Week 20 (Aug. 26, 2013 Congreso, Argentina)

Dear Sweet Family and Friends,

How is everyone doing? And how is school for those of you who have started it? This week has been a true blessing because we have seen many miracles and have been able to experience many wonderful things.

First I would like to share something that I learned from the scripture in 2 Nephi 31: 20. It says:  "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a ^asteadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of ^bhope, and a ^clove of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and ^dendure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have ^eeternal life." When it says that we must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, this to me is faith. Then it says that we need to have a perfect brightness of hope and then a love of God for all men. This is charity. From this verse I leanred that in order to endure to the end and receive eternal life, we need to have faith, hope and charity. I am noticing more and more that these three things are talked about so many times in the scriptuers and it is neat to see the things that people accomplish when they have faith hope and charity. It know that I personally need to work on all three and I am thankful for the experiences that help me learn how to develop them more in my life. I have a testimony that when we want to become better people, that God will help change us through the Atonement of Jesus Christ if we are doing all we can.

Okay so here are a few experiences that happened this week that were great miracles! The first one is about our friend and investigator Julian.Hermana Herrera and I were going to visit one of our new investigators and teach her the Restoration but she was not home. We felt like we were there for a reason and so we thought for a moment what we could do or who we could see. While we were pondering and checking our planners, a young man came and started to enter the building that we were by. We introduced ourselves and asked him if he had a few minutes to hear the message of the Restoration. He said sure. He was super nice and friendly and listened very closly. When we were nearing the end of the lesson, Hna. Herrera invited him to be baptized and to our suprise (because this rarely has happened), he said yes right away without question. We then invited him to be baptized on the 15 of September and he said yes and was amazed at this because he told us that when he was younger, he knew that something special was going to happen that had to do with the number 15. He said that he has been waiting to hear that since that time when he was younger and that he has always had that number in is head. AMAZING!! The things that the Lord is allowing me to see and witness are incredible and I am so thankful for His love and mercy!! Hermana Herrera felt very stongly to ask him to be baptized on this date and when she asked him I felt the spirit in my heart confirming that date. Julian is a very special son of God and we are hoping that he really will be baptized on the 15th of September. What a special experience this was for us as missionaries. We have hard days and hard experiences but there are always experiences like this that make everything worth it. I love my mission so much. I will have to tell you about the other experience next week because I am out of time. Things are great here and all is well. I hope everyone is well and enjoying life. I know that we all can enjoy what comes our way because of the knowledge that we have about the Gospel and of our Savior Jesus Chirst. Love you all so much!

Love, 

Hermana Katelyn Syphus :) 

extra little email

Ma thanks for the great email once again! :) How was Kam´s birthday and is everyone doing good? I haven´t received anymore mail since the last one with my card. And I am not sure that is where I live haha but I live on the street called Yrigoyen. Yes this city is huge and very different than our humble sweet home of Diamond Valley. I miss DV so much but I am loving this area and the people more and more everyday. It is easy to love the people but the area is sometimes hard haha. But it is my area that the Lord has assigned me so I love it all the same. What a wonderful day you had with the rain and the thunder and everything!!! Lucky!! It has rained here once since I have bben here and is SUPER cold! It is hard to be outside and we do most of our teaching outside and so it is pretty tough. But I have learned that when I am focusing on the people and on the Spirit then it is east to forget other things like how cold I am haha. Thaks for the pics as well, I love them! Glad things are going good at home :) I forgot to tell you this and it is actually more for Joel but when I was showing my comps pictures of the family one of them (Hna. Cipriano who is 22 years old), pointed to Joel ( the family pic in front of the barn) and said wow how old is he?!!! Because she thought he was so cute and wants to meet him hahaha :) :) I told her that he is 18 soon and she was a little disappointed because he is younger than her but she said it would still be okay haha. Let me know what Joel thinks about that when you tell him haha. Love you so much mom!!!! 

email from Kate's mission president to his missionaries

Dear Elders and Sisters,


Thank you for your great work, you are an inspiration. Your obedience and dedication are
allowing great miracles to occur in the mission.

