Adios Florida!! Hola Argentina!!

Yup! It's true! I'm flying out to Argentina TODAY!!

Buenos Aires from the air!

I'm pretty darn nervous about it too haha but I'm mostly excited :) It's going to be a crazy adventure, and it's where the Lord needs me now. I'm happy about that! Haha sorry, my brain is kinda scrambled haha I can't think straight. . .but here's what I wrote to Prez:

Hello President,
It's pretty crazy that this is the last letter I'll be writing you to already! It came SO much sooner than I was expecting, especially after being able to talk with you at interviews and get such amazing words of wisdom from you. I'm so grateful from all that I've learned from you in such a short period of time and I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to serve here! In the past 6 weeks I feel like SO much has happened. When we started out here, we were "white washing" which was a new experience for all of us. We tried to do a lot of contacting old potentials and teaching, we also did a lot of work with the members to try and get to know them better. Toward the beginning of this transfer though, I felt like we as a companionship weren't working as hard as we could have been and I'm so grateful that we were able to have Sister (Hermana) Ackley come. She is just such a hard worker, and she straightened up some paper work things that weren't like that should have been. . .and we just ALWAYS come home exhausted and that is the BEST feeling as a mish haha I've learned a ton being here in Florida, and found a lot of things I can be better about and work on. I'm going to do my best to let my light shine to the people of Argentina and use the skills and lessons I've learned here to make that happen :) Thanks for all you do and I love you and Sister Berry so much!!
Love,

Hermana Conger :)

He asked us to account about what we had done during the transfer, and I could probably do a much better job answering that, but I'm just kind of a mess in the head right now haha

This past week has been a roller coaster too. Satan knew that my Visa was coming I think cuz I was just in a funk I've NEVER been before. I was super down on my self and stressing about stuff that I hadn't been stressing over which made it hard for me to be myself and be smiley and all of that. No good. But, I have the most fantastic companions and I got a priesthood blessing and I got to have an interview with President and all of that helped out a ton!

Hermana Conger, Sister Blake, & Hermana Monson

But nothing helped as much as when President called me Friday night and said I got my visa! Haha I felt like a HUGE weight lifted off and it was WEIRD cuz I was expecting to be scared out of my mind haha but I've just been SO much more at peace now and I can't wait to go learn some ESPANOL!!! :D Haha ok I gotta go! I look forward to sharing all the details with you next week! have an awesome week and day ok?!

Hermana Conger, Hermana Monson, and Sister Ackley

I love you soo very much! The gospel is the only way we can be happy in this life, and I am so grateful that I get to learn that everyday and have my testimony of that strengthened everyday as well!! I love my Savior and I'm gonna let ALL of Argentina know that :)

LOTS OF LOVE!!! <3

Hermana Conger :) or Larissa :) <3

Letter to the Pres :)

President Berry!

Thank you so much for your e-mail. It was exactly what I needed to hear. I'm so grateful that I get to serve with you while I am here in Orlando! I'm looking forward to interviews this week! It'll be good to hear from you on more of a one-on-one basis.

I have had a GREAT week this week! We obviously got Sister Ackley on Monday and she is just SUCH a huge blessing. She works so hard and really wants to serve the Lord with all she's got, which is an example I needed! We have been working really hard and it has been such a joy talking to everyone we see to get those 12 contacts per day! We are already starting to see the blessings and fruits of that and it's going to be really neat moving forward. Our companionship gets along so well I'm a little nervous for transfers because I want us to stay where we are! I'm not even sure I ever want to leave for Argentina :) I'll be and go wherever the Lord needs me though!

I heard a really neat talk from an RM on Sunday and he talked a lot about Patience and I was grateful for that because that's really what I need to work on out here. I need to be patient with our investigators and really try to teach them according to the Lord's time table and not mine. I need to be patient with my companions, the way they do things, feel the spirit, all of that stuff. I need to be patient with myself and not expect myself to be a perfect missionary. I know that I can give 100% of what is possible for me to give, but I need to be patient and know that even that isn't enough sometimes :) Christ will have everything work out in the end if I'm willing to just offer up myself to him through being exactly obedient (as possible as an imperfect human like me can be) and living His gospel through constant change and growth through repentance.

