AJ's email from 10/29/2012

       this was one of the longest weeks ever. first of all, the weather finally went back to how it normally should be at the end of october here, which means that it got crazy hot very quickly out of nowhere. and that just happened to come in the week where god decided to test us and see how much we could take. literally thats how i felt about this week too. i dont think i have ever had a week in the mission where ive had so many things fall through in the same week. we literally had around 20 appointments fall through. and its not like we just went and they werent there. most of them were cases where we called the night before to confirm and they said yes and then an hour before or even as we got to their house, they tell us that they cant or that they dont have any time. it  was just tough and that left us walking around a lot in the hot sun doing contacts. thats probably why im so tired this week.

       thursday we did divisions with amengual so i was with elder langford in their sector who got here last change. it was weird being with a greenie all day which is something that i havent done in the whole misson. just having to teach so much more cuz he didnt understand everything and just seeing the look on his face as he tried to get everything that was being said. it was just funny. but it was also cool to be around him and all the energy that he has to do everything. i had kinda forgotten what it was like to get here to the field and just have that "want to do everything" feeling. cuz i havent really felt that in over a year. then at night in the pension it was really cool cuz it was 4 gringos and 2 of them are greenie so we had a lot of fun messing around and talking. im pretty sure we stayed up til around 1 in bed just talking about lots of different stuff.

       saturday was just the worst day of the week. on a normal saturday here since i got here, we usually teach about 8 lessons which is pretty good. so we are always just busy and get into a ton of houses. and we usually do divisions with some people from the ward to be able to get to more houses. but this week, like 15 min before, the people we were gonna do divisions with failed. then one by one, all the lessons fell through tell the end of the night when we got into the last house. and on top of that it was the hottest day of them all. it was just terrible and i couldnt help but laugh as it all happened cuz it was just a feeling of disbelief that everything failed. but like i said, i hope that it was just one of those weeks that we have even now and then and that this week things will get back on track.

     sunday was just more of the same. we had planned on our ward council taking up 3 hours of our day, so when they announced in church that it was being postponed til next week, elder nilsen and i couldnt help but look at each other and laugh at how bad our luck was this week. but church was shortened this week cuz chile had their elections that day (dont ask me why they do it on a sunday) so they cut it down to just sacrament meeting so that everyone could go vote.

       anyway i hope that everyone is doing well and will have a fun and safe week. take care. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

AJ's email from 10/22/2012

After the announcement in conference about the change of age eligibility for missionaries, Seth began going to Mission Prep with Nate. The class suddenly grew from an average of a couple dozen to 60 prospective missionaries. Multiply that by every stake in the world...the gospel is truly rolling forth...and rolling down hill!

      this week was another crazy week to this crazy change. im just glad that its finally over and that we can get back to normal things and normal weeks again. although the weather doesnt seem like its gonna follow that pattern and is just gonna stay crazier than ever. last year it was crazy hot at this time and not a single drop of rain. but this year, its like we are going back into winter again. it was really cold and windy last night and it rained almost all day and night. but that was cool cuz we woke up this morning and the air was clearer than i have seen it in my 20 months in the mission. its amazing.

       monday night we found another pretty good family although this one is very, VERY catholic. it was actually kinda awkward at the end of the lesson. cuz we wanted to leave them with a prayer and so we asked who would say it and the 18 year old son, felipe, offered. so he started out with the catholic cross and then some other different stuff. it was just weird for us cuz we didnt know what to do. so we just sat there and respected them. but they are a good family that could do well if they follow through with the things that we ask them to do.

          thursday was a weird day cuz we had changes. normally its on tuesday but this change was different cuz president has a mission president seminar today and tomorrow in argentina. and also because of what happened on friday but ill talk about that in a second. but anyway it was a nice meeting cuz we got to wake up in the morning like normal and go without luggage and then come back without anything too. so it was all just tranquilo. the funny thing though is that elder alcaraz is in my zone now so its gonna be funny being his zone leader after being his comp. 