Thank you for writing your 3 weeks report on your weekly letter to me, I really appreciate
that because it helps me to look to your area´s progress and your personal progress
individually. Please keep doing it, it´s very important.

When Sister Ayre and I arrived in the mission, we had 172 missionaries. We now have 210.
We also have another 50 who are waiting for visas to come and join us in the work. Father
in Heaven is clearly hastening the work here in La Gran Mision Buenos Aires Norte.

As part of the growth, we have added three new zones. And We have also opened 15 new
proselyting areas.

I wish to call your attention to the fact that the process of finding through members is
producing great results. I just received an area report that shows how great you are doing.
Keep up the great work. I am certain that Father In Heaven will continue to lead us to
those he is preparing via our visits with Members both active and inactive. As you go to and
from the homes of our members, keep your hearts and minds prepared to be directed to
those that the Lord is preparing.
For us to be entitled to the guidance of the Spirit and to be led to those persons who the
Lord is preparing, we must do the small and simple things. We must push ourselves to be
exact in all that we do. Please note :
“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon
which all blessings are predicated, And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by
obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” (DyC 130: 20-21)

We love you very much. You are our family.
President and Sister Ayre

 ******************************

Queridos Eíderes y Hermanas,

Gracias por su gran trabajo, ustedes son una inspiración. Su obediencia y dedicación están permitiendo que 

grandes milagros ocurran en esta Mision. 

Muchas gracias por escribir cada semana el informe de las 3 semanas en sus cartas para mi, realmente 

valoro mucho eso y me ayuda a ver el progreso tanto de su área como el de ustedes individualmente. Por 

favor continúen haciéndolo, es muy importante. 

Cuando Hna. Ayre y yo llegamos aquí, teníamos 172 misioneros, ahora tenemos 210. También tenemos 

otros 50 que están esperando por sus visas para venir a trabajar con nosotros. Nuestro Padre en los Cielos 

está claramente acelerando su Obra aquí mismo en La Gran Mision Buenos Aires Norte. 

Como parte de este crecimiento hemos adherido 3 nuevas zonas. Y además también hemos abierto 15 

nuevas áreas de proselitismo. 

Me gustaría llamarles su atención hacia el hecho de que el proceso de encontrar a través de los miembros ya 

está produciendo grandes resultados. He recibido recientemente reportes desde El Área que muestra cuan 

excelente lo están haciendo. 

Sigan con su gran trabajo. Estoy seguro que Nuestro Padre en los Cielos nos seguirá dirigiendo a aquellos 

que Él está preparando mediante las visitas a miembros activos o inactivos. Mientras vallan hacia o en 

camino a los hogares de nuestros miembros, mantengan sus mentes y corazones preparados a ser dirigidos 

a aquellos que nuestro Señor está preparando. 

Para que estemos bajo el titulo de la guía del Espíritu, y para que seamos dirigidos a aquellas personas a 

quienes el Señor ya esta preparando, debemos hacer las cosas pequeñas y sencillas. Debemos obligarnos a 

nosotros mismos a ser exactos en todo lo que hacemos. Por favor tomen nota: 

“Hay una ley, irrevocablemente decretada en el cielo antes de la fundación de este mundo, sobre la cual 

todas las bendiciones se basan; y cuando recibimos una bendición de Dios es porque se obedece aquella ley 

sobre la cual se basa.” (DyC 130: 20-21) 

Les amamos muchísimo. Ustedes son nuestra familia. 

