"I´m Dreaming of A Whiii--"

Oh wait. That´s a lie. It is SO not a white Christmas this year haha. Not gonna lie, it doesn´t really feel like Christmas, which might be better, because I don´t feel like I´m missing out on anything back home haha. But DANG, family, you had better be taking pictures! I want to see EVERYTHING haha.

Okay! Loads of things to tell y´all.

Fiesta de Navidad! With the MISSION. Well...Half of the mission haha. It was SO great, our fiesta happened to be with the San Juan Zone, so I got to see Hna. Cox and Flores, and we talked ALL about a beauuutiful family that got BAPTIZED! I´ll send pictures. (;

That family?? OH. Yes. It´s that family we found when we finally went door-knocking down calle Esquiú, the familia Sesma. Man, that family is gorgeous, but they´re even MORE beautiful in WHITE. :D Mauricio, the husband, asked the bishop there to get permission from President Ávila to make sure I was there, but...I couldn´t. ): But I send them letters every chance I get, and they made us 3 hermanas promise that we´ll be there when they go to the temple in a year! **Hermana Lybbert gettin´ teary-eyed** "And if you can´t come, I will be flying up to those big US states and bringing you down!" Hahaha. OH, and the San Juan ward has a temple trip to Chile in January. What does Mauricio do? Calls up the bishop that night, has an interview, and pays for the trip for his whole family right then and there to go do baptisms...FAH. They´re AMAZING.

Fun Fact: When Pres. Ávila got here, there were 16 hermanas. Now, there are 52. The OLDEST hermana only has ONE YEAR...We won´t be losing a single hermana for at LEAST 6 months. So nuts. This mission is gonna blow up with hermanas. (;

I love my comp. Simply said, I love her to death haha. I don´t remember much about what my aparting blessing said when I was set apart as a missionary, but I DO remember that President mentioned my biggest worry: Companions. I was told that my companions would come to be some of my closest friends. And YES...It is SO true. I love it. Along with the 6 other hermanas with whom I do exchanges! I love them to death, and they are SUCH incredible examples to me. Fah. I love hearing their stories. (:

Okay! I don´t have much time left! I´ll get some pictures sent, and I´ll see y´all next week!! With all the great pictures from Navidad. (: LOVES!!

Donaciones de Sangre and Thunderstorms!

This week is full offf...

RAIN.

What? Weird. I´m in the middle of the desert, in the dead heat of summer. SO, what do big rain clouds and crazy heat mean?? THUNDER and LIGHTNING like nobody´s business. (: Fah. It´s been a blast. The other night, I let my comp shower at night instead of me (in this apartment, I usually try to. We don´t have hot water, so the cold water is just too cold in the mornings. But at night, after having walked around all day in the heat? It´s PERFECT...), and I sat down to write a tad in my journal. I kept seeing the lightning, but there was nothing else...Then they got closer. And I heard it...

WHOAAA.

Rain came POURING down, and the thunder and lightning kicked up about ten notches. I just about died from excitement haha. Sooo I ran outside for about 4 minutes, and I came in just as soaking wet as Hna. Cerrato, who had just gotten out of the shower haha. It was great. (:

This week has been a little slow. Lento. BUT...We´re hardly ever lost now, I´m learning the colectivos better, and I´m almost completely broke. :D Whoots! Gotta love the mission haha. But no, it really is great. My Spanish has also gotten way better, thanks to being around Latinos about 90 percent of the time, and Hermana Cerrato´s English is INCREDIBLE.

We had a bomb Zone Conference with Presidente, and I figured out that his son served in the Spokane, WA mission! He was the zone leader in Moses Lake, and served in Othello! WHOAAA. I just about died from excitement haha.

Mission Choir Practice! Okay, not the whole mission, but the areas close to the mission home in Mendoza. We showed up a little late, and we started with the hermanas, practicing parts. Joined with some elders, and practiced again. And then all the other elders came in, and I just about DIED when I saw all the elders from our districts in San Juan! Elders Gutierrez, Saavedra, Gomez, Hurley, etc. FAH. I love it. These missionaries here truly are incredible. (: One or two might rub me the wrong way, but overall? Me caen bien. (:

PHOTOS! Yes, we had a blood donation in our chapel in Gutierrez, annnd I turned out to be the only hermana that could donate! Haha pobrecitas. That darned hemoglobin and such.

