"Freaking Agency"

Yes. That DID come out of the mouth of our ward mission leader about 3 days ago. Why? Well...Needless to say, it´s one of the BIGGEST issues we have to deal with as missionaries haha. We can go teach, serve, plan everything out, have Noche de Hogar with them...But ultimately, it´s up to THEM if they want to read, pray, search, go to church, or SHOW UP TO THEIR BAPTISMAL INTERVIEWS. Fahhh.

Why do I mention this? Ohhh Lucia. I love her to death, but man is she a toughy. One day she´ll be STOKED for her baptism, picking out who is gonna baptize her and who´s gonna give the talks...The next day? We show up, and she´s in her PJ´s with "the flu" as she´s hosting a party! Fahhh. So we RE-set her interview for the next day...A lot has gone down. But long story short? She randomly decided to take a trip, and nobody knows when she´s coming back...Investigators falling off the face of the earth...I wish it wasn´t so dang common.

OKAY! Uhhh more random things that are killing me this week? The Superbowl song. Nuts, right? It´s been stuck in my head for days, and it´s making me miss ittt hahaha. But that´s cool. No worries.

GENERAL CONFERENCCCCEEE! What?! So great. But before I talk about that, I´ll tell you why I randomly got called to Mendoza this last week!

So we were in the middle of district meeting, when our phone goes off, and it´s the zone leaders. We were all kind of confused, so I go ahead and answer. (Sidenote: We´ve been getting lots of new missionaries all kind of randomly lately, and people have been getting transferred, areas being split in the middle of transfers and all sorts of nutsiness. People have joked that because Hna. Cox and I are having so much success right now, they´re gonna split us up and such. So you must understand the nerves that IMMEDIATELY went through all of us when all I said was, "A Mendoza?...Cuando?...ESTA noche?!"

Mini Freak Out Moment.

BUT...No worries, I just had to go renew my visa stuff. (: Bahaha. Sooo the picture of Hna. Cox sleeping on the bus is on our way to Mendoza! The one before it with all the meat and the two elders? ASADO!

Yup. Last P-Day, we finally got to have a true asado. It was knd of nuts, because we heard a couple weeks ago that we were getting another flood of missionaries from the states who all received their visas--in the middle of the transfer. So we knew that in our district, we were getting one new elder, an area was being split, and a set of hermanas were coming in. We stoked to meet them! So we show up last Monday to FINALLY meet them all, and I shake the new elder´s hand, and..."Wait a sec...Elder Holmstead?...I know yo--OH!"

Meet Elder Holmstead. He was in my ward at BYU-Idaho haha. My visiting teacher was in his FHE group. I think he´s thoroughly enjoying Argentina and all the meat here haha.

Other picture: We´ve finally gotten some GOOD sun lately! Annd the first day we get it, of course, I am ALL sorts of burnt haha. And now? Brown. (: Thank youuu tan lines.

This family!! The mother, the baby boy, and the two girls one my left and right are the daughter. The other gal is their friend who loves listening to us, too. (: This is the family who has the dog who bit me! :D They are SO great! Verónica, the mom, came to conference yesterday. (:

Speaking of Conference! It was GREAT. Us gringos went upstairs and had a conference party haha. But no, it truly was incredible. I got things out of every single talk. Mostly that I need to be a little more meek and humble. I´ve always kind of struggled on that end, I feel. I take so much pride in being strong, tough, and competitive that sometimes I forget that meekness is not weakness. I don´t HAVE to be strong all the time, and that I HAVE to rely on others--especially my Heavenly Father.

Anywho, that´s about it for now. We´re gonna go on a hike today, I hope. (: I need it! Whoots! CHAU!