Presidente y Hermana Ayre

Week 19 (Aug. 19, 2013 Congreso, Argentina)

Dear Family and Friends,

I am loving my mission in Argentina and feel so grateful to have the opportunity to serve a mission. At times I feel like I need to take a huge break because it is difficult but then I remember that I have been blessed with so much in my life and that I not only want to give this time to the Lord but NEED to give this time to the Lord. I know that when much is given to me, much is required and I try to remember that when things get hard. And I have found a solution to when it is hard to keep going. The solution is to keep going! Becasue I have found that when I do this I am blessed with strength and am so happy! I also think about something that I read in a talk by Elder Holland I think it was; that of course a mission is going to be hard because we are trying to save souls and help them to have eternal salvation! Eternal salvation requires work and effort and is not easy. In the same talk he also says that missions are sometimes difficult and it should be that way because it was NEVER easy for the Savior of the world and he was completely perfect. So yes, I need to be challenged and tried and go through hard times in order to understand a tiny tiny part of what the Savior went through.

WE HAD ANOTHER BAPTISM THIS PAST WEEK!!!!! Rocio Gomez :) She is 14 years old and her family is LDS but they went through a time where they were not active and that was when Rocio was 8 and so she didn´t get baptized then. But we have taught her and of course she was so ready to be baptized. She was baptized on Saturday the 17th and it was a beautful service. When she came out of the water we asked her how she felt and she started crying and said that she felt so happy that she wanted to cry. I felt the spirit so srtongly when she said this and my companion and I and Rocio all cried together for a few seconds haha :) It really was wonderful though and I am so thankful to have witnessed another one of God´s children enter into the waters of baptism and start their journey to eternal life. So we witnessed an AMAZING miracle when we were trying to prepare for her baptism and I it is going to seem unreal but I promise that it happened! I have never experienced a miracle like this before! I have seen many miracles on my mission with people and them changing and things like that but never with objects haha okay I will explain because that didn´t really make sense. SO, we needed to fill the font with water and it takes like 2 hours to fill so we got to the church early to start filling it. The fonts here are not as functional as the ones in Utah and you can´t just turn a handle and water appears. It is much different. So we got the water going and after about one hour the water turned off and we couldn´t turn it back on! The font was not even half way full at that point. We prayed in our hearts and vocally and had so much to do still before the baptism and had no idea what to do about the water except pray for a miracle. I specifically prayed that when we opened the doors to the font, that the font would be filled with water and Hna. Herrera prayed for the same thing I am sure. We had no other choice at that point! Well an hour goes by and the baptism is about to start and so we check the water...AND THE FONT WAS FULL OF WATER!!!! It is wierd to explain this experience through email because of how amazing and powerful it was. It was so incredible and I just don´t even know how to describe how I felt in that moment and how grateful I was to Heavenly Father for this amazing miracle. Wow. I feel like these things only happen in the scriptures and that is why it is wierd to explain through email because it is such a sacred thing. I know that God always provides a way and that miracles DO happen. What a beautiful experience that night was for us. I will never forget it and I am in awe still at what happened.

I better go and know I haven´t included much about the week but it was a great one! I love you all so much and am so thankful for your love and continual support!

Love, 

Hermana Syphus :)

 Me, Rocio Gomez and my comp. Hermana Herrera

 Rocio at her baptism

Hermana Herrera and me

**************************************

Dear Mom :) some little things to say as usual before I start my other email:

Please tell Kambree HAPPY BIRTHDAY for me and that I love her so much and think pray about her often. I stinkin´miss that girl and our laughing moments with each other haha :) I hope she has a great day!

I will email Dad for his birthday next week! But here is message for him: Dad I really want you to come here so you can try this meat!! Holy cow you and Shaun would be in heaven haha! Honestly it is so good and I really want to send you some but of course that would not work haha. Also, yesterday in church we talked about families and the bishop who was teaching the lesson said that parents need to love their children as much as they can now because some day those kids will grow into teenagers and will not want to give their parents hugs and kisses and such. And let me tell you dad, I was completely opposed to this and just thought in my head that I would be the happiest girl ever if I could just have a hug from you in that moment!!! I will always want to give hugs to my dad and receive them from you as well. I don´t know why but I really just miss your hugs and I love you so much. I am so blessed to have you for a father.

