Week 63 (June 16, 2014 Parque Chacabuco, Argentina)

Dear Mom,

Your week with the family sounds SO AMAZING!! :) Thanks for sharing your experiences and sweet moments with me! Even though I am not there with you all doing those things, I am there in spirit and I feel so blessed to be able hear about all the good things that are happening in our family and to see how much the Lord really is blessing us. I know that God is pouring His grace upon us and our family and I am so thankful to be a part of this family! I am so happy for Joel and for Kimbers! :) That makes me smile so big knowing that they will soon be out with me and Niko and will be seeing miracles and enjoying the blessings that their missions will bring :)

This week in Buenos Aires has been another great week! :) And man let me tell you, it has been crazy with all the World Cup business going on!! Futbol here, as you know, is super big and yesterday was the first game that Argentina played and it was so bare at night! NO ONE was in the street!! We received many messages from our zone leaders telling us that we didn´t have permission to watch the game unless president told us otherwise haha. We also had to be in the house at 8:30 last night. Every house we went to, of course the game was on haha. I am not going to lie, it was hard not to scan my eyes over the tv haha, but we asked the people to turn it off while we were there and so it wasn´t a problem in the end. I felt like a sinner wanting to see a little bit of it though :/ haha. BUT THEY WON!! :) Messi is from Argentina and is huge here. He is well known in the US as well so Im sure you have heard of him. Anyway, that was a bit of random news but it is fun to see how excited these Argentinos get with their futbol business :) :) I like it.

Yesterday was just a crazy day in general. We had ward conference and I started at 2 in the afternoon and before that at 12:30 there were three baptisms in the ward (not from us, just the elders :) ). Right before the baptism started, there was a car accident on the corner of the street where the church is. We heard a huge crash and went outside to see what had happened. There was a car in the middle of the street upside down and the other car went off. A lady passed us and told us to call 911. I had the phone in my hand and so I called 911 for the first time in Spanish!! It was a neat experience :) The cops and ambulance came and thank goodness, everyone was fine and taken care of!

It just keeps getting better and better with the Rocha Familia :) Alejandra is going to be having her baby anytime now and is super tired lately but has every reason to be haha :) She is doing great though! Roberto takes every opportunity he can to come out with us in our lessons and for lack of a better word, is just a stud. He is so special and is progressing so much. On Sunday, he came to church with a suit coat that he bought in the villa for 50 pesos and he looked really nice. He was called to be the second counselor in the Priest Quorum!!! :) He is on fire with missionary work and shares is testimony whenever he can. I am so thankful for this family and for the things that the Lord is helping them with so that they can become faithful members of His church!

Hermana Matamoros and I didnt have a choice this past week, we had to find new investigators. We were able to see many miracles and blessings and I know that the Lord has been with us and that He is preparing His people to receive Him and His Gospel. One day this week it was raining and usually when it rains it is hard to find people for some reason. But we left the house saying that we were not going to return home that night until we found at least one escogido (elect, someone that is prepared). We left that day with Roberto and Marco who just received the Holy Ghost on Sunday. On the way to each lesson, we talked with at least one person in the street and gave them a pamphlet on the Family Proclamation. At the end of the day, we had three people with baptismal dates and two escogidos! One of them was almost an escogido but needed permission from his parents because he is 15. It was so amazing to see the Lord´s hand that day. I know that through out diligence and desire to find and to baptize and build God´s kingdom, the miracles will come and God will be there to help us. It really is the Spirit and the Lord that bring the miracles! One of the escogidos we found this week is names Eduving. He is great and came to church for the first time on Sunday. He thinks he liked it and hopefully we will be able to answer his questions and help him feel the Spirit. This week we have to continue looking and searching diligently in order to keep finding!

And as I said before, Marco and Kevin received the Holy Ghost on Sunday! They are both so great and will soon be receiving the Priesthood as well!

