¿Qué pasa? Feliz Navidad es lo que pasa. 12/20/2011 Week 45

WHOOPIDEEDOODOP!

Here it is, the christmas season is upon us. We had transfers today and i will staying in the same old place, same old comp, same old everything, but it´s going to be great! Thanks so much for all of your happy birthday wishes! it was a fun one, and i was able to receive some presents from my companion, which included a cool Rosario Central (the major soccer team here) cup, and a toy gun that shoots foam balls. you can imagine how much fun i´ve had with that. The Christmas spirit isn´t quite as alive as it is in the good ol U.S. but it is definitely here. Christmas trees, christmas lights (on some houses), party "supplies" and a bright, cheery, argentine people. My companion and I are going to spend Christmas evening at a members house named the Farley family
So, Villa Goberndor Gávlez and Elder Waid will need to do some buckling up to handle me this transfer. We are going to hit the pavement hard....there´s also that new rejuvenation that comes from a new transfer! i´m stoked!
We also have the christmas conference on Saturday. should be legit.
Fun stories of the week: I found out one of my special talents is knocking lemons out of trees. Random tip: never try cooking a cake by putting it in the very bottom of the oven, below the flame.....doesn't work.
Some sad news i found out today was that my dear old MTC district buddy Elder Towns went home to Georgia last week due to back problems. We are hoping he´s going to be able to make it back out here.
Anyway, i want to share a quote with you from the prophet Joseph Fielding Smith. Christmas is the time of year when we can especially focus on our Savior Jesus Christ and share his spirit with others.
Joseph Fielding Smith said:
"There is no cure for the ills of the world except the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope for peace, for temporal and spiritual prosperity, and for an eventual inheritance in the Kingdom of God is found only in and through the restored gospel. There is no work that any of us can engage in that is as important as preaching the gospel and building up the Church and Kingdom of God on earth.

In the words of Uncle Sam : "I WANT YOU to share the gospel with someone this christmas"........ something like that.

Talk to you on Sunday! i emailed dad with all the info. FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Winger
  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! ‏ 12/12/2011 Week 44

EY TERE FAMLY!!

How is everyone doing! thank you so much for the Happy Birthday wishes!!!! it´´s been a fun one! we had p-day today and had a zone Christmas get together. We met at a church house and played soccer and cooked some mean asado (the best meat in the country!) and had a great meal, all while watching the Christmas spectacular that we went to featuring David Archuleta..........that was.....ok, but everything else today was great :)

Special news......for the first time this week in 10 months......i drank a nice warm cup of hot chocolate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was SO GOOD. nothing like a steaming cup of hot chocolate in 10 million degree weather. it was to die for.

The work is continuing to go well here in Argentina....it seems as if there is some kind of plague happening to me and Elder Waid here in Villa Gobernador Gálvez.....we have found a lot of great people that have a lot of interest in our message, many that accepted baptismal dates....but the thing is....we can never find them again!!!! one of our investigators named Diego...i think i told you about him last week.....began working a few days ago after we had two lessons with him and he works EVERY day from 630 am until 10 pm.....its been a barrier for us. But we are continuing to work hard and the Lord continues to bless us and his people!!! i´ve had a a great week overall....the mission continues to get better and better as time goes forward. No other place i would rather be.

As far as some of the food here (because i keep forgetting to mention it) is good...but a lot of it is fairly bland haha. The argentines are not fans of spicy for nothin. A lot of things we eat include pasta, rice, empanadas (so good!), tartas, a lot of meat, and the fruit and vegetables are really fresh and delicious...and cheap! i have been especially addicted to apples lately.....i also LOVE the pears...but they are a little expensive....hopefully they will go on sale sometime maybe soon! Also, to drink, we drink lots and lots and lots of TANG. oh, and mayonese goes on EVERYTHING........alfajores are to die for....and dulce de leche is very common as well.

We have transfers coming up soon on the 22nd or the 23rd so we will see what happens......i´m thinking i will be staying here in this area, but who knows! it´s always a surprise.

I can´t wait to talk to you all on the 25th! as we get closer i will let you know what we are going to do and how.

The weather here: continues to heat up as the summer begins. It´ll be a toasty one.......i should be putting on sunscreen every now and then....but somehow i just haven´t learned my lesson of getting burned......maybe i´ll fit in with the argentines with darker skin by the end of the holiday season.

Love you all, i am super glad to hear that things are going well. Have an amazing holiday season, and i´ll talk to you all on the 25th! woohoo! No better time of the year than now! what a great opportunity to remember the Savior and all he´s done for us.

Con amor,

Elder Winger

p.s. scripture of the week: Mark 8:35

hello family ‏ 12/05/2011 Week 43

Hello my eternal family:

I have received some emails today containing information that has been really hard for me. Hearing about Spencer´s Dad, Gary, is a complete shock for me. But I know that the Gospel that we have is so true, and it´s for times that these that the Lord´s arms are able to comfort us the most. I have just finished writing Elder Burt an email, so if this email is a little shorter, my apologies. ha. If you see Mrs. Burt and fam, tell them I love them and they are in my prayers.

This week was a little rough for us on the work. My companion Elder Waid got sick, and it was a huge bummer. We were able to go out and work for 3 days though, so we definitely treasured those times between "being stuck in the apartment with nothing to do but read, listen to mormon tab, and try to stay sane - and working."
Last Sunday my ex-companion Elder Tague gave me a call and informed me that one of our investigators that we found in Ameghino (Lorena) got baptized last Saturday!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy. Having the Lord´s blessing of seeing the fruits of your labors is a huge motivator to give it my all everyday. I have had a little bit of a hard time keeping completely optimistic and enthusiastic all the time because i maybe haven´t had a baptism in a while, or it feels like i´m not making a big difference in the work, but I know that the Lord knows his vineyard better than I do. It´s been a time of humbling for me haha, a time that i can really put into practice more patience and charity so that I may become a more effective instrument in the hands of the Lord.
I found out a little more about the Christmas phone call (¡QUE ANIMO QUE TENGO!) and i believe that we are going to SKYPE....but i´ve heard rumors that we won´t be able to use the cameras :( but we will see. It´s going to be so nice to hear from all of you!!
We are working hard here in Villa Gobernador Gálvez and are really working hard to have some baptisms this month! We have a 16 year old girl that has been listening to the missionaries for 3 years with her family who finally feels ready to be baptized. Unfortunately, her mom is not able to join her due to the fact that she has to get divorced and remarried before, but it´ll be a great thing when Galia is bapitzed. Also, we found a man named Diego this past weekend.....when we knocked on his door, he was getting ready to go to the baptism of his daughter in the catholic church.....by the end of our lesson, he accepted a baptismal date for the 31st of this month haha. I called him on Saturday night to see if he could go to church the next day, and he said he couldn´t, but he told me "i´m going to read......and ponder.....and read that book of mormon you gave me." i said "ok." So yeah, we are hoping to continue helping him progress and make it to his baptismal date!

The Lord is constantly blessing us. Something that I take for granted sometimes, but i´m so grateful to be out here serving a mission. Sometimes i find myself focusing on how hard it is or whatever blah blah, but to share the message of the restoration with others....i have found myself lately taking a step back and telling myself "you think it´s (this life) hard for you? take a look at all these people that don't have the gospel."

I know this Gospel is true. I know that families can and will be together forever. I know the Savior lives.

To close (as if this were a talk haha) i´d like to post a poem that I received today in the weekly newsletter to the mission. I really enjoyed it.

Don’t Quit

Don’t Quit when
The tide is lowest,
For it’s just about
To turn;
Don’t quit over doubts
and questions,
For there’s something
You may learn.

Don’t quit when
The night is darkest,
For it’s just a while
‘til dawn;
Don’t quit when you’ve
run the farthest,
For the race is almost
won.

Don’t quit when
The hill is steepest,
For your goal
Is almost nigh;
Don’t quit, for you’re
Not a failure
Until you fail to try.

-Jill Wolf


Talk to you soon!!!!

Elder Winger

Also, mom, if you could tell Sav and Sierra thanks so much for their imput in the letters! i loved it all haha. i will be writing emails to them ASAP. thanks :D

hey everyone! 11/28/2011 Week 42

hey!

Hey i have a question......is my middle name spelled LarsOn or LarsEn??? I´ve always thought it was with an O, but after some recent events I am beginning to doubt myself.....

So this morning a little bit of extermination was done in our apartment to get rid of the millions and millions of cockroaches :( We did everything from step on them, slapping them with shoes, to spraying them with some random spray that we found hiding in the apartment....it didn´t have a label on it, but we decided it would "probably kill bugs?" It did stink, so i´m guessing that's a good sign that it worked haha.

We had some success in the work this week, including helping 4 from the "15 families" list come back to church and some other less-actives have been coming back and staying consistent. I love the members of the ward here and they have been a really big help for us, more than my other areas i believe. We did divisions last week with a couple of priesthood holders in the ward and visited some less-active families.....and i may or may not have ridden on the back of a motorcycle......long story that's not so long but i won´t tell it. We´ve just been pushing forward in the work and there´s nothing more satisfying for me than being able to share the gospel everyday. This week was a roller-coaster type week....good days.....not so fruitful days.....but i learned that even though we don´t have control over things that happen to us sometimes or having success in life/work, we can always control our attitude :) Being happy´s a choice!

