March 9th

Hi family, 

Well we are through with another transfer and I´ve got some big news... (drumroll)... I am the new assistant to the president!! haha no just kidding but I was called to be a zone leader! I still can´t believe it, but Elder Chavez is getting shipped out of here on wednesday and Elder Rocha will be my new companion (aka fellow zone leader). They are dividing Palmira in 2 zones again so I will be the new zone leader along with the Elder Rocha. We will have about 10 missionaries under our charge and 2 districts. Luckily it isn´t a huge zone, but I am still super nervous to have to be a zone leader. The other part about it is that they are not sending new missionaries to our branch. We have to cover the area of 6 missionaries with only us 2! We will have to learn to organize our time super good and figure out how to work with all this area. Pray for me a lot in all these new responsabilities! 

The week was alright. We didn´t teach very many lessons and we were not very organized this week, but I will be ready for a new start and to have a new companion. Elder Chavez was one of the best companions that I have had in the mission so far, but it will be great to get a companion that hopefully has a strong desire to work and do everything right. We should have some baptisms coming up this month if everything goes well. 

Today we were trying to get the marriage date for Ramon and Gloria, 2 of our investigators, but today we went to look for the birth register of Ramon and it was nowhere to be found in Palmira. Ramon is so funny because he makes some of the silliest comments. He had very little education so I think that is part of the reason that he makes some super funny comments and says some stuff that doesn´t make much sense sometimes. We always love teaching them even though sometimes we have to teach something 10 times for him! 

We are also selling little jello cakes to help some other investigators get married. It was funny because we went to the zone meeting last Saturday and sold these little cakes to all the missionaries. Everyone thought they were disgusting! haha everyone helped us out, but we just told everyone that we didn´t make the cakes, and that they were for a good cause. I was thinking that I should have just made some cookies or something to sell, but I guess it was good that the investigators could work to pay their wedding. 

Well hope you and dad had a great Anniversary Mom!! Sounds like you had a good date and everything. That is cool to hear that Tanner made his baseball team too. Tell him good job! You guys have another huge responsibility with the trek again. I know that you will do a great job and that the Lord has a lot of trust in you. I feel pretty overwhelmed with this new responsibility, but I will let you know how it goes. Love you all and talk to you next week! 

-Elder Armstrong

March 2nd

Hi mom!!

I am so sorry but we didn`t get time to write today. I now have to head to the house, but just wanted to tell you thanks so much for all the pictures and stuff from the funeral. I was thinking about everyone a lot today and it looks like everyone had a great spiritual experience today. I have been struggling a little with the companions because one of them makes us late for everything; that is why I didn`t write earlier. We had a lot of success this last week and Pres Prince congratulated us for having the highest attendanc to the church in the mission with 16 investigators. I will keep working hard and hopefully be able to write more maybe tomorrow. If not, I will talk to everyone next monday. 

Love you all and thanks for everything!

-Elder Armstrong

Mom,

Well we are dropping in a second to write a little bit more since my companion didn`t get to write. We are only here for a second, but I will try and give a little more details than what I wrote yesterday. Last week went super well for us, stats wise. Since we are 3 missionaries here, we were doing divisions every day with either Andres (the guy who dedicates his life to the mission) or Bryan (one of my super good friends in the branch that is preparing to go on a mission right now). I mostly worked in our part of the area and we had quite a few up and downs, but the week turned out good. We are helping a couple get married and then baptized named Ramon and Gloria. They have sure had some challenges in accepting the gospel, but they are progressing good still. This week that we taught them about tithing Ramon sure didn`t like that. I was in divisions with one of our zone leaders, Elder Camacho, and we taught a powerful lesson on tithing and Ramon and Gloria both accepted it. We went to the house of one of the neighbors the next day, (who is a less active) and turns out that Ramon had been complaining to her that he would never accept a church that made him pay 10 percent of what he received when they barely had enough money to buy their food. We were surprised that he didn`t say anything to us, but turns out that he was pretty mad and didn`t want to accept tithing even though he was too embarrassed to say anything during the lesson because we were both testifying to him. We went to their house and they said that they were going to stop listening to us because Ramon didn`t like that tithing was a requirement to be baptized. We explained to him that nobody is going to force him to pay tithing, but it is a commandment and he is going to be blessed for it. He told us that for right now they can`t pay more money because of their debts, but that maybe in the future when the debts are paid off. We left it at that, but it still is a barrier that we have to break before they can be baptized. They went to church on Sunday and liked it a lot. 

