Maybe It's Emily

Really quick first of all, if you could find me the address of Benjamin Stocking please! He was a sub of ours in the MTC, the best sub ever!!! I loved the first day he came to teach us. He came in and asked us how many of us had ADD, and from there announced that he had ADD and that we would always be doing fun stuff so he wouldn't get bored. He's awesome! Anyway, I bet this is a surprise to be getting this email.... SURPRISE! Our leaders called us last night and announced to us that we were to be emailing today because Monday wouldn't be Pday like we thought. It's a surprise for us too! Woo hoo! This morning my companion and I left running for exercises to go get our packages from our leaders, and please Please PLEASE tell Ashley and everyone in the single's branch "Thank you!!!!!" Tomorrow will be the day of writing letters because it's Pday and everything is closed. But that's good!! I've really been needing to write letters. And wash cloth

First of all: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIFFANY HAYDEN!!!! Please tell Ashley that I really appreciate it! Not only appreciate, but more like this OH MY GOSH THANK YOU!!!! Por favor. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! I need a little pick me up in the mail :) CHRISTMAS THIS WEEK! We're trying to set everything up. We're only going to be working about five days this week. I like Christmas, but on the mission it's terrible! Making all sorts of plans, having to watch investigators go on vacation, stressing, waiting for your brain to explode... But alas, we're going to make it the best thing we got! I really wish I had tons of stuff to tell you this week, but there's not a whole lot. It's been really stressful. I'll just say it right now- senior companionship stinks. WHY DO I HAVE RESPONSIBILITY?! I don't even know if I wrote that right. Service. Let me just vent to you. THESE MEMBERS WON'T LET US DO SERVICE. We ask and ask and ask. Now after lunches th

Bueno. First things first: CHRISTMAS! Can you believe that seven months have already passed since I last heard you all? It's crazy to me to think that time has flown by so much. Okay, so the dates are...on the 20th I'll be able to write again, we still have pday. On the 25th we'll call, at what time I don't know. We don't have to work on Christmas, so it's up to me or it's up to you. If there's a preference, let me know ASAP! And on the 27th we will not have pday, so do not expect an email from me this day! Anyway, CHRISTMAS! There's still so much to do! Today is crazy and hectic. We still haven't gotten a lot of stuff done. I would love to tell you every detail of my week, because it's been crazy. BUT you'll hear all the wonderful details in my phone call :) This past week we had zone conference, and the sisters from Esquel were here. We went hiking on a hill called Campenario, the steepest, most ridiculous hill. But way fun, and Israeli

Being in Bariloche , the place is filled with such pretty things that I definitely want to get for you guys, so thank you so much for the help. Tomorrow the assistants to the president should be coming with some shoes from the mission home, so I should be doing a lot better. This weekend we had a baptism! Eli Moyano , who is the girlfriend of the stake mission leader (now you see why he has that calling... he's so good at it ;) ). She's pretty happy, and so are all the YSA in the stake. We're trying to keep them animated for the baptism that we're going to see this Saturday too, for Ayrton . We're working to see a good turn out and a lot of support at the baptism One question that I hope everybody will help me with- ¿What are some ideas for ward activities or ward missionary activities? I want feedback! Please! The weather is different everyday, but recently it's been getting warmer. The sisters from Esquel are here for Zone conference tomorrow, and as we were

First of all, HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING!!! My companion and I meant to do something cool, but alas, it was only polenta, eggs, and a rice cracker. Woo. Today is a crazy Pday. My companion and I have wandered all around downtown Bariloche all day. All of Pday! But it's been killing me because I want to say, Ooo, I want to get that for Adam! Or Micah! Or whatever, but I found out yesterday I have a huge hole on the side of my shoe that can't be fixed, so I now have to go get new shoes. That was kind of a bummer. Being in downtown Bariloche makes me feel like a tourist, because there are lots of tourists here! But the coolest thing about the day is the fact that we just went through the local cathedral. MY FIRST CATHEDRAL!!! I was so cool!!! That has been something that has always been on my list of things to do, not the list of what I want to do, but what I need to do, and I did it! It was amazing! It's not that big, but it was still amazing! This week has been appointment afte

