Update 11/3/14

¿Como Esta?

Thanks for all of the great encouragement that you give!! I really do know that the mission field is all about serving the people. The thing I am learning more and more is the fact that, in the mission the key to success and being an amazing missionary, is having the desire to do the work and be a great missionary.  You also need to have the vision of what you and your area could be and also what your investigators could be. More important than that, is ENJOYING the mission because when you enjoy the mission you have the desire to serve and also you have the vision and you have a desire to expand that vision and to push yourself. I really believe this is the key to a lot of things in life. Messi one of the greatest soccer players in the history of soccer once said "The moment I stop loving soccer I will stop playing".

With that being said I am working on enjoying the mission!! It is something that I pray for often along with the ability to love my companion and the people! I have an awesome companion and he has taught me so much. We don’t always see eye to eye on matters, but never the less he has taught me a lot and he is a good companion,

Sometimes I feel like I don't know the area and I have not memorized all the people and names. But I know that I trust in the Lord and I know that if the Lord can perform miracles he can help me feel the animos (excitement) and also the deseos (desire) and also help me preform all I need to do!!

I am learning to rely on the Lord and I have a special testimony of prayer, and also the scriptures!! and I know that the Lord will help me in his own time!!

Sometimes I feel its hard, but I know who I am! I want to be a missionary with great energy to inspire the people around me and be strong in all situations. This is one of the things I fasted for and I know if I have the faith it can happen. My patriarchal blessing talks about helping those around me and lifting them up. I can do that with animo!

Anyways I love you all so much and I am so happy Mom that your birthday was amazing I love you all so much, let me know for next week what you would like to know!! And also don’t send the package it will make it here but it will be very expensive

Love you all. Have a wonderful week.

Elder Sandberg

Hola! 10/28/14

¿Como esta mi familia? (How is my family?)¡Estoy muy agradecido por la cosas bien en la casa! (I am so glad things are going well at home!) También te doy gracias para este oportunidad de servicio para el Señor.(I am also grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord.) El es nuestros mejor amigo y el siempre quiere dar nosotros bendiciones! (He is our best friend and always wants to give us blessings.) Su propósito is para ayúdanos ser mejor y disfrutar ese vida!! (His purpose is to help us be better and enjoy this life.)

Haha sorry mom about the horrible spelling.  I always have to write really fast!! But yeah I am really trying to pray and get lost in the work! And It has been working! 

Tell Nick (Foster) he is awesome I hope he recovers soon and I am glad to hear a little from him!! We really have some great investigators Nancy is doing awesome. She is going to be baptized on the 8th of Noviembre (November)!  She also has a little son named Jesus who is 8 years old and wants to be baptized as well!! On top of that we have a lady named Natalia who is amazing and truly has a desire to know the misterios (mysteries) of God! she is going to be baptized on the 6th and Jesus on the 8th   They are so awesome and we love teaching them!

The area is awesome! Its starting to become summer over here and is getting hotter!! Today my companion and I hiked up this trail and that was fun so we will get some pictures of that!!

I will be thinking about you mom on your birthday!! You are the best and I love you soo much!! 

Danielle (LeFevre) I am so happy and Excited for you and your choice to serve, it will be one of the greatest blessing in your life, my advice to you in this moment is read and study the words of the scriptures and the prophets just set an hour aside each day like in the morning from 7-8 or in the night and just study read ponder pray and keep a study journal. Also when you get out on the mission stay firm to who you are, don't rationalize with the rules and doing what’s best. Always be true to who you are and remember that there will be hard days but remember you can do it.  Focus on the people, and pray for love for them always!! When you bare this with patience the Lord will bless you with success!! :)

Thank you my family. I love you with all my heart!!  Danielle you are amazing I look up to you!! 

Until next week 

Elder Sandberg

To my Family and Friends

¡Hola mi familia y mi amigos! (Hello my family and my friends) ¿Como estan?(How are you?) ¿Cual es nuevo en sus vidas? (What is new in your lives?) 

        Typical Street I walk in my area in the city of Salta.

Wow there is so much I could tell you!!! I will start with our investigators. First we have Nanci who is an amiga (friend) of  the Familia Florez!! (the familia Florez are converts as of 4 months ago and they are amazing! They prayed about the book of mormon and got an answer and their whole family was changed forever!! The parents used to drink a lot and the father wasn’t very good but they completely changed and now their whole family is stellar! The father and mother are kind and full of life and caring!!) Anyway Nanci is awesome she is about 38 and is hungry for the gospel and change in her life. She is friends with Dina Florez (the mother and they are about the same age) and yesterday we bore our testimony of José Smith challenged  her to read the introduction of the book of mormon and pray about it!!  We are so excited for her! She saw the change in the live of the Familia Florez and wants the same for her family!

