I'm a Mommy!!!!

Hahaha this is kinda funny cuz my mom sent me updates about some of my friends that are pregnant. . .but yeah! In missionary terms I'm now a mom :) Haha I got my first daughter (I´m training her) on Friday and she is so great! Hna. Boyce is her name and she was only in the MTC for 5 weeks before she got shipped out here! Apparently there was a glitch in the computer system about who needed to go to the MTC and yeah, that´s why she was only there for 5 weeks! 

She has an amazingly positive attitude and helps me remember why I love being here in the mission :) It's also been a huge blessing because for some reason until I recieved her and have this opportunity to help her get accustomed to missionary life and the Argentine culture, I´ve realized how much Spanish I really can speak and how I am so used to Argentina I´ve stopped noticing how different it is (haha yeah, that´s why my facts about Argentina have gone way downhill cuz I can´t remember things that you all would think were wierd because Í´m USED to them now!) So that´s been kinda crazy and a real blessing to help me see how much I´ve grown in this short period of time (also crazy to think I´ve been away for 7 months now. . .huh??) 

We had the trio thing going on until this morning when Hna Harris finally headed to the mission office to head home. That was a sureal experience to be apart of someone leaving the mission to go home, while I don´t think I´ll be the sameway she was, I know that this time of my life, this people, and this work I get to be a part of right now is a once in a life time experience that I can´t ever take for granted. So, I´m going to so do all I can to make the most of EVERY minute I have here :) I´m pretty nervous about the fact that I´m training. . .the truth is, my other two companions wanted to help me ease into teaching, but I guess I like never really eased in, I asked questions and bore my testimony a lot while they did most of the teaching, so it might be a rough ride in the begining for us and our investigators as I figure out how to teach and lead a lesson. . .I´m trying to stay as confident as possible for my little hija (which actually she´s like 5'9 so she´s a lot taller than me haha) cuz it would be more stressful for her if I didn´t seem like I knew what I was doing, so I´m going to act my heart out (thanks Ms. Mann for the help in this deptartment!) haha so yeah, I look forward to letting you know how next week goes! It was interesting having 5 girls in our tiny little apartment haha but luckily we´re gonna get back adjusted to not being SO ridiculously crowded ALL the time. 

Nothing too crazy happened this week. . .I could fill you in on some of the people we´re teaching! I´m not sure if I told you all about one girl who is 20 and has 2 kids and was Envangelist but hasn´t been to church in a long time. She´s funny cuz she thinks she already knows everything, which she knows a TON and has a crazy amount of Faith, but it makes it kinda hard to talk to her cuz she always wants to talk over me and I´m not sure how to stand my ground in that sense against a native speaker, so I´ll have to figure that out haha We´re gonna try to get her to church this week, and as soon as we can get her to church I think she´ll start progressing a little quicker :) We´re also teaching one of the nieghbors/friends of Mariela and Rocio, his name is Marcelo and he accepted a baptism date in our first visit! So I´m really excited to be able to teach him with the amazing help of Mariela and Rocio :) 

Um, those are our two most consistent and right now, we also had an amazing lesson list night with a woman named Alisia who had listened to the missionaries before but hasn´t ever been able to come to church cuz she has some fears of places with a lot of people, so we´re gonna work with her to overcome that! I´m so excited to get to working with Hermana Boyce, we are going to help so many people and have some fun doing it :) 

I love you all so much! Oh, side note, if for Christmas you could save any money you were thinking about using for sending me things and packages just leave it as money and put it in my account so I can buy things here in Argentina that would be AWESOME! I would just love a hand written letter from as many people as are able to write me :) I can´t believe Christmas is just around the corner!!! CRAZY!!! 

Ok, I LOVE YOU ALL SO

MUCH!! Have an amazing week :) 

xoxoxoxo 

Larissa

What a week!!

I find myself writting and thinking that phrase a lot more than ever before in my life. What a day. What a lesson. What a week. What a testimony. But yeah. . .this week truly has been THE what a week of my mission so far. I felt every emotion and experienced some of the funnest of times and lowest of times. But yeah haha I guess I got a new week ahead of me so I´m gonna do all I can to just put my Faith in my Heavenly Father and Savior to get me through this one. I don´t have p-day today cuz we are having transfers on Wednesday - normally they are on Sunday-Monday so that we don´t take time out of working to travel and things, but they let us write today.) so it's going to be a really weird week for me.

