AWWWWW YEEEEAAAAAHHHH

Dearest people where peanut butter exists,

HOWDY Y'ALL.

Hopefully you are all having a wonderful week! Its been just dandy here in the lovely Grand Bourg, Buenos Aires, Argentina! Saw the sun for the first time in about 3 weeks so thats good :)

Don´t have too much time so sorry this is going to be a little short. But it's been a pretty good week! Had 3 divisions in one week so thats crazy. But I learned a lot! Other than that pretty much nothing happened haha! But good news! We have a baptism scheduled for an investigator next week so thats freaking awesome! I have like zero time so ill talk about it next week :)

Love you all!

Elder Evans

*huge sigh of relief*

Letter from Sister Alex Solomon:

First of all, before I forget, next week is my first official transfer week! So, my p day will be on Tuesday. Don't be sad when I don't email on Monday!

I'm just about exploding this week from happiness and gratitude. I feel bad because I know that all of my previous emails have been so full of complaints. This email is going to be drastically different. So to begin, everything between me and my companion and roommates has been really great this week. Last Monday night, we all sat down and had a big talk about all our frustrations and I explained to them where I was coming from and it really helped! I also told them how it really affects my attitude for the whole day when I don't have the opportunity to get a hard workout in. So, they helped me out! When we can't go in the gym because there's a dude in there, we go next door to the "yoga room" where you can do workout videos that are projected on the wall. There are two spinning bikes in there so they showed me how to put on a spinning class and watch it on the screen. It's super awesome and I sweat a bunch! So yeah, this week I biked up a mountain in South Africa....no big deal.

During our big talk, they asked me what my old outlets were. I told them that painting really relaxes me so they took me to the mission office the next day and I picked out a free dresser that I am now fixing and painting in my free time. They call it my "happy dresser". Haha. I really love it so far, but it's taking me forever to sand it! I'm just going to take it back to the office when I'm done with it so other missionaries can use it. I have the feeling that by the time I go home, all of the free mission office furniture is going to be looking real nice.

Saturday was my birthday and it was probably one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. I got packages from Grandma Evans, Aunt Julie, and Mom and Dad! Thank you so much, mom and dad. I got your package on Friday but then my roommates took it and they split up all the things in it and put them in different boxes and made me open them at different times all day Saturday. It was pretty fun. Then, they took me to Panda Express for lunch (only because there is no In-N-Out in our zone) and a member from another ward who I've never met before paid for all of our food and bought me a stuffed panda for my birthday....people are so nice sometimes! Also, my companion made my favorite chocolate pie and when we went to dinner at another member's house, they had cake with candles! It was a good day and I really appreciate everything you guys sent me. I feel a lot closer to home when I have a bag of "sheep droppings" from Reed Point in the cupboard.

I feel better this week because we finally got put in charge of our own dinner calendar and I was able to write on the bottom, "p.s. Sister Solomon does not eat desserts". The people who all signed up asked me about it and I said I was trying to eat healthier and they were all super supportive! Yaaaaaay! 

Last night, we went to a stake youth musical fireside and it was the most amazing thing. My companion couldn't believe I had never been to one before. So that was cool. Also, another random fact, 2 elders in our zone got sent home early this week. Yikes! I think 5 total got sent home early. Yeesh, it makes me glad that I'm getting along better with everybody. Our president does not hesitate to give you a plane ticket if you even so much as hint at not wanting to be here. So it was awkward when we got on Facebook and saw that those elders were all of a sudden at home! We didn't even know!

On the bright side, WE FOUND 7 NEW INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK! Yeah, I'm super excited. I've been trying really hard this past month to be very obedient and not complain and I think it's starting to pay off a little bit. So our district goal for the month was 8 new investigators and we reached the goal because one set of elders found one new investigator too. But 7 of them are ours. YES. TAKE THAT, hardest area in the mission! I just hope we can keep teaching all these people and that they will progress from here. One of them has been going to church regularly for over 8 months but she finally agreed to let us teach her and she already wants to be baptized! We just have to find a way to let her know that it would be okay with her father (who is dead and who baptized her as Serbian orthodox) if she got baptized. She also wants to take us to Cracker Barrel which would be cool since I've never been there. 

