I can't believe that I've been in the mission for a year now!

We are in Mar del Plata again because we have a zone activity today.  First time ever, yeah, we are pretty psyched. 

Anyway, I can´t believe that I have been in the mission for a year now.  It´s crazy how fast time flies.  Exactly a year ago, I was in the MTC learning all about what the mission was going to be.  hahaha It´s so much different.  But it´s the best, honestly. 

This week we had some pretty awesome experiences.  First off, Zulma.  She is super great.  She is the lady that always wanted to know about our church but didn´t know when the meetings were.  We were talking with her the other day and she said, "I want to be a part of this because I have a lot of family that is mormon now and there were some huge changes.  It´s not just a baptism, it´s a way to live."  Yeah, I would pretty much say that she is prepared.  She is super great, so we are really excited to keep teaching her!

Also, crazy story.  We knocked a door the other day and we started talking to a lady about the church and all, then she interrupts us and says, "I was baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints, but I went inactive 15 years ago.  I know that the church is true, but it is hard for me to return.  God told me that he would tell me when it was the right time."  I think that two missionaries knocking on a door is a pretty big sign.  Especially because she isn´t from Balcarce, she lives in a city 20 minutes out of town, but was visiting for 5 minutes in the house of a friend because she was going to go to a wedding.  Coincidence?  No way.  None of her family is a member.  Her husband and 6 kids.  It was pretty amazing to be honest. 

That´s pretty much my week... well all that I have time for.  I love you all!  And the mission is the best thing ever!

God answers prayers, even when they are super simple and small!

 

Everything is great here in Balcarce.  We went to Bahía because we had meeting there.  Yeah, 7 more hours of traveling each way. It´s actually pretty fun so don´t feel too bad for me.  

Anyway, the work and miracles.  God answers our prayers that are super simple and small.  The other day we were praying because we were so hungry.  Then we said, well let´s go to tal lady´s house.  Bueno.  We went and it turns out that it was her birthday!  She made so many cakes and all.  Seriously, be careful what you pray for because you never know if it´s going to be too much. No it was great!  And then she came to church the next day so it was a super good day.

Every night we made goals of what we want to do for the next day.  Last night we had all of our goals reached.. we were only lacking one lesson.  It was 8:45, but we said, okay, we are going to run and find someone who wants to listen to us.  We saw a man on the side of the street, and so we started to talk to him.  He was super atheist, but we felt like we needed to talk to him more.  10 minutes later, his friend came out of the house and asked, "what church are you guys from?"..."The church that´s in 7 y 20"..."I always wanted to go to that church, but I never knew if I could just show up, can I go to your meetings?"  Yeah, it´s all about the little miracles that we do that depend on everything.

That´s pretty much all.. oh and to explain the picture of the ROUS (rat of unusual size), we were in a lesson outside the house and all of a sudden this child starts dragging this rat and then gave it to the investigator.... So obviously we took pictures of it.  

That´s all, no time.  Loves to all!

 

With a random HUGE animal!

 

 

God always puts people where they need to be to learn more about the gospel if they are wanting it.

If you thought I had no time to write before, today is even less time.  I think that every week it gets to be less and less that I actually end up sending.

Anyway, experiences.  This week we had an appointment with one of our investigators that lives super far away (Cintia from last week.)  And in her house there was a lady that wanted NOTHING to do with us or religion in general.  She had had some pretty nasty experiences in the past with Pastors and leaders from other religions and did not want anything.  We explained the restoration to her friend and by the end it turned out that she was more excited that our actual investigator.  She was asking a lot of good questions and wanted to learn a lot more.  Her home life is really sad, but it´s interesting how God always puts people where they need to be to learn more about the gospel if they are wanting it.

Also, our investigator Enzo.  We have been having such a hard time talking to him and contacting him because his phone is broken and our phone is medio broken, too.  But it was pretty cool because we didn´t know what to do with him, but then he was randomly in the street.  He said, "Hermanas, I have been able to go to church lately because my dad is making me work, but I have decided I want to get baptized in March for my birthday."  uh....... it was the opposite of what we were thinking, but I was super happy!  God works with people even when we aren´t there or teaching.  During this time, he realized that he wants to be a member and that things with his mom were bettering.  

Also, normally we see dead frogs everywhere, but this past week.  We were in the house of a less active woman and then she said, "excuse me", stood up, and started sweeping the floor.  We looked down, and it turns out that she was sweeping a jumping frog from the house.  It was pretty interesting.  That´s pretty much it!

Love you all!

A Week at the Hospital / Alicia is Baptized!