Tell Kari and Rob that I am so happy they enjoyed their trip and that they are so lucky! And that I love them dearly.

Tell the Bennetts that if I was not on my mission, I would definitely be babysitting their kids haha :) And as much I would love to babysit them, it would be very hard to leave this place and my mission because I am loving it so much haha :) I love that family so much and am praying for them and their sweet boys in Haiti. Thaks for the update on them and keep them comming :)

Your new calling!!! Oh my goodness you will be so great at that mom and I am so happy that you are loving it! You are a power house and so is dad and oh my goondess I am so blessed.

I can´t believe the summer is already over for the kids! WOW that went by fast! Joel Kambree and Kendyl have a special place in my heart and I love them so much and hope they are all doing well. It is so sad to see people like you said with the standards they have. I am so thankful to be a missionary and help people realize that they are children of God and that He wants the best for them and they don´t need to show off their bodies and things like that in order to get attention. I am thankful to have siblings that are such great examples and that have high standards like they do. It is crazy here and I am seeing things that I never thought I would see. It is difficult but I am learning so much and know that all will be well.

That is so neat about the new temple movie! I am excited to see it :) Oh what a special holy place the temple is. I want to go so badly and havent since the MTC and it had been hard. It is a blessing to be in the house of the Lord and feel the special spirit there that cannot be felt anywhere else! And that is so great about the names you found! MOm you are so incredible and I don´t know why you are not translated yet but I am sure glad you are still here to raise me haha.

Thanks for the news about sweet Devon. He emailed me and I haven´t had the chance to email him back but really want to. I am glad he is well and that he has grown so much. I wish I could have heard his talk. It is amazing how the Lord can change people in such a short amount of time. I hope that when I get home you will be able to see a change in me because I know there are lots of things that I need to change. I often worry that I am going to be the same person and that people will wonder why I didn´t grow on my mission! And I know that if i think that then I will come true and so I am trying not to think that but I will tell you what my mind is driving me nuts and it is hard for me! I need to have more faith!

Were Shaun and Erik ever APs? Do Shaun and Erik have girlfriends? Thaks so much for the pics of Kortnie!!! Oh ya and a bird pooped on me the other day and it was hilarious. Okay not really it was actually discusting but once again very funny now that I look back at it haha.

Oh how I wish I could tell you everything that is happening and all the little things and experiences that are talking place. I am doing great and loving this time in my life! Love you so much mom and thanks for everything!!!

Love, Hermana Kate :) 

**********************

Week 18 (Aug. 13, 2013 Congreso, Argentina)

Mom! :) I just received the letter from you today and my debit card was there safe and sound with everything else. Thank you so much for everything. Wow Marquel is getting married! That´s so great and I am so excited for her! She will be a great wife and mother. And Micah!! Oh my goodness that just makes me so happy. I love seeing faces of people I know. Tell Kambree thanks so much for her letter and that I love all of those three pigs so much and pray for them each day.
We do not have much time today because of the craziness of transfers so this might be short. But here is the transfer news: I am staying here in CONGRESO! In the city once again! It is hard to be in the city but I have really been able to gain a testimony that whatever happens is going to be for the best because I am on my mission and am on the Lord´s time and he going to give me things and experiences that will help me grow! I know that this is true and I am very excited for this transfer! I am actually with Hermana Herrera again! She is my senior comp and was just one of my comps before with the other two haha :) I can´t believe how much I have learned in the short time I have been here in Argentina. Hermana Vivas is incredible and I am going to miss her but she is the new sister training leader, similar to an assistant but an hermana, and so we will get to go on exchanges with her! Oh and by the way, this letter is going to be completely random because I am just writing what comes to my head. I actually had a really nice outline of what I was going to say but our time got cut in half due to transfers so now I am just writing what´s in my head ha. So Pres. Ayre has told us that he wants to have many more Hermanas in this mission and that there are not many currently because it is not the safest mission (ps don´t worry mom, I am in a very safe place). But he said that he feels like there needs to be more and so I next transfer the number of sisters is going to double or something like that! :) Isn´t that so great! Wow this work is so powerful and I am so blessed to be a part of it. Pres. told me and the other new missionaries that we need to learn fast because we might be training in the near future due to all the new missionaries. So that freaked me out a little bit ha. But we will see. All I know is that if I were to be a trainer right now my poor companion might just want to go home after her first day with me haha. So I am trying so hard to allow the Lord to strengthen me and prepare me for what lies ahead whatever it may be!
But thank you once again for your comforting words mom. I really don´t think I could live without you and dad. My goodness you are making me tear up just thinking about you. I better be a better daughter and person for that matter when I return home because holy smokes you and dad deserve it and of course my Heavenly Father does too. You know what made me so happy the other day? I was showing my companions pictures of my family and they looked at you and then at me a few times and said that I have the face of my mother!! I started crying because that was honestly one of the greatest compliments I have ever received. And NO I AM NOT LYING! Because you know what mom? You have once of the most angelic faces that I have ever seen. Every time I see a picture of you I think about an angel because the light that you have and the love that you have is so radiant and you are just an angel in my eyes. So I was so happy to receive that compliment from them. 

