My First Companion in Argentina: Cydnee Squire!

My District in Salt lake.

First off, I have absolutely no idea how to use this keyboard.  In spanish they do not have apostrophes or something, because I cannot seem to get them to work at all.  Trust me, I have been trying this whole time.  Well, I feel like there is so much to write because it has been two weeks since I have been able to write you.  Well, the week before I left was pretty hectic.  We had a baptism on that saturday and then we spoke in church on Sunday.  It was a weekend full of seeing people and getting all of the loose ends tied up before I left!  I really do miss the Utah Salt Lake City mission because I was able to meet so many amazing people there!

Now for Argentina.  To be honest, the first three days are a total blur because we got up at 4:45 to leave for the airport.  Our flight left, and we went to California.. and then to Atlanta.. then to Buenos Aires.  I know that sounds short, but it was already the next day.  When we landed in Buenos Aires.. we had no idea what we were doing because our flight plans ended, but we were not in our area at all.  Let{s just say that I have never followed so many random people who do not speak the same language.  We followed someone into a van with all of the other missionaries going to Cordoba and Mendosa.  We had no idea where we were going.  Also, everyone here drives CRAZY!  They do not have lanes in the road and apparently you do not have to stop at stop signs if you do not want to.  Anyway, we were driving and then the lady who was driving just says, do we have the Bahia Blanca sisters? Once we established that we were there, she pulled over and pretty much just said, get out!  We did.. and once again we were on some street on the side of the road without a clue of what we were doing.. without our luggage. 

Anyway, we were at a church building in Buenos Aires and we ate with a lot of other missionaries that were coming and going from all the different missions.  After about 5 hours of being there, they shipped us off to a different airport. When we got there, luckily President and his wife were there to greet us! We stayed with them that night, and then went to the mission office in the morning.  That is when they told us who our companions are and where we are going to be serving.  Who knew that I would be with Cydnee Squire! CRAZY!  We are serving in Toay, La Pampa.  It is so different.  The people. The food.  Everything.  Well, I am still trying to figure everything out.. so yeah, we will see how it all goes.

I love you all, and now you can all write me to the mission office! Woot woot!

Hermana Naylor, Vincent and I at the Mission Home.  Three days in the same clothes!

Safe in Argentina

Dear Vawdrey Family,

We are sending you this email to inform you that your daughter, Sister Vawdrey, has arrived safe and sound here in the Mission Argentina Bahía Blanca. At this moment your daughter is traveling to her new area and Monday she will be able to write you to tell you how she is doing.

            Sincerely, the Elders from the office.

Misión Argentina Bahía Blanca.

           

I'm going to Argentina!

The exotic animals of Tooele.

This week was pretty intense. We are still trying to build up the area, and if I do say so myself, we are doing an excellent job. We now have quite a few people to teach, and we are being busier and busier.

Miracles. Sometimes we are just in the right place at the right time, even if we don't realize it. We had a miracle that was pretty intense the other day. We went to go see a former investigator, and as we walked past, we saw a man smoking. We smiled and said, "Hello" and then continued to walk up the stairs. As we knocked on the door, I got a really strong feeling that we needed to go back and talk to him. I think we had both gotten the same feeling because when I turned to Sister Martin and said, "We should go back and talk to that guy." No questions were asked, and we went. We walked up to him, and started talking. He asked us what religion we were from, and once we said, "LDS" tears began to fill his eyes. He talked to us ALOT about what had happened in his life, and it was definitely ALOT. He told us about how much he loved the church, but couldn't seem to ever live it. He told us about his addiction to alcohol to the point that he had left his wife and kids for the desire to drink. Everytime he talked about the Chuch, he started to cry. He told us that, "he knew it wasn't a coincidence that we walked by" and promised us that he "would never dust of off his shoes again." We got him at the perfect time because he even told us that if we would have knocked on his door, he would have avoided us. We don't know where it's going to go, but for that time, we knew that we were in the right place at the right time, and it was absolutely amazing.

He even gave us permission to use that story in our farewell talk. He was really cool, but he has a lot to work through. I won't be here to see his whole process, but I am going to make sure that he is taken care while I am gone. He's an awesome guy, and it doesn't matter where he's at now because God will always love him.

This is what happens when all of the supplies are in the furthest part of the trunk!

Also, We have a baptism for June 15.. so it's two days before I leave. Emma is absolutely awesome, and she is so prepared! Her confirmation is at the same time that my companion and I are speaking in church. Luckily we just got a car, so anything is possible! It will be interesting to be 20 minutes late to the meeting that I am speaking it, but yeah...

