Week 54 (April 14, 2014 Parque Chacabuco, Argentina)

Hey Mom and Dad!! :) Thanks so much for your emails!! Man reading about our yard and doing weeds honestly makes me want to go out and do weeds!! I think that will be one of the things that I will do first when I get home! I am going to get up early and do weeds and just enjoy the DV air and atmosphere and peace and quiet and will love it so much! Haha :) So save some weeds for me!! :) Your vacation sounds like a lot of fun!! Enjoy it lots!! NEXT WEEK ARE TRANSFERS SO I WILL WRITE ON TUESDAY :) I really hope I can stay in Chacabucu! This area is a bit more difficult than the areas I have had but I love it so much and the ward continues to amaze me! I really liked that little Ward News tidbit that you added mom! Wish I could comment on it all! Just one thing though, Ashley is getting married!?! That is so crazy? How old is she? I have forgotten a lot of things being out here on my mission ha. Congrats to Kambree and Kendyl!! :) They are such strong girls and such great examples!! I have THE BEST BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE WORLD!! Not to mention the BEST PARENTS! :)

Bueno! This week has been a bit crazy! We had a zone conference with the President and we focused on "Crecimiento Real" I think that translates into something like Real Growth. We have really been trying to focus on that as a mission because here in South America there are lots of baptisms but not a lot of retention. We know that if we have real growth, the converts will stay active members of the church and will become converted to Christ and follow Him throughout there lives and this is what we are trying to implement better here in this mission! There is a phrase that we always say "Bautizar mas y mejor" or baptize more and better! We talked about the many ways that there are to baptize better but one of the things that we talked about the most was teaching better in order to baptize better. Teaching with the Spirit is so essential and without it, we can still the doctrine but it will not help the person we are teaching and they will not be able to feel that these things are true! I am still learning everyday how to teach better and with the Spirit and I still have such a long way to go, but being a missionary has helped me so much know how I can teach people in a way that Christ would teach and for that I am so grateful!! Preach My Gospel is such an amazing tool and has helped so much to know how to teach better and with the Spirit! Hermana Lobo and I are trying to help the members in our ward become more familiar with this book because we usually always have members that accompany us in our lessons and they are so excited to help in the work of salvation and our bishop has asked us to help the members understand what missionaries do and how they can help the investigators and the people that we are teaching. And Preach My Gospel is something that we know will help them have a better understanding of missionary work! :)

We have an investigator named Maria and don´t remember if I have mentioned her yet but she is so amazing! We contacted her on the street a few weeks back and she told us something so amazing! She is from Peru and has been in Argentina for a year. She came here just to visit but ended up liking it and stayed and has been here a year and here children are still in Peru. She is separated from her husband and all her children are grown up. While she was in Peru she changed a lot of things in her life and received a lot of help from a church that she was going to. She decided that she wanted to be baptized in this church because of the changes that she had made and so she went to the preacher one day and asked him if she could be baptized before she left to Argentina. He looked at her and told her that he was happy for the decision that she had made but that she maybe needed to wait and ask the Lord more if she needed to be baptized at that time. He told her that the Lord would tell her what she needed to do and if she needed to be baptized in that church. She told us that she felt that needed to come to Argentina and think about it a bit more. Well since she has been here she has been looking for a church and has not been able to feel comfortable in any of them. She is a very religious person and is very dependent on God. When we talked to her on the street the other day she was so happy and told us this whole story. She said that she wanted to come to church to see how it was. She has not been able to attend on Sunday because of her work but we were able to have a tour with her in the church and she felt very good there and when we showed her the baptismal font and explained baptism she told us that she felt that maybe God wanted her to wait so that she could be baptized in this church! We have seen many miracles with Maria and it has been amazing to see how the Lord puts His prepared children in our paths! She accepted to be baptized but of course wants to know more and is excited to learn! Her work schedule is making it a bit hard though because she always is working and we can´t always meet with her when we want to but we are going to make it work so that she can follow Christ like she wants and needs to! I know that God is merciful and we give Him the credit and glory for all that has happened and I am so grateful to be able to experience these miracles! Maria is prepared and I love her so much and hope that everything will work out so that she can finally come to church this Sunday!