Okay, this keyboard is messed up and I can`t put exclamation points or normal... uh, I don`t remember what they´re called. Things you use like in didn´t or you´re. They´re really accent marks. Today is a holiday therefore not many things are opened. I finally discovered a little bit of Bariloche today, something I´ve never been able to do. We went down by the lake and the local mini cathedral, butalas, ´twas not open. We finally bought some of the famous Barliloche chocolate, and OH MY GOSH is it delightfully pleasant. If I can getaway with it, I´ll try to smuggle some home for you. Also we went by this touristy goods store, and OH MY GOSH I´ll smuggle something from there too. Something made me think of Ann, so she can expect something too. I wanted to put a smiley face right here, but the whole keyboard thing. It turns out like this :?. Alrighty then. TRANSFERS!!!!! Each mission is 100 percent different. Our mission,because it´s so big and transfers can mean almost 24 hours of travel

Wow. What a heck of a week. Or couple of weeks I should say. First of all, please tell Kristin- OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYY GGGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so wickedly happy for her!!! That's wonderfully amazing! I'm going to be smiling all day now. Oh my gosh- I realized Monday night after writing my email- HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!!!! I could really kick myself for not writing it Monday . What better way to celebrate another year of love and family than with tough gifted moose meat. I only say that with much love and a chuckle in my tender heart. This I have realized this week. I've made it to the point in my mission where I forget which language is my own. I purposely think in English to make sure I don't forget anything, but then I begin talking in English, something that I don't think my Peruvian companion

I gotta make this quick. I'm sorry this one is going to be short. This week has been the week of service. We've been helping one of the elder's investigators. Here in Argentina (or any Latin country for that matter) makes a big deal about the first birthday. You know, your first birthday where your parents have a ton of pictures of you in your booster with cake smeared all over your face and your hands. Yes, that first birthday. In the U.S. This birthday is normally celebrated with a cake, family and friends. No no no. Here it's a grand fiesta. They rented a party palace place that's like a small Boosters, with decorations galore. All this fancy shmancy stuff for a one year old. But that's how they do it down here. My companion and I were in charge of the decorations. We spent all week helping her prepare for the big day. The only real bummer is that they didn't come to church yesterday. All that service only to not show up! They'll be receiving a ph

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my area. Our transfer ends in about two weeks, and I'm really hoping that the Lord doesn't see fit to take me out of Caleta . I really don't want to leave! If I leave, I think I would die. I want to stay in an area for a decent amount of time. If I'm here the next transfer that means that I'm here for two because my companion goes home at the end of the next transfer. I've been thinking about all of the people here, and the responsibility I have to help all of them learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. That there are so many being prepared to listen - I've gotta work! I've also got to help everyone. Not be a burden but a help and a service. This week has been long, and my Pday super short. Right now it's about 5 o'clock, the end of my Pday . We've been helping out an investigator of the elders with the birthday party decorations of their daughter. I'll try to send photos, they're

Remind me to tell you the joke about wow mom when I come home. To me it's hilarious! Maybe not to others, but it cracks me up every time :) I don't remember what I wrote you last week. This week has been calm. We have some investigators that are really progressing. One is María de los Ángeles. She is wonderful. She's accepted the goal of getting baptized! She has an adorable daughter, Macarena, who has a personality twenty times bigger than her body. I love it! We're so happy for her and her willingness to heed the call of the Savior. Another is Lucas, whose mother is a less active member. He's 12 and has had the influence of the church in his life his entire life, but has never gone. We're teaching him, and he reminds me so much of Adam. It's funny. But yesterday when we were talking to him he told us that he prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true, and he said that afterward he felt funny. A good kind of funny or a bad kind of funny? A little bit of b

