Week 34: Power Outage, Hot Week, Much needed "Pick-me-up" from my Companion

Last Monday, it rained all day and our street flooded! It is still reallllly hot and humid here and it rains about once a week. It should start to cool down in March. The summer is short but intense here. This week was not the best because on Wednesday we didn't have electricity from 5pm-9am.  The pench was really hot and we couldn't sleep very well. Then on Thursday the same thing happened but the electricity came back in the middle of the night. It was so miserable. For the rest of the week we were more tired than usual .On Friday the same thing happened for a few hours. We used candles to see but we couldn't study or plan very well because after awhile our eyes were tired from reading in dim light. On Thursday, Hermana Dias had another dentist appointment that was two hours away. But we made contacts in the train so we only partially lost a day of work. In the afternoon my compi had a fever. She was really weak so we had to return to the pench so she could rest. We were so mad that there wasn't electricity again!

We have 11 investigators but many of them aren't progressing. We are going to discontinue teaching some of them. Currently, we are working more with less-active members (there are so many and it is so sad!) and are in the process of finding new people to teach. Maria is still in the process of quitting smoking but we are hoping to get a baptismal date for her this week. And as of now, Luis is going to be baptized this Saturday! German and Elba are doing great and were our only investigadores that came to church. On Sunday morning there was a parade for the anniversary of Cañuelas or something like that so a lot of people didn't come to church, but they did! We were so proud of them!

Flooded Streets in Cañuelas

As missionaries in a branch, we have to do so much! Every week we rotate with the Elders to teach Gospel Principles. This week we had to teach the youth because the teacher didnt show up. I still get pretty nervous to teach, but I know I am better with this than before! And about about once a month we have to give a talk in Sacrament meeting. We usually have to leave early to pick up less actives or investigators for church, so by the end of the church meeting, we are pretty burnt out. I play half of the hymns in Sacrament meeting and Maria, the 15 year old who I was teaching plays the other two. I am so grateful that I know how to play because it is coming in really handy. We are planning a Game Night for the branch for this Friday and we are so excited! It should be really fun!

So this week I was tired, it was hot, we weren't having success finding new people.  Our investigators didn't want to come to church, and our less active members don't seem to want to improve. I was frustrated a lot and struggling with my confidence, the language, and with my teaching and for a few days. I was struggling to be happy. I thought "I need to enjoy this opportunity I have to serve the Lord as a full time missionary. Why can't I lift myself out of this self-doubt and trust that the Lord has a purpose in sending me here?" I prayed for help but continued feeling the same for a few days. I didn't find a peace until my companion told me to read this talk. I was so grateful for her and for the words written in the talk. I had read it before but had forgotten and the words were so refreshing. I now feel like I can take on another week here in Cañuelas. At the bottom of this message is a portion of it. You guys can apply it to the trials in your lives.

Missionary Work and the Atonement

Jeffrey R. Holland

Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is  this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid?  Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in  angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great  deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not  easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never,ever easy for Him?  It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few  moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step  or two toward the summit of Calvary.

For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that  conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is  supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face,bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cupcan pass, let it pass,” 16  then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that.Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it  will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you  are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with  the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived.You  have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Sonof the Living God  knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary.The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

P.S.   By the way, I was tearing up seeing what JJ did as a service to you guys. How cute! She is so special.

  [She made the bed and left the following note for Mom & Dad]! 

Week 33: Interesting Meals, Loving Cañuelas!

This week when we were riding bikes through a neighborhood on the way to contact an old investigator, there was a family of 8 or 10 people sitting outside their house talking and usually its a little intimidating to walk up to a lot of people and make a contact but I felt prompted to talk to them so I stopped the bike and began talking with them and they ended up letting us teach a lesson right then and there and we have an appointment to teach on Wednesday again. It was so cool!

