Stacey called this morning around 10:30 our time; 2:30 Argentina time. Yay!!!
It was amazing and pulled at our heart strings to hear her voice! She said it was a little stressful at first, trying to figure out how the 10 missionaries gathered at the Chapel would each be able to make their 40 minute phone calls home. Eventually Stacey and her new companion Hermana Roy and Hermana Johns went to a nearby convert's house to get their calls made.
(Hermana Johns took a remise from Castelar to Haedo and will stay with Stacey and Hermana Roy until her mini-missionary companion arrives.)
As a typical mom I breathed a big sigh of relief that her calling card had worked properly and that we were able to get Nata and Jason successfully on the line with us in W. Virginia. For a few wonderful minutes we were all together again...as much as we could be! :)
The time went by very quickly...as we had expected, but Stacey was in great spirits and said she loved hearing our voices-- and that we sounded young!
We were sufficiently entertained as she told us detailed stories; one about being late getting home one night, tripping and falling over a cable (strung around newly poured cement that she didn't see in the dark), getting up and running for their lives to catch the colectivo (bus) that they missed by just seconds, and then having to pay for a remis (taxi) after all that exertion and effort. Good times!
She also told us about her new area, how she LOVES her new pension (apartment) and would completely enjoy staying there for the rest of her mission... haha! and of course expressed her love and appreciation to all back home.
We heard her talk a few times to those with her and her Spanish and accent sound great. She ended the call telling us that the Gospel is true, to not worry about her, that she is working hard and geared up to hit the ground running in Haedo. Go Wace!
There were only tears for the last minute or so of the call and then we said good-bye again until Mother's Day when we get to do it all over again!
Whew!
Another Christmas Day is over and we hope it was completely survived and pleasantly enjoyed!
We wish everyone far and wide a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2009!
Love,
Stacey's letter:
Tue, Dec 23, 2008
Wow, here we go, and it´s the last email before we get to talk like real people on the phone! I´m super excited, I really don´t want to cry because I don´t want to leave that taste in your mouth and have to hang up sobbing and all, but we just can´t control our emotions so whatever happens, happens.
Feliz Navidad – new computer for you and new camera for me! So what happened is… it had another fall this time from the bed of a pick up truck and it caused it´s final demise. I should have been more careful I admit, but it was giving me more and more trouble each and every day and taking really crummy pictures (like at the p-day navideño and baptisms… I was preparing to buy another one anyway, this just made me do it asap.) Thank you for putting on the money. I had to swallow my pride and go to just one store and buy one without being able to investigate for weeks and all like I normally would. But I spotted a Sony Cybershot with 7.2 megapixels (it went for a whopping $999 pesos – so $333 dollars), it has a lithium ion battery and the essential video with audio that I live for. Then I splurged and bought a 4 gig memory card (which went for $135 pesos- so like $45). It wasn´t the easiest thing to do, hand over more than a thousand pesos, but sometimes when your hands are basically tied, these are the decisions you just have to make in the moment and realize that had the circumstances been different I would have investigated more. But it´s all good, the camera I bought is top of the line and has a one year guarantee. Thanks for your support… the other one had totally become more of a stress than a tool. I will be sure to take extra good care of this one. The good news is I can still use the old one to take videos which turn out just fine. But pictures…. Not at all!
Bummer that the cougs lost, in both sports. Thank heavens the basketball game was on the road.
Thanks so much for telling me about Maurie's mission call! Tell her congratulations and yay for us both being able to speak the languages we were trying to learn at BYU--AND that she will be amazing. Tell her I am excited to swap stories after the mission!
My feet hurt a bunch, but only in the morning, and in the night. But working all day long… the Lord takes the pain away. Don´t let it get to you. I don't.
You can definitely send me motab cds! I would love it and they are just about the only thing that´s allowed. It would be super cool. Tell grandma thanks a ton!
So stories… I have seen 2 dead birds and a BAJILLION mosquito larvae. Pretty much I always say "we´re all going to die from West Nile Virus!" I haven´t been attacked yet. The random bites and red marks that show up all over my legs aren´t mosquito bites, so I think that I am WNV free so far! I still have my Deet and other lotions which I will use the moment the need presents itself.
