Chilling with Señorita Evita

Señorita Evita is the Benton's cat and I have been resting and hanging out with her a lot lately!

When I got here and was sleeping in a comfy bed with sheets and thought about the hot water shower and the food that I would be offered, at first I thought that I would turn it all down and not take advantage of it. I thought I was going to be like Uriah who said that he couldn´t possible go home to visit his wife, knowing full well that his men were out fighting in the battles, but then I remembered that it was that kind of attitude that got him killed. So from the get go I said yes to every time they offered me anything special. Peanut butter, ranch, bacon! steak, ice cream, sleeping in, taking naps… I said yes to it all! But I still was very helpful to them in every single little detail. I cleaned, I served, I cooked, I washed… I was like Annie. I told them I had to earn my keep. They laughed. :)

FYI : So when I was in the hospital, my companion was usually at my side or right outside the door just waiting around and trying not to be worried about me. The assistants were outside on the phone dealing with endless problems.
In this adventure I have been treated to McDonald's on the mission twice! Talk about spoiled, and the Benton´s took me out to eat at this American restaurant called Kansas near the mission home. There was valet parking and I ordered salmon with yummy potatoes and a salad. The appetizer we shared was cheese covered potato wedges and it was divine. We went back to the mission mansion for dessert and ordered Freddo´s ice cream. YUM.
The Benton´s are so much fun and absolutely hilarious. You are going to be the best of friends and they are very anxious to meet you. I tried to explain 'Rage' to them and Phase 10, I think they´ll pick up on them quick. President Benton LOVES having people over for fancy dinners. On Sunday he invited the 6 office Elders and we had steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cop, rolls, salad, ice cream and oreos. We all kinda miss American food… can ya tell? It was like a scene from Pride and Prejudice because he gave us all a topic to research (examples from the scriptures of people using their agency wisely and unwisely) which we later used as the after dinner spiritual discussion. I kind of felt like we were being evaluated to see what we would all contribute to the conversation and being the only sister I was even more nervous to make sure to hold my own. He seemed happy with my contribution with Jonah as the bad example and Ruth as the good one… he likes people who are loyal! Then those who can play the piano were invited to select a hymn and everyone else stood around the Steinway and Sons grand piano and we sang hymns. I played Be still my soul flawlessly as I had been practicing it all week long.

This part will shock you: I have loved this week in the mission home. I finally got to take advantage of some long needed R&R and solitude to really just think and be myself. I was completely blessed to just be calm and not stress about the fact that I wasn´t working because I knew that 2 others were. The Lord answered my prayers and helped us get the mini and I have been keeping in touch with the work and all, but I have been able to just let myself BE here and know that I will soon BE there. I have been having thousands of conversations with President and Sister Benton and have received so much counsel on just about every subject. Not just about the mission and the work, but about how much President thinks I should get an advanced degree and be a lawyer-- as to what kind of man I will find and marry and how I will win him. President says that I need to wait for the one who deserves me and that I´ll probably find him in law school. Sister Benton taught me about how I don´t need to downplay my strengths, I just need to use them to support instead of compete. They are both so wise and so interested in me and my life. They sincerely care about me and want me to have the best of the best. They are just like my real parents. They are very spiritual of course, they don´t play mind games and they don´t make you feel dumb. They relate everything to the gospel and are strictly obedient.

One night the pain was really severe and I asked President for a blessing and he gave me one that reminded me of my Daddy´s blessings… clear, sure, and inspired. There is nothing like a Father´s blessing – be it your real father, or your mission father… they are just amazing! I feel so blessed to have been raised in a home where I always could count on a Father´s blessing when I needed it.

To answer your question… the hardest thing to leave will be them. President and Sister Benton are so important to me. I will miss them dearly, but in under 2 years they will be finishing their mission and I will be able to see them again.

The dislodged ribs were quite painful, but they have settled back into place and now I just have a residual cough that may last a month more. Lame.Mom – would you be so kind as to make President and Sister Benton one of your beautiful cards and send it to them for having taken care of me this week? Thanks!