This week has just shown me how if you stick it out and do your best and pray that you won't murder your companion, Heavenly Father will totally bless you and send you lots of presents.

Anyway, the point is, it has been a really good week. Thanks so much for everything you have done for me, I really appreciate it. I love you so much and hope you have a great week!

I love my Montana necklace!
Also, you can tell by my name tag that I had just ran through someone's sprinklers.....

ONE MONTH JACK!

Dear people where the toilet water spins the other direction,

Howdy y'all!!! 

First of all, sorry I didnt write a group email last week. Every week we write a letter to the mission president to explain how we are doing, and I wrote it all in spanish.. yeah it took all of my writing time.. which is a lot.. and it was only like 4 sentences.. Yeah I need to work on my writing haha! But I promise you all that Im still alive, doing well, and havent been robbed yet which is a miracle. Striving to set the record for longest time in the mission without a robbery! aaaaaaaaannnnnnndddddd ACCOMPLISHING IT. ;) 

Its been a pretty good week! The language is coming, definitely not perfect! FAR from perfect. But Im learning little by little.

Its been an interesting week as well.. Lots of weird experiences.. First of all.. Horses roam here in the middle of the city. Aaaaaaannnndddd you probably dont want to know this but Im going to tell you anyway we saw some horses eating a dead dog so that gave me nightmares. Also, here in Argentina, when people greet they kiss cheeks. As missionarys we can do this with males, and obviously not with women. Im still not used to this yet so a woman came and kissed my cheek which is a big no no. Yeah I screamed on the inside and repented right there. My companion was laughing so hard. So yeah theres some interesting stories for you!

Ive definitely been learning a lot about hard experiences, as every missionary and every person does, Im definitely not the only one. But this scripture really opened my eyes. 

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into thehands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed uponthee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surgeconspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy;if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elementscombine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the veryjaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee,know thou, my son, that all these things shall give theeexperience, and shall be for thy good.

Everything that we go through. Everything. Is to teach us and give us experience. There are difficulties in this life and its hard. But remember, God is putting these things into your life for your own good and for your own experience. How do we learn anything in this life without difficulties? This scripture has definitely helped me to have a better attitude and to be a better missionary.

So happy to be a missionary, so happy for my trials, so happy for all that Im learning, so happy to be here. :)

Love you all!

Elder Evans

Well folks.....I broke

Letter from Sister Alex Solomon:

So this week was a little different. First off, let's talk about how TAYLOR FREAKING SWIFT CAME TO GLENDALE, ARIZONA FOR 3 DAYS. Gah, I love her. 

Anyway, now to the rest of my week. I went on exchange to a different area and it was the best thing that happened to me. I was with a girl named Sister Reynolds and she was so cool! Some of our plans fell through so she just sat there and talked to me about how she had all the same frustrations when she first got here and she gave me some really good advice.

 Later that night we had a couple lessons. The first one was totally normal but I had to mention it because it was with a black guy named Shaq. He was cool. But the second one was where all the crazy stuff happened! We talked to this girl named Rosie. She is turning 21 this week and she calls herself a pagan. I'm tellin ya, we walked in and she had all these weird oils and rocks and figurines everywhere. She made us smell her death oils and she told me that I should "experiment with air and fire energy" because I would really love it. On her bookshelf were all these spell books and cards and stuff. Also, she read my fortune...or something like that. She took out these cards and made me pick 3 of them and then she read them in order. She said that the first one represented me leaving home or leaving behind childish things. The second card said that I was creating something beautiful. And the third card said there was revelation in my life. So I was like, "BOOM. #missionlife".  Anyway, this chick was weird. She told us all about how the first woman was not Eve. Her name was Lilith and she rejected Adam and started her own city because Adam was so stupid and didn't like her magic. We learned so much! But Rosie also gave me some lemonade that tasted weird and I'm not entirely sure it was nonalcoholic...especially since her birthday is coming up and she said she's "getting stacked on booze". So that is a thing. 