We had a HUGE ward activity on Saturday and it was a great success!!! In our ward, we have people from like 10 different countries with the missionaries and so every year they have an international gourmet where the members cook something from their country and bring it to the church and tons of people come!! Each country has a stand with decorations and the food and there were even a few dances from the different countries! I have pics but my camera is not working with the comp again! My comp is from Mexico so we made tacos and they were a hit! It was super fun and super successful! The people but the food and the money goes to  the youth for their trips and things throughout the year. Alejandra and her sister Yoselin came and they really enjoyed it! Yoselin was the first that we met from the this family when we first got to this area 6 weeks ago but she couldn´t come to church because of her work but we visited her family and as you know, Alejandra was recently baptized and confirmed on Sunday! But Yoselin has really been showing a lot more interest and has been joining us in the lessons with Alejandra when she is home and we have noticed that she has felt something different. We talked to her at the activity and asked if there was any way that she could come to church to see the confirmation of Alejandra. She said that maybe she could if her aunt worked for her and if she brought her aunts kids to church. We told her that of course that would be okay! She has been thinking this whole time that she couldn´t bring them to church and that has been the only thing stopping her! If only we would have asked sooner! Well yesterday she came to church! And after church we asked her how it went and said that she loved it! We invited her to baptized this coming Sunday ( because she already has two times at church and needs three) and she said that she would if she feels ready!!! :) The spirit has really touched her heart and we have not really done anything! She has been the one that has been reading the book of Mormon and that has been feeling the spirit and is prepared to be baptized! She told us that she feels that the book of Mormon is true and that Joseph smith is a prophet but has not prayed about it yet and told us that she needed to so that she could know from God even though she is pretty sure already! We are going to be visiting her this week lots to help her prepare and hopefully this coming week she will be baptized!! Heavenly Father has really been blessing us and I love being a part of His work and I love being a missionary!! :)

I love you all SO MUCH and am so thankful for all of you!! I know that Christ´s Atonement is real and that it changes us in so many ways. I know that by reading and studying the word of God, we can recognize the spirit more in our lives and understand Christ´s doctrine better. Christ lives and families can be together forever  through this perfect plan!! I am so grateful for my family and friends and that I can live with them forever! Hope you all have a great week and a great Easter Sunday!!

Con Amor, 

Hermana Syphus 

So mom and dad this is just for you but guess what happened this week? For some odd reason I got really sick Thursday night. I was feeling really yucky in my tummy during planning at night and went to bed feeling like I needed to throw up but couldn´t. Well during the night I was in the bathroom throwing up and had diarrhea (don´t know how to spell that) and it was all night! I think I slept about an hour is all because I was just throwing up all night and it was really bad. I still don´t know what happened or if I ate something bad but it was sure weird. I haven´t thrown up in a long time and so it was a really weird thing for me! The next day I was still pretty bad but didn´t throw up only had diarrhea. We stayed home and I rested and got better and a great family in the ward Familia Ignacio, bought the medications that the doctor told me I needed and brought us some food as well. They took great care of me! I didn´t eat all that day but I took the meds and the next day I was all better! I know that Heavenly Father answered our prayers because this week was pretty rough with finding investigators and we needed to have people at church in order to have exchanges this week with the hermanas and we needed to leave the house to work and God help me feel better and we were able to leave and work! I felt pretty bad for a bit but now I am completely better so no worries!! :) :)

Oh I wanted to write Niko but ran out of time!! I am going to print and read his email! I hope he is doing well! If you get to him tell him that I am thinking about him and praying for him and know that he is doing great things!! :) The CCM is hard but is the best place ever!!