Under the Weather

By: Guest blogger Hermano Voss

Hi all, this week's update will be a bit shorter as our favorite missionary was a bit down and out this week with what appears to be a stomach bug... Yuck.

Highlights

Well, our missionary had some physical adversity to deal with this week, but she was a champ and mostly worked through the discomfort. It involved some strategic bathroom planning, but she was able to persevere.

Delicious burrito or sick missionary? You decide. 

"Get well" muffins to help Hermana V feel better.

Feliz Dia de la Madre!

Turns out that Oct 20th was Mother's Day in Argentina, so Maren got a surprise Mother's Day call! It was a super fun surprise to get in an extra visit with her and Audrey even followed it up with a lovely email that still leaves Maren misty eyed at random times...

Guns a Blazing

The district activity this week was paintball. Audrey had not played before, but she only ended up with a few welts to remember the activity by. She says it was hard to hit her because she is small and shifty...

 

Never Been Gladder to be German

Tramites

I'm legal!!!! Or at least I will be soon. I went to Bahía to get some legal paperwork done that will allow me to stay in the country. Which meant I got to see Hermana Merlo (one of my old companions) again! It was great to see her and it was so fun to kind of strike it out on my own. 

I went to do the tramites (legal paperwork process) with one of the Hermanas that came at the same time as me Hermana Robbins, and we had a good time using the limited Spanish we know to try and make our way to a city thats an 8 hour bus drive away from us. 

It make me feel a little more confident in my abilities. I didn't understand everything, but I made my way. 

Paintball

Played paintball for the first time as a Zone pday activity. It was awesome! I got some wicked bruises and the mask they gave to protect my eyes kept falling down my face, but I loved getting to play! Plus my team won all 5 rounds so I guess I didn't do too bad my first try.

Whiteboard

We're actually having a lot of success with this one activity. Last week I called it the Que Te Hace Feliz (What Makes You Happy?) board, but really it's just a board that you write a question on and then ask strangers to answer. We have gotten a lot of people's contact information, handed out a lot of Book of Mormons, pamphlets, cards, and gotten out a lot of good press.

We even had a woman who said she wanted to get baptized! Please pray for Paula, because we are gonna do everything we can to help her achieve her goal! 

Our Very Successful Whiteboard Campaign! 

Un bezo de una Inglesa  (A Kiss From an English Woman)

You may be wondering about the title. Well we've gotten there. A Bezo is a kiss, and here in Argentina usually the culture is that you bezo everyone you meet, which just constitutes touching your cheeks together, sometimes people will actually kiss your cheek, but usually you just press them together and give the person a hug or a half hug. Everyone does it to everyone, men or women as I think I've explained in a past post. 

That's been a cultural adjustment, but that's beside the point. One day as me and my companion were walking, a man came up to us and asked if we were from the church. We were, so we told him as much, and then he started asking if we had money. Lots of people ask us for money since we're from the church, but all we ever have on us is like 3 mil for an emergency so unless he wants to buy like a gatorade our money wouldn't be very helpful. 

So we tell him that we can give him Book of Mormons or pamphlets, but we're really not gonna be helpful in the pursuit of worldly goods. So then he starts begging and he's like, how about a bezo, un bezo, and he starts like gesturing putting his fingers to his lips and moving them towards my companion Hermana Ellisons lips. 

Then he says, "Siempre, siempre quiero un bezo de una inglesa" Saying he's always wanted a kiss from an English woman. Then like 2 seconds later as I'm still contemplating how I can use anything on me to beat this man away from Hermana Ellison if he tries to move in for the kiss he slaps her arm and goes like, "Un chiste" (meaning "a joke" in Spanish) and walks away. 

Moral of the story, sometimes public harassment is just a joke as long as you say "un chiste" after it. 

A Week of Conferences

Zone Conferencia 

Zone Conference was wonderful! It was fun to meet up as a big zone and get to discuss the ways we can improve and the ways we're already excelling! One thing I got from the Conference is that I should be stretching myself even more than I already am. I'm not just going on a mission to prepare other people to come to know Christ, I'm preparing myself for that day when he comes again. 

If I'm not a different person at the end of my mission, I failed, I didn't do the work right. Luckily, I can already see the person I'm becoming. At the beginning of my mission (and still right now) I had a really difficult time talking to strangers. As an introvert and a not outgoing person talking to people has always been difficult, but after Zone Conference I knew that I could stretch myself more. 

