Asado

well folks this week is going to be a short one because I sent lots of pics... so thats really a lot more than words can say anyways...

we started out with our activity with the barrior the last monday. Super fun, we ate hamburgers the size of my head that are just delicious! nothing beats the meat here, its fantastic!  we played soccer, voli, and basketball, I felt so freee!!! haha it was a hoot to play with all the kids and parents and it ended up beingi a really good turnout! 

Queridos...

queridos amigos,

Last monday I had the pleasure of visiting my firs tourist sight in the mission.  I imagine I felt slightly my traveling tourist sister in Italy who is constantly surrounded by ancient  buildings  and loads of histoy.  I visited the church of  the saint loudres. It is an exact repilica of the one in france and is HUGE!  with luck, they had a service going on. Its like saint week or something odd like that.  We entered to see every ¨practicing¨ catholic getting blessing with laying on of hands and some really different never seen before ceremonies. we even got to go upstairs which is called ¨the temple¨ everything  beautiful white.  It is an incredible building. On the side is a huge cave to represent the tomb with  a big mary saint on the side.   DUring the whole day, looking in every corner I found one Jesus Christ you dont want to know how many  beautiful full size saints I found...  After ward we went into the shop to by a sovenier... I came away with nothing of Christ. I  wanted to ask every nun in sight where was the Jesus?  I dont know about you but it made me so proud to represent him on my  nametag, that way people dont get confused on who I really worship and love.   and even more grateful that we worship a LIVING Christ. I either way I was more converted to our church by visting this one.  If it wasnt a rule I probably would have started inviting people to church sunday...  on the way out I asked my comp if we could drink the holy water or it was against mission rules... we cant drink any water from foucets.. however if it is sacred maybe the rule doesnt apply?  we decided it   would be best to pass...

Tuesday we walked into the house of members to only hear english,... that was a weird feeling.  This family lived in cali for years and speak perfectly. they made us home made corn dogs and we even had cold slaw and nachos... I did not want to leave, I found the perfect best friend for bubbus!  this family is like an argetine version of ours.  It was like christmas!  never have I loved corndogs more...

funny story, Last sunday we were walking to church and my comp starts spassing... oh no what happened?  a bird had pooped right on her forehead... haha we were walking with a investigatores and they just about died laughing... to make the story during gospel principles we talked about the creation and presperving nature and wild life... haha  our investigatores just got a hoot  out of it.  It was pretty priceless. 

Every day makes a difference

At the end and beginning of a new week I look at this computer screen and feel like nothing of grand importance as passed by in just a week. and than my mind starts rolling of how many things really just happened and I feel like I cant type fast enough. Not one week goes by without making a difference in the mission, for me and for the people closest. Every day makes a difference, just a testimony builder that the small things really do matter the most.

To start out the week I went on divisions with hermana cleveland. she heads home next week. We did a very large amount of talking.. haha this is our second time together, just in different areas. One lesson we talked with a lady who I knew before hand wouldnt accept a bautismal date. Well I dont know why but this lady instantly loved me. She looked me deep in the eyes and told me that I was going to be someone very special someday and that I would be seen on the cover of a best selling book. She said she is never wrong at telling futures... haha I didnt know exactly how to react but I gained her coinvedince super fast and she ended up feeding us... that was just a bonus!  the lesson went really well as we taught all about bautismos for the dead and by the end of the lesson, It was time to invite her to be baptized. Without any effort with our words the spirit just hit her and she started planning who she was going to invite to the special occasion. It was such a miracle. It was really neat to be a part of such an experience where you can just seen someone change faces 100 percent in one lesson. Night to day difference. I really enjoyed spending time with hermana cleveland and will be super sad to see her leave.  Transfer news is tomorrow and we shall see what it brings. My guess... I am staying. haha

Santos Lugares

Hola and welcome to my new mission experience.

Seriously I feel like I am now serving my third mission.  I came back to city expecting my new area to be like Haedo, It is so far from it. I guess that is a really good thing as I am looking for different not the same. But wow did I just jump on the magic carpet with jasmine as this is seriously a whole new world.  I am in an area that is on the outskirts of BA, therefore it isnt wealthy at all and it is a lot of people tucked away in little space.  Santos lugares is my exact area in casseros.  The spanish is very different as most of the people arent actually argentinos. We have a lot from peru, paraguay, and bolvia.  They look different, cook different, and it is just throwing me off. haha I felt for the first couple of days a little like I was just taking a few days trip to mexico.  But all is well now, I am getting used to it, and I about died when I saw the size of our church... IT IS HUGE.  We could say that president called me for a special mission here, as this past month we will say there as been a ¨crisis¨ between the misisonaries and the members.  In this ward it is split between two sets of missionaries. us and the elders. My comp and I took a look at our members today in just our area alone and we found about 54 less actives or completely inactives and 11 active members.  Therefore the whole ward has such down to looking for news and focusing on the old and lost.  There has been a lot of baptisms in the past that we call only numbers.  people that are baptized to get a fast key indicator but that arent actaully ready and fully repented.  Therefore they fell away fast and we are left with that missing principle of the gosple... enduring to the end.  My comp and I have lots of love for the members and are strengthing their desire to help with missionary work and reactivation. We are doing something in ithe zone here that is called family misiionaries.  Every week a family is chosen tobecome misisonaries.  This family gets a huge plack, their picutre taken, and get to work hand and hand with us.  we have family home evenings together and they are incharge of referencias and leaving with us for lessons. It starts this upcoming week and I will let you know how it goes. We are trying to get creative as the normal misisonary style isnt working here.  

i came into this area really strong, I decided that whatever it was going to bring I would take it and move forward happily. Although my mind wanders back to my beloved 25 de mayo sometimes I am focused on here now. I trust that president knows what is best for me.  One difficult thing this week was actually obedience. I didnt expect that, but sometimes Missionaries get into the habit and when a new one comes along there are changes that need to be made.  I am determined with the tiem I have in the mission to not have any back peddling. I only want to go up from here, no time to relearn any old lessons. I have such a strong testimony that it is easier to be exactly obedient always rather than picking and choosing and going with the wind.  Really if you want to win the prize at the end of the race, you have to keep up a constant pace.