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

Down for the Count

This is a duel meaning title haha For starters. . .ROCIO went down in the water on Saturday!! :) Oh man that was so awesome. She is just amazing and is going to be SUCH an amazing example for her family. I can´t wait to see what the future brings for her <3 She had a bunch of family at her Baptism, including her Sister Magalee who I´ve always loved. She is an English teacher, so if I don´t understand something it´s So nice to have her there because she can just explain it to me in English haha but it was so cool to see her there supporting Rocio. Who knows, maybe one day she´ll listen to the missionaries!

Haha meaning number 2 - My "cold" turned into full on fevers, headaches, and 4 rolls of toilet paper for this waterfall of a nose I have haha I was stuck in bed Wednesday, Friday and most of Saturday :/ I still feel pretty gross, but it is what it is and I definitely think I´m on the uphill climb haha (I didn´t make it even past a year like my Superman. Failure haha) My immune system is like that though I think. . .if it´s gonna give in, it´s down for the count haha came up with that while I was trying to muster the engery to shower this morning haha it´s the darn weather down here! It´s beautiful one day and then the next day it´s freezing cold and pouring rain, so my body gets all sorts of confused. But, I got this Argentina medicine that´s working on sweating it all out of me, which is really gross I know haha but I think it´s working! So yeah! Don´t worry about me but prayers are VERY much appreciated :)

Being so sick, I got a TON of sleep, but I also did some reading of the Ensign of past conferences and I got so excited for Conference. I´m really excited too because our Zone has decided to do this Purification fast, I think Aaron mentioned this to me once that one of our friends from SVU did it on his mission, but we start with a fast from food and ask Heavenly Father to help us determine a list of 10 or however many things our natural man is holding on too that is keeping us from having the Spirit as our constant companion. Then, we make a covenant with the Lord that we will do all within our power and with His help want to fast from the things on the List for 40 days. Everyday, start by telling Heavenly Father what you want to do, and then end telling him how the day went. Eventually as the 40 days come to a close, we should be able to see that the Spirit is with us and those natural man desires have disappeared. 

Click to watch this devotional address

I also read His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox :) Read it if you can! It´s an amazing talk. But I´m really excited to start my fast and see where it takes me by the begining of November :) It should be neat!

Well, that´s all for this week!!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Keep up the good work :)

xoxoxo Larissa

The Adventures of Batman and Superman (Well...their women.)

Haha I was struggling to come up with a creative title this week haha so this is what I got! Hermana Harris is super obessed with Batman (yup Kix. . .she might actually be more obessed than you haha) and everyone knows I love my Superman! We've only gotten in one disagreement about it, so it´s all good! We have a good time though!

This week has been a great one! Seriously, Hermana Harris is such a missionary boss, we find SO many new people to teach every week it´s just nuts. . .now we just have to find them again afterward :/ haha but the people we do see are doing fantastic!! Really, that´s basically just Rocio and Mariela. They had a big struggle with smaking that´s been a long battle but they beat the junk out of that and QUIT!! They are so amazing. It´s still a big struggle and temptation but since the whole house is trying to get on the same boat about quitting I think that has made things easier for them. Rocio is getting baptized this Saturday and I am just so happy and excited for her. She has so much faith that this is just true and it´ll make her happy. Her and Mariela are already FANTASTIC missionaries! One of their neighbors came over while we were there and they were telling him about our beliefs with the Word of Wisdom and invited him to Rocio´s baptism! I think we might go over there to talk to him one day so that would be awesome :) 

I dunno why but everytime I get to here I forget EVERYTHING I WANTED TO SAY and I didn´t write it down this week so I´m in a bit of trouble haha and I´ve been distracted because poor Hermana Harris and her e-mail isn´t working so we've been swtiching computers trying to get it to work but it´s still not working, poor thing :( 

