Tres Arroyos

This is my zone in Mar del Plata Centro!

First off, I love tres arroyos!  It´s absolutely beautiful here.  Hermana Boyce and I get along really really well!  We pretty much live in an area really excluded from the rest of the mission.  We are 3 hours from Bahía Blanca and 2 hours from Necochea.  So we are far away from everyone, but we have 4 elders here with us.  All in all, this place is awesome.  The people are really welcoming and nice.  

As for the miracles.  We were walking last monday as our first real day as a companionship.  We walked and we saw a man on the side of the street.  We were headed to an appointment, but we decided that we could at least give him a card or something.  He was really willing to talk to us and he explained stuff about the people who lived in the Americas.  We pulled out the Book of Mormon and started to explain, then he says, "Yeah, I have already read that."  A lot of people say that, so obviously we doubted it.  We asked him what he remembered.  Then he said, "It actually makes a lot of sense because they would be the descendents of the lamanites and the records of the prophets would be written somewhere because God loves everyone and when the plates were burried in hill Cumorah, it seems like a way that God would preserve His records."   We just sat there without saying anything because we didn´t know how to respond.  It was almost uncomfortable.  Then we asked, "Are you sure that you aren´t already a member?"  Then he explains to us, "No, I know that baptism is important, but I don´t want to get baptized just to say that I have done it.  When I choose a religion, it´s not going to be an easy religion.  We have commandments to test our faith and obedience so no, I never got baptized."  THEN he starts explaining that he has read the Liahona and teachings of the prophets.  So yeah, he believes it´s true, but didn´t know what to do.  So that was pretty much mind blowing.  

Apart from that, we are meeting really awesome people everyday.  Even when it is raining really hard!  Seriously, but we are an awesome companionship.  The other day it was raining so hard that the street was pretty much a river.  My companion didn`t know how to cross because it was really really deep!  Luckily I had boots so I just say, "Get on my back!"  After persuading her, I gave her a piggy back ride through the water.  It was funny because a line of cars came at that exact moment.  And my companion is really tall, so it was a pretty interesting view.

But really, we are enjoying the mission so much and working really hard!  

I have no more time, but I love you all!

Tres Arroyos with Hermana Boyce.

So!  I GOT TRANSFERRED!  I am now here in Tres Arroyos with Hermana Boyce!  She`s from Holladay and she is absolutely awesome!  I arrived here yesterday and I already love it.  I miss Balcarce so much because I was there for almost 6 months, but I am happy here too.  I really don´t know anything about anyone here so yeah.

I got to see Hermana Medina again at a zone conference!

My last sunday was stake conference so we had to travel to Mar del Plata for that, and then we stayed there to be able to travel to Tres arroyos.  It was a hectic week because it was my last week, but we also did divisiones with the hermanas en Barrio Centro.  I really have no time today.  Juan Carlos is doing really well and Ramón also.  We have also found a lot of other people to teach and we are doing everything.  Now it`s my first day here, and I don`t know anything.  Anyway, I had a ton of photos that I was going to send home, but I can`t because my camera has been lost.  O sea, it may or may not have been stolen.  

Familia Iannone!

Well, I am sorry, but that`s about it.  I will stories next week!

Hermana Daiana Iannone

My sister of the heart!

The commandments are to protect us and help us!

Making Chorizo.

 

Boiling water, vicks, and a towel.  I had a stuffy nose!

This week was super great.  Something that I learned was that really the commandments are to protect us and help us, but sometimes we don´t see it that way.  Luckily, we have an investigator that sees it just perfectly.  The other night we saw Juan Carlos, but we couldn´t talk for much time so we left a Law of Chastity pamphlet, told him to read it, and left.  We went back a little bit nervous to see what he would say, but he just says to us, "Hey, chicas, I read the pamphlet.. and I absolutely loved it.  It´s something that nobody respects anymore, but it is exactly what I am looking for in my life."  We were so shocked I really couldn´t believe it.  So yeah, he´s pretty much golden and his baptism was announced yesterday in church for May 24!  So I am really excited for him!  

We also talked to Enzo this week.  He faced his dad and told him that he wanted to go to church instead of work so he did all the arrangements so that he could go to church!  He´s only 19 years old, but he is the best.  We have an appointment with him tonight to talk about his baptism and everything so we are going to see what happens!  