On sunday we had a huge attendance. The total was 104 people at church and we couldn`t even fit all the people in the sacrament room of the house. We had the most packed class of investigators/less actives that I have seen too so that was a huge blessing! 

We've got to go get teaching right now, but there is a little update of what happened last week. We had a little problem last night and our 3rd companion got shipped out to another area. I am now with my original companion again and we are going to have to figure out how to run 2 areas with just 2 missionaries right now. Wouldn`t talk to anyone and locked himself in his bedroom. We had to have the zone leaders get involved and they shipped him to another area of Palmira. It is just a little mission drama of course, but we are hoping this doesn`t cause gossip in the ward. Elder Cabrera (my old companion and one of my best friends in the mission) actually just got done with his mission and finished in another part of Palmira. It worked out alright because the other elder went to replace Elder Cabrera. 

Anyways that is my letter for this week, the Church is true and we saw miracles this week! Now we just need to put some baptismal dates.. Pray for us!! 

Love,

Elder Armstrong

February 23rd, 2014

Dear Mom and Family,

We are having some crazy changes in the mission right now. I am now in a trio with Elder Chavez and Elder Mendez. There are so many missionaries ending the mission right now that our president has had to do some changes of companions. One missionary in our district ended his mission so that had to take out Elder Sanchez, one of the Mexicans that was in our ward, and now he is with the Elder that lost his companion and we stayed in a trio in our area trying to juggle this huge area now. Basically we have been doing divisions every single day here with the members. We are lucky to have 2 members here that basically dedicate their lives to missionary work so they are always ready to do divisions with us. I am always impressed with one member named Andres Cruz. He has about 35 years old and he seriously dedicated his whole live to missionary work. His mom is sick so he lives with her and kinda takes care of her, but other than that he is always with the missionaries. He is known in all the mission, because he basically has met every missionary before. He organizes activities for us every single Monday and he always has great ideas to organize good activities. I was thinking that would be cool if every member could dedicate as much time as Andres to missionary work, but of course most people have families and work and are a lot busier. He always has references for us and helps us out a TON! 

Anyway, we have been doing divisions so that one missionary goes with a member and the other 2 go to the other part of the area. I am now district leader of only 5 missionaries, so that is a little bit easier at least. The only challenging part of being in a trio is that I have to try and motivate the 3 of us to work. The elder that joins us has been dificult and likes to whine about a lot of things so that has been a challenge too. The success in our area has slowed down quite a bit, but we are in the searching process right now. We have been trying to organize a ton of activities even though we haven`t had a lot of success yet. We will see how the activities go this week, but it sure is hard for people to invite their neighbors to an activity. 

This past week we also had a mission conference. We are helping 2 investigators get married, so we went to our mission conference selling stuff to help obtain the money for them. We had a girl in our ward help us make some little desserts and we sold the desserts to the whole mission! There were 59 missionaries attending the conference, so we actually sold the desserts to the mission and it came out the mission funds for our lunch! We were super excited that everything worked out and that we could raise all the money for this wedding. We are now waiting for the papers of these investigators to get here then we only need to take them to the notaria (not sure in english like a lawyers office?) where they are going to sign their papers and set the exact day to get married. They are named Ramon and Gloria and they are an older couple already in their 70`s. They are so funny because they are always fighting like an old couple, but they like the church a lot and I think they will be our baptisms in March. 

In our mission conference, we learned a lot about Faith. Pres. Prince showed us some interesting things. He said that he talked to a past mission Pres. of our mission, the one that had the most success in all the history, and asked him for some tips. The advice that this Pres. gave is that we need to be working a lot more efficiently. In his time they baptized about 4 people every month, per companionship. He says the secret is that they were teaching about 30 lessons every week, and they were setting about 3 new baptismal dates every week. To us, these stats are through the roof, but we learned in our conference that we need to be teaching shorter lessons to be able to hit these goals. We did about 2 hours of practices in the conference, so everyone had their fair share of teaching lessons that day! 

