Merry Christmas!

Nancy

Nancy is a legend. She is one of the ward missionaries and she is a better missionary than I will ever be in my life. She's a 60+ woman who works all the time but still accompanies us to every lesson we ask her for. 

One day we had asked to accompany us to a lesson then after that as we were walking away together she told us that she was going to visit her daughter right now. She asked us where we were going and we told her we were going to visit a less active member. Nancy doesn't say anything to that, but then when we arrive at the less active members house instead of walking away Nancy knocks on the door and accompanies us to that lesson too!

Then after the lesson Nancy sees a random car driving by (I guess she knew the people in the car), waves it down, says goodbye to us and gets in the car. She later passes us in this car and just waves bye. I'll never know if she visited her daughter that day. But I do know that she sent us a text later that night, then responded to her OWN text with the laughing emoji. 

Guys she's so legendary. 

Sunburn

I've actually received the worst sunburn. Of my life. The pics don't do it justice. It's so much worse. On the positive side look at that fade from neck tan to sunburn. Here I was thinking I wouldn't get tan at all, just burn, but turns out I can do both. Milagros 

No studies but we found 18 people

Yeah we've had some fire days. We had 13 lessons one day, but unfortunately we were so busy that day that we accidentally skipped all of our studies. We've accidentally been skipping a lot of our study time these weeks because we've been trying to find new people so hard or coordinate lessons. But it's all good, it feels rewarding to see the signs that we're working hard, that we don't even have time to take a break because we're always working. 

Hard-working duo.

Plant

To continue the streak of receiving things from our friends I recently became a proud plant mom because our friend gifted us this succulent. I will keep you updated on whether or not it keeps living. 

Pray for this cute plant...

Christmas! 

I hope everyone has the best Christmas ever! Christmas is a very special time of year that I love!!! This will be my only Christmas in Argentina as a missionary and I feel blessed to get to give the best gift this year, the Good tidings of Great Joy! That a savior was born and he lives for you! On Christmas Eve I hit 6 months of being a missionary and I can't believe it! The time flies by so fast. 

The thing I want to share this Christmas is love. This is a time to be loving and charitable. I personally have learned how to be a more loving person this year as I have lived in the same house as other companionships of missionaries and shared wards with other missionaries. It has been a little hard to stop that internal instinct that always assumes other people are judging me, which makes me want to lash out by judging them too. 

But this year I have strived to get to know those other missionaries, tried to learn about them and I have found that it has really transformed me. I've learned that if you think you know all the facts, you probably don't. 

Anyways, Merry Christmas!  

Milagros!!! (Miracles)

 Bautismo

I WAS AT ARTEMIO'S BAPTISM!!! This story was crazy I don't even know how to explain it. So, Artemio tells us last Saturday (the 7th) that he wants to be baptized as soon as possible. Hermana Ellison leaves the 8th, so we're like, it's impossible we can't do the baptism before she leaves, but maybe we can do it before I leave. 

So we ask the Branch President and he's like, no that's impossible we have to do the baptism the next Saturday, the 14th. But on Monday we go to the Brother in charge of the Mission Work for the Branch and he's like, I'll talk to the Branch President we can do the Baptism Wednesday before you leave. 

So I'm pumped, he makes some calls, he comes back and is like, sorry we're actually doing the baptism Saturday. So I'm let down, then he says we can, then we can't. I swear like 3 times he changes his mind but we end up on we can't do it Wednesday. So I go home that Monday, very sad, but I pray that night and I tell God that I will do whatever he wants me to do, but I want to go to Artemio's Baptism. I say that as much as I want to go to the Baptism, all I want to do is align my will with God's, so I will do what he tells me to do. 

After the prayer, I receive a text, and it's the Brother in charge of the Mission Work. He texts me that they can do the baptism Wednesday if I want. I text Artemio, and ask him what day he wants to do, and then we all pray as a companionship and right after the prayer Artemio texts and says basically "We will do Wednesday so Hermana Voss can be there." 

So I tell the Mission Guy and he says, "I will do everything to make this baptism happen, let me know what you need." So Tuesday morning we coordinate everything, text everyone and prepare for the next day. 

We don't have a pila to baptize in, so the day of the baptism everyone hops in cars, we drive to the ocean, he gets baptized in a baptism the Branch will never forget because the Branch has never had a baptism in the ocean before, then we drive back to the church and celebrate...  by leaving to go take our suitcases to the bus because 30 minutes after the baptism we had to gooooo....

Milagro!

But Artemio got baptized and it was so amazing! Plus someone recorded the ordinance and then sent it to the Branch group chat which is super not allowed so that was fun too. 

OlavarUtah

So I got transferred to Olavarría and it's so much like Utah. Everyone calls this place OlavarUtah because there are 3 different wards here in Olavarría (crazy for Argentina) and all the wards have like 120 active members and they all dress up for church (also crazy for Argentina), and they're all like families with kids. Plus we have lunch with members like every day.

