feliz dia de la madre en argentina

well yesterday was mothers day here in argentina. only country in the world that i am aware of that has mothers day in october. but whatever. so with that, our numbers in church were really low. not only in the zone but in the whole mission. but it was ok we still had a pretty good weekend in the zone with 10 baptisms and confirmations. it was tough cause i had to go to mendoza twice for the meetings with the 70, and i had to go work in other areas help out some elders. and go do interviews for baptisms. on friday we were out till about midnight trying to get this family all interviewed out in the middle of the campo. but we got it done and all went well. we are doing really well and having alot of fun.

the meeting with the 70 was awesome. he is in the first quroum of the 70 and i believe will be in the 12 here in a few years. he is awesome and had alot to say and help us with. i got to work with him and do practices with him and teach everyone with him a few times. and that was a very special experience. that is cool you got a pictured of me with him, what did the note say and what did you write him back dad... he talked alot about numbers and how we can make our mission better and how it starts with us the leaders to help all the other missionaries and alot of interesting ways to bring people back to church and to get people baptized. i am excited to use the things i learned and have alot of new plans and goals for my mission that i hope to see more success. he is from brazil and his accent in spanish kinda sounds like arnold swartchiznager is speaking in spanish. it was interesting but still a ton better then my accent and my ability to speak.

i learned that our mission every month is in the top 4 in our region in baptisms. and in argentina, generally 1, 2, or 3 since january. so that makes me feel good cause i know that i had a good part to do with some of that and stuff. so that is cool. and we are still on the uprise and i hope that by the end of my mission. mendoza will be back and be respected and be at the top of our region always.

i had a good week with all of that that happened. i also went on divisions in this area called zonda. i have worked there a couple times and know it well. but they needed special helpe and so i went out there to see what i could do and see what was happening. it was awesome. its an area surrounded by mountains up in the mountains. just a little valley with vineyards and stuff. it was cool. but alot of great experiences. we put fechas and found new people to teach an just tore it up. i loved it. some awesome experiences with alot of people. i loved it.

this week is a little wierd we will have transfers this week a week early cause president is going to cordaba to see the temple get dedicated and all the elders from peru have to go cause there visa is up. so we are ending a week early. and i have no idea what will happen. i hope i stay here for two more transfers, i love it so much and dont want to leave at all. but on wednesday we will find out and on friday we will do changes. so next monday i will let you know what happened and where i went. i also got a letter from the shurtz that was nice tell them thanks. do you still get together with them.... and i got other letters and i guess about 9 of my friends are married or engaged!!!! wow that was really wierd to hear that and think about that stuff. i still cant really comprehend it to much. but whatever. all is good. sorry it is so short i got to get things going and all the argentines have to call there moms and i need to get a zone meeting planned out. but i love you and hope all is well.

con amor

elder bigelow

Dear Bigelow Family,

I wanted to send this photo of your son today in zone conference with Elder Aidukaitis (First Quorum of Seventy). Elder Bigelow was participating in some practices that the missionaries were doing, and ended up sitting there for around 20 minutes. He and his companion are doing a wonderful job, and we appreciate their great leadership here in the mission. We just wanted you to see him in action, doing his best. You should be very proud of him. We see great growth in him every time we see him. We send our love, and hope all is well back home.

Love,
Hermana Lindahl

This Week

well we had our interviews with president last monday after i got done emailing you. and WOW!!!! it was amazing!!! the spirit was so strong and the things that he said to me were and are so special to me. it was one of the most memorable and nicest things i have had in a long time.

we had a really good week this week. we had a baptism on saturday and it went really well. it was of this 16 year old kid and he is a totall capo!! he also recieved the aaronic priesthood yesterday and will be blessing the sacrament next week and has a strong desire to serve a mission. he is a real stud and am way happy for his desicion. his name is lucas. and we found him last transfer. we were walking in the streets and found his mom and stopped her after crossing back and forth on the street two or three times to stop her and talk to her. so we finally did and we started just teaching her then we got him involved and now he is baptized and we are having a harder time with the mom becasue the goes to church that is right infront of her house. she claims to have prayed and read the book of mormon and not felt anything and it is to far for her to walk to church it is just to easy for her to go infront of the house. it is a little tough. but we are still working with her and the plan is to have lucas baptize his mom here in the next couple of weeks. so we will see what we can do.

