Photo Descriptions (AND TRANSFERS!)

-Hermano Vilche with his adorable daughter, Giulianna. (:

-Hermano AND Hermana Vilche (whom we love TO DEATH) and their adorable baby gal. Plus, the two Palumbo gals, Carla and Brenda. (:

-Hermana Paucari! The bishop´s wife, whom we also love to death. (:

-Hermana Üincaus (pronunciation: win-cows), who says she has adopted me as her other daughter. (; Haha I love her.

-Janet Loyola! (: Other photos of her and her family will come the next week.

-Familia Videla. (: Magalí, the little gal, is my favorite haha. So cute. She reminds me of all my nieces that I´ve got back home waiting for me. (;

-Jessica Macanelli!! (: She´s a recent convert, and a DANG hard worker. 22 years old, a little boy of  years, and she´s finishing up school, and she JUST passed a wicked English exam with flying colors! She studied way hard, and we had like 3 mini-clases with her to work on English. So bomb.

-Jessica´s aunt and cousin, whom she lives with. (: Familia Macanelli!

-Viandaaaa! When a family can´t feed us IN their house, they give us like...Lunch to-go haha. Every other Sunday, the bishop´s wife gives us HUGE viandas (lunches to-do) haha. Wanna see what all we got??

-THIS. Un montón e chicken nuggets, potato chips, homemade bread, 2 salads, can of peaches, bananas, alfajores, little madaleina cupcakes, and a ginormous thing of orange pop haha. Wanna know what we ate?

-A few chicken nuggets and the parts of the little salad...Haha. We have lots of leftovers.

-The missionaries of Gutiérrez!! Elder Larson just finished the mission and heads home this week; Elder Yao is from China, and he has this last transfer left before he goes home, too. ):

-A few of these photos are just a sequence of my comp´s adventure trying to get some agendas out from a hole on top of the cabinet hahaha.

-TRANSFERS! This was our look when they told us we´d be getting split up. ): Hermana Cerrato? A bit nervous. Me? Wicked sad.

TRANSFERS: FAH! These past transfers have FLOWN. Hermana Cerrato won´t let me forget that I´ll be hitting a freaking YEAR this next transfer. "Fahh! Que VIEJA hermana!" With a joking smile haha. RUDE. But no, it has been an absolute BLAST with Hermana Cerrato, and we´ve gotten some good work done here in Gutiérrez B. BUT...Hermana Cerrato is headed out to zone Valle de Uco, to the area of Tunuyán. This will be her first experience as senior comp, and she´s a little nervous, but she will do SO well. Such a capa, Hermana Cerrato.

Me? ME QUEDO! Whoo! I´m staying here in Gutiérrez, and Hermana Cheta comes here, and we will be a companionship of sister training leaders!! I´m wicked stoked and little nervous, BUT...It´ll be good. (:

Chau! Loves to all!

Fotos!

Rota y Lenta (Broken and Slow!)

No worries! Not me, just the computer. (: In case I haven´t informed you all of where check our email, it´s in what we call a cyber. It´s basically a negocio (shop?) where they have a few rows of computers (some that work well, some not so much, and some not at all), and we pay to use a computer for an hour and a half, hoping that the internet and computer works decently well...Today? I haven´t had a ton of luck, but that´s alright haha. I´m alive and well and a little tired. (;

So I got the chance to write a friend whom I served with in California, and I already told him , more or less, about my week. SO...Let me try and edit and translate and such...

Me costaba un poco amar a la gente aquí, porque me encantaba San Juan. PERO, con mucha oración y esfuerzo...Aquí estoy, preocupada que me van a trasladar la semana que viene jaja. Pucha. Nunca he sentido tan...LLENA. Con amor, verdad, satisfacción. Como ya le dije, estoy un poco cansada por caminar por todos lados jaja, pero siempre me encuentro con un poco más energía y fuerza para seguir hasta el fin del día. Tengo un GRAN testimonio que el Señor nos prueba a FUL, pero las pruebas nunca serán cosas que no podemos aguantar y vencer.

