Ciao Presidente Thurgood!‏

We said goodbye to Presidente y Hna Thurgood this week! It was sad! WE played a musical number for them and I was glad to be the one at the piano because I had to focus and couldnt bawl like the rest of the hnas. 



Also bye to the mitchels, the financieros y the sister of hna thurgood! 

We had a birthday party for Joquin! The hijo of sergio medina, he turned 8 and he visited our apartment with his dad to fit the windows with mosquito nets! It was his birthday this day! 

enjoying some good food one day in the pench and relleno.... something! I dont know but they were delicious! 

Ciao Presidente Thurgood!‏

So there is this rule.... people NEVER get to enter the apartment. Except for the missionaries in charge of apartments and maybe the President of the mission and missionaries staying the night...... but last Monday in the pench we hosted a Hno. of the ward and Sergio Medina our convert of 1 day and his hijo Joaquin who turned 8. And it was all totally okay because Sergio's parents are the missionaries in charge of the missionary apartments and Sergio is now working with the mission helping fit mosquito screens on all of the windows and doors. So yeah... we had a little birthday party in the pench and it was very fun! Joaquin is a cute kid! And his parents were in church again on sunday, Graciela even came in a skirt! :) 

Also we said goodbye to our beloved Presidente y Hna Thurgood this week, starting tomorrow we will have a new president. As a zone we sang them a song and all cried our eyes out and it was sad, but Presidente Calquin will be awesome too! 

side note: Because we said goodbye to the Thurgoods the hnas de Monte visited us again and AGAIN brought blankets! I am now sleeping not only not cold at night, but warm even!!! :))) #sohappy

Apparently there was a big semi final soccer (futbol) game between Argentina y the USA. I am grateful Argentina won or I might have been afriad to go outside. We don't watch TV but we knew that Argentina won when at 10:35 one night we are lying in bed trying to fall asleep and someone runs down the street screaming GOOOOAAAAALLL!!!! Haha futbol is huge here. 

Wednesday.... I dont know what I ate but.... pretty sure I had food poisoning. I was in the bathroom most of the night. #thirdworld and then thursday morning after I didnt sleep we went and got vaccinated against the flu. I dont and never have enjoyed shots as my mother can very well attest to but I was a very brave girl. (No I did not get a lollypop at the end). 

Random note: Ezeiza is the Area of the airplanes, we are in the direct descent path of the airport, so I can literally read the tiny writing on the planes as they are practically touching down! That is kinda fun but kinda annoying when you are trying to talk to someone on the street and cant hear a thing they are saying!

So a bit about our investigators. FELIPA! Felipa is awesome, she has been listening to the discussions for about 3 years and now she is getting married to her partner of about 30 years (she is about 65). She is awesome! She is working on some papers to finalize everything but we are excited for her, she attends church weekly! Her son is the assistent ward mission leader and a convert of just under 3 years, honestly probably the most active member of the ward :) He accompanies us all the time and is awesome! 

Yesterday was wonderful! So at church I got a candy bar for helping a ward member with her english homework! Not a bad trade :) and then after church we found 6 NEW INVESTIGATORS!! One is Ricardo and he is super awesome and we have a new baptism date with him and are gonna work super hard with him to help him progress because he has a lot of potential. And then yesterday we had another lesson with an investigator and Sergio Fortunato was going to accompany us but he was late and then .... long story (told about it in audio if care to insert it) but anyway we ended up not having that lesson because they werent there and were about to leave the street when this little 10 year old Franco came up to us and asked if we would buy a cd from him, we told him we didnt have money and he asked who we were. We told him we are missionaries and here to help people. Whe then asked "does your family live close? Can we help you with anything?" He told us his family lived 2 houses down and that they needed a house. We asked if we could meet them and he brought us to meet the family. They need a house. They live in a shack constructed of tarp BEHIND a house. We taught them the first half of the first lesson beacuse they had so many questions we couldnt finish all of it. But we taught it sitting on the mattress and them on crates all huddled around the little embers heating the water for Mate. humbling. They are from Uruguay. and mow lawns for a living. They were all (the 5 of them) very interested in our message and we are going to visit them this week!

The work is going good! I am working hard and my language is improving poco a poco! I am grateful to be here in Argentina and for the support I receive from you all! Thanks! Ciao!!!  

 

--

​Hna. Walker ​ 

A Celestial Week - Photos

we went to the temple!!!!!!!!!!

hnas chappel and muñoz making cookies in the microwave

the zone (most of it anyway) in the bosques de Ezeiza 

them with their parents 

in white

us with Sergio and Graciela

the goodies

A Celestial Week‏

So this week was AMAZING!!! ​:) 

Where to begin! 