we are still working with a couple in active families and the other day we were on divisions and i was working in my own area and i found a inactive family with a ton of kids and stuff that are not baptized. but the dad wont let them get baptized. we had a super spiritual lesson with them and put a fecha to get baptized with one of the daughters that is really smart and has her head on straight. she is very intelligent and understood everything very well. but the dad said no to her coming to church and to be baptized. she is 14 so she has to have his permission. i just wanted to cry when i heard theat the next day when we went by to visit. i was so excited, then so sad. it was hard but we are going to give up. we just need to find the dad and get him to have confidence in us and realize the importance of this and for her and the family. he is not a member, nor has any interest in religion. he thinks it is all politics and we are just out campaigning for the mormon church.... really hard in the head but we will keep up the faith and see what we can do.
so on saturday at the baptism, the girlfriend of lucas came and she cried at the service then came to church and cried during the testimonies that were givin (which were way good) and now wants us to teach her to and help her. so we are really excited for that to see what we can do there and if we can help her to have this same happiness.

this week, tomorrow i go to mendoza again for a meeting with all the leaders in the mision with elder adukitis from the 70. he is one of our area authorities and is here in the mision and wants to have a meeting with all the leaders in the mision. so that will be good. kinda scared though cause i here he drops some serious cane!!! he is from brazil and he gave one of the prayers in conference so that is cool. and elder anderson from the 12 will be here soon to dedicate the ground in cordaba for the temple and might come visit our mission but we dont know for sure. so lots of excitement going around the mission right now. especially cause we are going for record breaking numbers this year. trying to baptize 1000 by the new year. and we are doing pretty well and on track. so we will see.

but all is good i miss you all and am very excited for all that is happening there with you. when do you have to plan the weeks for the house boat cause i want to go sometime when i get home... but we will talk more about that later. miss you love you take care

con amor
elder bigelow

Que supresa

wow i was not ready or expecting to hear that news!!!! so the bigelow family now has a houseboat! alright that is awesome!!! i am way excited right now. to bad i wont get to use it for a couple more years. but it is alright. i am just way excited for it now. sounds like a really fun weekend alot like mine was. with conference and the amazing spirit and testimony building experiences that there were to hear the words of a prophet of god and his apostles here on the earth today and the personal revelation we were able to recieve and answers to our prayers. it was so amazing!!!

alright so you want to know about my pension, my comp, and my investigators... well i will do my best to describe them all and give you all the information i can think of about them. i have kinda lacked on that stuff i guess and i cant really think of what to say anymore. so it is good that you have questions and thoughts of things you want to hear about and stuff so i know where to go with what i am saying now. but i did also recieve four packages. two from mom and dad, one from beccy, and one from grandma johnson. so thankyou all very much i loved it and was way excited and everyone in my pension was very jealous that i have people who love me so much. i just told them that they are now realizing how important and vital to the function of the family i was and is bribery for me.... haha but seriously thanks it meant alot!!

alright so for my pension. it is actually really nice. i like it alot. it is pretty big as well. there are four of us living in it and it is in a three story apartment building and we are on the third floor. we have hot water and a small shower that we need to squigy the floor everytime after showering but it is fine cause it is a pretty good shower. and we have a bidé in our batheroom still like all batherooms here. but i have come up with a few invention ideas for it that i may use after the mission to make my millions... and we have two bedrooms where we sleep a small bancony in my room where we can hang clothes to dry and put my comps smelly shoes out there so that the whole room does not stink up and we can smell the air fresheners i have got from beck. thanks it is coming in great use these last couple transfers with my last two comps smelly feet and shoes. and we have a way small kitchen that two at a time cant even fit in it, but we are all big guys to so that might be a problem, but it is small. and we have our study area and i have a sweet view of my area out the window right infront of my window, helps me to remember to study for my investigators and people i will see in the day. and the apartment building is orange. and that is about all i can think of for right now. but it is really nice, i would live in it outside of the mission also.

my companion, his name is elder hopkin. he is from boston. he is way cool guy. football, basketball, etc player from his school and background. he is the youngest in his family and has 14 nieces and nephews. and his family all is members and strong in the church. he went to byu before the mission for a year. is way smart and wants to be an accountant. he is a big guy also. a little bigger then me, and eats alot. he has one transfer more then i do in the mission. so six weeks more is all and is a capo. works hard and speaks very very well. most people think he is argentine or some latin descent. so that is cool. we get along great and are working well together. we could not believe president put us together becasue it was with his zone and him that i was competing with in augost to win the cup and then we got put together. our zones baptized the most in the mission last transfer we had 23 and his had 22 so we are expecting big things to happen and president is also he is expecting us to make the zone explode and this pilot program we are starting and testing out here to explode and take off from us. so we will see. really good elder and good friend for me.

