What?!

What is this?? How is it that I am in ARGENTINA, and I can´t drink mate...Yet the elders in Quincy, WA are drinking mate at MY house?! Bah. Whatever...

Hey, Mom, Dad...Where´d ya get the mate cup?! :D

"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!

Following the Spirit--Family and Mission!

FIRST OFF: My family is REALLY bomb. I come in to check all my wonderful email, to find a few from my parents/family and such. I get stoked, but I was slightly confused as to the subject of the email: "Furniture Arrival"

Me: Huh. Odd...What is th--WHAT?! **Bring on the little tears**

My dad starts out talking about a couple new elders moving in, all the cool new furniture they´re getting, and then something about "they´re gonna be downstairs in the rose room" (baha poor elders--hope they enjoy pink walls! (;  )...I stop. Wait, what?? I obviously did NOT understand that when it says, "Planned on getting a bunch of stuff for the elders that are moving in Wednesday"...That actually means moving IN--the MY house! :D WHAAAT?! So stoked! Seriously, living with a member is the best, and the connection with those members is just so...Full of gratitude and love. I seriously am SO stoked to know there are two great elders close to my family at home (AKA: just the parents, but that´s still SO bomb! :D ) I have no doubt that this time will be absolutely great for those elders AND my parents. :D

WHOOTS!! Missionary Blessings. (:

OKAY! Sooo this week has been nuts. As always, in the life of a missionary, but YES. It´s great. Hermana Cox and I are tearing it UP here in San Juan Centro. We got a little scare last week when our district leader told us, "Sooo I know it´s the middle of the transfer, but the district is changing a little bit..." I kind of wanted to cry. But turns out, we´ve got MORE hermanas now! The mission suddenly received a bajillion people from the states on super short notice, and they suddenly just split a bajillion areas! :D Except our´s. Go figures. It´s cool, we´re down with walking 10(or more) miles a day.

Okay! So for who we´re teaching. (: We have FOUR FAMILIESSS. Whaaat? So solid. The familia Poblete is probably one of our favorites haha. We walk out of every lesson on CLOUDS. The last time we went, the younger daughter (13 años) wasn´t there. Bum. So we didn´t teach MUCH of the Plan of Salvation. But what we DID do, was SING...Seriously, so much power in hymns. We sang "Eternas pueden ser las familias"--Families Can Be Together Forever. We finished, and Gustavo (the husband) just was quite, looked over the words a little bit more, and asked us in this solemn, humble, and HOPEFUL voice: "Las familias realmente pueden ser eternas?"...

(Insert bomb testimonies of Hnas. Lybbert and Cox about eternal families) (:

I love that family so much. Not to mention that the 13-year old who wasn´t there is always asking when we´re gonna come back by, and when they´re gonna read in the Libro de Mormón as a family. (: Shes´great. They all are. GAH! :D

Okay, one other experience. Aboutttt **DRUM ROLL**

Following The Spirit!

SO, we were walking to an appointment when we passed a man. We said the usual: Hola, Buen Día, ¿Cómo anda? ¿Qúe tal? Annnd we went on to our appointment--whichhhh of course, falls through. So we start heading back to the pent for one of our studies that we didn´t get to have (thank you district meetings), annnd we pass him again. "Hola, buen día, ¿Cómo anda?" Then what do I do?

Keep walkin´.

Yup. I´m a great missionary. Haha. Buuu I keep glancing back, and I KNOW I´ve got to go talk with this guy. I mention something to Hna. Cox, and we stop. We don´t even see him anymore. He walked up one road, and us the other. I know we can´t even see him, but I´m just like, "Dangit Hermana, we gotta go get him. RUNNN." Haha of course we don´t, but we know how to walk pretty fast. Sooo we do. We turn the corner, and he´s THERE. Talking with a friend, who tells us he´s not into religion much. So of course, this guy that we initially wanted to talk with is kinda quiet...Finally after a little discussion, the guy is about to take off, and we have GOT to stop him. So his friend leaves, and I finally jump in and ask Jorge (the guy I wanted to talk with) if we could come back and visit him. He then turns to us, explains how he goes to church Evangelico every week, and has been praying continually...To find something more. "Son respuestas a mis oraciones...Pueden pasar mañana por la tarde, y tambien mí mama estará."

WHAT?! Freaking miracle. But, of course, he´s not in our area haha. Sooo the elders of Rawson have two BOMB new investigators. (:

Anywho, that´s all for now! Enjoy the pictures, even though they´re few haha. The cake was a mixed celebration of Elder Wright´s birthday (district leader, holding the cake), Elder Guierrez´s birthday, annnd the 6-month mark for Hna. Cox and I.

