{sister marisa nicole}: July 29, 2013

Hellooo!

I am in rosario right now! My comp...who leaves in 4 weeks....has to renew her visa. Ha what a joke. So this morning we took the 5 hour bus ride to spend pday in rosario, and then tomorrow sometime we will go back. Good thing is, you get snacks, even better than on an airplane. Almost ever single week this transfer we have had to travel to rosario or concordia! Thereś a lot of traveling in this mission...lots of the areas are farrr from rosario and the mission home.

Oh colon....aah I absolutely adore it. There are so many cute little cabin and condo rentals...like some are nice enough of what you would find in the states!

This week we also went to Gualuychu (spelling? ha) for a district meeting (2ish hours.) There are 4 elders here, and they have the MOST adorable church i have ever seen. I will have to show you pics sometime....it is so old and vintage, even with a narrow little staircase to go upstairs, and old wooden and glass doors everywhere....utah is missing out on classy chapels:) Also, this city is FAMOUS for Carnival....there is a block that has huge parade type stands on both sides, they have an entire stadium just for Carnival. I hear itś a party.

Big news....We have the nicest pench in the mission. Ok not really, because our mattresses are worse than a camping foam pad, but we painted!!! Itś adorable....AND.....we painted a chalkboard wall! Pretty sure we are the first people in all of south america misisons to do this. We need copy rights on this before itś a hit on pinterest. Doing all this, of course we had to entirely rearrange and organize our apartment.

Happy pioneer day!!! My comp has never celebrated, so i introduced her to cobbler! Itś one thing that turns out just as good in Argentina! Actually....we might have even made peach cobbler twice this week.....

This week was also a week of miracles! We had a goal to have 4 investigadores in church. We had worked really hard to find good solid people.....only 1 ended up coming. But this week we found some people who are prepared and interested. Having lessons with members has been a struggle, when you dont want to bring a member if you dont have set appointments or with investigadores that are progressing. Well one day we were talking to the zone leaders, and they said, where's your faith??! Whether it goes perfect or not, the members need to see that itś difficult and that references are needed! So we finished and called 3 members....with the faith and hope that our citas would actually go through. The next morning we had a super good lesson with our investigador Debora. Hna Lemes came with us....before the lesson even started she pulled out 2 copies of the Liahona for our investigador! It was such a good lesson, to have a member there as a friend, and also to be able to teach. This is how missionary would should be, with the members playing the main part and missionaries just there to help teach. We found out that after this member had gone to visit less actives, just because she was out and about already! And she told us how happy she was to finally have someone to pray for! ha. Moral of the story is members are so important. We have definitely been focusing on this, to have the members animated and thinking about people they can invite for FHE, etc. Another day a member came with us, the investigador wasn't home, but the member then told us about a recent convert/ less active who lives close, who we didn't even know existed. So we went here, and found that the daughter, Selene) hasn't been baptized, but was interested in coming to church! Selene made the comment that it is different with hermanas (her sister and mom were baptized...but stopped going as soon as the elders were transferred...), and came to church with us.

Thereś also some less active families we are working with. This can be the most frustrating thing ever....when we have a super good lesson and you know they really felt what they need to do....and then time after time they don't come to church. If itś not the cold, itś too early...if itś not too early, they are offended.....The example and role of the parents is SO important. Right now we are teaching from the beginning, the 5 missionary lessons, to help them really understand the doctrine of what we believe, and not just that church makes you feel good.

One day we had lunch with our president, who lives a couple of miles out in the fields. We decided to walk back, they thought we were crazy and even pay for our taxi, but we had some things we wanted to see. And it was a nice day. So we started walking...and walking...and truth is, we had only even driven this way once before. We missed a turn on the long dirt road. And we kept walking...and saw a sign San Jose...we had made it to the next town over. But we kept walking....and then saw a sign that said Colon, 4 kilometers. Eventually we realized we had made a huge unnecessary loop. We got our exercise for the day, got to walk by the Colon Tower that is part of a hotel. But it was a lovely warm day.

I don't know that anyone else had a week so exciting, but thanks for sharing:) haha. And tonight we are going to the Monument of the Bandera...you can google it. Thereś some sweet pictures I bet.

Enjoy the summer! Eat some smoothies for me:)