LOVE

Haha ok so I read an AMAZING talk this morning by Elder Uchtdorf in the Nov 2009 Ensign called The Love of God (I think that´s what it was called) and you should all read it :) Sooo so good and it helped me realize that I think I´m doing the best I can right now. (watch below)

or click here to READ the talk!

It´s been a good but crazy week! I´m kinda getting sick again cuz this darn weather is nutzo. . .so if you could pray for my body that'd be GREAT!

F is doing great. She had some pretty big doubts about the church, mostly sparked for a TV show she saw, but we happened to be blessed to pass by with a member exactly when she needed to hear the testimony the member had about 7 years of doubting she did and all the blessings she thinks she lost in those years, and now she seems very full of faith that this is the path God wants her to be on :) We had 4 investigators at church yesterday and that´s the most I´ve EVER had on my mission! It was a miracle and I´m so grateful that I´ve been able to feel like I´m doing all I can to be the tool in Gods hands that he needs me to be.

Yesterday we had a lesson with A and she´s one of my investigators that had a hard time, especially with church, because she has a fear of large groups of people. . .I´m not totally sure how it came up but she started talking about how she trusts us and she said "·especialmente vos. Tienes una alma transparecida y puedo ver tu espiritu." (especially you. You have a transparent soul and I can see your spirit).  She´s SUPER spiritual but it made me cry because I really do just care so much for each of these amazingly special people here. I might not be able to speak perfect and I have to repent everyday of the things I lack, but I have been feeling more and more like I am doing the work Heavenly Father needs me to do here and now. I think that's when we find the fullest joy here in this life, when we can have confidence that we are giving our all to do His work and love His children (that talk I read this morning talks about that) but it´s been a huge blessing to me to really feel that <3

I love my Heavenly Father and I love Jesus Christ and I love that I have the opportunity to help the children of Heavenly Father here and now feel of the love that He has for them :) I love you ALL so darn much!!! Have an awesome week! My sweetheart Aaron has a big surgery to go through so please keep him in your prayers, especially on Thursday!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

xoxoxoxo Larissa

Haha algo chistoso. . .this week my poor comp had been told by several people that she has "la cara de una niña" (the face of a girl) and it´s been making her mad. But, yesterday someone (sorta jokingly I think but idk for sure haha) asked me how old I was turning and said "40 what?" haha soooo I´m hoping all the stress and challenged of the mission haven´t aged me THAT much haha I´ll try my best to getcha a picture ASAP :)

LOVE YOU!!

Happy Little Working Song

Haha anybody anybody??? Haha yeah, it´s a song on Enchanted that Amy Adams sings and it just so happens I´m serving right now with Amy Adams :) Hahaha it´s sooo funny to me because since the first day I met Hna Boyce she reminded me of some Disney character and I couldn´t figure out who and I said Amy Adams from Enchanted one time and she was like really? and I was like oh maybe not. . .but THEN she started singing that song and she sounds JUST LIKE HER!!! Haha and she´s just super gorgeous and cute and yeah haha it´s the best :)

She also knows what she wants too, so she is being a tough one and working even though her allergies aren´t totally gone. . .so we went out and worked hard this week!

My Florencia, who I´ve been teaching for awhile, is SUPER looking forward to her baptism and FINALLY came to church yesterday! I think she really enjoyed it :) She loved that there was nursery for her kids to be in while she was in class, even though they only stayed there for one of the hours (which really worked out perfect) and I taught the gospel principles class on the Priesthood and she had been wondering about getting a blessing for all of the hard things she´s got going on and just bad feelings about her past, and we set up a time this week for her to receive one, so I´m super looking forward to that :) All of our members in our little branch went to the Temple this week. It´s crazy to be in an area where they literally save all they can every month so that they can go to the temple 4 times a year. . .if they are lucky. Our missionary leader got sealed to his wife and he is just the sweetest about it all.

One of the members cars broke down on the way back too and that´s what they use in order to work (they take drinkable water around, like the dispenser kind since the water is bad here) and they really need there car for that :/ but they just have this amazing "God gives us trials to make us stronger" attitude and it´s so amazing. I love the Book of Mormon for that reason. It teaches us and helps us see that the only way we can find happiness in life is if we are learning and we can only learn if we are having challenges and testing our faith so that is can grow bigger and stronger. it´s truly amazing. I also have seen that REMEMBERING is so huge. We have commandments in order to keep us humble, so that we know that we can´t find peace and happiness without Heavenly Father. It´s all about doing things in his time and in His way :) That´s the theme of the mish for me, and I don´t know if I would have learned that any other way.

I´m so ridiculously blessed. Thank you ALL for all your support and the prayers and letters! Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for the e-mails! Sorry I didn´t get to reply back this week, hopefully I´ll find time one day! Thank you to everyone whose sent letters too! Those are a rare thing and they mean the world to me when I get them :)

Have a great week ok??

I love you all so much <3 xoxoxo

Larissa

Help from on High!! :)

Wow! This amazing ride just continues to get crazier and more amazing the more I´m here :)

We actually didn´t get out a whole ton this week because my poor companion has major allergies to the air here and her head feels like it´s going to explode, I think she´s doing a little better now, but the poor girl is just having a rough time. Please send some prayers Hna. Boyce´s way if you could. It´s hard enough being a new missionary, but add a foreign country, language, and being super sick on top of that, she´s having a hard time loving it here.

just a joke!  :)

I feel so blessed that I had my time in Florida to adjust to mission life before I was just thrown out into Argentina, just proves she´s a strong one! Despite all that´s happening I know she´s trying her best to look at the bright side. It´s also been hard for her that she can´t contribute a lot to the lessons, but this has really been where the miracles of the week were for me! I´ve seen help from my Heavenly father in EVERY part of the work when we were able to go out, especially in my ability to teach what people need and that has been amazing. I know I have a Heavenly Father that loves me and is looking out for me and especially all the people I care about!

click here to catch upon the latest back in the good ole FOM

I´m praying for all of you! Sorry this one is kinda short this week, I´ll get you all a longer one next week! (haha after all this time - only having an hour still kills me :/) Haha oh and maybe I´ll start up the things that are different about Argentina list again because having a comp brand new from the States has made me realize some things I forgot, I´m just like used to life here I guess! haha

I love you all so very much. Have an AWESOME week!!

Love, Larissa :) <3

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

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 :)