It's a beautiful thing to realize that's really all He asks of us. As I share the gospel, I'm happy to bring others to that knowledge so they can be happy too :)

Hermana Conger

Uggh - I wanna be creative but can't think of anything...

Hey All!!!!

Ok so my brain feels a little fried right now. . .not totally sure why haha but I'm gonna do my best to inform you all on my week!

So, Sister Blake was Emergency transferred out of our area today. . .I'm not completely sure why. . .I have a few hypothesis but yeah we had to get her all packed up last night so she could head out this morning! We had a new sister come here to train and her name is Sister Ackley and she is so smiley and just one of the happiest sisters!! I'm really super excited to get to know her! We actually both got here the same transfer, so she's been in the field the same amount of time as me! Aaannddd. . .since I was in the MTC for about a month longer I'm the "oldest" in our companionship! haha It's pretty crazy. . .we're young but I feel like we are going to be a power house and just keep the area growing!

Don't know exactly when they got flooded, because she never talked about it - but clearly they had quite a rain at some point!!

As for investigators, we are doing better, we have one cool guy named D who has been to church 2 times now! The first time we just knocked on his door to talk to another guy that lived there who was a potential investigator. . .and as we were walking away he asked us for the address of the church so he could come! We hadn't even taught him at the point. . .but yeah he likes church, except he thinks we need a choir because no one can sing good haha so he can be a character. Other than him, it's kinda off and on with some of the other people we are teaching. 2 of them are 16 so they are obviously keeping themselves busy this summer :) Then we found an old lady this past week named D! She is from Cuba and she is adorable haha we taught her completely in Spanish so that was fun! I feel like I'm getting better. . .so yeah it's great!

Here are my thoughts on what Pres Berry asked of us this week:

Ok, this week you asked me to share what it means to me to be a disciple of Christ. I've been thinking about that this week quite a bit. I've had a couple things happen that have made me feel just really down on myself and just kinda shifted the mentality I've had since I got to the field, BUT as I've thought about what it means to be a disciple of Christ, I've got an even better perspective now! So don't worry :) Really, I think that the biggest thing about being a disciple of Christ is our attitude and mentality. As we humble ourselves and are willing to submit our will to Heavenly Father's try our best to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and show love for all man just as Christ would, I think we are doing our part, but we can do even more! Knowing that I am a child of God and that I can be happy and repent because of my Savior Jesus Christ is awesome, but then I have to SHARE that knowledge with my brothers and sisters so they can feel that love of Christ as well. . .I really feel like that's what life is about. Christ and His gospel is all about love and service to others. I know that it will be a long road for me to get to where Christ was. . .it's gonna take practicing it everyday, regardless of how people treat me back. I know there are going to be hard times because Christ wants me to use the Atonement in order to feel His love :) That's why we have to call others to Repentance, so that they can feel Christ's love for them. It's incredible. I'm just gonna keep trying every day for the rest of my life to do that so that in the end Christ can say to me "Well done my good and faithful servant."

There is this new song I heard on Sister Blake's iPod and we listened to it over and OVER cuz it's incredible! It's called "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul" by Vocal Point. Look it up!! I've been thinking a lot about the words to that song. . .and I'll have to talk about it more next week cuz I've gotta get going! Sorry I've been slacking these past couple weeks. . .I need to repent and do better SO I WILL!! haha

I love you all sooo much! Have a great week ok!!

LOVE YOU!!! xoxoxo 

Larissa :)

Fireworks and Puerto Rican Pina Coladas ;)

Well hello everyone!!

How have you all been?! I've had a pretty great week :) The missionary work has been a little rough, but we saw some incredible miracles this week!!! Before that, we have a new mission president!!

