Quickie Update with Fotos

Alright, this is gonna be another short one, sorry. BUT there are more pictures. (: So you´re all in luck!

-We´ve got several new missionaries straight from the MTC here in our zone, and turns out this elder knows some good card tricks!

-And we were ALL amazed hahaha. He loved being able to show his talents, without needing to use a whole lot of broken Spanish. (:

-This is Hermana Alicia! We love her to death, and we adores us haha. She´s hitting her one-year mark as a member, and she´s been asked to write a talk! She asked for help, so we did! (:

-It was Hermana Cerrato´s birthday (yes, she´s in my zone again, and it´s bomb!), so we decided to stop by and surprise her with some oreos and churros. (: Mmmm.

-Score! We managed to throw it in there behind the gates (:

-My grocery shopping versus Hermana Japa´s grocery shopping. Mine is on the left. :P

-We had an AMAZING conference with Elder Viñas from the Seventy this Friday, so the hermanas from Malargüe came and bunked with us. (: Four hermanas and 3 matresses=ON THE FLOOR! :D

-Recognize this gal?! (: We went on exchanges, and it was a blast haha. Miss Hermana Cerrato. (:

-Yesterday was Hermana Japa´s birthday, so I got up a little early and made her a healthy breakfast! (:

-The familia Miranda also made her a cake for after lunch. (: Happy 23rd birthday, Hna. Japa!!

Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked, and Walked, and Walked, and...

WALKEDABAJILLIONKILOMETERS!!!

DANG! Hahaha sooo the majority of this week, Hermana Japa and I were in charge of two areas: Balloffet and Barrio 1 (our area), annnd dang did we die haha. Yes, the areas are right next to each other. No, they are not small. Yes, it takes a good 45 minutes to get from one to the other. :P Sooo let´s just say that we´ve gotten LOTS of exercise this last week. And, not because of all the walking, but I´m not feeling so great today. Nor do I feel like writing a ton, sorry. ): BUT I will include some photos! 

-Two pdays back! We made pizza empanadas annnd DULCE empanadas!! :D Toddy cookies and dulce de leche. Mmm. (:

-Toddy cookies and empanada tapas. (:

-Cooking while everyone takes a bajillion photos...?

-Last Sunday we sent Crawford HOME! Hahaha. We´re not super huggy people with eachother, I sent her off with a fistbump. (;

-Chau Crawford!

-We did some major organizing and cleaning in BOTH apartments, and the one in Balloffet killed me from laughing so hard at this "shower head" haha. I asked Japa, "Hermana, why is the shower head on the floor and not IN THE WALL?" How does this work??

-BING! Just like this! Hahaha water just spits out of the wall. (: Fun!

-We drew them some fun BIENVENIDAS stuff on their wall with a couple consejos. (:

-The first stop sign I´ve ever seen in Mendoza! I was amazed haha.

-POOPED. Why? The new hermanas arrived on Thursday. At 12:10. IN THE MORNING. Who went to go pick them up? Yup. US. Who got to bed at 1:30 am? YUP. US! :D

-We´re learning lots of English! :P Japa reads in English, I read in Spanish. (:

-We had a family come to church this last week! A family of FIVE! :D It was awesome! We went at 9 am to go walk with them, and the two little ones sat and watched Aladdin while waiting for their mom. OH! And look at that! The card of Jesus Christ that I gave to Silvana, the mom, when I talked with her in the street. (:

-The drawings the two little daughters drew for us during sacrament meeting. (: Tee hee!

Last Transfer Calls

Alrighty, I´ve got 1,000,000,003 things to say. Starting off WITH...

FAMILY: I BEG YOU. Don´t stress me out about plans for getting home. Yes, I realize it´s coming up quick, but I´ve got 6 weeks to give this the rest that Ié got left in me. Yes, little plans need to be made, but I´ll write them down and get back to y´all on them ASAP. This next week, hopefully. I had already had some little plans of going straight back to Idaho to find a job and take one class for this last semester and such, but plans are being thrown for a loop. Sooo...YEAH. Give me a little time, gracias. (: I love y´alls igual, and I´m stoked to see ya!