in my area and the people i am teaching. we are always looking for people to teach and new experiences to have. but we have one maybe two baptisms on saturday. and teaching some really cool people. one of our investigators names is fabrisio, he is 20 years old and wants to change his life so he can get work and have a better life. he is adicted to marijuana. and we are working with him to stop that. at night he goes out and fights in the streets to get money so we are woking with him to stop that and to have a better life. he loves talking to us and is a really good guy. this kid who is 16 is getting baptized on saturday, and maybe his mom but she has some doubts about the need to be baptized again in a different church. but we are woking with them and they are really cool. we talked to them in the street last transfer and went by there house and taught them. it was funny we wanted to talk to the mom, maria is her name, but she closed the street when she saw us. so we crossed to, the she crossed back so we did also so then she stopped and said well they must have something important so say. haha it was funny so we will see if we can get her this week to or no. and now we are also teaching this kid ivan, he is from salta, and we got the reference from the salta mission it was weird but really cool to go and see what was up with him and what we could do. so we did and he is cool, a little need of confidence in the things and just really busy cause he is 20 and in school and working and doing alot all the time but wants to know more about the church so called his mormon friend in salta and told her to call us and send us. so we went, and we will see what happens there. and also we are teaching this family where the parents are members but have not been to church for 13 years and they have 10 kids and only two are baptized, so we are working to reactivate and baptize them. four came to conference over the weekend so we will see i think we will for sure get a couple atleast to come back and be baptized and stay. the dad is really pridefull and stuborn. he has a big problem with that we need to take the sacrament every week. he says it only slhould be once a month. but we will see what we can do with him. then there is our golden investigator that we have. her name is yesica. she is 19 and has a strong strong strong testimony of the church understands everything. comes every week to church reads the book of mormon and does it all just has a problem with her friends making fun of her if she is mormon and her dad wont except and will be mad if she gets baptized. so it is tough but we are woking hard with her and doing what we can. we have others, but they are not really progressing right now so we will see what we can do and we hope to find more this week and do more with them and help them to come closer to their savior.

this week was a special week. to be able to hear conference and feel of the spirit that was there. i really loved it and they talked alot about the prophet and we need to follow him and his teachings and our pride and choices we make. i loved those talks from priesthood. by monson and uchtdorf. they were ones to rembeber forever!!! my testimony was strengthened this weekend. and i want you all to know that i know that we have a living prophet here on the earth today, just think about that... what a blessing to have a mouthpiece from god to speak to us. i know that thomas s monson is a true living prophet of got and that he was called of god. i know joseph smith restored the gospel in its fullness through the gift and power of god and that through him the authority of god is on the earth again today and if excercised with faith and correctly we can work miracles. i know all this through the book of mormon i know it is the word of god and like joseph smith said through it we can become closer to god and that it is the most true book on the earth today. through this book we can know everything, if the church is true, if we have the authority, if a prophet lives today. all through reading and praying over this book. i know it is true!

i love you all and miss you. take care and your in my thoughts and prayers!!!

con amor
elder bigelow

nothin much

September 28,2010

well last week was a fun and interesting week. we did service a couple of times and that was alot of fun and i really enjoyed it. then we woked a little bit and found some cool people. but it was very limited work becasue my companion was sick all week. and we could not leave the pensh. so that was pretty tough for me to be confined inside and not be able to leave or do anything it was horrible. first time in a long long time that i have had to be inside for 24 hours and it was not just one day but it was multiple days in the week but it was alright i got some things done and i had some good talks with my comp and we got to know each other alot better and that was really good and fun exchanging stories.

i am in mendoza today for the next three days again for a zone leader counsel so i will be able to pick up my mail and things and i know that i have at least a couple packages waiting for me in the offices so i will be picking those up on wednesday i am excited about htat.

so on saturday we had to dig a foundation for a house and that was a service we did it took the whole morning and it was super hot outside. alot of hard work with shovels and picks but it was actually alot of fun!!! and on wednesday we moved a flower pot thing that was huge and that was the service that we did then and then the rest of the week pretty much we were confined to the pensh. but we like i said made the most of it.

but all and all it was an interesting week. i dont have anything else to really say sorry, just nothing happened cause we had no chances to go out and work. but conference is this weekend and i am WAY excited!! it will be alot of fun and SOOO good to hear the prophet and his apostles speak and for the members and investigators to hear as well. this is the best and strongest ward and stake i have been in in my mission. so it will be extra enlightening. i hope all is good i love and miss you take care.

