Yamila's Baptism!

Yamila's Baptism!

The whole family Serra.

Yamila and her mom.

First off, here in Argentina everyone is going crazy in the streets with the world cup!  People are just in the streets screaming or honking their horns.  It´s actually pretty awesome!  But we aren´t going to let it affect our work.

So we had a Yamila´s baptism this Saturday.  It was so amazing, really, she´s just the best girl ever.  She is always so willing to go to church and participate even though she is the only one in her family.  Her whole family was baptized, but for a lot of different reasons, they are not attending.  The was the best part of the whole baptism.  

We had planned everything in advance so that it would be smooth sailing before the baptism at 6:00.  At 5:30 we got a lot of calls saying that people couldn´t give their talks or lead the music.  To make a long story short, the missionaries ended up doing everything, prayers, talks, and leading the music.  We were worried, too, that Yamila wouldn´t get there, but she showed up with her family!  Her whole family!  It was absolutely wonderful.  My favorite part about being a missionary is seeing others see and recognize when they are feeling something.  Lorena, Yamila´s mom, really didn´t want too much with the church, but she went and she felt the spirit so strongly!  Yamila was really nervous, but she got in the water and her mom felt it.  I really wasn´t watching Yamila as much as I was watching her family.  They started crying and absolutely felt something so special!  The next day Lorena was at church and the confirmation was so beautiful!  Seriously!  

I have so much to write, but never any time.  Sorry!  

Just know that we are safe and having fun!  The mission is the best!

I love you all!

The plaza at night.

Rain!!

Augustin - he got baptized in April.

In the plaza . . . awkward companionship.

The World Cup is starting, and people are CRAZY here in Argentina!

Hermana Marple and I.

Reinforcements in Quequen with Hermana Marple and the zone.

Messing around in a tire.

So first of all. The world cup is starting and it́s starting to get pretty crazy here in Argentina! But when I mean crazy, I mean CRAZY! There are count downs everywhere of when the games start and when Messi plays, all the doors are closed and everyone drinks.. So I feel like this week is going to be a little interesante. Wéll just knock doors in an area where nobody has TV́s. Anyway, this week was fantastic!

We had a few experiences that were awesome. The other day, we were walking in an area that we dońt go to a lot because it́s really far away, but we felt like we needed to go. We were walking and we saw a family. I felt like we needed to talk to a lady that was standing outside. We went to a different house first to see if one of the members still lived there, but afterwards we decided to go to her house to talk to her. It was so interesting. She is absolutely fantastic and muy amable. We were talking to her for a good while and then her husband got home. When he talks like an Evangelic priest, but hés really awesome. But he says to us, "Okay, it́s just really weird because last night I was praying to God with all of my heart and now you guys are in my house. My brother is a member of your church and always invites me. Maybe God is telling me that I need to go." Obviously that́s what happened because we are never that far away. So that́s a family of three that we are now working with.
Also, we are preparing a Yamila (sha mee la) for her baptism this Saturday. Shés like 13 years old and goes to church by herself. All of her family are members, but they are all less active. But with all of our visits we are helping all of them to get back there. It́s absolutely awesome to see the progression of all of them. So yeah, it́s been an interesting week. and Now, I dońt have anymore time.

Love you all!

Also, not only the world cup, but the people are obsessed with One Direction here. I dońt know how it is back in the states, but here it́s absolutely awful!

We made roast beef.

Home made churros.

This Pretty much describes our companionship!

Homemade marshmallows  to eat S'mores.

There's a reason why Jesus always told us to be like children.

The beautiful Arroyo.

Eating delicious panchos!

This week I learned a lot from children.  We are currently teaching some children to help the whole family come to church.  The testimonies of the lil´chillens are really really powerful.  There´s a reason why Jesus always told us to be like children.  They are willing to learn everything and anything.  There is a 9 year old boy here with many difficulties in the family.  And despite all of that, he got baptized by himself and he goes to church every sunday by himself.  He shares his testimony every fast sunday and has so many desires to help everyone around him.  Seriously, he shows me up by a long shot.  The example that he has set has changed his whole family.  His mom is now listening to us and wants to be baptized.  It´s interesting that it all started with a little kid that helped his whole family.  

Apart from that, we are also teaching a family of 9 people.  Everyone has been baptized besides the three youngest, Nicolas, Melodi, and Kevin.  We have helped them all to come to church and now we have a young men and women`s programs at church. :)  Na, solo un joke, but it makes a huge difference when they are there.  

I really love Tres Arroyos because we are helping families that have once learned about the church or are learning from the start, but as a family!  Because that`s pretty much the whole gospel right there.  

Hermana Boyce and I are really enjoying our time together.  We are pretty sure that it will be the only transfer that we have together because we get a long so well, but we are really happy here.  Anyway, that`s about all for now.  

Thanks so much for your support, I love you all!

I'm crocheting a scarf for my companion.

Messing around with some chairs!

We splurged and bought Pringles!

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.