Hola familia y amigos!

This was another interesting week and not one with a lot of teaching unfortunately, but I learned and reflected on some interesting things that I want to share. 

On Tuesday we went to the bank to pay some bills and the banks here are crazy. There were at least 200 people inside waiting, and they get angry waiting! There was one point when everyone was screaming and clapping because they were tired of standing in line. 

We had to wait so long that we went outside for about three hours until they called our number. I was really tired and hungry and suddenly noticed something on my shoes. There were bird droppings all over them! I was about to lose it when the thought came to me, “at least it wasn’t on your shirt or pants.” It’s silly when things we don’t expect happen to us, but I learned it can always be worse, and that there is always a bright side to everything! 

Working in the office is very different than working in San Carlos de Bariloche. My area in Bariloche was very poor and Neuquén is very nice. There is a lot of grass and it is much warmer. We go into the office Monday through Friday at 9:00 a.m. and leave at 5:30 p.m. We had very little time to teach this week and I really miss talking to people.

I live three or four blocks away from the mission office that is on the same grounds as the mission home. We live with the assistants to the president and one of them was my zone leader in Bariloche so it’s cool to be with him. The assistants and the mission president were gone all last week visiting zones in the mission and giving a Christmas Devotional. 

This week I’ve been studying in Moses and after reading a few verses I like to stop and think about what it really says. The entire book makes me think of something my dad wrote to me in a letter before leaving for the MTC, and this is that God loves us, and that nothing we do will ever change that. When we are discouraged we can always feel the love of God, its something that we will never understand, but something that’s always available. 

I love everyone and I wish everyone the best this week!

Elder Kauffman aka Jack

He is the Gift

This was a crazy week with a lot of adjusting now that I am in a new area, and I am learning how to do a lot of new things.

My last week in Bariloche was great with the new program "He is the Gift" or "El es la dadiva." The church wants every companionship in the world to talk with ten people a day in the streets and talk about Christ, and why he is the real gift of Christmas. Elder Supelano and I did it every day and were always sad when we ran out of cards. People were really receptive and liked chatting with us.

Doing that made me think a lot about why we celebrate on the 25th. I love the video the church has put out, especially when it says that the gift of Christ was offered lovingly by a Father to all of his children. That’s a great gift and it makes me think of the love God has for us. 

As I mentioned in my last letter, Saturday night we received our calls telling us where we would be going for transfers, and I am now working in the mission office. My companion is Elder Da Silva from Pelotas, Brazil. Our title is “Secretaries to the Mission.” We have a lot of different responsibilities, and I’m not sure what they all are, but I know that I am in charge of entering all baptismal records into the church database every week. We also collect all the numbers of the mission, like lessons with members, with less active members, referrals etc. 

This was a busy week for us because we helped send all of the missionaries who finished their missions with this transfer home, and then the day after we helped receive all the new missionaries starting their missions. I did A LOT of translating taking new missionaries to the police station to obtain their legal papers. I also translated presentations from the senior couple missionaries who are from Buenos Aires. 

It was a strange week because there wasn’t much time to proselyte, but that’s something I hope will change. Even though working in the office is different than what I am used to, I’m excited to be here and I know I am helping the mission. Overall these last few days have been a trial, but as I’ve prayed for help, I’ve received strength and comfort that I need to press on. (A little personal revelation I received helped very much. I got the distinct impression that because of my challenges I will become something greater than I was before.) 

One of my high school Spanish teachers (nicknamed “Kimo”) always talked to us about the story of the silversmith. A silversmith can’t heat silver too much, because it will melt away, but he can’t heat it too little either, or else it won’t shine. There is a middle ground, and he knows he’s done a good job when he can see his reflection in the metal. It’s that way with us and God, we are the silver and he is the silversmith. I know God always provides a way for us to learn what we need to learn. To do what we need to do. And that nothing is impossible. 

