Jan. 25th

Oh how it was great to log on today and see I had a message from grandma! And Kara as well. Will you tell them I’m only suppose to write really only one message and its this one... so we had one baptism this Saturday. The other boy was at his fathers till late and he headed to his grandparents house ( where he lives during the weekdays and where we found them) it is very far so we went ahead and had the baptism of his sister Camila. During the whole time the family was worried sick for him wandering out in the streets at night. But the grandma called us later that night and told us they were able to find him so he will be baptized next Saturday!
We also taught the nice lady I talked about before and we have her baptism set for the 13th of Feb! We are going to work hard with her! The jehovah witnesses are interesting to teach everytime.. haha i love it. I love learning about these people and their different customs, the music, the food…everything! Its been a pretty hot week as well. Last Monday it poured like no other during the night but everyday it got a little more warmer and warmer! Its crazy to think I have been here for 2 months already. We played futbol again today with the elders.
Hermana Roy lately has been taperecording me making phone calls at night with members or investigadores. Good thing I have confidence in myself and the Lord... haha. No I’m happy with the progress I’ve made its crazy to think I’m able to understand most of what these people are saying and I’m able to talk to them as well! The gift of tongues is real! It’s different than I thought... I guess I just pictured it before that it would all come at once but no through practice and using all the things I have it will come more and more! Just like my scripture says in d&c 100... its so true! I find that when we prepare and prepare we are ready and the lord will bless us with the thoughts and feelings these people need to hear! I love you all and have a great week! choasito!

Aribbaaaa Aha

This week has been pretty good! nothing too exciting.. the heat is pretty... well pretty much HOT! We played the what if game with familia Castro and they absolutely loved it! We are preparing our two kids for baptisms this week on saturday! they are so cute and timid. Their aunts that are about jakes age made some kind of pastry for us the other day and then jello yesterday. The people love to feed us here and im quite alright with that. I haven’t gotten sick yet from the food so that’s a good thing. We have our conference with a couple of other zones tomorrow and then my interview with the president is the week after so every couple of weeks i get to see him and his wife. We called her this morning for a recipe for brownies! We have found these Jehova Witnesses that we´ve been teaching well the daughter is and the mom is way catholic. She has this huge bible like our big book of mormon and said she put it right up on her chest and read it everyday (i cant remember how long) and she had a permanent dent there. haha its been interesting to teach them and hear their beliefs they have, but they are great people and we´re hoping to teach the daughter more! The couple that we found that had the smoking problem don’t want anymore to do with teaching. Its kind of sad to see these people give up. They don’t understand what they could have but we cant force it on them. Hopefully it rains today to cool off this week. Thats sad about Haiti and yes the lord truly does work his works, it is a blessing that Brad and Dori have Luxana! Its amazing to see that here everyday with the people and even within my companionship with Hermana Roy! She has been a great trainer in every step to know how things work and be prepared for what more lays ahead. The people are so helpful here with the idioma! I love you all and have a wonderful week! Enjoy your day off today! nos vemos!!! oh and for Sam I really don’t use my i-pod that much... i wasnt allowed to in the mtc and here I actually wish I had a cd player cause every now and then the president sends out a new cd mix of church music in English and Castillano. So just depending on his president! Love you all, adios for now!!

The HEAT is on!!!

Woooooohhhh!!! Oh who could ever think there was a place where people could live in this weather... hot and sticky.. haha. The people here in Argentina have their siesta from 1:30 to about 5 which sounds like a party right?? Nope its their time to get in their bed away from the heat and sleep right through the heat of the day! Sometimes I wish I could because at times I feel like we are just brain dead from the heat wandering in the deserted streets because no one is outside.. haha but its good! And when they are they are in their little piletas or also known as pools.. the kid pools, the other day we saw about 20 people with grandpa in as well just chillin in the pool! it was probably about 6+8 ft pool. It makes me want to join right in with them!

