Update

April 28, 2014

TRANSFERS!  wow. I was so incredibly sad to leave. But, it was good. I got here Wednesday to Esperanza. Wow. This place is BEAUTIFUL!!!! Its small and quaint, and I feel like I just stepped into a movie. Everyone rides bikes everywhere. Including me! Yes. I am now a missionary on bike and I LOVE ITTTTT!!!!!! My companion is Hermana Coreas from El Salvador. She has about 6 months in the mission and is awesome. We have a branch here and its SUPER tiny. I love it. we have about 17 people at church on Sunday. And I am in charge of Sharing time and singing time in the Primary. That was super fun! There are 2 companionships of Sisters in the branch so thats fun! I have REALLY upgraded on my apartment! It was bulit like 8 months ago!!!!!!! and I have a real shower toilet that doestn have to be flushed with a bucket. I almost cried when I found out I had a real bathroom. I`m learning the area and meeting all of the members. They are super awesome. Pretty crazy but awesome. 

We had lunch with the Spies family this past week. They are like farm people. They are CRAZZZZZY. We had chicken. It was cooking on teh coals outside and one of their dogs
came up and grabbed it. Then, teh dog dropped it in teh dirt. Brother Spies went and picked it up and brushed it off and put it on the table....AWESOME. I`m not sick yet so I think i´m good. Everyone here is Catholic! Thats always fun haha. But I really do love it here. Its definitley a change, but i`m adjusting and loving it!

Me and Hermana Coreas!

May 5, 2014

This week was super good. We were able to find more people to teach, and that is always awesome. We have been teaching a lady named Norma. She has about 65 years. We invited her to be baptized and said yes! The next step is always getting them to church....so we said that we would pass by on our bikes. She said she would come if it wasn´t too windy, cold, or stormy. We prayed so much Saturday night that we would wake up to good weather. Sunday morning we woke up and there was SO MUCH FOG. and then we recieved a message from her saying Chicas, I´m not going to go to church today. Too much cold, yada yada yada. We were sad... :( As we were leaving the house we prayed that we would have a miracle and that someone who we invited would come to church.


We got to the chapel and about 4 people were there....we started and we looked over at the door and.....THERE WAS NORMA!!!!! She said "Chicas! I´m glad I found the church! I decided it wasn´t too bad outside after all." WAHOOOOOO. It was so awesome. She loved church, but she didnt like that it was 3 hours and that she wouldn't have the whole morning to cook. But, we´ll work on that later haha. We were super happy with that!  Also, this week we had quite a bit of rain. Rain, dirt roads, and bikes....awesome....haha. I´m having quite the adventures here in Esperanza!!!



May 11, 2014

Skyping on Mother's Day!

Blood sausage with Evelyn

The dog of the lady of where we rented in Parana. I LOVE THIS DOGGY!

In a plaza in Esperanza! This place was the first place colonized in
Argentina!!!!

Biking through Esperanza!

May 19, 2014

This week was really good. We had a goal this week to talk with everyone beacuse we had only one investigator and we NEEDED to find more people!!!! One day this week we had a man come up to us and ask if we were mormons. We said yes and he said I knew it becasue of you helmets! He was really excited that we were mormons and that he wanted to change! He told us that something told him that he needed to come and talk to us! WOW!!! With this I learned a couple of things. 

1)  It doesnt matter that the helmets are super ugly and super uncomforable. God will bless us if we are obedient AND people think we are crazy and want to talk to us...haha 

2) GOD WILL PUT PEOPLE IN OUR PATH. I was starting to freak out a little bit becasue we had had no success and I started thinking oh no. I´m going to ruin Esperanza. BUT, all I needed to do was be patient and leave it to the Lord. and it toally worked out! 

This guy we found is named Rojelio and he went to a baptism of the other Hermanas on Saturday and then church yesterday! IT WAS A MIRACLE!!!!! :)  

We have been trying to work with Norma but she is never home or is busy....not a good  sign...but we are hoping that all will go well!!

April 22, 2014

This week was super good!  We found a couple awesome people that have a ton of potential! I am super excited to see how it ends up with them! One day we were contacting in an area that is one of the sketchier parts. While we were there, we met a guy named Claudio. He is crazy and just wanted to talk about the states with us but, as we were walking out of the area he said. You are our friends now. If anyone tries to mess with you, i´ll just punch them! hahaha that was pretty funny! Also, as we were walking out of the area, I had my first
encounter with a scary dog! It started barking like nutso and then nipped at the Hermana sainbury...hahaha we started screaming like crazy. In the moment, I was so scared, but now, when I look back, its super funny. 

This week, we also went out to the little village of Valle Maria and brough all the other missionaries with us so that we could contact the WHOLE town! It was awesome and so much fun! 