I love everyone. Please pray for me. I find myself in the office, but I am a proselytizing missionary first! My goal is to help someone come to baptism here. It didn’t happen in San Carlos de Bariloche, and that’s okay, but I want to see it happen soon!

Have a great week and remember I write on Saturday now!

Elder Kauffman aka Jack

Transfer to Neuquén Mission Office

Hello Everyone!

This was a great week and I worked harder than I ever have talking with people in the streets. Most are very receptive when we discuss Christmas and tie it to Jesus Christ. As we talked about the Savior I came to understand the love of God more. For God so loved the world that He GAVE His son. That's powerful.

I was transferred from San Carlos de Bariloche to the mission office this week. I left Bariloche after church and traveled 430 km to Neuquén. I arrived at 9:00 p.m. and my new companion, Elder Da Silva who is from Brazil said, "¡Nos vamos, hay cosas para hacer!" "Let's go, we have things to do!" We take care of all missionary travel, records and other matters. We only have three or four hours a day to work our assigned area. I'm a little nervous to be in the office, but very excited. Wish me luck!

My new day to write is Saturday. I love everyone. Please pray for me and I will do the same for all of you!

Elder Kauffman aka Jack

¡Otra semana!

A lot of good things happened this week in Bariloche! We had a lot of time to help and strengthen the members in the ward. 

Thursday morning we helped a sister with her new house. There were a lot of weeds and only one shovel, but I loved it. She has some problems walking and two small kids so it was nice to do something that she could not do alone. 

Also on Thursday we went to the house of one of my good friends in the ward. He had a lot of English homework and I was able to help him for about an hour. He in turn taught me some typical Argentine phrases. They don’t make a lot of sense, but he loves it when I use them!

Yesterday we visited a brother to give him the sacrament. He has trouble walking but always has a smile and ´buen animo´! I love visiting him.

This was a great week with my companion. We are getting along very well and I think it’s because we are talking more in the street on the way to our appointments. He had to do a lot of things before starting his mission. In Colombia military service is mandatory, so he did that for two years before his mission. We are always laughing about something. The other day a dog followed us everywhere, and because of that one dog, all of the dogs in the street started to follow us! At the end of the day rather than walking back to our pension we took a bus, and laughed the whole way home because the dogs didn’t know what to do!

I had a good experience studying this week. We have three hours every day to study the language and scriptures and I read the Gospel Principles manual in Spanish. I loved the first three chapters that discuss our eternal journey because it puts everything I’m doing in perspective.

Sundays are always a good day for me. Our ward is small and sometimes there are only 60 people in attendance. Throughout the week we invite a lot of people to come to church and I get the best feeling when they show up. I really like being a missionary and this is a special time!

I hope this is a great week for everyone. Assist the missionaries in your wards. It makes my day when members ask how they can help. We need members to really succeed.

I love you all!

Elder Kauffman aka Jack

Attitude

Hello!

First off a big lesson I’ve learned here, and something that I feel like I knew before, is that attitude is everything. Yesterday a brother in our stake spoke at an activity, and he said that during his mission he began to have success when he decided to love what he was doing. It has been that way for me too. We don’t always have success, but if I know what I’m doing, and whom I am doing it for, everything is so much better.

We have been teaching a woman and her kids for about two weeks now and they are progressing. She is starting to feel comfortable with the church in general, and she came to a choir practice on Wednesday and to our “noche de empanadas” on Saturday. 

She has great faith and loves it when we talk about Christ and the peace He offers. It’s something she really needs in her life right now. She has a date to be baptized on November 29th. This is one of the first conversions in my time here that I really think can happen. My experience with her taught me that people are more likely to progress when they have friends and feel welcome on Sunday. 

We had two opportunities to give service this week. On Tuesday we helped two older sisters in our ward with their garden. The entire time they were explaining what each plant was and where it came from. I loved helping them because there is no way they could do that type of work by themselves. 