Me and Hermana Robbins are so shocked it's literally like being transported to America. We're really excited to work with the members and celebrate Christmas in this awesome ward! 

Bring on the Heat 

It's so hot here I'm going to die 🫠 We're getting into the 80s and 90s and there are a ton of mosquitoes here. We will see if I survive... 

Birthday Shoutout! 

Shoutout for my companion's birthdays, my dear companion Hermana Robbins 💕 and my dead mother Hermana Ellison 🪦 

I Finally Killed My Mom

Good news, my mom is dead. My mission mom at least. My last three transfers in the mission have been with Hermana Ellison, my trainer, but this transfer she decided to go home one transfer early which means I'm the one who killed her. 

It's bittersweet I guess. Bitter because she's kind of been the only companion I've had in the field (other than my trio with Hermana Merlo) so I'll definitely miss her, but sweet because she ditched a bunch of stuff behind which means I've got a whole new wardrobe 😎. 

This baby bird so ready to leave the nest though, especially now that I know that I'm getting transferred to whitewash in Olivarria with Hermana Robbins! For those that don't know, Hermana Robbins is one of the girls from the other companionship that lives in our same house here in Miramar. We've been in the mission the exact same amount of time together and were in the CCM together so we're pumped! 

Otro

Plot twist! Artemio is finally getting baptized this next Saturday, but I won't be there 🥲 I trust in the lords timing but dang it hurts to miss it by 3 days.

 

Stat check: Amount of times I have received chocolate from Artemio: 4

But all this leads me to my spiritual thought. A part from Russell M. Nelson's talk "Jesus Christ -- The Master Healer." 

"I know that an all-wise Heavenly Father’s perspective is much broader than is ours. While we know of our mortal problems and pain, He knows of our immortal progress and potential. If we pray to know His will and submit ourselves to it with patience and courage, heavenly healing can take place in His own way and time"

It takes patience and courage to accept that someone else knows more than ourselves about whats best for us. Sometimes we really really think something is the thing we need, but God knows better. I've really been working on humility this week, because I think I could do better trusting that God knows best. 

"8 ¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9) 

Killing my mom...

Spent 30 min opening this silly putty for my new comp, but worth it for her taco seasoning!

My new Companion!

Heart Matters

Heart Attacks

We decided to do Heart Attacks on the members who live on our side this week. If was very fun to go around leaving heart shaped pieces of paper with scriptures written on them on the doors of members. The members loved it and even though we tried to do it secretly they all knew it was us. 

It was nice to do something nice for the members and I just love that something so simple can make people so happy. It was a reminder to me that when we are in the service of our fellow beings we are in the service of our God. Seeing people's faces glow with the light of Christ after it really made it clear that when we serve others it encourages them and makes them more excited to serve. 

Heart Broken

Artemio broke up with us. You ever had an investigator break up with you by giving you and your companion a box of chocolates, thanking you for all you've done for him, but then telling you his path is better solo? Well I have. The box of chocolates are Brazilian and very yummy, but they don't make up for the fact that Artemio won't be getting baptized. 

Not the break up chocolates, but I needed a picture...

Sometimes after all you can do things just fall through. It hurts a lot and it's hard to put your everything into something just to see it all be for nothing. But I know it wasn't for nothing and I know Artemio will be baptized one day, even if I'm not the one who does it. In the Gospel Library there's a video called "Wrong Roads." I really recommend watching this 2 minute video because I think it really illustrates that sometimes God lets us take the wrong road so we can be sure that we're on the right one. 

I'm gonna keep praying for Artemio, and keep praying to find the people the Lord needs me to find, because I know that the Lord will guide me if I look to him. 

Heart Mended

Another thing I've learned is when some things fall through, new roads open. We were out knocking houses the other day and I felt a prompting to knock a particular house, but the guy was outside his house so I felt very awkward trying to get his attention, but finally I decided to knock anyways. We normally ask people if we can share a quick message of hope or peace with them and normally people say no,

But this guy said yes! He said yes and we shared the Restoration with him. He liked it a lot and he told us he wanted to come to church with us (which ended up being a bust because of the rain), and gave us his phone number and address so we could pass by. 

We're gonna have our first real lesson with him tomorrow in the church building and I'm so excited! When one door closes another one opens! Pray for Ezequiel this week! 

Heart Failure 

It rained so no one came to church this week. Nah cause why does this always happen. I swear it rains like every Sunday and only Sundays. Trial of faith be real up in here (and everyones failing). We still managed to find 3 new people on a Rainy Sunday here through phone calls so all was not lost! Next Sunday pray for sun! (But not too much sun because then people will go to the beach instead of church.)