Weak Ankles

No, no, not like silly Little Mermaid or anything and HER weak ankles for Prince Such-And-Such...But seriously. I have ALWAYS had weak ankles, I´ve decided. In running (whenever I actually found the motivation to do so haha), softball, and WHOA. Walking "un montón" every day. I truly couldn´t even take a guess of how many miles we walk each day--mostly because they count in kilometers, and I don´t care to try and convert to miles. I´ll just accept the kilometers and act amazed at how grand the number is. (:

But seriously, I don´t know what´s up with my ankles haha. I´m gonna blame my boots, even though I love these dirty things to death. Regardless, my calves are as toned as ever. :P

Interviews with Presidente Avila!...AGAIN! :D Haha I walked into the room, shake his hand, and he says, "Que bueno, Hermana Lybbert! Me gusta a verla otra vez! Trés semanas atrás." Hahaha. True story. It´s only been like 3 or 4 weeks since I first got here. But regardless, interviews with Presidente are always incredible, and always what I need. Both with Presidente Alba AND Avila. Such inspired and incredible servants of the Lord. Here to help me and all the other missionaries. (: I, for sure, have been stressing out a bit about knowing the area well enough, understanding the language, and buses, and money, and EVERYTHING, since Hna Mujica finishes her mission here in two weeks! Annnd Presidente Avila kinda sorta told me what he´ll be doing with me next transfer haha. And basically, I need to continue to learn a lot about this area--since I´m likely not going anywhere haha. BUT he reassured me completely. And I´ve come to realize that I DO know this area, and I CAN speak the language (enough to get me by haha), and the money truly is nothing to worry about, and I GET IT! :D Finalmente...But yes. Interviews are always great. (:

I realized that I haven´t really updated on the people we´re teaching!! I´ll give an update onnn Estella today. (:

ESTELLA: Is incredible! She has yet to come to church, but she´s incredible regardless. She was a referral from a member, and she´s loving the gospel. Tonight we have a Family Home Evening with her and her member friend with POCHOCLO! :D Popcorn...Baha. But the thing we´re working on is the Word of Wisdom. She smokes and really wants to stop, so we´re helping her out on that. So this last week when we went to teach her the Word of Wisdom, the lesson was...Well, it was the Word of Wisdom. Nothing super special. But ESTELLA. Gah. SHE is what makes it phenomenal. We get up after the lesson, hugs and gives goodbye cheek kisses, and I glance back at her. What do I see? She grabs her box of cigarettes from the table and throws them in the trash.

WHAAAT?!?! Miraculous! She´s incredible. (: Anywho! That´s all for this week, my friends! I love you all, and I hope to hear from some of y´all soon! (; Baha. CHAU!

-Hermana Lybbert

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"WOW I kind of feel like PUNCHING someone!"

Said the white Norte Americana to basically no one, since her nativa companion doesn´t speak a lick of English...Yup. It´s been one of THOSE weeks. Haha no, not really. I think my tolerance for crude men is just weakening. Not a day goes be when we don´t hear whistles, "smooching"/kidding noises, or "Hooola hermoooosas" from bike riders, guys on motos or in cars, or...Whatever else. Truly, my patience is dwindling. BUT that´s the life, I guess.

On the "Up Side", I received my first dog bite!...Well, maybe that´s not the upside haha. But I thought y´all would find it interesting, por lo menos. We see LOADS of dogs, truly. (No joke, we´re emailing in a gas station today, and there´s a dog napping outside the window I´m sitting next to haha). But usually they´re all bark and no bite. Until, of course, the smallest little dog comes running out (which is fairly normal). We ignore the dog, and next thing I know, he bit the back of my calf! Gah. So lame. No worries, people. No, I didn´t have to go to the hospital. No, I don´t have rabies. Yes, my mother is momentarily freaking out right now. (; Baha jokes, Mama. Jokes.

So I´ve decided that missionaries are insane. The work is bomb, but insane. And we are likely the best stalkers on earth haha. We can track down a former investigator and such like nobody´s business. (; But no, what I´m really getting at, is that we will do just about anything to get our investigators to church. Example? Lucia. We´re teaching her, she´s got her baptism date and all, and she´s the bomb. But she (and all our other investigators) have GOT to come to church!! Sooo we tell her we´ll stop by Sunday morning and walk with her to church. So we show up, and she´s already outside!...Sweeping and such. She tells us she can´t go this morning, and we ask why, of course...I´m not sure what exactly it was, but basically one of her water pipes busted at 3-4 in the morning. WHAT?! Darned Satan. He knows where to attack. He does good work. What he DOESN´T know?? We do better work. (: We were there for a good 45 minutes or so before the ward mission leader and bishop both show up to help us. It´s 20 minutes before sacrament meeting when we get it as fixed as we can for the day, and we head out the door with wet skirts, hair, AND LUCIA. Boom! Work of the Lord for the win. :D

Anywho, the work is great, the work is hard, but we´re learning and loving a lot! Sometimes it´s crazy hard to teach or even FIND people to teach, but we´re doing what we can! We walk a lot haha. I couldn´t even put a number on how many miles/kilometers we´ve walked baha. But I love it! We come home everyday exhausted and ready to hit the pavement running again the next morning. (: More updates next week! Love y´alls!