-OH. Yeah. And then we did laundry, and I realized I have way too much blue and yellow. Jokes. In Argentina, you can never have too much blue and yellow (; Baha. Love it. Viva Argentina! (;

-The second photo is when we were waiting at the train station. I was confused. Not totally sure what the elders are doing haha.

-Hermana Cerrato and I! Yes, she is wearing my dress haha. Thank you Dene´, for helping me learn long ago how to share. :P

-Train tracks! The main way we get around and travel? Trains and buses. (: It´s great.

-Enjoying reading my letters from Christian and Dene´ :D THANKS!!

-On the train haha. Don´t judge. I feel like I did a Brooklyn Teeter pose. :P

-Happy on the train, with all our pedidos in hand. (:

-Getting ready for the needle!

-They pricked my finger, and it´s STILL purple. Flip.

-DONATING!...My blod was wicked slow, apparently haha. Weird.

OKAY! That´s all for now! Nos vemos! :D

Puchaaa

DARNET. My photos won´t load on these computers, unfortunately. ): I have a TON, too, so that bums me out a tad. But no worries! Not for too long. Why? Because we are seeing SO. MANY. MIRACLES...

So...What all has gone down? LOADS.

I´m out of San Juan. Sad day.

Currently in the Maipú zone. So bomb!

We all got to the terminal, and I met my great comp!

Her name is Hermana Cerrato.

From Honduras!

(If I could, I´d send the picture of us...)

At the terminal, we get to talkin´...

"Hermana Cerrato...Why do you have all your luggage, too?"

Elder Wright (the zone leader) calls us up...

"Wait, wait. What elder? We´re white-washing the area??"

FALSE.

Lo and behold, we´re opening the area!

What´s even better?

My comp got here to Argentina 2 weeks ago! :D

We´re really lost. (:

But no importa! Seriously, we are so stoked to be here. Lucky for us, we´re working with a couple great elders to help us out and to be a little less lost. Elder Wright was my old district leader, and NOW...Our zone leader! And we´re sharing a ward with them. (: The week was a LITTLE hard, and we got lost several times haha. But, ever so slowly, we´re finding lots of milagros. All week, lots of zeros for numbers, BUT...

Fah. Sundays are a lost/hate relationship. They tend to be one of the slowest days here, because everyone takes like a day-long siesta. Kills me. BUT...That also means a lot of people in their house! So, what did we find the yesterday?? Six new INCREDIBLE investigators!! Ever since they changed the "qualifications" for an "other lesson" (we have to be inside the house--not on the porch or in the park--it keeps us from counting Abrir La Bocas as lessons), we struggle having real lessons. BUT, we also see and find those people that are willing and ready to let us come in and teach them...SO! We found an incredible family and another matrimonio. (: Fah! Not very many lessons in total, but so many incredible hijos de Dios. (:

Alright, well when I´m able to get pictures loaded and sent, I´ll do that. But for now?...Just know that I´m stoked, excited, and extremely grateful. For what?

-My native companion who continues to help me with español

-Our bomb area, that we are gonna make EXPLODE with the gospel!

-The SIX hermanas that I get to work with this transfer! (Fah. Yeah. Not just two now, SIX! And they´re all so increidible, so much to learn from one another).

-The people and families we´re teaching!

-Mercies of the Lord, and His help to lead and guide us to His ready and prepared children. (:

And SO much more!!

-Hermana Lybbert

Dogs, Asados, and Transfers!

Anyone remember that story about Verónica and her dog that bit me?? Yeah, well I figured I should finally get a picture of the darned thing. (; No worries, we´re best buddies now haha. Maite and I! I legitimately love that dog to death. (: And, of course, the owners, too. (: No, Verónica and her girls haven´t gotten baptized yet, but they´re so flippin´ ready haha. The girls are excited, but they´re waiting on their mom. With time, all in the Lord´s time. (:

SO! Viviana and her LOVELY family. (: We went back on Tuesday and chatted with just Viviana, mostly just to set up another appointment. She told about how much her girls LOVED church and Primary, and then she started talking about how much she loved the Book of Mormon. She went through and read all the pamphlets we´ve given her, and she has done the study things in the back, and she is just so excited. So what do we do? Set our appointment for the next day, and we fully plan on talking about faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. We come back, and Mauricio and Viviana are just sitting there with their mate, patiently waiting for us. (: We get to baptism, and Mauricio says, "Y´know, we went through and read these folletos, and we´ve been talking a lot about the baptism deal. How we don´t even remember our baptisms, and we´d like to be conscious of such a vital decision...We´re like to like...I don´t know. Renew our baptism, of sorts. Can we do that??"