So at first, it was a little hard for me to love the people here in Gutiérrez, because I LOVED San Juan. BUT, with a lot of prayer and some hard work...Here I am, worried that they´re gonna transfer me haha. Freak...Never in my life have I felt so...FILLED. With love, truth, satisfaction. I´m a little tired from walking everywhere haha, but I always seem to find myself with a little more energy and strength to keep going until the end of the day. I have a GREAT testimony that the Lord tries us a TON, but the trials will never be things that we can´t overcome.

Ja. La misión es un poco chistosa. Nunca he sentido tan débil una hora y tan fuerte la otra hora. Confío tanto en el Señor. Soy un poco orgullosa por mi naturaleza, pero Dios me ha humillado y después fortalecido--todo para ser la persona que Él quiere que sea.

Ha. The mission is a little funny. I have never felt so weak one hour, and so strong in the next. I trust in the Lord. I´m a little prideful, naturally, but God has been able to humble me and then strengthen me--all so that I can be the person He wants me to be.

I am so grateful. SO filled of gratitud. For the chance the Lord has given me to be able to serve so soon. His timing is so perfect.

Alright...How´re we doing down here in Argentina? I´ll be the first to say that I´m kind of sorta wicked tired haha, and sometimes my feet hate me from walking. I´ve also come to realize that I´ve got the weakest ankles in the world. I knew that during softball, but I´m REALLY beginning to understand how weak they are haha. I never thought ankle muscles could ache baha...And have I already told you about the hardest part of Argentina?: the Siesta. The streets are legitimately dead between 1 and 5:30 in the afternoon. The hottest time of the day. We walk and knock occasional doors and run after the one person we see 2 blocks down the road. We visit members and they tell us "Váyanse a su pensión, porque no hay NADIE que les vaya a escuchar en esta hora. Aun peor, alguien que quiere hablar de Dios." ("Go back to your apartment, because there isn´t ANYBODY who is going to listen to you in this time of day. Even worse, somebody who wants to talk about God.") The members. But I know I´ve gotta have a lot more faith than that. It´s true, God always has someone or something prepared. I´ve just gotta go looking for it.

My goal for this week: To see the people here as God sees them: In white. I refuse to be discouraged; I refuse to complain. I´ve made a pact for 18 months that I will work with all my heart, might, mind, and soul. This is la obra del Señor. Simple as that.

FOTOS:

-Crepes! Sweet crepes was a first for the 3 Hondureñas that I live with. (;

-Showing them my talents (; I made crepes WAY too often back home haha.

-Om nom nommm!

-Ah, and can´t forget the homemade raspberry yumminess haha. Frozen raspberries, milk, and a little bit of sugar. (:

-This week´s weather was WICKED weird. It rained a TON. This was the first day, and I thought this little bit of sprinkling was "wet".

-"Wet" comp and I

-We went to the offices, so that Hermana Cerrato could do her paperwork and be LEGAL! (; It happened to fall on Valentine´s Day, so what do the sister training leaders do in the office while waiting? A Valentine´s sign, and help with a tasty cake!

-The mission nurse, Hermana Ashby, who actually MADE the cake haha.

-Lunch! McDONALD´S?! First time in almost 11 months. Weird. As. Heck.

-Found this is the mission office fridge. I just about died of the sushi craving I had!! That will be the FIRST thing I eat when I get back to the states haha.

-We had intercambios, and I was with Hermana Reyes. (: And wegot even MORE wet!

-Alright, this is the last day it rained, on Saturday...It POURED. We got back to the pensión, and we looked like we had taken coldshowers with our clothes on haha. So what do I do?

-Leave EVERY wet thing on the kitchen floor and take a nice, hot shower! :D

-I GOT A PACKAGE!! The first! From Dene´ (: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Everyone is LOVING trying peanut butter for the first time haha. And I am LOVING the graham crackers, which can NOT be found here. (: And the PICTURES! Everyone wanted to see them. (: Mmmm. Thank you sister! Love you! :D

Fotos de mi cámera

-This was on that bridge, heading to interambios. Exchanges. Seriously, that mountain range is GORGEOUS. I love it. This country is beautiful.

-This is where the other hermanas live, it´s called Castillo de Oro. Castle of Gold. It was GORGEOUS.