-Hna. Lybbert

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ALRIGHT! Ready for some Argentina pictures now?! :D Well...Alright. I´ll explain them now, but WAIT to look at them, alright?? Because you MUST understand the insanity of Siesta haha.

-Remember how we bunked four of us sisters in our hotel room? Yuuup! That´s this. (: There´s actually 5 beds, because I´m standing on the one I slept on, but...Whatever, right? It was a blast.

-Mi compañera!! Hna Mujica. I´ll talk about her more later. (:

-Last of the long, long travels! Bus ride up to good ol´ San Juan Centro.

-La pensión! Aka, our apartment. This is our study area/where my clothes and such are/where we hang dry the laundry that shouldn´t be hang dried outside.

-Our cozy little kitchen, where I´m learning some GREAT foods to cook. :D

-Bedsss and the bathroom is off to the left. And that´s it! :D I love it haha. No pictures from outside yet, sorry.

-OKAY...Siesta...I´ve explained this to my family before, so they get it, but...Yeah. Basically all of Argentina shuts down at like 1:00 or 1:30 in the afternoon. People go home, eat a great big lunch,...and SLEEP. A lot. Until like 5 or 6. But you must imagine that these streets are fairly busy. San Juan isn´t a huge city, but we serve in San Juan Centro with all the people and downtown and such...I took this picture during siesta. NADIE. Seriously, the city is DEAD. And Sundays, too, except that is ALL day on Sundays haha. It´s a little difficult to work during those hours. :P But truly, we find the best miracles during those hours.

-HELADOOO. Aka, ice cream! No, I did not eat that huge, giant bowl (even though I would have liked to. (: ...)

-Cooking guiso. Deliciousness with rice, and it´s cheap. :D Boom. Perfect missionary food haha.

-Hna Mujica me está enseñando. (: More food to come later! We´ve already made all sorts of tortas, pan, y más. And this week? The best...¡Ñoquis! :D

Alright, that´s all for that haha. So! My comp is great, and I´m learning a ton. She´s 38, a convert of ten years or so, and she loves this gospel SO much. It´s a little challenging, because I think her first intentions are kind of to take the "mother" role, but she recognizes that I´m not a huge fan of it haha. But truly, she´s great. Decently patient with my struggling Castellano/Spanish, but I´m learning a ton each day. Including foods, yes. :P But that´s the least of it. Just all of EVERYTHING. The accent, the people, the country, the language...ETC ETC ETC. (:

I´m a little sad. Never took a picture of the lunch we had last week: Pancho con poncho. Whoa. Weirdest thing ever, but SO good haha. Even though it may not be the healthiest. (; Regular hot dog and bun, BUT...Then you put mayo, ham, and mozarella cheese and melt it all...With papa fritos, of course haha. So unhealthy bahaha. But it was good. (:

Random Fact: Everyone watches the Simpsons here...Annnd I´ll admit that it´s HILARIOUS to hear it in Castellano/Spanish. :P

Lastly: I´ve decided that California spoiled me. I´m a wuss when it comes to weather haha. Seriously, it´s like 60-70 degrees out, sun shining and all...And I´ve got my coat and scarf on haha. Oh well! (: I fit right in, because everyone has got the same haha. OH! And the Sonda. The huge, hot winds? Insane. Experienced my first one this last week haha. The wind is INSANE, and Presidente usually calls to tell us to stay inside for the day. At first, I thought that´d be ridiculous...Until we DID go outside, and I saw the damage. Crazyyy. But wicked cool experience.

THE WORK: Whoa. So different! But I LOVE it. Funny, because in California, I hated talking to a random person on the street, because typically we got blown off rather quickly and such. Here?Nope. Well of course we still get blown off, but people LOVE religion and discussing it and hearing it. We´ll ask if we can pass by sometime, and they´re more than willing! However, sometimes they do lie about their address haha. But what the heck, they still stood there in the middle of the sidewalk for a good ten minutes, learning how to pray and such. Siiick. I love it. And our investigators! Cutest families ever. I don´t have a ton of time left, unfortunately. SO...That will also go on my To Do list for next week. Loves! ¡Que les vayan bien!

