11/29/2011

Another transfer has come and gone! I can´t believe that it has been 6 weeks already! We have our transfers tomorrow so we are excited to see what happens and to see if one of us is leaving! It sounds like the family had a great Thanksgiving! To tell you the truth, I didn´t even remember that it was thanksgiving until one of the sisters in our district baked us an apple pie! Sad, I know, but true. We just don´t ever think about the holidays and about what is going on! We were so excited to eat the pie though, and it disappeared in less than 5 minutes!

 

 To answer your question Mom, yes, I have seen personal changes in me! Not huge, crazy things that change every day, but I can just tell that I have matured as a person. There are some things  that I honestly don´t care about anymore, and there are things that matter a lot more to me now than they did 6 months ago. I am a much more patient person now than ever before. Will I say that I am a patient person now? Maybe not. But I am MORE patient and a little more understanding of people and their different situations. I could go through a list of things to tell you of ways that I have changed, but suffice it to say that I hope you can see the changes in me already and that in 18 months you´ll see me as a man and not as a boy. The time is now to put away childish things, as Paul says in Corinthians. I´m on my road, and the process, of becoming a man and I am creating the foundation to build upon for the rest of my life. I am becoming the man who can raise a family in the church, who will love his wife, who will stay faithful and endure to the end. There are so many things that happen every day, little things, that are slowly molding me into something greater. It is sometimes a very painful process! (Most of the time, actually ;) ) however, I am so grateful to be here! I love what I am doing and know that I am exactly where I need to be for the time-being.

I hope that you all know that I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life! I have learned so much about Him and have a greater appreciation for what He has done for me! Dad, thanks for sharing with me your two favorite scriptures! I know, it is hard to pick just one!! I can definitely understand your one in 3 Nephi. We read that with the investigators all the time! It is one of the biggest manifestations of the love of the savior for us!! Love is the foundation of all that He does! You are absolutely right - He already did His part! Now it is up to us to do ours! I can tell you from personal experience that a lot of people don´t like the fact that they are personally responsible for their salvation! It is super sad to see an investigator leave because they can´t handle the fact that they actually have to do something to live with Heavenly Father and be in His presence! But, there is so much joy in seeing people progress and gain more faith in Jesus Christ!

The work is going well. Hard, brutal, and mean. But it is moving forward! The weather is starting to get hot. I´ve been working on my thoughts and keeping them positive, and it has really made a difference! Yesterday was way hot and was a tough day to work, but I stayed positive all day and we ended up having some success! I am so grateful for everything that I have and am excited to keep moving forward!

I want you all to know that I am doing great, am working my butt off, and am enjoying myself immensely. :D See you all next week!

All my love,

Elder Biggs

 

10/17/2011

This week was a great week! We had three more baptisms! I love being a part of the baptisms because it is like the culmination of all of our hard work, finally coming out into the light! The baptisms went well without any problems, thanks to the help of the Lord.

It is starting to get hot here. I mean really hot. And it doesn´t help that we walk in the street a lot. Dad, I´m afraid that I am going to kick your butt in the tanning contest this year, especially because I get to tan all the way through the winter! ;)

Just like you guys, there isn´t a lot to report on this week. My companion and I got locked out of our pension because the lock was messed up, so we had to kick down the back door and then fix it later. But no worries, we are handymen now and everything is fixed and we didn´t have to pay a cent! Yes, Dad, you can be proud of me :) heheh. Really though, I am a little sad because we have transfers coming up tomorrow night and it is 99 percent sure that my companion is leaving. He has been in this area for 9 months! Way too long. So basically it is guaranteed that he is leaving, so I am going to get my second companion on Wednesday! I´m excited and praying that my new companion is willing to work hard and get down to business! I finished up the new missionary training program yesterday, so I´m officially a ¨full fledged¨ missionary now, according to the unwritten rules of the missionaries. But yes, I am now done and can start taking the lead in everything! I´m so excited!

