Farewell to the President

Dear friends and family,

Whats up guys?!  Hey, so I´ve heard (not seen) that Argentina is doing some smack down in the world cup.  I´m hoping they win just to see what happens here, but I´m also hoping they lose so I can keep doing missionary work haha!  Anyway, it was pretty funny, this week Elder Peterson and I were walking to the offices in the morning and we realized that there were 0 cars and 0 people in the street.  We were thinking, man this is kinda wierd, whats going on?  What we didn´t realize was that Argentina was playing in the world cup and EVERYBODY was watching it.  We realized what was happening when, halfway to the offices, every house erupted with shouts and yells of GGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!!! with cars honking and the whole city yelling.  Haha it was way cool. 
But, other than that, the week passed by super fast.  We´re getting down to crunch time in the transition and we had our last conference with president and his family.  It was pretty darn awesome.  And when I say darn awesome, I mean it was darn awesome.  The president´s kids, Anika, Quinn, Austin, and Seth, all bore their testimonies in spanish (they all speak very well). Then sister Argyle spoke.  She said a lot of things, but the coolest thing was what she said at the end.  She told us that in the Celestial Kingdom, the Argyle mansion was going to have a huge table to feed 434 children (4 + 431 missionaries).  She told us that they were going to do everything in their power to make sure that all 434 chairs are filled with their "children" and their families. 
Then, president spoke about the transition.  He went over our purpose as missionaries and helped us see a way bigger picture of why we do the work we do.  But it wasn´t super intense, it was just way sincere and pretty funny at some points.  He also warned us of some potential dangers of satan´s attacks during the transition.  It was interesting, President mentioned that if we love the Lord first, this transition, and whatever other transition happens in the church, should be 2 things: automatic and immediate.  Anyway, it was great.
He also talked about how it was when they were called as mission presidents.  They had an interview with Pres. Faust, who told them they would be judged as mission presidents by how their missionaries had advanced in 20 years.  So, the Argyle family decided to make Helaman 3:29-30 their theme and came to Argentina.  After telling us this, they did something that hit me hard.  They committed every missionary in the room to give them a yearly report, by phone, in person, whatever way we wanted.  They committed us to report to them every year for the rest of our lives if our temple reccomend was current or not.  They promised us this was the key to fulfilling our real mission on earth.  They also committed us in helping each other, all 434, make it to the end.
Then, President and his family sang How firm a foundation and we joined in at the end.  Then, we all went up and gave final hugs (and handshakes to Anika and sis. Argyle) to the president and his family.  Then, they left rapidisimo.
Man, I gotta tell ya, it was great.  There wasn´t a dry eye in the room.  I feel bad for the assistants who had to do that 5 times!!  Haha anyway, it was a great goodbye.  The funny thing is that I´ll see and be with President until his last day here, so wasn´t really a goodbye for me.  But, I´m super pumped to meet President Gulbrandsen and his wife, who come on the 30th of June!

Our investigators are making good progress, we have 2 baptisms planned for the 3rd of July and 5 for the 10th of July.  Pray for em please!

Thanks so much for the prayers, I´m blessed every day by them.  I know that this work is true!  I´m living a miracle every day.  Read the Book of Mormon and pray to your maker today if you haven´t already done it!  Its awesome!

Love,

Elder Hales