My first and only birthday in the mission field.

My piece of birthday cake.

 

Ismael bakes me a birthday cake!

 

It was a week that was a little more rough to be honest, but it doesn´t matter we still enjoy it all the same.  We had some pretty cool experiences.  First off, it was my birthday, and so all of our investigators made me cake.  It was a day of fun and joy!  A recent convert bought me a pair of really nice boots.  She always tells me that I am her preferred missionary, but secretly it´s just because I am from the United States.  Ismael called us on monday and said, "You guys are coming over tomorrow right?  Because I am preparing everything right now."  It was my first and last birthday in Argentina, but it was absolutely fantastic. 

 

Cutting the cake!

My companion and I walking home.

The other day we had a pretty cool experience.  The two people that we are working the most with are Ismael and Hilda.  Ismael always gives us fruit because he works in a fruit stand.  Normally he is our last appointment so we carry a bag of fruit to the house, but we visited him during the day on Saturday.  When he gave us the fruit, we didn´t know what to do because we still had to work and we didn´t want to carry a bag around with us all day.  Anyway, we left the house and went to our next appointment with Hilda.  We didn´t know what we were going to do with the fruit, I had the bag behind my scriptures so that Hilda didn´t see anything.  When she was talking, she started to explain that she had absolutely nothing to eat because her money was stolen.  I grabbed the bag of fruit and put it on her table.  She said, "Huh?  what´s this?"  When she realized that it was fruit, she refused.  It took about a half an hour to explain that we didn´t want the fruit because we needed to walk really far and it was actually a burden for us.  She started to cry.  It was really humbling for us because we never have fears that we aren´t going to have anything to eat.  

Our investigator Margarita.

Anyway, that was pretty much it.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope you all eat a lot of Turkey for me!

Con Ismael on my birthday.

Just past the half way point of my mission!

I can´t believe that I have already passed the half way point of my mission.  Time is flying by like crazy.  Tomorrow I turn 22.  I think, to be honest, it might be Wednesday.  How sad that I don´t even know. 

Anyway, it´s been pretty fun here, it´s been a lot of changes for us too.  The day that I celebrated my 9 month mark in the mission, we celebrated with a new house!  Yeah, it was a miserable day because we had to pack up all of our stuff to move houses.  It was awful because not only our stuff, but the things of the house, too.  But now we live super far away from all our investigators and we have to run, literally run, to get home on time. The good part is that we live on campus housing now and so there are always frat parties and whatnot going on, which is really fun to listen to when we are trying to sleep.   But I actually really enjoy it because it reminds me of college life.  More or less.

All of our things packed up.

Anyway, we had some pretty interesting experiences this week.  We were walking down the street and normally the people reject us before even looking at us.  It´s pretty funny, but friday there was lady with a stroller and then she looked at us and she stopped us in the street.  SHE STOPPED US!  Yeah, I wrote that correctly.  She started telling us how she wanted to change and be a better mom.  She told us that she thinks that we have the door to the truth, so that was pretty cool.  Normally people reject us, or if they believe us, they don´t want to change.  So it was nice to have a little fresh air.

Also, we talked with Ismael, he´s still doing well.  He still has some habits that he needs to break in order to be baptized, but all is well.  Last night we had a lesson with him, and it wasn´t exactly the best lesson in the beginning, but in the end it turned out to be just fine.

Hilda promised us that she would come to church, but in the morning she told us that she couldn´t.  Last week she did the same, but two days before.  Yesterday, it was yesterday morning.  So I think this week will be better.  She suffers from Panic Attacks and anxiety, also, she found out she has cancer, her son stole 4000 pesos, and she´s getting kicked out of her house.  Needless to say, she needs the gospel.  She loves me a lot.  She always calls me German Face.. hmmm in english it doesn´t have a good ring to it.  The other night she couldn´t sleep and she said she wanted to call me, but didn´t.  She tells us everytime we come, "I don´t know how it´s possible, but everytime you come to my house, I can always sleep really well during the night."  DING DING DING. We have the answers.  She´s doing really well, despite all of her difficulties.

ALSO, Argentina wants to kill me.  I guess I touched some plant or something and then I had red hives all over my legs.  It didn´t itch or anything so I left it alone and slept it off, but seriously, Argentina hates me.

That´s all (that I can write.)

My diseased foot.