That is my report for this week! I love you all so much and pray that everything continues to go well! ¨Look up... step up... cheer up!¨ - Elder  Cook from this last conference said that and I really love it. Hugs and kisses to everyone!

Your son and brother,

Elder Michael Biggs

10/12/11 Pictures

The girl I baptized is called Camila. She is 11. Her older sister is Paula. My companion baptized her. :) I love you all. The Lord is literally pouring out His blessings on me and I am so very grateful :)

10/12/11

I cannot express in words the joy that comes from seeing the Gospel change someone´s life!! This week we had the baptisms of two young women, ages 11 and 12. They are so awesome. We started teaching them about a month ago, and they didn´t even know what a prayer was when we started. They barely knew the name Jesus Christ! Now, they can bear their testimonies and pray so well. If I could share with you just a tiny piece of the joy, your hearts would be full!!

Yes, the work here is going so well! As missionaries, we really don´t do anything! Well, we do but we don´t. The Holy Ghost is the big boss on campus in reality. Without him, we are just salesmen, left to use our own talents and abilities to ¨lure¨ people into the church! But the Holy Ghost can change a persons heart. And when the heart changes, the thoughts change. And when the thoughts change, the actions change. It is a step by step process, as described in the scriptures. I´m learning to trust in the Holy Ghost to guide us in the lessons.

I really do love this work! I can´t believe that I´ve been gone for over 4 months! Crazy! Elder de Oliveira and I are having a lot of success together and a ton of fun! When you are obedient and have the spirit, you are going to baptize. And what happens when you baptize? You have fun!  We are going to have 3 baptisms this Saturday the 15. The 3 kids are ages 13, 10, and 8. The dad and the older sister who is 15 are taking a little longer to be ready, but have expressed their desires to be baptized in the near future as well. The mom is a member, but has been less active for like 20 years. But she loves the church now and is so excited to see her husband and kids accept the gospel! When we tell people that the Gospel can bless their families, they just need to look at this family and they will know that it is the truth!

Myself, I am so grateful for a family who is solid in the gospel. I have two parents who love and honor each other and honor their covenants in the temple. My dad is the best father I could ask for and he sets a very high standard and example that I have to strive to achieve. I have the perfect mother. What more can I say than to say ¨I love you mom¨! You are the best :) I have an older sister who is serving right along side of me and fighting for the cause of Zion!! (Go Kat!!! :) ) My younger brother is a stud, and I know that he will be a better missionary that I am! And then there is Dave and Jac, the two peas in a pod with enough energy to launch a rocket! :) Yes Dave, I will watch football with you and play football with you when I get home! Jac, I would love to see you serve a mission!

Give my best to everyone in the ward. Let Matt, Ryan, and Nate know that I am so proud of them for their decision to serve the Lord. In the near future they are going to realize that it will take more energy and heart than anything else they´ve ever done, but the payoff will be greater than anything else as well. I am so proud to be a missionary. I am so proud to be the name of the Lord on my chest, as well as the name of my family. Go BIGGS!!!!!

your son and leader in the Lords army,

Elder Michael Biggs

Update 10/3/2011

Mom,

Of course they took them out and wrecked!! We are boys! It isn´t fun if you don´t get beat up a little ;)

 

I am doing FANTASTIC!! I love this mission!!!!

Yes, we watched all 5 sessions of conference. I watched the first two in Spanish on Saturday, then watched priesthood session and the two sessions on Monday in English. The talk by Elder Holland was my favorite in Priesthood session. You HAVE to read it! It is so powerful and I loved it!!  I really feel so energetic and have a new energy because of conference!  :)

The baptism went really well. We fasted for her last week and seriously, EVERYTHING fell perfectly into place with her. I´ll send the pictures of her baptism. But I really felt the spirit at her baptism and I´m very excited to see her progress in the ward.

We have another two baptisms planned for this weekend. Two sisters are going to get baptized, so they are our number 1 priority this week. The Lord is showering his blessings upon us and is helping us find the people who want to know, and live His gospel.

