B.A. MTC life and new companion, Elder Ludlow

sHey Mom and Familia!

I love you all! Thank you all so much for your love and support! 

To answer your questions: We do sleep in dorm-style rooms. There are 6-8 elders in each room and we have bathrooms and showers we share similarly to the Helaman Halls style at BYU. There are two floors of rooms and each floor has their own set of showers, etc. We have an hour of exercise time each day, but I haven´t been able to use it really. I have been letting my knee heal because it keeps tightening up on different sides of the knee whenever I go out and work out hard. Breakfast is basically standard every day: cereal and pastries. It´s a little bit gross how much sweet food they serve sometimes haha. I see many elderes y hermanas eating just sugar cereal, a cup of hot chocolate, and a pastry filled with dulce de leche for breakfast. I typically eat a bowl of raisin bran type cereal, a bowl of sugar cereal, maybe a pastry, and then I always grab a fruit as well.

As for the past week- crazy! Proselyting was quite an adventure! The highlight was definitely having the chance to visit with a woman named Ramona Blanco. She was probably about 60 years old, and said that she was basically deaf in one ear. She was catholic, but very kind and receptive. I shared that we believed in Jesus Christ and wanted to share a message about him. I asked her if she would like to hear more and was amazed when she said yes! We took down her address and name (she said she doesn´t have a telephone because she can´t pay for it). I really hope the missionaries in the area are able to visit with her! I gave her a libro de Mormón that I had wrote my testimony in to read. She was very kind to us.

My comp and I also had the chance to sing on one particular door! We practiced singing I know that my redeemer lives in spanish, and were able to do it pretty well a capella! I was very happy with how it went. Unfortunately, we didn´t follow up as well as I would have liked after the song- but you live and learn!

In other news, I just changed companions! Our teachers felt that it could help our district if we had a small change and switched my companion with someone else, so they had me take the idea to Presidente Benton. He prayed and thought about it; telling us yesterday to go forward and complete the switch! My new companion is named Elder Ludlow. He is a very smart kid from Queen Creek, Arizona! I was grateful for the time I had to serve with Elder Kindt. We had some very cool experiences, and our last day as a companionship was awesome! We had a sweet lesson with our substitute teacher, and I felt the Spirit very powerfully.

Also, today we got to teach a real investigator!!! Very cool! The teachers felt that the Spanish of myself, Elder Kindt, Elder Taylor, and Elder Ludlow was good enough to teach a lady named Olga who was visiting the temple grounds today! I felt like the lesson went very well! Olga is scheduled to be baptized this Saturday, and we had an awesome opportunity to teach her about the gift of the Holy Ghost! I barely know Olga, but I´m very excited for her. Her parents are from the Ukraine but she has been in Argentina since she was 12. I wanted to tell her how Dad has visited the Ukraine, but I couldn´t think of how to share about that in Spanish quickly enough! haha.

Thanks again for all of your help and support. Let me know if there´s any way I can help someone back home! Whether with a kind email or some other way! I hope that I can help all people come closer to my Savior Jesus Christ!

I love you all! Ciao!

-Elder Lambert

p.s. Dad- thank you for the advice. I really appreciate the words of help you have given me. I hope all is well with the office, your movie project, etc. All the best!

Spanish and Elder Bednar Devotional

Message body

Buenas Dias Mamá! 

Holy shmokeys I´m pressed for time today. I have a district leader meeting part way through our email time today! Hopefully They will let me come back and send a little more info over since I will only get half of my alloted time!

Well- updates from this past week:

1. The spanish is improving one day at a time. There is a lot of work to do of course. This week we practiced by visiting the distribution center on the temple grounds here (there´s a hotel building where members will stay when they are visiting the temple). We met with people members there and told them we needed to practice our spanish. We shared our testimonies and just worked on talking with them! I can say a few things, but understanding several of the people we spoke with was a whole different story!

2. We watched a really awesome devotional from Elder Bednar that he gave in the Provo MTC at the beginning of July! He talked about the principle of "one by one" and how he has found that as he is on the Lord´s errand his path always coincides with the "one" that God would have him administer to. He shared some really cool stories, and it has reminded me of the times that I feel like God has directed me to help individuals (especially the time I helped out that girl after the temple).

3. I rapped in English. There is no chance I could rap in Spanish at this point. It will take a lot more practice before that. 

4. We are going to be out proselyting this Saturday! I´m fairly nervous about it, but also a bit excited. It will be nice to get out and see people. My comp and I practiced a couple of hymns in Spanish that we´re hoping to use while we tract. I may not speak Spanish all that well but I really hope I can at least bring some of the love of Christ in my interactions with people! I think that if you we go out and are just bold that we will be helped to have the Spirit communicated in our message!

