Week 74 (Sept. 1, 2014 Tigre, Argentina)

Dearest Family and Friends :)

I hear that in St. George you are getting to play in the rivers on the streets!!  That is so crazy that it rained so much! It has rained lots here as well lately but not too hard. The other day though it started hailing and they were huge pieces of ice, like the size of a blueberry! Luckily it was a sunday morning so we were inside the church :) The weather here has been really crazy lately. It will be super hot one week and the next week super cold. Right now it is cold again and i think it will get warmer this month but we will see.

We have has so many wonderful experiences this week and I just wish I could put in every detail but that would take to long and would also probably bore you all haha. We started a new transfer and for this transfer, President wanted to put a set of elders in Tigre! It has been 7 years since Tigre has seen elders so it is really different for the members but they love it! Two transfers ago there were three areas in tigre but then Pres took out tigre 3 because there was not much work there for a while and he felt like he needed to take it out. But this transfer, he wanted to add it again and put elders there instead of sisters. So now my comp and I are living with the other two sisters and the elders in the other apartment. We have been trying to help the elders because they know nothing about the area and it has been a busy week! We met with the President of the branch to divide the three areas to make it better than before and now we have a smaller area but we are excited to continue working hard with what we have! Our area is the poorest part of Tigre and there are lots of people there so we still have lots of work to do there :) When we met with President, he gave us a few families to visit. We went to visit the families and one of them is a part member family and the members are less active. They are from Peru and the father/grandfather was a bishop at one time in Peru but they moved here and he got a really good job really quickly and had to work on Sunday. We only met his wife, one of their daughters that is a member, and the daughter of this daughter and another granddaughter. The two granddaughters are not members. The parents we sealed in the temple with their children and everything! We talked about the temple and the covenants that they made with God and how their grand children need to make the same covenants so that they can be part of the eternal family. The two granddaughters want to learn more and we are going to visit them tomorrow!! We found them yesterday night so they have not come to church yet but are hoping to this coming Sunday! :) We are super excited to teach them and to help reactivate the family as well. Some less active families do not want anything to do with the church but some just need love and the invitation to come back and a little push and they feel the spirit again and want to come back. I love working with families that are ready to be rescued! It is the best to see them come back as a family and see how they change even as members. That was one of the great miracles that we received last week!

Hermana Traverso and I have been pondering on the promise that through the recent converts and less actives, we are going to find the elect. I know that this is true and we have been trying to help this promise come to pass! :) We are still working with Rosana, the girlfriend of the recent convert named Marco. She came to church on Sunday for the third time in a row and really likes it. She just needs to turn 18 now so that she can be baptized :) We also have to see if they are keeping the law of chastity 100 percent. We taught it to them and they said that they would live it, but we need to follow up better to make sure they are good.

God gave us a great miracle the other day! A few weeks ago a recent convert named Alejandro gave us a referral. He told us that he had really felt strongly that we needed to visit this person and that his name just popped into his head one day and that usually doesnt happen. We always ask him for referrals and most of the time he doesnt know who to give us. But this time he felt really sure and excited to visit his friend Martin with us. We went to contact him and he told us that we needed to come back a different day because he was working. we invited him to church and he said he would talk with Alejandro to see what he could do. Alejandro invited him to church and tried to talk with him lots of times but Martin didnt give him much attention. He didnt come to church like he said he was going to either. The other day we passed by just to see what happened and why he didnt come to church. We were with a different recent convert named Camila. Martin was there and we talked to him a bit and decided with the help of the spirit and the filters that he is not an elect at this time. We asked for referrals and he didnt give us anyone. We were walking away from his house, analyzing the houses around his, and my companion said that one day, we should knock a certain house. Camila then told us that she knew a girl that lives in that house named Flor. Flor is the friend of another recent convert. We didnt have time right then to contact Flor but we came back the next day and met her mom and grandparents because she was not there. We found out that one month ago, Flor's uncle passed away. His wife and children are having a hard time. And so are the grandparents of Flor...the parents of the man that passed away. We shared with them the Plan of Salvation. Flors parents are not married and Flor has a boyfriend of 7 years (she is 18 years old) but doesnt live with him thankfully! Her grandparents, Olga and Anibal, are so precious and wonderful. We taught them all again when Flor and her boyfriend were at home and Olga, Anibal, and Flor accepted baptismal dates for the 14 of September! They are a miracle family that God put in our path through a recent convert! Olga and Anibal came to church yesterday but Flor couldnt make it because she had to go to the hospital for something that is bothering her on her leg. We are so excited to work with this family! They really need the Gospel and the knowledge that they can live with their family forever! I know that if they are prepared and if they are elect, that the Spirit will help them feel and know that these things are true!

It has been a good week and I am grateful that God is helping us see the fruits of our labors. I always need to improve and work harder, but i am thankful that he is blessing us with these wonderful people and families to teach. My joy is so full when we have progressing investigators haha :) I know that God loves us and that everything he does he does because he wants us back! I know that He lives! Thank you all for everything! Love you so much and have a wonderful week! Remember your blessings and think about them all the time and you will be happy! :)

Hermana Syphus

My rash is getting better. It is actually not a rash though haha. We found out the are bites from bed bugs!! Gross huh!?! It gives me the heebie jeebies thinking that I have bed bugs but i think I solved it! We washed my sheets and such and sprayed my matress with this one stuff prescribed by the doctor.

That thunderstorm looks CRAZY!!! Holy buckets those pictures are amazing!! I cant believe that! So beautiful!! Wow the combination of Gods creations, technology, and peoples talents is such a good one ha :)

I am sorry to hear about Kari and Kylie :( Poor things. I hope they keep getting better!

The bday dinner sounded like so much fun! And holy food! That is so neat that almost all of it came from the garden! I am excited to see it! you always work so hard with dad to make it so great, I hope that I will have those types of talents when I grow up.

 Oh ya! Last week we went to the doctors again haha! My comp was having trouble breathing and would make these weird sounding gasps for air and I told her that she needed to call the nurse because that was not normal. We called and she said we needed to go the doctors to get checked. So on Wednesday we went and the Dr. Smith checked her lungs and such. Then he checked me as well because I was pretty sick last Monday with a fever but received a blessing and had gotten a bit better but he still wanted to check me. And guess what? We both ended up having Bronquitis! Haha crazy huh!? She has it worse than me because she had it in both lungs and me just in one, but we bought the meds (she needed three and I two) and now we are both doing LOTS better! Whenever I get sick, I usually have the same symptoms and dont think anything of it, but I guess it was worse than I thought haha :) I am feeling good though now and so is my comp! So that is what counts! :)

I LOVE joels emails! He is so funny and I just love reading what he writes! I am glad that he is doing so well. Does he only have an hour to write?

I will try to watch out for the bed bugs in my luggage and be more careful! Ah man french toast made by erik sounds so good right now. i am hungry haha :) right now we are going to be meeting with some sisters in a different area. Pres called me and asked me if we could spend the day with them because one of them is a new sister that is having a hard time and needs some help! :) And when i got to argentina I was like her says President ha. So I hope that we will be able to help her! :) I am praying that I will be able to know what to say and do in order to help this sister. I dont know her at all and am not good with words, so hopefully it will go ok. Being sister trainer leader is hard at times but it gives me lots of opportunities to learn and think about others and strengthen my love for them! It is the best! :)