Street Sign Puede Ser

Greetings from Mar del Plata.  This morning we had interviews with Presidente and so we had to travel super early to Mar del Plata. And the interenet in this Cyber is pretty slow so I am sorry if I can´t write very much this week.  Also, my camera doesn´t work in this computer so I have no pictures this week.  Which is a bummer because we had so many things happen today. 

 

Live Frog!

 

At the Hospital.

Monday, right after talking to you guys, we went to the hospital.  Hermana Llave, the new hermana that arrived a week go had problems with her legs.  She got hospitalized for 4 days.  So that´s where we were this week.  We were doing divisones every 4 hours so that work could be done from each companionship.  We took turns staying the night there, too so that was pretty fun.  She got out of the hospital Thursday.  Right after that, we had a baptismal interview for Alicia, and while she was being interviewed the other hermanas called us to tell us that I needed to go to Bahía Blanca with Hermana Ortiz so that she could get her documents here in Argentina.  That night we left, we traveled all night, arrived, did our thing, and then we left for Mar del Plata.  We stayed in Mar del Plata with the other hermanas because there were no more buses to Balcarce after midnight.  We woke up to travel to Balcarce, arrived, and then practically went straight to the baptism.  I don´t know if any of that made sense, but let´s just say that it was a really really interesting week.  But it was also a lot of fun.  We got to talk to other missionaries.  A lot of traveling, but that´s okay, I quite like it.

Tender Loving Care for Alicia!

But now I am going to talk about the baptism.  I wish that I could send a picture this time, but I can´t.  Maybe after I figure everything out, I will be able to send something.  I don´t know.  Anyway, we had the baptism two days ago.  Alicia didn´t want anyone to be there, she just wanted to do it and get it over with.  She arrived on time and was pretty excited.  She has 82 years, but a really strong personality so she wouldn´t admit that she was excited.  

 

Alicia's Baptism.

Even though she didn´t want anyone there, there was still a lot of support from the members.  Everything went really well.  When she entered the font, she was really scared because she can hardly bathe herself.  Hermano said the words of the baptism and then she got even more scared.  Hermano Ruiz pretty much pushed her under the water, and when she came up, she was really really emocional.  She began to cry (but don´t worry, tears of joy).  Hermano Ruiz gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.  It was really really sweet.  All in all, it was a really good, interesting week and we are looking forward to working this week, too.

I think that´s about it for now.  Lot´s of love from Argentina!

Another Exciting Week of Transfers!

The Zone in Mar del Plata.

The Sisters that Hermana Squire trained!

Another exciting week!  It was also the week of transfers!  I am still with Hermana Rozsa this transfer.  We were both really relieved when they told us that we were both going to be staying in the area because our investigator Alicia wanted us both to be in her Baptism, and now we both can!

Bueno, this week we did divisions with the Hermanas in Mar del Plata.  The first day I did divisions with Hermana Ibaña.  I lived with her before, so it was so great to be able to talk to her and see her.  The second day, I did divisions with Hermana Peterson.  She is from Boston, but she went to Utah State so we had a lot of things in common.  It was really interesting working in a different area.  It was really fun, and I learned a lot of things.  Mar del Plata is really beautiful.  It has the same climate more or less to Southern California, and the beach is super pretty.  Yeah, I saw the beach!  We were in a bus, so it was only for a few seconds, but it´s still better than nothing.

Anyway, this week we saw some awesome miracles.  We are working with an Hermana that wants to be baptized so bad, but her boyfriend refuses to marry her even though they have been together for five years already.  She was an ex  investigator, but when we went to her house she was super awesome.  She wanted to go to church with us so bad!  We told her that we would walk with her, and we were 3 minutes late on sunday, and she called us to ask us where we were.  Normally, we show up, and they have some excuse as to why they can´t show up.  

Also, yesterday!  We were knocking some doors... a lot of doors and nobody was answering.  Seriously for 3 hours, we didn´t even talk to a single person.  All of our appointments fell through and it was already 4:55. We said, we just want to talk to SOMEONE before 5:00, rejection doesn´t matter.  We knocked a door at 4:59 that had the first person that was actually home.  We started to talk to the lady, her name is Andrea.  She saw us and couldn´t believe it, turns out that she had received some of the discussions four years ago and was pretty familiar with our church.  She began to cry because she explained to us that 2 years ago, her mom passed away; and 2 months ago, her brother passed away in a terrible accident.  I don´t remember exactly what we said, but it was a really spiritual experience.  We said the words that God wanted us to say.  In the end, she said, "You know what?  This morning, I woke up and felt a really strong desire to go to church, but I didn´t know what church to go to, I don´t feel like it´s a coincidence that you are here."

