Week 72 (Aug. 18, 2014 Tigre, Argentina)

Dearest Family and Friends,

Oh how I just love you all so much and each day I feel so blessed to have you all in my life. Being a missionary has helped me understand what love really is. It has helped me feel so much more Christ like love for Gods children and for all of you. Love is action! When we have Christ like love, we act and when other people feel Christ like love, THEY ACT. I think that is one of the many reasons that as missionaries, it is so important to have charity because the people that we are teaching will feel this love and will want to act. I have been praying for charity because I think it is something that I am lacking at times! Someday I will have the charity that my mother has! :) I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ helps us to develop this Christ like love and that because we have the knowledge that we have, we are expected to help Gods children! :) Thank you for being great examples to those around you and for being great example to ME!! i love you all so much! :)

We had a lot of adventures this week! My poor companion fell on her back a few weeks ago and her tail bone had been hurting really bad. She is taking a pill to help the pain but the doctor said that no matter what, she will still feel pain for like 6 weeks because it just has to heal. She has received blessings but is still struggling. She is so strong!! We work hard still everyday but once in a while she has to stop somewhere and sit down. I love her for being so diligent and she knows that if she cant go one, she needs to tell me because we talked with the pres. and he told her to not push anything to hard and to be wise. So she is :) We had interviews with the pres and his wife this week and Hermana Ayre always asks about our health and our family. Hermana Henriquez told her about what was going on and she said that she NEEDED to go to the hospital and get an xray because at times, my comp feels a pain going down her leg and hna. ayre told her that that was not safe. So pres and his wife told us that we needed to go to the hospital. Haha well the hospital is two hours from our area and we had to take a bus...3 buses actually haha. And we had no idea really how to get there, just the general directions. Haha it was a fun adventure! So we get to the hospital and have to wait forever to get the xray. And to make a long story short, in the end, my comp was told that nothing was broken and could only take a pill to help it even though her pain is bad! MORE THING! :( We couldnt believe that we had traveled four hours just to hear that she had a small fissure and could only take a pill to help it. We ended up being at the hospital until 2:30 and we left that morning at 7:00. We were pretty tired when we got back to our area and had to do splits with two hermanas in the ward in order to accomplish our goals for the day! So I went with an hermana and my comp with another and we were able to have a good day in the end! :) I am so thankful for a companion who works hard even when it is difficult. She is so great and love her so much. I know that I could not do Gods work without my companion. I would feel so lost doing it alone and I know that God gives us companions for a reason. I have so many weaknesses and my comp  has all the things that I dont have and so it works! God knows who to put together in order to help His work move forward! Sometimes it is hard with a certain companion, but if we work hard, it will always work! :)

I really like to laugh and have been trying to write down the things that make me laugh each day. One of the recent converts, Nahuel, is ever so funny. He is 17 and likes to play video games. They are all mostly war video games. He always texts us and asks me what random things mean in english. Haha the other day we get this message from him that says "Hermana Sif  (he calls me that because he cant pronounce my name haha, just like everyone else), que significa (what is the meaning of) "the terrorist carrying the C4 must destroy one of the chemical weap

on stashes." Hahahaha!! I read the message out loud and started laughing so hard! It was just the most random thing and made me laugh a lot. I thought about if Kam and Kendyl were with me, they would be laughing too, because it was just so random haha. I think it was a phrase from his video game haha. Anyway, maybe it is "you have to be there moment" but I hope you liked it as much as I did haha :)

Like I said before, this week we had interviews with Pres. and it was so wonderful to be able to talk with him. He is such a wonderful Pres. and I  feel so blessed to be in this mission. I dont think I ever want to leave. He talked to our zone about the authority that we as missionaries have and that we will never have this opportunity again and that we need to make more than the best of it. Hearing him helped me once again feel the great spirit that being a missionary brings and helped me think about the sacred calling that we have as missionaries. I love doing this! :) We know that Gods work and glory is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man. And as missionaries, our purpose is to help come unto Christ by accepting and living the Gospel and that through faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end, they can accomlish this. It is so neat to me that as we as missionaries fulfill OUR purpose, GOD is fulfilling HIS purpose. I love to think about that :) We can all be missionaries and help God fulfill His purpose and be a part of this great work! Also, we had a time to talk with the assistants as a companionship. And I had to do something that I havent done in a very long time...pray in english. Elder Pirez said to me, Hermana, I am going to ask you to do something that will be hard for you, are you willing to do it? I told him yes i think so, and he asked me to say the opening prayer in enlish haha. And to be honest, it was SO HARD!! I couldnt do it! It was the weirdest thing I sounded so different. Those of you that have served speaking a different language I am sure understand :) It was a neat experience and I know that God heard me, but I think I will stick to spanish prayers :)

This week we contacted some referrals from some members. We are really trying to work better with the members and the recent converts because we know that we are going to find through them! Most of the referrals from the members have not been too interested, but one of them was! Her name is Natalia and she 17 years old. She is the friend of a really strong young woman in our branch. Natalia is pregnant but just broke up with her boyfriend. She noticed that Augustina, her member friend, was always happy and wanted to know why. Agustina explained to her the gospel and of the church and Natalia wanted to learn more. We met with her the other day and she accepted to be baptized but she did not come to church on Sunday because of her health. We will be meeting with her more this week. She is very special and I feel like she will progress! She was super receptive when we met with her and I love it so much! :) Agustina is helping her so much and is the perfect example for her!

We also met the girlfriend of a recent convert that was less active but is coming back and wants to be closer to God because he had noticed that he has not been as happy when he doesnt go to church. His girlfriend is 17 and was taught a bit by the other sisters before but didnt have permission to be baptized. Her mom works all the time and doesnt have a day off so we have struggles to find a time when we can talk with her to receive permission. She wants to be baptized and came to church on Sunday with her boyfriend and really liked it. We passed by Sunday evening to talk with her mom but she was not home. This week we are praying so that we can find her mom at home as soon as possible and receive permission! :)

Thank you all for being the best! I am always so happy to know that you are doing well and enjoying life. I hope that the light of Christ that is in each of you will bring more and more people to Christ! Have a wonderful, happy week! Love you all so much!! :)

Hermana Syphus


Nahuel and Alejandro helping us with our teaching appointments. They are the best!