So monday we had visitors!! That was fun! Hermanas Muñoz from Spain and Hna Chappel from ........ PHOENIX!! So yeah basically that was a blast, she is brand new in the mission (even newer than me) and so she didnt understand a ton so I got to play translator and we talked in english and we went shopping cuz she also is suffering in the Argentina cold and needed sweaters, but latins dont have the same style.... luckily I knew kinda what she wanted and we were able to find her some stuff! So that was great! Also at night we made cookies... in the microwave cuz we didnt have enough gas in the tank for the oven but they turned out good so yeah! ​:) These Hnas are in the area of San miguel del Monte which is basically farmland so they were happy to be in the less ghetto Ezeiza for 2 days or so. And the reason they were in Ezeiza (a 2 hour trip by public transport) is ...... drumroll please......

WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!

and it was amazing ​:) We had our last Zone Conference with Presidente Thurgood and to start it off we all did a session in the temple. Because there are only 8 hnas in the zone we all got to go super early and do initiatories before the session and so basically I was in the temple for 5 hours and it went too fast! I have always loved the temple but I needed it this time or something. It was like I remembered who I was while inside and I remembered the eternal perspective and that I basically am soooo blessed! I could rant for a few more hours about how amazing it was but Ill stop there​:) also I understood everything in Spanish so wooohooo! ​:) 

Our conference with president was awesome too! He is an amazing man and I am sad I didnt get more time with him but Presidente Capquin will be fabulous too I am sure. 

Also this week for pday we had a zone activity and we went to the Forests of Ezeiza. basicaly we all just trekked a mile so the elders could play football like at every other activity but whatever, the real adventure was after when there wasnt a bus back to the station so about 30 missionaries walked alongside the highway in the middle of NOWHERE for an hour till we found a bus stop..... mission life... Im sure everyone driving by was thinking Yankees, how weird. 

So this weekend we also had 2 as in TWO BAPTISMS!!!!!!!!!! WHOO HOOO!!! and holy cow were they anticipated! So the man Sergio Medina is the son of the 2 service missionaries that take care of the apartments and visas of the mission and their ENTIRE family other than him is members of the church! They have been waiting 30 years for him to accept the gospel, and he has been taking the discussions that long too! I don´t know what changed but my guess would be her..... Graciela! She is 25 and studying to be a police officer and they are getting married in September. I think meeting her made him realize he wanted that whole forever thing, not just tell death do us part and so he called us up, they had the discussions and got baptized! The baptizm was kinda crazy stressful! So his brother in law (the former stake president) baptized him and then his dad confirmed them the next day. there were at least 60 people at the baptism (I counted) which some sundays is more people than are in sacrament meeting. The baptism lasted 2 or more hours because both of the talks, the father and brother had been preparing for about 30 years and had a lots to say so yeah :)  it was great and I am super happy for the 2 of them. 

​Also little miracle of the week, the Hnas de San Miguel del Monte brought with them 2 extra sleeping bags that they had in their apartment and I am not freezing cold at night now! WOOO HOOO! :)  ​

Basically this week was heavenly! Love you all! :)  

-- 

Hna. Walker

3 Months

Hola Todos! So I have officially had 3 months in the mission field woo hoo!! Basically still a baby but yeah! 

So this weeks email is gonna be super scatterbrained because such is the life of a hermana! So we had 4 new investigators this week, 2 of them are Juan and Gladis, they are super great people, she likes to say everything super loud and he doesnt say much but oh well, we had a great first lesson with them and are gonna continue teaching but it is gonna be difficult because they cant read.... they never learned? or I dont know so yeah, and they live super far from the rest of life so yeah.... WHOO HOO!! lots of videos with them! 

One super funny thing, I never know when people are swearing which is actaully super nice. I dont know what words are swear words and so its great people could be cursing at me all day long and Id never know! 

So this week Sergio and Graciela had their baptismal interview with our district leader. Sergio wasnt nervous but Graciela was. And because Hna Medrano and I knew that each interview would be at least an hour we did splits. I went out proselyting with THE ward missionary (we have 1 currently) Juana Belizan, love that woman! :) her life is just a series of awkward moments... :) all our appointments fell through and somebody asked me if I was thirty and it was great! #themissionagesyou

But SERGIO AND GRACIELA passed and after they each interviewed they embraced and started to weep and it was so tender and sweet I loved it! So next week there will be  baptism photos and a bunch of others too! :) 

​out of time but love you all! ​

-- 

Abby 

Photos

I found mold last week.  (When I asked her more about the mold she said it was on "the side table, wall, bed..... it is really muggy here so if we dont open the windows all day then mold grows but it is cold so...... yeah" ) 

chilling before bed, you can see the layering going on and there is more now :) 

when it rains unexpectedly in area A 

Hna Conceicao de Brazil, my capacitadora during exchanges, she is awesome

map of area and lunch in the pench (apartment). green is menos actives (less active) pink is future investigators, yellow is investigators, tan is actives, blue is old investigators, white is references 

Dentists, Intercambios and Kisses‏

What a week! Hello world como està?