I´m sorry i don´t have too much to write this week, it just seemed to fly by really fast. it´s crazy to think i´m almost 20.....it´s about time ;) jaja broma. anyway, i know this church is so true!!!! I love you all so much and i´m glad you had a great thanksgiving :) Tis the season.

Fun fact: finished reading the book of mormon in spanish this past week!. one of my few achievements of anything in this life haha.

Escritura de la semana: D&C 59:7

Con amor,

Elder Winger

It´s almost Thanksgiving! 11/21/2011 Week 41

Hey fam!

Well, today was a p-day was very special for us here, and i would like to name it officially as "American Day" Our district, which consists of 5 americans...and a chileno haha, went BOWLING!! There is a super nice hotel/casino/bowling alley/mall/etc that is in Rosario, so we decided to visit it. I must say it was probably one of the nicest places i´ve seen here in Argentina haha, it was pretty fun. Anyway, i did terrible at bowling, as should be expected. Out of everyone, i got last place. But everyone got a mcdonalds big mac after, so everyone was a winner :) ...yeah, i´ll just keep telling myself that.

This week Elder Waid did a lot of good work, and i´ve never thirsted more than now to serve the Lord with all I´ve got, at in continues to increase as my testimony and love for the gospel grow every day. I was very blessed to be a part of a couple really powerful lessons this week and we currently have 6 people with baptismal dates, 4 of which i think will be baptized.

The family of the week that I want to share with you is the Arana family. It consists of a father, daughter, and her three kids. When we "clapped at their doorway" instead of knocking, they allowed us to come in....which i would soon come to realize was a huge blessing. Oscar (the dad) has never allowed any of the "millions of missionaries that are always passing by" to come in, but we got lucky i guess huh. This family all believes in God, but never have really gone to church, read the bible, or anything like that. Anyways, to make a long story short, we´ve had an amazing couple of lessons with them and they came to church yesterday. Now, you know how it´s hard to keep children reverent in a place for more than 5 minutes or so? yep, we had quite the battle during sacrament meeting on Sunday haha. Lorena (the mom) has 3 kids who are 10, 4, and 2 years old. In order to try and control the yelling, playing tag, playing hide and seek on the stand, doing somersaults in the aisles, and crying......i tried incorporating drawing with them, doing origami (which all i know how to do is fold a piece of paper like a napkin....like i would do at Coppermill haha) and doing anything else to keep them "quietly entertained). But it was a fun adventure, even though i personally didn´t get to "relax and enjoy during sacrament"....maybe a little taste of what´s to come in the future ;). But this family is really nice and i think the gospel so far as really been changing them. We will have a few hurdles with the word of wisdom i believe, but the Lord is the one performing the work. I always feel so blessed to find those people who the Lord´s prepared to hear our message , and Elder Waid and I are continuing to work hard to find them. It has been a little bit discouraging lately not having baptized for 3.5 transfers....but i am still enthusiastic for the work and i know that no effort is wasted. Hey, someone´s gotta do the planting if another is to do the harvest :). I love the Lord and am so grateful for his sacrifice. I know the work of preaching the gospel is the most important thing that any of us can ever do in mortality. it´s everything. the gospel is everything.

So is everyone very excited for thanksgiving this week?? i still expect a place setting for me at grandmas ;) It looks like a bunch of us Elders are going to have a thanksgiving together next Monday, so we will see how that goes......but i know that no other thanksgiving can beat the FEAST at G Carma´s and G Richard´s! I love you all so much. thanks for your support, your prayers, and your faith. Keep strong, these are the last days.

Elder Winger

Weird transfer changes! 11/14/2011 Week 39 & 40

hey family!

Well, I made it safe and sound to my area here in Villa Gobernador Galvez! It´s been quite an adventurous first week and I¨m excited to do some work here. My companion Elder Waid is a cool cat. He´s from Arkansas. I keep getting companions from all the weird states (New Hampshire, Arkansas, etc....) haha just kidding, but we get along well. When I got here, I soon came to realize that the area was somewhat "dead" aka, 0 investigators haha. But, we quickly got to work, and we have a lady named Belén, that is a reference from one of the recent converts in our area, that we gave a baptismal date for the third of December, so we are hoping that all works out. On another note, the ward is quite large here! There were 80 people there yesterday! But, the number that need help to be reactivated is quite astonishing....there are 450 members in my ward. 80 attending. bring it on. I'm overly joyous (weird mood) to serve the people here, and we´ve been continually blessed by the Lord.

Right now i´m living in a four-man apartment with Elders Hernandez from St. George and Elder Nuñez from Chile, and we´ve had just a blast so far.

As far as my area goes, I love it. Plenty of dirt roads and people to talk to, my prime conditions :) . As far as the work continues, we´ve had some really powerful lessons this week with Belén and a couple of other people as well. We are teaching a man named David, who´s living with a lady who is a member but less active, and he really has the desire to be baptized and be with his family forever, so we are currently working on trying to get them married hopefully within the next month or so.

Experience of the Day: Where we currently are is really close to the Monumento de la bandera (Argentina Flag monument) so we decided to go visit it today for p-day, and also do some street shopping . As we were walking, suddenly this monstrous parade of people starting coming down the street, screaming, playing instruments, the real deal. But they were all dressed up in crazy costumed! Everything from egyptians to wizards, dragonball z characters to fluffy orange pillows (i think?) but it was pretty wild, there were like 200 people probably. Anyway, after narrowly escaping their stampede, we continued our journey to the monument. The monument was really cool! All of the things are being to "wear away" but it was a cool site, i´ll try to send some pictures.

Anyway, the work is going well, and i´m glad to hear that everyone is doing excellent back home. Have an amazing week, i love you!

Elder Winger

Happy Halloween! 10/31/2011 Week 38

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hello everyone! Happy Halloween!!!! Here in Argentina if i didn´t know the date, i probably wouldn´t really notice that it was Halloween....some people have some decorations and stuff for it, so it´s at least acknowledged haha.......but i guess i´ll wait until tonight to see if it´s actually celebrated in the same way as in the states...just to give it a fair chance ;). I was at a members house yesterday for lunch and the daughter of the family was asking me how Halloween was in the United States....I told her "just like the movies." She responded with, "do you really go door to door asking for candy?" I said yes, and she just went off about how lucky we were haha. So yes, the Halloween cheer may not be as vibrant here, but then again.....maybe i´ll have to find a way to change that....

This past week we have been having quite a bit of success in the ward! Remember the first week that I got here in this area and we had 13 people in church? Well, yesterday we had 44! It was quite exciting and i´m hoping we can continue bringing people back to church. There are a lot of members that were going regularly a few years ago (some of them former bishops, counselors, and others with callings) that stopped going for reasons that they don´t know and us tampoco. But we currently have investigators that have baptismal dates so that´s pretty exciting! Also this week is going to be a little wacky....we have p-day today, p-day again on Friday and transfers on a Saturday (due to that the president has a meeting to go to for all the mission presidents) I´m not really sure what´s going to happen as far as transfers go, but i´ll keep ya posted.

As far as holidays go here, it seems like there´s a holiday every 2 weeks or so....but i never really know what it is haha....people just say "it´s a holiday today" just to take an extra day of work off...my personal opinion. Haha, but we did have mother´s day a couple of weeks ago which was really nicely celebrated. All of the mother´s received flowers at church, just like home, which i thought was really special. One sad observance that i´m not looking too much forward too is the absence of THANKSGIVING :( obviously not celebrated down here, but i may or not be celebrating it alone with my companion spending a ridiculous amount of pesos on food that could possibly go in the "it´s-not-turkey-but-its-still-meat-and-other-food-to-improvise-thanksgiving-tradition" category. yay.

Now turning the time over to weather: the sun is hot, now preparing for extreme heat conditions. The climate is still bearable but slowly drifting downhill. I´m still really white, unprepared, and i will most likely be scorched according to local weather enthusiasts. I was thinking of maybe using sunscreen or a nice sunshade of some sorts....but i think i´ll just go "man status" and brave the heat straight on. should be a fun ride.

Anyways, i want to thank everyone from the family who sent me pictures this week!! of the newborns and the wedding of Savannah as well! thank you!

Also this past Sunday, my companion has a real knack for singing in Sunday......so we got up in front of everyone during sacrament meeting, not having practiced before and just relying completely on "winging it"....anyway, we were singing the Spirit of God and when we got to the chorus of the second verse, Elder Tague decides all of a sudden to give me a "grand solo" so i just sang the chorus solo style and it wasn´t exactly pleasing to my ears so i can´t imagine it wasn´t anything greater than terrible for the congregation. Singing FAIL. :)

My testimony has been growing so much out here and i´m loving every week that i have to serve the Lord. I can´t believe how fast time continues to go by, and it´s hard to grasp onto, but i´m trying to make the most out of it and rely completely on the Savior to do what he would have me do. I´ve really been continually having to be humbled in order to be a faithful servant of the Lord, something that has been so hard, but the blessings always come if we continue to do what we are supposed to, even when times get rough. God knows us better than we know ourselves.

I hope that everything continues to go well for you all. I love you all so much and it seems like everything is consistently changing from when i left! Haha but i guess ´change´ is the only constant thing about life right? Thank you for your prayers and support. I know that this is the Lords work and have gained the sincere testimony that i never chose to serve a mission, but have been called by him to serve him (3 nefi 5:13)

UN ABRAZO y BESO!

Elder Winger

Howdy 10/24/2011 Week 37

Hey family!

