A dog peed on me and it wasn't even Pipi

Casa sweet casa

Hermana Ellison has been pretty sick since my first day meeting her. She's always sniffling and coughing and she wakes us in the middle of the night unable to breathe because of how much mucus she has in her nose and throat. So I was expecting it when she felt so bad on Thursday that we decided to stay home so she could rest. 

When one companion is sick the other(s) are supposed to stay home with them and just send messages as their contacting method for the day. So Hermana Merlo began calling people while I typed out messages. Hermana Merlo suggested just sending out a mass text to a lot of our contacts then texting back the ones that replied, but I didn't feel like I could do that. 

I started looking through the names and past experiences with missionaries to see if anyone stuck out to me. I found a name that I felt impressed to message and began looking for a scripture I thought she might need. I found it and typed a long message touching on the feelings I had about what she needed in her life right now. 

This woman who had not replied to any texts missionaries had sent in a while sent back a long audio expressing her gratitude for our message and her confirmation of the truth of it. I messaged a couple more people that way and even though I only managed to text 5 people in an hour doing that, all of them responded! 

I felt very grateful that I was able to use my talent for writing in my missionary service, and I know the Lord has big plans for me that will continue to utilize this skill. It felt so good to write like that again and I can't wait to see what I do next with it! 

Español y Perritos 

El viernes nosotras recibimos un visitó de Hermana Antuña, la esposa del Presidente de Misión. Ella es muy simpática y muy divertida! Pero después caminó en nuestra casa ella levantó el pie y se dio cuenta de que había pisado caca de perro fuera de nuestra casa! Se podía ver el rastro que sus botas habían dejado en nuestra piso. 

Ella estaba muy avergonzada y se disculpó. Pero estaba bien porque ella trajo postres por nosotras. Los postres estaban deliciosos y es un cuento muy gracioso. Pero en Argentina revisa sus zapatos antes de entrar a una casa!

For those of us who no hablo espanol, here is a brief translation:

On Friday, we received a visit from Sister Antuna, the wife of the Mission President. She is very nice and very fun! But then she walked in our house, she lifted her foot and realized she had stepped in dog poop outside our house!You could see the trail that her boots had left on our floor.

She was very embarrassed and apologized. But it was okay because she brought desserts for us. The desserts were delicious and it is a very funny story. But in Argentina, check your shoes before entering a house!

Border Control Corruption 

I've just been informed of the complex package sending methods that exist here in Argentina. Apparently it's impossible to get packages here in Argentina because Amazon doesn't really exist here, and also Border Control are all thieves. 

So the way it works is that when a package gets sent into the country they get to check the passage to make sure it's not illegal. But really all they do is take everything in the package for themselves. Hermana Ellison has never had a package get to her because the people who check them just take the stuff and don't send the package. (This is all hearsay, don't arrest me)

So apparently the only way she's ever recieved packages is through smuggling. Essentially you can pay people going to Argentina to take a package in their luggage with them then drop it off once their here. It costs a lot more but there's a 90% chance you'll get your package that way rather than a 10% chance. 

So for Christmas, maybe just send me an email... 

Animal Attack

The dogs here are vicious y'all. We were walking around the neighborhood knocking on doors and suddenly this dog runs to us like lightning and starts trying to jump up on us. At first I'm trying not to run away from the dog cause I know that will rile it up more, but then the dog pees at me! I got out of the way fast enough that I don't even think it managed to get the corner of my dress, but after that we hustled away from the dog and Hermana Ellison kept kicking her foot in it's direction to keep it away. 

We got away and Hermana Ellison (who was still sick) was so winded that she started gagging and struggling to breathe. It's all good though because it was golden hour so we decided to take some epic pics of Hermana Ellison dying.

Also it's crazy that the dog that peed on me wasn't even our friendly neighborhood dog Pipi, whose name would imply it's something he might do. Here's a picture of my best friend, and very good boy Pipi though.

Good Boy Pipi!

Miracles, Movies, and the Gift of Tongues

Miracle

As I mentioned before Independencia Argentina is not exactly flush with people desperate to get baptized. Everyone we meet here is Catholic or very not interested, so a lot of my time here has been spent clapping at houses and having no one respond. Yet we have been using every prayer as an opportunity to ask God to let us find the person who needs the Gospel in their lives, who needs baptism right now.

