Week 56 (April 27, 2014 Parque Chacabuco, Argentina)

Since Hermana Syphus can't receive packages because of postal restrictions right now in Argentina, we decided that we'd let many of her friends and family know that her bday is on May 1 and for them to hopefully send her a simple birthday wish.  We were so pleased at the response.  She had over 50 emails from family and friends and was in awe at the kind wishes. 


MOM!!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow I was not expecting to open my email and see this!!!!!!!!!!!! We are emailing late today and I won´t even have time to reply to all of them let alone read all of them!!!! :( Our zone leaders birthday is today and so we had a get together at the church with our zone and that is why I am emailing late. LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND THANK YOU!!!! IF I DON¨T GET TO EMAIL EVERYONE BACK GIVE EVERYONE A HUGE THANK YOU FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You really have no idea how happy I feel right now!!!!!!!!!! I was expecting maybe 10 emails but not 50!! Man I really am so blessed.

Should I try to reply to all of them? haha :) And how did all these random people know it was birthday?

Love you too mom!! And HOLY COW!!! I have read some of the emails and these people did so much!! The chamberlains drew me pictures!!! Ok That email that I sent thanking people was not enough. I will do something better next week even though you have already sent it. Man I am just so thankful. Please tell everyone again that I love them and that they are the best. Best birthday surprise ever :) 

Dearest Family and Friends,

How are all of you doing? I hope you had a great week and have felt the Spirit in your hearts and homes. It is such a great blessing that we have to have the gospel in our lives. I just love entering the homes of members because the spirit is already there and I love feeling the spirit with families, it makes it that much better :) I read something very interesting and powerful this week in the spanish book of mormon. There is a mini dictionary in the back of the book of mormon and one day I was reading the difference between the heart and the mind because I was studying the Holy Ghost and was lead to that. It says in the libro de mormon that through the heart, we receive feelings, and through the mind, we receive thoughts. Most of the things I learn are really obvious haha but i really thought about what it said and love it so much. This is why in we learn that we should listen and learn with our minds AND hearts because when we feel something, it is much more powerful than when we think something. Feelings can stay with us forever and thoughts can go away after a few days. At least that is how it is for me ha. I know that when we listen with our hearts, the Spirit can help us learn and remember much more and that we will be able to have a greater understanding and a more eternal perspective. I love what the Spirit can teach us!!

This has been a great week and I feel very blessed to be in this area with my companion. She is wonderful and is teaching me so much! She is helping me have more confidence in myself which is what I have been trying to learn my entire mission! I am truly thankful for each companion that I have had and I know that the Lord is blessing me with eternal friends and sisters. We do not have many investigators as of right now and that has been the difficult thing, but the ones we have are great and are truly ready to receive and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives!

Bueno, Roberto Antonio Soliz Rocha was baptized on Sunday and Yoselin was confirmed :) :) :) Now there are three members of the church in this great family and I am so so happy. Now they can all support each other in enduring to the end! It was a huge blessing and miracle that Roberto was baptized because just a few weeks ago he did not feel ready. But with the help of a great recent convert and the spirit, he has felt the need to be baptized and now has made this sacred covenant with God! Each time we went to his house to teach him, Yoselin, and Alejandra, we would ask him how he was doing and he said each time that he was getting more and more excited and really felt ready. He wants to serve a mission like his sister Yoselin and we are just feel so blessed. Sometimes I feel unworthy of the great blessings we are receiving from God, but I sure am grateful for them and am trying to do my best so that I can be worthy of each one. Heavenly Father is a God of mercy and I know that He is the one blessing this area. The Rocha family is one of the greatest families I have known on my mission and I love them so much. Mon and Dad we have to come back to argentina and visit this family!! I want to be here so badly when they go through the temple!! :) Yoselin and Alejandra are both doing great as well :) OH!! I have great news!! So Yoselin used to work on Sundays and had Mondays off. We were really worried about that because she wants to prepare for a mission and really needs to keep this commandment to help her testimony grow. Well one day we got to their house to teach and she just had a huge smile on her face and told us that she had switched her day off to Sunday and that she would be working on Mondays!!! SHE is the one that though of it and did it all on her own! We didn´t even suggest it! Man that just made me so happy. It is simple things like this that happen that help me know when a person is truly converted to Christ. I love that so much, it brings me the greatest happiness ever :) So now she can come every Sunday! And this past Sunday Rob and Yoselin and Alejandra brought THREE of their cousins to church with them!! Two of them don´t live here but are here during the week going to school and we have permission to teach them and baptize them here! So we are working on that! And then they have another cousin that lives with his girlfriend and has two kids. He is so awesome but isn´t married! But really like church on Sunday and wants to come back! So we are going to start teaching him this week and see what happens! :) I love having the opportunity of knowing and teaching this family and I know that it has been through the help of God that it has been possible. The mom really likes it all but she is not married and her husband is super nice but doesn´t want to go to church or listen. Yoselin really wants her mom to be baptized and so do we of course. We will see what we can do with that. :)