Okay so this week was INSANE, annnd on top of that, we have TRANSFERS!! Eegads. Así que bueno...Here we go. A day-to-day summary. (:

Monday: We made tasty pizza empanadas and dulce empanadas. I´d attach photos, buttt I don´t have my camera on me. :/ Sorry. ALSO! There´s a set of hermanas here in our zone who have had to stay in the apartment for a couple MONTHS and doing all sorts of thigns with doctors to figure out what´s going on with the knee of one of them. It´s been quite some time with very few results. So we get a call at 10:10 Monday night from Presidente, asking us to take in Hermana Japa, because the other hermana is heading home for her knee. ): It was a little sad, but it was necessary. SO...May we begin my THIRD trio! Phew...

Tuesday: Zone meeting. Tasty lunch. Went to the terminal to send off Hermana Reyes, and Hermana Japa came with us! We...Walked a lot that day. Between apartments to get stuff and food mostly. :P

Wednesday: Hermana Crawford had to go and type up her "carta de mayordomia" for the end of her mission, so that took a couple hours. We had the tastiest tarta of my life for lunch with pudding, annnd we found BELÉN again!!! Yayyy! She´s doing WAY great, and FAH. She was way excited to see us again. (: Way sad when Crawford told her that she was leaving, but we got a cute  photo. (: Annnd we found a SICK family!!! Of 5. (: Way cool, too! Annnd Wednesday was about the day when we really started helping out the Hermana Japa learn some English and how to pronounce well. (: Which always leads to...fun stories. (:

Thursday: A good couple of lessons with some converts, a tasty lunch of milanesa, and a really easy weekly planning, which I did solo, because Crawford...Well...Yeah. She´s leaving! Haha. Thennn Hermana Japa has been getting a little mixed up, because she has talked to be in "tú" instead of "usted" various times, and she dies of embarrassment haha.

Friday: We walked a butt-ton to the area of Hna. Japa, get cancelled on for lunch, and we had to go and finish some "to-do´s" like buy Hna. Crawford´s ticket to Mendoza, pay the rent, and buy Havanna alfajores haha. Annnd Hna. Japa tried translating the hymn, "Te necesito"...Japa: "I...need you?" Me: "Ahhh yo no diría eso. Es algo...seductivo?" We died laughing hahaha. She felt way embarrassed. Then later in the street, we were practicing how to say how many brother and sisters she has, how old are they, etc. Then I asked her, "How do you say HERMANITO?" Japa: "Uh...BROTHERCITO!" :D Hahaha loved it.

Saturday: Crawford got all packed up, we had a tasty lunch, walked a butt-ton AGAIN to have an appointment fall through, annnd then we found a SICK gal! Eve. (: She´s WAY cool and way smart. Annnd I then taught Hna. Japa how to say, "git ´er dun!!!" (;

Sunday: Hermana Crawford said her goodbyes at church, the ward sang Para siempre Dios esté con vos to her, and she CRIED. Freaking milagro. We ate lunch and took her to the terminal! Chau Hermana Crawford! She was way stoked haha. (: Then we walked. A lot. To Hna. Japa´s area (Balloffet) and back to mine, and we talked a LOT. About what the mission needs, what the missionaries need, etc. All sorts. Then we get home, plan, and wait forrr...TRANSFER CALLSSS.

Ya ready for it?!!?...SURPRISEEEE! Hermana Japa is gonna STAY WITH ME! :D Hahaha WAY sick. The zone leaders call us up and say, "Well, we´re gonna start with Japa...Japa...SE VA! You´re leaving Balloffet!"

Japa: WHAT?!?!

Zone Leaders: Yup. Get nice and comfy, because you are STAYING in BARRIO UNO!