          then friday was the great day of the week and one of the most memorable ones of the whole mission. we had to be in republica to listen to....wait for it.....elder david a bednar of the quorum of the 12. it was just an awesome devtional overall and i learned so much. i recorded it with a voice recorder and i wanted to send it to you all to listen to but the files are too big to go through. so we´ll just have to listen to it together when i get back from the mission....which by the way is now only 4 months away. but the devotional started out with a special musical number by someone pretty famous. i got to meet him as elder archuleta but most of you will know him as david archuleta. he is serving in the chile rancagua mission and they came with us to the devtional so  he sang. he sang im trying to be like jesus but in spanish and it was really good. i thought he started out a little shaky but i mean who wouldnt having to sing in front of 350 missionaries, 2 mission presidents, a first quorum 70, and an apostle. so i thought it was good for the circumstances. so then elder bednar started talking and it was cool cuz he started out by joking around about how there is a bad tradition in the church of writing down whatever the speaker says when those notes most of us wont ever use and in 3 weeks cant even find. so he told us to write down things that we felt and thoughts that came. and he was just joking around for like the first half hour while also kinda teaching. and the way he taught was just amazing and helped show us how we should teach. and he talked a lot about faith and prayers. and how we have to act according to our faith and not just ask for things to come. it was really special. then at the end he bore his testimony and it was so powerful. just before giving it, he talked about how a testimony should be, without the stories and the fluff. a pure testimony is just what you know and feel. its testifying.

        before we went though, we had to study 2 talks by him from past conferences. im gonna attach the one that i thought was better cuz it also talks about what members should do in helping out missionaries. but i just want to say one phrase that stood out to me, and that is "missionaries are full time teachers, you and i are full time finders." i just wish that more people here in chile would realize that and fulfill their calling in doing that so that we could teach more. but we have to get there.

       anyway i hope that everyone is doing well and that everything is good. take care

Elder  AJ Mlazgar

Alma 32:21     2 Nephi 26:8

AJ's email from 10/08/12

After opening Nathan's mission call this weekend and then hearing the announcement lowering the eligibility ages for missions, I feel like I have emotional whiplash. While our sons and daughters have to be willing to "Go Where you Want Me to Go, Dear Lord"...the moms have to be willing to emotionally go where the Lord would have us go. After conference, I feel ready to face the challenges the next 8 months will bring as my home develops a missionary revolving door.  

         this week was crazy, mostly just for the weekend though so im just gonna skip to that part to write about cuz nothing really happened before. first off i just want to say that the weather here is going crazy. last year at this time it was so hot that we could easily walk around in short sleeves all day long and still be kinda warm at night. and it was obvious that summer was starting. this year its so cold that we still can wear jackets all day and not get too hot. last year it didnt rain after the first week of september until around march. this year, it rained this entire past weekend. the rain started friday morning early and literally didnt stop until late late last night. its insane although im not complaining cuz i will enjoy it before it gets hot.

        friday we had whats called "zone leader council" where all the zone leaders get together in presidents house to talk about the mission and how we did the last month. so we had to get up an hour and a half early to get ready and get to La Reina in the east mission at 9 in the morning where presidents house is. it was a really fun meeting too. the first thing that we do when we get there is eat breakfast. so we had scrambled eggs and french toast with a yohgurt. then we go upstairs to give an account about the numbers in the mission. and so we go through each zone showing the graphs and how we are doing. after that we have a snack which was a fruit cup. then president takes time to give us a new iniciative for the mission to try and improve things. but this time we didnt get an iniciative, we got something that is going to be a complete change and how we work. i would explain it but i still dont entirely understand it completely yet and its way long. but i think it will help us a ton if we do it correctly. then after that we have lunch which was an american hamburger with cheese, lettuce, tomatoe, and mustard. it was so good cuz that kind of thing doesnt really exist here. and then we just go back upstairs to talk about things we can work on as a mission. it was really fun.

         saturday was general conference but it was so crazy trying to get to the first session. first off cuz it was raining. then when we got to the stake center, it was like 20 minutes til it started and we didnt see hardly anyone there. so we asked one of the stake leaders whats up and he told us that with the rain, the power had been cut out somewhere close and that they were working on it but that it would be safer to go somewhere else until they got it back. so then we had to take the bus again to go over to republica cuz that was the closest stake center. so cuz of that, we got there 20 min late for the first session. when we got there, we asked what we had missed and the other missionaries we like "oh nothing big, just the fact that they changed the age to go on a mission" and we just freaked out. i honestly cant believe that they changed it. the one for guys doesnt seem that weird cuz its been 18 for mexico and chile for a while now so it makes sense in the whole world. but for girls going at 19, that sucks for me cuz its gonna take out some of the girls from the dating pool when i get back lol

         then on sunday i watched conference in spanish cuz i stayed to sit by our investigators that had come and also cuz daniela (our good investigator from parque subercaseaux) came to visit me. its just not the same in spanish though as it is in english. you still learn the same teachings that they want to teach but the spirit is just different. its different hearing the voice directly from the prophet than hearing some translator that just speaks kinda like a robot. so it was a good experience for the mission but i probably wouldnt do it again after if i had the choice.