The other day we were a bit sad because we thought about how after the baptism of Roberto, we wouldn´t really have anyone to work with because we were trying to find investigators. So we left the house that morning with the faith that we were not going to return home until someone accepted a date to be baptized. We usually have a member with us but this day for a few hours we were not able to have one. We were trying to contact a reference but we were not sure exactly where they lived. We were walking down the street that we thought lived this person, and while we were walking we passed the door of a young man that Hermana Lobo and I talked to once. This young man accepted a date the first time we talked to him but when we went on sunday to take him to church, he wasn´t there and we could never get a hold of him so we had to drop him. But this day with my new comp, we had actually had him as a plan b to visit if we had time. So when we passed his door, we thought why not. His family was just returning home from a vacation when we got to the door and they were unpacking the car. Brian (the young mans name) came up to us and we started talking to him. In the end, he again accepted a date to be baptized and told us that he wanted to come to church on sunday! It was really amazing how everything worked out so perfectly and how Heavenly Father put him in our path at the exact time we needed it! I feel like Heavenly Father has been preparing Brian and that he will be baptized. He came to church on Sunday and love it!! :) We will be seeing him tomorrow!! Even better is that he is 18 and doesn´t need permission from his parents to be baptized! Haha but we are hoping that his whole family will have the desire to learn! I know that when we are in need of something and that when we seek it diligently and faithfully and prayerfully, Heavenly Father answers this prayer and helps us to see and feel His love.

I know that this life really is the time for us to prepare to meet God and tha He has given us everything that we need to do it. I am so thankful for my family and friends and for the people that I am knowing and loving here on my mission. I know that God lives and that His Son is our hope and happiness. Thank you all so much for everything. I love you all and hope that you will always find happiness through the Gospel! LOVE YOU!!

Con Amor, Hermana Syphus :)

 Roberto's Baptism April 26, 2014 and Hermana Matamoros

Rocha Family

Week 55 (April 22, 2014 Parque Chacabuco, Argentina)

Hiya Mom and Dad! :)

I hope you are enjoying your time in Missouri! That is so neat that you were able to go and enjoy a few days together with friends! I bet the kids have missed you though! I know I would!

So as you both know, transfers were today and I am staying in Chacabuco!!! :) But Hermana Lobo left! :( She is going to a place about 4 hours from here called San Pedro and will probably finish her mission there. She did not want to go there because it is super cold in the winter and pure country and far away from everything (or so i hear)! I am here in Chacabuco still and I have a new companion! Her name is Hermana Matamoros and she is from Honduras :) She only had 7 MONTHS on her mission and was called to be a sister training leader! That is so incredible! I am so excited to work with her! Each companion has something so important and special to teach me and I know that the Lord is the one who puts us together. I have come to love every one of my companions and i know that I will learn so much from Hermana Matamoros! She is 24 and has 2 other siblings. Her mom is a bit less active and her dad was killed 4 years ago. She is amazing and I can tell that she is such a strong person and has a stong testimony. I guess i will training her how to be a sister training leader which is a bit scary considering i still don´t really know what i am doing haha. It is like the blind leading the blind! I am just grateful that i can rely on God and do my best and know that everything will work out. I am super nervous once again and feel like I have a great responsibility and don´t want to mess up. It is kinda hard sometimes because areas of the leaders should be example areas for the other missionaries. This area is a bit hard but last transfer we saw so many miracles and were able to see God´s hand. I hope that this transfer will be that same and that all will work out how Heavenly Father wants it to. :) And guess what!?!? Hermana Jensen is a sister training leader now too!!!! And she is companions with Hermana Vivas, my mom and first companion here on my mission in Argentina!! I am so happy for her and they will have so much success together!! Hermana Vivas is know for baptizing lots and is super amazing and just a wonderful missionary and Hermana Jensen will be so happy with her!! :)

This week was so amazing! I don´t even know where to start. I never know where to start. I never remember what I tell you and what I don´t tell you and if I have already told you something haha.

