Elder Mattias Malzl: November 16, 2014

It is Nov. 16^th and a lot has happened this past week. The week started off with my first Asado on P-day. An Asado is a bunch of meat, like Chorizo, which is sausage, and much more. It is smoked on coals. It was by far the best I have had in my entire life. Oh my goodness, it was so good! On that P-day our Zone also met up and we played soccer. It was pretty much my first game of soccer. Sure I played soccer when I was six-years old, but I didn’t even know how to play soccer back then. But it was way fun! Everyone was super nice and kind – it was pretty sweet! And I got this amazing ice cream at this creamery place called Milos. I got the Dulce de Leche ice cream con Brownies. It was by far the best ice cream I have ever had. Ever! It was unreal. Upon tasting it, it was like my eyes were opened to a whole new world! I loved it. It was really good!

This week we were helping a family in their Panedria. We helped them make facturas (pasties). It was a lot of hard work, but it was great!

We also have a new investigator and we have been teaching him everyday. He is really progressing a lot. I am really impressed with him. Last night we were teaching him, which was Saturday, and we invited him to come to church and he seemed like super ready. We told him we’d come over here and have breakfast over at his house at 7 am and afterwards we’d go to church. He said “OK, I’m super excited! “ Well, Sunday comes around, which is today, and we went to his house, only not to find him there. We asked other people where he was and they told us that he left last night somewhere and he hasn’t come back yet. We’d try calling him, but it always went straight to voice mail. It was really, really depressing because he was so ready to go.

But it’s OK, because when we go and teach this new investigator, we teach him at a less active members’ house. She is such a wonderful lady. What ended up happening is that we just had breakfast with her and had some facturas and some hot chocolate, and she had some Mate. And after that we went to church with her. It was so great to walk into the church with her because she hadn’t been to church for a while. She had been attending a different church, some Catholic church, even though she is LDS.

Anyway, so we walk into church with her and she seemed to feel a little awkward. But what happened, we introduced her to a couple other hermanas in the ward and then she just clicked with everyone. Everyone just welcomed her and she had so many friends – it was great! Now, this is the best part: We have been trying to get one of our investigator family's come to church past week, but they did not want to come last week, which was pretty sad. But what happened, just before sacrament meeting started, the other missionaries Elder Quesi and Elder Flores came to us and said: “Hey, your investigators are here! The first thought that came to my head was: “Our new investigator, he came to church? He knows where the church is? Whoa! That’s cool!” But when we walked out there, it was one of our investigator families! I was just so happy. Elder Burgos and I just had the biggest smile in the world on our faces. We ran over to them and gave the husband a big hug and they were laughing their heads off because they thought it was so funny that we were so happy and surprised! It was great! We sat next to them during sacrament meeting. It was perfect! They were attentively listening, and it turned out that their daughter actually had some friends from school in our ward! After sacrament meeting all the members came up to the family, welcoming them, inviting them to Relief Society and other ward activities. I have a lot of great hopes for this good family!

What else? Oh, we did so much cleaning in our “pension”, as they call the place where we live. I have never done so much cleaning in my entire life. But on the bright side, this pension looks like if the Extreme-Home-Make-Over team had come over and literally had turned this place around. This place is so nice now! I can walk barefoot, which I’m happy about, cause I don’t like wearing shoes.

Anyway, this week was awesome! I love Argentina so much, my Castellano (Spanish) is progressing. It’s also kind of hard sometimes when you are a missionary. Especially when you have a companion who only speaks Spanish and doesn’t speak any English at all. Because you have so many things you want to say. I still have a hard time to express myself in Spanish. But that’s OK – the weird thing is, even though I can’t communicate fluently with my companion, we still like best friends! I don’t get it sometimes. I am so grateful for Elder Burgos. When we are walking down the streets to get to our appointments we are always walking to a beat and are singing. I am seriously so blessed to have him as a trainer.

Until next week!

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Elder Mattias Malzl

Argentina Mendoza Mission -- POUCH

50 East North Temple

Salt Lake City, UT 84150

Email: mattias.malzl@myldsmail.net

Missionary Blog:http://www.eldermalzl.blogspot.com/

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Elder Malzl

C/O Brenda Sepulveda-Mena

Sargento Aldea #876