Our goal is to reach 140 contacts every week and we reached our highest last week! 121! And we are also having this futbol bracket with the our zone. Two sets of missionaries represent a country and ours is brasil! So we played for the first time today. I never really was a fan of soccer til i played on Christmas and today! I love tomatoes as well now.. with onions vegetable oil and tons of salt with milonesa, the typical argentine food.
It’s actually been a really good week! We feel like we have found another lady who is ready to be baptized! The next time we teach her we´re probably going to ask her. We need to pray about it first. She is about in her mid 20s and has two kids with her husband! And she is amazing! She wants the best for her little family. She has almost read the whole book of mormon so it will be exciting to teach her this week... hopefully tomorrow! I love the language here and I feel more and more comfortable to talk! In the ward there is about 60 members and our area is pretty big. We have to take the bus almost everyday to reach the east side of our area! Hma Roy thinks I will be here in the same area for another transfer or two! So I wouldnt mind! We are in a ward and there is another ward that meets in our church.. its the ward of our district leader! We have everything a bishop and his counselors! Great men! One of them reminds me of grandpa Hobbs with his snow white hair and his face.. every time I see him I think of grandpa rambling in Castillano!

And yes I received grandma and grandpa Hancock´s email! I’ve been meaning to write them back! Will you send me measuring cups in my package that would be very helpful here! I made those congo bars but they turned out to be more like cake... they still were really good but I was guessing the measurements and plus I had used a little bit of yeast instead of baking powder.. haha. oh and thank you so much for those ideas for family home evening! The first idea was with those children baptized and the other was with the family that had invited us over for my birthday! Their grandpa and dad is a member of the church but the dad is inactive and they have two girls and one boy.. I think I sent a picture of them! So the grandpa was there to teach with us and we talked about eternal families! Then afterwards the dad had made oh this delicious pizza. He’s been taking cooking classes!.. We call them the crazy family cause we are always laughing with them. They are great people with so much love for one another! I love these people we find and meet everyday... even some of the people we find on the bus. Just to sit down and get to know a child of god they deserve to know they are loved and they can choose to have a better life here in Argentina. We are blessed to have an eternal family. I couldn’t thank my heavenly father enough for the love the unity the rich heritage the legacy that we hold. Our divine mission here on this earth. Everyday you all give me strength to think of the examples and the success each of you have been blessed with and have achieved even my friends and their examples. Oh how the lord loves His children. I’m so grateful for my life here on this earth. I feel so sad for those we meet that don’t even believe there is a god. How could they not??? Everything testifies there is a god.. and loves us individually he cries when we cry. he suffers when we suffer. Just like in moses 7 and enoch talking about heavenly father crying for his children. I love you all! Thanks for letting me ramble on my spiritual high! oh and this little old lady that barely has teeth in my ward says “un beso and mucho salud por mi madre de hermana llanos... meaning one kiss and much heath for my mother dear!” jaja. i love you all and keep up the good work! I’m so excited for Sam and his papers getting in!!! YAY!!! This is the best thing you could ever do in your life! And keep on working hard Jake! Maisie you have the life I wanted.. hahaha be a good example to every person and love them with all your heart! And Heston rock on with the piano! You´ll be the next Beethoven! I love you mom and dad so much.. thank you for everything you have done for me and for our family. choasito mi familia!!! te amo monton!!!!

Another Great Week!

Helloooo My good ol family!
I love reading your emails and I just barely got Maisie’s letter from forever ago! Today I had my first transfer meeting! And guess what! I´m with Hermana Roy for another transfer! Good thing too cause I’m NOT ready to leave her just yet! So this week we found two kids through these converts who want to be baptized! We are preparing them for the 23rd of this month! How exciting!!! They are great kids Thomas and Camila.. twins as well! Thomas loves to pray! Our first lesson he offered the ending prayer! We also found a couple we’ve been trying to get a hold of that the elders were teaching before us. They smoke but we taught them yesterday and we are ready to help with them with our savior and the strength and miracles from our faith!