A lot of people tell us that Hermana Dias & I look alike. A few people have asked if we are sisters and two times if we are twins! We tell them that, no, we aren't even from the same country... But it is great!  I am still loving being with her! Hna. Dias is really good at crafts too and she made a wall hanging about the Atonement for German, Elba, and Lucas with scriptures hanging. Yesterday was Elba`s birthday so my compi made a cake and we celebrated with all of the family! German and Elba have a baptismal date for the 25 of February after their wedding. I hope to be another transfer here in Cañuelas with Hermana Dias so I can be there!

We taught 11 lessons this week and 7 investigators came to church! There are so many opportunities to teach in this area! I had a talk this week in church and it went pretty well for the one hour I had to prepare since I was assigned late Saturday night.

On Wednesday we were fasting with an investigator Maria del Camen to stop smoking. The challenge was not to eat or smoke for 24 hours. (It is too hot here to not drink water). We were also fasting for a few other investigators too. In the period of 24 hours, we were able to have a lesson or some kind of contact for all of the people we were fasting for! And Maria said that in her fast, she was surrounded at work by people smoking and eating, but that she couldn't smell it.  And she didn't have desires to smoke! She now knows that she can go a day without smoking and feels that God really knows her. She said the experience was marvelous and now she has a testimony of fasting! 

Below are pictures of the food that my compi made during the two days we had lunch in the pench. She is an amazing cook!

          The meat is cow liver (higado) but it was good and I didn't know what I was eating!

  The other day I ate cow tongue (lengue de vaca) and cow blood (morcilla). The tongue and liver taste like whatever sauce it was cooked in and have a different texture than normal meat. 

                                                        Hermana Dias with Elba

                                                    Hermana Diaz, Elba, & I

                     Wall Hanging that Hermana Diaz made for German, Elba, & Lucas

     Most of the people in the picture are investigating the church- and two are already baptized.

Sorry I am out of time but I love you guys!

Letters to Family:

Audrey letter to Dean: Wow- so much good news! Congrats on Region Chorus! Senior year is the best of the high school years. (college is better) I hope you can make it to All-State! I`ll have to watch a recording of your show when I get home. How many lines and songs do you have? And congrats on making it into BYU-I! Do you know anything about which track you will be in or no-it is after the mission right? 

I cannot believe that you are going to turn 18! Then again, I am 20, so it has to be true! I am so excited to find out where is your mission.I believe you'll be starting your mission application soon too, right?

Dad, Thanks for the photos! I am excited to go to the temple. I miss the temple and want to go so bad but it's currently not available for our mission. I'll appreciate it so much when I get a chance to go.

Letter from Trent to Audrey:

Hi Audrey I am sorry that I have not been emailing you very much and I am enjoying seventh grade a lot and it is starting to get much colder, in fact the pond at the college is frozen. If you have not heard Aaron,JJ and I have started taking piano lessons again so their will be 5 piano players when you get home.    

Reply from Audrey to Trent:

How do you like life in the middle school? Is it really different from Bear Creek? Has it snowed yet? Who is your piano teacher?

Letter From J.J. to Audrey:

And I got baprtized ! Sorry I have not been emailing you . Second grade has been a blast and my teacher is pregnant and her baby

is do in February! But she is having a sub for the rest of the year . I can tell champ is missing you because in the fall he just wanted us to 

play with him. Do you still have the frisbee do you play with it? I hope that you like it their. xoxo

Audrey's Reply to J.J.: Hi JJ! I saw pictures of your baptism and you looked so pretty in the white dress! Did you know that 12 years ago on January 8, 2005 I was baptized too? The same day as you and your birthday! How cool is that? I do still have the Frisbee but there isn't space or time to play with it here. I will take good care of it and bring it home so we can play together! It will be a little cold when I come home, but we can wear coats! What were your favorite parts of the Christmas break? Did the time pass quickly or slowly?

Week 32-Work Progressing...slowly but steady

We taught 9 lessons this week and have investigators progressing- but slowly... This branch has a lot of less actives and the active members aren't super faithful and I often felt frustrated this week. I feel like there is so much to do and I hope we can help at least a little. The church is still young here and it will take time to grow. We got our bikes fixed and were able to travel a lot quicker. The heat and the bike riding leaves us always tired and we just fall into our beds exhausted every day. German, Elba, and Maria (German`s mom who needs to quit smoking) came to church this week at least! We had invited so many of our investigators and less actives to come to church so it was sad that more people didnt come. It rained Saturday night and whenever it rains there is a lot of mud and people don't like to leave the house.