Also, my visa came ya'll. So the next time that you hear from me, I will be in Argentina.

The exotic flowers of Tooele.

Be a Good Neighbor and Don't Judge

Sometimes I forget how close that I really am to home. In fact, as we speak, I am literally five steps away from Temple Square. Which means that within a half hour, I could see half of my best friends. We still have no word on the visas so it's going to be interesting to see how my mission goes. It's definitely different than I expected it to be if you were to ask me a year ago. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve in Utah, though.

I am surprised how many people that have lived in Utah for their entire lives know hardly anything about our actual beliefs. We have been teaching a few people who thought they knew everything about our church, who in fact, had distorted perceptions about what we do. If you want to know what Mormons believe, go to church, read the Book of Mormon, and pray. It really is that easy! I think my favorite was a lady that told us that she didn't like how after Mormons allowed Non-Mormons to enter the temple, and then closed the temple for a few days to "rip all of the furniture out because of all the 'dirty' people that entered the temple." We kind of started laughing.. and just said, "well, I think they might vacuum." Or that Mormon is Joseph Smith's father. Yeah, these are people from Utah.

Also, there is so much work to be done in Utah! But it's easy.. just be a good neighbor and don't judge anyone for any reason. There are some wards where I am literally scared to bring investigators to because they are not welcoming. It doesn't matter if people smell like smoke, alcohol, or are dressed in whatever because EVERYONE should feel welcome at church.

ARRGGGHHH.. if you can't tell, we dealt with a lot of that this week.

But there are a lot of good people out here, too so don't think that I am angry with everyone right now.

On the good side, we have been looking for people to teach because.. well, we need people to teach. We both decided that we were going to exercise our faith. We ended up getting a new investigator every day, and it was awesome. Now, he have some steady people to teach. We tripled the number of people we are teaching within like a week, and it was awesome! So there, there was some good news.

Well, I feel like this letter home was really jumbled and out of order. So, yeah. Sorry about that. I promise the next one will be better.

Receiving Revelation about the Things We Needed to Teach

So as I said before, I am on my fourth area and fourth companion! I realized last time that I never really said anything about my companion. She is from North Carolina, and we just celebrated her year mark. We get along really well, but it's kind of hard starting an area from scratch. There have not been sisters in this area for 20 years, and so we have spent a lot of time just trying to talk to whoever we can! It's been really exciting. So the other day two of the sisters in our zone (one being my companion) had to go to the mission office for a training, and so I spent the day with the other sister's companion, Sister Howell. She had been out for about 2 weeks, and I had been out for about 8 weeks so we were both completely new, but we had to. Apparently she had been really worried the night before because we were both pretty green, still. She had a distinct impression to use a video while teaching one of the lessons for the day that we were going out.

That's when we had our lesson with Misty. Holy cow, this woman was awesome! We were both really scared because I didn't know her at all, and neither did my temporary companion. But we started to teach the lesson, and we shared the video. Right when it was over, she turned to her husband and said, "Wow, hun, this video was perfect for me right now, wasn't it?" We both looked at each other and gave a sigh of relief. Afterword we explained everything about the Plan of Salvation, and the spirit was SO STRONG. After the lesson, she said, "That was the best lesson that I have ever had! Thank you so much!" It shows that even if you have no idea what you are doing or who you are even teaching, you can still receive revelation about the things that you need to teach regardless of how much experience you have in the mission.

Also! We had another cool experience with a little 10 year old girl. It was about 8:00 at night, and our appointment fell through, so we were walking on the street, and we started talking to these two younger girls. First off, they do not like Mormons, but once we explained that we were Mormons, they said, "well, you guys are cool." So we were just talking, and Lilly said, "where did the ice cream man go? We came outside to find him, but then I saw you guys reflecting the sun. So we had to come talk to you." We just said, "what? What light?" "You know, the light that's all around you!" Yup, listen to the mouths of babes. Her mom pulled up, and she started screaming, "MOM, I WANT TO BE BAPTIZED MORMON!" We both put our hands up and started surrendering because we didn't know how her mom felt. It was funny.

ALSO, I got some spanish practice in the other week. We knocked on the door of a former, and a man from mexico answered the door. We had an hour long lesson, and being that my companion does not speak spanish, it was all on me. Too bad he was a Bible Basher, and really didn't want anything. BUT, I was reassured that my spanish had not been lost. So it's all good. The work is awesome, regardless of where you are. So be good examples and love everyone. No exceptions! The church is not a museum for saints, but rather a hospital for sinners! Don't judge, ya'll.