Well- it´s killing me right now because I know I´m forgetting something I wanted to share with you but I gotta go! I love you all! Thank you so much for your love and support! 

Love,

Elder Lambert

p.s. pictures- elder kindt and I, district nefí, me in front of the CCM, out in the rain in front of the temple

Argentina!

Hey Mom! Shooting you a quick message to let you know that I made it! Love you! Talk to you this next Thursday! (Our p-day)

Love you!

-Elder Lambert

Hola mamá y mi familia!

Great to hear about the family! Sounds like a crazy adventure for you and Dad! Seeing Dr. Hilton would have been very cool as well, I would definitely be interested in hearing what he had to say. I was also grateful to hear about Noelle's experiences in the land down under! Super cool that she got to see kangaroos! Also- that is an awesome testimony from Grandpa Young! Very powerful.

As for me experiences here in Buenos Aires- it has been quite the read. Last Wednesday we took our flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta, and then took an overnight jaunt from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. There was a small group of us that took the flight to Atlanta and then several more missionaries met up with us in Atlanta to come out to Argentina! The flight was long, but I was blessed that I was able to sleep alright, even though the seats were pretty uncomfortable. We arrived in Buenos Aires Thursday morning and proceeded to pick up our luggage; then games began. We met three guys out front who were in charge of picking us up, I'm guessing they were members but they didn't speak a lick of English. Luckily, I was able to understand enough to get a role call done so we could see if everyone who was supposed to be there was present, and to know that we were supposed to follow him outside to where the buses would be. As we got out to where we would wait for the bus, the guy who I had been following asked me "Castellano?" to which I said no, but it was kind of cool to be communicating in some respect.

We proceeded to get on the bus and one of the guys who directed us to the bus asked for tips for the guys who had loaded our luggage up to take to the CCM (Centro de Capacitacíon Misional). One of the Elder's only had a $20 bill and the guy just took it and gave him the $5 change he had. We all had a good laugh about him giving a $15 tip first thing in Argentina. We got to the CCM and got all checked in, unpacked our bags and found out who our comps were! My companion for the duration of my time here will be Elder Kindt, a white boy like myself from West Valley. Elder Kindt just graduated in May from Skyline High School. I was thinking about it last night, and I really do feel like God needed Elder Kindt to be my comp while I am here in the CCM. He is certainly a kid, but he has a great Spanish vocabulary after taking spanish this past year and school and working landscaping with the hispanic community the last couple of summers. It has certainly helped me improve my Spanish, and we can complement each other well because I feel really motivated to speak with the native speakers here in order to learn and practice and then he helps me to learn how I need to properly say what I'm thinking. 

The next morning after arrival I found out some news that has made the past week CRAZY!!! I was appointed district leader over one of the groups of american missionaries that had arrived the day before! Not only that, but I was in charge of making assignments for sacrament on Sunday! I didn't even know anyone yet! lol. I had been hoping that I could come into the mission and just take a back seat and learn from other elders about how to be a good leader in the mission, but nope- I got thrown in right away! It has been a very good thing though, I feel it has reminded me to be a servant and give unto others. Even though I have felt some stress about doing my best to learn for myself and help the missionaries in my district I know that I have been blessed so that I might help others. 

Fun and funny moments from the week: I have now gotten used to using the bidet in the bathroom; I heard one of the Latino elders rapping and then told him I freestyle so I got in a good little freestyle which earned me some brownie points with the latinos here; I have had a lot of fun meeting all the native speakers here, they are really nice and when I embrace my "gringo"-ness and joke around with them they think it´s hilarious (I've been practicing the baptismal invitation, my testimony, the missionary purpose, etc. on them); in our second lesson with our practice investigator my comp said we were EXCITED (excitado = aroused) instead of excited (animado = animated) jaja; I played fútbol with the latinos the first day but then my knee started hurting again the next day so I've been backing down a bit during physical activity; and the food has been very good (a lot of meat and a lot of french fries- I just need more vegetables in my diet).

Yo sé que Jesu es el Cristo, él es el Salvador del todo mundo. Por la misericordia, el meritó, y la gracia de su, podemos recibir vida eterna. Queremos hablar de su nombre para siempre. Oro que puedo posear su poder con mi siempre. En el nombre de Jesucristo amén.

I love all of you and am extremely grateful for your help and support. Thank you for being the hands of God in my life.

Love,

Elder Lambert

p.s. I have pictures but I don´t have time to send them now! Also, the plan is fine for the phone. I'm okay if you cancel as well; do what you think is best. I also found out that I can get Modafinil here! Potentially without a perscription! 

At Salt Lake airport.

With Elders at Salt Lake airport.