My companion and I got caught in a hard core downpour on Sunday. We were wearing short sleeved shirts and didn't have our umbrellas. We walked 11 blocks in the POURING rain to the pension to dry off, change clothes, grab umbrellas, and hit the street again. But we laughed about it the whole 11 blocks. It was cold. But it was an adventure. I hope when you read these stories they make you happy, because it is these experience that build us and make us the tough missionaries we are.
Rolando had a going away FHE for us, and he promised to invite me to his sealing next year if things keep going well with his RM girlfriend Valeria. That would be my mission dream come true!
I said goodbye to everyone and the Bishop asked me to bear my testimony my last Sunday. I left the area without a single regret and am completely ready to get lost in a new one!
Well, the transfer meeting was kind of a let down, but not at the same time. A let down because as a mission we only had 114 converts and the goal was 186. I really thought we had reached it too. So that made me a little bummed. But anyways, me and Hermana Johns won the mission scarf again because we were the best companionship in the zone.. I have to admit that it made us a little embarrassed to have to go up to the front to be crowned with the scarf and have the Pres. Be like "oh, the Hermanas again… Elders… " They also compiled all of the stats and presented a new statistic. It´s called overall efficiency. Every key indicator or goal has a point value (like contacts, lessons with members, other lessons, lessons to recent converts, new investigators, with a date, baptisms, etc.) and you want to have the best numbers-- but across the board. Anyway, of the 80 some odd companionships in the mission the top 10 were announced in the power point presentation and me and Hermana Johns took second place.
And then came the really exciting part… the transfers! I left the zone of Castelar (and the area of Castelar) and I am now serving in Haedo 1 in the Oeste zone! Haedo is pronounced like this: eye – eh – dough . So yeah, here is the skinny about the area. It is the richest area where sister missionaries are, so at times the work is hard, but that doesn´t mean you can´t baptize here… so don´t let anyone try and tell you that. The best part (so far… I´ve only been here 4 hours) is the pension! It´s a DREAM. It´s NEW, it doesn´t have mold growing in it. It has a tub!!!!!!!!!!! It has more hot water because it´s not a tank-- it´s a calofom. It is huge, it has closets that have doors! It´s absolutely AWESOME. I think I could handle working here a long time if it meant being able to live in this dream of an apartment. It is so wonderful, it makes me feel like I´m at home on Salinas. AND we have brand new mattresses on our bunk beds and my new Latina compañera Hermana Roy from Nicaragua let me have the bottom bunk! I´m super excited and it will help my feet not hurt so bad in the mornings. She is super cute, and this is her third transfer and I am now the senior companion. I am so happy and content, more than content in fact!
Ok, about Christmas… first of all the President is super nice and is letting us chill in the home of a member on Christmas Eve from 7-10 pm! Talk about staying out late… I don´t know how I´ll be able to keep my eyes open! … seriously. Then on Christmas day we are going to get up and go to have our district meetings. After the district meeting we will have a pancake zone activity from 12-2 pm. Then around 2:30 we will START making the Christmas phone calls home. I say START because there are lots of us making calls from one church building and I don´t know when I will get a turn. But no earlier than 2 Argentina time… which is what 10 Utah time? The phone call is no more than 40 minutes. The calling card I have gives me more minutes if I call to a land line. So I will be calling home and then will get NataJason on the line. Sorry I don´t know more, but what I do know I have told you. No earlier than 2 Argentina time and hopefully not much later because I don´t want to ruin your whole day. Hehe, as though waiting for my call would be considered "ruining your Christmas"… yeah I don´t think so! Think of questions that you want to ask me, because I´m sure that the emotion of the thing will make my mind go blank and I´ll be repeating the same things like "it´s really hot," "I still don´t understand all that is said to me" "I finally overcame my fear of colectivos" and the like. I have completely saved the peanut butter for Christmas day treat!
I love you all more than words can express.
Nata – I got your "Have a Merry Christmas" dearelder letter and it brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for you love!
Mom – you are the winner! You will never know how much I love you.
Dad – you are the champion! You are steady and firm.
I pray for you all. Congratulate Katy-bug for me. Tell her that she made me super happy to hear that she went to the temple to do baptisms and all. Tell her to read 2 Nephi 31:19-21 and to remember to endure to the end!
I will be calling you soon … let's make this clear....on your home phone!
Gotta go. Have a wonderful Christmas Eve and then in just a few hours we will be able to hear each other´s voices! Soak up the snow for me. We miss it like CRAZY!
Wubba, Hermana Jensen!