Ususally when we do exchanges we do them for only 24 hours. Exchanges are when one of goes to the area of an Hermana to work with her for 24 hours and the companion of this hermana comes to our area to work. We have to do them each week to see how the hermanas are doing and all that jazz. I am always nervous to do exchanges because sometimes I feel like I don´t help the hermanas like Heavenly Father wants me to, but i am learning to trust in Him more and rely on the Spirit to know what to do. I am really starting to like doing them and it has been very rewarding in many aspects. I learn so much from the hermanas and can really feel so much love for them and i love it so much! It is hard because I still don´t know what I am doing half the time, but I love it :) So anyway, the exchanges are usually 24 hours but we have permission from Pres. to do them for longer if certain sisters need it. There is a pair of hermanas that we wanted to do exchanges with for 3 days because of some things that are happening with them in their area and as a compship. After praying about it, we decided that I would stay in our area and that Hermana Lobo would go to the other area. I was nervous like always because even though I had been in this area five weeks, i am still learning it and it is always easier when you have your companion with you to help ha. The hermana that came here with me was having some difficulties and i really wanted to help her feel the joy that being a missionary and working hard in God´s work can bring! I know that God answers prayers and that He wants us to succeed! I know that He provides a way for us to accomplish our goals and righteous desires and that He is a God of mercy! I realized these things more during these three days because I was praying that everything would work out and that we would be guided and directed and that Hermana Hemi would feel happy and successful with the help of the Spirit. We saw many miracles in these three days and I learned so much from Hermana Hemi! I don´t think I have laughed so hard in my entire mission either! I wanted to help her feel happy and lift her spirits, but she helped ME feel more happy and lifted my spirit so much! She is from New Zeland and has an accent by the way! :) But now her family lives in Austrailia! I can´t wait to tell you more about her and our experiences together! Anyway, these three days we worked super hard and there were times when we had already scheduled to do our visits with a specific member but when we went to meet the member, they never showed up. That happened a few times but each time it did, Heavenly Father helped us think of someone different and each time we were able to have a member come with us in our visits! Lots of little tender mercies like this one were seen and i know that Heavenly Father was helping us each day. During this exchange we went to go see Yoselin (sister of Alejandra that was recently baptized) because she was preparing to be baptized on Sunday and we needed to teach her the rest of the lessons. One night we were talking about her baptism and she tols us that she knew that the church was true and that Jose Smith was a prophet but that she felt like something was missing and didn´t know ifSunday she would be ready. We then talked about the Spirit and how he speaks to us with a still small voice. She told us that maybe she was expecting a huge answer to know if she needed to be baptized and that maybe it wasn´t going to come like that. So that night we commited her to pray and to read the book of mormon and pay attention to her feelings and thoughts and to remember how the spirit talks to us. The next day we passed by her work (she was making chocolate easter eggs and didn´t have a lot of time) just to have daily contact with her. We asked her about how she felt about her baptism on Sunday and she said "I feel good and want to be baptized this Sunday." She told us that she felt ready and that she knew it was true!! :) I really wish you could know this amazing family. They are going to be such strong members of Christ´s church. I get emotional thinking about how the Gospel has blessed their lives and how blessed I have been to know them and help them know the correct path. Yoselin was baptized on Sunday and once again it was a bit of a struggle but it worked out like always! She works on Sundays usually and had someone that was going to work for her (this was sat. night) but when we went to her house Sunday morning to go to church with her, Alejandra, and Roberto, she was still working and Alejandra told us that no one could cover her because all the family was going to Moreno (2 hours away). So we went to the bakery to see what we could do and in the end, Alejandra stayed to work for her sister so that she could come to church and have her baptism. Alejandra was able to close at 1 and make it just in time her sister´s baptism :) Alejandra and Yoselin are two of the greatest women I know here on my mission. We have had so many great experiences with them and it really has been so amazing seeing their progress and their faith in the Lord and His Atonement. Yoselin wants to serve a mission and help people come to know about this church and that it has been restored to the earth throught Joseph Smith. She has a strong testimony of him. Oh I forget to tell you! It was so amazing! We taught the law of chastity and the word of wisdom on Monday a week ago and found out the Yoselin drank coffee eeryday and that it was hard for her to not have her coffee. But after talking about the word of wisdom she said " i know that this is a commandment from God and if it is a commandment, I need to obey it." And since then, she has not had one cup or sip of coffee! AW!! I love being a missionary and seeing these miracles!! :) Alejandra told us that she too would have liked to serve a mission like her sister but can´t because she is going to have her baby. We talked about missionary work and how she can be a great member missionary and that got her really excited. She wants to come with us on out visits and when we asked her what she could do to help with missionary work she said "i can tell people by telling my experience and how this church has helped me and changed me and can give my testimony to them." Then she told us that even though she would have liked to serve a mission, she knows that it is a great blessing to have a son so that she can teach him the gospel and help him have the truth!! :) :) I am so happy! We felt the Spirit so strongly in this lesson. We were also with Roberto and he accepted a baptismal date for this Sunday the 27th! The member that came with us really helped him. We found out that he didn´t want to be baptized because he was afraid to go astray after baptism. It was so powerful because Alejandra, his sister, told him of how she felt the same way before baptism but finally realized that she needed to act and endure to the end but couldn´t until she was baptized. So she just decided to do it and feels like a new person after receiving the Holy Ghost. Oh my goodness it was just such a powerful lesson with them and i will never forget it. So now we are working with Roberto so that he can be baptized this Sunday. We hope all goes well! Yesterday we went over to their house and helped them with the clothes that their mom sews and they made rice with milk and tortas fritas with dulce de leche! Then we watched a few mormon messages and once again felt a sweet spirit with them! Last night they came to say goodbye to Hermana Lobo and were crying because she was leaving. I hope that the will still allow me and my new comp in their home without Hermana Lobo :/ she will be missed! But I feel like they are becoming converted to Christ and that they will continue to progress! We are so grateful and excited to see waht happens with this family!

Well I have to go. This email is super long with lots of detail so sorry about that :/ sometimes i don´t realize how much i am writing. Love you so much mom and dad and thanks for everything!! I am very happy and will always be as long as i am serving God in His work. I know this is true and that the gospel brings happiness! I know that the Holy Ghost touches the hearts of God´s children and brings them to the truth! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!! Have a great week!

Con Amor, 

Hermana Syphus

Yoselin's baptism April 20, 2014

Rocha Family

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!! 