This week I have been a mini assistant helping them with details and translation and stuff. They really appreciate me and keep telling me how great I am and how I would make a great assistant. I decided that my dream would be to return to the mission field in the next day or two, finish my mission and then just move into the mission home and be their personal assistant until they finish and then we can all come home together. I bet you don´t think that´s the best idea because I´d still be here and not there, but I´d have the freedom to write and call and text and all that jazz, so we would be as close as we were when I was in college. And of course I would come and visit for a little while first. I think what dawned on me is that I want to do some kind of work like this… taking care of all the little details for people who are too busy with more important things. I can be a good personal assistant.
I have been reading the Book of Mormon and highlighting some 25 odd key words in various colors to see just where each topic is discussed in it. It is so cool to do that! I have never read it so fast and never had such a great experience doing it. I can´t wait to show you how beautiful it is! I´m going to finish it today.

Conditions here: a Villa Miseria is a dangerous part of town where the really poor people just build little shacks that sometimes have electricity, sometimes not that are usually like 4 walls and a roof of that bumpy tin material – my English is failing me. One is right up next to the other so they share that wall. They sometimes have brick walls too. They are so humble and so small and very dangerous at night. We drove by one the other day and I was pretty floored as it occurred to me that people live there.
In my area there are many humble homes that are just built of giant bricks and uneven mortar. They don´t have real walls or ceilings, but they all have electricity. Cement floors that are uneven and breaking, if you are lucky you have a heater to plug in, if not, you bundle up and all sleep together on one bed. Poor people have dirt, normal people have cement, rich people have grass, wealthy people have live green grass. Dirt roads, stray dogs, little food. The family we are working with lives on under $300 US a month and has 4 children and needs a ton of medication each month. Other homes could pass for the states, it all comes down to what street you live on and how much money you have. The mission mansion for example… you don´t even realize you´re in Argentina except for the fact that all the appliances are in Castellano, but we are also in Acasusso which is a really rich town. Padua is not considered “campo” but it is not really city either. It has parts of city and parts of ghetto. One thing that is pretty common is for people to just move into an abandoned house and make it their own until someone comes to kick them out. It´s not legal, but that is what many needy people do, like this family we´re working with. They just found this empty house and moved in.

Guess what?!! President Benton said that I would be able to go on a division with Sister Pruner before we both finish the mission! I was so excited. He treats me like a princess sometimes.

I ran a few errands with Maria who cooks and cleans here and I was coughing almost the entire time. The cold air seems to get to me, but I can´t just hide away until winter is over. I´m going to go back to work tomorrow or the next day and find a way to just not cough. Supposedly it was Bronchitis and not Pleural Effusion or Pneumonia, but all I know is that I was sick and the Lord put me in the mission home to teach me a lot of things.

From what I have been told ________ started smoking again, but is quitting again and he even went to all 3 hours of church on Sunday. Romina was confirmed! ______ returned from Lobos or Chacabuco or wherever he was and is giving us trouble, but we will get him baptized. Lisbeth and Julio decided to get married, they just have to go and do it! And there is a lot of hope with Santiago because Beatriz (his wife, the mom of Nico) is really coming back strong to the church. I know that we can have a ton of success this transfer and I am just about ready to get back out and cough all day long in the street if I have to!

I love the mission so much and have a new vision of how I want to serve. I see things a different way now and I am ready to put in practice a bunch of things I have learned here. But one thing is for sure… I am so patient… imagine a high-strung sister missionary like me just chilling with Señorita Evita in the mission mansion for a week… the Lord has refined me and opened my eyes and I am ready to show the whole world how better a person and missionary I can be. I have just over 4 months left in His full-time service and I am ready to work every single day I have.

I pray for you a ton and hope that everyone is healing from their surgeries. I know that the Lord hears prayers. I have never felt to privileged. This time has been priceless to me because I have learned so much. I do not regret for one second that I am here “resting” in the mission home. The Lord put me here for a reason and I learned that I am not dispensable. The work will always go forward.

I love you so much and hope that the heat doesn´t get to you. I will drink lemon water and as far as meat goes… we get little, so don´t stress about it.

I am so happy, I only see the good. I love you tons!

If The Lord Loves You And You Know It Clap Your Hands!

CLAP CLAP!

