Malargue

Are you serious?  Osama is dead how sweet is that?  He has a lot of answering to do over there in the spirit prison.  Yeah, I was only in Salto for a week and it was really pretty.  I havn't seen any fincas here in Malargue, but we haven't really gone and worked outside the city too much.  It's a really small city and it's all ours.  We don't have district meetings really because the closest missionaries to us are a 3 hour bus ride away.  But the area is really cool.  We can see the snow capped mountains from the pensh window.  They don't look that big because they are far away but they are pretty big.  I think higher than Timp and there are lots of trees in the city.

Me and Elder Martinez are getting along pretty well, he plays the guitar and sings really well.  He tells me stories in his broken English and I tell him stories in my broken Spanish.  I am definitly getting a lot of practice. I sure don't feel like I know as much Spanish as I thought I did either. I feel like I'm back in my first few weeks of the mission field again, where I didn't really understand much.

We are seeing a lot of cool things happen here. I'm pretty sure we will have some baptisms.  A lady named Norma told us that now is her time to go to church and she knows the Book of Mormon is true.  She has to get married first but her and her husband both want to get married.  She has two kids that also came to church with her. 

We were walking the other day and a police officer came up to us and said, "Hey I'm a member and we just moved here.  My wife and kids are not baptized can you come by our house to talk to us?"  So we did and he seems to want to come back to the church and she really likes the idea of eternal families. 

P-days here kind of suck though because there are no other missionaries to play soccer with or anything. There is a lot to do here but it's all expensive apparantly there is a really nice ski resort called las lleñas. I'm sure I will be able to go somewhere cool and get some cool pictures. 

The branch is really small here like 50 or less people attend church.  There are tons of inactives just like everywhere else in South America, but there are some really kind, good families in the rama.

Tell Uncle Tim happy b-day for me.   I hope you all enjoy your time up there in California.  It's pretty cold here in Malargue and we aren't even in winter yet. Last year it got to -4 during winter. I think I will be sending you another email this week and calling you quickly to set up everything for the call on Mother's Day which is next Sunday, right?  Anyways hope all is well back home. I'm trying to work as hard as I can and be as obedient as I can.  (Just thought I would share that to make mama proud.)  Anyways I love you all and thanks for your emails, have you put any pictures up on the costco website for me?  I would like to see the new lawn care equipment too.  By the way how is that going?

            

I know that The Church is true and that God lives and Christ is our reedemer and for us he suffered but he knew what he was doing.  He is the only way that we can make it to be an eternal family.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that he restored the church and translated the Book of Mormon, I know that Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet today.  I have also gained a testimony and will continue to gain a testimony that the hardest things are usually the best things for us.  Christ knows what we can handle and how to best help us grow.

I love you all thanks for your letters.

Elder Wharton