           i dont know if i really had a favorite talk but there was just one phrase that stood out to me more than anything else and its probably cuz im a missionary. and that was when elder holland said (and i listened to it in spanish so im translating from what i remember) that when in baptism we say having been commissioned of jesus christ, that authorization doesnt just last for 2 years but should be for a lifetime. that moment in life shouldnt just convert the person being baptized but also the one baptizing them. being here in the mission for me, ive been able to see that. especially with so many return missionaries here that go inactive afterword and you just ask yourself, did they not learn anything on their mission? obviously no one is perfect and has to make their own choices but it just seems illogical to serve a two year mission teaching about all this stuff and then not follow through with it after when your own life is on the line.

         but anyway i hope that everyone enjoyed conference and that you are all doing well. take care

Lunch on Sunday

Elder  AJ Mlazgar

Alma 32:21     2 Nephi 26:8

HC room - Conference in English

Bonding between sessions :)

NATHAN'S MISSION CALL CAME!!!!!

If you have 2 minutes, watch Nate opening his mission call...  

(if you don't have the time, scroll down for the big news!)




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Nathan has been called to the Florida, Tampa Mission, English Speaking and will report to the MTC on November 28th. YAY...its going to be a whirlwind 7 weeks!!!

AJ's email from 10/01/12

Nathan's call didn't come Friday or Saturday as we expected. But the Bishop looked online and told us that the status of his mission call is that Salt Lake has assigned him a mission and the papers were mailed out on Friday. We will have one AWESOME family home evening tonight opening his mission call...hopefully. (My husband reminded me something about chickens and hatching.)

       this week was just a solid week working. its been great having such a good change up til now as far as the people we are teaching and the lessons that we have and just everything. i never really understood before why the zone leaders always had better numbers than everyone else and i always just thought it was cuz they were in the best ward of the stake and their sector was just better. but now im starting to understand that it really does have a big impact the missionaries that are in the sector and how they work. cuz i feel like it goes so much better and easier when we both know well how to do everything and what it takes to have success and just work together. its amazing how much better the work goes.

      tuesday we had a long talk with one of our investigators who has to get married so that they both can get baptized. and we talked a lot about eternal life just so he knows why he needs to get married. and while we talked, he kept saying that he doesnt really want eternal life cuz he doesnt want to live forever cuz he thinks that he will just get bored. but its cuz he didnt understand that we will have everything that we enjoy from this life without all the bad stuff so it will just be perfect. and that he wont ever get bored cuz he will still be able to do all the things that he enjoys from now. so then he understood better but still wouldnt commit to do anything like marriage yet. but it made me realize just how few people really understand eternal life

       then wednesday we had a meeting with the stake president. thats one of the perks of being zone leader is that we can meet straight with him and tell him what things are going bad in the wards as far as missionary work and what we need from him so that the members help us more. and it was an interesting meeting, especially cuz pres king came. and so the stake pres seemed pretty nervous the whole time. but he seems like a good guy although he is way to concerned with how he looks

        thursday we had a capacitacion especial in maipu and we talked about how to set a baptismal date with someone. cuz we have had that number go way up over the last year but the number of baptisms stays the same. so we talked about how we have to wait til the person has felt something before committing them to baptism cuz if not, they are gonna understand and really prepare themselves for the day that we put.

        saturday was a really good day for us. first we set a baptismal date with a guy named segundo thats from one of those good families that we found my first week. he told us during the lesson that the night before we got there, he had a dream that god wanted to tell him something. and then the next day we knocked his door. it was one of the coolest things that ive heard in the mission and every missionary dreams of that kind of situation. so i think that he really could make it to his date at the beginning of december.

       overall it was just a really solid week for us and im having fun working here with elder nilsen. im really kinda glad now that i had changes and came here this change even though i was nervous about it before. i hope that everyone is doing well there and finished september well. take care

Elder  AJ Mlazgar

Alma 32:21     2 Nephi 26:8

AJ's email from 9/24/12

Just a quick note about AJ's younger brother Nathan. His mission papers were submitted to Salt Lake a week ago so we are checking our mailbox every day! Watch for another blog this week if we get Nate's call. Exciting Times!! 