So much to tell, where do I start? How about with random stories like I usually do:

A few weeks back we stopped and talked to this young guy on his patio and street contacted him. He then told us that he was actually a member that hadn´t gone to church in years. Those are always awkward, but the even more awkward part of the situation came as his girlfriend sitting on a lawn chair about 10 feet away starting throwing rocks at us. None of them hit us, but it was really funny because we were literally being attacked and stoned! I got a kick out of it. Then this past week we stopped an older woman to contact her and she told us that the dogs are better than humans because they have life and I said, “so do I” and she said yeah and something that really floored us because we couldn´t understand it. Then she started speaking in tongues! Or at least not the Spanish tongue. She was blessing us and then in the end you could tell she had said something like, “away with you now.” We wondered if she was being serious but you never can tell.

On Sunday Romina, Yamila, and Nicolas were baptized, but unfortunately on Sunday only Yamila and Nicolas were confirmed… and we barely managed that. The details are exhausting and all have to do with people keeping commitments. The crazy part is that Romina finally came around to being baptized because one night she was waiting for her mom to come out of a store and she was really cold and she started to pray that her mom would come out quickly and then about 5 minutes later the mom came out and she told her she felt the spirit so strongly that she had decided to be baptized. I´ll take it… whatever works. She has nothing against being confirmed, it´s just that she said she could do it next Sunday and it´s all the same… she will be confirmed this Sunday, but the bishop would have rather it been that day.

We got electricity on Friday and we were very, very happy to be so blessed. The mission

didn´t think that it would go down that way, but the light company wasn't truthful and said we would have electricity in 48 hours--we didn't.

My trunky papers only ask me for the stake president, the name of the stake, and the name of the airport where I want to arrive. Are we in the Copperview stake? Since I never really lived there I don´t even know my own ward or stake…

Did you guys get some letter from a Seventy discouraging you from picking me up? Another missionary said that her parents were going to come get her, but then they got this letter saying that it is best to not. Just curious. I´m super looking forward to the airport reunion in my own hometown.

The transfer was quite successful even with all the obstacles that we faced… 126 converts as a mission! I was pleasantly surprised to see San Antonio de Padua appear on the jumbo screen as number 13 in overall efficiency and then I was pretty

content to win the scarf for the zone of Merlo… and with a white wash too! Take that Satan… you cannot stop this work!

The pictures; one is of the map we made for Padua to be able to plan better each night, one is of my companion and I during the move, and one is of the Botta family.... Yamila is next to me and Romina is the older daughter, and one is of the zone Merlo.

Ok, then I guess it´s time to ´fess up and tell you that I have pneumonia, and pleurisy. On Tuesday Hermana Benton told me to start taking Amoxicillin and on Wednesday I was given a blessing and we decided we had to go to a clinic. On Saturday and Sunday we worked less than normal because of me and it made me feel quite guilty. On Monday I was coughing and all the sudden something inside started stabbing me, (or that´s how I described it) and we went with the APs to the hospital. A bunch of x rays and tomagraphs showed that I was recovering from pneumonia and that the infection was minor. They put me on more amoxicillin and other meds and sent me home for 5 days of rest. Hermana Benton had us sleep in the mission home last night after the whole hospital run.Try starting off a transfer with nobody working… it doesn´t go well. I pled with the Lord in my prayer that night that He would help us find someone to work with my companion in Padua for 5 days and I started calling people. My old mini couldn´t, but she recommended a ward missionary from her ward in Catan 3 who could! We made plans to have her meet us in Padua, but it rained and rained all day and the streets in Catan flooded and it took her over 3 hours to get a remis that could get her here. The worst of it is that we were waiting and waiting for her and I finally called to see how long ago she had left and they hadn´t left at all. She finally got a remis and now we are waiting an hour and a half for her to get here, then I go to the mission offices and then the President or somebody will get me to the mission home – which is a good 45 minutes away.

DON'T WORRY about me… it´s just a little pneumonia – nothing that meds and rest can´t fix. I am going to start the Book Of Mormon over again and try to enjoy a little solitude. I am going to try not to worry about Padua, but you can´t even imagine how much it destroys me to not be able to work these 7 days (counting Monday and today). I feel terrible and want nothing more than to be well and able to work in the cold, muddy, rainy streets of Argentina. It is not fun at all to be a missionary that can´t work.

I got my package and LOVED it! Thank you so much. Didn´t you say you were going to send me a picture of Daddy wearing a funny shirt? Whatever happened to that? Thanks for all the fun things you sent me. The Ranch powder is probably my favorite. I met the Pollock family and they were very nice!