I´ve learned So much from her. I´ve realized all of us are children of God and we are both Sister Missionaries serving in Argentina. . .but we are very different and we even see the gospel differently sometimes, but that´s ok because we each walk our own path through life with Heavenly Father and Chirst, as long as we are walking it with them and keeping the commandments and doing our best to live a good life, that´s what's important :) It´s been cool to be reminded of that over and over. It's been building on my patience as well, which I need haha but I love her to death and more importantly I love this gosple and I can´t imagine my life without it. I´m grateful that I get to spen so much time and energy now focusing all I have on Him and learning how to live my life as He would have me live it. We walk by faith and if we have a perfect brightness of hope and love everyone we meet as we go along and love God and His Son with all me have in this journey of life we will be happy :) 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Until next week, have fun and love living life :) 
xoxoxoxo Larissa

Wet here in Argentina, but appartently not as wet as YOU!!

HOLY FLOOD!!!! I can´t believe you all are having to deal with this FLOOD! What the heck happened to always being in a drought haha so yeah, it´s been raining a ton here this week and is back to freezing cold. It was getting nicer, so I´ve got a constant runny nose and stuffy head going on which can be annoying but oh well! I think spring is coming... haha

Click the picture to see a slide show of the Colorado flood

This week was SO great! I just feel really good and happy. So, sorry i didn´t write a letter last week! It was kinda crazy! Transfers here are SO much more of a party than they are in the states haha since our areas are so far apart the missionaries have to take anywhere from an hour to like 5 hour bus ride to their new area. My comp, Hermana Vincent, got sent out to Mar del Plata which is about a 5 hour ride I´m pretty sure, but we had to go to the terminal around 5pm so she could head out. Man, I miss that girl. We´re gonna be good friends always haha but yeah, so then the madness begins as tons of missionaies are leaving and saying goodbye and getting big welcoming hugs and yeah it´s just awesome! I was in the terminal for about 6 hours haha I got to meet a TON of missionaries and I also taught all of the basketball, track, football, soccer, hockey, and other random words in English to one of my Zone Leaders haha It was so funny to act things out and try to understand each other. But yeah, my new comp Hermana Harris didn´t come in until around 5 the next morning, so at 11 when the last Hermana came we went to another apartment of Hermanas to spend the night, I slept for about 4 hours cuz the other missionaries comp was coming in at 3am, so I went back to the Terminal as her companion and then waited another 2 hours for Hermana Harris with the Zone Leaders. They got to know me and my awful Spanish probably a whole lot better than they ever wanted too haha but it was a good time!

This week was AWESOME as I was saying. Hermana Harris is from Northern Utah really close to Idaho,  I think the town is Boxelder (like the bug haha) or something, but she is awesome, missionary and person :) We get along good, we are SUPER different, but it´s fun haha for those of you who know Jeremy Loutensock and Justin Gerlach she is like a perfect mix of those two in girl form. Super wise and deep and has a really just smart sense of humor. The thing that has been incredible to me is the way she always knows exactly what scripture to share with people. It´s what they need to hear to increase their faith. I´m glad I have time to become like that (she´s gonna die after this transfer, so she is such a boss when it comes to missionary work!)

We found a TON of people this week, a lot of them have already been baptized and fell away for one reason or another and want to come back but don´t know how. I´m excited to help them out :) Rocio is doing awesome! We´re still cruising toward her date on the 28th of September and she seems really happy about it. She was able to come to church yesterday and it´s a bit tough with Leon (the CUTEST kid!) but her comments and knowledge that she already has is awesome. Mariela is starting to feel the weight of Satan on the righteous and we were able to help her remember some of the teachings of Christ (like He will ALWAYS love us and we can always repent it´s just our choice to let Him take the burden from us, but that doesn´t come without some hard times for us and that He never wants us to feel inadequate) all thoughts that I know all of us have to battle every single day. We really do just have to remember that Christ loves us and will always be there for us. We will always be imperfect in this life. We will ALWAYS be tempted to do wrong and sometimes we´ll give in and sin. But, we have the Atonement and as often as we repent with a sincere heart we can be forgive and not only that but strengthen for the next time Satan tries to tempt us :) WE ARE STRONGER THAN HE IS!! And always will be, even though he wants us to believe we are nothing and have to be miserable. We know that´s false. He loves us and His loving arms are ALWAYS reaching out to ua :) I love my Savior and I love the perfect plan our Heavenly Father has given us :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Have a great week ok?!

