A Baptism Miracle: Damian Balmaceda!

Sooo I´m way bummed out. This computer´s--

WAIT! I´m a genius. No worries. I figured out how to get some photos loaded. (: WHEW. That was a close one. So this week was mostly focused on teaching and preparing Damian for baptism. It´s been a week of ups and downs and...YEAH. Rollercoasters. Let´s just say that Satan decided to do a full-on attack on Damian this week. He lost his job, he is now living in his car, and his kids couldn´t come out to see his baptism. ): BUT, he´s a fighter. And he managed to pull it off! (: Sorry I don´t have much more time, but here´s a funny story about the whole "living situation" (;

Alrighty, funny (slightly embarrassing) story about Damian this week. He´s been planning on moving for a few weeks, so we haven´t been able to get his home address down very well, annnnd this last week...Dang. Satan just went at him without mercy. Job, gone. Apartment, lost. He´s struggling a bit, BUT he´s positive about it. So, stupid me, forgetting about the situation about not having a place to live, I ask him, "Hey, Damian! Were you able to write down your home address for the records??"...He just stops, looks at me, and busts up laughing, "Yeah, hermana, just write down my license plate number, ´cause my car is my bed for now!" And he just goes on a makes like 5 other jokes about living in his car for the last several days...I felt AWFUL, but it was pretty funny. (: He´s a good guy. (: Yesterday in the Principios del Evangelio class, we talked about Exaltación. He was pretty stoked to find out that he can become a God hahaha. It was hilarious, "Oooh hey hermana, it says that one of the blessings is that we can become gods. Tell me more about THAT!" Hahaha I died. (:

Hahaha he´s great. Here´s a few photos!

-Bienvenidos!

-Damian and David. (: He forgot to smile...

-Actually he just doesn´t smile for pictures really haha...

-My eyes are shut. Don´t judge. But here´s the hermana that got this guy to church and baptized! She has been a HUGE help for him!

-All of us. (:

-Some people who came

-Cheers and treats!

-Fun little crew. (:

-One of the hermana´s boys. (: Isaías. I love him!

That´s all ofr now! Sorry for having such little time! Love you alls! (:

Just Some Photos

Photos first!

-TOP RAMEN?! My comp just about fell over and died, even though it cost like 15 pesos hahaha. Valió la pena!

-Sooo we have this convert, Alicia. She´s an older lady, but she is AMAZING. And, she loves the hermanas. (: She didn´t have children, so we´re basically her daughters haha. As we were leaving her house the other night, she suddenly tells us to wait. We look at each other and shrug as she scuffles off to her bedroom. She comes out with a bag of fruit and 100 pesos!! She saw that we didn´t have lunch the next day, so she told us to go buy some lunch that we really liked. (: She´s the cutest. She didn´t let us turn her down haha.

-PANADERÍAS!! Something I will THOROUGHLY miss. (: Bakeries and all the facturas and such. This first photo is of some facturas.

-This foto is of the panadería, in general. Breads, raspaditas, rolls, other sweet yumminess, pizzas, etc. It´s delicious. (:

-DAMIÁN! So we pushed his date back one week, so that he can be a little more prepared, and we gave him a question card for all of his questions he can think of haha. So every time we have a lesson, we come back and look at his card and see the new questions. We´ve already answered several of them. (: He´s bomb!

-These next 3 photos are of one of my favorite families in the ward. (: Raquel (friend of Damián!), and her 3 kids. I love them SO much. I don´t have a photo of Raquel, but I will. Her kids just kill me, though. I couldn´t manage to sneak one of the oldest haha, but oh well. The little one reminds me SO much of little Samuel Conrad TEETER when he was younger. (: Just that sneaky look in his smile, his ears, and his ENERGY hahaha. Dang, I love it. They´re the cutest. (:

-GRASS! Seriously, it´s so hard for people to grow grass here for some reason haha. We saw this, and I stopped in my tracks. GREEN GRASS. It was gorgeous. I´m excited to walk around in grass barefoot haha. It´s purty. (;

This week was crazy, and we walked a lot, but it´s been way good! Damián is super excited for his baptism THIS week (just for some extra preparation, so that we can finish teaching him everything and answer all of his questions)! We´re getting everything all planned out for this week. (: Whoots!

