24 de Junio

 Venado Tuerto, Argentina

 

Hola!

I´m glad you are all just having a lovely summer... I am just here in Antarctica. Haha not really, but people sure dress like it. It´s nothing after living in Logan! 

Another week has come and gone....not anything too exciting but here are a few:

We attended 3 birthday parties... There was a party for a little girl at this place with inflatables. It´s a big deal here, they rent out these places and invite the whole class. Well we are loved so they invited us too, there was even real pizza they had made with flavor like in America! And chocolate chip cookies...mmmmmm. There was a bunch of the kids moms there, and they were asking the wolfleys all these questions about us, and thought we were nuns. Yep, people always thing we are testigos or nuns, so that was a good little missionary experience for them!

One day I roasted a marshmallow over the stove on a fork, tried to eat it, and the fork completely burnt my lips. So i had this nasty burn, like zebra stripes from the fork, on my lips and mouth, and was all swollen. And my comp thought it was hilarious. 

One day we went to Murphy, and there was a branch activity. We showed up at the time they said it started..and no one was there. So we waited, and 30 minutes later people started to come. Then we realized there was no electricity...yep, how embarrassing huh. It hadn´t been paid so they turned it off. Well good thing we went, because it turned out no one had planned anything..and at first everything sat there awkwardly. They said the missionaries would share a thought....which we did...and then do a game. Haha so we played mafia and ´do you love your neighbor´. In the dark!   It was one of the craziest activities i have been to, but they all loved it. (And then that night we were waiting for our collectivo to come...realized we had the schedule wrong, thought we were stuck in the middle of argentina and were going to have to sleep with the dogs in the street as we had hardly any money...when by a miracle a bus showed up late. So we made it home by 11pm that night. haha) Sunday we went, and still no electricity....aannnd, I had to give a talk in sacrament. I think I am making a record for missionary who gives the most talks. I love going to Murphy though, it is hard splitting time between 2 areas.

And lastly, the training thing yesterday. It was soo good! There was a couple things I noticed. 1. The MTC is so not the real world...all those girls looking cute and perfect like barbie...wait until they are sweating their eyeballs out or walking halfway to china. Ok ok, every mission is different.... 2. I loved when they said that missionaries should not knock doors all day. I guess we have been doing this wrong. 3. Missionary work is changing...it was different 10 years ago, and it will be different with all these people coming. 4. It was so good to have something like this, I know the leaders and people here were so motivated by watching it. (we have the best ward mission leader here...he was frantically scribbling down notes the entire time. Unfortunately he is moving in july..) 

 

The work of God really is moving forward. As a missionary I am beginning to understand the expiacion of Christ more...the importance in my life as a missionary, and also for others. Everything we teach, and the fact that we are able to overcome our weaknesses to do teach, are because of the expiacion.

Thanks for the letters! Have a great week.

hermana andrews.

17 de Junio

Happy father´s day!

I hope the day was great! I celebrated by drinking some mate (dad´s favorite...) and playing the piano in sacrament for the primary kids to sing their little songs.

The primary (ok it consisted of the 2 little wolfley girls and 2 other kids....) had an activity yesterday, and we were at the church so ended up helping. Haha it was a primary activity argentine style, making little fathers day picture frames. 

This week was zone conference, president Giuliani is doing it separately with every zone. There are 14 missionaries in Venado zone. Oh boy...it basically made me feel like poo. We had to do a ton of practice things, and everything they talked about just made me remember all my weaknesses. But....I do love listening to pres. and hermana Giuliani speak:) Everyone had to prepare a talk, and they choose a person to give it in Spanish, and a Latino has to give one in English. Well good thing I prepared mine the morning of, because president picked me to do it! Ugh! it is just my luck!, I had to do this twice in the MTC and then in this zone conference! ha. 

Some good things for the week....we had 42 people in the capilla yesterday, and 10 of those were priesthood! Basically, those are the numbers you would see in Buenos Aires...so very good for here:) The best part was, there was 2 inactive ladies we have been working with for the past 2 months who came! It was even more of a miracle, as it rained yesterday morning, which means normally no one leaves their house. A difficult thing about a mission is everything is so number based....how many baptisms, investigatores, etc. Me and my comp have worked for almost 2 transfers now, and at times it is difficult to see any difference. There are 2 things that I realize though: 1)we have to experience the bad to know the good, every day is not just full of great things....but you just keep doing all you can do, knowing you are at least dedicating your time and effort to God. Also, 2)change in people takes time and persistence. One of the ladies who came yesterday has been a member her life, but inactive for quite a while. She always feeds the missionaries every week, is proud to be Mormon, and wants her (almost) husband....partner...to be baptized. She talks the talk, but never would go to church, or read the book of Mormon. Finally this week we could see she is changing....we have assigned her things to read every day in the Book of Mormon, and she is always asking us questions....you can just see a change in her attitude about living the gospel. 

We passed by our special little Carlos one day to explain the importance of coming to sacrament meeting if he wants to be baptized. Turns out, their is a huge cement wall right in front of his little shack! The neighbors with the mansion next door built a wall in front of his shack....and Carlos was just on cloud nine, so happy that his neighbors would be so nice.....he is just so innocent.
 Good thing he doesn´t realize it is more of a wall of shame to hide where he lives from the world....

We went to Murphy one day, and of course had too many things to do and not enough time! We were able to pass by some referencias from members, and met some people who have definitely been prepared for the gospel. Murphy is a small place, and everyone knows everyone...the problem is that members never even talk about the gospel with people.
 

It´s cold here! The sweaters have been on every dog here for the past month...but it finally is cold for real here. And mom, I do wear the thermals every night! I hope you are all enjoying your 80 degree weather!

Ooh, I miss parades! That´s hilarious you went to a stake dance...ethan better get going to those while he is still under the age limit. 

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Good job on the uke, landon. You can be the new youtube sensation.

Thanks for the emails!

Until next week!

love hermana andrews