Next we have Gonzolo Gonzalez who had all of the leciones (lessons) except one, la lay de castidad (the law of chastity), and so we taught him and he want to get baptized!! He is actually a referral and he is just out of our area so we are setting him up to be baptized with the missionaries in his area!! He is stellar and has such a great spirit!! He is 20 years old!!

Also we have a investigator named Brenda who is 28 and is awesome she just needs to have a spark in the gospel and then she can build her testimony from there!!

This week was kinda weird my companion was sick for a day so I made the best of the day and cooked some Mate ( a popular drink here in Argentina I like it but its basically boiled grass clippings) and I did a study of Doctrine and Covenants and I got in 2 work out sessions and cooked some brownies for my companion!

Anyway, You guys are awesome I would love to hear whats up and whats going on In your lives I hope you have the best week 

Until next time!!

Elder Sandberg!!

(This is an additional letter sent to Brennen. He is Nico's youngest brother.)

Brennen,

I want you to know that I love you and I am so glad that you are having a wonderful time at school!!! :) I miss YOU so much and I want you to know I talk about you I tell people how cool my brother is and how smart and thoughtfull he is!!

I'll tell you Brennen there is a lot of darkness here in Argentina. A lot of the people here don't live very happy lives because they don't have the gospel in there lives and they are lost and confused!! But with the scriptures and the help of family we can have that light in our lives.

Think about how much your mommy daddy and kaden have helped you!! They love you so much!! I want you to know that I am doing well and trying to do what God wants me to do because God knows us so well. He knows us the best!! :) I hope you have a wonderful week Brennen and if you have any questions about here and what it is like just ask me!! :)

I love you Brennen so much, you are so amazing and special!! and a good example to me!! :)

Love your brother forever Elder Sandberg

Conference Edition.

Dear Family I am so Happy!!!! :) I just barely got a hair cut and I feel refreshed and awesome from the conferencia este fin de semana!! It was absolutely amazing they actually had an English room for all of us gringos!! The Spanish is coming along and I am not letting anything get me down!! I am so so so so so thankful for the counsel and the testimonies of the Savior!! If I had one piece of advice for you all it would be to please please please study, listen to, and most importantly read the talks again and create a study journal in which you record, not necessarily the words of the prophet but the spiritual promptings in which you receive!!! Please please please don't ever be satisfied with where you are spiritually, always strive to be closer to the Savior by studying the scriptures daily have a specific time that you read PERSONALLY each night as well as as a family!! Strive to gain a personal testimony of the Savior and Joseph Smith have the desire to study and ponder on these things and you will find as you study, and pray, and sincerely ask the scriptures as well as talks, may I suggest 30 min of scriptures and 30 of the living prophet, I know that if you do these things you will be blessed and you will have happiness and questions and problems you have in your life will become clear!! Please please do this pray for the desire to want and be hungry for this and It will bless your life forever!! I love the talk that had the question "am I doing all that I can to receive all the blessings of my patriarchal blessing?" or to live my life to the fullest serving those around me and being happy?

I love you guys so much!! Now let me tell you about my area!! In this area there is so much potential we have a woman named Nanci who is awesome!! She truly has a desire to learn about the gospel but her husband doesn't like the gospel he has not given it a chance and he doesn't want her having anything to do with it! But we are taught that God never leaves us alone and if she truly does have a desire and exercises faith, the God that created heaven and Earth will create a way for her to be able to join the church and receive the blessings!! We have a lot of people that say they want to and I think they do truly want to to a point but they don't put forth the work instead of doing the small things we ask them to do to help them build their faith, they come up with excuses. My family, please never let this happen to you Being a part of this church in this day requires a consistent effort to renew your faith and conviction lest you fall and satin gets to you and you loose sight of the truth!! With God scripture study doesn't have to be a sacrifice. Again, I say pray for the desire and the Lord will help you want it with all your heart!! There is something else I would like to say concerning keeping the commandments. I have a testimony that keeping the commandments and making an effort to renew yourself can be easy and fulfilling. This is something I didn't understand very clearly before the mission. This and the fact that Jesus can help us have desire!! I had to gain a personal conviction by living and on a consistent basis using the atonement to try and improve for the day or week!! I bare testimony that true happiness lies in keeping the commandments and evaluating what you are doing to try harder and do a little better!

I want to end by saying once again how much I love you all and I think about you all!! Please can you get me Sammy's email and Adams email tambien. I want to write you all individually!! also could you get me Elder Wilson's email, and tell Kathy I think she is awesome!

I had the opportunity to share family photos of my camera with people and they all said how beautiful my family was and how gorgeous my mom is!! (Love you MOM!!!) :) send me pictures of the family by mail so I can show people!! :) Love you all and TELL Crystal I love her and I know she is going to make a difference in so many lives!! Cant wait to hear all about her farewell, love you

Have an amazing week!! 