WORLD CUP and some fun surprises! :D

So for quite some time, the work has been a little slow here. A lot of people haven´t wanted to listen to us, or they pretend they do but give us a false address, or they just avoid us completely...However, we have been teaching a couple people that truly are INCREDIBLE. Belén went on vacation, but this other man, Damián, we´ve been meeting up with pretty frequently. He´s a friend of a member who recently has come back to the church, and he has gone through some rough stuff in his lifetime. He came to church the first week we started teaching him, and he has LOVED the meetings, the classes, and especially the activities!! (July 9th is Independence Day, so he came to that activity. Pictures included!!) ((It´s been a crazy week, so WARNING. There´s a lot of photos. (: ))

Okay, so just because I can´t contain the fun surprise any longer, that secret is coming out first! So with Damián, we´ve seen him a lot this last week, but not necessarily to TEACH him. Mostly just with activities and short, little lessons. But we noticed RIGHT off the bat that he has LOTS of questions. Which is GREAT, but we also thought that we might have to push back his baptismal date, just to make sure he´s ready and sure and prepared. Well he shows up to church yesterday and pulls us aside and says, "Hermanas! My baptism is supposed to be this next Saturday, the 19th! We need to figure out details, and I have a few questions. When can we meet up??"

UHHH...Whoa. He seriously has been changing and feeling the desire and want to be baptized! Obviously haha. But we know that we have lots that we needed to teach him and help him with a few commandments...SO...We met up right after church, and we discussed what exactly is will require on his part and our part. We talked about obedience, obedience to the commandments, and we talked about a specific commandment--the Word of Wisdom. He listened intently the whole time, understanding, and as we invited him to live the commandment, he paused for a sec...He nods his head, and looks at us. "Sí, hermanas. Voy a vivirlo." FAH. Sooo we´ll be meeting up with him every day, including this afternoon haha. It is possible that we push his date back one week, but if he truly is willing and working towards this date...Okay. Me and Hermana Crawford are ready and willing to do OUR part. So keep us in your prayers! :P

This week we also found a couple of FAMILIES!! (Finallyyyy), and WOW. They are WAY cool. One woman we talked to in the street, and she let us right on in, and she woke up for kids so that we could all meet each other, and we talked about finding answers and the first lesson. We´re heading back this week. (: We´re stoked!

Alrightyyy so this week has also been the last couple of games of the World Cup, annnd it just so happened to work out that Argentina went to the FINALS!! Man, all week I was just thinking, "Dang. Imagine if while I was in the mission the Seahawks won the Superbowl AND Argentina won the World Cup!!" So siiiick. :D BUT...Yesterday were the finals, and Argentina played against Germany. Germany, who kicked some Brazilian butt. (No worries family, we weren´t allowed to leave the apartment after 3 o´clock, due to the game and the crazy people. (:  )...Sooo Argentina lost. ): Sad day. But it was cool anyways. :D

SHOUT OUT!!! To my INCREDIBLE siblings, whom I love and miss a TON.

July 11th: TRISTA! Feliz cumpleee! Te quiero y extraño a FUL! 30 years old, right?? (; DANG. I love you. :D Just last night me  and my comp were talking about the last birthday you and I had together, going to I-Fly, massages, etc...Ahhh. (: I love you, Trista! 

July 13th: Ayer! CHRISTIAN!!! **Sigh** You´ve no idea, Christian. I love you to DEATH! And I hope you´ve enjoyed your birthday!! 28?! If I´m wrong, someone please tell me. :P

July 16th: RYAN WEST LYBBERT...I swear, ever since they shipped me off on that plane to the MTC in Utah you up and disappeared haha. But I hope you love and enjoy your feliz cumpleaños, West. (: I love and miss you WAY too much.

Alrighty, time for photos...

-So since we aren´t allowed to drink mate as missionaries, I´ve gained the love for mate cocido! Annnd I figured I was tired of buying lots of little boxes of random types of mate cocido. So I found my favorite brand, Taragüi, and I bought a giant box. (: It should last me the rest of my mission hahaha.

-I got the letter from Mom! Ha, "letter" (; A paper reminding me to update ym driver´s license, a birthday card from the Relief Society, a note from my mom, and two orange tea packets! It was called Wild Sweet Citrus or something...Annnd me and my comp enjoyed them. (:

-9 de julio! Independence day! The guy that looks almost balding on the left is Damián. (:

-Of course, the activity consists of: ...Folklore dancing.

-Marbles competitions

-The damas (women) winning, and a girl writing "winer" for us WINNERS. (;

-Hopskotch competitions!