WHAT. THE. HECK. 

Haha I just about died. Right then and there we set up a baptismal date for the 14th of December, and they´re are GIDDILY excited to be baptized all together as a family! :D We finally started teaching the kids, too, and they just EAT. IT. UP. We gave them a Stories of the Book of Mormon with pictures, and I´m pretty sure Felipe (11 years) is in chapter 17 haha. Lourdes (9 years) is getting there, but she just doesn´t read quite as fast. But she loves it so much, too! And then they´re all reading together and praying together as a family, out loud so that Sofía (4 years) can listen and enjoy. (:

Ah! And they all came to church as a family yesterday, too! The whole ward was different haha. All the members got excited to see this beautiful family all together, singing the hymns, and participating, and setting up a night to have a noche de hogar! :D FAH. So incredible! Annnd they also happened to see our lunch calendar for the missionaries, and whose name do we see signed up for Sunday the 1st? Viviana(: SO! We had a GREAT lunch with them haha. Hence the photos.

**Sigh** I seriously love it here in San Juan. The ward is just incredible. A little difficult to work with the members, but WOW we have seen SUCH a difference. They´re all getting so excited to share the gospel and see these families coming to church. (: One hermano brought a friend yesterday, and we´ll be teaching him on Tuesday. One hermanita came up to us, and she got so excited to tell us, "Hermanas!! I did what you told me to do! I shared the gospel with my MATH teacher, and now he wants a Book of Mormon! Can you get me one for him??" OF COURSE!! Hahaha. Every one was asking us about Viviana´s family and the people we´re teaching and Verónica´s family...**Sigh** So satisfying. I remember coming here, and...The ward enjoyed the hermanas, but more just as a couple cute girls who share spiritual thoughts with them...It´s been hard, and it´s taken some time, but they finally are seeing that...NO. We WORK. Hard. Every day. We walk around in the dead heat of the siesta. We are finding people. Families. We are here to help them change, share the gospel, and grow in the ward. (: FAH! I love it!!!

Buuut, of course...Here comes the transfers...Yesterday we got the call. Our ward mission leader asked me, "Hermana! Transfers, right?...How do you FEEL?"

Me: "Uhhh...Calm. Happy. Content. Like a job well done here in San Juan...I´ve done all I can here."

And yes, who called it?? ME! Where am I headed?!?!

The city of GUTIERREZ in the MAIPÚ zona!! Whooo! I have NO idea where or what it´s like, because I only know San Juan, but I´m stoked! My comp is a latina, so that will be an absolutely BLAST, even though I don´t know her yet. (: I´m taking the Sister Training Leader calling with me, and I´m over THREE SETS OF HERMANAS. Freak haha. I don´t even know how I´ll be able to do exchanges with all of them haha, but it´ll be BOMB. I´m really excited. (: So that last, odd picture at the end?? Haha, yeah...I headed to bed before the Zone Leaders called, and they kind of startled me. And I was wicked confused. Obviously. I had to ask what my area was and who my comp was 3 times--each haha. But it was entertaining. (:

OKAY!!...I think that´s all for now haha. I´m exhausted. I gotta go PACK and say bye to WAY too many Sanjuaninos. ):

LOVES!!

-Hermana Lybbert

Photos, Anyone??

Alright, here´s just an update of photos and explanations haha. The great stories will come SOON!

-Hermana Flores turned 20!! Whooo! Celebrating with some tasty ice cream. (:

-All of us excited for her birthday. :P

-Whoo! Way to go Hermana Cox for her genius inventions haha. We got tired of using the hose, sooo...Cut up a coke bottle, and wah-LAH! :D

-Last P.Day! We went to the zoooo!

-And we got really excited for the aquariums. Hna Cox: "Ha. Wow. This looks like my Wal-Mart back home." Haha, so true.

-I like them turtles. (:

-That guy with way too much excitement for a teeter-totter?? Yeah, that´s Elder Downs haha.

-Elephant slide!! I figured Audrey would like this a tad. (;

-Uhhh haha. This is a toy for children. Much smaller children. With smaller butts haha.

-The little-kid toy. (:

-We didn´t exactly have time to eat lunch, sooo sandwiches on the bus will do! :D Behind me on the bus is Elder Gomez (district leader) and then Elder Holmstead (the kid who was in my ward up at BYU-Idaho). Whoots!