We also met a man named Ramón.  He lives with a member.  He lost his job and pretty much everything.  It´s really sad, but we went to his house and talked to him.  He said that he would come to church with us!  Sunday morning we looked out our window and it was raining SO MUCH!  (Ramón lives really far away).  We said, alright, we are going to go and see if he still wants to go.  We went to his house and when we clapped at the door, he came out completely ready to go!  In the church he said, "I like it so much, I am going to by myself everyweek." 

I think that´s about it.  Let´s see.  Cultural things.

Everyone eats everything with Mayonaise.  SO MUCH!  It doesn´t matter what you are eating, there is always Mayonaise on the table.

Also, they eat french bread with every meal.  If there´s no bread, they wait to buy before eating.

We clap at doors.  I don´t know if I had mentioned that before, but you stand at a door and clap.  

Well, that´s about it. Love you all!

Cakes, breads, and more cakes.

We put a lot of fruit in my coat.

Super good week this week!  Miracles.  God answers our prayers in funny ways sometimes and uses people that don´t want anything with the gospel.  

1) This week we have been praying for a coat.  It´s been starting to get cold here in Balcarce and my companion did not have a coat, let alone a jacket.  She was going to go to Peru, but here in Argentina it´s a lot colder.  Anyway, we were sitting with an investigator named Carolina that really does not want anything.  We were talking to her about everything and she told us upfront that she didn´t want anything.  We were sad because we didn´t know what to say.  And then she looks at us and says, "I know this has nothing to do with anything, but if I gave you a coat, would you use it?"  We pretty much just started to cry in this moment because my companion has been needing one so badly!  It´s so true that God can answer our prayers through other people.   

Here's the fruit I was carrying.

2)  Last monday, it was the end of the month and we had no money left.  We had problems with the card too, so it was delayed with everything.  We didn´t even know what we were going to do for breakfast the next day.  We were walking home talking about what we were going to do.  Then we started to talk to a man in the street.  He did not want anything to do with the church or anything, but after a while he said, do you guys want to come in, and pointed to his bread shop.  We had enough money to buy some sweet bread for breakfast so we were going to buy some.  Then he says, "Do you like this kind?"  and he starts putting a bunch in a bag.  In the end, he just says, "this is a gift from a friend even though you will never see him in the church."  There are so many awesome people in the world.  I just love it.  Also, God ALWAYS takes care of us.  So really, don´t worry about us here because we are very well taken care of.

Sweet bread from a creepy man.

Other awesome things happened this week, too.  For example, we were talking with Juan Carlos the other day and we taught him the word of wisdom.  We were a little scared because he drinks and smokes and we thought it would be the last lesson that we would teach.  But what happened is that he absolutely loved it! Then he went to his calendar and said, "hmmmm we can do my baptism May 24"  

So yeah, we didn´t even say anything and he put his own baptismal date.  So we are super excited for that!

Funny Stuff:

Here in Argentina, nobody wants to get married.  BUT this week we found FOUR people that wanted to actually get married.  The only problem is that they wanted to marry US.  So yeah, I got proposed to 2 times and my companion 2 times.  But don´t worry, I don´t think that they are my type.

I live with 3 latin sisters that know little english.  But sometimes they like to speak to each other.

Making bread.

Making cakes for our Bishop.

More cakes.

A piece of cake.

 They really don´t know much and so their conversations are something like, "Hello.. How are you...okay.. GOOD.. and you?  Okay.. GOOD NIGHT. I like.  Okay."  I can´t really explain it, but it´s pretty funny!

Also, there are so many products that are from the United States that they use and they just say the things with a spanish accent and they think that it´s a spanish word.  For example, white out says "Liquid paper" on the box.  But when they say it with their accent, it´s actually like Leaky Pay pair.  It took me a while to figure out what they were trying to say.  They don´t know it´s english.  That´s the funniest part.

Anyway, that is all.  Love you all!

A diseased hand . . . I have no idea what it is.

 

The singing approach / Repentance takes time.

Doing Service

This week was a good week.  A lot because the weather was a lot nicer this week than last week.  

We had some pretty cool experiences.  Hermana Parreño had given us an idea to sing at doors to meet people.  In this case, it was an investigador that we already had named Mariza.  We went to her house and she was laying in her bed.  We knocked the door and she said, "No no no, I don´t want anything to do with you guys right now."  We opened her window and started to talk to her a little bit, she didn´t really want anything.  We asked, "Do you want us to pray."  "You can pray if you want, but I am not going to do anything."  Alright, we decided to sing instead.  We started to sing, "Señor te necesito."  I don´t remember what the translation is right now, but anyway, by the third verse, she was sitting up in the bed smiling.  And when we finished, she said, "Ahhh, chicas, come on in.  I need to talk."  BOOM.  It was great, and we don´t even have good voices.