-The game with the yellow ball and mop and such? It´s called El Pato. The duck. I have no idea. (:

-We had a mini conference with the new mission president and wife! (: Pste. Goates and Hermana Goates. (:

-One of my favorite lunches! Well, this was the dessert (more like 50 desserts!)

-Enjoying the desserts. (:

-Hermano Julián! He lives alone, but he LOVES the missionaries. So he always invites us with another couple of members, so that we can enter his house. (:

-The other couple of members, Debra y Ana. (: I love them to DEATH haha.

-Me and my comp and the desserts!

-A cat that was rescued, annnd we couldn´t keep it of course. So we gave it to a member. (:

-So I´m sorry if you don´t understand this sign on the door. Basically it was one of the people we WERE teaching. The other day we went by, and we found this... ): A little sad, but...**Shrug** We did our part.

-Hermano Julián loves the sister missionaries. The photo of that wall shows a pictures of ALL the sister missionaries that have served here!! Hahaha.

-I dno...I liked our colors.

-TACOS. Real tacos. I definitely miss real Mexican food.

-Our zone! (:

It´s Way Too Cold...

PHOTOS:

-Hermana Reyes hit her 6 months! I had to help her celebrate a little. (;

-Happy 4th of July!! Hahaha my agenda (;

-How´d we celebrate? Good ol´ original, American hamburgers and singing the National Anthem loud and proud!! Whoots!

---------------------------------

Dang. I thought I handled the cold pretty well, considering I´m from Washington, and I went to school in Idaho...Wellll apparently after a San Juan summer, I´m not "acostumbrada" to the cold anymore. Whatsoever. At all. Encima, our apartment is falling apart and none of the houses here are heated. Just brick walls and a little old calefactor. The warmest place is the chapel, because it´s got decent heaters. Ish. Más o menos. 

My apartment. We call it the pench. Pensión.

I got here and the water was already leaking way bad. Normal.

It has gotten far worse.

We have two wall heater dealios.

Neither work.

We have another little heater in the room.

My 3 blankets work FAR better.

We turn on the gas stove and oven to heat up the house.

That works pretty well. (:

Luckily, we´ve got hot water here!...

Up until this week. FAHHH.

I stuck my head under the shower faucet to just wash my hair this morning.

I got a head ache, because it was icy cold.

I will never take a shower here. I WILL get pneumonium.

...I no longer remember how to spell that word.

Or talk in decent English grammar. Examples?

"Y´know, kind of tiene razón him. That guy...Blewsgfkasjdn."

"Por e--for...Because of that...Crap. Forget it."

Sometimes it´s just easier to not talk hahaha. But no, it´s been way funny this week. (: ALSO, we went to Consejo AGAIN! I don´t know if I already explained this, but oh well. Presidente Goates and his wife wanted to get to know the zone leaders and sister training leaders, so we all headed back to Mendoza and had a great meeting with him! It was GREAT. Him and his wife are really excited to be here, and they´re INCREDIBLE. Us hermanas got to talk with Hermana Goates for a little bit, and we told her a little bit about the mission. I loved her response. She looked at us all, made a contemplative/thinking face, "Alrighty! Looks like we´ve got LOTS of things to pray about!" And she gave us her big, bright smile. (: Haha I love it. IT´ll be way fun to work with them more.

Alrighty well I´ve got about 10 minutes left, so I just want to share a couple things of what I´ve been studying this last week. WILLS. Will of the Father versus my will. It´s probably one of the hardest things for me. To submit all that I want, all that I desire, and all that I hope for--for what HE wants from me, what HE desires of me, and all HE hopes for me. I do what I can, and I prefer to take control of my own life. Being independent. But I´m slowly learning that my life should not be in MY hands, rather it should be in the hands of the Lord. His ways are not our ways. He knows far better than I do, but I must be willing to follow Him in everything. I´ll finish up with a part of a talk I love: "Just give it up. Surrender your will to Him. Unconditionally. Withhold nothing. Turn it all over to Him; all of your desires, wishes, dreams and hopes. Be true and faithful in your head and in your heart, not just in your behavior. Trust in Him. Trust Him who knows all things. Trust Him who has all power. Trust Him whose love for you is perfect. Trust Him, who alone suffered, paid and atoned for your sins, and for your weaknesses as well. Trust Him that He will make of you, immeasurably more, than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity, make of yourself. He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary man. He will create a God."