      trunky papers are what every missionary gets with about 5 months left in the mission. it asks things like your parents names, your ward and bishop, and where you will be flying into. its called trunky cuz it makes you think about your "trunks" or luggage, which makes you think about home and your family and all that. i got those papers this week. i just felt wierd too cuz it was what made me finally realize how little time i have left really. these next 5 months will fly by.

       tuesday was the chilean independence day so our ward had a big party. there was lots of food, lots of people, lots of dancing, and a lot of fun. presidnt gave us, the missionaries, 4 hours to be there and enjoy everything. i realized though that i had to have one 18th to fully enjoy this one. cuz this time i understood better everything that was going on. we started with eating and the meat was great. i ended up eating so much meat and salad that i couldnt walk for an hour or so. then after they played some games like sack race and tug o war. elder nilsen and i did the sack race. then after that they did the dances and some others sang. i loved being there and its sad it'll probably be my last time ever doing that.

          wednesday we did divisions so i went to the sector of amengual with elder enamorado. i had fun cuz it was like being back in republica again with him. we get along pretty well. friday was a long day cuz we had to wake-up an hour early to go to a zone conference in maipu that started at 8. we got taught by elder esteban resek, an area seventy from argentina. he talked to us a lot aout working through the members and knowing the members situations better to help our investigators. but he also talked about how we have to help them share the gospel more with their friends so that they give us references. thats how it works in the states now and they have tons of success. they dont do contacts, they just ask members for references. whereas here for us the standard of excelence is 140 contacts a week cuz we dont get any references. but we have to build up the members so that one day missionaries in chile wont have to do contacts.

         friday night we went to see miriam, juan, and their daughter tiare, the ones we found last sunday. they are absolutely amazing! they had read what we left and had tons of questions for us to understand everything better. and miriam said the prayer again this time at the beginning and it was amazing. she says better prayers than lots of members that i have met. its crazy but i like it. so we answered all their questions and then taught about the plan of salvation and everything went better than we had hoped and then at the very end we invited them to church and they committed very firmly to going. which they did do and stayed the whole time yesterday. and it was great how our ward just took them in and made them all feel welcome.

         saturday we found a good family also, mostly the son who is 23 but the mom was there too. in his doorway we talked about how god has a plan for him and he told us about how he has been having a hard time lately cuz lot of things have happened to him. and that he will be going to washington soon to work cuz he has a cousin or something there. but we got into his house and talked to him more and he told us that he didnt know why he let us in cuz last time he let religious people in, they robbed him. but that he felt different with us. and it was good talking to him and he was really interested in what we have to share with him and how it can help his life. so we will go back there on thursday.

         yesterday was a crazy day too cuz we had so much to do. we had 27 contacts left to make our goal for the week. and to put that into perspective, 20 contacts is having a good day working a full 7 hours. and we got to around 730 with only 3 contacts on the day. so i just thought there was no way we would make it. but we just started talking to EVERYONE in the street. then at 9 we had a cita that was a good lesson but we still needed 5 more contacts. we got out of that house at 1015 and had to be in the house at 1030. so i told elder nilsen it was a good run and we were close but we just didnt make it. but he refused to go inside unless we made our goal. so we found 5 more people to contact and somehow made our goal for the week. it was crazy but i felt good about doing it.

         the only sad thing from yesterday is that someone in our retention (the people who have been baptized in the last 2 years) had been sick. about 9 months ago he had a stroke before being baptized and he is about 70 years old. and last night we found out that he had had another stroke and was in critical condition last night in the hospital. so we are gonna see if we can go by there tonight and give him a blessing or something. but i hope that he gets better.

          i hope everything is going well for everyone and that everyone is doing well. have a good week

Elder  AJ Mlazgar

BE GOOD OR BE GOOD AT IT

Alma 32:21     2 Nephi 26:8

AJ's email from 09/17/2012

AJ and E. Nilsen

     this has been a good week for me. getting back into a sector where we have some success and having a comp that helps and that i can have fun with is gonna help me. so im sure youre all wondering where im at after changes last week. i got sent to a zone in maipu called cinco de abril. its in the northern part of maipu. and my sector is called pajaritos. its a sector of just pure houses and houses and more houses which is nice cuz its my first sector like that. my comp is actually someone that i mentioned a couple weeks ago. hes the one that will be flying back to arizona with me cuz his parents are in the tucson mission. his name is elder nilsen. we´ve had fun this first week together and i can tell that he is gonna help me be better. another thing, just for those who dont know. im now zone leader. and that means that im in charge of other missionaries and making sure that they are doing what they should. the mission is divided into sectors, with a companionship of 2 missionaries in each sector. then you have 3 or 4 companionships in a district, 2 or 3 districts in a zone. and there are 12 zones in the mission. so we have 16 missionaries in our zone and me and my comp have to make sure that they are working hard and everything is alright.