So that next day I did! That next day I stopped 23 strangers in the streets and successfully managed to invite 13 of them to watch Conference! I'm proud of how much I've changed and the work I've done to get here, and I can't wait to get so much better so next General Conference I invite 50 strangers to watch! 

General Conference 

Speaking of General Conference, it was so good! Also, does anyone else feel like the second coming is happening in like 5 days? Just kidding, but there was a lot of talk about preparing yourself, and being better, and always seeking Christlike attributes. 

The truth of the matter is, there's no such thing as middle ground. If you're not trying to better yourself you're not remaining neutral, you're sliding back down. I know that's true, and I know now is the time to prepare. You can do better, you can be better, and you can try every day. That's the thing about Christ, you don't have to get it all perfect right now. He gives you a hundred chances and when you mess those ones up he gives you a hundred more. 

All you have to do is keep taking chances, making mistakes, and get messy! (Magic School Bus reference) 

Highlights 

We did a Que Te Hace Feliz board and I stopped so many strangers! 

I sent 157 Conference invitations by myself 😎

Funnies

Gah! So at Zone Conference we have interviews with our President of our Mission, and I always cry during mine because Pte Antuña is the sweetest man and he just cares so much I always end up a little teary eyed. So I leave our interview wiping tears off my face and one of the Presidents Assistants notices. So later when we're just standing around he comes up to me and he's like, "How are you?" And I'm just like, "Bien!" And then he like pauses and nods a bit then he goes, "How's your family?" I almost died laughing. The poor guy thought I was in severe distress, but I was actually just crying over how nice my Mission President is. 

Have you guys seen this photo of me finding Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies on the beach?

Adding to my movie collection...

In Mar Del Plata they chained up the soap dispenser (and the paper towel dispenser, toilet paper, and sinks) so no one would steal it

Do NOT steal the soap dispenser...

This audio clip, we have been quoting it for weeks please watch this

Un abrazo! 

Dog with a Blog

Pasen chicas! 

Have I mentioned the difference in the people here in Miramar compared to the people in Independencia. It's huge. The people here in Miramar are so much more friendly. In Independencia I had in total 4 lessons with people that weren't members, here it's been about a week and I've already had 9. 

Plus when we knock on doors instead of shooing us away as fast as possible, people welcome us in with open arms, they always say, "pasen chicas!" And then we have to think of the gospel principle this person needs right now in their life. It's actually been really awesome! Even though the people here can talk for hours without pausing for breath, so we do have lessons that last like an hour, but it's so cool having people listen.

3 Months!

Limpieza de la Playa

We had an awesome service activity on Saturday! We went to the beach and picked up trash. The beach was so dirty! There were so many bottles and styrofoam and broken glass. We spent like 3 hours cleaning and I feel like we barely made a dent. 

It was super awesome though because we had a random guy come up to us and ask what we were doing. Once I explained he started helping. He was so excited to help and he had his wife take a picture of him with us. My Spanish was still so bad, but it was so awesome to get to talk to him. He's catholic, but he loves how our church organized this activity to clean the beach, and he lives super close to where our temple is being built in Bahía! 

It just goes to show that when you do your best to serve others and the world around you people will notice! 

MALDITO PERRO

We got attacked by some evil dogs, watch this series of unfortunate events. The pigs were nice, then the goats were fun, then the animal attacks were less fun... 

Editors note: the video recounting the animal attack was too large to upload. Suffice it to say that they were attacked and chased by a pack of dogs and then by a pack of birds in quick succession... Thankfully, no injuries were reported.

Conferencia

General Conference is coming up, and this is your reminder to prepare now! General Conference is not just the preachings of men or leaders, its revelation straight from God. 

Prepare yourself by preparing questions and asking them during a little personal study time this week. Search on your own, then prepare yourself so you're ready to hear the answers. Conference is what you make of it, so prepare yourself now so you can feel the divine blessings listening to the words of prophets, seers and revelators.

Funnies! 

John the Youth Pastor was a random guy who came up and spoke english to us. It was crazy, I felt like my brain was exploding. Like he was speaking to us in English but I could only respond in spanish. I forgot the word bye when we were trying to end the conversation. 

Carpeta is the scheduling tool we use, and it comes with a map for us to find all our friends and plan our days. We have been looking at the Carpeta of our area and its a mess! Seriously, the points have a different address than is written down than where they are placed on the map, and sometimes theres a random box with another different address so one person has like 3 addresses. We have such a hard time planning in the morning because none of the points are where they're supposed to be.