As for other things, Juan Carlos is doing super well.  He was reading the other day that true repentance takes time.  And he doesn´t want to be baptized until he feels good about himself.  But it´s great because he trusts us now, and he calls us to see how we are doing and when he has questions about the gospel.  He says that he feels really good when he reads and he has more energy and desires to work.  So we are pretty excited about that.  As for Hermana Bermudez and I, we are doing really well.  We have set backs sometimes and she´s still adjusting to the weather and everything, but it´s all good!  

Also, I don´t know why it´s so hard to find ugly sweaters in Utah, because here they are so ugly and so cheap.  I bought the best ugly sweater yesterday for 5 pesos, aka 50 cents now due to inflation.  That´s better than DI.  (I know you were dying to hear that!)  

Anyway, that´s all for now.  I know that God loves us so much.  Thanks for all your prayers.

A can that we destroyed because we didn't have a can opener.

It hurts my brain to think or write in English!

 

Hermanas in Tandil.

 

Hermana Williams

 

Alright, this week is going to be a little bit short because we did divisions in Tandil this week, but all in all, this week was SUPER GREAT!  Monday was a great day, too.  We went to visit one of our investigators named Lucía.  Anyway, we were thinking about dropping her because she didn´t really seem interested and we could never get in her house to teach.  We went one last time and said to ourselves that if we didn´t get in the house, it was a sign that we shouldn´t teach her anymore.  We knocked the door and at first she wasn´t there.  We were about the leave and then she came outside.  Hey, chicas, how are you doing?  As I was thinking, "hmmm she´s never going to let us in"  she says to us, "HEY COME ON IN."  Seriously?  I couldn´t believe it.  Direct answers from God I guess.  ANyway, we went in and we taught a really long lesson with her.  As we were saying the closing prayer she starts to cry.  And she can´t stop.  Little did she know she was feeling the spirit.  God answers all of our prayers, sometimes it´s just a lot more obvious.

Renee

Sunday was an interesting day.  We went to go pick up an investigator that we had met earlier this week.  She is really great, but a little bit crazy.  We went in the house and she started to scream, cry, and say random things.  But we told her that we were going to walk with her to church.  She was so happy, and she actually came with us!  Every 3 seconds, she just kept asking us, "Do you have a boyfriend?" "and you?" and she kept asking us.  She then offered her son to us, so that was a little bit awkward.  We meet really interesting people everyday.  

Argentine Mosquites still hate my body!

BUT in the church, we were sitting patiently, and then de repente we totally see Juan Carlos!  We were super excited because it makes the third time that he has come and he actually likes it.  

Anyway, that´s really all that I have time for.  It hurts my brain the think or write in english.

Not because my spanish is good, but because I don´t use english.  At all.

Love you all!

Ice-Cream!

 

We have miracles every day. Our only job is to recognize them.

Bueno, this week was another really good week. I realized that we have miracles everyday. Our only job is to recognize them. For example, we went to visit Juan Carlos, who had come to General Conference to see how he had felt and all that jazz. So we passed by his house a lot of times to see how we was doing. He never answered us, we rang the doorbell an annoyingly amount of times, but he never answered. The last time we went, and once again. He didńt answer us. We were about to leave and in that moment, he left from his house. He had a really weird look on his face that pretty much told us, "why are you here?" I was a little bit scared, but then he explained that he never heard the doorbell ring. Turns out the doorbell doesńt work and he was just going to go run a few errands right in the moment that we were in front of his house. We thought he was avoiding us, but nope. Turns out that he really liked what he heard in the conference and told us that he would come again.

Sunday morning, we had a missed call, but didńt know who it was. Long story short, it was Juan Carlos! He wanted to know if we were already there because he didńt want to enter the church alone! We were super psyched and once again, he really enjoyed it! So yeah, I like to think that when he felt like he "should run errands" was just God putting him in our path. Miracles exist everyday.

Speaking of other things that are miracles. Our intelligence. We have now successfully removed all of the lightbulbs from all of the rooms that do not absolutely need light. The bulbs keep going out and we just keep moving them around. But it́s gotten to the point that we dońt have light in the bathroom. Yeah, we have been using the flash on the cell phone to shower. I dońt know why I am telling you all this, but I just thought it was pretty funny.

Also, lawnmowers here have cords. They are more like Vacuums on grass.
Well, that́s all, LOVE YOU ALL!