On Thursday, we had interviews with the mission president. I wasn't nervous or anything but when we got in there, I felt like a terrible person. Just being in the same room as him made me feel like I was doing everything wrong and I started tearing up, which was weird. In my solo interview I told him I was doing fine and he said, "your eyes tell me you're unhappy". I told him I was fine and just tired because I didn't want him to think I was a wimp. When really, I am so tired all the time. I am unhappy around my companion and roommates. But I couldn't tell him that. Anyway, we got home and I went into the bathroom and I had my breakdown. I just cried silently for a while and wrote in my journal for like 7 pages. I am not proud that that happened but I think it needed to because I feel better now. 

The complaints this week: I can't listen to my companion eat. Her chewing makes me want to stab something. Is that normal?

I'm starting to realize that my companion has no idea what she's doing like ever. There are so many nights where we drive around aimlessly because she doesn't know where to go or she "doesn't feel good" about the names on our list. I'm like, WE ARE WASTING THE LORDS TIME! Let's talk to as many people as we can! But she won't. I find myself wanting to take the lead in a lot of situations. I want to train someone as soon as my training is done because I see how I could be doing it better. Also, my companion is the worlds biggest drama queen. Seriously, she exaggerates so much. We went to the car dealership earlier this week to get a new key and we had to tell them that the church owned the car. When we came home, she's telling the other sisters how we had a crowd of 10 workers gather around us and start asking us questions. In reality: there were 3 other service workers there in their chairs just staring at us. It's super frustrating because she makes a huge deal out of everything. Whatever. 

Good news this week: I found us 2 new investigators this week! My companion told me not to go to this one house and I was like, "well her name is on our list so we need to go find her because I am not just driving around like we do every night".  So we knocked on her door and helped her clean her house. She is an old lady and some of her grandkids live with her so we met her 12 year old granddaughter who is so awesome! Anyway, they both listened to us and then said they wanted to come to church and wanted to learn from us again so we are going back this Thursday to teach them the Restoration and they are coming to church next Sunday! I'm so happy! That was the first time I sort of felt like I was being a missionary. I also taught the discussion at our district meeting this week and all the elders came up afterward and shook my hand and were all like, "that was a great discussion. Thank you so much."  It was kind of weird but good! 

I love my district! It's me, my companion, and then Elders Buckway, Vanderplas, Syndergaard, and Olausson. Yeah, me and my companions have the only normal names. Anyway, my companion won't talk to the elders because she says they're all awkward but I think they're awesome! Today we have a district activity where we are playing volleyball and I have been looking forward to it all week! My companion said this morning, "um, I don't want to play. I'll just keep score because it'll be awkward if I play." I just wanted to tell her to shut up and stop saying everything is awkward. But it's against the rules for me to play with the elders by myself so we will see how that turns out. There's no way I'm not playing! Especially since this morning for "exercise" we took a 30 minute walk again. Grrrrrrrrr. 

I know this email is super long so sorrynotsorry. If I think of anything else today, I'll send it to you.

Lots of love and have a good week! 

Sister Alex Solomon

Big Fat Lunchbox

The following commercial (audio only) was forwarded to me by Suzy and airs on the local radio station in Columbus, MT.  Wayne and I decided to add pictures to it from Milo's Facebook page and make a little video out of it.  I hope you enjoy it!
Snick :)

Elder Kannon Evans

Sorry, no group email this week, but here's a photo that Candi forwarded of Elder Evans in Argentina.