Well, it sounds like it´s been a good week, not so good week, and just a busy week for everyone!  But thanks so much for taking the time to keep me posted on things back home.

I want to thank Kari and Shantra so much for sending me pictures!!!!!!  Haha i loved all of them, and pictures are definitely one of the "hidden treasures" that as a missionary i love finding within an email, so thank you so much.

  It´s crazy to hear that Dad is out of town again!  He´s been super super busy it sounds like, but that´s good that he´s been having lots of work which = success which = $$$$.  Atta boy pops.  keep it up out there.  But I'm sad to hear that Grandma Winger´s health is beginning to go down hill :( . You´ll have to let me know how the funeral goes and everything.  I wish i could have the chance to see her one more time and say goodbye, but i´ll leave that up to you to do that for me.  I remember all those times we would go over to her house and spend time with her.  Her house was always SO FUN and i loved the choo choo train set that she had set up every christmas for us.  I think i enjoyed crashing the train more than anything, and its actually kind of a miracle it survived all those years of my destructive child behavior....but yes, if you could tell her i love her for me and that I know she´s going to be so happy to see grandpa, that would be a great help :) thank you.

     It sounds like the weather is just BEA utiful there back home, and it´s actually quite nice here as well (depending on the day).  One day it will be nice and the next day it will be a horrific thunderstorm....not so fun when my right shoe has a giant hole in the bottom.....which have caused all of my socks to have holes in them.....so my shoe becomes a heavy, sinking ship every rainy day.  Haha, but the hole in the bottom of my shoe has gotten really annoying.....my bare skin literally touches the ground every step i take...and the ground i walk on usually isn´t "sanitary"....usually dirt roads, rocks, trash, and the occasionally doggy surprises that i have to be careful to avoid.  I'm probably going to get some kind of fungus soon :)  .  But I'm too lazy to get them fixed or buy new shoes at this moment in time, but i´ll get around to it, no worries...mom.

  my, just to let you know, i do not know a Mckinley Heath.

Anyway, one of my spiritual experiences from the week was really powerful. My father in heaven has let me know that there are people prepared here specifically for me.

We have been meeting with this 30 year old women named Andrea for the last few weeks.  She´s super nice and has been meeting with the missionaries for over 7 months, but still has not been baptized!  She agrees with all the doctrine and the commandments and everything, but she just doesn´t want the "responsibility, stress, and stuff" of what will come after baptism.  She´s been a really tough cookie to crack, and it´s been really hard to commit her to baptism, no matter how many times the missionaries have gone over the wonderful blessings that come and how necessary it is.

  Well, we met with her this week and we decided to read a section in Principles of the Gospel under baptism.  We opened to it, only assuming to read a small portion.....but as soon as she opened to the page, she began reading out loud from the beginning, and didn´t stop.  she read the whole chapter out loud, making pauses every few sentences, pondering what she was reading.  When we got done with the section, she decided to ask us about the first time we baptized someone.  If you can remember, i had quite the crazy first experience here in Argentina ha.  But as Elder Tague and  I finished telling her our experiences and sharing our testimony, she began crying.  She told me that she didn´t know why, but as i was talking to her she felt touched deeper than ever before. In the next appointment that I had with you, she said she was going to be baptized on the 12th of November and that she wanted me to baptized her!  It was such a humbling experience, and I'm so grateful that shes made this decision in her life.  Elder Tague and I are super excited and we are going to continue preparing her and other investigadores that we have to be baptized.  It was an amazing experience. 

  Also this Sunday Elder Tague and I sang nearer my god to thee in sacrament meeting.  Luckily my comp has a pretty good voice, cuz if he didn´t, the whole thing would have been a nightmare for sure.  I don´t exactly have the voice of an angel haha, but it was a fun time.

That´s a couple of my adventures from the week.  We are continuing to work hard and do all that we can to fulfill our missionary purposes here in Ameghino. 

   Fun tip of the week:  i read a talk by M. Russell Ballard this week called......i can´t remember.....its called how to make a difference or something like that.  Anyway, it talked a lot about how we are changing everyday, and how we need to make necessary changes everyday to help us become more like the Savior.

   He gave an activity that i am beginning to put into practice.  He says every morning right down something that you want to start doing one thing that you know that you should be doing, and one thing that you want to stop doing that you know you should not be doing.  It´s kind of an interesting way to make measurable goals of how we want to become better everyday.  You´re welcome to try the activity as well haha.  But i know that if we can get to the end of the day and say we are a better person than when we woke up, that´s what god wants of us.

Anyway, i g2g so i´ll talk to you next week!  I love you all so much!!!!!

Elder Winger

A Beautiful Day‏ buen día. 10/17/2011 Week 36

¡¡¡¡¡NIXON!!!!!

¡Qué caposo es! 

I must first say congratulations to Casey & Kari for the newest member of the Winger clan.  I was super excited to be able to see the picture that you sent me, and i´m not gonna lie, it´s hard sitting here a billion miles away and not being able to see either my niece or nephew ha.  But, i guess they´ll just have to wait 16 months to meet their number 1 role model.... :)

Anyway, i´m happy to hear that everyone is doing so well.  It still throws me off that everyone there is on "fall break" when i´m here preparing myself for a wicked summer haha. 

The work this week was fairly tranquilo and calm, a solid 7.0 days of work.  We had quite a few things come up this week such as a special conference, "a tarde del milagros", so we didn´t get the full week to work in our area.  I did receive the opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting this past Sunday on service, which i hope went fairly ok....but it went none the less. 

Definitely one of the highlights of the week was going to Rosario and hearing from Presidente Arnold, a member of the presidency of the quorum of the 70, he´s also one of our area 70.  But hearing from him totally helped me want to improve my energy in the work.  He spoke to us on things such as the importance of obedience in all things, how to plan more effectively, and just a powerful reminder that we are representatives of the Lord.  At the end of the conference, he bore one of the most powerful testimonies I have witnessed in person.  Throughout the whole conference the Spirit was impressively strong, but as he stood in front of us 100 or so missionaries and bore witness of the work and of the Savior, I was floored.  Hearing a general authority utter the words that its not based on faith,  but he knows that the Savior lives.  It was amazing.

Anyway, we are continuing to work hard in the Lord´s work.  The time seems to just be picking up faster and faster.  I know I still have a lot of time ahead of me, but I continually am trying to push myself, making sure I don´t waste a minute as a missionary of the Lord, cuz before I know it ·poof· it´ll be gone.  Once again, thank you so much for your support, love, and examples.  I know mom, dad, and family that you´ve sacrificed a lot for me to be out here (even though it´s probably more of  a blessing that you don´t have to see my face for 2 years :)  )  But I just want you to know that I´m going to keep doing my best to bless the lives of these people that I meet everyday and give my whole heart to the work continually, because i know that´s what you, and the Lord, expect of me and all of us out here.  You´re encouraging words and updates give me that added boost that sometimes i need :)  I love you all so much and i hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Winger

Scripture of the week:  King Benjamin´s Address that begins in Mosiah 2 :)  one of my favorite parts of the whole book of mormon.

A thought ‏ 10/10/2011 Week 35

Hey family!!!

Alright, I´m planning on keeping this email fairly short because I want to try writing more emails every week to everyone more personally :) (cuz a personal letter means so much more right?)  Anyway, here are a few of the things that happened this week:

First of all, I met my new ward for the first time at church yesterday.  All 13 members.  Haha, i was pretty blown away when i showed up to the church right before the meeting started, only to see 13 members, 5 of them i believe under the age of 12, and 1 of our investigators.  It was pretty...crazy!  It was a little overwhelming though because this ward used to be just that...A WARD.  Anyway, it looks like we have plenty of work we´ll be doing here in the ward, which is just great because Elder Tague and I just love a good challenge.  The members of the ward are really solid and amazing people, and I know that we are going to be able to work strongly together to bring the members that have fallen from the path a little bit back on track.  Also.....I've been regretting my poor choices of not continuing piano lessons to the point where i could play hymns!  It´s weird singing in church without a piano, not gonna lie.  Anyway, i found a simplified hymn book in the apartment, so we might be doing some winging it here in the ward to bring it back alive.  Another fun fact of sacrament meeting.......both my companion and our investigator bore their testimonies 2 times to fill up time........kinda weird huh?

Other fun facts for the week is that we have 7 people with baptismal dates!  Very big increase from 1 last week ha.  These people that we have are just great though, one of them is a couple that recently had a baby, one of them is a guy that just moved into the area and is seriously INVESTIGATING the church in all aspects (book of mormon, folletos, internet..which can be sketchy, but its exciting to really find people searching for the truth), and just some other people that we´ve been finding that are just really really good people, and it´s exciting to be able to bring them the truth.

Well, that's enough about me.....i´m glad to hear that you are all doing well!  Sounds like winter is just around the corner.....and for me the summer just arriving...BLEH.  But, here´s for Nate (one day late)  ¡¡¡¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS!!!!  I hope that you had a great birthday!

Also mom, I will be getting my package on Wednesday, no worries :)  I´m super excited for it.  Also, if you send another package in the future (wink, wink), i might want some little games that we can play in the apartment during p-day and stuff, maybe games like (missionary impossible, warriors of the promised land)  cool missionary games like that.  just a thought.

Anyway, everything is going well here!  Loving the mission and everything about it. 

Here´s a couple quotes that i heard this week:

"Happiness - only real when shared"  -Into the wild        That's so true.......not only in aspects of the gospel, but in all the fun things of life...can you imagine going to Disney land alone?