Thanks for everything. Don´t worry about me. Don´t even begin to worry about me. Hermana and President Benton are taking good care of me.Talk about putting a little more slack in the chain… after this I´ll have to put some chain in the slack!

I love you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ajohns37 said...
We didn't realize she was so sick. Our computer has also been sick. Our prayers and thoughts are with her. They have a wonderful mission mom and dad (the Benton's) and will be taken care of. Hope all else is well. Love, the Johns Family
JULY 28, 2009 9:58 AM

Out Of Nowhere A Dog Ran Right Into The Back Of My Legs!!!

Querida familia,

Yes, yes. It is important to relax.

Relaxing mentally is something that I crave more than you know. I long for a moment of true solitude. I have been with a companion for so long that I don´t remember what it´s like to just be alone for a second. I think about that a lot… about how much I would just like to sit down for a second all alone in a silent room and think about what I´m doing and what I want to do and all that jazz. I´m trying to find a way to relax mentally a little bit each day. I agree that it is important.

I also long for a little R&R physically. I don´t know what I´ve got, or how long until it runs its course, but I¨m telling you that my cough has mutated several times. At first it was just a dry itchy one, then for a little while it was sharp, then it went deep to the lungs, then it went dry again, and now I spontaneously get coughing attacks from breathing. Hermana Benton says that I´ve just got to let it heal itself. I finished all the day and NyQuil that I brought with me and have since converted to Argentine cough syrup. It is a one tsp. dosage and not that terrible, but I notice no relief whatsoever. FYI- child Proof lids do not exist here. They all think it´s pretty cool and that they should copy us and I would have to agree. It´s one of those things that you just take for granted in the states.

Cough drops… no help either. I am weak and just want to stop time and sleep it off. I could say “we´re stayin´in the pench this morning” but that would not help me mentally because I would just feel overwhelmed and stressed about the numbers and the weekly minutia of catching up for the lost time. So far kidney stones are the only thing strong enough to keep me in the pench. But if I could stop time from passing I would treat myself to a good long nap to get over this cold and not feel guilty about losing proselyting time.

Mom – I´m going to do my best to find a way to try and do “chalk”. Sounds like fun. Thanks for sending it to me.

On Monday I get my trunky papers, so I´ll need to know the name of our stake president. Thanks.

We have been living in the new pench without electricity for 7 days now and it´s cold. That´s not entirely true. Our neighbor is sharing his electricity with us, which means that we can turn lights on, but we can´t run a fridge or a heater. I only learned on day 5 that it can handle a blow dryer. Learning curve. If the light people don´t come today, I´m going to be super bummed. The sleeping bag is my best friend, but it´s still cold at night. The apartment has no heating system and it´s winter. Full on winter.

It gets better. We actually had no water, gas, or electricity for like 2 days. Then we got gas, then we got shared lights and water. I will have to explain that all to you some other day. But having your own water is really important. All things are spiritual… when we finally got shared electricity… it occurred to me how lights (the Light of Christ) really is EVERYTHING. You can´t live without it. You can survive, but it is not a life well-lived.

Random “that only happens in Argentina” store: the other day I was walking with my comp on the sidewalk and this dog OUT OF NOWHERE ran right into the back of my legs I´m saying it charged right into me going full-speed. Imagine the shock that that would send you as you are hit by a dog. I don´t know if it was blind or what, but I sure yelled at it and then I threw a rock at it when it wouldn´t leave us alone. That´s what you have to do here… throw rocks at the dogs that give you a hard time. Sad but true.

Another dog story: there is an Alejo 2 that now follows us around our new apartment. I don´t know if we missionaries have a scent or what, but the dogs know us. It´s lame.

Last dog story. The other day there was this mommy dog and her 3 puppies drinking her milk and she all of the sudden decided that she had to head for the fence to check something out, so she got up and started for the fence. Her unsuspecting puppies were totally confused and were still drinking as she started to run for it. One of the poor puppies was dragged a good foot and a half before he fell to the ground. I was so mad at her that I yelled at her and told her she was a terrible mom. I wanted to go and pick the puppy up and coddle it, but I learned long ago not to touch dogs… ever.