Well that is basically what happened this week. I will try to send some pictures here is a second. Grandma Bauman has been in my prayers a lot this week, and I will keep praying for her. I think about everyone every day, and I hope you guys have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Armstrong

February 16th, 2014 Letter to Grandma Bauman

Dear Grandma Bauman,

My mom has always been keeping me updated about what is going on with the family and everything. She has been talking a lot about you and I wanted to write you a letter as well. I feel honored to be called your grandson and I know that you wouldn`t have me be in any other place besides the mission right now. You have lived to see a lot of generations and have seen the great example you have set take its effect in the lives of each one of us. Although I definitely didn`t have as many experiences with you as my mom and my grandma, I can still say that you have touched my life and inspired the lives of many others. I have realized more than ever in my mission how much you love and care about each member of your family, down to the last great grandchild. I always remember entering into your house being welcomed with some jolley ranchers, and then some milk and oreos. I also remember having the Christmas party each year and always getting a little gift as well as all the other great grandchildren. 

Grandma, I want to thank you so much for raising my grandma and then being such a great example to my mom. I can see  that you have had a very significant impact in their lives and in each family we can see what your great example has done. Although I don`t remember very much about Grandpa Bauman, I know that he too was one of the most "Christlike individuals" and I know it will be such a joy for you to be able to see Grandpa again. How great the plan of Salvation  is and the knowledge that we have to know that we will all see each other again. 

Thank you again Grandma, for leaving behind such a rich legacy. I hope one day to be able to look back on my life and say that I have done so many good things in life and be able to see the fruits of my labors. To end this letter I only want to leave you with my testimony that I know that Christ lives and I know that God has a plan for each one of us. I know that we are on this earth for a purpose and you have inspired each one of us to follow God`s plan. This time is the time to repent and prepare to meet God and I know that you have been doing that in your life and you are prepared to meet God. I know that we have a true church on the earth, and I am so thankful that almost all of our family is part of this Church. I love you so much Grandma and thank you so much for all you have given and done for me and my family. May God be with you until we meet again. 

Love,

Elder Armstrong

February 9th, 2014

Hello Family,

Sounds like everyone had a great weekend! The work here is slowing down a little bit now that all our families have gotten baptized. It was great while it lasted, but now we have to do some MAJOR finding this week. The mission is changing so much right now. There are a ton of people leaving in these weeks, and the mission is going to be receiving 30 new missionaries at the beginning of March. The district leaders all have to step up and be training all the new missionaries that come in. 

This week we did have another baptism. I forgot to bring my camera so I will have to send a picture next week, but we baptized the last member of the Lenis family. She is named Sandra and she was one of the sisters that lived in the house with them. At first she was super unsure about the decision but this week we finally got her to realize that she was ready to be baptized and on Saturday we did the baptism. That was pretty much the highlight of the week. We only had 1 investigator go to church because everyone is baptized here. The goal in the mission now is to have 3 new people that go to church, and 3 new people with baptismal dates. It is a huge goal, but I guess with God anything is possible right? Our president wrote us today and the reason why the mission is changing some things is because he talked with the past mission President`s and asked them for some ideas. The conclusion that Pres. Prince came to after talking to the other mission President`s is that we need to set more baptismal dates, and we need to be teaching shorter lessons to have time to do everything. This is going to be hard with the Colombians because everyone here just likes to talk your ear off! 

I guess the other news of the week is that my companion got sick. We were inviting people to church on Saturday and all the sudden my companion`s stomach started killing him.  Luckily we had a member with us this day, so my companion was able to stay with a member while I went and did more visits with the other member. My companion got so sick that he couldn`t even go to the baptism that night. I went to the baptism alone with the member, and had to baptize her without my companion being there. It was kinda sad the pictures without him, but he had a lot of pain. The baptism ended up turning out a little improvised, but we made it through it. We called my companion after, and it turns out that he had to go to the hospital. I got there as soon as I could and I had to wait outside of the clinic for him until midnight. He has a minor intenstine infection and he has to be resting for 3 days. This happened on Saturday and he is still kinda sick with diarrhea, but we are hoping he will be better by tomorrow. If not, he has to go to the hospital again. 

Well that is pretty much all that happened this week.  Anyways, got to go but everyone take care and this time pray that we can find some quality families this week to teach. 

Love,

Elder Armstrong