The slowest month of my life

Sister Alex Solomon

My zone after our service project

First off, thank you for thinking about me when it's super hot because the heat is so terrible here..I was biking in 117 degrees the other day. 117 DEGREES!!! It was the worst! But I feel somewhat accomplished I guess. We biked 10 miles in it. I also experienced my first dust storm this week. It was a really minor one but it was still kind of cool. I got some video. We were just studying in our room when a bunch of random stuff started hitting our windows. We've also had tons of excessive heat warnings popping up on our phones and iPads.

So last Wednesday, we had our first zone service project. We worked with the city of Phoenix and helped these people in a REALLY ghetto side of town clean up their back yard. And these people had a lot of stuff. Im talking, like hoarding here. It was nasty. We found some weird things.....used needles, tons of coolers filled with what looked like rotting meat, and poop (they don't have a dog), just to name a few. I will send you the picture of all of us looking fake happy when we were done. It wasn't all bad. We got to bond with our zone which was nice but you can even tell in the picture how separated the elders and sisters are all the time. I just want to talk to the elders and be like, "you know you can make eye contact with me right?" But some of them are cool and will talk to me. You'll notice in the picture that I was trying to bridge the gap.

Something funny happened this week! Our zone leaders emailed us and said that if any of use had a file named "The Aphrodite Project" on our iPads, we were supposed to delete it. We didn't have it but we asked our sister training leaders about it and they told us. So one of our zone leaders (whose name happens to be elder Leavitt) is really into math. I guess him and his last companion started this complicated equation that is based on the hot crazy matrix and is supposed to help you find your wife. It turned out to be like 6 pages long! So they sent it to one of their elder friends serving in Germany and he sent it on and I guess now it's in a bunch of missions all over the world. Anyway, somehow the mission department in Salt Lake got it and were not happy about it..our mission president got a phone call from Lynn G. Robbins of the seventy and he was "furious". Also, this week, our zone leaders had a fireside at which a member of the seventy was going to be speaking! Guess who it was! That's right. That poor elder met President Robbins (who is first in line to be a new apostle this year) face to face and had to talk to him about it. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I feel so bad for him! But also all my roommates were really offended when they heard about the project and I straight up told them that they were freaking out about absolutely nothing. They don't like me now!

Also, I just want you all to know that you can never ever complain about how long church is. Why, you may ask? Because I legit went to 9 hours of church yesterday. Yeah. No complaints. *cough* Connor *cough*

Weirdness....one of my friends from Freshman year at BYU randomly emailed me this week. I don't even think I told him I was going on a mission but whatever. Anyway he sent me this picture from some online LDS thing and told me I had a twin....I'll see what you guys think.

I have been doing better this week but in some ways it has been the hardest week yet. I'm doing better with praying for the desire to be obedient and to read my scriptures. It's sort of working! At least, some days I can't wait to open up my Book of Mormon and start reading. I'm just reading it cover to cover and marking anything that has to do with the atonement so hopefully that will help me understand it better. The bishop that never talks to us agreed to start meeting with us once a week and we were really excited until he canceled on us this week. Yeah, the first week. We also have no new investigators. We are running out of doors to knock on because members are not giving us referrals. So we started a new initiative. I realized that members will never give us referrals if they don't know us and trust us, so I told my companion we need to start getting into members' homes. We have been making phone calls all week setting up short lessons with members so that we can get to know them and encourage member missionary work. Most of the time people don't answer their phones but we got to teach 12 lessons this week, and at church yesterday I felt like I actually knew some people! Hopefully that will keep going well.

Overall, it has been a good week but there have been a couple times where I just wanted to sit down and cry because I was so frustrated with my companion and the other sisters. They always feel a need to check up on me, even if I'm in the bathroom! They'll say, "Sister Solomon, what are you doing? Do you have your iPad with you?" Aaaaah! Oh well. 1 month down, 17 to go!

LOVES

Sister Alex Solomon

Jake said this was my twin.....? 
What do you think?