Week 53 (April 7, 2014 Parque Chacabuco, Argentina)

Dearest Family and Friends,
The week after conference always seems like such an uplifting one! All of the things that we have recently learned and felt are in our hearts and minds and our desires to improve and become better are more apparent. I am grateful for all I was able to learn from general conference and for the things I was able to feel from the Spirit. It is always so hard when conference ends, but also great because we now have the opportunity to apply the things that we have learned and continue preparing our hearts for the next conference! In preach my gospel it says that when we feel the spirit, we are feeling a little piece of what eternal life with God and Jesus Christ and our families feels like. And that we experience a part of the joy that we will feel in this life. I was able to feel this during conference and it helped my spirits so much. I know that God speaks to us through His servants and that when we are following them, we are following God.

I felt strongly the great blessing that we have to have the Gospel in our lives. I was thinking about our investigator Alejandra that was with us as we were sitting there listening to conference and that she has lived 20 years without the knowledge of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thought of how hard that would be and that we are so blessed to have this knowledge and to have been able to live it and receive the blessings from it throughout our lives. I am so grateful that Alejandra now has this opportunity and that she can know experience these blessings and have the joy that the Gospel brings!

I felt a stronger desire to share what I know with more of God´s children because they need to know of Christ´s Gospel in order to return to Him! I love being a missionary and sharing these truths with everyone! There are many things that I need to improve in order to to be a greater instrument in the Lord´s hands and for that i am grateful for the Atonement of Christ which makes progression and improvement possible. I am grateful to be a member of this Church and for your examples of how to live it and love it. Thank you!
I really enjoyed Elder Nelson´s talk and how he talked about Jesus Christ and His Atonement and how it is something that we will always be able to depend on and use. I also really enjoyed the talk by Elder Packer I think it was on obedience and that when we love God, we are obedient. I thought about that for a while and realized that i need to be more obedient to love God more and love God more to be more obedient. It was a great conference!
Alejandra was baptized on Sunday after the first session of conference!! Once again, it was a process getting everything ready but in the end everything worked out and it was a beautiful service! I have really learned on my mission that no matter how prepared someone is to be baptized and confirmed a member of this church, Satan will always try to make something happen so that they cannot be baptized. But when we work hard and show Him our faith and diligence, His grace makes it all possible! The members and elders in our ward helped so much to make it a great day for Alejandra and the Spirit was felt in her service. I know that she felt the Spirit as well and that she will continue to progress and develop her testimony of Jesus Christ. She was so prepared and so ready and I know that she will teach her son that she is pregnant with the same principles that she has learned, and that he too will receive the blessings of the Gospel! Also, Alejandra´s sister came to her baptism and we feel that she too felt the Spirit. As far as I know, she was baptized in another church and has really changed her life for the better and is now trying to be closer to God and Jesus Christ. She was baptized but of course did not receive the gift of the holy ghost and we explained this to her and she was very pensive about it. Tonight we are going over to their house and will teach the Holy Ghost and she will be there so we are hoping that she will accept it and feel the Spirit telling her it is true! Mom, Alejandra´s full name is Maria Alejandra Solis Rocha :)
And just for fun, this week we ate with the Stake Presidents family (Catalas). The wife is Chinese and so we had chinese food. I had sushi for the first time in my life and tofu as well. It wasn´t too bad of an experience but I will never do it again if I can help it haha.
Thanks so much for all you are doing and for helping God´s work where you are. I know that this is Christ´s church and that he is directing it. We can feel Him walking with us and I know that through the power and influence of the spirit, each person can come to know that this is only way to God. Love you all so much and hope you have a great week! :)
Con Amor, 
Hermana Syphus 

Alejandra's baptism April 6, 2014  

Hermana Lobo , Me, Alejandra and Yoselin 

She also emailed this little tidbit:
I missed quite a bit of conference because it was raining on Saturday and caused some problems. We missed all of Hollands talk :( I love my mission, but one thing I will be happy to have at home is conference without missing the talks! As a missionary, we also need to bring our investigators to the sessions if they can and so that also takes some time. We ate lunch at members house right before conference on Sunday and here is starts at 1 and 5 and we ate at 11. So we were rushing out in order to get our investigators. We ended up being like 30 minutes late to the conference and got there as Pres. Uchtdorf was finishing his talk. So I didn´t get to hear that one either :( It is really hard for me to miss conference and I was pretty bummed but hopefully the ensign will come and that we will get it so that we can read it. Although, this mission doesn´t allowed much of liahona and ensign reading because we should only be reading the book of mormon, bible, and preach my gospel. I think I told you that before but not sure. We shouldn´t even be reading our missionary library books. But anyway, what I saw of conference was amazing as usual! Kendyl is sure amazing! What a special girl. Also, I watched all of conference in spanish this time and I was able to understand it without a problem! I was super surprised but very happy! They told us that the chapel here in Chacabuco was going to have it in english but they ended up not having it and we didn´t have time to travel to another chapel so we stayed and watched it in spanish and it was just fine! I did miss hearing the sweet voices of the prophet and apostles though. It is just not the same in spanish. But the spirit was felt and that is all that matters. The music was amazing as usual! Man i realized how much I am missing music! It was so nice to hear and enjoy and it was just a wonderful weekend like you said!