Not a lot else to report on. The work goes on and I´m glad Katherine made it safely! She is going to do great! Yes, I have the same program that she does, but I terminate in 2 weeks at the end of the transfer!  I´m not sure what is going to happen, but I´m ready for whatever :)

I love you all. I KNOW that this is the work of the Lord and that so many people still need our message. Never give up an opportunity to bless the lives of other people. You never know how much a little smile and hello can do. Be an example of the believers! I love you!!!

Your son,

Elder Biggs

9/26/11

Family,
 I can´t believe that Katherine leaves tomorrow!!! Ah, two months for her already!! And I passed my 4 month mark if you can believe it!! OH YEAH! I am hummin right along baby. I love this work!
We had another baptism on Friday! It was great! The guy who baptized him is like his second dad and practically raises the kid! So he baptized and confirmed him. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed teaching him and working with him. We have so much more success with members and their friends because the investigator already has a built-in friend in the church and a person to help them if they fall. Both of our baptisms were from the help of members! So we do our best to work with them.

The work is going well. Really well. We have another baptism planned for this Saturday, in between the conference sessions!! It is the lady I talked about with the cheater husband. But she wants to be baptized and we are going to do our best to do it this week! We also have more planned for the month of October. Don´t worry, I´ll keep you in the loop! I hope everything is going really well at home. It is interesting to think that I´ve already been out for 4 months. For me, the time flies. Literally. I really like what I am doing. It is amazing! Sometimes the word fun isn´t the word to describe some situations in the work of missionaries, but the word satisfying ALWAYS applies. I really feel so satisfied with the investigators, and with myself when I see them progressing toward baptism!

Hah, it is getting harder for me to type and talk in English without saying Spanish words, so if I say something in Spanish or type something wrong, forgive me! Dad will probably understand. :)

Mom, thank you so much for everything! You´re the best mom ever!!!! I couldn´t have picked a better mom up in heaven. I know that I chose correctly!! :) I hope that everything goes well with Katherine on her trip! I´m so excited for her! She is about to embark on a journey that will take the whole of her, every single fiber of her being!!! She will have moments when she wants to cry. She will have moments when she wants to to jump for joy! And she will have moments when she wants to shake the investigators until they do what she asks haha. I´m very excited for her and excited to hear her experiences. I love this work. I don´t think that any mission is the exact same. There are similar experiences, but this mission is my very own. Ups and downs, ins and outs, with twists and turns at every corner. It really is a big adventure! And I LOVE it!!!! I am so grateful for a family who loves and supports me. Thanks so much.

Dad, I hope everything is going well at work! You are a huge example to me of a person who works hard! You spend so many hours working every day so that our family can have everything we need, and basically everything we want too. Thank you so much for your example over these 19 and a half years. I hope that I have made you proud. :) I´m so proud to call you my dad!!

Chris, keep up the studies and keep enjoying life! Enjoy your friends and treat everyone kindly. You never know how much of an influence you can have in someones life. Just a simple hello from you will change someones day. Remember to smile that big ol´ smile of yours a lot because it brings light to the room!!! I love you bro. Thanks for your example and strength.

Dave and Jac, I love you tooooooo! I have the picture that David drew in my room and the scribbles of Jac still haha. It makes me laugh and reminds me of the beauty of young children. :)

Well, it is time to work!! I love you all and will write you next week! Onward and upward!!

Your son,
Elder Michael Biggs

September 19, 2011

Mom,

Hahaha you make me laugh! I am taking pictures, don´t worry! I have them all on my picture card and will be sending it to you when it gets full! So you´ll have plenty of photos. I don´t carry my camera everywhere with me because I don´t want it to get stolen, so I only carry it when I know I´m going to take a picture or something! But don´t worry, you´ll have plenty of pictures in the future! :)

And Dad actually got the motorcycle huh? That is awesome! I bet the boys will have a lot of fun with it! I can already picture Dave on the motorcycle with his hair blowing in the wind. Oh yeah!! And Jac won´t even get on? hahaha that is so funny! At least you don´t have to worry about her then! Are you going to ride it too?

