of activities left over that we didn't fit into the time we had. Hopefully our efforts to coordinate with the ward leaders and continue doing activities like this will really help the kingdom of God to grow in la Favorita. Apparently there had been no ward activities in a really long time so the fact that we had a really good one should get everyone a little more stoked.

Another less mission related story from this week is about my new shaving method... safety razors. and can I just tell you all that they are eating my money. You have to buy cream, you have to buy razors, you have to buy replacement cartridges, blah blah blah... Yeah. I'm also pretty sure that Gillette shaving cream contains growth simulators because two weeks ago when I started shaving with actual razors I only had to shave every second day, and now I am shaving every morning and with a good deal of stubble! And yes, that's with a brand new razor to boot- FC Barcelon champion's edition mach 3 turbo whatever. bah.

Well everyone here is a picture of the district- it's the only new picture I have since last week.

Cool. Have a great, safe, happy, exciting, success-ridden week

Elder Backstrom

Weekly email? yeah, missed a week...

...because I was sick! It was a good reason.

Mom don't freak out.

So: the whole story: (pictures included) last p-day we went to cerro arco, a really big foothill just north-west of Mendoza. Turns out that the air was really cold. it was also a rather large hike, and we ended up making the fatal mistake of waiting for the group of members we had invited to come with us on the descent. and they went really slow. So we got down and I was feeling pretty congested and so we headed back to the pension to change hoping to squeeze in cyber in a place just close to where we live, only to find that it was CLOSED because it just happened to be independence day in Argentina.

And then, to top things off, the next day I woke up with a really high fever (employ your not freaking out skills mom) and have spent the rest of the week until yesterday (Sunday) in the apartment resting. which means that this week was super super ultra lame for me. Luckily I'm well recovered now and this week we will be able to work normally.

Okay.

So, back to the regular update part.

We are planning a ward activity with our ward mission leader. getting a date for it is turning out to be a difficulty but it's going to be a game evening to bring friends to- we've planned activities like potato sack races and blind handball, so it should be bucket loads of family fun when we finally pull it off.

The eek before this last one we also started teaching the "girlfriend" (I mean, I don't know how they consider their relationship especially in this moment) of one of the ward members, and she has shown a lot of desire to learn and interest in what we teach. Right now she has a "baptismal date" for the 27th, so we'll see if that actually happens- it seems probable since we didn't even know that she wasn't a member since she came with Jesús every Sunday since we arrived in the area.

Well I'm going to try to answer some of the other emails I received.

Elder Winter Backstrom!

The Elder Backstrom Update 18th of May

I really dislike it when I get a keyboard that has sticky keys. It just makes writing so much slower and less comfortable.

Well, we had an exciting week! The Cordoba Argentina Temple was dedicated on Sunday, and we had the opportunity to participate in the dedication via satellite transmission. Elder Uchtdorf dedicated the temple; it was a very beautiful experience.

This week We ended up knocking some doors in what is one of the richer neighbourhoods in the city, a place we had never really gone before. We actually met a young man who is about 20 years old and studying to be a mechanical engineer named Samir who accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon to know if God really exists. Goes to show that God is preparing the hearts of people in all sorts of circumstances.

I'm not quite sure what else to tell. No pictures this week, maybe next week. have a good one... elder backstrom

Mother's Day 2015

Here is a GIF of our chat with El. Backstrom last Sunday, doesn't he look great?!! (A little fuzzy, but great)

Middle of May E-mail

Everyone ready for Elder Backstrom's exciting exciting exciting weekly email?

Good. the most exciting is that I have finally sent photos. Hooray! and in good quality, as well.

Well, this has been a mostly normal work week here in la Favorita. We had a far greater turnout at church this week since the municipal elections have finished. We are having a bit of trouble tracking some people down... they seem to never be home... but we also have some great investigators who we are teaching right now. Luis Gutierez is one of them- the ex-husband of a church member, He recently approached the missionaries in the city center and told them that he wanted to be baptized now that he was no longer working on Sundays and could go to the regular church meetings. We still need to help him gain a testimony and understand the doctrine, but he must be one of the people with the most desire to learn the gospel that I have ever had the opportunity of teaching in my entire mission.

On another front, we are helping a member (also our ward mission leader) to renovate his house. he is running new electrical cables, repainting, and re tiling his bathroom- quite the project, considering that he also has a cyber-café in the front of his house that he attends to all day. Sometimes in the dead time of the siesta we head over there and help him move forward with that.

This next Sunday is the dedication of the Cordoba temple! And here we have the opportunity to attend the dedication via broadcast. that means that the stake centers will be extensions of the holy temple for that Sunday- and we will have the marvelous chance to participate in the spiritual outpouring that accompanies the dedication of one of these most holy houses of God.

Well, have a good week everyone!

Elder Backstrom

Elder Nelson and I in San Luis with the flying duck of my companion Elder Saavedra gracing the background

 

My new companion Elder Paz and I 

Inside the pension

A room with a view (from the window in photo 3)

A picture of the street we live on from the bus stop. You can't quite see the monoblock we live in , its hidden behind the trees in the roundabout.

Way exciting weekly email first week of may!

This is not actually going to be as exciting as the subject line would indicate because even though we came to a different cyber-cafe today I didn't bring my camera so there will once again be no pictures.

So, in Argentina, 1st of may is a biggggg holiday. Who knew? It's the "day of the worker". Aw well, we ended up working anyways. I suppose we'll have to wait for "the day of the ecclesiastical minister". Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if they had a day for that- fun fact, there are more than 270 national holidays in the calender year in the republic of Argentina. Wow! (Lots fall on the same day or are not celebrated by stopping work in any way- otherwise they would spend more days in festivals than working- and that's not about to happen)

Well, we have started to work in "la Favorita" for real. We've got a pretty good grasp of the area and have met a few old and new investigators. Sadly, we have a change of companions tomorrow and I'll be out of the area- which is lame, because we have a fixed lesson with a whole family of investigators. We actually spend the whole day in the area, from morning till night, without returning ever to the apartment, because we live so far away-40 minutes by bus. that means that we normally have to find some sort of service or something to do for members during the dead three hours after lunch (la siesta) when almost everyone is sleeping. It's really exhausting to be on your feet for that long. I don't think I've ever gotten to sleep faster in the mission.

Well, I hope that all of you can have a good week.

Elder Backstrom