AJ, Camela & E. Alcaraz

        so monday night i finished saying bye to people. first we went to camila, our investigator. she was sad that i was leaving but she understood and knows why since she has been investigating for almost 3 years now. the best part was that i had her write in my book where everyone writes and after i read what she put. it was special because she said she was grateful that i came on the mission and that she thinks she found her testimony in that really strong lesson we had a couple weeks ago. and that she wants to get baptized, maybe not right away but soon. after that we had a small noche de hogar for my other good bye. it was with paul (our ward mission leader) and his wife, 2 girls named yaris and valentina that are cousins, and then daniela. we just had a short message and then played games and talked the whole time. i had fun and im gonna miss those 5 most from the ward. saying bye to daniela was especially tough cuz weve gotten really close these last couple months and ive helped her witha  lot. and so im gonnna be worried now that im not there to help her. i just hope she keeps progressing and doing what she should.

AJ playing Jenga...or whatever they call it in Chile

          tuesday was just more about getting to know the sector. and is was only half the day cuz around 6, president sent us a text saying we needed to be in thge house before dark cuz it was that day where the youth go out and cause trouble and its dangerous. our sector was alright pretty much but its cause we are so close to one of the worst parts of santiago called villa francia.

          wednesday was a little more of working and getting into everything. going out in the morning and working, doing contacts and everything. we had our meeting with the ward mission leader in the church that night too so i met several people from the ward. we have a decent sized ward here cuz the average attendance is around 150 and the building is normal sized too. so thats a nice change after being in parque subercaseaux

AJ and Spiderman

          thursday and friday were good days too cuz we found a couple new good families. on thursday we found a family who is the dad, mom, and daughter. (segundo, louisa, and delicia) they were good and interested and on saturday we went back to teach them the first lesson and the daughter had read the pamphlet that we left and everyone payed attention and was involved. that was good. and on sunday segundo and delicia came to church which is one of the first times that i have found news and then them come to church that first week. it was exciting to see that.

          then finally on sunday i met the whole ward and the bishop and everyone. our bishop seems really good and like he knows how to work which isnt very common down here so thats nice. sunday night was really good though. we found another family that seem like some of the best ever. the mom, miriam, isnt very religious but she had a lot of questions and was really interested in everything. and at the end she was excited to say the prayer and said one of the best first prayers that i have ever heard in the mision. it was incredible. and her husband, juan, is pretty good too cuz he had even more questions than she did. so im excited to start working with them and i hope that they start progressing quickly.          basically thats it for this week. im happy to be in a good sector again where we can have success and have fun and work hard. i think that it will be a good way to end the mission, assuming that i should end here. i hope that everyone is doing well. take care

E.Alcaraz, Paul, AJ

Daniela playing Jenga

Yaris, Valentina, Paul & Yessenia

 Saying goodbye at the Noce de Hogar

Yessenia, Yaris & Valentina w/AJ

AJ's email from 9/10/12 & 9/3/12

That's right AJ...ran TOWARD the gunshots! Its a miracle there aren't more incidents involving missionarires. Those guardian angels sure have their hands full!! 
  