 As of last week, all of my roommates are out on their missions! Ammon and I are in the field already and Nate, Tre, Will, and Max are all in the MTC! That is so awesome! And I seriously can´t believe that Kat will be in the Philippines in 2 weeks! Crazy

The work here is going great! We are such a studly companionship and we work well together. We have our problems here and there because we are both alpha males (but baddd) and we are both stubborn. So there have been a few...loud moments if you kow what I mean. But we are doing great and we are loving every second of our time together. We have another baptism this week!! His name is Sergio and he is 13. He is a friend of a new convert family and he loves to meet with us. We are going to have his baptism on Friday, so expect more pictures next week! :) I love what I am doing!!!

There is a quote that I love by President Eyring: Yo creo con todo mi corazón que Dios está por bendecirnos. Dios hará el gran milagro si pagamos el precio. Los milagros no ocurren porque Dios quiere sino porque nosotros hemos hecho nuestra parte. Dad, you can translate for them :) I know that God wants to bless us. He has so much in store for us if we just obey His commandments and do what He asks! Obedience is such a huge part of the gospel. I am learning that obedience to the laws of God bring blessings. Some are immediate, some are in the future. But I have been so blessed these last few weeks here with people who are ready to accept the gospel!

Yes, I have finalized my Christmas list. Short and sweet. I want 6-8 new, paisley, SUPER bright and vibrant ties. That is my biggest desire. Second, I would love if you could send ¨Mormon Doctrine¨ by Bruce R. McConkie. I don´t know how much that will cost to mail though. So if you could put it on a flash drive or something that would work great. Otherwise, just mail me the book. Third, could you send me another camera card? Like 4 gigs or 8 gigs, whatever you choose works so you can have more pictures :) That is it. Not a lot. I have everything I need! Thanks for everything! I love you all!

Your son and brother,

Elder Michael Biggs

9/12/2011

Yes, Max is a great Elder, and a great friend. He will do great things in Ukraine and I know that he will influence a lot of people for good! Thanks for reaching out to him. I know that he appreciated it a lot! Wish him well for me, and pray for his success.

Nate Wooden got called to Japan??? That´s awesome!!! I´m so glad that he is going to serve! His family will definitely receive many blessings. That is so awesome. The mission will change his life.

The baptism of Eliseo was amazing (picture below). It was so spiritual for me. I felt so honored and so grateful to the Lord for letting me feel a little bit of what He feels like when a soul comes to a knowledge of the truth and decides to make covenants with the Lord. Missionary work is so great!! This week was a kind of bitter/sweet week. Another family was destroyed because of the husband. A family that we (as missionaries) have been teaching for five months was destroyed because the man cheated on the woman and she found out through messages on his phone. They have a little 4 year old daughter. I want to throttle him. He isn´t living with them anymore, and she is a mess emotionally. We aren´t allowed to give any counsel to women, so that makes the situation even harder. However, it is going to be a blessing for her in the long run, even though it doesn´t seem like it right now. The saddest part is that we thought he was ready to be baptized and everything. He even had the guts to lie to us and say that everything was perfect and he had no problems with the law of chastity. There is a lot for all of us to learn from this experience. First of all, get married before you have children. Second, get married in the temple. Third, stay FAITHFUL to your spouse!! Ah, there are so many families down here who have been destroyed because the men cheat on their women. It is so WRONG. SO WRONG. But, the great news is that we had an amazing baptism! Also, we got permission from the father of another boy we are teaching who is 13, and his dad gave us permission to baptize him! So we are super stoked. We also found another family who has two daughters who want to be baptized. I really feel the help of the Lord is leading us to people who are ready to listen. This week was amazing for me and I learned a ton. I really love missionary work! The joy I felt at the baptism and confirmation of Eliseo is hard to match with anything worldly- impossible in fact. All the greatest joys in my life have come to me because of the Lord and the church: my family, the priesthood, my friends, my mission, and many other things!