Love, Your Larissa :)

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!! (on the 20th) Hope you get my card :)

P.S.S. Be sure to talk Aaron´s ear off about how he´s been for me! I expect him to be able to tell me next week that he was able to talk to every one of you and you tell him so he can hear that I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!! haha ok I´m back in missionary mode and out of crazy girlfriend mode ;) LOVE YOU!!!

HeyOH con exítO y animO de White! :)

Haha well, my heading is probably only funny to me, but still HeyOH!!!

How are all of the people in the United States that I love so very very much?? I´m doing so great, It was a really awesome week (minus the fact that I got sick for the first time here on the mission, not so fun. . .I have a bit of an ear infection so my head ached and I was just completely drained of engery but I'm so much better now!) I just gotta get it out there some news about my Aaron. He´s going home for an appointment to get his shoulder looked at with the military doctors on Sept 17th, so here in a couple weeks. Pray for him that it all works out smoothly and that they figure out what they need to do from there! Sounds like he might get to go back out to the mission if there is a long wait until surgery and then if he does end up getting surgery and having to go home he´ll have to re-do his paperwork and the missionary process and the Brethern will decide if he will go back to Twin Falls or if they want to reassign him. . .CRAY CRAY!! But kinda neat. I just want him to be healthy and whole again <3 So yeah, keep my man in your prayers will ya? Thank ya!

Now for my week! It was awesome, we actually knocked a TON of doors this week since both of our progressing iunvestigators got baptized. We´d been working a lot with Mariela of course, and a little bit with her daughter Rocio, who I talked about a little last week. She has a 1 year old son named León and he is the CUTEST thing! But anyway this week we asked if we could reteach her all the lessons, she´s been reading the gospel principles manual that her mom had so she already knows a FLIP TON!! But after the first lesson we were asking her if she prayed to know if it´s true or not and she said yes, but she can´t ever remeber her dreams so she didn´t know if she got an answer. . .but she knows it´s the true church!! Haha it was SO awesome! So then we explained that she didn´t have to have a dream to get an answer :) She said she loves church and wants to be baptized! We´re gonna work for the 28th of September cuz she wants to be completely done smoking before she gets baptized and I know she can do it! She is so smart and is liek a sponge when it comes to learning and she always has a TON of questions which is awesome because she really wants to understand! It´s great. Mariela of course is wonderful and is already being active in Relief Society activities and making lots of friends. It´s SO amazing to see. We had a miracle at church yesterday! We found a refferal that had been in the area book for who knows how long, and when we went to talk to her she said she had gone to church before and liked it, then we taught her a breif version of the Restoration and she enjoyed that and seemed really receptive and then we asked her to be baptized and she was like no way haha which is completely understandable, but then when we tried to go back she never would come out and we were bummed thinking maybe we scared her off with baptism haha but yesterday SHE SHOWED UP IN CHURCH! Her name is Noelia and she said she just woke up with the idea that she needed to go to church so she came and brought her 9 year old nephew and they LOVED it! She said that she wants to keep coming and learning more and then when she knows for sure she´ll keep coming and make the baptism covenant with God she´ll get baptized! I was so happy for her :) and her nephew Alan loves church too and thought that the sacrament was special :) So we're going to start teaching them both and I´m super happy about that :)

Fun Facts about Argentina for this week :)

- So, they have the trucks that I think drive around White ALL DAY, but it´s only like Saturdays and Sundays. . .and they have a loud speaker and their truck is full of veggies, fruits, eggs, milk, you name it haha and they just say all the things that they have on the loud speaker and drive around really slow and people come out of there houses and buy the stuff. But the FUNNIEST thing is YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND A SINGLE THING THEY ARE SAYING!! haha it´s seriously hilarious. They are like 50 times worse than an auctioneer (and maybe that´s just cuz I can´t understand Spanish ;) haha but yeah!