Stuff you learn in Argentina: how to manipulate the way you pay for things to obligate them to give you change back. Instead of paying for something that costs 3 with a 5, you give them 2 2s so that they have to give you a coin 1 peso back. They know it too, so sometimes you have to lie and say that you don´t have it the other way. It´s something that still takes me a while to figure out. In line I carefully think about which way I want to pay, using which number bills to best rig what change they have to give me back. It is something that they just know. Oh, pay with this and then they have to give you this…. I´m very slow at it, but starting to get the hang of it.

Remember on the Alaskan cruise that night show when the woman changed her clothes/dress like 14 times really fast? Well, one of the songs that played during that show is the background for an ad that plays all the time here and so every time I hear it I think about the illusions of the girl that changed dresses super fast. I´m going to match it again when I get home… there has to be a way to figure out their secrets!

Quick story. In the beginning of my mission I bought oranges one day and was tricked into buying juicing oranges – that are no fun to eat. I was so mad that I rebelled and for about 9 months didn´t buy or eat a single orange (though I ate a TON of mandarin oranges). Then the other day we were given oranges in a take home lunch and I was hungry. My eyes were opened as I remembered how sweet and wonderful oranges are. So ever since then we have been eating oranges! I love them so much, even though I hate peeling them because my nails are short and weak. But I love oranges again… and mandarin oranges are dumb.

We are working hard with ______ to help him quit smoking, but he stood us up for the mini sacrament lesson on Sunday and we don´t know why. We are going to visit him tonight and find out. I really want him to progress because he wants to be baptized so badly. Those who want to be baptized always have a ton of obstacles and those who have fewer obstacles don´t care to be baptized. Lame.

Mom – President wants you to find and send me a talk by Elder Oaks called “doing and becoming.” He says it will help me. I´m sure if it will help me, it will also help you! Let´s read it!

The other day we went to the church to do our morning studies in the kitchen where we lit the burners to heat the room (a common heating practice in Argentina) and I was still cold, so I put a chair on top of the counter and sat on the table with my feet flying over the burner. Yep, you guessed it, I burned my nylons! I didn´t burn my feet or the socks I was wearing under them, but I have a giant hole in my nylons.. the price I pay to try and defrost my ETERNALLY frozen feet. The best warmest socks I brought still don´t even begin to keep you warm and toasty. I think that after the mission I will become obsessed with buying warm socks. Oh wait, I already was.

Mommy – what is the mission blog site? Hermana Carrasco wants to send it to her mom. Thanks.

Nata – I hope that you are all well. I look forward to seeing you in 4 and a half months!

Funny story: remember the TV show “Touched By An Angel”? Every time we street contact someone who then says they are atheist, we pull out this famous “we just want to testify to you that God is our Heavenly Father and He loves you” line. All of us do it. It sounds less corny in Castellano… at least I think. But every time that I say it, I feel like that English brunette-- and I always chuckle to myself as I remember the light that shone on her face as the music changed and she said “God loves you.” I´m like one of them!

We had divisions with Hna. Torres and Hna. Cole in Hurlingham. I went to Hurlingham with Hna. Cole and loved it. It was so blissful to walk around for 24 hours being the junior comp in some other area where they aren´t your less active members or your unmarried investigators. You teach with your heart and carry almost no stress because, hey, you´re getting on a train in the morning and leaving it all behind. You feel free and unstressed. I miss the days of being the junior comp. I enjoyed that break for a brief 24 hours. And it was even better to return to my area and be told by my companion that she and Hna. Torres had taught 6 lessons and found 4 new investigators. Our weekly numbers sky-rocketed and I just showed up to reap the benefits. It was great!

