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!
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
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!!!
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!!
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!!!!
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 :)
Haha Hey everyone, how have you been doing this week?!
This week felt like one of the longest of my life. . .but it kinda ended up
flying by. The full immersion in Spanish is starting to take a bit of a toll on
me. I´m trying to just enjoy it and understand all that I can, but it gets
exhausting when everytime I get asked a question and I attempt to answer I say
this wrong thing cuz I misunderstood or whatever haha but people are super
patient with me and are doing all they can to help me learn! I just need to be
patient with myself and know it´s gonna take a lot longer than 2 weeks here to
become fluent.
On the learning a new language note, me and Hermana
Vincent are going to start teaching English classes :) I´m really excited and
our ward members and other people we´ve told are excited about it too. We´re
hoping that through the classes we´ll be able to find some people who are ready
to hear about Christ too. I¨m excited to see how it goes!
We´re gonna hammer out the details this week and
hopefully start it up next week, so if you have any good ifdeas for teaching
English send them our way :) In my e-mail last week I neglected to mention
ANYTHING about the people we are teaching! I´m such a bad missionary haha ugh,
but, I´ll fill you in this week :) First of all there is Mariela. She is just
amazing! Hermana Vincent and her other companion found her knocking doors and
she actually thought they were from a different religious group so when they
came around she went inside and closed the door, but they decided to knock
anyway and told her that they were Mormom and she got super excited and invited
them in and pretty much since that day has wanted to get baptised :) She is a
super quick learner, she says it´s because everything we teach her just makes
sense.
Whenever we´re teaching she just says ¨Claro¨ over and
over haha which is like "Of course" in spanish. (Side note: I just
figured out I´ve been using the ¨ instead of the " quote marks since these
are Spanish key boards everything is all moved around haha) She is working
toward a baptism date toward the end of the month, but everyone here in
Argentina smokes, so she is working on quiting right now. She really wants to
and she has gone from 20/day to alomst 1 in just 2 weeks, it´s absolutely
incredible :) We did a fast with her this past week and she said that helped
strengthen her a lot, so that was really neat! We also have been sorta teaching
her kids and they are 19, 24, and 26. The gospel makes sense to them and I
think with small steps they might accept it too. They all smoke though so
that´s a bit of a large problem haha but if they believe it´s what will make
them and God happy, then they will do it, so we´ll just cross that bridge when
we get there :) We also have been teaching Priscila who just turned 10 on
Sunday :) she is getting baptized this coming Sunday! Her mom is a member but
hasn´t been to church in quite awhile, but she wants her daughter to have the
chance to grow up in and be a part of the church, and Priscila absolutely loves
it :) She is really smart and loves reading her "El LIbro De Mormon"
para niños :) We have a few other people we are teaching but no one that we see
often, so I´ll let that be it for now!
Here´s some more random facts about Argentina!:
-We knock doors here, but we also clap :) At houses with
big fences around them, or ones with mean looking dogs at the door haha, we
clap!
It´s way cool and fun haha
- There is this stuff that is absolutely AMAZING!! It´s
called Dulce de Leche which literally translates into Sweet Milk :) It´s a lot
like carmel, but it´s got more of a peanut butter texture. It´s in rolls,
churros, in between cookies, on fruit, you name it! But seriously, it is some
of the best stuff I´ve ever tasted :) We also have this incredible bakery in
our area and we treat ourselves to the sweets in there every once in awhile and
pretty much EVERYTHING has dulce de leche in it haha
- The bread here in general is just amazing. None of that
spongey stuff like we´ve got in the states haha but it´s cool cuz the bread
here, the outside is super tough, so for lunch or at meals they just put out a
BIG loaf of bread (like the skinnyish kind they always pretend to use as swords
in cartoons :)) and you just break off pieces of it as you want more bread! Its
a bit of a mess, but super handy really :)
Haha ok, now for the funny moment of
the week. . .how many of you have seen Leap Year? Haha I know my mom has ,) and
if you haven´t seen it this is still funny but if you have seen that it makes
this just that much funnier haha it was just to crazy haha ok, so I brought
this converter because the voltage here is way different from the states. It´s been working absolutely GREAT and I´ve been able to
listen to music and charge my camera and I even blow dried my hair once. So
yesterday, I decided I wanted to curl my hair! I know right, haha so I plugged
in my handy dandy converter and turned on my curling iron. All is well at this
point and I beging curling my hair haha (mind you, Hermana Vincent is in the
shower.) So, I´m going along, I hear Hermana come out and go change, still. all
is well. I dunno how much longer after that happened, I´d been curling my hair
for probably 10 minutes cuz I only had about half done, when all the sudden
there´s this HUGE pop and everything went dark. PITCH DARK! Haha yep, my dilly
surling iron tripped the breaker, and I´m pretty sure my converter is fried
haha but Hermana Vinvent was mid changed in the other room and she
goes¨"Oh my gosh. It´s dark. I´m scared." and some other really funny
stuff which I think I´ll just keep to myself haha but we found the phone to get
us some light and I was freaking out that I blew the power in the whole
building, maybe even block like in Leap Year haha but we went outside and found
the breaker box and tripped our apartment back and all was well once again :)
haha except I´m a little worried I won´t be able to charge my camera for the
rest of my mission, but I brought some extra fuses for my converter so weçll
see if I can change it out and get it working again :) The problem was I needed
it fuctioning on the high setting and I had it on the low seting :/ so it´s
totally my fault haha but it´s so funny now it was almost worth it.
Alright, I´ve gotta get going! I love you all so much!