The washing machine works! We are really worried about Luis because we haven't been able to see him since I've been with Hermana Dias. He had to work a lot and now he isn't answering his phone and he didn't come to church the past three weeks. :( We hope to teach him this week so he can have another interview.

Although it was a bit of a hard week with the work, I am lucky that I am with Hna. Dias. We are really good friends and she is really positive and funny and can teach with the Spirit really well. She has a ton of faith and I've never heard anyone pray the way she does. She's amazing!

Photos

Hermana Diaz from Brazil is awesome!

                                                 
                                                   
                                       The beautiful countryside in Cañuelas:

My awesome tanlines!

My favorite part of the week was a FHE with the famous German, Elba, and Lucas! They are such a good family and I love teaching them! 

Thank you for the pictures- it looks and sounds like the the twins birthday and baptism went well!

Week 31: New Companion and Chasing Criminals!

Hermana Dias from Brazil!

     This week with Hermana Dias went so well! She is from Dourados- Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil! She is so great and we had a fun week together! On Tuesday and Friday she had dentist appointments in Banfield to get a tooth pulled or something like that. It was 2 1/2 hours of travel by train and bus but we didn't have another option! On Friday we were on our way to catch the train for the dentist and we realized that my bike was missing from our front porch! Our tall gate was locked but the bikes weren't so somebody had robbed us during the night or in the morning. We were going to have to pay for it! We were angry but as we were walking about 5 minutes later, we saw a man riding a bike that looked like mine! He was ahead of us and we didn't know what we could do so we thought ah well we can't do anything. A few blocks ahead we saw him again and this time he was walking alongside the bike. We ran and there was a police lady on the side of the street (every couple blocks in the main parts of the cities there are police standing watch)

      Hermana Dias pointed out the man with my bike to the police and said that he robbed us. The police ran him down and brought us and him to the police station and we after 2 1/2 hours and a ride in the police car to our house to get our identities, we were able to get my bike back! While we were waiting, we contacted 5 police officers and gave one a Book of Mormon and a mini lesson. They were all really nice!  We had to give information to the police and the man that robbed us. Now we always keep our bikes inside! The scary part is that we learned that he lives one block from us on Olavarria! He had just gotten out of jail last week for robbery and now thanks to us he is back in jail for a time. But we are scared that we might have to switch pensions or areas because he is a danger now. 

     This week we taught 5 lessons and found 3 new investigators- I am helping Hermana Dias learn the area and meet the members and investigators here. We only got a little lost once but I was surprised that I knew my way around better than I thought! We are working with Maria del Carmen to quit smoking so she can get baptized. We have a few ideas already but if you know any good methods I´d love to hear them!

    We have 8 investigators and a lot of them are progressing so we are happy! I am loving my time here in Cañuelas and I am learning about what it means to "love the people" more. 

     As was the case on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, on the 31st and 1st, we had to be inside the pench at 6pm for safety. So on New Years Eve Hermana Dias and I made pancakes and ate ice cream. We also watched 17 Miracles for our celebration and were in bed asleep by 10:30 as is the rule for everyday of the mission. This could be the only New Year's Eve that I wasn't up late- and I truly felt apart from the world as I knew that everywhere else in the world parties were happening. Fireworks at midnight woke us up but we only heard them. From what I know, they celebrate the New Year here similar to the US- staying up late and having a celebration with family or friends. 

On New Year's Day after church (only about 20 people came and none of them were our investigators- I cant blame them too much- it was the New Year) we made ourselves lunch- (Hermana Dias can cook woo hoo I am learning!) and then organized our map and area binder and I had a good few hours to study and write in my journal.