Mom and Dad, thank you for being wonderful examples to me, always. I am so grateful for parents who love and honor each other. Dad, thanks for the example you set for me in being the type of man I want to be. Mom, thank you so much for all the love and support you´ve given to me, always. All the hours you put into helping me become better were not in vain! So thank you :) I love you all! Que les vaya bien!

Mission Update 3 Sept 4th, 2011

Mom, Dad, Broseph, Dave, Jac, and my dear Sister in the MTC,

How are we?!?! ¿Cómo estamos? I am doing fantastic!!! We have two baptisms officially planned for September, with a really good possibility of more, so we are excited to see the fruits of our labors! I´m glad to hear that Katherine is doing well in the MTC and loving it. Of course Dave and Jac love school. I´m excited for Jac to be starting Pre-School and Dave in Kindergarten. I can still remember little snippets of my kindergarten experience. Great :) Chris, I´m glad to hear that you are enjoying school and tearing it up. Continue that trend, and email me of any stories that you have! (you know what I´m talking about, heheh) Mom, thanks for the little email. I´m pretty sure that you just send the box through the USPS. Not anything else because they say it won´t get here. So just send a box through them. If you have any more questions, let me know and i´ll ask. Dad, thanks for your advice. I really appreciate it!!

The work is progressing and we are finding better investigators and thinning out our numbers of bad ones, which is really good. It takes a lot of work!! But, I love it anyway. Eliseo is ready to be baptized, but we have to wait until the 10 of September to baptize him because of some stake primary activity on Saturday! Ah, we weren´t very happy but the bishop made us wait until the 10. But, that´s ok. I am enjoying all the time I have teaching investigators. There are so many funny stories that I could tell, but there is never enough time. So I write down in my journal little pieces to remember for when I come home to tell all of you!

There isn´t a lot to report on this week. Mom, I had Carpincho on Thursday (carpincho looks like the ROUS in the movie Princess Bride) and it was... ok. Haha. The meat was ok but there was a layer of straight up fat, and you all know how I feel about fat on my meat. Nevertheless, I ate it anyway. I´m figuring out ways to force food down and I am basically a garbage disposal. If you put something on my plate, you don´t get it back! You´ll be happy to hear that I know voluntarily eat tomatoes AND onions! Yes, alert the media that I like those two foods now!! My companion and I are low on money, I mean WAY low, so we put together everything that we had for lunch today: eggs, milanesa, rice with veggies, mashed potatoes, peaches, and bread with Dulce de Leche. We are getting really good at cooking up meals with the most random stuff. I feel like a real chef. Ok, not really but at least I can survive! Life in the mission field keeps plowing on at an unbelievably fast rate! It feels like last week that I got into the MTC!

I really appreciate all of the love and support and prayers! Thank you so much. When the drunk on the corner tries to pick a fight with us, I can feel the guidance and prayers helping to keep me calm. I´d be lying if I admitted that I haven´t wanted to fight a few people, but I have always been calm and smiled my way through it, so be proud of me :) I love you all so much! ¡Que les vaya bien!

Love, your son and warrior,

Elder Michael Biggs

Mission Update 2 Sept 4th, 2011

Familia mía,

This past week was a tough one! We committed over 10 people to come to church, but only 1 of them actually came! AH! It is so sad to see people miss out on blessings simply because they don´t want to wake up. Sacrament starts at 11 and people here still can´t get out of bed for it. It is weird to me haha. But, nonetheless, I will continue loving them. We probably walked over 60 kilometers this week, because we walked at least 10 each day. We had to find new investigators and make contacts.

The area we are in is the largest in the zone. Our area is almost triple the size of anyone elses, because the houses are more spread out. That means walking is inevitable. My nice shoes are actually holding up pretty well. I decided to just keep wearing them until they wear out because I don´t want to carry around an extra pair of shoes for two years, just to wear them on special occasions. And yes, the picture with the muddy shoes is pretty normal. If it rains, that is how we come home every day. If not, they are so dusty by the time we get back that you can´t even tell the shoes are black! Haha it cracks me up. I´ve never been so dirty in my life. I have a newfound appreciation for streets that are paved instead of dirt and gravel!