     this weeks email is gonna be kinda short due to the fact that i have changes and have to pack all my stuff. i wasnt expecting it really but at the same time im not entirely surprised cuz i knew that either one of us could go. the good thing though is that im moving up to zone leader. president king called me saturday night to tell me  that so im gonna have even more responsibility and even less time lol but i know that ill be able to handle it and that it will be good for me so that i can keep getting better. it`ll also be nice cuz my companion will be a zone leader also so ill have someone that i can teach with and rely on to help with everything instead of having to make sure everything gets done on my own. its gonna be nice. the only thing im worried about is where am im gonna go. im pretty sure that every single zone has changes in the zone leaders so i could end up anywhere. although im not gonna lie i wouldnt mind  going to the coast and finishing the mission there.
      the other interesting things from the week now. monday, we were walking home to the pension late at night. and from about a block away from where it was happening, we heard people yelling, "they`re robbing, they`re robbing" so obviously being 20 year olds, we hurried up to see if we could see what was going on. we got to the corner of the street and as soon as we did, we heard a car screach as someone hit the gas peddle of a car. so we stood there and watched as they drove off. about 3 seconds after they had started, we heard gun shots. so we hid behind the corner, and overall we heard about 5 gun shots. it was pretty intense. so we just stayed where we were for a few minutes til things died down. and all that happened in the richer and nicer part of our sector.
        wednesday we had the assistants in the district meeting and that  was fun cuz ive always gotten along well with elder merchan. its weird that he is going home today though, along with about another 20 missionaries. and after the meeting i did divisions with elder martinez and had a fun day with him. he is pretty funny.
       other than that though it was just a normal week. im nervous and excited for changes tomorrow but i know that it will be something good for me and that really i probably needed it to start over again and get a little more energy heading into the last few months of the mission. i hope that everyone is doing well. take care


Last week's email from 9/03/12
     its never fun being sick in the mission cuz you dont have anyone to take care of you but yourself really. at least while i was in el monte i had hna aida to help me out a little. but the end of this week, being sick with a runny nose, a fever, and a sore throat just made it not great. i just hope that what im taking will work quickly and the weather will stop being so bipolar so that i can recover quickly.
       on monday last week we went to visit  family that the wife has been a member her whole life and the guy got baptized about a year ago. they havent gone to church in the whole time that ive been here. and from what we had heard from the ward it was just cuz she is pregnant and has a hard time getting up in the morning with that. but while we were talking to them, they told us more of the real reason why they havent been going. she admitted that a part of it is cuz of the pregnancy, but more its cuz they just dont have any friends in the ward. and so we shared about the importance of taking the sacrament but apparently they just dont understand very well cuz they didnt come again.
     tuesday we taught camila and the whole lesson was just us helping her make a list of the reasons of why she knows the church is true and the things that she doubts. that way we knew what we needed to help her with more. and i think that it helped us a lot cuz in our lesson with her on thursday, we taught the restoration and i could tell that she really felt the spirit cuz i felt it too. i felt bad afterword cuz i didnt let elder alcaraz talk too much but it was a decision i made at the time cuz i felt like i had made a connection with her and that i could help her out and i think it worked out alright. cuz in our lesson on thursday, she cried a little a couple times.
    also tuesday night we got into another house of a inactive family. really we were only able to share with the lady but it was good cuz she talked to us about all the problems she has been having with her mom and some other things. so we shared a little about the atonement and how it helps  with everything that we need. and that through the gospel we can find the comfort that we need with everything. and we shared a little scripture about that and she said that it really helped and that she feels like now is the time when she and her family should probably come back to church. and then during the last prayer that she said, she cried a little. but it was the first time that in the mission where i have been with an inactive member and they say that they want to come back to church in the first visit and i feel like they really mean it. that was good.
     thursday was kinda a hard day for us, other than the lesson with camila. cuz daniela told us that she probably wont get baptized, at least not for a long long time. cuz she said that she feels good in the church and she has made some friends there and its nice, but being involved in a church and reading scriptures and saying prayers just isnt her thing and so she doesnt want to be committed to it by getting baptized. so that kinda hurt but i dont want to give up on her just because of that so we are gonna keep working with her and see if we can get her to understand the things that she would be missing by making that choice. hopefully we can help her see that.
      friday we had to go back to do something with elder alcaraz´s id card cuz when they gave it to him, they had spelled his middle name wrong. so we had to wake up early to go into the office and take care of that. i dont know how often that happens in the mission but i dont think very often from how the guy in the government building reacted when we explained the situation.         saturday we had a really funny activity in departamental where we did a little show thing. i played batman and elder alcaraz was robin. but its about a book that talks about happiness, help, and god (referring to the book of mormon) and its the last one on earth. and all these superheroes/people fight each other for it, killing each other off one by one to have the book. it was pretty funny and im glad that i could be a part of it.
       then sunday the time changed here  so we got one less hour of sleep. and i dont think that helped with me being sick. and so sunday was kinda tough cuz its the day when i felt worse this whole week so we werent able to do much. today im feeling a little better than yesterday although i still just want to sleep but we have a couple of citas tonight that we have to go to so i cant just go to bed. also today we went to fly kites as a zone and it was a good day to do it cuz its pretty windy but it didnt work out to well cuz only 2 people were able to get them off the ground. but at least it was funny to watch. i hope that everyone is doing well. take care