This week I have thinking lots about the joy that Gospel brings to us. In the scriptures in Alma when the father of Lamoni is being taught, he mentions that he wants to receive the Joy that Aaron has and talks about. I know that as members of Christ´s church, we can have the greatest joy knowing that He lives and loves us, that this is His church, and that we are His servants in this great work. I love Him and I know that through Him, we live! I love you all so much and thank you for your amazing examples and love and support. Have a great week and keep smiling and enjoying life! :)

Con Amor, 

Hermana Syphus 

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Extra little tidbits from her

Hey Mom!! :) Oh how happy i get when I can write you and know that you are there ever so far away in the front room reading and writing as well :) I just love you so much and hope that you can feel it! I am ready to answer your questions finally! Sorry that it has taken ages! Today, ONCE AGAIN, i don´t have much time to write because we had to go early this morning to San Fernando where the mission office is and go shopping with Hermana Lines who is a missionary in the office with her husband :) They are the best! But my companion doesn´t have many warm things for the winter and a few weeks ago when President went out with us for a few hours, he noticed that she didn´t have much and so he called me and asked me if she needed more. I told him that I could share with her even though I didn´t have much and he just decided that it would be better to just buy her something of her own. So today we went and did that :) Out President is just the best. He cares about us and takes care of us. It was fun to do that today but took lots of time to travel. It is a two hour trip one way and so it took four hours of our pday. First we have to take the subway, then the electric train. I am super happy that my companion will be more comfortable now though, it was worth it spending our time today because now she will be warm! :)

To your questions:

When we go to the temple, the whole mission goes the same day but at different times during the day :) 

That part of the mission is not part of this mission anymore. But when it was a part of our mission, yes, hermanas did go down there :) They have fun with the penguins jaja :) 

1 did you find your memory card?  Please say yes!!!

NO!!! :( :( :( I haven´t found it yet! I just gets me sick thinking about how i might not have all those photos to show my family when I get back and to remember the people that I knew! I hardly sent any pictures home and there were lots that I was so excited to show you all. I want to cry! I feel so dumb and irresponsible! I really don´t know what I am going to do. I just have to forget about it i guess. But it just makes me sick. 

2 How has Maria been doing?  Is she back on track?

Maria hasn´t changed her desires :( Carlos is still going strong though and is really pretty much a member that just hansn´t been baptized. I feel so bad for him. He wants it so bad and just can´t right now. We are working on it though! :) 

3 Kevins full name and Marco's.  Were there any others that you were in charge of baptizing last week?

Nope, just Kevin and Marco :) :) Marco Antonio Rocha, Kevin Andres Agostopa Eugenio :)

And just a few other random things, I finally received the package that you sent in January! The one that has jerky, deodorant, sour patch, gum, and fruit by the foot! haha thanks so much! I can´t believe how late it was but I sure appreciate it! I also received a package from Hermana Mirow from the US!! :) Also, your letter that had the wedding invite of Tyler! Thanks Mom! And once again, don´t worry about writing me letters. I am just great with emails and love love love reading them each week. So no worries at all :) I am ever so happy with emails :) Man I think my happiness would be almost perfect if it werent for my lost memory card. that just keeps getting to me. I still have faith that I can find it, but a thought keeps coming to me that I threw it away on accident :(

I wanted to email Dad especially and all the other ´dads´ in my life, but I don´t know if I will have time this week! If I don´t end up having time, can you please tell dad that I say Happy Father´s Day and that I was sure thinking about him yesterday. i wish I could write him a nice message but I don´t know if i will have time. He is in my heart!! :)

I sent her some pics of our family camp....

I LOVE THIS!!!!!! :) :) :) My companion saw how I reacted to these photos and was like ¨Do you like camping or something?¨Haha :) YES!!! I told her! I miss this so much and it just looks so lovely and so much fun!! Ah man, you all are the best :) I have the greatest family in the world that is for sure. Man everyone just looks so good and a part of me wants to be there haha. I wish we could do it with everyone again when I get home but Joely wont be there! Awe thanks for these pictures mom, I am so glad everyone had such a good time! :) :)