"Swiper no Swiping" yes you guessed correctly, I was robbed.

 What a week! where do I start? I guess I can start with the punchline, "Swiper no Swiping" yes you guessed correctly, I was robbed. and you know? I’m a little upset, not because they took my watch, or 200 pesos, but because I didn’t personally get robbed. they robbed our Apartment! so the church hired some people to come paint our apartment because they’re getting ready to sell it or something, so the owner of this painting company has been a member of the church for a very long time. he’s very nice. so, he and his crew came to our apartment and started painting, they were all nice dudes (so we thought) so we got back to the apartment that night and we had to move everything back put stuff back in its place. we thought everything was fine but the next morning when we were getting ready. one of the elders said " I’m missing 600 Peso's (40 dollars) and so we all started looking to see if we were missing stuff. another elder was missing 500 pesos and then like I said my watch and 200 pesos. I know you aren’t supposed to want to get robbed but I was looking forward to the "stick up" the "GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY" at least a pistol whip! lol 

we’ve had a really good week, I was sick for 2 days and that an experience. I was told I looked pretty dead lol! but we are all good! I’m alive! 

we’ve been working hard as ever! we’re working with some old investigators and some new ones too! the Gospel is really flourishing down here! lots of people have been and continue to accept the gospel into their lives. it’s amazing to see the light of Christ enter these people’s lives. I’m truly grateful to be here in Argentina! I love the people that I am helping and the language that I’m learning! I won’t ever see all the blessing that come from serving a mission but I can feel that I’m making a difference in their lives and that’s enough for me! these truly are going to be two defining years! 

With much love and gratitude, Elder Rios ​​

Elder Stowell and I on the roof of the apartment (photo)

Muddy sidewalk take two!. June, 2017

I know, I KNOW, you must all be thinking" come on dude you let the side walk fool you.. AGAIN "! but in my defense, this mud is tricky man!  I was walking down the street and the sidewalk turned from sidewalk to dirt. well the top layer of the dirt had dried and it looked safe.so I took a step and it’s like I was getting pulled into another world. my foot started getting sucked into the unknown. it was making that weird gurgling noise that you hear in the movies when a car is sinking to the bottom of the ocean and the air is escaping. I had to Super Mario jump out of there. I promise if my area wasn’t scarier than west valley at midnight, I would have taken a picture of my half black half brown pants.

 this week I also had some hare meat. it was actually really good. however, I didn’t know what I had at up until we got done eating. but I think I must have felt bad about eating a bunny because that night I had a dream and it was a really nice dream but every time I would look in the corner of the room, there he was! a freaking hare just staring me down. he knew what I had done, and he wasn’t happy about it. It kind of looked like the one from the Alice in Wonderland movies. if you don’t know what the looks like look it up. it’s not a pretty sight! 

this week was good! we had 3 people come to church, 2 of them have baptismal dates and the other one woke up late and ended up making it to the last half of priesthood. his name is Raul, he’s kind like Cheech from Cheech and Chong. he’s not shy about the fact that he enjoys the occasional Dubee every now and then. did I spell that right? Dubee? that’s not a word I use very commonly. haha! we’re working on word of wisdom, he’ll get there. this week has been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work! I love feeling exhausted at the end of every night, it’s a good reminder that you gave the day your all! 

thanks for all the letter! I love hearing how you guys are doing!

Love you lots! 

Ps the other day we were on the bus and we hit this series of bumps. well we happened to be on the very back and l flew! I’m not kidding I got about 4 feet off my chair! Let’s be honest, I’m no feather, so that’s some pretty serious air! haha

 Love you guys! 

:0 Muddy Sidewalk 1: June 12, 2017

Alright so we have been doing a lot of searching for new people to teach, and we haven’t been having too much success but we have been trying our hardest. We’ve definitely been trying to make the best of every day! I know that were doing just about everything we can do to share the gospel with the people here. We have been working with the members in the ward for people they feel might be wanting to learn more about the Gospel and we have some really good leads. overall the missionary work has been nothing short of work, however, its been good work.

 I love looking for and contacting new people on the streets it gives me a chance to use my Spanish! Spanish is so cool! it’s cool being able to talk to someone in a whole other language! sometimes I’ll be talking to people and I’ll use a word i didn’t even know I knew and I’m just like " what a freaking stud" that’s basically how most of my days go. I promise I’m humble. I know it’s only because of the gift of tongue’s I’m able to speak as much as I do. but still " what a freaking stud"  

I really like the scripture 1 Nephi 15:11  its talking about prayer and how if you want your prayers answered you need to not only ask in faith but to believe in an answer. but also, another key to it is that you need to be living righteously and follow the commandments. I don’t know why I felt like I should share that but maybe one of you needed to hear that. 

I’m sure you’re wondering why the title of this email is "Elder Rios:0 Muddy Sidewalk:1" well it sounds just like it is...

I may have slipped and created a luge (without the sled) and slid down the muddy streets of Argentina.... on accident. However, to my defense the government here thinks it’s okay to make all their sidewalks with a 45-degree slant. I honestly think my companion should carry a video camera and just watch me because I really am the clumsiest person to ever walk this earth. we could make a 7-minute montage of my greatest moments. 

So, we have a man in our ward who only has one arm. I’ve met him quite a few times and he always greets us with a hug. well we went over to his house for lunch and when we walked in he was sitting down at the table so I walked over to him and I stuck out my hand to give him a hand shake and said " hermano Chavez, Como Esta? and he just kind of looked at my hand and then I looked at him like "come on shake my hand". and then he stood 

up and gave me a hug and said Elder Rios, good to see you. I felt like an idiot my companion was trying so hard to hold himself together. let’s just say lunch was a little awkward at first. ha-ha. I hope you guys find humor in this because when I left I couldn’t stop laughing at how big of an idiot I was! 

hands down this has been one of the best weeks yet (hand joke not intended) 

GOOD MEATS June 5, 2017

June 5, 2017

All right! the past week has been busy! we went down to capital so i could be legal! it was really fun! We got there at 10 am then we went and we took pictures for our Argentine ID´s and we sat there and we sat some signed some papers, sat some more and then we left and it was 5pm! then we rode the bus back and we got home at 8:55! real productive day (this is sarcasm) lol we may have also bought a whole cake for dinner! (yes, this is what happens when you don’t have parents to tell you what you cannot have for dinner) we have had kind of a dry week in terms of new people to teach, but that’s all right! we’re working on new ways to find people! next week is stake conf. so that should be pretty cool! my mission president will be speaking there! he’s really a great speaker! 

everything here is going really well! sorry nothing funny happened. I mean I’m still just as clumsy as I was at home so that speaks for itself. 

I’m sorry that I still haven’t had any photos but it’ll happen soon enough! (I think) 

have a great week guys!