"True doctrine understood changes action and behavior"

-David A. Bednar

Anyway, i think that´s all i´m going to write for the week.  I´ll work on sending some pictures as well and writing more frequently to everyone!  Thanks for your prayers and support. 

The Lord´s work moves forward!

Elder Winger

HOLA 10/03/11 Week 34

hey family!

Well, it´s been an exciting week of CHANGES!!! (Obama would be so proud of me.)

I´m now writing you this electronic letter from Ameghino!  Which is in Pergamino...which is in the Buenos Aires area...which is about 4 hours mas o menos from where i was before.

Here´s a quick throwdown of what´s happened over the last few days:

Wednesday:  Packed up all of my stuff and headed out from the terminal in Santa Fe with my new companion Elder Tague from New Hampshire.  He´s been on the mission for about a year and he´s just a little firecracker of an Elder.  He´s a little crazy...kinda weird more like...but we get along just fine and are looking to do some good work this transfer.  So, we headed to the mission home to pick up some things such as books of mormon, folletos...but mostly to see one of my best friends Elder Faldmo (in my district in the MTC) who´s living at the mission home....i would say that´s the biggest reason i went there haha.  But when i got there I found out that I would have to do tramites on thursday!  So i had two options.....go to my Ameghino two hours from the mission home, spend the night, and wake up at like 5 to go back to the mission home...or just spend the day/night at the mission home.  i preferred the latter.  So anyway, i spent the day helping out Elder Faldmo fulfill his new financiero job, spent some time chilling with the assistants and office workers and the president/his wife.  I had a great time there...and even Elder Faldmo and I got to go out and work together from 8-9 that night (one of our fondest dreams since the MTC coming true....dont worry, i don´t really expect any of you to care all that much.)  Then........i went to sleep.

Thursday:  Did the tramites. awful.  I had to go to a different building from the one last time and sit in a little place starting at 9ish that reminded me of a airport terminal.  finished all the picture taking a fingerprinting at about 1. Bleh, couch potatoey day.  But, then Elder Tague and I headed out to our new area!  The apartment i live in is pretty nice (for argentina standards ha.)  Our bathroom is about as appalling as the attic of a 146 year old abandoned shack.  yeah, that´s how i would describe it.  But we live with two other elders, Elder Knight and his newby elder, Eldr Guadanin or something.....who´s from utah...just has a crazy name ha.  Anyway, we all get along well. yipee.  On thursday i pretty much just unpacked, ate some fake food cuz i didn´t have any real kind, and then went to sleep.

Friday:  We went out and did some work!  We looked for the registers of our investigators that the Elders before us said had dates to be baptized within the next couple weeks....and none of them had been registered in our area book.  So we basically don´t know what any of these people have been taught, and kind of have gotten an idea after deep study of where they leave, so we are currently working on that.  Also on Friday..actually i can´t even remembr what else, so i´ll just tell you more about the area.   It´s a lot more tranquilo than where i was before, and it´s a lot more quite and calm.  The houses are mostly middle class here, just your typical argentina city (which i know you all are familiar with).   That´s enough for Friday

Saturday:  General Conference!!! absolutely amazing.  We got to go to the saturday morning session, which was awesome, especially getting to watch it in Spanish.  but we didn´t get to watch the saturday afternoon session which was sort of a bummer, so if there´s any really good talks that i missed, i´d appreciate it if you could email them to me or something..please :)  but also on Saturday, a bird flew in our house and i trapped it in a room for like 20 minutes..not really sure why...but then i released it.

Also, as we were getting familiar with our area and doing some contacting, we found a great couple that i´m really excited to teach!  Their names are Juan and Ramina Rodriguez, and they are preparing to have their first baby in the first couple of weeks!  Super excited to continue passing by them and sharing with them the wonderful message of the gospel.

Sunday:  MORE CONFERENCE..and i watched it in English today...sitting with 5 other Elders in a tiny closet that you would in most cases find under the stairs of any modern U.S. home, watching it on a whopping 8 inch by 8 inch screen baby.  If i had time, i would tell you which of my talks were my favorites...............but i really don´t have much time now ha.  But i did notice that many of the apostles did talk about the importance of the book of mormon and missionary work.  The book of mormon is the most powerful tool that we use as missionaries (as well as the spirit of course) of bringing our brothers and sisters to come to know the truth.  I know the book of mormon is the word of God and if you are ever wondering how to introduce someone to the gospel, the book of mormon is the way to do it.  The book of mormon will bring any willing soul who reads it to come to know the divinity of the savior as our redeemer and that his church has been restored. 

Anyways, doing great here in the new area.  It´s kind of weird and different getting used to a new area again, especially when me and Elder Tague are new to the area.   Oh, and Elder Tague has been out for one year this week.  Woot.  He likes basketball and always talks to me about new superheroes that he´s going to publish..super fascinating :)

I love you all, thank you so much for your support and love.  hasta la próxima.

Elder Winger

 

and today,

Monday:

played soccer with the zone, got my face fried by the sun.  saw Elder Smart. i hugged him. 

¡ábreme! 09/27/11 week 33

it´s the most wonderful time of the...day :)

Hello my dear family, I was so happy to hear from you this week!  It sounds like everyone is keeping super super busy!
Today marks the end of my fourth transfer, and I can´t believe that Ive already been here that long....sort of disturbing to tell the truth.  I´m have not yet been informed as to what will be happening next transfer, so telling you about the next transfer will have to wait until next week.
Here in Santa Fe, it is beginning to get, digamos, HACE CALOR...o sea, es cierto que voy a morir en algunos dias. It´s supposedly supposed to get the most hot in Santa Fe out of anywhere else in the country due to humidity, so i may or may not be hoping that the Lord´s plans for my work will take it´s course somewhere more.....bearable?  Ha, I´ll let you know about that.
This week Elder Bryce and I worked hard, and thinking about a phrase in Preach my Gospel that says that "no effort goes wasted" we continued to spread the gospel, and it appears that for now we are mostly planting the seeds instead of harvesting.  It´s been a trial for me the last couple of weeks, not having many people progressing towards baptism, but it has also humbled me to caused me to focus on doing the Lord´s will and realize that the work moves forth at his pace and in his time. 
One of my "fun" experiences of the week is that we went one day to a less active members house and removed two trees that were in her backyard.  For two of us, it seemed like it would be a simple task...but as we began i came to realize of many horrorous factors - the ground around the tree was rock hard, due to layers and layers of garbage under the earth ha, it was 2 billion degrees, the equipment we were using was removing more skin from our hands than dirt from the ground, and the trees were quite stubborn.  but as we labored hard through the difficulties, we eventually removed the trees :) and we were happy and got to drink some soda after (just 2 of the...many benefits)  Now, i´ve decided to make an analogy (haha) of this event.  As members of the church, we´ve all been called to labor in the Lord´s vineyard, whether in our callings, missionary work, giving to the poor and needy, or other forms of service.  Many times when called upon to fulfill such duties, we come to realize that it may be a little harder than at first glance, and we think we are receiving more hardships than blessings sometimes ha.  As we trust in the Lord and continue laboring diligently, we will be given the strength to complete any task and receive the blessings of having learned from the experience, and continually having our thirst quenched from the fountain of many waters :) (just as i did with the soda)  I hope any of that made sense, and I'm not really sure why i decided to make an analogy out of that anyway.....just trying to find optimistim to combat the fact of having super sore hands :)

Anyway, scripture of the week is James 2:10. Keeping ALL of the commandments at all times is the only way to become a true disciple of Christ.  As in Revelations 3:16-17, the Lord doesn´t want those that are "lukewarm".  These two scriptures have really helped me dedicate more effort into being obedient to all aspects of the gospel, and continually learning and progressing to become like the Savior.  We all have our weaknesses, but as we but All of our trust in the Lord, nothing is impossible.

What else to say.....still loving the work!  I absolutely love Spanish (even when i hate it), and I know this church is true.
I´m glad to hear that everything is continuing to go well at home and in all the various places where our family is currently.  I´m happy to hear that the storytelling festival was the best one yet!  Also Dad, keep doing work over there in Miami!  And i´m happy to hear you have plenty of work ahead of you with those ziplines.  I wish i could be there to help you build the "motherboards" like we used to do, but i´ll make sure to be lending you a hand in 16 months.  Also, I´m super excited to hear that the baby of Casey and Kari is soon due!  My prayers are with you, and i can´t wait to see pictures (hint hint).  Also mom, I haven´t gotten the package yet, but i´ll keep you posted on that....it´s very possible that i receive it here with transfers.  I´m also impressed that you were able to harvest 9 pumpkins from one plant.  booyeah.  Also, i´m glad to hear that Elder Henriksen is still....alive after that experience of being robbed.  Sounds pretty intense, but i´m glad that he´s doing well.  Tell Allison and Todd that I love them as well and am praying for their comfort and well being. Also, wish Jamison the best of luck for me!  He´s a stud and I know he´s going to do well out here in the work, especially serving in the best country in the world! (2nd best......united states is home.) 
well, i´ll end this letter for the reals now.  Thanks for all your support, love, and prayers.  The work is amazing, and time is flying by super fast. almost 8 months already. wow.  Love you all, have a splendidly week.

Elder Winger

hey family! ‏ 09/19/11 Week 32

Hey family!