Now for the unfortunate truth of the week… No one was baptized on Sunday… I thought I already told you we had to reschedule everybody for the 19th… maybe I forgot and only told the Pres. Anyways. We have Nicolas (son of reactivating mom) who WILL be baptized without problems this weekend. But, that is the only guarantee we have. Brian (12 years old) randomly went with his uncle to campo for 2 weeks and is just gone. He still wants to be baptized and all, and it´s for the best because this uncle is an active sealed in the temple convert who will hopefully bring him to church and help him really understand and develop a testimony so that when he gets back we can baptize him and he´ll be better for it. _______ (14 years old) decided that she doesn´t want to be baptized because she is afraid of the obligations of the promise. She wants to just be close to God without being baptized. We are trying desperately to win her again, but she has totally closed and frozen her heart. In the beginning she was so great. She read, she prayed, she said she felt that she needed to be baptized… she was the strong one, and now she is almost not even an investigator. We are totally sad and lost with it all. Yamily (10 years old) is now the strongest of the Botta family she is determined to get baptized even if it´s just her and Nicolas, but the thing is that it is kinda of sticky business to baptize a 10 year old who will then be the only member of her family. She can´t get herself to church. It´s tough. We can do it, if the mom signs the paper, but it´s tough… the bishop doesn't like it because she is a high risk to go promptly inactive. We don´t know what to do, if we baptize her and lose the bishop´s confidence, the work is frustrated. We can´t be eternally responsible for bring her to church and the members aren´t that willing to help bringing her. It´s tricky stuff.

We are still trying to work to win ________. If she comes back, we could baptize her and Yamily and Brian this weekend, and then Brian when he gets back and pray that the 3 of them can develop habits in coming to church with the help of the members.

We need your prayers.

The swine flu is rising. Some 200 deaths in Buenos Aires. I can´t lie. It is seeming to frustrate the work. Even though I know that the Lord´s work is not frustrated… but it seems to be frustrated, at times.

In my interview with the Pres. he told he that I´m a great missionary and that I need to put a little more “slack in the chain.” Hmmm. Now where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, my wise family! I´m working on it. This week I even went to bed past 10:30 once! And I brushed my teeth with tap water! Walking on the wild side in my rebellion! I hope I don´t let it go too far.

Daddy – I look forward SO MUCH for you to meet Pres. Benton some day because you are both so wise and so influential. I know you two will be great friends!

Gotta run. I love you. I miss you. I know the Lord hears our prayers!

Take luck and have joy!

!

14 Months Old Today!

Dear Familia,

There is so much to say, I absolutely refuse to try and make this email ebb and flow. I am just going to go from point to point. It´s exhausting to try and make it all come together! :)

There are some odd 60 deaths in Buenos Aires from the swine flu. As a result the stake president decided to cancel church. Imagine what that does to the work… yeah, the members will survive, it´s probably even a little bit fun for them to have a break from preparing lessons and taking a bus to get there in the cold, but it makes it hard for the missionaries who are trying to find, teach, and bring people to CHURCH on Sunday so that they can have spiritual experiences, be fellowshipped, and prepare to be baptized. It´s hard to commit people to a baptismal date when for now baptisms have been more or less suspended. Unfortunately we had to lose the date for the 4 kids we had ready, and now we have a "weak, maybe” date of the 19th (the last day of the transfer) and we are just hoping that the stake president lets us baptize. Imagine having to finish the transfer (another transfer) without baptisms… but this time having 4 people that could have been baptized. It hurts. You work and work and work and have no control over the results of anything you do. Who has all the control? That´s easy… Heavenly Father. It´s His work and His plan, and we trust perfectly in it, but there are moments of frustration. President Benton and the stake presidents and bishops allowed us to have a few small meetings with two hymns, a prayer, and the sacrament in the homes of a few members so that we could bring our investigators…. In this way they still progress with their attendance requirements, and don´t lose contact with the church and the Sabbath day thing. But it isn't the same because we are forbidden from sharing or testifying of anything in this meeting because we are not allowed to have a mini-sacrament meeting. It is not my favorite thing--it´s easier because we can pick the time (and we don´t pick 9 am) but harder because you have to explain so much about why we are doing this. We are at least grateful that they can gain a testimony of how important it is as they see us go to such measures to partake of it each week. Just trust me that this twist in the work is throwing us all for a loop.

All of the schools have closed until August 4th. The kids have tons of homework to do on their own--I hope they all complete it. The Evangelical church had their meetings on Sunday as normal and I was actually jealous. We work all week long to have game day (Sunday) and then it was like we never had the game… and had to start another week of training. It´s like having a bye / bye in sports… it messes up the groove of things. I´ll try and see it as being a great thing, mind over matter, right?

There are signs all over the place that say Alcohol en gel (hand sanitizer). We bought 300 mg for $15 pesos and the next day found a liter for $15 pesos. So we bought that too. We wash our hands and checks at least 30 to 4o times a day from the saludo--which we aren't supposed to do anymore.