Keep praying for me and ask that I´ll recaive some help with learning this
language quickly! I now it´ll come in the Lords time, but prayers never hurt
anyone! I keep realizing more and more everyday how blessed I am to have a
knowledge that brings me so much happiness, peace and purpose in life. I am
grateful for this oppertunity I have to share that with others and just as if
not more importantly really understand that for myself. I love my Savior Jesus
Christ so very much and I know I´ve taken Him for granted for far too long and
I´m working to do all I can to make up for that time and give Him all of me now
<3
Have a great week everyone OK?! I love you all so very much :)
Oh my goodness. I´m in Argentina guys. Can ya believe it?!
haha I definitely feel like I´m here but I guess sometimes I still just can´t
believe it. Obviously it´s been an AWESOME week :) So, I flew out of Orlando to
the Georgia airport where I met up with the rest of my MTC district which was
SO awesome and a TON of other missionaries! From there, our flight left around
9:00 and we flew all night, like 11 hours to Buenos Aires. I gotta sit by Elder
Jaggi (he´s the Elder that is way into hunting from Wyoming that reminded me of
all my crazy brothers haha ) it was great catching up with him! Even on the
plane, it was like the beginning of my culture shock haha everyone was speaking
castellano (that´s the dialect of Spanish we speak here, it´s when you turn all
the y and ll into a sh sound instead, it´s super beautiful, and all the accents
are like Italians haha) but then when we got off the plane and went though
customs there were a BILLION people holding signs haha and then when we found
the one that said ¨misioneros la iglesia de jesucristo¨ that was awesome, but
the members picking us up only spoke castellano as well, so that was a cool
experience trying to communicate right off the bat :) from that point on, it´s
definitely been full immersion. We spent a few hours at the Buenos Aires
mission office and met all the missionaries going home that transfer and a TON
were from Bahia Blanca. We talked to the Sisters and they told us all about our
¨madres¨or trainers and some advice and all that stuff. That was also my first
experience with real Argentina food which ALWAYS contains meat and mayonaise
(haha sorry mom, there is literally no avoiding that here haha) but it is SO
good. While we were there, the lady in charge of the Visa´s for all the
missionaries of not only Argentina, but Chile, Paraguay and Uraguay as well,
explained to us that the only reason we were ale to come is they decided to
make all of our visas the ¨tourist¨visas that don´t take as long to obtain, but
are only good for three months and have to be changed into long term ones,
which it didn´t sound like there is going to be a problem doign that, but just
pray that it´ll all go smoothly! Then, we finally went back to an airport so we
could fly out to Bahia Blanca! I didn´t sleep too well on the way over so I was
just flat out exhausted haha but it was only and hour and I slept the whole
way. It was dark once we got there (it gets dark at about 6.00 right now) and
raining, but oh my word, I was SO excited! We got off the plane, and went
through the doors and there was President and the Assistants :) They just
looked so darn happy and they greeted us with HUGE hugs (well, hand shakes for
me and Hermana Tolman, oh yeah it was us and like 14 Elders haha) but it was
awesome :) Then we took a little 30 minute drive to the mission office (passed
the only Wal-Mart in the mission haha) and ate a quick dinner there, then us Hermanas,
there were 3 others from the Buenos Aires MTC that had been there all day, went
to crash at President and Hermana Perreno´s house. Then the next day we had a
little training and then found out our area and companions!!
With Hermana Vincent
SO!!! I´m really
near Bahia Blanca! My area is called Ingeniero White and it´s like 30 minutes
from Bahia and I LOVE it! It´s kinda poor and there are a lot of factories, but
the people are absolutely wonderful :) My companion is Hermana Vincent!! I met
her on FB before the mish! She came out one transfer before me and has only
been in Argentina for a tranfer as well! She was in Salt Lake before that
(which is ike 20 minutes from her house, poor thing) but she is AMAZING! I love
her so much and she is doing an AMAZING job teaching me spanish :) I believe we
are the first both American Hermana companionship the mission has had haha it´s
a little bit of a struggle, but Hermana Vincent is amazing :) We are already
really good friends and we are working hard!
Ok I guess to finish up here's some
random facts about my area:
1. There are dogs EVERYWHERE!! I absolutely love that.
Except when we see ones that are really sick, hungry. . .or mean. BUt mostly
they are all really healthy. There are two who know who we are and run up to us
whenever they see us :) They´re names are Tigra and Spike haha I´ll try to get
some pictures.
2. It´s really not that cold haha I mean yeah it´s winter
and we don´t have American heating systems but I wearing sweat and a tshirt to
bed and I´m fine :) granted I have like 5 blankets but yeah haha
3. We getta walk EVERYWHERE and it´s so awesome cuz we can
work literally ALL DAY LONG! No riding in the car or working with silly bikes
haha oh and my leggings keep me plenty warm mom I promise, and I getta wear my
boots like everyday so that´s pretty much the best thing ever!
4. We have a branch here and it has about 6ish active
families, which is so fun. Granted, the work is a bit slower here, but they are
incredible people and they feed us good lunches! Oh, here their big meal is
Lunch and then they don´t really eat dinner and breakfast, they just eat like
small things throughout the day which I also LOVE!
5. Prepare brothers haha you´ll wanna live here after I tell
you this...literally everyone rides motorcycles. haha ok not everyone but a TON
of people. and if not a motorcycle it´s a bike with a motor haha which is
pretty darn neat :)
Alright, that´s it for my time today! I love you all so much
and the gospel is just as true down here as it is in the US! Keep praying for
me and I´ll be praying for all of you :)
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 :)
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 :)