Hahaha. Seriously, easiest transfer and transition of my life. :P SO Hermana Japa will officially be my last companion, and she is my murderer! She´s killing me. (: So crazy, but we´re way excited. We´ve known each other since our first day in Argentina haha. We slept in the same hotel room that first night! Crazy stuff. (: Alrighty, I´m all out of time. I love you all! Cuídense y, sí, nos veremos demasiado pronto...Les quiero a todos. (:

-Hermana Lybbert

Five Loaves and Two Fish

I was pretty excited. I always love interviews with Presidente, especially now since I´d never had one with Presidente GOATES. BUT I had to wait, my comp went first haha. So HERMANA Goates calls me into another room--apparentely she wants to do little interviews, too!  Okie dokes. (: That was great, I love chatting with her. She truly has SO much love and excitement for this work and for this mission. (: THEN...I hear a little knock, I glance back through the window, and I see a big, goofy smile on the face of Presidente, waving me to go to my interview with him haha. I hop up, thank Hermana Goates, and head to the other room. He gives me a great, big handshake and tells me to sit down. Plop. In the chair. We get to talking about the ward I´m in, the baptism we were gonna have, my companion, and the little time I have left in the mission...

"Hermana Lybbert, when is it that you´ll be leaving??"

"Uhh...Well...In September."

"OH! Right! We´re just knocking y´all off one right after the other, huh?"

*Big chuckle*

"Ha, yup, it´s comin´ up real quick..."

"Well, Hermana Lybbert, do you have any questions for me?"

**Thinking time**

"Nah, I don´t think so..."

"..."

"Well..."

I´m not exactly sure what my question was, not gonna lie. I couldn´t form it very well in English. It was something about staying focused until the end of the mission. I don´t think I´ll have a problem with being trunky, because I love Argentina, but...Just in case...

And honestly, I don´t really remember all what Presidente told me. I do remember a couple little things that I´m putting into practice--mostly just taking one day at a time. Not making a very detailed plan for when I get home, so that I don´t get distracted with that. Focusing on the here and now, and my purpose. But what I remember more than anything?

"Hermana Lybbert...Just know that...The time WILL come. I can see you have a very deep love for this people, work, and country. For your mission. But it will come. HOWEVER, for the here and now...Just get Him your all. Don´t kill yourself about your numbers if you know you´ve done your best. As humans and missionaries, we are as the apostles of Christ. We only have five loaves and two fish. But five loaves and two fish is all the Lord will ask of us. And, as we trust in the Lord and hand Him all that we have, that will suffice. He will feed thousands. He can make SO much more of our five loaves and two fish than we could ever make with all the faith in the world. May we be willing to give up all that we have, so that He can work the miracles."

I loved it. We had our interviews about 2 weeks ago, but I didn´t have the sufficient time to write it all out. I´ve gone back to the Gospels in the Bible, and I´ve read that short miracle time and time again. It is absolutely incredible.

Alrighty, well other than that...I hit my ONE YEAR mark in Argentina this last week! The first of August (: It´s been one, crazy year, full of miracles and experiences. (:

Alrighty, PHOTOS!:

-We had ZHONDA again! So hot (it was GREAT), and SO much wind! And dirt. :/

-My comp during studies, tired as heck after 18 months in the mission haha.

-We went to Consejo this last week, too. We had to sleep in a FREEZING cold pench, no blankets (except for the thin little things we´ve got there), and one, broken heater that turns on and off every 5 minutes. And every time it turns on, it makes an awful noise, which wakes the whole neighborhood up. FACT: I slept a whole hour and a half that night.

-FLAN! With one of my favorite ladies. (: Alicia! She´s been a member for about a year now, and she makes DELICIOUS food! :D

-Our district, and my "dying" comp (AKA, she´s finishing up the mission).

-The ever famous tarta de acelga. I´m not totally sure why the people like acelga so much, but...Whatever haha. It´s healthy, so I ate it. :P Annnd ignore the fact that my hair looks red/orange. It´s not redish/orange, I swear.