So this week started with the dentist. My comps tooth had been hurting her, I dont know exactly what was the problem, she probably told me but i didnt know that vocabulary so I didn't understand so yeah :) But anyway we spent most of our pday last monday in Monte Grande in the dentists office, we waited for an hour an a half and then her appointment, then we had to go get an xray down the street and waited there for an hour then back to the dentist and all to have a return appointment Wednesday. On the bright side I had lots of time to write my family a nice long letter so you are welcome family I love you! :) On wednesday we were back in the dentists office for a few hours and I was able to just sit and read the book of mormon for a long while and I was able to finish it yesterday which was my goal so yeah #brushyourteeth

The other big event of the week was intercambios or I think they are called exchanges in english? I dont know some things that have a name in spanish I dont have associated with an English word in my head so yeah... my journal is peppered with spanish. Aaaanyway... intercambios! It was great and terrifying and I learned a full!!! (a full is the argentine way of saying a lot). So because this is the second and last transfer of my training I have 2 intercambios with the capacitadoras. Typically the first is in their area and the second is in your own.... but for me the first was in my area and probs the second will be too! PRESSURE!!! So .... heres how it went. Hna Conceicao de Brazil was my capacitadora and we were in Ezeiza. 

Now first off, spanish/castellano however you name it is both of our second language so thats fun, but we didnt have problems communicating. Luckily she was in Ezeiza 6 months ago or so so she knew a little but it was an adventure. Basically I was in charge of where we were going, answering all the telephone calls which is a little terrifying because it is hard enough to understand people in english on the phone. Also we had ward missionary correlation meeting and a lesson with our 2 investigators de oro (gold) planned for the intercambio.... so basially faaa! Lots of stuff.... buuutt then EVERYTHING changed. We didnt end up having coorelation because the leader was working and the assitent couldnt go (we found out later that night from his mom he was at a singles dance for pete's sake!) so I dealt with those phone calls and had to call a full of other people to change it and all that jazz, plus then Sergio and Graciela called to ask if we could have our lesson in the afternoon, so I had to rearrange the afternoon and yeah.... but I did it :) I felt pretty accomplished not gonna lie :) But yeah, Hna Conceicao and I also taught the Restoration to the family of Julio Cesar and holy guacamole 4 of them came to church!! In all this week we had 8 investigators in the chapel and it was GLORIOUS!!!! 

We did lose a few investigators this week, Naehara who is 10 doesnt want to be baptized anymore cuz she has to go to church to do that and that means she has to get up on sunday morning which is the stupidest reason to not get baptized ever, but we had a lot of lessons with her and she just isnt feeling it, so we had to stop working with her because it wasnt a good use of time. Also we lost Maria Elena because her landlord doesnt like us coming around anymore and she hasnt been to church or had a lesson for months... sadness. But such is the work I guess, I pray further down the road some missionaries will find their registros in the Area Book and visit them and they will be baptized but it is hard to know. 

As for the funny argentina thing of the week.... so you know the joke about dodging a kiss on a date with a handshake and how super awkward that is. I TESTIFY that it is in fact super awkward. And yes I have dodged kisses from at least 50 men so far on my mission with a handshake. No joke. Here in Argentina everyone greets everyone with a kiss on the cheek...  but not us! Well we kiss the woman so I have kissed at least 300 women by now. But all the time I'll meet a man and he'll go in for the kiss and I have to rear my head back and stick out my hand and it is SUPER AWKWARD and HILARIOUS! I am a pro. I dont know why but it is always me and never Hna. Medrano that they go in for first and who has to explain..... so if the youth in the ward back home need advice on avoiding kisses, I am the person to talk to!

But really, the work is great. It is SUPER HARD to be a missionary but I have learned so much about the doctrine of God and about my Savior Jesucristo and I speak spanish (granted not very well but hey) and I am learning to love the people I am with. I know that I am receiving more blessings than I can count and I am grateful for each moment. Yo sè que vive mi Señor y sè que esta iglesia es la iglesia verdadera y que el Libro de Mormòn es la palabra de Dios. Estoy muy agradecida por esta opportunidad yo tengo y para el apoyo de mi familia y amigos en Arizona. La misiòn es el mejor! Hasta ver! Ciao! 

-- 

Abby