Another Beautiful Day in Argentina!

As we were leaving a member's house after a lesson last Sunday we had a little girl run up to us and ask us if we were the girls giving out Tarjetas of Jesus. The days before this I had filled out a bunch of Tarjetas (cards) with the church address and our phone number and been handing them out to everyone I met on the street. They have fun different pictures of Jesus on them, and I still had a bunch on me so I gave the girl a bunch of options and she picked her favorite one. 

After she asked if we had a book, and I of course had my Book of Mormon on me so I gave her the book and Hermana Merlo grabbed a Tarjeta with the instructions to pray and put it in the story of 3 Nephi of Jesus beckoning the little children to come unto him, and bore her testimony of how Jesus loves the children of the world. The little girl was so excited and pointed out her house and told us to come back as soon as we could. 

Later while doing divisions Hermana Merlo was with another Hermana and they went to go visit the little girl. As they went outside her house she was there with her cousin and a bunch of other neighborhood kids. They were all so excited as the little girl explained that they were messengers of God and Hermana Merlo gave them all Tarjetas and they all pointing out their houses and were so eager for us to visit them and tell them more stories of Jesus. 

We're going to go visit the little girl and her parents tomorrow. Her parents told her to tell us that we could come by anytime, so I'm really optimistic that they're who we've been praying about. If nothing else I'm so grateful we were able to bring joy into those children's lives and let them know that Jesus loves them! 

This was such a miracle to me and a testimony that when you follow the spirit he can make anything possible! If I hadn't followed the prompting to invite everyone I met to church by making Tarjetas that little girl would've never known we were handing out Tarjetas and wouldn't have asked us for one. Even if your efforts seem small - do them anyways! Because God will multiply them to mean more! 

Español 

We were teaching a lesson this Sunday and I was expecting it to go like all the other lessons have, where I listen a lot and stay quiet because I can't really speak a lot of Spanish yet. However this was not the case this week as I discovered I'm actually fluent in Spanish... IF we're talking about movies. I'm very passionate about media and movies so when the conversation moved to movies I was very excited and managed to chime in a couple times.

Then someone mentioned a movie that only I had seen and I was asked to explain the plot of it. So I'm sitting there with my broken Spanish trying to explain the plot of a movie when I only learned how to use past tense like a week ago! But I did it! Everyone was understanding and laughing along with me and Hermana Merlo only helped to clarify one sentence that I had poorly translated! 

From now on the gospel is only being taught in movie references or quotes! After leaving, my companions complimented my Spanish and I can't believe how much I've already improved. A week ago I was struggling to understand every other word, and now I'm having a full on conversation where I understand everything being said and contributing equally. 

The gift of tongues is real!

Funnies

Hermana Ellison dared Hermana Merlo to eat these berries. Her mouth burned all day. What plant is this?

Discuple Señor, quiere una tarjeta?

The Horse very much enjoyed the pass along card...

Divisions when you're the companion of the STLs means ice cream in bed 🤩

Ice Cream in Bed? I say Si!

Arriving in Argentina!

Travel

The arrival in Argentina was very exciting. When we arrived in Buenos Aires after our 7 hour flight we fought our way through customs (they did not want to let us pass because we could not tell them specifically where in Argentina we would be staying) and found the large pile of missionaries waiting on the other side for us. Elders Jensen, Painter, and I were on the latest flight despite leaving the earliest (leaving the CCM at 2 am compared to their 7 am departure) because of our layover so once we got there we headed straight out. 

We left for a hotel where they gave us dinner in a brown paper bag and we stayed for literally only 2 hours before leaving again for our flight to Bahía Blanca. It was so funny. When checking in, they wouldn't tell us what time we needed to leave for the airport so they just said they'd call our rooms when it was time. After everyone finished eating or showering or were finally ready for bed they got to sleep for like 15 minutes before they got called at like 2:50 am with a guy saying "Tres! Tres! Mas rapido! Tres!" 