- They don´t have dryer´s here so we have this dryer rack that we hang all of our clothes on and we leave them out for a couple days to dry :)

- There is eggs in literally EVERY dish. I dunno how I didn´t realize this sooner. . .but seriously. Haha they LOVE their eggs. This one really popular dessert called Flan (I´m sure you can look up a recipe) is just milk and eggs. It´s ok haha

So yup! That´s me for the week :) I´ve been super grateful for my mission this week. I think, no, I KNOW, I couldn´t handle being a mother and really be the diciple of Christ I need to be the rest of my life without this mission.  For that, I´ve been working my heart out and trying my best to live every moment!

I taught the gospel principle class yesterday about the Holy Ghost and it made me think a lot about how much more I need to be aware of Him and try every minute to be worthy of his precense. . .not only so I can teach with Him but so he can teach ME what I really need to learn and the things I need to change. So yeah, try to feel God´s influence and love in your life this week :)

FIVE months since we started together at the MTC!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!! Have an awesome week!!!

Larissa :)

Bautismo Numero 2!!!

¡Hola! ¿Comó le va amados hermanos míos?

Haha that's probably not gramatically correct but whatever :) Yup that's right! We had another baptism this week. I absolutely LOVE Mariela. She is incredible. I only got to see the end result of her finding the gosple but her light shines so bright and she is so loving and SO gosple smart. She has ALL the books already and has read a ton of them haha Her baptism was absolutely beautiful :) Two of her kids were able to make it, Rocio and Juan. They are both great and it was so good that they were able to come see their mom take this step.

Rocio is learning and reading but doesn´t talk much yet. We LOVE going over to teach them, and we told Rocio that we could only keep coming as much as we do if we could teach her. I think she's thinking about it :) But the spirit was just so strong at Marielas baptism, Hermana Vincent gave an amazing talk on the Holy Ghost and really, you could just see in Mariela´f countenance how important it was to her :) That is by far the most rewarding part of being out here. Helping people find purpose in there life and find a path that will bring them real and lasting happiness :) We are working on finding more people who are ready, cuz this path isn´t the easiest! But we are just going to keep working hard and surely the people who are ready will be placed in our path :) Hermana Vincent had a bit of a crazy week this week. . .she's doing great but if you all could send prayers both of our way that would be so awesome :) It´s tough being two greengos out here haha but with the help of our Savior we manage! We had a fun week in general though! We had some good laughs and let off some steam being goofs in our apartment (don´t worry, there's videos as proof ;) but I just love her. She is so strong and I´ve learned so much from her already. I know Heavenly Father knew this would be hard for us, but as we both are willing to turn to him for help, He's there for us.

This might be silly, but to anyone who is or was a missionary you probably understand how sad this is, but I lost my planner this week.  I think in a collectivo (bus) so there's really a VERY slim chance I´ll ever find it. That thing is like a mini journal for me. . .somehow I think I misplaced my first one too. . .so yeah, I cried but it's sort of ok now haha (You all know me, I cry about everything (haha)

So! Here's my fun facts about Argentina for the week :)

- This week there was a BIG protest about something to do with fish and fish workers (that's all me and Hna. Vincent were abe to get out of it haha) happened and ever since then they have been cutting the power off every so often. . .the first time is happened I was like "It wasn´t me this time I swear!!!" haha but yeah, they cut it off yesterday morning so we didn´t have power most of church, luckily we have a small branch so we could still hear for the most part :) but that has been weird!

- Instead of the peep holes in the door that you can look through from the inside and the people outside can´t see, they just cut a hole out of there door and put a little circle over it that twists, so when we knock, this little hole opens up with an eye looking back at us and normally we just stand there and talk to the eye cuz they don´t wanna open the door haha it´s great :)

-Did I talk about Malta last week? Cuz if I did whatever I´m talkign about it again cuz I´m absolutely in LOVE! It makes me think of Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Larry cuz it smells like toffee (like coffee but sweeter) but it's like a hot chocolate mix!! You make it with milk and add a little sugar and dip in some crackers (yeah, wierd but SO good) and it's like a little piece of heaven haha LOVE IT!