Week 52 (Mar. 31, 2014 Parque Chacabuco, Argentina)

Dear Family and Friends :)

This week we have seen many tender mercies of the Lord in His work and I am so happy to be serving where I am serving! It is a great blessing to be able to be in a ward where the members are so involved in the work and where they are willing to do almost anything to help the Lord´s kingdom grow! I have really seen a difference in the wards that I have been in my mission. They have all been amazing and I have loved all of them and the members so much, but I have noticed that when they are more involved and have a relationship with the investigators and the people that we are working with, that miracles occur and God´s hand is seen more.  Lately we have been really focusing on keeping the recent converts active and helping them receive a true conversion in order to be faithful members of the Church. Throughout my mission, this has been hard at times because Satan attacks them so hard after baptism. But I have noticed that there is a big difference in the converts when the members are working with them as well and when they are helping them with this conversion. Of course there are less active members in this ward, but the recent converts are doing so well because the ward is actively involved in their progress and I love it so much! I think one of the greatest things to see as a missionary is a recent convert staying faithful because the members are helping them when they need it. I know that the members of the church are the miracles! Through the members, the Lord´s work is growing and people are becoming converted to Christ! :) :)

This week we have been trying to find more people to teach! One morning we visited 16 people from the old records in our area book and I think two of them wanted to listen. It has been a bit hard but we are still seeing miracles and I know that the Lord is walking with us. We went to visit an old investigator and he did not live there but a woman named Maria was there and we talked to her. She is from Bolivia and has been here one year. We met with her on Saturday and she accepted to be baptized after we taught the restoration. I love that because people can recognize us as representatives of Christ, that they have confidence in us and tell us things that they wouldn´t tell other people. That shows me that the Spirit is guiding them and helping them feel of God´s love! Maria was going to come yesterday to church but because of her work, she wasn´t able to make it. Yesterday we returned to her home because we wanted to teach her again and have another date for her baptism. She 

wasn´t there but her son Rodrigo was and so we taught him a short lesson and he accepted to be baptized as well! :) They are both planning on coming to General Conference this weekend! I am so thankful for the Spirit and that in just a short amount of minutes, can touch someones heart and help them feel that God is near. I hope that Maria and her son will progress and that they can keep their baptismal dates and become faithful members of the church!!

The Rocha Family is doing well!! Alejandra is progressing the most right now and is going to be baptized this Sunday in between the two sessions!! She is very excited and very prepared and has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying every night and morning. I can´t remember if I mentioned this already but she is pregnant and is 20 years old but doesn´t have her boyfriend anymore. Yesterday we taught the law of chastity and it was a little hard because we did not want her to feel like she was a bad person for what she did. It was a great lesson in the end. She felt the spirit and cried because she wanted to change and also felt God´s love for her. We talked about repentance and Godly sorrow and explained that she was feeling it and for that she wanted to change. She knows that they church is true and is so happy to be baptized on Sunday and change!! She is so special and I love her so much and and feel so blessed to be teaching her about Christ and repentance and forgiveness and faith in Christ! Her brother Roberto is progressing as well but only in some ways. He is coming to church and reading but says that it is hard to remember to pray. He wants to be baptized but not right now. We are praying for him and know that it will come for him as well!! 

I think that is about it for the week. I am sure grateful for all of you and for what you are doing to help God´s kingdom grow! Thank you for your examples and hard work and testimonies! I know that lifes are being touched through what you are doing! Love you all so much and Happy April!! :) Being a missionary is the greatest and it is even better when you have the support of friends and family like you all!

Con Amor, 

Hermana Syphus 

Short little email she sent as well :

Hola!! Man I meant to get right on the comp and write my email but I wrote president first and the letter to him was pretty long and then Clel wrote me so I opened his email and emailed him back quick. And so now I can write you about my week! Thanks for answering the questions! That is so neat about Jordan! Man he is so amazing! I bet his parents are so proud! Tell Nik one more time that I love him and will be in contact with him! I wanted to email him personally but don´t think I will have time. My comp is already ending! And today she wants to go to a Mexican Restaurant in Almagro and do some shopping. So we are trying to hurry. it should be a fun day i hope. Glad to here that gma and gpa received the email!!! :) :) I have noticed that people have stopped emailing me. Did you tell them that I now have less time? If so that is just fine, just wondering if that was the reason. I can still print things off if I don´t have time to read them and hopefully respond the following pday. And Mom, I don´t know why you say that you can´t say things like you want to say them, because every email that you send me helps me so much and you are just so amazing with words! I don´t know what I would do without you helping me and encouraging me each week. Really, sometimes the only words of encouragement and hope and love come from you (besides the scriptures of course :) ) and I appreciate it so much!! Thank you for telling me about Laura! I miss her so much too and am thinking about her often and hope that she will find her way once again to the Gospel and that all will end happily with her. She needs the Gospel in her life and is so ready to receive it! Her family just needs to understand! 