ELDER SANDBERG 

Hola from the heart of the city of Salta!! :)

Walking the Streets of Salta

I am right now in the heart of city of Salta, in a cyber, which is a internet cafe there is some crazy Argentinian rap playing! Everything is so different!! My area is all pretty much city we basically have two areas portezuelo uno y dos, half of it is rich and and very lindo (cute, or enchanting) and the other half is very poor! They basically have left over bricks and rocks and wood planks for their house! and blankets and left over posters for doors! My compañeros name is Elder Edwards from California, with his glasses he kinda looks like Clark Kent. They call us Elder Kent, and they call me Elder Capitán America! The members are very nice and have so much faith! We work a lot with the members a familia Florez(who are recent converts) and are just awesome!! a boy named Maxie who is about 15 and is a Kappo (stud or boss) and also Simon (who served his mission in chile). He is about our age and is very much a kappo also!! 

Elders Edwards and Sandberg
(Elder Clark Kent and Elder Captain America)

We have to be careful though cause there are a lot of "snakes" everywhere even in our ward!!! I love the area though the people are so nice and accepting!! The food is great! there are a lot of empanadas! and Pasta which I love!! :) As far as the language I am so grateful for the prayers of my family!! I can now pretty much understand most of what people are saying and respond in my broken Castellano!! :P :) Its great though I don't let myself get discouraged because I know if I am doing everything I can on my part the lord will do the rest and Carry me!! :) I just had one time this week where for about a half an hour I was just like!!! AHHHHH, but I prayed and read the scriptures and It was better!! Sometimes you just need to take on your mountain one step at a time!! I am also convinced That Goals and Planning is so Important and that is something I am becoming better at!! My companion described it this way! Once you climb one hill(one goal) there is another and another after that, but little by little you are climbing higher and becoming better!! :) 

We have had some pretty funny experiences!! One time this guy comes out of nowhere and he is smoking a cigarette  and he has tattoos and he obviously chews also! and he has this shirt that says "football, beer, women" and he says I want to come to your church where and what time is it?? It was great! I only have five minutes left but I want to bare my testimony to you!! 

I know this church is true and I know that God loves us and has a plan for all of us!! I know that when we read the scriptures and turn our hearts unto god in prayer, God will bless us help us to become better!! We will be able to do more than our mortal bodies are capable of doing!! "God can do more with a humble and obedient soul than a person can with just pure talent"!!! Please know that I love you all soo much, you all have made a difference in my life and I am better because of you all!! Please, my family, know that I keep you next to my heart and I pray for you I love you so much!!! Please share this word and this gospel with others and look and pray for opportunities to serve!! We are so blessed to have this gospel in our life!!! It is amazing I am so thankful for the power of the priesthood, I had the opportunity to give my first blessing in castellano this week, I am thankful for the opportunity and the spirit that was there!! 

Have an amazing week and I will talk to you next week!! :)

With love from Salta!

Ok so I am going to start from when I landed!!! It was very rough and I almost lost my lunch. We could not see anything but gray clouds all around us!! But we finally made it!!!

We had to take a bus into the airport because we there was not enough room for our plane! On top of that there was a strike at the airport and nobody was working so we had to wait for about 4 hours, but we talked to this awesome guy who told us all about the money and the "blue dollar".

After that we got the opportunity to see Buenos Aires for a little visit the Buenos Aires temple (but not go in) and visit the MTC here!! We tried some great food!! Then we met the President and I love him he speaks Spanish and English perfect!! He doesn't even have a Spanish accent!! It has been awesome here I love the people and everything!! 

I want to bare my testimony!!  I love the gospel and I love the people!! I am so grateful for the opportunity God gives us with the gospel! The gospel is so beautiful!! I wish I could convey the importance and the wonderful blessing that the gospel means!! But I know that the Lord has a way of preparing his people!! And, even though we are the only two Elders in basically 2 areas(Portezuelo 1 y Portezuelo 2) God can and will help us find the people he has prepared for the gospel!! I am so grateful for the blessing of families and Christ's atonement, The gospel is so wonderful and powerful it can change even the vilest of sinners and the hardest of hearts and save them for eternity. Knowing this has been the happiest thing and It brings me joy everyday!! I love you so much my family I hope you all have the best week and I cant wait to hear from you next week!! 

Me and my comp with some of the sisters from the MTC

My first area

LAST WEEK IN THE US

So excited to Go out into the Field, Its going to be so amazing! This week has been great with the travel plans and Just trying to get as much studying as we can done!!! The next time you guys hear from me will be in Argnetina I am very excited!! :) 

Love you all and I hope you guys have the best week where every you are!!

Until next time! :)

Elder Numbers is a Kappo (Stud, Boss, ect)

Just some of the District
Awesome day for the temple!

Your going to rock it Elder Miles! :D