All in all, it was a good week.  No time left.  Love you all.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

New Year's with the Iannone Family.

It´s been a really interesting week, but it´s also been a really good week.  We celebrated the new year!  We were all in bed at 10:30, but still is was great.  The work that day was almost impossible because there was nobody outside. Literally! There was nobody in the streets that day, nothing was open, and it was really really hot.  Even the taxis weren´t running that day.  It was interesting because our zone leaders called us and told us that we were going to be going to Bahía for a meeting with all of the zone leaders and we needed to travel to Mar del Plata.  But there were absolutely no taxis to get to the terminal..  So we walked a pretty good distance.  (But my companion and I love to walk, so really there was no problem.)  The tiring part was the traveling.  It´s about a 7 hour bus ride from Mar del Plata to the mission home.  We left at 11 at night and arrived at 6 in the morning.  The meetings started 8:30 so we didn´t sleep at all.  Regardless of all the traveling, however, it was still a really really good week.  

Alicia is still progressing, they announced her baptism for the January 18, and we was really really content.  Also, we were working with a man named Daniel and his wife.  He told us that he was going to come to church, but there are a lot of people that say that and then don´t do anything.  We were in church and then, BAM. He showed up!  It was super awesome because we didn´t think that he would come.  Really, it´s the best feeling ever to see someone that you care about in the church because we know without a doubt that their week will be better.  Everything here in Balcarce is super great, it´s still really really hot here, but that´s about everything.  Transfers are in a week and we really don´t want to change.  Hermana Rozsa is so great, really.  We get a long really well and everyday we enjoy each other more and more.  We laugh all day everyday (don´t worry, we still do a lot of teaching.)  

Anyway, I am about out of time so that´s about it!  Thanks for the letters, I really appreciate everything!

 

MY PACKAGE ARRIVED!

Beautiful Balcarce

 

 

The Most Memorable Christmas of My Life!

Merry Christmas!

Our Beautiful Christmas Tree

So I am sure that you are all wondering how christmas was for me in Argentina.  Well, it was probably the most... memorable christmas of my life.  In the morning we decided we wanted to do a little christmas caroling because we didn´t have appointments for the day, but we didn´t want the work to stop so we knocked some doors and started to sing christmas carols (note: here, they have no idea what christmas caroling is).  When they opened the doors and we started singing, their faces were the funniest things ever.  And as missionaries, we have seen many interesting faces.  Anyway, one of the houses that we went to, the man that answered had a super funny face, and then he started to scream some names.  30 seconds later, 3 people came out of the house to hear us sing.  Two of them had down syndrome and they started laughing, clapping, and singing with us.  It was absolutely fantastic because they were really grateful for the time that we took during the christmas holiday to spread some cheer.  It was the best.  All day, we were saying, "this is the best christmas ever."  We kept working...  AND THEN.

My companion started to feel sick at about 5:45 (we were going to leave to talk to our families and 6:30)... we decided to go back to the house for a little bit because we didn´t want to be sick while talking to our families.  We were walking, and next thing I know, my companion is throwing up on the side of the street.  We realized that we needed to go to the house.  As we were walking to the house, the other hermanas called us.  They told us that Hermana Ortiz was throwing up.  Yeah, it turns out that we ate something that was super bad in our bodies.  I don´t want to give you all of the details, but let´s just say that at one moment, three out of four of us were puking in various areas of the house.  We ended up in the hospital that night (and our families didn´t know that we weren´t going to be there). We all got shots, but yeah... all we can eat now is white rice.  YAY, MERRY CHRISTMAS.

That is pretty much all.  

Now with our investigators..

Alicia is still doing super well.  The other day we were teaching her (and she absolutely loves joking around)  For example when we taught the word of wisdom, she said, "yeah, I accept everything because I know that this church is true..... I will give up the alcohol, but I will never give up my illegal drugs"... she´s the only 83 year old woman I know that says stuff like that just to see what our faces are going to be like after.  

Anyway, she said, "I don´t want to go to church anymore."........ just to see our faces.  And then she said, "Nah, I am just kidding, I already talked to the bishop, I am going to be baptized January 18, and I want both of you to be there."  It´s right after transfers so we don´t know if we will be here, but the important part is that she is going to do it.  

It was a great week full of ups and downs.  Sorry that all my thoughts are super jumbled, but oh well.  Merry christmas to everyone!

 

With My Gift From Hermana Rozsa.

With Our Christmas Gifts