I am excited to tell you about a miracle that we had next week! We are absolutely out of time now but I love you so much and I love dad so much and I the family and friends and hope all is well at home. I am happy and doing great and am learning so much each day from the Lord and His work. Thanks for everything!!

Love, 

Hermana Syphus :) 

Week 17 (Aug. 5, 2013 Congreso, Argentina)

Dear Mom,

 

When I get to the computer and start thinking about how far away from home I am I get a little homesick. Just goes to show what an amazing family I have and that I love you all so much! I have lots to say and I honestly just wish there was more time. I have been on the computer for half my time already and just finished reading all the emails I received! I am not saying that I don´t love the emails though, because I do :) I just wish there was more time. But this really is the Lord´s time and so I shouldn´t be complaining. I haven´t written anyone back yet either...and probably won´t be able to :( I told my companions that we get an hour in a half to email and they are telling me that I only need an hour and that the mission rule is only an hour! The assistants to the President told me directly that we have 1-2 hours of email but they don´t think that is right! And I can´t explain to them anything because I don´t know spanish! It is super frustrating. They are so wonderful and I love them all so much but it is hard to communicate. They don´t understand how bog my family is and that I am not from around here and so I have tons of things to talk about. I want to send pictures, I want to talk about experiences and how things are here and so much more, but they just don´t understand that. But anyway, I will try to inform you about some things here in the great land of Argentina ha :) Oh and real fast about last weeks talk of my pictures, I am so sorry I haven´t sent any for a long time :( I really want to so that you can see what I am doing and can see that my face is getting larger haha and things like that but I never have time! The last pictures you saw of me were pretty good and I am scared to send the latest ones because I don´t look as good anymore from some reason ha. Oh well. I know you still love me :)

 

So some fun things that have happened here:

 

I have had two foods here that I have never had before: boiled eggs and mushrooms haha and they were not that bad.

Can´t remember if I mentioned this last week but we only each lunch pretty much and it is with a member everyday. No time for dinner but it´s okay because the lunches are huge! The food is pretty good so far. The mayo here tastes nasty and they really do serve pop every time! I miss your food still but I am very happy to have food to eat. I know that some missionaries struggle with that and it breaks my heart. Like Justin cummings! Oh my goodness that is crazy poor thing. I feel so blessed to be where I am. At times I will think about how hard it is and how different it is and that I have much less here than in the US, but then I think about other missionaries and other people in general and how much more difficult they have it. I feel very blessed.