Emily wrote her letter to the family specifically, but I cut out an excerpt to share with you. I love my humanities background. The allegory of the cave is what I feel like my life is. Life is the cave. Being ignorant and living without faith in God and in Christ is life in the cave. It makes us chained to the wall, living believing that life are the images and shadows that bounce along the walls. Faith in the Gospel in Christ frees us from the cave. It takes us outside. At first it takes a while to adjust, but when you begin to adjust to the light you begin to see colors. Real things instead of shadows. Flowers, sky, grass, bees, everything! At the end of this allegory this person who left the cave is taken back and is mocked by his old comrads who think that life are the shadows on the walls. This person is unsatisfied with his life with the shadows because he has experienced something greater. We don't have to be pushed back into the cave. We can keep living outside, exploring,

Carlos is out of town in Chile still. Cell phones from here in Argentina don't work in Chile so we can't call him, and he hasn't called us. My companion and I have a joke that he's there forming his own Church with our books and doctrine. Crazy Carlos. Nah, we have no idea of what's happened to him. Roque and Isidro were not baptized. We've postponed his baptism a week so we can help prepare him more. It was a little too immature. Roque texted us the morning of his baptism to tell us that he couldn't be baptized that day because of a family problem. We're going to set up a time this week to go see him and talk some more. First of all... I LOVE CONFERENCE!!! I feel so cheated that it didn't last longer, and now I have to wait another six months! Really, it went by so fast. But what I love about this conference was that I felt like it spoke specifically to me, about some things I've been thinking about in my life. There are many things in the confe

Thank you so much for the pictures! They did tickle my heart! How did you get the pics of Luis? Has he called/written? GOOD! I miss that kid! And now that I know Spanish, we definitely HAVE to talk when we get back. Tell him I miss him!!! This week has been good. And I have no reason as to why. As far as the work goes, our success this week is not only spiritually, but our numbers show it as well! Lots of lessons and lots of new investigators. Also, I saw my very first nun. My sista in the catholic faith. She was on the bus. It's nothing, but I thought it was really cool. In other spiritually uplifting news... Our investigators Roque and Isidro are getting baptized this weekend! In all reality, it's going to be a nightmare. Two baptisms, conference weekend, and we don't even know at what time until Thursday night because Roque won't find out his work schedule until then. So we just have to tell everybody to prepare for a baptism Conference weekend at any time. Oh yeah,

Sorry this took so long to post. She didn't write me this week. She wrote her father instead. So here's his letter. Momsy and Popsicle I'm sorry I haven't been writing spiritual experiences. I didn't really think it was that big of a deal. I seem to have upset several people by doing so. It's not my intent. I don't know what else to say. I don't exactly have spiritual experiences oozing out my ears. All I can say is that I'm learning. At times it feels like one step forward and two steps back, and for that I don't have anything really to tell you. I'm trying to push forward. I'm trying to be the best missionary I can be. I'm still trying to figure out why in the world the Lord would want to send me on a mission, let alone a mission here in Argentina, Neuquén. I'm trying to work as hard as I can. I want to serve an honorable mission, and I'm trying. That's all I can really say. Thank you so much for your support. I am g

Muchas gracias for the recipe! I'm going to make them for my companion. Yay! First of all, let Janelle know I shall send her a letter soon. But in the meantime, Elder Oaks talk Nov 2009 conference. It's EXACTLY what he was talking about. Caleta Olivia- I don't exactly have words to describe her yet. If I had to, it would go something like this- THIRSTY FOR THE GOSPEL! Success shall be ours! MWA HA HA!!!! Carlos is traveling to Chile to meet with his leaders of his church. He said when he comes back he'll be ready to be baptized. Okay. He already told us that he really wants to mission (... be a missionary? Nah, he wants to mission). Alright. We'll get him a Preach My Gospel. For right now we're focusing on Roque (Rocky in Español) and Isidro. Roque has his baptism on Saturday. We're fighting so he can make it. Every time we go to teach him it's like a whole 'nother revelation for him because he was never ever taught that that's how things are, bu

