May 28, 2018- 41 weeks down- 37 left!
Hey! whats going on mom!!!!
AW I loved your emails, and the pictures you sent me!!!! Thank you!!
Sounds like you guys had a loaded week, but a good one! It was the same for me over here haha!!
I love the story you sent about grandpa.. thank you. That touches me. It makes me feel so happy. I plan on teaching them the gospel the minute my feet hit North America again. haha.
Wow, you told me so many things, that I don’t even know how to reply to it all! that makes me sad that buddy was sad that one of his little birdies died. Poor guy.
Soooo you wanna hear a little bit of my week? if I can even remember what happened haha.. so much happened…
First of all, my pics will explain this week well. I uploaded a ton, and videos too....
I’ll start with today and work backwards
So, we are writing late cause we had the BEST PDAY EVER. we toured the Patagonia. not even kidding. at 9am we took a little bus that presidente helped us rent for the day, and we went up to a private beach in PuertoMadryn, in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. we explored caves, ran, played, ate chorizo (and i tried morcilla), and it was AMAZING. I was a normal human being again (well, almost) for a few hours!!!!!
AND WE SAW WHALES. We purposely went to this beach, because its where the whales pass by. and they came! And were jumping out of the water, and squirting water and everything! It was amazing.
Then we toured a few other places in Madryn. (the bus was my zone, 19 missionaries. they are all my buds). We went to one part of one beach... where we were walking and all of a sudden my friend yells out Hermana Holt VENGA AHORA (Come here now!) HAY PENGUINOS (THERE ARE PENGUINS) and I go running., and sure enough, I hop up onto this rock , and theres a freaking penguin swimming 20 feet away in the water. I was so happy I think I screamed like a little girl. I was so happy that I even forgot to take a picture hahah,. SO COOL.
And THEN we saw lobos marinos (i don’t remember the word in English). (Sea lions?) SO COOOOLLLLLL
Then we just got back to Trelew. we drank terere and mate in the bus all together, so Argentine, and so sick. i LOVE ARGENTINA.
Yesterday, Lucia, Santiago, Sebastian, and Maxi were all confirmed members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a glorious day. Turns out, last Sunday Lucia lost her phone, her job, the light and electricity in her house. so everything hit her at once, and that’s why she didn’t go. poor thing. So she’s good now, we passed by 830am Sunday morning and a hermano drove us to church. it was a wonderful wonderful day. we had lunch, coorelacion, studies, and headed to Trelew to stay the night and do planeamiento with the hermanas capas. So that was great
Saturday was a miracle. we had been making plans with Elder Comisario and Fellows to go visit Pato, the brother of Maxi who got baptized. because Pato was gonna get baptized too, but then he changed his mind, and we hadn’t seen him since. And then his stupid friend sent him a video of the endowment session on youtube and he got super sketched out and mad and scared. So we went with the elders on Saturday, with ice cream and had a really great talk. He’s 15. He opened up a ton with the elders and I shared your conversion story with him, and he loved it. I asked him if he thinks he can gain his own testimony, and he said yes, he thinks so. So one of the elders put as a goal with him a baptismal date of this Saturday, and he said he thinks he can arrive. (like, spiritually arrive... sorry, english is hard haha). So we are super super pumped. and then Sunday, HE CAME TO CHURCH!!! I was SO happy. Seriously.
Thursday and Friday were normal, went by fast
Tuesday morning we headed out for Comodoro Rivadavia for conferencia!!!!!!! IT WAS GREAT. we stayed in a hotel, the hotel i stayed at when i arrived at the mission 9 months ago. Sweet memories.
I loved the conference. we learned so much. I sat up front so i could answer questions and participate. and I did! and Presidente Packer appreciated my answers. He’s super old, super sweet, and pretty direct. His Spanish is funny, because he served as mission presidente in Spain. Also, you wont believe this, but I sang in a choir of 8 people, and had the alto part... I was so scared. Oh Esta Todo Bien. it actually turned out great!!!! I felt the spirit.
We learned a lot about the importance of sharing family history. So we took his advice the minute we got back to our areas, and i taught the Sunday gospel principles class about family history. And we taught 2 of our investigatores about it too.
My interview went well, a lot shorter than the one with Elder Bragg. He asked me some questions that caught my attention. He asked if there is anything that impedes the spirit from working through me? I told him no, because I can feel it working through me often. he asked how my family is doing, and to please send my thanks to you guys from the presidency for supporting me in my mission and for the sacrifice.
In the conferencia, half of the mission was there. I saw so many old friends. The group that I arrived with to the mission was all there. and Elder Beltran from Ushuaia. and lots more. and I talked to presidente, and I can really feel his trust with me. He was up on the stand at one part, and i looked up at him, because i was in the front row, and he looked at me and smiled and winked. its simple, but it made me feel happy.
We have transfers this week, idk what will happen... i'll know on Saturday
i love you so much
I’m happy, feeling way more comfortable with the missionary life now. I’m learning to be a more relaxed person. Everyone tells me to chill and relax, because apparently I’m high stress all the time haha. so I’ve learned that better now. I’ve made some really great friends, going to be my friends for life.
i love what I’m doing
Also, my new favorite scripture in Doctrina y Convenios is section 138. Makes me cry to read it. Go read it!
I LOVE YOU MOMMMMMMMM
ames