There is another couple we´ve been working with Diego and Jessica who live in this humble little house. They have tons of plants and a fun garden with corn! haha. They have their kitchen table outside that is basically their kitchen. They are not married but they want to be... they were waiting for this year when they could afford to have a fiesta. At first they were thinking more later on this year. Last week we had a lesson with this couple from our ward and they talked with us about the importance of matrimony and praying as a couple. They also talked about how the ward can help provide a place for their wedding and festivities! It was a powerful lesson. It’s amazing to work with these members cause missionaries come and go but the members are the people who become the support and the anchor these people need! So yesterday we were with Diego and Jessica and they said they had a date finally!!!! the 25th of this month as well! yay!!! so we´ll be here for it!

Oh what a wonderful place I am in... funny story.... so for Leandro Nazarena and Andrea we gave them the trio and wrote our testimonies in castillano... we weren’t there when they opened them so the next time we taught them they got their books out and the mom showed me all my mistakes that I made in my testimony... hahaha. She went from line to line and said oh this one is good... op you need this and this in this one. hahaha. it was quite funny.

Lately with the heat we´ve had some unwanted friends in our apartment. Of course all day long we keep our windows open and you´d think since we are on the 6th floor no creatures would be able to enter in... oh but they can... CUCARACHAS! ohhhh... haha. im usually the one who ends up killing them and every time Iscream bloody murder cause they are huge!! Ashley, Katie and Sarah would know! its worse then those spiders we had in our apartment.. haha...

This morning I was electricuted by my blow dryer... I had touched the metal when I was plugging it in.. not good. we also had some good spiritual moments today. Our theme for this transfer is to focus on being more spiritual in every moment. In the streets, in our apartment, in our meetings. It was really good to hear from our president. You can truly feel the love he has for missionary work and his wife too. She makes me feel good about my Spanish whenever she gives talks in Spanish cause she is still learning as well!

Well I love you all my family! Thank you for everything you do! This week is going to be great to start with new goals. I’m glad we´re not leaving our area. I want to help these people more and more! The more I learn the more I can talk and understand them as well!
I love you all and be safe! Always remember what is most important in this life!

Buenos Tardes!

Wow it did not even feel like Christmas here! You could say it was more like the fourth of July to the extreme! Every house has illegal huge fireworks and it was a blast. We had two other sisters stay the night and we watched all the fireworks on top of our apartment building with sparkling pineapple, it was very fun! Then we went the next morning to one of the chapels in our zone to make breakfast. We experimented with different fruits for smoothies while the elders made chocolate chip pancakes. Afterwards we played soccer a couple of times with four different teams playing each other! We had a bracket going on! Then afterwards we had a good barbeque with these delicious big chorizos, kinda of like hotdogs. Then we had a big water balloon fight! It was nice to get together and enjoy Christmas day in the sun!
It sounds like you all had such a great Christmas too! Im happy for y’all! Its another great week in Argentina with great people and great food. This Sunday I played the piano! Oh and Leandro the oldest of the three we baptized awhile ago just received the Aaronic priesthood so he was able to pass the sacrament on. We were able to teach his mother about the birth of our savior and two other investigators as well. It was special to read and talk about it in Castillano. I loved it!
I feel like after looking back on this month the language is coming along pretty good and Im able to do a lot more then my first day! I just have to laugh at my mistakes and keep on talking and trying.
It was very nice to talk to you all! Ilove knowing you are all watched over and protected by our dear heavenly father. I know we are as well in His work! I remembered a scripture Ihad found while Iwas in the mtc about the lilies in d&c 84.... verses 79 to 85! The lord is on our left and on our right. I was also thinking about one picture a sister had given me in the mtc as well how we are fishers of men! Here we have this delicious sweet message for these people but its their choice whether they want to partake of it or not. We just have to keep on praying searching and be guided to those who are ready. Thank you for everything. I love you all and have a wonderful week celebrating a new year! Make some good goals! Funny thing is that I look back in my diary and see my goals for 2009 was to pick up a new hobby. Thanks to Sarah she taught me to stitch! And I was deciding over school or a mission.. haha here I am embarking in something so powerful and so wonderful!! I love you all! chaosito!