July 4, 2016 Meeting the new President, Pres. Catala and his wife!

Add "drinkin red bull... top of timp!" (shout out to the boys of the alpine 10th ward. remember that glorious summit to timp? hahaha

don´t worry I wouldnt have bought a red bull normally.... a friend of mine who is from another ward sells pepsi here and gave us each one free.

And me on a mini cambio with Elder Holcombe my zone leader. (he is in the air force. He is a bore. and tells really cool stories.... especially on "war story wednesday" :)

So I sort of wish I could be a part of the 4th of July celebrations up there in the States haha but no its all good. Today we had a zone activity in the morning. Played soccer and made pulled pork type sandwiches to celebrate the occasion :) it was pretty fun.

So yup, this week we met our new mission President and his family. The Cátalas. They are awesome. President is from Argentina, and the wife is from Taiwan, but moved to Bolivia when she was 19 and met the missionaries there and joined the church. Then served a mission in Cochabamba and after the mission moved to Argentina with her family and met her husband there. And they are living here with their youngest kid (a 16 year old son). Both of them are converts, and President Cátala has some big ideas and big hopes for our mission. I really think the work is going to change a lot. He has a huge focus on baptizing. Which is good,  because we have been baptizing SO FEW people here.... and he has been stake president (twice I think) and bishop and seems like a really spiritual and charismatic leader. His accent (being from Buenos Aires) is super different and strong. haha it makes me laugh! I thought after that conference that I was gonna leave there talking like someone from Argentina... but It didnt happen.

Anyways, he gave us some ideas on how to better work with the members. One being doing lots of service for them. He is a very successful business man that works in comerce. And said "Nothing in this world is free. If I come up to you and ask for you 10 dollars.... you are not gonna give it to me. But if I offer you this beautiful tie for 10 dollars, chances are that you will sell it to me. Thats how it is with references, we need to serve the members so that they will give us their friends to teach."

Anyways thats one among many things he said. Im excited to be able to learn from him in these short 5 weeks that I have left. Anyways, not much has happened.... I hope you guys had a sweet trip to Powell and stop trying to squeeze more vacations in before August 11th ;)

Love you tons. The church is true. We must endure to the end. Thats all.

Un abrazo,

Elder Hartvigsen