Thank you for the email! It was a pleasant surprise. I just read the last one you sent, and then when I went to read daddy's yours was already there. It was a sweet surprise. Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaleta Olivia! I am here. I finally found a map and found out where I am. I thought it was further down south. But I'll just settle for where I am. It was really nice here for a few days and as of late started again with the cold. But I'll live with this cold. Being by the ocean again, worth it 100%. One day I'll figure out how to send you pictures. I tried sending a letter, but the post man gave it back saying that if I put it in two envelopes it would be cheaper. Asi que bueno. (so, okay.) This week has been interesting as to the adventures we've had thus far. My second day my companion got peed on by a dog. Worse than Hna. Smith. We both laughed our heads off. Que mal soy yo! Na :) The other day while walking to the bus stop the lady walking in front of us began running, a

You want to hear some exciting news? I'M BEING TRANSFERRED...... AGAIN! I was only here in Bariloche for one transfer (6 weeks), and now I've already got to go! When the elders called us they didn't say anything at first (maybe to get back at us for a trick we played on them the other day... our bad.), and then when they finally told us I thought it was a joke. For like 5 minutes I was like "Elder, stop kidding. It's not that funny anymore." He said "I'm not joking Hermana, you really are going." AHHHHHH!!!! The reason it's a bummer is that Hna. Smith and I have worked really hard to get this area up and running. We've worked really hard and have found 5 people willing to follow Christ and be baptized- 5 solid baptisms. And now I have to leave them all behind! Me mata! (It kills me!) Hna. Smith is training this transfer. That is why I am leaving. She was told she was going to train and she's been waiting for the opportunity for a whil

This week has been one crazy hectic whirlwind. We've had some pretty sweet highs and some agonizing lows. But that's missionary work, right? I don't really know what to say all that much this week. A lot of this week has been knocking doors that didn't open and running around from fallen appointment to fallen appointment. BUT I'm okay, I just don't have any super cool stories. We did try seeing Kristina this week, but she wasn't there the two times we tried setting the appointment. The last time she left us a note with her dad that says that we can come Tuesday. We're just so happy because she's still willing to see us! Really, anything that can happen in this mission is almost worth it because an investigator still wants to see us after all the obstacles that have fallen her way! We are so happy. That's wonderful news about the priesthood in the ward! Right now we are really anticipating two of our baptisms because it means two more priesthood h

Before I got here, my companion spent EVERYDAY working with less actives and former investigators the last transfer. She's so ready to move on, and I trust her judgement. BUT we are trying our best to encourage the members and beg for service opportunities, and slowly but surely we get more references. Okay, references for less active members, but with children and husbands that are not members! Hey, we gotta start somewhere. And the visiting teaching idea is good, but that's not our job. We just don't have the time to do that! But we'll mention it as an idea to the RS president. Members do feed us for most of the week, they're really good at taking care of the missionaries. Yesterday we ate with the Hna. Acuña, a crazy outspoken - offend everyone - super strong member. She's batty and I love it! She always takes care of us. And knits us sweaters. I have to send you a picture of the sweater of my companion. It's a gem. We did not get to visit with Kristina

Alas, another week has rolled away and you haven't written me! As I sit here in this booth I cry rivers of tears as the lost words of my sleeping mother are sent into the realm of dreams. I think my companion has rubbed off on me. Or maybe that means I'm rubbing off on myself. I love it when she reads me her journal entries. They sound a lot like that and then make me laugh. Anyway, on to stuff that is a wee bit more important! I officially declare that I've hit the point in my mission where I'm exhausted all the time. My companion says it happens to everyone. I'm just going to take it as a good sign as to the fact that I really do try to work hard. There are days better than others, but alas, I cannot slack! I would hate that. The work here in Bariloche is picking up. The ward here is really small. Somebody told us that about ten years ago there were about 100 kids in the Primary in this ward. 100 kids! And not just one person said that, a couple! And now about 30i