LETTERS:

Hermana Shelan Lybbert

Argentina Mendoza Mission

Casilla de Correo 631

5500 Mendoza

Mendoza Argentina

PACKAGES:

Hermana Shelan Lybbert

Cabildo Abierto 161

5501 Godoy Cruz

Mendoza

Argentina

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Los Últimos Días de los Estados Unidos

Ready for it??

-Wallace and I! Boom. Rockin´ Hermanas, that´s for sure.

-We had a sick car wash!! The day before I left haha. Annnd it was a blast. (: Elder Ruvalcaba kindly took these two photos of me while I was advertising haha.

-Elders Wykle and Kunzzz! They´re pretty bomb, what can I say? (: I CAN say that I´m a little sad to say that I really didn´t get many other pictures of members NOR missionaries! ):

-Sooo I was stressin´out ALL day, the Sunday I was to leave. I wanted to get some work done and get a couple of investigators to a baptism (which DID happen, it was GREAT!), yet I still had practically NOTHING packed. We were to leave at 7 pm for the church, and I finish packing about...6:45 or so. And then crashed. On the floor. Como así haha.

-Hna Wallace all white and such. :P

-Adios, mi hermana! We got work done in Cotati. (:

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Why Did I Not Come to Argentina BEFORE?!?!

Whaaat?! This is the bomb! I´m loving it so much. The 48-ish hours of travel were SO worth it haha. I apologize that I can´t send pictures just yet, but I´ll for sure try soon.

SO! I took off and went to the Mission Home at about 8 pm Sunday night. Talked with President Alba and Sister Alba, had a little testimony, got to share mine in Spanish (because Pres. Alba speaks Spanish!), and we had ice cream cake. BOOM. So good haha. And then I got to call home and talk with the padres for a bit. (: They even told me that they´ll buy me a motorbike when I get home haha. Which is totally fine with me, since those are ALL OVER here. Finally got to sleep about midnight or so, after going to another apartment and luggage junk and such...Only to wake up at 2:40 am to head to the airport in Oakland!

Got to the airport, checked in and such, and I basically loaded on to the plane! Flew out for Salt Lake City at 6:15 ish, and I landed there at maybe...9:30? Not totally sure. That was a whole week ago. :P Met up with 4 other missionaries headed to my mission, plane got delayed, and we finally took off for Atlanta, Georgia about noon...Landed THERE about 6-ish? Maybe. Sat for a while. Got to call Christian and Audrey (and, since he was already there, Kooy haha) (: Left a ridiculously long voicemail on Dene´s phone, since she didn´t answer. SO LAME. Annnd then ran out of minutes and couldn´t call Trista. ): SAD DAY. Sorry hermana! ¡Te quiero!

I got to meet up with Hermana Barney from my MTC district in Georgia! So bomb to see her again. (: Along with about 15-20 other missionaries all headed to Argentina. Wicked awesome. We took off from Atlanta at 10 PM, only to land in Buenos Aires 8:30 the next morning. BAH. Insane. Could NOT sleep, oddly. Awfully uncomfortable. From there, we all got on a bus and went to the church office there to finish some immigration stuff...Kinda funny, but at the same time not at all, because people are always telling you: "¡Ojo!" to watch your things and never leave your bag or anything unattended...Had lunch in Buenos Aires with the departing missionaries and then we drove to another little airport...Only to get on ONE MORE plane to Mendoza. I was grateful that it was my last plane ride haha. We got there about...Wow. I have no idea, to be honest. 7:30 or 8? PM. Where we finally met Presidente Avila and his wife!! Cutest people ever. (: We all went to their place for dinner (delicious, of course) and then us hermanas went to a hotel. Haha most of the US hermanas thought it was a pretty sketchy place. But it wasn´t too bad. (: I stayed in a room with another US gal and two Peruvian hermanas. Pictures will come later. (:

The next day we received our comps, and I am serving with Hermana Mujica in San Juan! :D What does this mean?? Yes. It means a 2 hour bus ride up north haha. But I didn´t mind. I´m over the traveling thing.

OKAY! I don´t have a ton of time, but I´ll try to include as much as I can about Argentina! :D All the rumors about dogs being everywhere? SO true. Everywhere. At least 3-4 in sight at all times haha. Occasionally some follow us haha.

I can´t really feel the tremors, but our windows often shake randomly (: Yay for being near the "Ring of Fire" of earthquakes! Haha.

I´m ALWAYS cold. We all know this, yes? Well maybe it´s just an Argentine thing, but every time I´m cold, people always hand me a sweet of sorts. "¿Tiene frio? Bueno. Necesita azucar." Hahaha sooo I´m often receiving little sweets :P

OKAY! That´s all I have time for for now, but I´ll for sure update y´all on eating gnocchi, our first investigator at church, and mate. :P Later! Until next week!! Adios. (:

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