McDonald's to the rescue!

This week was awesome. beautiful actually!!! I got to shake hands with Elder Stevenson!!!! His wife looked at my name tag and laughed and said, "good luck" hahahaha!!! He spoke, about missionary work and how our call is divine from God, and that we have incredible purpose! Study Acts 10. Labour finding your Cornelius!!!! This week really helped me figure out what kind of missionary I want to be.  And soooooo I guess you can expect some greater things from me.  So I'm so thankful I had opportunities this week, to humble myself! 

Our IPs are going GREAT!! Teaching in Spanish is difficult hahahaha but its fun!!! Im sooooooo excited to leave the CCM though.... hahaha I can't wait to meet my ward and mission pres!!! I think of you guys everyday. All the latinos go crazy when they see our family pic hahahahaha. You mean everything to me mamma.  I got the letter dad sent with everything from the fam, and that hit me hard. That made me realize how grateful I am for you and dad and my family. You inspire me to be a great missionary and to serve until I have holes in my shoes (I'll explain later). But thank you! 

 Proselyting was fun!! HAD MCDONALD'S!!!! It was awesome hahaha!!! Also gave a musical number in church which was super super cool!! 

Anyways, I love you mom. and I love dad and everyone else too!! Almost out of here and I can get to work!!!!!!

I'm working hard, and not giving up! 

Love you tons

Elder Heinzlmeir

Rules, gunshots, horses and of course...Cocoa Puffs

Spanish is really difficult cause FRENCH does not help hahahahaha my Spanish is now French and my French is now Spanish... so when I get into the field, you should send me some French stuff to study so I don't lose it!!! Man rules are hard.. but I'm trying to be as obedient!. 

The new batch of latinos and North Americans come in now, so that will be fun!!!! 3 more weeks and then I can write longer emails!!!!! (they only have so much time for emails in the MTC and when they get out in the field, they usually have more time). 

I'm on bowl 50 of my 100 bowls of cocoa puffs before I leave!! I got a haircut.... hahahaha I don't like it!!! 

We went proselyting and we weren't in the ghetto this time. No gunshots. (...this gives his mother a lot of comfort...lol) but I still managed to see another horse. (He didn't elaborate on this...hmmm..) haha  We met this one girl, she didn't believe in God but felt him and as I was able to teach her some things, but it was basically like "Let me help you by getting some missionaries who actually speak Spanish to teach you more!"  She was receptive! It kinda helped that she spoke some English.... but still it was pretty cool! 

The temple is beautiful!!! Like it really is!!!! I'm sending pics, which might explain some your questions!!! I love Odis mom. (Our Chihuahua)  please tell him and give him a treat for me hahaha and give yourself a kiss on the cheek!!  I can teach a lesson in broken Spanish. That's progress. There are lots of fun words to say! I'm excited to leave the CCM and get out there to teach and serve!

Love you all!

Buenos Aires Temple

This must be the tennis courts at the MTC

Buenos Aires Temple

Buenos Aires Temple was built in 1986

So here are some snippets of his email...

"I play football with the latinos and they said I'm a good Gringo.  Soooo, Elder King Lewy has a challenge...100 bowls of cocoa puffs before I leave the MTC!  I think I'm at 30 already!  I'll have pictures!!!  3 bowls a day!!! We went into the city to do some visa stuff and it is beautiful!!"

"The teachers are awesome here  hahahahah they love me...they are so nice and very helpful.  It's 15 hours of Spanish a day...and staying at a desk is KILLING MEEEEE hahahaha and it's hard.  We have IPs which are mock lessons with investigators and they are all Spanish so we have to tach them in broken Spanish!  This Saturday we are going proselyting (finding and teaching people in the community) ahhhhh I'm so anxious for that!"


Short but sweet!  He's alive, he is learning...and, he has Cocoa Puffs.

When Lewy left, it was super emotional, and the kids decided to write to him immediately.  These letters were totally worth posting...on the blog and in the mail!  

I cleaned his room the next day and took down his Post-it wall...but took these pics first because it made me smile.  He has such a desire to do good in this world.  This was his daily reminder of all things good, and who he wants to become. 

For those wanting to write to Elder H. my mail, here is the address:

Elder Lewis M. Heinzlmeir

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Argentina Missionary Training Center

Autopista Ricchieri y Puente 13

1778 Ciudad Evita, Partido De LaMatanz

Buenos Aires

Argentina

We have been given specific instructions that absolutely NO packages are to be sent to him.  Any package sent will be returned or destroyed.  I guess it's a problem...they go missing or are looted. Therefore, only envelope mail is acceptable.  They recommend us depositing money in his account for him to purchase things instead of us sending gifts.  This is a hard concept for the mom, but the best solution.  Thanks again for all your prayers and love!

Hot, tough, but happy.

This update will be snippets from Elder Lewy's first letter to me.  He didn't have enough time to write more.  His plan was, that, if he had time, he would write a blog post for me to put here...but I think he only had time for an email to Mom this week.

He said it's been a hard week, and I think all of our missionaries would say the same thing...those first 2 or 3 weeks.  Especially if they had to learn a new language.  He's dying in the heat, but loves it.  His companion is actually from Oregon, but the other guys are all Latinos and he says that no one can say his name...not surprising considering no one on this continent can say it either!

He says that learning the language is hard, but he's getting it. (He's probably being hard on himself because he even took some lessons from a friend who served there, before he left...AND, he speaks French!)  He says that the latinos (6 or them) seem to be picking up English really well, but he and his companion aren't as fast with the Spanish. They actually get to go out in the communities around the MTC to do some proselyting!  I'm sure the folks are used to it...but of course he was like "Wait, what? I don't have any Español!"  But he said it was lots of fun.

His keyboard is Spanish, so there are lots of interesting typos.  He has a family photo with him and he shows it to everyone he meets (awe!) and he said that everyone thinks that we are the cast of Twilight.  Seriously?  I actually 'laughed out loud'.

 
The one thing that he has felt strongly, is the presence of his brother, Mac.  He feels him with him and helping him.  This is giving him strength to keep going and he understands his purpose there in Buenos Aires more clearly.  It's such a shock to the system...especially when our kiddos are sent to Missionary Training Centres in other countries...it's a lot different than going to the MTC in Provo! It's total immersion!

He was honest, and emotional in his letter, and that is my Lewy.  But he ended his letter by stating he is happy and loves what he is learning and is excited for what is to come.

He thanks everyone for their love and especially prayers for him at this time, and so do I!