Week 51 (Mar. 24, 2014 Parque Chacabuco, Argentina)

Hey mom :) just a few random questions like always if thats ok and if you are there :)

1. Do you know Kimberly´s and Nik´s emails?

2. How did the cinnamon rolls turn out? I was really craving them this past week...thanks a lot. Ha 

3. Is Jordan Bell an assistant to the President in his mission?

4. Did you look up what a villa looks like?

Also, I just wanted to tell you some things that I have been thinking about and maybe you could help me or give me advice. So this new calling that I have, I really love it and am so thankful that God trusts me enough to have it. But I just keep thinking that I do not deserve it and that I have no idea why i was called to this position. Throughout my entire mission I have tried to improve my comparing issue. I am still working on it ha. I just look at the other sister training leaders and they are so amazing. All of them. I am nothing like them. I was reading one of Jordy´s dear elders that I just received from you the other day. And i loved something that he said. That there are two types of faith. The faith to endure and the faith to change patterns. And that the definition of a leader is someone who changes patterns for something better. I loved that but thought about it and decided that I do have faith to endure because God could give me any calling I would be willing to do it I think because I have the faith that he will help me to it. But I am not the kind of person that can change patterns and I feel like that is what I need to do. Like the other hermana training leaders are doing. They are true leaders. I am not really a leader. I like to follow people and I often do not take the initiative like I should. I feel like I am not doing what I need to be doing and that I am not the example that the other sisters need or expect. I cannot really lead. I still get read in the face when I have to talk in front of other missionaries and we have to do that a lot. I feel like I can´t counsel or advice people to do things because I am not good at that and I need to be better myself in order to counsel people. In the missionary handbook it has a part for the leaders and I have been studying it and feel like I lack so much and that there are so many other hermanas so much better than me! I am not a really good teacher and Jordy also said something in his email about how they had to do practices or lessons and introducing the book of Mormon with all the missionaries in order to see how well they taught. Well we as leaders are supposed to be good teachers and know how to teach and I still feel like I can´t teach well and that I get scattered and I am just struggling to accept that I am good enough for this sacred calling. I want to be better and I am trying to apply the atonement to receive the help I need. Ugh, so anyway, that is that. I feel a bit better now that I have talked to you about it haha. Thanks mom :)

We gave her a picture of cousin Devin who came home from his mission.
Aww thanks so much for this!! I love it! Devin looks so happy and so does this cute family!! One of the hardest things in the mission is becoming so close to so many people and families and having to leave them! I am sure they are missing Devin too! 

Haha sorry about not explaining well again. My spelling was awful as well so that did not help you at all haha. But I was just referring to the number of people at church on Sunday. This ward has about 180 people at church each Sunday! That is what I was trying to say :) please let me know when you don´t understand and I will be happy to explain. Sorry about my crazy writing ha.

Before I forget AGAIN, I want to write a message for Nik! Just something short. 

Nik- You leave in 8 days for El Salvador!!!!!!!!!! Que loco!! Niko, you will be so great in El Salvador and will meet so many people that will have a desire to change their lives and become closer to Christ because of YOUR testimony and love. I know that you will love your mission and will learn so much!! You are so great already and will be even better in two years!!! I will miss you so much! It will be hard not to see you for so long but is totally worth it! AND, WE CAN TALK SPANISH TO EACH OTHER!!!! That will be the best!!! But I am sure you will speak a lot better than me haha. But my spanish will be prettier than yours haha ;) Aw man I am so excited for you :) :) Keep going when it gets hard. Because it will get hard. But all the hard times are so worth it because you will grow so much and feel so strongly God´s love for you and for those you are serving! You will have your happiest times on your mission!!! I do not have to wish you good luck because you will be so great!!! LOVE YOU TONS NIKO!!! See you in two years!!!! :) :) :) Le amo mucho mi primo!! Disfrute cada momento porque solo va a pasar una vez!!

Kimbers- Congrats on your call to SPOKANE WA!!!!!! That was my first mission!!!!!! You will love love love it!!!!! Man I can´t wait to hear your stories and experiences!!!! I am so proud to call you my cousin and friend and I love you so much! You will be such a great missionary and will change so many people´s lives with your testimony and with the way that your show love to all people!! I am so happy and excited for you Kimbers!! Love you tons! 

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING MOM!!!! I am finishing up my email to you and will be getting off! I wanted to write a few people this week so my email to you about my week is a little dry but next week will be better! But once again this weeks is just an email for you i guess. I don´t know why but I feel better and more relaxed if I know I am just writing to you and the fam. I need to be better though and address it to everyone. Is there anything you asked me that I didn´t answer? Sorry I am a scattered mess today! I hope I can be more organized and give you a better email next week! Love you so much mom!!! Thanks for everything! I am great and doing very well!!! :) :) Oh one thing!! How are Kylie and Kari and their babies?

This week we had the blessing of having 6 investigators at church!! We are still teaching the Rocha family and some of them are progressing well! Yoselin we haven´t been able to see as much because of her work but Robert, Alejandra, Rosario, German (brother), Fernanda (sister) and Laurtaro (cousin) all came to church yesterday and enjoyed it once again! We also had Nancy and her daughter Milenka at church as well! They are a mother and daughter and are antiguo investigators (I really can´t remember how that is said in English) from last year and we went by this past week to teach them and only Nancy was home. We asked her if she would like to continue learning about the church and she said that she had been having lots of family problems and had a desire to learn and start going to church again and so we are hoping that we can continue teaching her! And she came yesterday with her daughter! But only for sacrament meeting. But at least it was sacrament meeting! I am always so grateful to partake of the sacrament and think about the Savior during this time. I love thinking about the things that I need to change that week in order to become closer to Him.