We are teaching a nine year old boy right now and he is our number one investigator because his baptism is scheduled for September 3. His family is interesting because they are all members, his dad has the melchizedek priesthood, but they aren´t active. So we are trying our hardest to not only teach him but to also reactivate the family. So far the mom is active again and she goes to church with him, but the dad is tough because he doesn´t want to make the changes in his life to be worthy to baptize his son. That is so sad to me because as a father it is his responsibility to make sure his son is doing what is right, and he is failing! But, slowly we are seeing a change in his heart, which makes me so happy!! If we can get them all active again, baptize him, and keep them strong in the church, I´ll be so happy! Just seeing people´s lives change for the better is something truly amazing. I really didn´t understand the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 18 until now. There is a real joy in seeing people come unto Christ and be baptized! I´ll keep you updated on him.

The language is coming really well. I still make mistakes quite frequently, but I can basically understand what the people are saying, which is awesome because I´ve only been here for a month! The more that I speak with the people, the more they respect and admire me, even though I make a lot of mistakes because they can see that I really care. I have lost all my fears of the language, and that was the biggest impediment to me. So this last week I feel like I learned a ton! My companion is a huge aid to me too. We did better this week at loving the people and not getting frustrated with them when they wouldn´t accept our message.

I am still doing awesome!  I´m in a groove now and the days are going by so fast. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting last week, with 5 minutes notice. The bishop asked me to speak because one of the speakers didn´t show up. So I did! And I definitely felt the spirit guiding me along during my talk because I had nothing planned. The spirit is the biggest aid that I have. Without him, I´d be so lost!

I love you all! I hope that you are doing really well! I pray for you and think about you.

Tu hijo,

Elder Biggs

Mission Update Sept 4th, 2011

Mi familia,

I am doing really well! Chris, I´m sorry to hear that your foot is really badly bruised, but you are one of the toughest kids I know so I don´t feel as bad for you haha. I agree with dad; your foot will probably heal faster than 4 weeks. Nevertheless, try not to kick someone too hard during your muay thai practice ;)

 I have too much to tell that I don´t know what to say. The work is going well but the investigators are tough. No one wants to go to church. No one wants to read. No one wants to pray. Dad, you are right when you say that anything that takes away the personal responsibility of someone is usually welcomed for most people. They really don´t want to pray and go to church because if they find out that it is the right church, they are going to have to make some big changes in their lives. Last night we had a lesson with a woman who is a die hard catholic, and she utterly refused to change her life. She doesn´t care if the church is true. Her heart is like ice. It is so sad. I work so hard to help them understand, but they use their agency to throw away an opportunity to save their salvation. ugh. Regardless, we continue to work with power and love, with an eye single to the glory of God. My companion likes to argue with people about authority, and I continually remind him that we aren´t here to argue with people; we don´t have time for that. We´re here to find those who are ready and willing to accept our message. He is really good at arguing with people and absolutely destroying the foundation of their church, but it doesn´t help. The people leave with a bad taste in their mouths and our conversation got us absolutely nowhere. So, we are working on that together.

One thing that was really sad this week was that we lost two investigators who are evangelical. They said that they talked to their pastor and he said to stop taking the lessons and then they gave us a pamphlet. Dad, you´ll love this: the name of the pamphlet is ¨Los Visitantes¨ and is completely designed about the lds missionaries! It was designed in WA state and I think I´m going to make a copy of it and bring it home with me, just to show you how ridiculous it is. But basically it shows that we as missionaries don´t know what we are talking about and that we´re just scared little boys with heads full of garbage. But oh well. They weren´t quite ready yet. Maybe in time.