So this week was quite an interesting one for us.  We unfortunately didn´t have quite the success that we were hoping for, but I´ve really learned a lot of diligence, patience, and hope during times that we aren´t "harvesting" in the vineyard, but sure doing a lot of "planting" haha.  Door to door contacting definitely became our favorite thing to do this week.  We lead the mission this week in "contacts" by 80, us having 240 with a goal of 140 haha.  So, we don´t have any super solid investigators right now that are close to being baptized, but we are determined to find those that the Lord has prepared to accept the Gospel. 
  My testimony of the Savior is continuing to grow and I´m absolutely loving the work.  I have many weaknesses still, but the Lord has helped me perform his work.  It´s the last week before the transfers end, so we are going to work super hard before I (most likely) get transferred to another area!  Anyway, I love you all and thank you so much for your support and prayers.  The Church is true.

I´ll leave you with a little glue-in that I found in my scriptures this week.  a quote from C.S. Lewis:
       "Imagine yourself as a living house.  God comes in to rebuild that house.  At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing.  He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on:  you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.  But presently, He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense.  What on earth is He up to?  The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.  You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace."

oh, here´s a solid scripture.  2 Nefi 31:20

Con amor,

Elder Winger

WOOOOOOT ‏ 09/12/2011 Week 31

Hello everyone!

Another week has passed us by! It´s crazy that I just passed my 7
month mark!! The first exciting thing, yet not so super exciting
thing, that I want to mention is that I just finished my first journal
a few days ago! Over 200+ pages of
I-hope-ill-be-able-to-read-my-penmanship-in-the-future-inscriptions.
Jaja, but yeah, its pretty crazy to be able to flip through it and see
just how many days i´ve been out here. It´s unreal. Anyways, here in
Parque del Sur we are still doin work. I had an amazing highlight of
the week this past week, but it soon became the lowlight of the week
as well...but i´ll explain it to you anyways. Last Sunday, a lady
came to church that we didn´t recognize with her granddaughter (and by
not recognizing them, we were, of course as missionaries "all over
that".) We found out that the lady was a less active that has now
decided to return to the church, and she brought her 14 year old
granddaughter, who´s assistance was the first. She wanted us to begin
coming by and teaching Milagros (which is her name). So we came by a
couple days later and taught them together. Milagros accepted a
baptismal date with no problems for the 17th of this month! (also
Elder Bryce´s birthday....he would want me to mention that). Anyways,
we were super stoked, and i even made her a cute little calendar to
mark her progress (which wasn´t so cute......it could have taken a 5
year old 5 minutes to do it to the same quality, and i ended up
spending over an hour.) anyway, we were still lacking being able to
talk with the actual parents of the girl, but the grandma said they
were AALLL GOOOD. So, we thought it was just going to be a beautiful
little dealio. To make a long story short, it turns out that the
parents were all so enthused. When we met with them finally before
teaching Milagros for the second time, they said they had no idea any
of this was even going on...and of course we missionaries were both
shocked. Anyway, the parents were really nice after we settled them
down a bit and it turns out that they just think she´s too young to be
baptized into the church (which the dad is an inactive), especially
when she´s going to catholic school, doing sports, school, and a bunch
of things to do every day. Anyway, it doesn´t look like she´s going
to be baptized now, but i think she will in the future definitely
because she really likes everything about the church. Anyway, God
will continue working with those that he has prepared. Not the most
exciting in story in the world, but it was an uppy downy adventure.

In other news, remember the baby that I told you about last week that
was in the hospital? I found out yesterday that she (or he) is
getting better! I was so happy! Also, a part-member family that we
have been teaching showed up to church on Sunday! Woo hoo for random
sentences!

Anyways, everything is continuing to go well here in the Argentina. I
was not robbed this week, so that was a blessing as well :) . I´m
absolutely loving the work that I have been called to assist in, and
there´s no doubting that this church is his church.

My scripture for you this week is Moroni 10:30. (maybe even all of
Moroni 10, why not?) I was reading in the LIahona this week and it
was talking about the dangers of the Internet, music, and worldly
things where Satan is creeping in and polluting things that can be
great when used righteously. It´s important for us to stay focused on
good things and not on cosas impuras and to be careful! Anyways,
trashy stuff here is way too accessible to obtain here, and i find
myself always having to look down at the ground (which is a good idea
anyways to avoid jaggedy sidewalk that can trip me and dog poo),
because trashy entertainment is on almost every street corner and
every newsstand around. I know that as we remain faithful to the
covenants that we have made and always strive to be lights of the
world, the Lord will continue to guide us and bless us.
I know that God lives and that he is actively performing miracles
among his children everyday. He loves us and gives us much more than
we can every repay, but simply keeping the commandments and serving
our neighbors is what he asks of us.

Thanks for all of your support and for taking 5...or 10.....or 20
minutes (depending on your reading speed) in order to read this. I
continually pray for all of you, and I want you to know that I love
you all so much.

P.S. I'm glad you all had a great time at storytelling!!!!!!! BEST
THING EVER. And I´m definitely looking forward to hearing the good
news about the next baby :)

Love you all!

Elder Winger

Might be a little short...but i´ll keep it sweet ‏ 08/29/11 Week 30

Hello familia

So, I´d like to start out this email with an apology........i know this might be selfish of me, but i might not write a very long email today, just not really in the mood is all.  Plus, i know that you´ll all be able to save a little time if i keep ´er short.
Anyway, the work is continuing forth here in the marvelous Parque del Sur.  It´s crazy that I´ve been here for 4.5 months mas o menos here!  That´s like.....quite a long time!  haha, i´m still enjoying here, but at the same time it´ll be fun to leave eventually and see a little more of this country.  But, as the Lord has directed, my work continues on here :) .  This past week just has flown by, as they all do, but we had a zone conference!  I absolutely loved it, and it´s always a huge motivational boost.  One of the focuses of the conference was the Atonement, and we are going to be starting a mission wide study of it tomorrow.  I´m super excited!
So,  I forgot my journal today....and my memory isn´t all that hot without it haha, so i´ll clue you in on some of the adventures of the week that i can remember.  Yesterday, there was a huge soccer game between the two diehard rivals of Colón and Unión.  These two soccer clubs´ stadiums are only about 40 blocks from each other (colon´s stadium being in my area) and so everybody here is either a fan of Colón or Unión.  And the people here LOVE their soccer, so when i say fan, i mean it´s basically central in their lives haha.  Anyway, they both played each other yesterday for the first time in 8 years.  The game began at 2:30, and since we had church at 9 (which our church is only 3 blocks from the stadium) i thought we would miss all of the hype.....wrong.  During all of our meetings, there was drums banging outside, people screaming/singing (they were the same thing), and what sounded like literal bombs going off just outside the steel gates of our church.  It made our meetings a little interrupted, but overall was so good still.  We didn´t have too many people in church yesterday, probably around 35 or so, but i´m hoping it was due to the game and not due to inactivity.  It´s so hard to look at the list of members in this area, which i think there are at least 400 or so, and only seeing 50 that come.  We´ve been working hard lately on passing by less-actives, which many of our lessons go well, but the plague just seems to be getting to church for a lot of people.  But, we are continuing to work hard with them and try to reactivate those that we can. As far as baptisms go, we are still working with Zulema.  She has been super sick lately and it has impeded her from coming to church.  We have taught her everything that is necessary for baptism, and she has accepted it all....but the church attendance has been killing us.  We are praying she will get better soon, i know the Lord is taking care of her.  Also, this week Elder Bryce made a couple of goodies.....the first being carrot cake!  it was sooo good, i don´t know why i´m telling you about it.  If you feel like there´s a recipe for something that we would enjoy eating, please send it....because we are a little limited on our recipe options, since we don´t really have any haha.
Anyway, another spiritual experience that i would like to share with you is one that i had with a lady named Angelica.  I don´t really want to explain all of the details, so i´ll just cut to the chase.  We were talking with her and she was talking about how much she wants to change, how she misses her son (who died....im not sure how long ago), how she has so many  and how she adored that we were Sons of a God caring his message.  I pondered that sentence after she said it, and replied "Angelica, I want you to know something...You are a daughter of God, and he loves you."  she then began crying.  I felt humbled at the moment, wondering how a simple sentence like that had such a big impact.  How blessed i have been in this world to know that God is my Father in Heaven and loves me may have been something that I didn´t realize was such a....mystery to many people i suppose.  The simple truths of the Gospel are so beautiful, so needed in the world of today.  anyway, i said that this email would be short, and it turned out being a little long.....sorry for lying at the beginning.  I´m glad to hear that all of you are doing well, that Tiffani is moved out (I miss you too hermana and I hope that your transition to "moving out" is so fun!  I know it might be a little hard at first, actually living on your own, but you´ll grow into it quickly!  probably quicker than me actually haha)-  and mom, I want to thank you for the package you´ll be sending. Im so excited!  and i´ll look for a battery charger here, no worries.  And dad, keep safe while your out and about working.  I´m excited to hear that you are all going to the Storytelling Festival this weekend!  JEALOUS!!   i expect quite the emails after alright?  Oh, and nate and casey and shantra and kari, i love you all too and hope all is well! anyway, gotta go, love you all! 

