October 27, 2013

Happy October!

First of all, yes mom, i have collected some clothes. jaja. Good thing though....and I still need to go buy some shirts so I don´t die in the summer heat. I have collected from my comps that went home and even last week we were helping a member move and she gave us a bunch of shirts and skirts. DI doesn't exist here, but I have collected a lot of things.

This week we traveled...again! jaja. suprise! But seriously....we traveled half the mission. First we went to Concordia for zone meeting. Literally 10 minutes before we left our apartment to go, we got a call from the office that we had tramites[paperwork] for my comps visa also. So we went to Concordia in the afternoon, had a meeting, attempted to sleep for 2 hours in the apartment of the hermanas there, had a bus ride in the middle of the night to Paraná, arrived and all 12 of us missionaries (attempted?) to sleep on the oh-so-comfy church benches for a little, then we had a training for all new people and leaders. Then that afternoon we took a bus to Rosario. We slept in the mission home that night, did the paperwork stuff, and took a bus back to Colón that night. Quite the time...it´s what we get for being in Entre Rios! 

The training with president was just lovely, it´s always good to hear him talk. A very powerful man. He spoke about the importance of the spirit. There is also some new program for all missionaries, about emotional health, that they introduced. I always figured yoga and ice cream solves the problems of stress and all....but it is to help all the new missionaries adjust to the missionary life. Paraná is a pretty big city, the bus terminal is full of gypsy ladies who rob your stuff and poor little kids that sell stuff and beg all day.

Then in Rosario, we went with the office elders to pick up a new hermana that had just arrived. The elder who was driving us in the mission van, was driving for the first time manual (out of the church parking lot...) Oh my goodness, I don´t know if I will be able to let my kids drive....it literally may have been one of the scariest moments of my life as we almost died about 5 times in the insane streets of Rosario.

We had a cool experience while my comp was doing tramites for visa. In this building it is very diverse, as the people there are from other countries. We were next to 2 guys from Haiti who are living here now. We talked for quite a while about the church and everything, but it was interesting as spanish is not their first language, they speak french and creole, a little english, I speak english and spanish...jaja. It was translating between 3 languages!

This week there was also a baptism for a kid in our branch. The dad, Martin, was the first missionary who left from Colón (and since then there has only been one other...). He is very much into sharing the gospel, the chuch was packed with people, their friends and non member families. It was a really good experience, we had numerous menos activos who went, and we even had the elders from our district come. The baptismal font....oh boy. Every possible thing seems to break loose before a baptism...We were able to get a new pileta (little swimming pool), as the old one made a lake covering the entire floor. The day before Martin went to fill it up, there was no water. At some point the water went back on during the night, and the handle thing was left on. The morning of a member found 6 inches of water covering the entire floor....but then there wasn´t water to fill it. It was quite the day, at one point we resorted to using a little hose and bucket to carry water from a spout close to the street. In the end we were able to get a longer hose, and we didn´t have to have a baptism in the river.

There was a socieded de socorro activity for mother´s day. Our investigador Antonela went with us, it was a lovely little time in the park with all the moms and their kids. And mate of course. 

We had a miracle this week with Antonela. While we were in Rosario we called her, and ended up talking to her husband, who is never there. He told us that they want to get married now so that she can be baptized, and not wait until March!!!! It was such happy news for us! (as we had been planning a hardcore law of chastity and marriage lesson. jaja) They completely changed! The next day we went to her house, and she told us that they decided it is more important to be married now than have a big fiesta!!! The sad news....that she went to the place to do the paperwork and all, and found out there are only civil marriages some semanas, and you have to sacar a turno (take a number??), and it is full until December! ugh. Now that they want to get married, there isn´t a day to do it!  We are praying for another miracle, that they will be able to get married. 

I got that dear elder mom, thanks! Those are great to send, if you can send copies of talks through dear elder that would be appreciated:)

Who are the girls landon´s age? Seriously, you have the best calling. 
Ethan, how was your vacay?
Thanks for the updates and everything! (mom...spud, the guy bald guy, is married! yep. And tricia is pregnant!!!!) I´m glad I could teach you some good FB skills!

Love you all!
hermana andrews

p.s. I chopped my hair. Well, my comp chopped it. I wasn´t sure if I should have more confidence in her or in finding some place here...but hey, ya fue! The ends were pretty nasty damaged, and hey it will all grow back. 
p.p.s. I saw some advertisment for a car wash, and it used the Utah licence plate in the background. Utah! with the arches and all! how random, huh. 
p.p.p.s This is the happy 9 months pic, taking a wild ride.

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