Alejandra and Roberto should be getting baptized this Sunday but they still lack a few lessons and so we are thinking that two weeks from now will be better. But we will see! This family is a gift from God! They are doing very well and really feel good in the church and love going on Sunday. I will let you know about what goes on this week with them!

So apparently all the missionaries that come to this area gain weight because the members are so awesome and give us TONS of food. We have already seen this...and felt it too. So Hermana Lobo and I decided to wake up early and go running every morning so we don´t get too fat haha. It has been nice but we are pretty tired! It´s okay though because I have gotten used to it by now i think. It is also nice to be able to go running again! I am loving it!

I went on my first exchange this week with the sisters in Liniers and it was a great experience! I learned so much from them and loved seeing the work that they are doing in their area! They are seeing so many miracles! We went to go contact a referral and had a 5 minute lesson with him and invited him to be baptized and he accepted! i believe he came to church yesterday as well! It was a great day with them and I was able to learn so much. They are exactly obedient with is what I love the most! I am so happy as a missionary when I see that other missionaries are being exactly obedient! It helps me feel so blessed to be a part of this mission!! :)

We have taught the plan of salvation a few times this week and i was thinking about how amazing this knowledge is. I realized that all my life I have known about this plan and that my family can be together forever, and that I haven´t really had to wait for anyone to tell me. I thought about how I would feel if I was an investigator, learning for the first time in my life that my family could be together forever through Christ. I feel like the spirit would enter my whole body and I would feel like the happiest person ever! It would be such a powerful feeling I feel like. I hope that this is how people feel when they hear this. I know that when we bare our testimonies in words as simple as I know that families can live together forever, that the spirit can testify to the people and that they can feel this happiness and hope and love that we feel with this knowledge!! i am so blessed to have the family that I have and to know that we can all like together forever! i am grateful to be a missionary and to teach this divine truth to God´s children. I love being a missionary and I love these people so much.

Love you so much Mom and Dad and thanks for all you do! Give everyone my hugs and kisses! I am so blessed to have the family and friends that I have! Thanks for your prayers and thoughts and love! They are felt here!

Love, 

Hermana Syphus 

Week 50 (Mar. 17, 2014 Parque Chacabuco, Argentina)

Hey there Mom! :) Well I have read my emails, looked at the weekly numbers for the hermanas in our mission, and written President...and my companion is already expecting me to be done. She finished everything in 35 minutes. These native companions just don´t understand and it is driving me nuts!!! The most important thing for me on pday is to write my loved ones and they couldnt care less about that. She wants to get together with some other hermanas and so she is already done and waiting for me :( This is stressing me out. But I will be okay. I will just only be able to write you and that is it. I can´t write clel or his family anymore, or anyone else in the family..this is bogus I tell you. Just bogus. I am sorry if I don´t respond to the things you wrote to me :( I will for sure answer your questions though so no worries :) 

We received a surprise email yesterday from a man who video taped Katelyn in Argentina.  He was there picking up his son from his mission and thought it would be fun for us to see our daughter.  What a wonderful surprise it was!!!

So that video yesterday haha. He was just like, "Hermana I am going to video you and send it to you mom...okay get ready!" I had no idea what to say because it was really sudden and I couldn´t even think for one second of what I wanted to say! And I was speaking spanish right before that so my head was thinking in spanish I was speaking in english and it was just not what I would have said probably if I had more time to think haha. So sorry. I hope I looked happy haha. I really was though! Yesterday was our first Sunday in this ward and THEY ARE SO AWESOME!!! I LOVE THIS WARD SO MUCH!! Really, I feel so blessed to be in Chacabuco! I want to explain everything to you and I can´t! Hermana Lobo must not say hardly anything to her family! She literally finished everything in 35 min. But anyway, to answer your questions,

Because there are 5 sister training leaders, we each have a group of sisters. We have around 15 I believe. We are in capital, so we are in charge of the capital sisters. There is also another set of stl in capital so we divided the different areas so we each have some. Then there are two sisters in provincia over the provincia sisters and one stl with her comp in a place called zarate, which is pretty far away I think and so that´s why she is over that part only.

No it does not take much time away from teaching and proselyting and such. We have the same schedule but just more responsibilities. Like each week we have a few meetings that we have to be to with the Pres and other leaders. And then we have to go on divisions or exchanges with each hermana that we are over to see how they are working and what we can do to help her. I am really excited for that! I am excited to learn from the other hermanas and see how they are working so that I can improve and be a better missionary. I don´t how much I am going to help them, I think they will just all help me haha. We have had to do lots of things this week though to start it all up and I am pretty tired! It is good though because it keeps me working and that is what I love!