New Florida-Orlando Mission President - President Berry

His name is President Berry and he and Sister Berry are SO awesome! I got to meet them at a Trainer/Trainee meeting this week and they are just great. A little overwhelmed I think haha but I guess all new missionaries have to go through that at some point! I hadn't thought to do this before, but Sister Blake e-mails her family the letter she send to mission president (we send one to him every week) and I thought that was a great idea! He asks us to tell him certain things so yep, this is what I said this week. (I figured this is another way to show you all how my weeks have been going :) )

Hello President Berry!
It was so good to meet you and receive all the advice we did at the Trainer/Trainee meeting! You are so incredible and I look forward to hearing from you more :)
As for what you asked us to report on this week, here's what I have for you!

1)  What are you doing to specifically improve "UNITY" in your companionship.
This is something we have really been striving for since day one. We are in a tripnaionship, so I feel like that always is going to cause for a bit more effort on achieving unity when there are 3 onions and ideas to balance instead of just two. Unfortunately it took us a little longer than we hope to figure out that one of the biggest things that MUST be done is completely open and honest communication. We were letting things get under our skin and avoided talking about it since we were all so newly friends or sister or whatever haha so that allowed Satan to just allow us to get more and more bugged, which caused each of us to be on edge ALL THE TIME. Anyway, as soon as we decided to open our mouths and just talk about our feelings not only have we been able to feel the spirit more but we are the best of friends :)

2) Tell me 3 outstanding qualities of your companion.   Later in the day, share those three qualities you admire in your companion with him or her.
I have two soo. . . :)
Sister Blake: 1) She is so in tune with and aware of the spirit. 2) She knows how to relate things she is going through/has gone through with the investigator to help them understand how to apply gospel principles. It's an incredible gift. 3) She is a GREAT driver. Haha
Hermana Monson: 1) For being only 3 weeks into her mission, she is pretty fearless. She does all she can to make sure she is making the most of every minute. 2) She is so incredibly wise and has exactly the advice or correction I need. 3) She knows how to make a DELICOUS cookie :)

3) What are you doing to invite the spirit into your heart and the work in your area?
The biggest thing we are working on is something our District leader challenged us to do which is to try and focus all of our conversations while we are out and about on the gospel and not just having small talk or relating funny past experiences and stories. The times where we have done this I've felt an incredible difference is being able to teach by the spirit.

4) Share with me experiences of the last week where you felt prompted by the spirit to do take certain action and what was the result?
I really have been working on trying to do this. I've been kind of experimenting so I can better understand what are promptings from the spirit and things that maybe I just think are a good idea. I've heard many times since I've been on the mission that they often are the same thing, but I wanted to just see, because honestly I hadn't been brave enough to act on EVERY thought I've had. So, I've done it more this week, mostly it's been asking questions that come to my mind or saying things that I feel like they need to hear, ect. It's been super neat to see that everything I've said and done has produced a good result. Some have been incredible, others have just been good, but none have caused an awkward moment or a slammed door in my face. So I guess I've recognized for sure now that it really is "by their fruits ye shall know them." :)

5) What are you doing to increase the number of investigators in your teaching pool?
The biggest thing we are actually working on right now is getting a progressing investigator. We have a HUGE pool of potentials but none of them have really committed to listening to us in a way that can help their life to really change. I guess none have kept commitments. In order to change that, we are really going to do all we can to let the spirit do the teaching this week. We are going to allow more silence, ask inspired questions, and live obedient so that we can be worthy to teach by the spirit.

Thank you for all you do President! Look forward to seeing you Wednesday :)

Haha so yeah, there you go :) I didn't do a whole lot of proof reading over that, but hopefully the grammar isn't too awful!

So some specific miracles we saw this week!