Elder Winger  (1 corinthians 10:13)

oh, what a great and marvelous work it is ‏ 08/22/2011 Week29

Dear family,

Here we are on the 22nd of August, the sun is shining, some kind of Argentina holiday is going on today, and i´m enjoying yet another pday :) .  This past week went well, still working hard, and the weather is starting to warm up now (but it depends on the day).  As you can see in the first sentence, i said the "sun is shining", which is a miracle in itself, because it ALWAYS rains on p day!  The normal forecast here is sunny everyday, oh, except for p day, i´ll just rain on you.  Haha, but today is nice, and i´m hoping to maybe find some time to go play some soccer with my fellow elderes lader on.  One of the highlights, yet lowlights, of the week was that we got robbed again!  hahaha, but once again, with cunning craftiness and whits, we were able to retrieve all of our lost items.  We were in an area called Barrio Santa Rosa, walking down the road when a couple of boys walking towards us looked as if they were about to "jump us", so we turned the corner, but yet they caught up to us.  To make a long story shorter, they took our stuff, which we had nothing but scriptures and folletos, and they ran off.  But, we were determined to get our stuff back, because we´ve been running low on supplies lately ha. What ended up happening is we talked to a boy that we knew in the neighborhood and his buddies to see if they could possibly, and safely, retrieve our items from the boy, and after a few minutes, we were walking to one of our appointments when suddenly we heard "galloping" behind us.  A man on a horse rode up to us and hollered "follow me, i have retrieved your belongings!" (not a direct translation....but it was just like a movie haha)  and he began riding down the dirt road, beckoning us to run along after him.  After walking a block or so, we caught up to the "mysterious man" and beside him and his horse was a little boy and a bicycle, holding up our scripture cases like a trophy.  We retrieved them and headed out on our merry way. the end.   Also, yesterday we were able to give a couple of blessings to sisters in the ward.  I´m so grateful to be a priesthood holder of God and that he has trusted me with such an authority.  To be able to exercise the priesthood, sometimes in on-the-spot moments, has been such a blessing for me.  Anyway, it seems like everyday is a holiday here!  Everyday, as I'm sure i´ve already told you, there is what is called a "ciesta" where everything closes down between 1-4. and i mean everything.  It´s a national nap-time haha, ¿qué perezoso no?  But yesterday there was a big holiday called "Día del Niño" which is Children´s day. It was pretty big here, probably about the equivalent of mother´s day back home.  I´m not sure what people really did here for it besides "spend time with children in the park" and "somebody´s giving all the kids free toys".  it made it rough on the work because nobody was home, but it was a holiday nevertheless.  Hope you found all of that somewhat informative. 

One of my other special experiences of the week came on the 17th.  Sometimes at night, Elder Bryce and I run out of things that we have planned in the day with about half an hour before we go back to the apartment.  It´s always not the most productive when it happens because we end up knocking door to door in the dark, but it´s not always the most productive because people are "cautious here of letting people in their homes", which they should be ya know?  But anyway, we passed by a drunk man on the street and he began calling for us.  We went over to him, and with a box of wine in hand, asked us if he could have a bible.  We didn´t have any on us at the time, but decided to talk with him a little about the book of mormon.  We pulled it out and he began saying anxiously "that´s what i wanted, the book of mormon!"  it turned out that this man was a member of the church, but extremely in-active obviously.  We began talking with him and he was telling us of experiences that had caused his life to spiral out of control.  He´s a priesthood holder and wanted so badly to return to the church and get his life in order.  It was heart wrenching to see this priesthood holder in the state that he was.  but, he was so grateful to receive the book of mormon, and we are hoping that he´ll have the strength and the courage to turn his life around, rely on the Savior, and became active once again.  We didn´t have much time to talk with him, but as we bore testimony of repentance, the savior, and the priesthood authority that he has, his eyes shed a new light.  We left thereafter.  It was a powerful experience, and it boosted my testimony of the marvelous work that we are all a part of.

Anyways, i´m about out of time, but i love you all!  I´m doing my best out here to serve my Master with all my heart, might, mind, and strength.  And even though i have many weaknesses, the Lord is patient and will shower his blessings upon us if we but seek to follow him.  I know that he lives.  I know that angels are preparing those people that we are to find.  I know that we will come again in all his glory to redeem his people quickly.

My scripture for the week is D&C 107:99-100 talking about our callings and duties.  As priesthood holders, and members of the church, we all are given responsibilites and callings.  it is important for us to "learn out duties and act in all diligence." (reminds me of Uchtdors talk last conference) As I learn more about the gospel and the priesthood, I´m beginning to understand more and more about the duties of the priesthood and offices of the church and what God expects in each of us.  As we magnify our callings, the blessings shall be magnified as well. 

Thanks everyone for your support continually and for keeping in touch!  I love hearing from everyone when they get the chance to write me a little somethin somethin.  Hope everyone is doing well, and have a fantasticalmaravillasticallyawesomistico week.

con amor,

Elder Winger

Hello family! ‏ 08/16/11 Week 28

hey!

Well, first things first, I forgot to do the missionary newsletter for the last month mom, whoops ha.  But, maybe it would be better for you to just do it for me every month, and if i have time I´ll just send my own separate part as well. Thanks!  anyway, I found out this morning that I will be staying here in Parque del Sur for yet another transfer haha with Elder Bryce.  That´ll give me at least 6 months in this area, which is a long time but I still love it so its okay. One part of me wants to get out and see the rest of the country ya know? but the other half loves this area haha, but i know its the will of the Lord for me to continue serving among the people here and my work is not quite yet finished.  so Parque del Sur, watch out for 6 more weeks :)  This morning we did some deep deep cleaning in our apartment, and it still has a long ways to go haha.  Missionaries have lived in the pench that i´m living in for 6 years now, so you can only imagine what has happened to it :) .  Oh, and we continue finding black widows everyday!  I believe our apartment that now be classified as "infested" by now ha, pretty scary stuff.....but it adds to the experience.  Elder Bryce and I are still continuing to get along very well and i´m super stoked to have another transfer with him.  He has taught be so much about the work and my testimony has grown so much over the last transfer.  The only slightly bad thing is that my Spanish hasn´t been quite improving as rapidly this transfer......since we are both American and it´s more convenient to talk in English, but I´ve made goals to definitely focus on the Spanish much more even when just talking with him, and I know the Lord will help me continue learning and progressing. Not too much to report this week, but the work still continue to move forward :)  Our top investigador Zulema headed out of town over this past weekend, so we are still waiting to form a new date with her for her baptism, but she is still growing and progressing strong and I have no doubts that she will be baptized very soon.  so exciting!  Also mom, i´ll just tell you now before i forget, but i haven´t heard anything about the contacts yet.....i´m sure they will let me know when they arrive, and we have a zone conference in the next couple of weeks, so hopefully they´ll have them ready for me there.  Well, i don´t have a whole ton of time left, but I want you to all know that I love you so much and that this church is true!  One thing that i´ve been pondering this week is about the difference between faith and believing.  Faith is when we trust in the Lord completely, are willing to do whatever he asks of us to do and not rely upon our own wants in mortality.  Faith is striving to become like the Son of God and knowing that by his grace we can be saved.  Believing is simply an acknowledgment, not an action.  I´ve been uplifted so much by the power that this gospel has, and especially in the power of the Holy Scriptures.  If we just read the scriptures to learn about the Son of God, to increase our knowledge, this simply isn´t enough.  Studying the sciptures takes effort, pondering, and application!  I continue to love the power of the scriptures more and more everyday.  As we read in 1 Nefi 19:23, the profit and learning from the scriptures come from likening.  Anyway, that´s my little spiritual blurb for the week.....growth comes from studying the scriptures with the Holy Ghost (2Nefi 32:1-5).  I hope that you all have an amazing week and I want you to know that i love you all SO MUCH! 
Oh, and here´s my list for top 5 dogs of Parque del Sur
1.Skunk (because of its color, no worries)
2. Tripod (has 3 legs, moves like a champ)
3. Wingnut (he´s............crazy)
4. Blackey (Zulema´s dog. what´s not to love?)
5. uhh.....haven´t found a 5th favorite yet haha, most of them are little demons! chiste

CIAO!