On a very positive note, we have a 9 year old investigator who´s dad is an inactive member of the church. He is doing well with the lessons and we have him committed to baptism on the 27! So pray for him! The dad is slowly warming up to the church again so hopefully this will help the whole family get back into the church. I love teaching him (his name is Eliseo) because he knows nothing about God or the church and his mind is completely open to the truth. Being able to teach so simply without him arguing is nice, and he asks such sincere questions that we can tell he wants to learn and grow. I´m really excited for him! We have a lot of other investigators too and most of them are progressing as well.

Life is so good! Vida es buenísima! God has so much in store for us and I´m trying to help the people here realize that God is already waiting, it is just up to them to do their part. I have faith that our investigators will feel the holy ghost answer their prayers when they pray. I´m loving my time here, I really am. Even when we´ve been walking for hours because all our appointments have fallen through and not been home, life is still so good! I used to take a lot for granted, but my eyes have really been opened. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life. I KNOW that it is true. And I am going to work as hard as I can so the people here know it too.

I love you all so much. Thanks for all the support and prayers!

Your missionary,

Elder Biggs

Elder Biggs Mission Update

Michael was blessed with some great experiences in the MTC and then was challenged in arriving at his mission in Resistencia. He got to spend 4 days in the Miami Florida airport on standby because of flight delays from the airlines and a Chile volcano spreading ash into the atmosphere. Once he finally arrived he found he has a wonderful Mission President and was blessed with a native companion, Elder de Oliveira, who was born in Brazil, moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina 10 years ago but doesn't speak English! They have been out preaching the gospel from day one where Michael was able to see both sides of life. He is doing well,maturing quickly, and we feel great joy in our son. Below are some highlights from his letters to us.

Here is what we believe is the address to write hand-written letters. They can go direct or thru SLC:
Mission Home Address:
la Mision Argentina Resistencia
Entre Rios 435
Resistencia, Chaco 3.500
Argentina

Mailing Address:
la Mision Argentina Resistencia 
POUCH: PO Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
United States

Broheim,

i´m sorry to hear that you hurt yourself! i bet that everything will be ok though. you´re tough enough that i´m not worried. but if you need extra prayers just let me know. Being a missionary isn´t easy. it isn´t all fun and games like you think before you leave. until you´re here, you won´t fully understand. but i am confident that you´ll prepare yourself to be a great missionary. i´ll just warn you that it will be a shock at first, so just dive in headfirst and get lost in the work! I love you bro. you´re awesome and a great example to me. keep working hard and get ready to be a senior and rule the school! enjoy your last week of summer!

your broseph

My companion is Elder de Oliveira. Our pensión serves one of the biggest hamburgers you´ve ever seen! (Yes broheim, be jealous.) The hamburguesa costs 14 pesos and has double meat, double eggs, double cheese, double everything haha. It is seriously huge! Definitely worth the money.

letter 8/1:

yes i am finally here haha. it took forever but we finally made it haha. so we were delayed in LA for an hour because of maintenance so we ended up missing our connecting flight to argentina by 10 minutes! we ended  up getting put in a hotel every night for the next 4 nights by a series of events outside of our control haha. so we spent like 12 hours a day in the airport either waiting on standby or waiting for our actual flight and they ended up getting canceled because of the ash or we didn´t make the standby. 4 days in the miami airport. let me tell you, people in miami aren´t very nice. some are straight up rude. it was a wakeup call for me that not everyone has kind feelings for the missionaries. but it´s all good. no worries. i know that the lord held us in miami for a purpose and once we completed that purpose we were allowed to leave. there is so much to tell and i don´t have enough time, so i can explain more during our talk time at christmas. but just know for now that after many hours of travel, lost luggage, a lot of work, and a positive attitude i made it to argentina haha. so yes, i have a great story about my first week TRYING to get to argentina haha. but, and i know this is hard to believe, i didn´t even complain!!!! Me, one of the most impatient and short tempered members of our family (perhaps the most impatient haha) i did not complain at all. it was a testament to me that i have developed into a more mature person over the last 2 months. my companion elder clayton was dying by the 4 day. the airline had two seats for standby instead of 4, so i offered to stay behind with elder dallimore (Bishop estes knows him) while my companion and his companion took a flight the day before us. he needed to get out of miami so i just said go haha. so for the last day it was just elder dallimore and myself. we had a great time. we learned a lot about ourselves during this past week.