1) There is this guy named R who we met the very first day we were in the area. We gave him a brief run down of the Restoration and he didn't seem to terribly interested, but we put him on our potential investigators list anyway. For some reason, he was always coming to our minds when we were trying to figure out ho to see. We went over and knocked on the door. . .probably about 10 times and no one ever answered, except once his Dad did and told us to go away haha so on. . .Saturday I think it was we had the thought to go see him again and this time we decided to pray and tell Heavenly Father that if he didn't answer that was going to be the last time we ever knocked, but if someone answered this time we'd keep trying. So, we went up and knocked. Not 5 seconds after that a guy (who wasn't Richard or his dad answered) we asked for R and he said just a minute, then the Dad came around and INVITED US IN THE HOUSE! Then, he proceeded to invite us to SIT IN THEIR LIVING ROOM SO WE COULD TALK TO THE WHOLE FAMILY!!! Haha I know I'm being dramatic. . .but holy moly, Heavenly Father answers prayers!! We aren't sure yet what to think yet but we're gonna keep going back for the time being :)

2) A girl named S that we've stopped in on a few times had us come in finally and we watched the Restoration with her. I prayed the whole time that she could feel the spirit and have questions come to her mind that she could share with us when it was over and she did! She said it sounded really "special" and had some really great questions and was excited to start reading The Book of Mormon, so that was way neat :)

3) I ended up popping my bike tire on a piece of glass early on this week, which was like the end to a day that was going rough, SHOOT ONLY 1 MINUTE LEFT ON THIS DUMB COMP!!

Ok I gotta tell that story next week cuz it's gonna take more than a minute haha I love you all!! Have a fantastic week ok?! I love you and miss you all sooo very much and I'll try to get more in about me next week! Oh I gotta watch fireworks haha and had pina coladas :)

LOVE YOU ALL!!

Another week FLIES by!...

Hello Family!!

Sorry, this one is gonna be short and sweet cuz I've been e-mailing a lot of random people and my time has just flown by (like everything else around this place haha.) It has been a great week! We know our area a lot better and are getting to know our ward and a lot of the members.

Oh my word these people are INCREDIBLE!! I'm sure I'll feel that way about everywhere I serve but I have had the privilege of hearing some very spiritual experiences and I have just grown so much in this short week because of the amazing things I've seen and heard.

My companions are amazing. It's kinda funny how Satan works though. Tuesday was like a RIDICULOUSLY hard day and everything about it just seemed off, we couldn't teach and we were getting really easily frustrated, so we just decided we needed to talk it out. After like an hour long comp inventory EVERYTHING came out that people had been holding in and it got a little ugly haha but we realized everything was just thoughts that Satan was putting in our minds by tainting things that others were saying and doing to make us get angry, annoyed, or upset. Ever since we had that talk and literally like called Satan out on the nonsense he was putting us through we have become so close! Our lessons just flow and we have confidence and trust in each other and it is just the coolest thing to see what completely and open communication has done for our teaching. I wish I woulda been more open with people a LOT of times in my life and I know that the spirit can work through us only if we are willing to act on its promptings.

We had a baptism too! Amber is 9 and she's been working on it for awhile and it finally happened. She is so sweet and was super happy. Her family is just so sweet and we are loving getting to know them!

We don't really have any other investigators. . .we have a couple potentials but nothing that has actually turned out interest. There is one girl, C, she is 16 and was super interested. We're meeting with her again sometime this week so I'll update on Monday :)

Alright I'ma peace out for today!! I'll work on getting pics to y'all next week! I've been kinda a slacker about taking them. . .hahah oh!! Excpet I dunno how I forgot to mention. . .I've been riding a bike all week!! haha that's made for some pretty sore areas haha but my legs are really starting to shape up again so that has been absolutely fantastic :) I love it, it gets a little hot but no big deal!

I LOVE YOU ALL!! Be happy! Always trust in the Lord. "Look unto me in every thought. Doubt not, fear not." That's my new fav scripture for the moment haha ok I love you all bunches! have a great week!!!!

 

xoxoxoxo