con amor
elder bigelow


ps... i didnt really get robbed. it was a tree branch that hit me. haha

milagros...buenos y malos

September 20,2010

this week was a really good week. here we in a new transfer and i am still zone leader and have a new companion and he is from boston. really cool guy and we have about the same time. he has a little more then i do. but it is fun and we have a totally new zone and it is young and we are excited with the potential that we have to go and win the cup this transfer and have a really successful fun transfer together.

wednesday this week is the 22 my birthday. i will be working so dont think i will be out partying. no big deal. but just thought i would remind all of you that has wedding aniversaries and all that stuff surrounding my birthday. so that you can remember and not forget again........hahahha just joking but it will be good i have service to do and some really good appointments already planned. no one in my area knows. we are just not telling anyone.

but on tuesday last week it was morera— last day here in san juan after 9 months in the province. so it was pretty sad for him and we went and visited some of his converts. and one family, the ruiz family. they are super poor and live in this back alley way with a side path that breaks off and goes a ways back and with other houses then you get to theres in the back corner. its a little sketchy but they are awesome. we talked and visited and one of them had a headache and so they did this thing called a cucurucho... or in english it translates to cone.... i had always heard of it and stuff but never actually seen it and wanted to see it really bad. its a medical treatment that they do here.... haha they get a news paper and roll it into a cone shape and put the point generally on the head or the ear (but later found out anywhere that you have pain) and the light the big end on fire and hold it there. and when smoke starts to come out of the flame, that means that the bad air or pain is leaving your head or that part of the body. and that is the medical treatment. it is hillarious, but it is the culture. i love it. i got to see it in person and the described it to me and i got a couple pictures. there also is another one with a had a cup of water and an egg they do i am waiting to see. haha i love it its the best.

but we had an amazing week elder hopkin and i. we went by this lady that was a member reference, and when we got there we talked to her and told her that we needed to talk to her and bring more peace and joy into her life. and she started crying and told us that her son died two months ago in a moto accident. and so we got in and taught her a little bit and bore lots of strong testimony and shared tears together. and afterwards she felt alot better and had a smile on her face and told us that it was the first time in two months she had been able to have a smile on her face. it was a way good lesson and super spiritual for all of us i loved it. we didnt have a lesson planned, and we did not follow a single lesson outline, we just followed the promptings of the spirit and he guided us the way that we needed to go. super good way to start off the week.

then the other day after we had lunch and bought some stuff for the zone and to help us to verify a little better we were on our walk back to the pensh and i dunno why but i took us on a different path back one i never had taken before just to see the way it was and how it is. so we went that way and at this time there never is anyone on the streets they all are taking a nap and sfuff. but we were approached by a woman as we were passing and she stopped us and asked if we were sent by god... i thought she was drunk or something. but we told her yes and she broke down to tears and then told us that her mother had died two days ago and she had been praying to have someone from god come to help her to deal with this thing that had happened in her life. i was so shocked!!! she then asked us to pray for her and to help her and ask god to bring peace in her life and to help her to understand. so we bore testimony again and with no one at all in the street. we knelt and prayed with her and it was very special moment for all of us.... something i dont think i will forget.

so here in san juan the people are very visionary and dreamers. they have dreams of god and jesus and things all the time and it is very interesting to hear and talk about with them and this last week we heard alot of that type of things. but one that was very interesting is that this lady had a dream about 7 glowing trees that god showed her and that is was important to her. and then he showed her 7 angels that he said were his chosen. then she saw happiness and sadness in her own life. and it was interesting but my comp and i kinda explained about the seven dispensations of time and how that works and that she would be happy with the gospel or could be sad without out. not and interprtation but just trying to help how ever we could. and it was a good lesson.

and the other day the assistants came back up here and the mision is going to start a pilot program here to work and get help from the members casue we are doing so well and it is the top zone in the mission so we are going to be starting that. it was really cool. then that same night we had stake priesthood meeting and it was awesome the stake president had me come up and explain how we beat the goal we set last year to get 148 baptisms in the stake and today we have 152 that we beat it last month and are still growing on it. and so i explained that and bore my testimony and it was a really good meeting i loved it, super spiritual and reallly focussed on the youth and how they need to serve misions and go out on splits with us. which we do with some of them and it is really good lots of success and fun time for all of us.

all and all this week was a really good week and i loved it. the spirit was with us guiding us and helping us in all that we did. i need it more though and more of its help. we are trying to get inactive families reactivated and we need them to feel the spirit and more then anything our investigators and the zone to have the spirit stronger impressed on their hearts and minds. i love you all and miss you very much. have a party for me on wednesday, eat cake and celebrate cause we all know the 22 of september is the best and the favorite child was born that day... haha

con amor
elder bigelow