Hermana Rodriguez cleaning the area.

I will go where you want me to go, and talk to who you want me to talk to!

Hermana Rodriguez and I

I don´t have much time because the computers here don´t work too great.  But I had a few cool experiences this week.

Hermana Gaona and I.

The day that Hermana Gaona arrived in the mission we were walking around to the appointments that we had.  I saw a man in his backyard drinking mate and I had the feeling that we needed to talk to him.  Sadly, I didn´t listen to the spirit.  That night, I felt awful because I had no idea where the house was or in what area it was.  But I prayed and said, "Okay, look, I messed up and I didn´t talk to that man, but if you give me the chance again, I will talk to him."

Two days ago, I felt like we should go visit a certain person that lives in an area a little bit out of the way.  But on the way, I saw the man that I needed to talk to.  I saw him, and immediately started walking towards him.  Hermana Gaona was a little confused because I just said, "we NEED to talk to him, but I will explain why after."  Anyway, we talked to Eduardo.  In the beginning he was NOT interested.  He made that very clear, but after some time he said, "I believe these things are true."  MIND BLOWN.  Anyway, he left for a different province in Argentina for some time so he couldn´t come to church. 

Who knows, maybe he won´t be baptized, but we did our part and that´s what matters.

As for the other investigators they are doing well.  People drop us everyday, but it´s okay because we find other people and it all works out.

That´s pretty much all because I am out of time.  LOVE YOU ALL.

Hermana Vera and I.

Hermana Vincent and I.

"Do you guys realize that you have all the answers to my questions?"

Hermana Gaona, Hermana Rodriguez, me, and Hermana Ibana.

 

Wow, I didn´t realize how different it was going to be training.  I love my companion.  She´s great, but I am teaching a lot.  Like how to do laundry, read a map, clean, use a blender... It´s pretty interesting.  Thanks for teaching me, mom.  Anyway, we have been seeing success.  We have been finding a lot of people.  For example, we were in the area of an ex investigator who was great, but we could never find her again, but we decided to stop by her house.  We found her and her son and when we explained the Restoration, her son Pablo said to us, "Do you guys realize that you have all of the answers to my questions?"  He is really great, too bad he had to leave town, but it´s okay because they are really great.  Also, the other day, we were in the street looking for a referencia.  We knocked a couple doors to find them (which was an interesting experience in and of itself), but we couldn´t so we decided to ask people in the street.  We started talking to this guy, and he told us, "Oh hey, I always went to your church in La Pampa, but when I moved here, I couldn´t find it."  Good think for him, the church found him.

There has been a lot of rain lately.  Last monday, we were in downtown area of our zone and it started to rain really hard at 7, we were about an hour away from our house without good rainy weather attire.  My poor companion, I have put her through a lot of things.  Also, Halloween it rained so much!  Here they don´t celebrate Halloween so I hope that it was an awesome Holiday for the rest of you!  It rained so much that on our way home, we were so soaked.  We stopped into a bread shop to buy pastries and then we stood in the rain eating our pastries really far away from the house.  It was really great.

That´s pretty much all that I have time for, but something funny.  Our President Parreño was in our church the other day and they had a meeting with the zone leaders after church in the same building.  We got a call during lunch saying that presidente, his wife, the elders, and an investigator were locked inside the church.  Everyone left from the church and locked the door.  We didn´t have the key because the other hermanas had it.  16 missed calls from the Elders.  hahaha  We laughed a lot.  Even though I am sure they had really important meetings and stuff.

Anyway that´s pretty much it, everything is going peachy.  Also, my spanish is coming along rather well.  An investigador was surprised when I told her that I spoke english because she thought that Spanish was my only language.  So that was pretty cool, I guess.  Well, that´s all.  Love you, write me.

 

 

I have never seen real change in anyone so profound as in Ismael.

 

Our Zone.

First off, we had transfers.  I thought that I was going to leave from Hospital, but I am still here.  And I am training.  Yeah, training, what?  They called us on Tuesday night to tell us what was going to happen.  They called and told us that I was going to be training.  I almost fainted, but luckily my companion is a sweetheart.  On Friday, we went to pick up our trainees. We went and the AP Elder Nash said, "Your companion is right there."  She came up to me and she gave me a big hug, and we talked for a while.  After about 2 minutes, they came back and said, "oh wait, she is not your companion." But after, we cleared everything up and it was great.  My companion is Hermana Gaona from Peru.  It´s actually really great because she has that newbie spirit that I absolutely love.  It reminds me when I was in the MTC and I was excited.  She is great, really shy so I do almost all of the talking.  It is interesting because now I am the person that talks to everyone, calls everyone, knows everyone, and she is the one that actually speaks the language.  Now I know that I can do it, and I am so glad that my companion is from Peru because she is helping me with my spanish.    