Friday we went to a place called “Hiper” which is like a Home Depot, to help a brother load more than 700 bricks into his truck. It took a long time! We had to leave early to arrive to our lunch appointment on time, but what I loved was how grateful he was for the help. He is someone I’m going to miss when it comes time to leave here. 

I continue to trust more in the Lord, and face things that make me scared. Sunday there was no teacher for our Gospel Principles class, and we were all waiting after the opening prayer for someone to stand up and start the lesson. I was so scared but I decided to stand up and teach. It wasn’t the best lesson, but I was grateful for the opportunity. I know that the Lord helped me get through it!

Finally, this week I felt like I went to a new level with my Spanish. I feel so comfortable speaking the language. I am very grateful for the gift I have from the Lord to speak Spanish. 

I love this time and I know I’m doing a good thing. I love and miss everyone.

Elder Kauffman aka Jack

Another Fast Week in Frutillar

How is everyone doing?

This was another fast week in Frutillar! The weather is heating up here and I really like it. I was a little discouraged one day as there was a lot of rain and all our appointments cancelled, but we made the most of the opportunity. Rather than avoid the puddles Elder Supelano and I started walking in all of them. We were soaking wet when we got home that night, but we worked and still managed to visit one of our families.

Since I arrived here I have been visiting a less active member who is from Chile. He loves to hunt, and breeds rabbits. We are always going to his house to share scriptures and invite him to church, but we haven’t seen much progress. White visiting with him this week he showed us his driver’s license from Chile, and it showed that his birthday was this Saturday. 

Joking with him I said we needed to eat rabbit with him on his birthday to celebrate! He has no kids and his wife passed away about 10 years ago. I didn’t expect it, but he told us to come! While we ate with him he laughed and talked about all of the animals he has hunted. When we left he said he really would like to come back to church in order to worship in the temple again. 

From this experience I learned that to invite people to come unto Christ, you don’t have to teach them and extend invitations to read and attend church. Sometimes we can simply be like Christ and be a friend to people who need company. Even though we only ate and spent a few hours with this brother I felt good doing it.

We are also teaching a lady we met three months ago, but it was really hard to teach her because her husband was always yelling and asking us strange questions. We unexpectedly met with her this week and she said her husband left to live up north and now she can be taught the Gospel.

This Sunday my less active friend in the ward came to church again and it was awesome to see him there. We have plans to help him raise the walls on his house this week. We had two other opportunities to provide physical service. Lot’s of work with shovels and I’m glad I learned how to work from dad and Uncle Tim growing up.

I wrote down Psalms 62:2 and hung it above my desk and I love the message. “Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” Because of Christ we never have to be troubled.

I hope that this is a great week for everyone. Take care!

Elder Kauffman aka Jack

Update for this Week

Hola,

I finally received my package and did get my glasses and photos. The family pictures made my week. It sounds cheesy, but they are probably my most prized possession here. The other elders always ask me 'y donde estan sus fotos elder?'  

Time continues to move very fast here. The first month was really hard because there was a lot of adjusting, but now I cannot remember what I did in the morning when it is time to go to bed. I love what I am doing, and I have never felt the way that I feel now. 

Sunday we went to look for a member before church. We had to walk for about 30 minutes to his house and it was raining pretty hard the entire walk. When we arrived he wasn't there and it made me pretty sad, but when we got to church there was another less active member I have been visiting since I arrived in Bariloche. He's just 19 and has a baby. I don't know why but it was one of the happiest moments I've ever had because I knew I had made a difference in helping him to come to church. He loved the meeting and wants to keep coming regularly and reading his scriptures!

I no longer doubt that what I am doing is what Christ would be doing if he were in Bariloche. He would walk these streets all day inviting people to come with him. It is amazing to know that I can do that for Him.

Yesterday in church one of my good member friends in the ward bore his testimony of the Savior and I loved it. He said we are like toddlers, always falling and failing, and that Christ never yells or discourages us, but picks us back up. I liked that.

I love you all!

Elder Kauffman aka Jack