i was so excited to be in argentina though when i landed! it was a great feeling when we finally arrived to resistencia after a 14 hour bus ride up the country. but all is well, i am here, i have a native companion who rocks, and my mission president is lo mejor! i have such a positive feeling for these next 3 months with my trainer. i have 12 weeks with him, so hopefully by the end of october i will be able to at least understand what people are saying, even if i can´t speak perfectly yet. my companion, elder de oliveira is so awesome. we work well together. i couldn´t ask for a better trainer to begin my experience here. i love it!

the people here are really poor, which was a shock to me even though i expected it. i am so grateful for everything i have back at home. my room is as big as some peoples entire house. it is weird... and sad. but the people here need the gospel so bad!! they aren´t very happy and i know that we can bring happiness into their lives if they can just accept our message. they have their free agency in the end, which i can´t ever forget as a missionary. satan's plan was to take away our agency, so whenever i feel like shaking the investigator and throwing them in the font, i will remember that is what satan wanted. so no bueno haha. i already have so many stories and i´ve only been here 2 days! i´ll tell you some of them in the next email. i love you all and hope you are doing so well! remember always that the lord loves you !

tu hijo,

Elder Biggs

letter 8/8:

hola familia mía,

¿cómo estan? i am doing really well here. the work is going well and i´m definitely enjoying every minute of it. mom and dad, i´m glad that you enjoyed san fran and got to take a few days for yourselves. the people here in argentina are really nice for the most part. the only people that have been mean to me are the teenage boys. they try to say words in english like ¨hello rambo¨ and what not. it is more funny than anything. and the teenage girls call me ¨rubio¨ all the time and call me ¨mi amor¨ and try to yell at me from across the street. other than that, the people are really kind and loving and help me a lot. they are very understanding and are happy that i´m trying to learn their language.

The work with investigators is hard, but very worth it. seeing the investigator understand and lighten up with our message is unbelievable. i am sad when the people reject us, but they just aren´t ready for the message yet. we aren´t here to argue with people. our time is too limited. we´re here to find those who are ready to accept the gospel and progress toward making big steps in their lives. sometimes when we clap at doors (because here everyone has gates and bars around their house so we can´t knock on doors) the people are very accepting, and other times are straight up rude and angrily tell us to leave. i am just grateful that i have an eternal perspective, otherwise I would be very sad a lot of the time here.

Of course, everyone wants to hear about the food that I have eaten. For the most part, it has been pretty good. the only weird things that I have eaten in my 8 days here are kidney and intestines. the kidney wasn´t bad, but the intestine was so rubbery. but, i ate it. i chose to try it and it was only a small piece. we were eating with an inactive family and they cooked a barbeque for us. mmmm, delicious carne asado. definitely delicious. and i also had some weird piece of meat that was basically straight up fat. so gross. i don´t even know what they call it. i had to at least try it though. a week in and i´ve already tried some pretty strange stuff. and this week we have a lunch appointment with a member who is going to cook us crocodile meat. so stay tuned haha.

we eat lunch with members every day, so we cook our own breakfast in the morning and then at about 9 30 at night after working we can eat a snack if there is time. since my companion likes to eat just as much as me, we make time hahaha. the food here is honestly pretty normal. it isn´t third world at all, except when we eat with members who live in the poorest section of our area, and then we just put down whatever they feed us because we don´t really eat there often.

I am doing really well and enjoying life! Mom,  tell my friends to do whatever they want, write or email. i just have to be very brief with my emails to anyone who isn´t family. so anyway, that is that.

I love you all so much. You are an inspiration for me to continue working hard and enjoying my time here. it is going by so fast. there isn´t a second to give up! Que vayan con Dios!

Tu hijo,

Elder Biggs