Yes, we are part of Parque Chacabuco :) That is the name of the ward. And ya, there were two other sisters here before us. I think there have been sisters here since July of last year if I am correct. Sorry I did not really explain that very well. What happened is that the sisters that were here got taken out and Hermana Lobo and I came in not knowing anything. Usually one sister that knows the area will stay and one will come in, but in this case it was different. It has happened a few times. It has been an adventure!!! :) A little about this area: There are 8 missionaries in the ward including us and we are the only sisters. It is a great area but a bit dangerous. No worries though. We are not in the really dangerous part. The elders have what is called the "villa" I don´t know if I explained what I villa is to you yet. Maybe you could look it up "villas in argentina" I really want to explain it in detail but I have a feeling a won´t be able to do much of that anymore. It´s ok, it will help me :) A villa is a really poor community where tons of people live. They are just houses on top of houses and it is dangerous because thats where the drugs happen. The largest villa in Buenos Aires in in Chacabuco!!! I have always wanted to enter a villa and work in one because the people are so humbly and accept the gospel so well. the elders have lots of success there! But tons of members in the ward live in the villa so we get to go there when we have lunch with the members that live there! I am excited! In this area it is not recommended to take your camera around and we even have to put our cell phone and money and keys in our shirts. Never have done that before. But I really want a pic of the villa and of course the area so I will see what I can do. Don´t worry, I will do it in wisdom :) The ward is amazing. Seriously. Bishop Nogales is the man and is so chill and easy going but so powerful and inspired at the same time. He really is the best. The ward is organized and we have meeting scheduled for each week and at specific times. It is so wonderful! The asistance her in this ward is around 180 each week!!! That is so much here! In El Talar it was around 60 or 70 each week and so it is a huge difference and so special to see that the members work so hard here to create zion where they are and that they help and support one another. The people that get baptized here usually have no problem staying active and faithful because the members completely take over and assist in the work of salvation! It is such a blessing to be here and see how the work and efforts of the members really bless and save lives! I know that through the members of the church, God´s work will progress and grow! I am seeing that already here in Chacabuco and it is a great blessing! I really am so happy to be here and although it has been a hard week because it was all new, we have seen miracles and I know that the Lord will bless us. The hermanas that were here before us left us with some info that we could use. Like some people that we could see and all that jazz. Thank goodness for them!! :) They found a family like two weeks ago but didn´t teach them all together. Just a daughter that they talked to in her work. Her name is Yoselin and is 22 years old. They gave us the name and address of the family and we wen this past week to visit them. They are golden. I am so grateful for the other hermanas and for their work and inspiration and that they opened their mouths in order to find this family! There are 7 children and a mom and a dad but they are not married. Yoselin is the oldest and then they have a 20 year old named Alejandra, 17 year old named Roberto, a 9 year old named Herman I believe, and the youngest ones I am not sure but will get to know them better this week! The mom is Rosario and we haven´t met the husband yet. But we had a lesson with Yoselin first in her work one day and she said that we could come by and meet her family and teach them but that her mom might not like it. Well we went one day and only the mom Rosario was home so we taught her a bit about the plan of salvation and she loved it. So we set up a return appt with her and went back and this time with the family! This is when we met Roberto and Alejandra. We invited the entire family but they did not all stay. Just like any other family though haha. Wandering off. But Rosario, Alejandra and Roberto committed to come to church and to be baptized! And they came to church!! :) Hermana Lobo and I were so nervous because it was our first sunday and we didn´t really have anything but the Lord blessed us and when we went past their house sunday morning, they were still sleeping but told us that they wanted to come and to wait! So we did and they all came and loved it! Yoselin can´t come on sundays as of right now because of her work, but we are trying to see what can be done so that she can come with her family! They are on date to be baptized the 30 of march so we will see! Rosario also has this date but is not married so that is something we are thinking about as well. But I am so happy and I know that the Lord as been preparing this family to receive the gospel and to accept it! It was so special teaching them all the plan of salvation as a family and helping them know that their family can be together forever because of the love God has for us. Oh and their last name is Rocha :)

We met with the bishop and the other elders in our ward yesterday to talk about a plan that we are going to start that will help the ward grow even more and will help the less actives and recent converts to stay firm and steady. It was a good meeting and I am excited to implement what we learned! Each organization in the ward chooses 5 families or names that need to be fellow shipped or helped. We work with these 5 families or people and think about what they need. Bishop wants 300 people at the ward conference in july I think it is, and we believe this will help. I am just explaining it in a nut shell but that is pretty much what it is.

I feel so blessed to be here in this area and I know that God´s work is being done here. The members are so willing to act and help and support and everything is just so great! We are still trying to get to know our area and the members and people, but I know it will come with time. Hermana Lobo is really amazing I am so blessed to be with her as well. She has taught me so much already and I hope I can act upon the things that I am learning so that the Lord can better shape me and prepare me for what he needs me to do.

I was reading Preach My Gospel and it talks about how when God called upon Christ to perform the Atonement, that Christ was prepared and ready. Even Christ had to prepare himself for the calling that he had. This taught me that I need to prepare myself for what God has for me and that when he calls upon me to do something, I need to be ready and willing to do it. I am grateful for the blessings in my like and for the callings that he has given me. I am excited to continue serving Him here in this part of HIs vineyard and I know that all will be well!!

Love you so much Mom and Dad and family!!! :) Thank you for everything that you do for me!! Hope you all have a great week!

Hermana Syphus 
Kates 

AND YES I AM HEALTHY AND HAPPY!!!! :D LOVE YOU!!!