The last night that Hermana Medina and I had as companions was pretty sad because we wanted to stay as companions, but we knew that we were going to separate.  We were excited though, changes are always good.  

Hermana Medina with the two kilos of ice-cream that our district leader gave us.

The first day that Hermana Gaona and I worked, I wanted to show her how great the area was because I didn´t want her to regret coming to the mission.  And so, I planned a perfect day to see all of our best investigators.  Nobody was home, and we never entered a house.  We walked at least 8 miles, and I am afraid that I killed my poor hija.  Luckily, she is really awesome so it wasn´t a problem.  But that day, we went to clap at a door and then we hear, "NO NO NO NO"  We saw a man who was mute and deaf.  But we taught him the first lesson.  All in signs and signals and a lot of awkwardness.  What we understood is that the man that we were going to visit is sleeping and that we shouldn´t wake him up, that he drinks a lot, and that the mute man´s father collapsed one day and passed away.  I have no idea if that is what he was trying to tell us, but that´s what we understood.  For me it wasn´t unusual because I am used to feeling lost in conversations and not understanding.

Anyway, our investigators.  Ismael is still progressing.  I have never seen a real change in anyone so profound.  He has completely changed.  The baptism process is still going to take a while because a lot of things in his past, but we are working with him and trying to help him in anyway that we can.

Teresa is doing great, healthwise no, but she is so happy to be a member of the church!  The doctors did the chemotherapy this week and her health has declined a lot so we don´t know what´s going to happen.

As for the mosquitos.  (or the bugs of Argentina)  During dinner friday night with a member family recent convert, we were eating and I looked down and my leg was covered in blood.  I don´t know what kind of bug it was, something bit me and caused me to bleed a lot.  Yeah, it´s interesting the things that the mission does to our bodies.

All in all, I love you all.

Water, Water - Everywhere! Except in our house!

 

The rain created a river in the street!

What a week.  First off, it´s starting to warm up.  It´s starting to warm up a lot.  And there is this awesome thing that happens in Argentina when it´s warm.  Sometimes the water just stops working in the houses.  The pressure drops a lot and since we live on the second story, we don´t have water.  After three days of no water, we called our pensionero and so we got to stay in mission home.  It was awesome, but none of us could sleep, but it felt really good to be in a house that was really nice.  Still we have no water during the day and when we return.  To flush the toilet, we have to keep bottles or water ready, pour it into the wall, and then flush.  It´s really fun.  The only problem is that it requires a lot of water and the bottles are used to fill up our drinking water.  (We aren´t allowed to drink from the tap.)  So it´s been an interesting week, the day after, we went to the other hermanas in villa floresta.  It´s such a hassle though, so we decided to just live with not having water.  It´s great fun.

The crazy thing is that we went from not having water, to having a ton of water.  It rained and stormed really bad.  So bad that there was water leaking in and collecting on my bed because I sleep on the top bunk.  Sadly that´s not the first time.  They are trying to find a new house for us because the house we live in is about to fall apart.  But we enjoy it.

Also, with the extra water, there were more mosquitos.  My companion told me that the mosquitos here have Argentine Pride so they do more damage.  My arms were swollen for a while, and I still have the bites 4 days later, but all is well here in Bahía.

 

Mosquito bites!  They have Argentina Pride!

 

On to the spiritual, Yesterday was the confirmation of Teresa and it was excellent and really spiritual.  Also, it was Mother´s day. So Happy Mother´s Day!  All in all it was great and our investigator Ismael came, too.  His life is changing so much, it´s absolutely fantastic.  

We also found a lady named Hilda this week.  She has NO trust in anyone.  All she tells me is "You have german face, you are german, I never let anyone in my house, why did I let you in?"  She´s pretty awesome so we are going to bring her to the church this sunday.  If I am still here.  Wednesday are Transfers so I don´t know if I will still be here.

Well that´s pretty much all for today.