AJ's email from 8/27/12

Elders Mackie, Clare and Van Duren

Elder Wheelright (MTC comp), AJ
& Elder Clare

The Fab Five...
Munoz, Wheelright, AJ, Clare & Tukuafu

      this week was just another one of those normal weeks again although there were a few things that happened a little different. so i guess it really wasnt just the normal week if you think about it.
      first off on tuesday and wednesday we got a lot of rain again in the afternoon which sucks cuz its already been tough enough for us to find new investigators these last couple weeks and when it rains, you can basically forget about it in our sector. cuz the people at home tell us to go away cuz its raining and the people that are in the street go inside and stay out of the rain. so we just kinda did what we could for those couple days. the funny thing about wednesday though was the district meeting. the first hour of the meeting is always a class and then the second hour is doing practices for something. and this week we practiced (although it was something real) going outside and contacting everyone that we see and just doing more contacts and talking to everyone. and so they told us we couldnt go back to the church unless we had 8 contacts or a new investigator (which means getting into a house and doing a house blessing). so we went out to contact and did some contacts which were pretty good. but it was really cold outside from the rain and wind so i said lets just go knock a door and get a new so that we can go back. and the first door that we knocked, it was a old guy named hernan whos wife fell and broke her back a couple months ago and thats been hard on them. so we did the house blessing and helped them with whatever we could. im glad that we could do that and help them out with feeling a little comforted but i couldnt help thinking about how ironic it is that we worked 20 minutes in another sector and find 2 news, and work in our sector for weeks and cant find anything. but its just a difficult time for us right now and we just have to work through it.
       thursday we had the capacitacion especial in republica and i thought that it was really good. president talked a lot about applying the book of mormon to the specific needs of every person that we talk to. and that if we do that during contacts, more people will want us to come by and will progress cuz they will be more interested in the book of mormon. and so im excited to use that more with investigators. now all i need is some new investigators to apply it with. the other good thing about that day is that i completed a year and a half in the mission which is crazy to think about. although i didnt do anything special to celebrate the day like i did when i hit a year. all i did was take some pictures with the other guys at the meeting that are going home with me. after the meeting i had a scary moment though. we were heading back to our sector and since i know that area pretty well, i wanted to take a different way home. so we were walking in the street and came to a corner where we had to wait to cross. and as we were waiting, a couple of buses turned right on that corner where we were standing. the first bus was fine, but the second one had problems. i saw the mirror go right across my face, almost hitting me and i just thought wow that was close. and as soon as i thought that, elder alcaraz pulled me backed and said watch out. and as soon as we stepped back, i watched the bus go over the curb right where we were standing. ill just say that my heart was pounding after that. and im thankful that im ok.
       friday i went to renew my visa and get the papers done to finish the mission and that was weird thinking about. i had a fun time being with that group of 5 during that trip cuz we were all gringos and just laughed at everything. but i found out that ill be flying home with elder nielson to arizona cuz his parents are in the tucson mission right now. and thats kinda cool cuz i sat with him on the plane coming here and then ill be with him on the plane going home.
       then finally sunday we had a little miracle....maybe. our ward mission leader has a nephew not baptized that lives on the border of our sector but really belongs to av matta. and he got upset this week cuz the missionaries there were supposed to go by but didnt do it. so he called the zone leaders there upset telling them to chew out those missionaries for being irresponsible and not going. and so i said, just joking around, what if we bring him over here and teach him here and baptize him here. and he liked that idea so he asked me today to ask permission from president king to do that. so if everything works out, we should have a baptism in another month or so which should be really easy. cuz all we will have to do is teach him. and then our ward mission leader will baptize him. so hopefully that will happen.
        other than that everything is going well. im doing well although ive been kinda tired lately but what are you gonna do? thats just the mission for you. i hope that everyone is doing well. have a good week
 

Elder  AJ Mlazgar

BE GOOD OR BE GOOD AT IT

Alma 32:21     2 Nephi 26:8

Ward Mission Leader playing guitar
see video...he's great!

BONUS post...more pictures

I opened my email at lunch today and discovered a bonus email from AJ. It has pictures from this week...his delicious lunch...yum, the stake activity, and P-day soccer. No time for captions today, but I trust you can tell which is which! AJ must be taking a self-portrait because he is bored from having to sit out and chill.