So here is a funny story about something I said in spanish the other day: we were at a members house having cake because it was her 70 something birthday. Well as we were leaving I went to give her a kiss on the cheek (you do that with everyone here by the way) and I told her "Feliz Navidad" instead of feliz cumpleaños! Oh goodness it was embarassing and I felt my face go red so fast when I realized what I did. I hurry told her sorry and then left really fast. I heard all the people laugh really hard when I shut the door hahaha. Very funny now that´s it is over but I was pretty embarassed haha.

So our apartment: It is quite small. Very small actually. Where I am people don´t live in houses. They live in apartment buildings and their homes (or rooms) are very small. Same to our. We have one bathroom and it functions pretty well but not perfectly. Since there are four of us it is difficult to get ready each morning but like always, the Lord provides a way. Our apartment is probably as big as our family room and maybe a bit bigger. Not sure. I am a germ freak or whatever that is called and my companions have not grown up in the same environment as me and so their idea of clean is much different. They like to keep things tidy and all that, but when they wash the dishes they do it with cold water and practically no soap. Just things like that that freak me out haha. Two of my comps have been very sick the past week and so we have had to stay home some days. The Lord really is blessing me mom. I haven´t been sick my entire mission. I can´t believe His tender mercy and I often think I don´t deserve them. I just need to be making sure that I am giving my all to Him because he is continually blessing me and helping me.

We wash our garments by hand and is takes a while but it is the way we have to do it.

I didn´t want to tell you this but I maybe I will just to let you know that there are so many people here helping me and that God is helping me. I had a little breakdown the other day. Just started crying out of the blue. My trainer called the sister training leader who speaks english and I didn´t know she was doing it. But I ended up talking with her for over 30 minutes and she helped me so much. I was just really struggling with not knowing the language and not understanding people. I thought it was pretty good when I got here but after a few days I realized I am completely lost when it comes to the language. I also told her that it has never been in my head to go home because I know that I am supposed to be here. I want to return home a better person from when I left. I told her that and asked her if she feels like she feels like she is ready to go home because she leaves this week. She told me that she was the same way. She wanted to be a better person before she returned home and she said that she never actually felt like she was that person until that morning that we were talking. Then she told me something that I loved so much. She said that God gives us this amount of time for a reason and we will change how he wants us to change in that time if it is His will and if we are wanting it. That really helped me. I just want to serve Him and give this 18 months to him so badly. I want to become a better person but I don´t want to forcus on that because then I am focusing on myself. I need to focus on these people and this area and on the Lord and His work and I hope I can do that each day of my mission. I am doing great though Mom, promise :) It is hard, especially the transition and the differences, but I am just as happy as ever and it is great. I feel so blessed to have the things that I have in America. It has been an adaption for sure but it has been an adaption with the help of the Lord. I am learning so much and I hope it all sticks and doesn´t leave once I return home and have the pleasures of life that I had in America. I like living like this. It is hard but it is teaching me humility and love. And if I need to go through hard things in order to become a better person, then I want to.

 

So your questions: Yes to the temple but I don´t know when. No mail yet. Transfers on Tuesday so writing on Tuesday. And the quote is from the talk in the Nov. 2012 Ensign from Ballard called Be Anxiously Engaged. It is on page 30 and starts "the doctrine and gospel of Christ is the only.." and ends after the bullet points.

 

Once again my comps are waiting for me and I yes I wanted to say lots more and send pictures. I don´t know how to do this! I am sorry that these last two email have been nothing but information about things that might not be too important. I want my emails to be useful to people and help build people up by telling experiences and such and these last two have been nothing like that. I hope next week will be more calm and now that I have talked about some of the little things I hope I can give more valuable information that will help and uplift. I love you so much mom and I love my family! I am doing great and I am seeing miracles and the hand of God in my life and in this mission. I know that we have been given families to help us prepare for eternal life just like Preach My Gospel says. My family is helping me do that because they are all so amazing! Give everyone my love! I wanted to respind to your email and all the things that are happening. I have things to tell people! I will try next week. I know I say that every week but I hope it will happen. Anyway, love you so much and hope you have a great week with the family!

 

Love,

Hermana Katelyn Syphus :)