Easter was awesome! Its always interesting, because in the states we sing Easter hymns like 2 weeks before Easter and the same with songs for Chrsitmas. But for here in Argentina, its really not like that...haha It was just a normal Sunday and regular talks...It made me a little sad that people weren´t focusing on the Savior a ton... In the afternoon me and Hermana Sainsbury made a super awesome lunch and then we left to go to a house of a Member to do an easter egg hunt with them! They dont do those kinds of things with Easter here, so it was super fun to show them how its done!!!!!!! I loved it! They had so much fun too! We shared a lesson before and then we let them hunt for the eggs! 

Also, this week I realized how catholic this place is haha. The week before Easter, the Catholics dont eat meat, only fish. So, we were in the grocery store on Friday getting some things for our lesson and the easter egg hunt, and then decided to buy some meat for our Sunday dinner. Man, the looks we got. hahahha we had about 3 dozen eggs and a package of meat. We werent the biggest fans in the grocery store that day...haha. 

News about transfers! I´m heading out of Parana`. I´m heading to a place called Esperanza. I dont know a ton about it, and my companion is a Latina so that should be fun! 

A steak we had last Monday!

All of us in Valle Maria

The view from the bus on our way home

 Decorating eggs for the Egg Hunt!

Happenings in Parana

April 7, 2014

Oh conference. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. It was quite the adventure here in Argentina. The first sesion was super good. They let us missionaries watch it in English so about 8 of us missionaries were squished into the bishops office watching it on the computer. It was awesome. The 2nd session: We had a investigator who was supposed to come. We took the taxi to her house and her dad came out and started yelling at us. That was fun...haha. It was a good thing Elder Hollands talk was just about 2 hours earlier.... :) haha. So because we didnt have an investogator there we went out and worked. 

Sunday Morning: we got to the church early and had lunch with the Elders. Then we got ready to watch conference. It started at one and the people who were in charge to start it up came at 1...haha and of course it wasnt working so they had to pull out the computer from the bishops office and watch it in the hall. It was such a cool thing to see. All the saints from the stake like sardines in a can listening to the words of the lord. It was hard for everyone to hear and to get the message, so us missionares decided to offer a prayer. We knelt in a circle and one of the elders offered one of the most heartfelt prayers I have ever heard. It was so powerful. The satelite continued to not work, but we had faith that god had heard us and that he would help us be able to hear to the word of the profet in a way that EVERYONE would be able to benefit and acyually hear. During the break of conferences we had a baptism of one of teh daugters of a member in the ward. As we were eating and talking, we heard the conference turn on, like the in between messages! GOD ANSWERED OUR PRAYERS!!!!!! The members were able to watch in an atmosphere where they could learn and feel the spirit. It was really good!!!

So, today we are going to watch the 2 sessions that we missed. 



April 14, 2014

This week was super good! We had Zone meeting on Tuesday and then ZOne Conference on Wednesday. They had asked everyone to prepare a talk on Dilligence and then they were going to pick a natvive who was trying to learn English give a talk in English and then someone who was trying to learn Spanish speak in Spanish. I was the lucky person chosen...haha it wasnt too bad and I´m getting over my fears of talking in front of people haha. 

There is a Less Active Family in our ward. When Hermana Telfer was here, we tried with working them and we could see their progress, then in time, they got busy and we honestly kind of forgot about them. WHen Hermana Sainsbury got here, we tried to see them, but just never made the time to do it because its like a 30 minute busride to get there. So, the other morning we both just felt like we needed to go and visit them. We got there and had a really good lesson with the Mom of the family. We closed with a prayer, and then were starting to be on our way, and she asked us if she could tell us something weird that happened. We told her yeah for sure, tell us! She told us that that morning she had been praying and asking God what he wanted her to do. She didnt know if she should keep trying to return to the church or just drop it all together. She asked him to just send her a sign. AND THEN WE SHOWED UP. I know that this is a typical missionary story, but it made me so grateful that me and Hermana Sainsbury were listening to the spirit. Also, I was able to see that god loves ALLLLL of his children. He sent us to answer her prayers. It was such a cool experience. 



Random Thoughts:

• I am addicted to chocolate milk. Its so good. In the states I wasnt a huge fan, but now. WOW. Its heaven. The milk comes in bags here. Its kind of weird haha I just buy white milk and then pour in the mix. Its super good. I frink like 3 glasses a day.

• I hit the middle of my mission this week. Its crazy. I kind of freaked out a bit, but then I really thought about it and I`m pleased with my work so far and I´m ready to take on another 9 months. 

• I got stung by a bee for the first time in my life. That was exciting. My arm swoll up a bit, but I´m doing perfect right now. 

• Where I write my e-mails is in an internet cafe, and it almost flooded becasue there is SOOOOOOO MUCH rain here!!!!!! 

This is the Escalada family! I love them so much! We have lunch with them every Friday! They are so awesome!!!!

Pictures of Evelyn and her baptism!!! WAHOOO!!!! 

sometimes we like to take pictures of oursleves when we are working :) 

My addiction....

The Mansilla Family that lives in Valle Maria. A little pueblo. 

Lovely ARGENTINA!!

We made an american sunday dinner! Meat, potatoes, carrots, and bread. SO AWESOME. 

Before

And After!

Special P-Day at the Beach