Welp, that's me for the week! I have been realizing just how flippin cool the Book of Mormon is this week. Yeah, so of it´s teachings are super repetetive. . .BUT THAT'S BECAUSE WE ARE A FORGETFUL PEOPLE!!!

haha They only repeat themselves to help us REMEMBER because that's what it´s all about. When we remeber to say our prayers, we do, and we are blessed. We we remember to read our scriptures, we do, and we are blessed. When we keep the commanments cuz we remembered them when we read our scriptures, we do, and we are blessed! Isn´t that cool?!

Just, always remember Him, and he can bless our life like He wants to, but it takes action on our part :) I´m grateful I have this time to develop habits that can bless me and those I know for the rest of my life!! It's so great :)

I love you all and hope you have a FANTASTIC week! ¡¡¡¡AMO Y EXTRAÑO MUCHO!!!!

Con Amor,

Larissa :)

¡¡¡UN BAUTISMO!!!

Hello All!!!

Whoop Whoop! We had our first Baptism in Argentina yesterday! It was SO fantastic. I can´t remember how much I´ve told you all about Priscila but she is 10 and the daughter of a less active. She is so fantastic and was so stinking excited for her baptism. I got to give the prayer at the end and afterward her mom told me somthing along the lines of "Your prayer was so sweet. Your spanish sounds like that of a litte child." Haha uh. . .not sure if that´s a compliment or what but I´ll take it! It was really great though! It was so great that her mom and grandma came! I hope that they keep coming! 

We will also be preparing for Marielas baptism this week! She quit smoking on Saturday and has been going strong so that has been so neat to see. She is such a great example of Faith. She just knows Christ is going to help her overcome this addiction and she believes with all her heart she will do it with his help :)

I don´t have a ton of time cuz we only have an hour now so this is gonna be short haha I´m loving the work here! We had divisions this week and two native Argentina Hermanas came and worked our area with us for a few days this week and we found 15 new investigators with them!!! It was absolutely nuts haha we'll see how they deal with having to learn from two gringos who can´t speak too well, luckily the spirit is the true teacher and if they wanna listen to that they will just feel the truth :) 

Here's some of my random facts about Argentina!! (HOpe you like that I do this haha)

- So, instead of Wal-Mart for regular everday stuff, here they have Kiosko´s which I think are absolutely genious. They are just out of home businesses where the owner buys all the stuff they want to sell from big retailors. They have everything from candy to clothes from soap to toilet paper, really just all kinda of stuff. You can pay bills there and refill phone and bus cards. The best thing about them is they are literally on EVERY STREET! and most of the time there are multiple on one street. It´s so cool and I really think they need to get these going in the US haha

- Every panel of sidewalk is different. Haha in front of every building the sidewalk changes is texture, hieght, rock or concrete, all of that! I´ll have to take pictures and show but it is just the wierdest thing when you are used to one straight plain concrete sidewalk haha (sidenote: I night not be able to send any pictures home :/ The ones Hermana Vincent sent the other day got earased and it messed up her memory card. I think the computers here could wipe off all my pictures and I don´t want that happening :/ but we´ll see!)

Well, that´s all I have time for. I keep learning this over and over again while I´m in the mission that really the best way to find true happiness and joy in this life is by serving others. I feel like I´ve always known this, but I see that truely when we are focused inward it´s so easy to get upset, be angry, find fault with others, all of that stuff. But when we focus on others and see the light that they have and share out light through helping them and loving them, we find more happiness and joy and that light within us is increased. It´s so cool. D&C50:23-24 (thanks Uncle Brock!) I love this scripture, so look it up :) haha but really, that´s what this life is all about. Sharing the light :) Enjoy everyone you meet and find some way to serve them. 

Ok, I LOVE YOU ALL!! Have an absolutely fantastic week! Come closer to Christ through service ok? That´s what I´m gonna be trying to do :) 

LOVE YA! 

Larissa :)