Because I didn't have a companion coming with me they gave me a room to myself. Everyone said it was way nicer than all the double rooms they'd been given, so that was pretty awesome. Plus, because I didn't have anyone to talk to and keep me up I slept for like 30 minutes which was nice. The gate for our flight to Bahía Blanca was right next to the gate for the missionaries going to Resistencia, so I got to see Hermana LeBaron again. That was awesome too.

We then flew to Bahía Blanca where the mission president along with all the missionaries that worked in the office picked us up. We took a bus to the mission home and we stayed there for a couple hours doing interviews. They fed us churros with dulce de leche and empanadas though which were really good. I had my interview with the mission President's wife Hermana Antuña who is totally awesome. Then they took us to our hotel for a well-earned nap. I shared that room with two other girls but it was all good.

We napped for like 3 hours before the Antuñas had us over for dinner at 7. It was amazing! She had made some kind of Italian dish that was cheesy and potato-y. She also had little potato wedges. I felt embarrassed asking for ketchup for the potatoes (side note from dad: our kids were raised in a ketchup heavy household - likely my fault), but I did learn that ketchup is bagged here which is funny. Other people also used the ketchup once it was out so I didn't mind being the one who had to ask. 

They gave us a great desert that was like ice cream covered in chocolate. Inside there was chocolate, vanilla, and dulce de leche ice cream. Then we took photos of our new group and we got to sleep for 8 straight hours back at the hotel before meeting our trainers.

Our Awesome Mission Leaders!

Trio Again

Meeting the trainers was fun! We got to the mission house around lunchtime and all the trainers slowly started arriving while people finished interviews. I did my interview and after we all ate pizza and drank soda together. They gave us more ice cream for dessert. 

After that we all went to the chapel and they had all the new missionaries sit in the front row. They showed pictures of the trainers and their areas, they introduced themselves and the area then they showed a picture of the newbie and you went up and hugged them and took a picture.

Hermana Ellison is my trainer and she's so great... but she has another companion which means I'm in a trio again. It's okay though because Hermana Merlo is also great, and we all get along really well. Hermana Merlo is a native Argentinian and she's awesome. She speaks great English because they teach British English in Argentina schools. She speaks with an accent for random words which is hilarious because she'll out of nowhere be speaking and just say a random word in a really strong old British accent. 

My New Trio

Missionary Training 

I'm in Independencia Bahía Blanca which is kinda of a richer area. We have the lowest baptism rate in Bahía because a lot of the richer people don't feel like religion is important. We have a super great ward though! 

They were doing a primary program type of thing for one of the girls in the ward because she's leaving on her mission! The kids were so funny. Most of them sat nice and sang and would speak when encouraged, but the young kids couldn't. One of the little boys ran on and off stage about three times and ran around all sacrament meeting!

It was a really nice meeting though. I couldn't understand a lot of it yet, but I still felt the Spirit and knew how strong these people's testimonies are. The ward is so nice and everyone has complimented my bad Spanish, so I feel like I'm getting better every day. 

Español

En lugar de tocar puertas, aplaudimos aquí. Debido a que todos tenían cancelas, solo tienes que pararte afuera de la cancela y aplaudir, lo que todos reconocen como golpes. Hermana Merlo se sorprendió de que realmente tocáramos puertas físicamente en Estados Unidos. Es muy divertido. 

Comida (Dad note: Comida means food or meal in Spanish... I think...)

Plane food was great! Churros and pasta which were both delicious! (see previous post for pics)

The comida here is so interesting and similar! The pizza is definitely not the same... but everything else has been amazing! Empanadas are great, especially the chicken ones! They give you a lot of bread and pasta here which is yummy. A lot of people cant really afford good water, so you end up drinking a lot of soda or hot chocolate, or flavored water. 

Delicious Chicken Dish

The Argentine Pizza

Actual Pizza!

People here really do give you the best they have and everyone is so generous and kind. Inflation here is crazy so the price of food changes every month, but they always manage to get through it and they still want to feed you as much as they can. It's a really good example to me and it has me wondering if I'm always giving as much as I can to serve others the way the Savior did. 

Funnies

Cute puppies! There are so many dogs here! Most of them are evil and want to kill you though, so it's nice that most people have gates.

Puppies!

Never be caught sleeping next to me because I will take pictures of you...