I also recieved a call from Hermana Vincent that she is going home cuz she broke her back. she can still walk, which is apparently a MIRACLE! She just had a little pain in her back (so she says) and then she went to the doctor and her column was literally broken. So please pray for her! 

Other random things from the week, I saved the life of a puppy! We were eating lunch at a members house and they had this cute little 2 week old puppies out in therçir back yard and I for some reason was watching one that had kinda started to drift away and I turned back to say something and then when I looked back out at the puppy it had fallin into this hole of muddy water face first and was flayling trying to get out, frantically trying to translate in my head how to say this I stood up and pointed and don´t really remember what I said but the family turned and were like "Oh yeah, we have puppies, cute huh" and I was like "NO UNO ESTA EN UN POSO Y CREO QUE ESTA MURIENDO!" haha you no me and animals, I was desperate so I kinda yelled haha but that got there attention and they ran out and got it out like just in time, the poor thing. . .but they told me they are gonna name it Conger haha so that was nuts. 

Also, the other Hermanas are super into cooking, and the other night they were making Dinner and apparently one of them forgot what they were doing because she poured water into hot oil and WOW. I have never seen such a big flame in the house in my life. I literally thought the house was gonna burn down with all of us inside. But the brave Hermana Harris ran over and grabbed the pan and took it off the flame and in two seconds the flame fell. And apparently it´s amazing she didn´t get some type of burn. . .but she definitely saved the day, yup, she´s the Batman of the house :) 

Also, the mosquitos here are AWFUL! I thought Florida was bad haha but it was NOTHING like here. BUt, I believe I´m protecting myself better here haha alright, that´s all I have time for. I know for me this week it´s going to be a lot about being will to trust in my Heavenly Father and Savior to get me through it and to help me find answers to my questions that I have. So I´m going to be really concentrated in doing that, prayers would be great and you can be positive I´m always sending my prayers and love your way. 

I love you all so much and I love my Savior and am so grateful for this gospel that gives us the answers we need to have peace in this life <3 Have a great week ok?! I´m gonna do my best to do so :) 

LOVE YOU!!! 

Your Larissa

De White A es la Hermana Conger!

Yup. We're White A now :) Two other Hermanas came to the area on Friday and it´s been a party ever since haha I have to tell stories and talk about random stuff in espanol now so that is helping the language a TON! Hermana´s Alvarez y Carpio are from Peru and they are some pretty great cooks (not quite as good as my mom of course ;) haha but it´s been good! Our apartment is tiny and our area is tiny, so it´s been interesting working all of that out. They had to come to our area because they´re old one was dangerous and also there are MORE missionaries coming out then leaving, wihich hasn´t happened here in Argentina for a REALLY long time so that´s pretty darn cool. BUt now that I mention that, I´m still here on a tourist Visa, so that might complicate things if we have a bunch of tourists cuz they ask for our identification sometimes in stores, but it´ll be ok! haha

This is gonna be kinda short but just a few other updates. . .

I cut my bangs back last monday haha I was sitting writting a letter to Aaron and the thought crossed my mind (normally when it does I´m in the street or laying in bed so I don´t do anything about it, but I just got up and cut them :) and I LOVE it haha it was funny cuz I id it while my companion was sleeping so she was WAY confused when she woke up haha so great :) Also, futbol (soccer haha) season is in FULL SWING around here, big timers and the little White games, and they shoot off this HUGE cannon whenever there is a goal haha I´ve been at doors talking to people and I jump so high when that thing goes off haha it´s really funny. It´s wierd though, whenever we walk by I feel like I could just walk in and I´d be watching Kix and Ace or SVU playing haha I guess I didn´t really realize how terribly much I miss supporting MY teams <3

Random story of the week: I´m not sure if I´ve mentioned, but when we have to go to Bahia for meetings of Conferences, we take a Collectivo (a big bus haha) and when we were coming back from Stake Conerence yesterday, me and Hermanan Harris were sitting in the back and the driver curbchecked hard core and I went FLYING in the air and fell on this poor man sitting next to me haha I just smiled and laughed cuz I felt so silly and embarassed, but then an old man carrying flowers got up to get off the bus and he handed me one of the flowers and said something like "To make everything ok again" it was the sweetest thing and TOTALLY made my day :) People really can be so sweet around here :)

Welp. That´s my time up I guess! I love you all so much! Mom, if you could get me a copy of the General Conference talks in English that would be the best :) haha

Have a great week everyone, I know I´m going too :) 
Your Larissa