Elder Winger

6 months tomorrow! 08/08/11 Week 27

Dear family and friends and people,

4 score and 7 years ago (minus a few scores and years) i set sail for an adventure in the foreign land of Argentina.
O sea, 6 months ago tomorrow! It´s crazy how fast the time has been flying by! At this moment I see myself analyzing my progress and ask myself "have i really changed and/or made a difference here?" and I´d like to answer that simply with "yes" even though maybe i haven´t changed for the better?? haha chiste. But yeah, if you wouldn´t have reminded me that six months had gone by, i probably would´ve forgotten, so thanks. I am expecting the same kind of reminder for my birthday....Christmas.....flag day......the usuals. Anyways, another week has passed by here and i honestly have trouble remembering what happens from one day to the next let alone from week to week....so here´s a few of the things that i hope have happened within the last 7 days. As far as the baptism for Zulema that should have been happening this week....looks like its a no-go. She unfortunately wasn´t able to make it to church yesterday, which it is required that investigators have a least 2 attendances, so we are going to have to postpone the date a little bit. We are now going to be shooting for the 20th of this month, pending that she is completely ready and it is the will of the Lord. I may not be in the area after this transfer (which ends a week from Wednesday) so I might not see her baptism, but will surely keep you posted on her progress :) She´s so amazing though. The last time we taught her, we came to the point to teach Tithing. And sometimes tithing is the one commitment that's a little harder for people to accept you know? But she accepted it with flying colors! Actually, I think she was surprised that it was only 10% haha, I think she was ready to go at least 90 ;) But as far as our other investigadores go, we are still pushing along. We´ve found a lot of new investigadores to teach and continuing to help them progress, but don´t really have anyone else with a baptismal date. Also, one morning earlier this week we were able to give 3 blessings to a few members. One was in the hospital after getting in a motorcycle accidente trying to dodge a dog, and the other 2 were just having difficulties at this moment in life. But it was such a privilege, as it always is, to give blessings to those in need. I´m so thankful to be a melchizidek priesthood holder and have such a sacred privilege. I´m still having an amazing time here serving with Elder Bryce and he has taught me SO much because I swear he knows everything. Haha its funny, because every morning when we begin comp study we share something that we learned from our personal study. And after I finish sharing what I learned (which is usually something simple cuz ya know....I´m not exactly a genius haha), he expands on the thing I learned and actually ends up teaching me something totally awesome. So yeah, I learn a lot from him. Did you know its illegal to have a border around your license plate in almost every state?
Anyway, also this week we didn´t really have any meals with members.....so we got to cook everyday! And i´ll tell you what, pasta is where it is at. It´s more cheap than everything else. tastes good. and you can mix it up with a variety of noodle types and sauces. So watch out, i officially have quite the noodle for my noodles. So yeah, my cooking skills right now consist of pastas, rice, and wonderful teas (palabra de sabiduría approved). But, I'm looking to expound on that for sure haha. Also mom, I have not yet received my contact lenses...........i´ll just keep waiting i guess. And in the package that you could be sending, please send me...um...maple syrup, fire cheetos, more ranch dressing, CANDY BARS :), peanut butter nature valley bars, and basically just awesome snacks, oh, and maybe a beanie to wear at night and p-day and stuff. anyway, thank you so much for all of your prayers, support, and updates! it´s so nice to come and read how everyones doing. Tell Savannah and Jake congratulations for me!!! And Shantra, I´m so sorry about the fire and my prayers are with you and your family. As far as the update with spanish, I'm improving everyday haha, i don´t really know how to describe my progress, but I love the language, the people, and the work. But i´m so grateful for all the blessings that the Lord has given me to be able to perform this work, it would be more than impossible for me to do anything without the Lord´s guidance and the fruits of the spirit. My mini spiritual thought for you this week comes from a talk given by Bruce C. HafenWelp, until next week, espero que ustedes tengan una semana maravillosa. Escritura: 2 Nephi 9. Really an awesome chapter!

Un abrazo,

Elder Winger

roses are red, violets are blue, argentina and the work is great, here´s the letter ‏ 08/01/11 Week 26

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡FAM-IL-IA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How are you doing this wonderful day? I was so happy to receive the pictures from Shantra of Alena! She is absolutely beautiful and I´m super excited to hear the baby blessing was yesterday, so ill be eagerly waiting to see how that went. Also, from Tiffani´s letter it´s cool to hear how some of my old buddies are doing! Where is Curtis Norman going to? I´d like to keep in touch with him! Also, it´s sad to hear that Sean Bradley had to come home due to his back problems, but I hope that he´ll get back out very soon! Also, I do remember Jaxon and Travis, and I´m super happy to hear that they are both serving!
Anyways, some of the highlights of this week is that I finally got a package sent home to you today! I was going to send it last week, but we had a series of unfortunate events that prevented me from doing so (just imagine me and my companion in the pouring rain, short sleeve shirts, holding a soaking wet unmailed cardboard package, and walking into a kilbel (aka walmart-ish) and having 50 argentines staring at you) but now the package is sent :) The work is going well here in Parque del Sur and Elder Bryce are doing just fine together. We have a couple of baptisms for Guadalupe and Zulema that will be coming up on the 13th, but we will see if they pull through. We had a little bit of a speed bump with Zulema this week, when we visited her we found her smoking again. She has been going through a rough patch of life and smoking was the only way out she felt. But, after we were able to teach and help her, she willingly gave up the rest of her box of cigarettes! She such a strong lady and I have been greatly affected by her. So, that night, my companion and I spent the whole walk home tearing up cigarettes between our fingers. The work continues to move forth here and its such a privilege and honor to share the message of the gospel with these people. One topic of which my testimony has grown greatly this week is that the Lord always keeps his promises and will lead us to those people that he has prepared. There´s times when we have to endure through moments that seem like they may never end, or where it would just be easier to say, "you know what, i can´t do it" but I know that the Lord always blesses us for our righteous efforts. My companion and I had a long day yesterday where we just couldn't find any one to teach, all of our investigators were sick, and the weather wasn´t helping the mood haha. But, we pushed forward, and just when we thought we would head back to the apartment with a not so great day....we taught 3 lessons and found 4 new investigators in the last hour and a half of the days work. I´m having an absolute amazing experience here and I definitely believe I´ve learned more lessons than I could ever teach. This is the Lord´s work, and I know that he is preparing his people. The Lord´s Second Coming is nigh at hand, and we must all fortify our testimonies and show by our works that we are his Disciples. I´ve been continuing to read Jesus the Christ, and I so wish I would´ve read it before the mission, because I´ve learned so much about my Savior! I know that by studying his words, keeping the commandments of the Father, and striving to be like him is how we come to know him.(1 John 2:3-6). Before I part with my parting words haha, I´d like to share with you a list that I´ve gotten in the habit of looking at and pondering before I go to bed on how to become a better missionary and member of the church.

1. Be believing with desire single to the glory of God (1 Nefi 2:16)
2. Commit and discipline yourself totally in word and deed. (1 nefi 3:15)
3. Do all in your power to fulfill your part (James 2:22 - 1 nefi 9:23)
4. Pray as if all depended on the Lord (D&C 10:47)
5. Prepare for constant and intense trials of your faith. Tribulation is a refiner of faith (D&C 58:4)
6. Expect the Lord to perform according to his Holy will and your faith. The Lord will perform. (D&C 82:10)

Thanks for everything family, I love you all so much and I hope that you have another amazing week. Thank you for your prayers and encouraging words, they are being received :)

Weird sight of the week: Men that wear fanny packs as a shoulder bag strapped across their chest like a scout bandelo (or whatever) ........haha, weird.

Also, mom did you ever find the line of authority for the priesthood? and maybe if you could shop around and find the video : Joseph Smith- the prophet of the restoration, we would love to have a copy of that here! Gracias!

Elder Winger

Familia! ‏ 07/25/11 Week 25

¡Buen Dia mi familia eterna! y....amigos :)

Another week has flown by here among the vast plains of Argentina.  A lot of exciting news to report this week.  So my trip to Rosario last week was a great time!  I basically sat on a bus for a couple hours reading Jesus the Christ and playing the "box game" and hangman with my good ol pal Elder Stromberg.  Once we got to the casa de misión I basically went straight to bed, but it was fun meeting a bunch of other missionaries!  There was a group of about 25 of us or so that did something called Tramites.  Still don´t know what it was haha.  But on the morning after I arrived in Rosario, we went to a government building....which they made us stand outside for like half an hour...and i had forgotten a jacket in the freezing cold. bleh.  The weather is super weird here, super cold in the morning, super warm in the afternoon, cold again at night. repeat. But anyways, we were doing something with our passports, so I had to take another picture, then get my fingers fingerprinted, which I totally made more fun than it should've been haha.  Anyways, that was pretty much the whole reason for my trip, 10 seconds to take a picture, 10 seconds to do fingerprints (because the guy was fast at doing it, it was sureal).  Anyway, once we returned to the mission home i basically just played basketball with my latin friends for like half an hour. yeah, it was weird playing basketball after so long.....or doing any kind of physical activity besides walking for that matter.  Anyway, made it back to Santa Fe safely following all of that and continued on in the work with Elder Bryce.  Anyway, Zulema is still going strong, except she missed church yesterday :(  They had elections yesterday in the country (on a Sunday.....wicked wicked), and i think she just didn´t get around to coming to church.  It kind of scares me though, because I´ve seen people stop progressing in the gospel as soon as one commitment is missed, so I´m hoping that we can continue to help her fortify her faith today.  As far as yesterday at church. pretty stressful ha.  We had two investigatores show up (Guadalupe and her friend Rosa) who came on their own!  Usually we have to drag people to church. literally.  haha just kidding, but it is a huge step for investigatores when they come completely on their own at 9 in the morning walking 15-20 blocks.  Anyway, church went great for them, and we have a bautismal date set for Guadalupe in August.  Anyway, one of the crazy things that happened this week was that....I probably shouldn´t be telling you stuff like this....but I got robbed!  Haha, it was so dumb.  There was a drunk 21 year old guy that wanted to talk to us, and he seemed super harmless so we decided to stop for a second....suddenly a pack of 6 or 7 12 year old kids came around the corner and just started yelling "this is a robbery!"  and they robbed all of our stuff. my wallet, watch, copy of my passport....oh, and me and my comp had to get money out of the ATM that day, so they took my personal and mission credit cards!  It was terrible.  But, in the end we got the drunk kid to fetch a bunch of our stuff for us after the other kids ran away...and he pretty much brought it all back haha!  We only ended up losing a few pesos and my 8 dollar MTC watch, so don´t worry....got my credit cards and everything back :)  It was pretty intense, but the kids were ridiculous.  It was weird though because their was a group of mothers just watching the whole event take place and did absolutely nothing.  Pretty interesting.  As we walked away and passed by them (there were just staring at us with their mouths open, wondering if we were ok)  we had beaming faces and simply said "We got it all back!"  hahaha, anyway, that was my event of the week.  Elder Bryce had gone 21 months without being robbed....and I managed to make 5.5. failure.  Anyway,  I know the Lord really protects and blesses us so much out here.  I´ve been having a little bit of a hard time this week, one of the usual "I´m getting stressed out of my mind" times, but i´m pressing forward and doing my absolute best to serve the Lord everyday.  One scripture that I read this week that I absolutely loved was John 8:32.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ makes us all so free.  sometimes people think that Commandments, attending church, reading scriptures, praying, and all of these things "restricting", but its the Truth, the Light, and the Way that leads us to true happiness in this life.  I know my Savior Jesus Christ lives.  I know that he understands how we feel during every test and trial in our lives.  Hes there to help us and to lift us higher than we could ever imagine.  Another scripture is Alma 26:12.  In the last five months I have learned many things, one of them being just how weak and nothing I am haha.  But I know this is the Lords work and I´m simply an instrument in his hands.  I know that it is by our personal faith that determines the amount of growth and change that God can give us.  I´m just blabbering on now about nothing...but well, whats new? haha.  Oh, i forgot to mention that I was listening to my ipod the other day and suddenly the song Dream Big by Ryan Shupe came on.  I LOVE THAT SONG, and it totally made a great day even greater ha.  Anyway, I´m so so happy to hear that everyone there is doing so well.  It's so nice to be able to hear from you all every week and take a breather from the work.  I'm so grateful for all that you do for me and for the powerful testimonies of our savior that you have.  Oh, and I´m so glad to hear that Nate and Shantras' baby is absolutely adorable!  It feels weird to be an uncle now...I feel old ha.  Can´t even imagine being called "grandma" and "grandpa" ( directed to mom and dad) ;)  haha just messing padres.  anyways, the work continues on here in Parque del Sur.  Have an amazing week everyone!