I´m 14 months old today… and we are moving today. But it is not the funnest way to spend my 14 month p-day. I could go into the details, but it would take my remaining 30 minutes and then I´d just have to admit that there are worse things in life.

It is true… this is not the end of the world, but let me tell you that there is just so much that one can handle at a given time and I reached that point 12 days ago. This week I had a morning when I couldn´t take it anymore and found myself crying on the floor in prayer. My companion came and listened to me explain why I just couldn´t handle it anymore and then she helped me feel better. The night before we had had a really rough moment with the mom of the 3 kids who will be baptized and it looked like we were about to lose them. I couldn´t handle the loss, we had been treated quite brutally that day by the world in general and the Elders said that we were going to move on the fifth of never. I fell to my knees and sobbed. I tell you this not to make you sad, but to testify that the Lord hears our prayers. I don´t remember how I was able to get up and go out and work that day, but I remember that we did. And I remember that the day wasn´t all that bad. The point of the story is that you should take comfort because we are not alone. He carries us when we cannot go one step more.

Long story short, we regained the confidence of the mom and things looked good, then _______ the 14 year old decided she didn´t want to be baptized because she didn´t want to give up tea. We almost lost her but we are pretty sure we have won her again. We finally got a brother to give _______ a blessing – she is terminally ill… has an ulcer and unfortunately HIV. We pray for her and know the gospel can help her, but she is not totally well but has moments that are so wonderful that we keep fighting-- determined to at least give her and her children the chance for a hope of a better future.

My companion was downright shocked when I told her the other day that Coca Cola has caffeine. She vowed to drink no more and eagerly told her family so that they could learn too. She is very funny sometimes… Nata – one of those people who says, “you know what I hate… red lights.” lol! Last night when Alejo was following us and taking care of every tree in the 16 blocks on the way home she said, “do you know why they do that?” and I said, “to mark their territory” and she said, “yeah, like wow…” as though she found out yesterday. I about died laughing. She also says things like, “you know what is so bad in the Church… pride, it destroys us.” If it´s a good moment it makes me laugh, if I´m stressed, it makes me think, “did you really just say that?” But good times! Just writing about it makes me laugh!

Brian – the 12 year old thought that I was 36 years old. OUCH! That´s 1 year older than his own mother. Does he really think I am older than his mother? Let me just say that it was not the best comment he could have made.

The other day we saw a dead dog in the street and his tongue really was completely hanging outside of his mouth--just like in the comics. I don´t know why his tongue is out of his mouth… did he die that way? I accept suggestions and answers to this question.

In the chinos supermarket the other day I saw the meat man sawing the meat with a tooth saw… it caught my attention and I stared mesmerized almost sure that he was going to cut himself because he did it all so fast-- and with his hand an inch from the blade… but wouldn´t you know it, he didn´t cut himself.

Every day we contact someone and I walk away thinking, “now THAT is the person most lost and confused in all the world.” And then an hour later we stop someone else who is even more misled. And I repeat it, and the next day the same thing happens. Each day we find someone who is even more lost than the one we met yesterday… unfortunately they are the ones who almost never let us give them the answers and bring them out of confusion. I wish I could make them listen, but they have their agency.

Nata, Dad, mom, everybody… I do all I can to relax, but our life is programmed for us and there is literally no free time to be had. I would love to make shakes and stuff, but it is pretty much impossible. I try to relax in the morning before study and as I drift off to sleep. I´ll do my best to complete the assignment.

Jason – I am trying to write a poem and I want you to write the song… I am going to have it playing in the background of the video I am going to make with all of the pictures from my mission. When I have the poem / lyrics… I will send them to you! That is my way of asking if you will write the song! :)

Norene – Happy birthday! I hope you eat lots of cake and get a fun new puzzle! If I see a puzzle here in Argentina… I will buy you one, but so far I have seen none. Feliz Cumpleaños!

Grandma – I hope you are recovering well. I am constantly praying for you. I hope that you are able to use this time to really study the Book of Mormon… it will help you heal because it answers all the questions of the soul. It will bring you peace.

Mom –I´m excited for the package.

I love you all. I pray for you. I have a cough, but I´m surviving! I love the mission, even though this week was frustrating and trying. I am happy, I am well, I am protected, I am safe. I am blessed. I love you all.

Gotta run!



I don´t yike packing... or moving… at all.