Facts of the week:

I got 44 mosquito bites on Saturday because I forgot to use bug spray. :(

We had 5 huge spiders in our pench- like bigger than a half dollar coin- gross- my compi is braver than me and was able to kill them all!

It is sooo hot and humid here- almost every day when we return to the pench we are soaked and dripping with sweat! It is not fun!

Hermana Dias has 1 year in the mission as of Friday and today I have 7 months!

I am so happy beacuse Hermana Dias has workout videos! New Year, New Body is our motto! ;)

Wow Dad, I`m glad your birthday went well! Those ward boundary changes are a surprise! I am so proud of Aaron and JJ and that they are going to be baptized! Here are a couple of notes for them:

For my beautiful sister JJ😘💖🐥🎂

 Happy birthday JJ! I love you so much and I hope your birthday is fun and that you can feel God`s love for you in your baptism! I will be thinking of you a lot here in Argentina! Tell me how it went and what you got for your birthday!

For my crazy brother Aaron 😁🍭🐯🎈

I hope your birthday is a great day for you and that your baptism is special! Keep growing and be good! Love you! Write me about your birthday and baptism- I want to know what happened!

Wow good job Aaron & J.J.!- I started a few weeks ago to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish and I am in 2 Nephi 6! You are beating me JJ! You are on! The next week I will be ahead in my scripture reading! 😎😉

Week 30: Feliz Navidad!

On Friday we had the baptism of Marcelo, a 15 year old whose parents are less active. They came to church earlier in December because it was Christmas time and he loved it and asked us to come to his house to teach him more so he could get baptized! We were more than happy to do that! We are used to a little more rejection as missionaries but this area is giving us lots of opportunities to teach! This week a lady knocked on our door and asked us for a Libro de Mormon and we made an appointment to teach her later that day. We were amazed that the people are coming to us!

Saturday we traveled to Luis Guillon and as we were leaving the pench, we saw that our next door neighbor had put out a washing machine that had a sign that said it still worked but that they were giving it away for free! So we carried it to our pench. Now hopefully we don't have to wash our clothes by hand! We haven't used it yet, but we are excited to try!

Saturday afternoon was my chance to Skype with my family and it went so well! A little short for my liking, but so good to see how the kids are growing and to be able to talk to everyone! My mind struggled a little at times to remember English but it wasn't so bad, right? :) I thought I would miss home more afterwards, but I was just happy!

Saturday night a member brought us dinner to the pench. We all ate, talked, and then watched fireworks. We slept the night in their pench. 

On Christmas day it rained all day and was actually pretty chilly. All day it didn't really feel like Christmas- I think because my surroundings are so different here. And there weren't really any big celebrations or emphasis on Christmas so it was a little strange. There were no buses so we couldn't travel back to Cañuelas so I never could give my talk like I had been assigned. The Elders of Cañuelas told us later that only 11 people showed up to church in Cañuelas because all the streets were flooded. 

The picture is right before we all walked to the chapel in Luis Guillon. The church was just sacrament meeting and it was fun to go to another ward. Afterwards the other three hermanas did Skype with their families and we played Bingo and Uno with the family who lent us their computer. It was really fun! 

I don`t remember what happened in the beginning of this week sorry! 

But tomorrow I will be receiving Hermana Diaz from Brazil as a new companion! Its been a good 3 months with Hermana Molinero and a new stage of our missions are about to start. And a new year 2017! A new start, goal making, and more enthusiasm than ever! I am so excited to keep working in the mission! 

I love you guys! Happy New Year 2017! Have fun Dean and Coleman in Disney World! You guys are going to love it- an experience of a lifetime! 

Mom- it sounds like it was better that we did Skype on Saturday because Christmas was busy for you guys! The other girls in the house where they did Skype had a computer but they didn't have privacy and the camera and connection wasn't very good. So I am grateful for the situation of Skype that we had!

I don't need other sunglasses, but you can send them just in case if you want in case mine get scratched or lost. Umm I dont know what else I want that doesnt weigh a lot or is very big.-Updated printed pictures of the family and pictures of my friends would be nice!