The two pictures of the mess of papers?? Welll let´s just say nobody knows how to keep an area book organized. We have less-active members in the progressing investigators section...Yup. ORGANIZATION. :D

Annnd one last thing for any other missionaries! A bomb quote from the book, Our Search for Happiness:

"Adversity becomes adventure in the service of the Lord." (:

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Two More Pictures!

Baha, just because I´mma steal them from Hna Cox. (:

First: From the conference, with some of the Peruvian and Chilean elders, and some more hermanas!

Second: A random picture that Hermana Cox snapped last week, in the freezing cold. So bad. Thought it was gonna snow.

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The More the Blisters, the Greater the Blessings!

Yeahhh. Blisters. They´re killers, but they are SO worth it, considering the people we keep finding. This week has just been...Ha, I dno. A little nuts, and kind of hard, but still SO good. A grand part of that being my companion, Hermana Cox. Even though we´re both SO new and sometimes a little lost ( :P ), we both have so much fire and faith here in San Juan. She first got here, and she asked about the area...I was straight up with her. "Well...I LOVE it. I love the members, people, and investigators...But it is NOT easy. We´re gonna have to work hard. To find, to teach, to baptize. But more than anything? I KNOW there are so many people here, waiting for us. I feel it. We´ve just gotta get out there..."

She was and is up for this challenge. (:

And BOY, was I right. There are SO many people here waiting for us. Just one little example: This Morning!! We decided to go grocery shopping and emailing a little later, so that we could finish cleaning a bit. We started walking here to the cyber, and this guy passes on his bike and says hola. We respond and keep walking, and he kind of glances back. I get a little nervous, because there´s some sketch people and the guys are kinda shameless--cat calling and whistling consistently. But he stopped. We walk up to him and he asks us, "Ustedes son de la iglesia de los mormones, no??" (You all are from the Mormon church??) Uhhh yes, we are. And he gets SO stoked. Why?: The elders were teaching him 20 years ago; he happened to move about the time of transfers, and the missionaries lost him...He asked if we still have meetings, what times, where, and if we could stop by--"Oh, and could you bring a Book of Mormon, too??" GAH!! Don´t need to tell me twice, I gave him the one I had with me right then and there! :D He asked us to put our names in it, and he flipped through the book, like it was a long lost friend. You could tell he was familiar with those pages, and that he had missed having them. His name is Rafael, and he is genius. He already must know everything, because he started talking about José Smith, Brigham Young, and Thomas S. Monson. And then about the Plan of Salvation haha. It was nuts. He´s not in our area, and we told him that the elders would come by, but he told us, "Y´know what? I´m gonna see you two girls again. Maybe not even in this life. Maybe in heavens. But I am forever grateful to you both."

Fah. I kind of wanted to cry. I´m so stoked to pass on this referral to the elders of Rawson! (:

Other than that...Awesome updates! The lady who has the dog who bit me?? Well, she really just wants this all for her family SO much. Which is great, because we´ve been hoping to start teaching all of them soon...Well, we showed up this last week, and Verónica sits down with us. Her daughter then comes and sits down. Verónica calls her other daughter in...We were a little surprised, but SUPER stoked. We start teaching just a tad, when her husband gets home from work, walks in, and sits down! WHOA. Really surprised. A little overwhelmed and a tad nervous about the husband, BUT...I remembered...That it was HIM that the elders taught 15 years ago. It was HIM who went to church various times. It was HIM to still had his Book of Mormon from long ago...We had a rocky, on-the-spot lesson, FULL of the Spirit. (: And now they are all progresing towards being baptized as a family. They are IN-CRED-I-BLE!!! Gustavo is her husband, and he really amazes me. He expressed such love and appreciation for those elders, years ago, and he expressed the same for us somehow finding them. Verónica knows it wasn´t coincidence. He gives thanks that we arrived just in time. And their daughters just feel something different...This family is glorious. (: All because their stinkin´ dog BIT ME! (;

-Alrighty. Pictures. Not many, but at least y´all can now see who my comp is haha. HERMANNNA COX! But before that, we had a GREAT "capacitación" on Thursday, with a member of the 70. Elder Nuñez. Gah, it was so great. So we all got a great picture. Have fun playing "Where´s Waldo?" (;

-Annnd we had a long bus ride with all the elders. They were OUT haha.

-Forgive us of our tired-looking, ridiculous selves. It was a long, rough day yesterday--not to mention that all we had for lunch was rice annnd a bowl a fruit haha.

-My comp really likes her apples...Haha it´s ridiculous how easily we could be sisters. :P

-Our sad lunch...Needless to say, we didn´t have much for dinner haha.

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