Elder Winger

hey! 07/18/11 Week 24

Hello once again!

Alright, so I don´t have tons of time to write this week, because it´s a little hectic today.  I will be going to Rosario later on this afternoon because I have to go do something with my Visa......I´m not really sure what it is, but I think there are 20 of us or so that are going, so there shouldn't be a problem with it or anything.  Oh,  and I'M AN UNCLE!  Dang that's awesome.  ha ha Alena Rose Winger. that just flows.  Congratulations Nate and Shantra!!  Make sure you show her a picture of me and whisper Tanner in her ear at least for 3 hours a day so I can become her favorite Uncle ;).  Anyway, that's so awesome!  Also mom, I will be going to the mission home today so I will be able to find out if my contacts have come or not.  Also, thanks for sending part 1 of your childhood!  I was very very entertained haha and its so nice to know about your life growing up.  Also sounds like everyone is doing well at home, except the whole freaky cat experience sounds...messed up.  Also, tell Nic Winn congratulations and also Jamison as well!  Also, tell Nate Hanks that I wish I could come to his farewell but....yeah, ya know.  Anyway, this week we worked super hard here in Parque del Sur.  Me and Elder Bryce found 18 new investigators to teach, so hopefully at least some if not all will begin progressing towards baptism.  Also, here´s my experience for the week:  We were walking down a road last week and I saw a little pasillo, or alleyway?, that I felt we needed to walk down.  We began contacting, and unfortunately got rejected four times out of the 5 on the street.  Anyway, at the last house, it was already open, so as we began presenting ourselves "We are missionaries..." and before I could continue the lady just invited us in. She believed in God, but had never attended a church before.  To make a long story short, she loved the message of the restoration, she has begun reading the book of Mormon and she feels that it is true, and attended church this past Sunday!  and usually to get people to church we have to walk to their house and try to drag them out of bed ha, but she came completely on her own....oh, and she´s like 65 years old and walked probably 15 blocks.  She said she usually would ride her bike, but it had busted that morning or something......anyway,  it was such an amazing experience and another testimony builder that God has prepared many of his children here to receive the Gospel.  At church, we introduced Zulema (is her name) to one of the sisters in the ward named Hermana Bustos.  They seemed to really become great friends super quick...awkwardly quick actually ha.  we came to find out that these two older ladies had been very very good friends as children but have not kept in contact or seen each other for many years!!!  So now, they are going to read the book of Mormon at each others houses at drink mate together haha. All this happened within about 4 days haha.  Anyway, we are going to continue Zulema towards baptism!  I´m so grateful for this work and for the opportunity I have to share the gospel.  as far as my teaching skills and Spanish go........still terrible, but the Lord has manifested to me that by the power of the spirit all weaknesses can be overcome.  I truly testify that this is the Lords work and especially that the Gift of Tongues is SO REAL.  Anyway, not much time to talk, but I love you all and I pray for you many times each day ha.  I´ll let you know how the trip to Rosario goes and all.  Look out adventure, here I come.

Love you all,

Elder Winger

Oh p.s.   we had the COPA AMERICA again in town this week, and Argentina played Uruguay....unfortunately they lost.  not. a. happy. people. when. Argentina. loses.  Anyway, it was cool to be in the same town as Messi (greatest player in the world) and I actually had one of the biggest temptations of my life last week that I forgot to tell you about.  We were walking by the stadium one evening and we saw just tons of people running down the streets to get into the stadium....yet we knew that there wasn´t a game until the next game.  Turned out the Argentina national team was practicing inside and people (for free) were running inside to watch.  It was so hard not to join them haha, talk about a dream that would come true....but, we continued on as Missionaries should.  But i´ll tell you what, it wasn´t easy hahaha.  Anyway, ciao.

Escritura:  John chapter 14

EY! 0‏ 7/11/11Week 23

Hello familia!!  Here I am again, writing from Parque del Sur.  First things first, I absolutely love my companion Elder Bryce!!!  He is an absolute stud and he has already taught me so much in the 4 days that we´ve been together.  He is from Arizona and is an amazing Spanish speaker and missionary.  From the first day of this transfer we got right to work.  We are currently teaching a lady named Laura that we haven´t been able to teach for 6 weeks or so.....cuz she´s always gone!  That's one of the worst things haha, when you walk for a long time to go to an appointment and it ends up that the person is not even there, so we turn around and head to the next one...which is muy lejos haha.  but I absolutely LOVE the people and the work that I´ve been having the privilege of doing in this area.  We have a good pool of investigators that we are teaching right now, and its amazing to watch peoples lives literally change for the better as they begin to live the principles of the Gospel.  So yesterday I had quite the experience....gave my first actual talk while here in Argentina!  One of the Bishopric counselors called me on Saturday night and asked if I would give a 10 minute talk the following morning. And of course I accepted haha.  But, I didn´t have time to prepare a talk except for a couple scriptures that I looked up while sitting in my chair during the meeting....and then I just relied completely on the Spirit and faith haha.  I got up there and it definitely wasn´t a great talk, but it was a huge growing point in my mission.  The language is coming along even better now, and I´ve learned something so valuable with Elder Bryce that is going to change my mission.  Teach the people, not lessons.  I´ve always heard this phrase, but it hasn´t actually hit me until this transfer.  I´ve had experiences that have absolutely floored me when I´ve sincerely sincerely cared about the person we teach.  The moment that I rely on the spirit, sincerely listening to the investigator so that I can help them, that is when something called the Gift of Tongues has kicked in.  I know that the Lord is guiding this work and I know that as I do my best, keep the commandments, and allow myself to be changed into a better missionary day after day, the Lord will continue to perform miracles in my life and will perform miracles in the lives of the people that we have the humbling opportunity to help.  When you love the people, confide in the Lord and his work, the words of what the Lord wants to tell his children become manifest.  I´ve grown so much in the last 4 days, and I hope I can continue to become a better missionary than i was the day before.  This week we got our new mission president as well!  Presidente Giuliani!!!!!  He is an absolutely amazing man and I had the opportunity to meet him briefly at the conference that we had last week for his arrival.  He did change a couple of rules that I kind of enjoy.....we can listen to a wider variety of church music, which is awesome since I have songs on my ipod that I haven´t been able to listen to, and he is also allowing us to drink something called mate cocido.....which is a form of the infamous herbal drink of Argentina... :).  Anyway,  the work is absolutely amazing here, and I testify that this is the Lords work.  As far as the spiritual thought for the week goes, I would like you to read if you have time "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" by Gene R. Cook.  WOW!  i could quote parts of it, but I think you just have to read it to get the full effect haha.  Quick scripture is Enos verse 15.  Ive realized how important it is to sincerely pray in faith to our father in Heaven and ask him for guidance and direction.  Prayer is an act of faith, and the Lord always requires that we work for the many blessings that he is willing to grant us.  I know that our Father in Heaven answers every prayer according to his will of what is going to make us the most happy, for that is his purpose.  I love the scripture in 3 Nefi 19:24.  I know the Lord knows my needs better than even I know my needs haha.  So, one thing that I incorporate more in my prayers is to ask my Father in Heaven to help me know what to say in my prayer.  He knows us better than we know ourselves, and he will help us with any and all righteous desires that we have.  I'm also super happy to hear that Jamison will be going to the Argentina Mission!!!!!!!!!  HE IS GOING TO LOVE IT!!!!!  Well, I´m all out of time for this week, but I´ll talk to you the next.  I love you all so much and I´m so grateful family that I am going to live with you all forever!!

Con amor,

Elder Winger