that is how you stay humble

May 5, 2014 – Argentina

First of all, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! THANK YOU FOR GETTING MARRIED IN THE TEMPLE AND FOR KEEPING YOUR COVENANTS!!

Second of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA I CAN`T BELIEVE THAT YOU`RE 18 WHAT THE HECK I REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE KIDS PLAYING BRATZ WHAT HAPPENED? I`m super excited for you! I love you! Happy birthday!

This week M got BAPTIZED! Wooo! She literally had the most perfect conversion story. Hna Rawlins and I didn`t do anything, we were just blessed to be there!

A member introduced us to her and accompanied us to almost every lesson. She came every Sunday, from the first day that we asked her. She prayed and found out that it was true, and got baptized, just like that! She`s super happy! 🙂 Us too! Seriously the best!

Her baptism changed from the Saturday to Friday and back like, 7 times this week because she kept changing her mind. But we really saw the Lord`s hand in that. With the thing of the electricity, the light is pretty sketchy. On Friday we ended up having the baptism and it went so well. Great turn out! Super fun! On Saturday the light went out in that half of the city and so there wouldn`t have been light for the baptism! What a miracle! 🙂 I feel like I really don`t deserve the many wonderful experiences I have on the mission! Super wonderful!

Then Sunday it was raining like the second coming (a term we use often on the mission to describe weather conditions). So we went to her house, and she was like ” You still go to church when the weather is like this?”

“ALWAYS AND FOREVER :)”

So we trudged through rain and mud to get to the chapel, drenched and muddy, but happy! (Then Hna Rawlins told me AFTER church that she has an extra pair of boots for me….) haha. Boots are fun. I love splashing in them. I don`t know if it`s allowed, but I always sing “Singing in the Rain”. 🙂 I always sing it because, it ALWAYS rains. always.

But anyways, M got confirmed and is now a member of the true church! Hna Rawlins and I sang in sacrament meeting as her last hurrah.

It started raining at 8:30 (church starts at 9) and then we ran to our house after church. It kept raining like that until 5. We left at 5 because you could actually go outside and not die, then the lights in the whole city went out so we had to go back home. pucha. Since it`s been cloudy, there is absolutely no light. It reminds me of when we went to the mine with all the Goulds and turned out the lights. It`s like oppressive blackness. It`s freaky!

One night this week we went to a neighborhood to do visits. We were doing good, but then at about 8 the lights went out again. So we were stranded in the blackness, like, pucha. (that`s how you say crub in Spanish. It`s not a word, like the words Mom makes up.) Then out of nowhere comes this light bobbing and two members of the church just happened to be walking by! The Lord always sends His angels to help us!

We were doing good the last two weeks with electricity, but this week we had a few transformers burn out again. We`re going to switch back to the study at night by candles schedule.

One of the best experiences of my mission happened on Tuesday. There is one less active member who we activated and has been coming back with her children. The problem is that she is not married and her husband doesn`t even want to talk about marriage. She goes through a cycle where she activates, but then the guilt gets too much, and she deactivates again. This time she says it`s different because her children have really strong testimonies and are helping her.

We prepared to teach her the story of Esther to help her talk to her husband. She has told us that she wants to and she`s just waiting for the right moment.

She had never heard the story before, and as we related it to her, I felt such a strong impression that the Lord had included this story in the Bible, in part, specifically for her, His beloved daughter B. It was so perfect. The Spirit was so strong, testifying that God really will prepare a way for her, and that with her faith, she can go before the King.

We all cried. It was great 🙂

We all fasted together, with a few sisters from the branch. I`ll keep you posted on her!

We have this other investigator who is the best, her name is M. She`s twenty something, married (her husband hates us, awesome) and has 1 kid. She`s super sweet and super innocent. When we teach her, it`s like teaching a child. It`s so cute.

We taught her how to pray and she said her first pray. It was raining outside and when she finished her prayer, she was like “Oh no! I lied! I said thank you for this beautiful day, but it`s not a beautiful day, it`s a horrible rainy day.” haha it was so cute!

This week we had divisions with the sisters from S. I love being with the other sisters in divisions. I love listening to them. Sometimes I have no idea what I`m supposed to do to help them, but I try! There`s one sister who wants to go home, and it`s super hard for her and her companion. The mission is tough, but after you get through training, it`s so much easier! My advice to all missionaries, stick it out through training and give your mission a chance to be awesome! Like mine! Mine is great! It`s de best!

Here`s a humility story!

So yesterday, when we arrived at church, soaking wet and muddy (but with M!) 15 minutes late, they were just getting the meeting started. No one else who knows how to conduct was present, so we scurried (Hna Rawlins and I) to plug in the piano, get it working and figure out what hymn they wanted us to do. I hear 29, but it was actually 99. So I started playing 29… woops. Then right in the middle of 99, the hymn book falls from the little pedestal on our rickety electric piano right on top of the keys, crashing a few, (which by the way it`s in organ mode, so when it hit all the keys together it sounded like death) and ultimately hitting the power button. So I pick up the book from the floor, turn it back on, put the settings back (while the congregation is singing acapella) and start stamping out the tune with one hand, holding the book in the other, and simultaneously trying to get the other books from the floor to hold it in place.

And May 5, 2014 – Argentina