-Hermana Martinez. (: Only 4 months in the mission, but she is SO solid. I love her. (:

-Me, Hermana Martinez, Hermana Cerrato, and Hermana Volpi.

-Those hermanas. (: Gotta love ´em.

-Part of the wine tour! Those things are ginormous!

-The fancy restaurant.

-The majority of our district. (:

-Antigua Bodega Giol, the antique Giol winery!

-Struggling to get down haha. Short legs. I´m working on the whole "growing" thing haha.

-My comp and I (:

-MESSIIII

I Love Door-Knocking

Seriously, I NEVER thought I´d say such a thing in the mission haha. But the Lord has blessed me with SO many incredible experiences with INSPIRED door-knocking, it´s amazing. A couple weeks back, we went down a street and left a ton of mormon.org cards, remember? Well there was one door that I really wanted to go back and visit...So we went one day, and a gal named Jaquelina answered the door, but she couldn´t attend us at that time. So we set up a day the week after (this last week). Unfortunately, we did exchanges that day and had to travel a couple hours there and a couple hours back both days. SO, we didn´t make it. ): But we stopped by the day after and left another card, saying we´d stop by...

This last Saturday, we decided to go to a "make-it-or-break-it" lesson, to see if these people were TRULY interested...We see the man cross the road, enter his house, and quietly close his window as we walk up to the door. We clap and wait. His son comes out, and we ask for them. "Nope, he´s sleeping, sorry." Fail. Alright, well that answered our question haha. We start heading back down the street, and Hermana Cerrato and I both glance down the road of Jaquelina. Hermana Cerrato looks at me, and asks, "Did you look down that way, because you wanna go visit them?"

YES.

So we go, and she lets us in!! We get to meet her adorable 4-year old daughter, Alma, and her husband even comes down to join us! We start talking a bit, and Jaquelina just starts talking with us as though she has known us forever. I was a little worried for when Mario, her husband, came in, but FAH. He is SO great, AND he´s from San Juan! All of his family lives in Pocito, where I did intercambios. Fah, I love it. They even want to come to church! :D We´ll be seeing them on Wednesday. (:

*Sigh* That´s just one of the stories. We had another one earlier that day, which I sent to Trista. The other day, we were walking down a street, and I see a woman cleaning up a couple of her wooden chairs outside, with her little boy. We decide to go and talk to her, and I ask her what her son´s name is. "Samuel se llama, tiene un año y medio." Ahhh, my heart melted. I told her that I had a little nephew named Samuel, and I got to tell her all about my nephew and niece, and my WONDERFUL family. (: The woman has already been to church before and some of the activities, and she LOVED it. (: We´ll also be seeing her this week.

Door knocking. I love it. Ready for some photos?! :D These first ones are from Hermana Cerrato´s camera.

-Hermana Reyes (to the left), me, and Hermana Martinez (to the right). I´m their "Sister Training Leader", and it is one of the MOST filling callings I´ve ever had. I truly love working with the other hermanas. Here, we´re going through their area book to clean it all up. (:

-Heading out to Rivadavia to do intercambios! (Exchanges)

-Waiting for a colectivo. A bus. For a 2 hour ride to Rivadavia.

-Suemi!!! This little gal was born on May 17th, almost 2 years ago! :D Yup, my birthday. I love her to DEATH. And her family. (:

-Uhhh this was during a companionship study, and we could hear the elders in their meeting, saying my name...I was curious.

-My comp, helping me read. (:

-The Jokerrr!!!

-We´ve got some bomb spray painters here.

-We went on a winery tour today, and it was wicked cool haha. I went hiding. (;

-Un torro. A bull? There are bulls all over that place. Why? Because they used to put bull blood in the wine. BLEH. It was a secret. They don´t do that anymore haha.

-Hahahaha. I did a heel kick dealio thing...Annnnd my shoe went flying. It was hilarious. (: The elders and us died laughing haha.

-My comp and I! We happen to match RIDICULOUSLY well today. It´s weird.

-Anyone ever heard of Messi?? (; Hahaha.

-My shoes!...Almost. Except mine were a lot better priced haha.

-DENE´!! I saw these, and just about died. I wanted to buy them for Jackson haha. Buuuut they were 500 pesos. Sooo no. Sorry. (: