hey everyone i got transfered today to salta!!! and salta is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! it is gorgeous. and it isnt nearly as hot as Santiago but i am going to miss santiago so much!!!!!! so so much.  i really felt like i had a lot more to do there until they called and said i had to go and then i felt peace. i felt ready but i still felt sad because i couldnt say goodbye to anyone. it was so sad.....

but now im here and my companion is hermana farr.... she is my first north american companion!  and shes new. im her madrastra.... (its stepmom... we call trainers moms and the 2nd companion stepmoms.... ) so its a lot of responsabiliy. but she is really great really funny.a dn we had such great adventure today!!!!!! haha.  so i came to salta with all of the people who are finnishing their missions. so i wouldnt travel alone.  but then we got to salta and my companion wasnt there.  her companion finnishes today too.a nd she was with her in the offices of the mission. and so iwent there. oh and i saw hermana ROJAS!!!!! oh it was so happy. i havent seen her in forever and it made me so so happy t see her. 

anyways... so we finally left the offices and waited like 20 minutes for a taxi and then we got to the apartment complex and we didnt have the keys!!! she left htem with hermana villena.  and we dont ahve a cell phone right now... so we had to talk to someone leave my stuff and go back to the offices and ask hermana villena for the keys. and she didnt have them either.  she left them in the door!!!!! ahhh so we had to find a way to get in... it was fun and we had to get kind of creative.. now i feel like i am here for a reason.  like i need to be here to help somone.and i love my companion so much.  ;) shes great.

hmmmm..... i was thinking about something i learned this week that would lift you all up spiritually but im not sure. the only thing that i can think of its the talk from elder uchtdorf  "forget me not"  i love this talk. it always helps me a lot but one quote really touched me this week and helped me be better.  it says:In the meantime, be thankful for all the small successes in your home, your family relationships, your education and livelihood, your Church participation and personal improvement. Like the forget-me-nots, these successes may seem tiny to you and they may go unnoticed by others, but God notices them and they are not small to Him.

i really like this a lot because i like how it says that maybe the changes, the miracles you see are tiny. so tinyt hat nobody notices the changes but it says taht they are NOT small to the lord.  none of our successes. the little changes we make are small to the lord. he says that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass...." i know taht this is true. i know that he love s us and rejoices with us when we are making progress... no matter how small it is to everyone else.

i lov eyou all sooo so so much.

havea wonderful week

hermana applegate

hey everyone!!!!

how was youre week? Mine was really really good!  it was hard but it was soo good and so worth it.

So thanksgiving is this week? im so glad you told me because i wasnt sure if it was this week or the next.... :) i have planning thursday so i will have to do something... 

Haha but this week i met a lot of new people and realized how much i love the people here.  Ive realized sometimes its really hard to stop teaching the people who are not progressing. especially because i grow to love them so much that i want to just will them to do the things that they need to do. to progress... but it doesnt work that way. we have to love them and do the best that we can to help them grow and when they decide not to do it we cant do a lot just love them.  

But also this week i realized how much the Lord really loves us. he really loves us a lot and is so patient with us. but i also realized soemthing else.  we cannot destroy the work of the Lord with our mistakes.  we are going to have a lot of hem. but the Lord will always find another way to make something happen if its necesary. but he knows our weaknesses and knows what could happen and he takes a chance on us.  And i realized that the mission is more for me than it is for anyone else.  Yes i have the opportunity to help other people come unto christ and be saved and i love the change in their eyes when they knwo and they want to follow these things when they realize that the lord loves them and feel the spirit is the best thing in the world.  But ive realized that if someone else were here and not me, these people would still hear the gospel maybe at a different timeand  in differetn circumstances, but i would never have the opportunity to know them.  The Lord gives us the opportunity to serve for us. so that we can grow and have these wonderful experiences and i am so SOOOO thankful for that.

I think that applies to every circumstance of our lives.  he lets us pass for all the experiences we have for US. to help us learna nd be happy.  He loves us so so much and i know it. I know it with all of my heart. and i hope that you guys can feel the love of your heavenly father. 

we were teaching a woman this week who really doesnt feel like the Lord loves her and it made me so so sad.  and she didnt want to pray and ask him if he loves her. she didnt think that He would answer and didnt want to either... and man it just broke my heart!!!! Because i could feel that Heavenly father loved her and wanted her to be happy. that he wanted to tell her she just needed to ask.. . i secretly still have hope that she decided to ask.. Because i know that when we ask, he always tells us.  I love the scripture that Joseph Smith read because i know that it is true. "and if any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of god, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him...." 

How POWERFUL is that promise.  how amazing.  he will always answer us and it doesnt matter how dumb we think the question is. if it matters to us, it matters to him.  

I want to invite all of you to pray.  really pray and talk to your heavenly father. and if you doubt that he is there or that he loves you. just ask him.  he will answer you.  i know because he answered me.  he answers me.  even if its something silly like "i need to feel pretty today" he always gives me somehting to make me feel pretty.  

will you guys pray and talk to god every day of your lives?  (here you all say "yes" in your minds)

Good I know that he loves you and you will feel that more and more in your lives if you do that. adn really come to him with humility....

well ive gotta go..

i love you all so so much.  ahve a wonderful week

les quiero!

hermana applegate

Hey everyone how are you all doing?!?!  I hope you are all doing good!

 

Im doing pretty good. I am constantly amazed at how preocupied The Lord is with his children.  with me!!!! and i know with everyone else.  I know that he loves us and that he wants us to be happy. That he wants us to seek the good out of everything.... hey that made me think of a song that i heard in the mission. a friend of my mtc companion sent me a cd and this song is on it and its one of my favorites.... its called "Seeking whats good" (you can find it on the page for youth at lds.org... and music.)  but it says

 

"the sunshine comes even when it rains. and even through darkness, the morning comes again.

I guess what im saying.. is that theres always something good that you can find.

and to see it, you open up your mind.

the bad will come and go. but through it all theres constant light for us to follow.

 

chorus: ive been opening up my eyes to see, all the beauty thats all around me

day after day and no matter what they say, I´ll follow it (somethign..) and come what may

ill be good, ill be strong and my heart will be pure, others may fall but ill endure.

cause im doing the things i should... seeking whats good..."

 

happiness comes to those who know, that all weve been given is a gift thats not our own.

i guess what im saying is that even when you make mistakes it only shows.

that together we still have room to grow, cant make it on our own.

but hand it hand we´ll walk the path that weve been shown.

chorus...

and even when trials come into our lives, faith makes our doubting soul take flight...."

 

its something like that... i dont remember all of the words. but i really like the song.  adn i know that the lord loves us. i know that  he wants us to be happy. so so happy.  and i know taht we can be happy only when we look for the good. and are grateful.  i learned a lot aobut gratitude this week and how important it is in our happiness.  we all have trials and dificulties. but, when we are grateful and seek the good, we can get over the hard stuff and be happy....

 

and yeah thats what i wanted to share this week.... its been a really eye opening week for me. ive seen people who seek the lord and seek the good and they can beat any trial that comes their way and ive seen people who get angry are pessimistic and only look at how hard it is and they dont grow at all....

 

so i want to invite you all to seek the good. be optimistic and trust in the lord. and when you guys do that you will be able to get over any trials :)

 

i lov eyou all so  stinking much!!!!

have a great week

hermana applegate

hey everybody. this is going to be short and sweet. because i dont have a whole lot of time. :)

 

But we had transfers today. and hermana terrera went home.  well... right now she is in the offices and tomorrow she will head home.  im gonna miss her a lot.

 

but my companion right now is hermana vargas!!!!! i dont know if i wrote about her but when i left the mtc, we met up with a group from the mtc in argentina and there was an hermana in the group and she is hermana vargas!!!!!! shes really great. and i was really nervous because i knew i was gonna have a lot more responsability this transfer. and i did a lot of praying for my new companion and that they would wnat to work hard and change things up. because i realized this week how we were working is not the most effective. we need to work through the members.  and more witht he local leaders.  and thats not easy. its easier to go and knock door... it involves less planning. but it doesnt work as well.....

 

anyways. she came and she is so ready to work and so the lord answered my prayers.  :)

 

he always does that. he always helps me out a lot. i know that god answers my prayers and i know he answers the prayers of everyone who prays with real intent. who really wnats to know and who is really willing to do whatever it takes to have success...

 

I love you all.... remember to pray everyday and read your scriptures.  someone said in stake conference this week that the people who fall away, who turn cold in the gospel are the people who neglect to do the little things every day.  and its not that they mean to do it. they just stop doing it.  because they were busy etc.  it was a really great weekend.  i got to go to the priesthood session for stake conference.  because they announced a new stake mission plan.  :)  it was so weird but so cool. i learned so much..

 

remember to take care of yourselves and to share the gospel.  it isnt just the responsablity of the missionaries its of everyone. and thats how the work really grows. when we all work together. 

 

lvoe you all

saludos a todos

hermana applegate

Can anyone hardly believe that its the end of October?!?!?

 

Im down to my last week with hermana terrera y im kinda sad.  Shes heading home.  but i decided i wanted to do something special so that she would remember the last few weeks of her mission. so i make little cards every night with a count down until she leaves and i write all of the good things of the day. and i have a little box that i want to decorate and put some cookies and treats in it for the trip.  I dont know if i will get the box done but she will at least have the notes done. :)

 

Im a little nervous too... because that means im gonna move up and some people keep joking that im gonna have an hijita!! (a new missionary that ive gotta train.....) im really hoping thats not true. but i guess we will know in about a week.

 

This week was really good!!!!!!! We had Zone conference and it was really really good.  He read with us from the Manual of George Albert Smith chapter 18.  Which is "stay on the Lords side of the Line."  OH man...I have a lot ive gotta fix up. It was soooo great it has a lot of great quotes that i liked.  This is probably the part that i liked the most:

 

"George Albert Smith often repeated the counsel his grandfather used to give to his family: “There is a line of demarcation well defined between the Lord’s territory and the devil’s territory. If you will stay on the Lord’s side of the line you will be under his influence and will have no desire to do wrong; but if you cross to the devil’s side of that line one inch you are in the tempter’s power and if he is successful, you will not be able to think or even reason properly because you will have lost the Spirit of the Lord.” George Albert Smith said that he used this counsel throughout his life to guide his choices: “When I have been tempted sometimes to do a certain thing, I have asked myself, ‘Which side of the line am I on?’ If I determined to be on the safe side, the Lord’s side, I would do the right thing every time. So when temptation comes think prayerfully about your problem and the influence of the Lord will aid you to decide wisely. There is safety for us only on the Lord’s side of the line.""
I think a lot of times people forget and let just little things happen.  just the little things like not really study today just read a little or not have as great of prayers and as we forget that, little by little we are crossing hte line and then one day we are going to wake up and realize we arent anywhere close to the lords side. And Satan is really deceptive.  He makes everything look grey and so we think "oh its not so terrible" and we forget that if its not white its not where we should be.  and then we get used to being there and it looks whiter to us and we move a little more into the grey.... and then we cant figure out why things are so hard...
haha i dont know why i just shared all of that. but i liked that a lot. i liked the conference a lot. my mission president is so great. 
so i look forward to hear from all of you guys i love yall so much!!!!
les quiero!
hermana applegate

SOOOO this week was good... interesting... but good.

I really felt like we were there when people needed us this week.  :) and i learned so much from my companion. I love her so much. Im so glad that i have the opportunity to be her companion right now as she is finnishing up her mission.  I will admit this transfer i was a little sad when hermana franco (who has less time in the mission than i do) moved up to senior companion and i didnt. I felt like maybe i just wasnt good enough or that the lord doesnt have confidence in me (does that make sense in english?) but honestly i feel more and more like i have to be with hermana terrera and thats all thats important to the lord. it doesnt matter to him if im senior or junior companion. as long as im trying to do my best he will make up the difference.  and i am so grateful for that. and i got really humbled from my little bit of pride... well lots im so gra teful for the mission.

Okay so this week we have been sharing a talk with a whole lot of hte women that we teach. especially they younger ones.  its by President Uchtdorf from the young womens broadcast in 2010... its soo good. its called "Your happily ever after"  here is the link if you want it. 

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/general-young-women-meeting/2010/03/your-happily-ever-after?lang=eng

But he starts out talking about fairytales and taht the best part is "and they lived happily ever after" - remember that its for young women -  and he talks about how we all can have a happily ever after.  he says "

"“Happily ever after” is not something found only in fairy tales. You can have it! It is available for you! But you must follow your Heavenly Father’s map.
Sisters, please embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ! Learn to love your Heavenly Father with all your heart, might, and mind. Fill your souls with virtue, and love goodness. Always strive to bring out the best in yourself and others.
Learn to accept and act upon the Young Women values. Live the standards in For the Strength of Youth. These standards guide and direct you to your “happily ever after.” Living these standards will prepare you to make sacred covenants in the temple and establish your own legacy of goodness in your individual circumstances. “Stand … in holy places, and be not moved,” ⁵ regardless of temptations or difficulties. I promise you that future generations will be grateful for you and praise your name for your courage and faithfulness during this crucial time of your life."
I love that idea. we can all be happy! thats what the lord wants but weve gotta follow the gospel.  he also says that its not easy. he reminds us
"For a moment, think back about your favorite fairy tale. In that story the main character may be a princess or a peasant; she might be a mermaid or a milkmaid, a ruler or a servant. You will find one thing all have in common: they must overcome adversity.
Cinderella has to endure her wicked stepmother and evil stepsisters. She is compelled to suffer long hours of servitude and ridicule.
In “Beauty and the Beast,” Belle becomes a captive to a frightful-looking beast in order to save her father. She sacrifices her home and family, all she holds dear, to spend several months in the beast’s castle.
In the tale “Rumpelstiltskin,” a poor miller promises the king that his daughter can spin straw into gold. The king immediately sends for her and locks her in a room with a mound of straw and a spinning wheel. Later in the story she faces the danger of losing her firstborn child unless she can guess the name of the magical creature who helped her in this impossible task.
In each of these stories, Cinderella, Belle, and the miller’s daughter have to experience sadness and trial before they can reach their “happily ever after.” Think about it. Has there ever been a person who did not have to go through his or her own dark valley of temptation, trial, and sorrow?
Sandwiched between their “once upon a time” and “happily ever after,” they all had to experience great adversity. Why must all experience sadness and tragedy? Why could we not simply live in bliss and peace, each day filled with wonder, joy, and love?
The scriptures tell us there must be opposition in all things, for without it we could not discern the sweet from the bitter. ² Would the marathon runner feel the triumph of finishing the race had she not felt the pain of the hours of pushing against her limits? Would the pianist feel the joy of mastering an intricate sonata without the painstaking hours of practice?"
everything worth anything in this life comes with trials. i know it and you all probably know it too. and if we have a positive attitude we can get through anything and we can find our prince charming at the end of it. i have one less active who said "yeah and our prince charming is God! its Jesus Christ and they are always there waiting for us!" and i was like "yeah! why dont you come to church and find him" (i just thought that in my mind... i didnt say it)  but its true.  its only through Christ that we can find happiness and live happily ever after.

I have seen some great people here. people who have been very faithful to the gospel. in my life i have seen so many examples of how to be happy! and its through the gospel. i know that more and more here. Because here i have the opportunity to see the other side. a lot more than i ever have before. and a lot of people think that because we as members of the church have so many high standards we are crazy. and we arent free. and i look at their lives and i htink i would never want to be where they are. so far away from the strength that i recieve from my Heavenly Father every day.  and a lot of people just cant see a way out.  and its so sad. nad they dont let us help them past these rough spots. 

The church is so true. so so true. and i am grateful for this opportunity i have to tell people that its true. and i am so happy when they are doing hte things that they need to do to change.  we are  teaching a girl named Romina and she is so great!! she wants her family to be better. she wants to change her life and the life of her son and everything.  she wants to get baptized. she just has to get married first... but to see the change in her and to teach her makes me so happy.  and eventually her boyfriend will sit down and listen to us consistantly too but i lvoe the people here they make me so happy.
I hope you all can think back on how you guys gained your testimonies. how you knew that this was true. and think about all the blessings youve recieved through the gospel then share it with someone!!!!!  Share it with someone who doesnt know. and help them be happy too.  My mission president sent me a quote from this past conference (its in spanish so ill translate it so im not sure if all the words will be exactly what he said.. but its close) " we should try to look at men not how they are, but instead what they could become when they recieve a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ."  i know that this gospel changes lives. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of god to lead us and guide us.  and i know that he restored the authority of god to the earth so that we can recieve the guidance of the Lord again. and i am so grateful for that. I know that the book of mormon is the word of god to lead and guide us through everything.  and i know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and redeemer and that he gave his life and suffered more than we can imagine so hat we can have  a happily ever after. I know he lives and he loves us.
and everyone who doesnt know about he church i wnat to invite you guys to look into it. :) read the book of mormon pray to know that it is true. because you all have a happily ever after waiting for you. Youve just gotta come and get it.
Les Quiero!!!! MUCHISIMO!!!!! gracias por su amor
hermana applegate

his week was sooooo great!!!!!

and Laura your new baby is adoreable (mom sent me a picture....) :) i cant wait to get to know him someday. 

We saw so many miracles this week.  so many and i feel like we really helped the people that the Lord needed us to help. 

AAAAANNNNNDDDD....

We had a baptism!!!! WOOO HOOOO.  and it was one of the most amazing baptisms ive seen.  It was just so special.

weve been teaching Maria for a long time and shes always been unsure about baptism.  Shes listened to the missionaries so many times before (her son is a member in another branch and hes in the branch presidency... so she has a lot of exposure to the church.)  But shes really progressed solo because we havent had a whole lot of tiem to teach her.  but she reads and prays and quit smoking and when he son went to chilie with the stake to go to the temple she went with them (she didnt go in the temple...)  but its taken a lot of patience to get her to baptism because she wouldnt be rushed nad now i feel like it was the best thing.

And the service was so nice.  Walter planned everything.  the talks were from her grand daughters, he bore his testimony, they picked out the songs and organized everything.  all we had to do as missionaries is fill the font and bring food (but htey brought food too....) :) but oh man i cant tell you how happy it was i cant explain the joy that comes from seeing someone make changes in their lives so that they can follow the Lord. 

It really was an amazing weekend. with that and hte Relief Society Broadcast.  :) I love the new relief society presidency and i think every talk was perfect for me. nad also for an investigator that we brought :)  double whammy. 

But i really feel like the lord was guiding my steps and i hope that that keeps happening. :)

have a great week everyone
hermana applegate

Can you believe its October!!!!! I hardly can... where did the time go???

Oh and i have a happy announcement... but it really doesnt have anything to do with anything... i havent bitten my nails in a week!!! i am trying to quit that really bad habit.  I have a bunch of little bad habits like that. but i started with that and i didnt bite my nails all week... i painted them clear to help me with that and i think like everyday i pull off the nail polish and have to repaint them because it bugs me when they chip... but im gona get better at that  and i just thought id share that.... im pretty excited about that.

OH didnt you guys just LOVE Conference!!!!!!! it was pretty AMAZING!!!!  what a powerful weekend.  and i hope that everyone else is as excited about the change in age for missions!!!!!!! for anyone who didnt hear.  and young man who has finnished high school and is 18 can serve a mission!! and any young women at age 19.  thats if they are prepared.  ITs soooo exciting.  the work is growing. and growing and growing.  In my mission we have mini missionaries to help sometimes because there is such a need.  and anyone who has the opportunity should go on a mission it is amazing.  Really really amazing. 

Oh and another exciting thing... i watched conference in spanish!!!! haha and i understood it all. that was pretty exciting.  I was a little sad tuesday because i wanted to watch it in spanish but all of hte americans in my district wanted to watch in english and if hermana peterson wanted to i would ahve to go watch with her because we need to have companions and hers cant watch in english because she speaks spanish... but anyways friday at lunch with our bishop he said that the meeting house doesnt have an english channel... something happened and it doesnt work :)  haha so we all had to watch in spanish and it was amazing!  it was so fun. did you know that some of the speakers who speak spanish record their talk before hand and then they hit play and it plays the recording while they are talking. so they finish after the recording does... but i thought that was so special that they took the time to do that. i thought that they jsut had translators... which they do for most. but some are recordings. like elder scott (who by the way was amission president here in northern argentina :) the president for elder christofferson...) it was his voice! only in spanish. it was pretty cool

What talks did you like from conference?!?! i have so many that i like. but one really stood out to me and that was the talk by Elder Bednar.  He talked about the difference between having a testimony and being converted.  and it really hit me.  i ahve met so many people who are inactive who say. well i know that the church is true. i have a testimony.. and i just think "THEN WHY DONT YOU GO TO CHURCH!!!!" because if we arent active and obey the commandments, our testimonies dont really help a whole lot.  And i hope that they realize the way to recieve help from the Lord is through enduring to the end.  that is one of the hardest parts of the gospel is endureing. and enduring well. i like the the word we use in spanish perserverar... that means perservere.  i think that works better for endure to the end. There is so much to do in this life... so so much that if we are lazy and arent always trying to do the things we need to do to make it back and live with our heavenly father we miss sooo much.. people miss out on so much by not enduring and not being converted.  we all have to do our best...

but i loved this weekend. i learned sooo so much and i hope that you guys did too.  ive met some amazing people here too.. and i love to see when they start to have a desire to follow these things. when they have a desire to know and to change their lives.  ive seen taht a lot in some of our investigators and it makes me so happy. im not sure i really do a whole lot. but i get to see it all and it makes me really hapy.

i love you all! have a great week!!!

hermana applegate

we had transfers today..... :)  im still in La Banda and Hermana terrera is still my companion.  Shes really great. Shes gonna die here with me.  :) And i can feel like its gonna be a great transfer. we are gonna have a lot of success... weve just gotta work out a few bugs first.  I want this to be the best transfer of her mission..... :)  thats my goal. 

OH but there is one more exciting thing about transfers! Hermana Wills left... im gonna miss her a lot. but she is going to ORAN!!! When they said she was leaving I was kinda sad but when they said shes going to Oran i about jumped for joy! Oran is pretty much amazing she is going to do great things there and i am happy that someone i know and love is going to go and take care of all my converts. :) and the people I learned to love so much. Hermana Rojas was there but now shes leaving so i needed soemone else that i know there. 

And the new Hermana - Hermana Peterson - Likes to run sooooo im gonna have another runnign buddy. but she looks a lot more in shape than i am.... :)  Ive gotta take better care of my body.

But sooo this week i learned an awful lot of things.  A LOT A LOT A LOT.  We had a meeting with the zone leaders like we do now and they gave us a lot of new things to work on. and one of these things is the sabbath day. and to really sanctify the sabbath day.  I know that sounds a little weird but let me explain.  We still work sundays like we do all the other days of the week.  and so normally the only thing that sets sunday apart from the other days is that we have church and weve gotta bring our investigators. and at least for me i am so worried about the people who couldnt come of if they feel the spirit etc. that i dont really enjoy or listen to the classes. its just another day. and so our leaders challenged us to really try to keep the sabbath day holy.  Not just trabajar. but find a way to really set this day apart for the Lord.  and this sunday i tried to do taht. i tried to really pay attention in church and just listen to the spirit.  and man it made all the difference.  I learned so much more. I really recieved a lot of help from our Savior. and our Heavenly Father. and i know that if you guys really try to keep this day special. Really put it as a day for the Lord you guys are going to feel a difference you are going to have a much better week and you are going to know the things the lord wants you to do that week to be happy and have success....

So i learned a lot about humility this week and trusting in the lord to help you do what he wants and not giving in to pressure and especially about being wise.  I read this talk by elder ballard its called "o be wise"  nad here is the link http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/10/o-be-wise?lang=eng

but it talks a lot about how we should be wise in our service. to really help the lord brign about his purposes.  He can make it happen if we just have desires but if we are wise in waht we do we can make hte work a lot more effective and the Lord can help us MORE!!!! I think we can apply all of this to our lives in everything that we do. but one thing i really think is so important in missionary work is that we need to remember that the people are the important thing. Not the numbers we need to count every night.  I have seen missionaries that just want numbers and missionaries that just want people. and there is such a difference. and he said something i really liked...

"members should be allowed to fulfill their stewardship as best they can. Counsel, advise, persuade, motivate—but don’t do the work for them. Allow others to progress and grow, even if it means sometimes getting less-than-perfect results on the reports."

I think a lot of time we do things just to look good and we care more about what everyone thinks about us more than about what the Lord thinks about us. and if we are helping people or not. if we are doing the best we can or not.  I need to work on that....

I know thats true. and i know its only through obedience that we can recieve the help that we want from the Lord.

It was really cool to learn.

have a great week everyone!!!!
les quiero mucho!
hermana applegate

hey everyone!!!!

how is everythig?  i hope everything is good. 

so i found the coolest thing that i wanted to share with you guys.  I found a talk in the april 2011 conference by M. Russell Ballard. and i just LOVED a story that he told that helped me refocus myself again.  (ive gotta do that like once a week.... its funny how we can relearn the same thing over and over again and stillneed to learn  the same thing...)  but it says:
"Oftentimes we are like the young merchant from Boston, who in 1849, as the story goes, was caught up in the fervor of the California gold rush. He sold all of his possessions to seek his fortune in the California rivers, which he was told were filled with gold nuggets so big that one could hardly carry them.
Day after endless day, the young man dipped his pan into the river and came up empty. His only reward was a growing pile of rocks. Discouraged and broke, he was ready to quit until one day an old, experienced prospector said to him, “That’s quite a pile of rocks you are getting there, my boy.”
The young man replied, “There’s no gold here. I’m going back home.”
Walking over to the pile of rocks, the old prospector said, “Oh, there is gold all right. You just have to know where to find it.” He picked two rocks up in his hands and crashed them together. One of the rocks split open, revealing several flecks of gold sparkling in the sunlight.
Noticing a bulging leather pouch fastened to the prospector’s waist, the young man said, “I’m looking for nuggets like the ones in your pouch, not just tiny flecks.”
The old prospector extended his pouch toward the young man, who looked inside, expecting to see several large nuggets. He was stunned to see that the pouch was filled with thousands of flecks of gold.
The old prospector said, “Son, it seems to me you are so busy looking for large nuggets that you’re missing filling your pouch with these precious flecks of gold. The patient accumulation of these little flecks has brought me great wealth.”"
I was trying to find a way to help my companion feel better and i was reading this and i realized how as missionaries we pray and pray for miracles.  we want to see the great big miracles like "we found a family that wanted to be baptized and they had gone to church all the times they needed and had a testimony of the book of mormon so we baptized them saturday..."  I know that these miracles exist... but there arent a whole lot of them. theyre like the nuggets of gold.  but more times than not we have the little miracles.  Like when they read the book of mormon its a little miracle. or they go  to church. or when you see a change in their lives ad you just know they are progressing.  And i realized that as we pay attention to these litte things and try to have them more. help them progress little by little- in time they are going to turn into baptisms but also into happy memories. and you are going to be full. as ive been paying attention to the little memories i dont remember a whole lot of the bad things. 
we had a mini missionera this week.  (we have people who are preparing to go on missions come and work with us for like a week ... well she was just there for a weekend.. but we study with them and teach tem ad its kinda fun...)  but the purpose is to do more work.  we go on splits with them. but we only had her sunday so she was going with us to all of our appointments and she asked where was the worst day of the mission... and i realized that i have no idea. there are hard days but no bad days.  well im sure i thought they were bad when i had them but right now i dont remember a whole lot. and i know that as we focus on those little miracles. the little happy things everyday in our lives. we are going to be happy and we are going to not notice the bad things as much. and i think that god wants us to be happy... what do you think?
I love you all!!!!
have a great week
hermana applegate

Hey everyone!!!

I hope you all have had a great week!!!! I know I have... especially today... :)  we got together as a district to play vollyball but there wasnt a volley ball... and soooo we played basketball.. I havent run around and played basketball in so long. it was so much fun.. Hermana Franco (one of the hermanas in my district/apartment)  is a blast... she didnt know how to play and Elder mullenaux said that she just needed to keep me from getting the ball... and she doesnt really know the rules of basket ball so she would grab me so that i couldnt move... it was funny... :)

Thank you everyone for your love and support on my mission :) I really appreciate everything that everyone has done for me and my family..

This week we had a baptism!!!!!! oh man it was sooo happy! we found out thursday when we were planning for the night (or was it wednesday.....)  but Malena is this 10 year old girl that the missionaries have been teaching forever.  Her parents are divorced and inactive and she lives with her mom in santiago. but for hte weekends she comes to visit her dad and her grandparents (the grandparents are active) and she always goes to church with them. She knows a lot and has wanted to get baptized for a LONG TIME.  but the mom always said that she couldnt.  she wasnt ready... and the hermanas before tried everything... but the mom didnt want any of it. and then this past week we called the elders and they went and the mom gave her permission!!! woo hoo!!!! so we baptized her saturday. and oh man baptisms are the best especially when the people are so valient to get baptized.  the water was cold and we started late. but she did it anyways.  with a big huge smile on her face. 

sooo i just finnished my email and the computer stopped working and sooo it erased a whole lot... dang it... so that must mean i need to write something else....

I love the people here sooo much. I love to see the valient people. the members who come no matter what  The people (like malena) who have such a strong testimony of the gospel that they do everything they can to do everything.  There is this man, Nelson,  and he had a stroke and then got baptized.  he doesnt talk well but he can talk now and he knows that it is because of htis gospel. he is such a sweet person.  and is always worried about others.  he is studying computers now (hes like 60 something...) to help the church and every sunday rain or shine. hot or cold he walks to church.  He lives in one of the furthest barrios (neighborhoods.) and he gets up and walks because the buses arent very reliable sundays (they come like every hour or 2 hours...)He went to the temple recentlya nd he is just amazing.

And also there is Alfredo and Antonela. and they are a couple but they arent married.  for reasons im not exactly sure... but they cant be baptized until they are married. nad they are some of hte most active people in the church. they go to all of the activities. they have little assignments (like put the hymns up so everyone knows the numbers) and are so friendly nad amazing.  They have burning testimonys that this church is true and are waiting anxiously for hte day that they can get married nad be baptized. they bring all of their kids etc... They are really amazing too

This makes me think a lot about how faithful of a member am i? Would i be willing to walk to church every sunday? and have callings that i dont feel adequate for adn try my best happily? how willing am i not to murmur when something happens? when i cant do soemthing that i want?  Am i really willing to stand as a witness of God at all times, in all things and in all places? Do i even understand what that means completely?

Ive been thinking lately about how sad it is when people lose their faith. when they decide their problems are bigger than anything else and give up... I dont want that to happen to anyone.  that would make me really sad. 

that was just my thoughts this week.. and i had a lot more... but thats just what came out...

love you all sooo much. thank you for everythign!!! for all your love and support :)

les quiero!!!
hermana Applegate

Hey there everyone
I hope everyone is doing well

Good luck terryn, youre just gonna love being a missionary.

This week was really good.  we had companion exchanges friday with the hermanas in 9 de Julio-they are the only other hermanas in our zone nad we share an apt with them... theyre really great- but i went with hermana franco to work in their area.  and she is really great.  it was kinda fun to go and meet other people.  but i learned a lot and i left that night with a sure testimony that this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I have  no doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet of God to bring the gospel of jesus christ back into the earth.. and everyday i recieve more of a witness of htat.

but so friday...we visited a lot of people but one lesson in particular was special.  we went and taught a couple that theyve been teaching but never wants to commit to get married... but so we were talking and we were going to show the video the restoration and then try and pull out a date to get married... and i had the thought that maybe they hadnt prayed to know if the church was true because if they had that testimony, they would be willing to do whatever they needed to.  and so after the video i asked them if they had prayed specifically adn they said no... and so i had sebastian -the husband- pray and ask and oh man... the spirit was so strong nad afterwards he knew it was true. she knew too... and they promised to pray that night about the date that we gave them... and they gave us alfajores afterwards... you always know something changed when they give you food.. haha..

but anyways it was an amazing experience to see the change in him when he knew that it was true. when he recognized the spirit. anyone who was there couldnt deny that something was present.  I dont know how people can not believe in God when we have so many witnesses that he is there. He exists. we are his children, he loves us and if we follow him we can be happier than anyone could imagine. I know thats true. and i know that he answers prayers.  You guys can know that too....anyone can know.  You just have to ask god. and he will answer.  He always answers but not always in the sameway and n ot always in the way that we think...

I read a quote by elder uchtdorf which was kinda interesting about that..."Often, the answer to our prayer does not come while we’re on our knees but while we’re on our feet serving the Lord and serving those around us. Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our spirits, remove the scales from our spiritual eyes, and open the windows of heaven. By becoming the answer to someone’s prayer, we often find the answer to our own."
I really liked that.  he answers our prayers through other people. and we answer the prayers of other people when we act on the promptings we recieve from the spirit.  always tryt o listen to the spirit. it will tell you what you need to do and help you help other people....we are supposed to be "actively engaged in a good cause..."

but anyways... this week we had an activity for the stake that we -the missionaries- organized. the Iron Rod. it was so much fun... we put blind folds on everyone and we had a string that was the rod and the elderes took them through and were trying to get them to let go of the rod and then they took them to the great and spacious building.  and it was crazy to see how many times people came back to start over. some came bakc like 3 or 4 times. and i guess thats how life is sometimes. we forget our instructions to not let go of the rod nad we start to listen to the people around us. hte people we "trust" and we stop listening to the lord.  and then we get lost. one girl was mad because the elder told her htat she had won and hten when people came to tell her that she was in the great and spacious building she was upset... but i realized that satan is a liar and sometimes, most times, wethink we are winning when we follow hima nd dont trust in the lord, but there will come a day that we will wake up and realize taht it was a lie and we lost....

the activity was fun to watch. it was fun to chat with the people as i was blind folding them. tell them again not to let go and send them  into the room and watch the elders... some were really good at decieving the people. and the food... the "fruit" was pretty good.  my cookies didnt turn out so great... like the worst ive made... but everyone else liked em...

but i guess thats about all...for now.

love you guys a lot
les quiero.
hermana applegate

hey everyone!!!

this week we had a lot A LOT of miracles!!!! One thing that hermana terrera said she heard once is that we should pray everyday to see miracles.  Because if we dont ask to see miracles we are never gonna see them.  I am also trying to write 3 miracles ive seen everyday and honestly sometimes they are things like.... today i ate this and i didnt die.... :) that was saturday.... they gave us locro... which im not really sure what it is... but its like a soup... or stew... with lots of meat and corn and everyone really likes it... but im not a fan of the smell and it sometimes has cow stomach which is apparently really yummy.... but so i had to eat it... and really it wasnt bad. it was actually pretty good.... well other than the stomach.. i didnt eat that part... i left it in my bowl....but its always good to try new things! i hope htat doesnt sound negative... cause i meant it to be a good thing

anyways.... i was talking about miracles... the days that i just have miracles like that are the days taht i wasnt looking for the miracles during the day.....  because if i was looking for them i could always find them... especially the days that we prayed to see them..

But so we are teaching this family... Lili and Pablo. and they have 2 little kids who are soooo cute.  but so lili has been an investigator for a long time...but pablo never wanted to listen and when the missionaries came over he left.... but weve started to teach him too and he is progressing!!!!  he supposedly "cant read" but he can read really well he just doesnt want anyone to know and he is reading the book of mormon. a lot. more than his wife... and little by little he is talking more in the lessons. htey are starting to wait for us to come and visit and this week when we went to go and look for them to go to church. he was awake and ready to go... lili didnt go but pablo did...it was pretty exciting.

and oh my goodness!!!! church was sooo so good yesterday.  there was actually quite a few people there.  but all of hte youth this week went to EFY (i think taht efy is the closest thing to youth conference and that they have here...but so the stake was really involved in getting them to go..) nad so in sacrament meeting they had the youth bear their testimonies about efy. and oh wow!!! there are some powerful youth here.  It was really good to see.  They had some of the typical i-didnt-want-to-go-but-my-mom-made-me-and-then-i-got-there-and-im-so-glad-that-i-went attitudes... i love those sometimes because it shows what happens when we repent and change our attitudes... we can learn so much.  but there were a couple of them that were really touching. this sound terrible but i love to see the young men who really have powerful spiritual experiences and they stop being tough and they cry right there in front of everyone.  i look at them and i think. these kids re gonna make great missionaries and great leaders here in argentina.  how great!!!!  it was amazing. I love the youth. they have such desires to grow and be better.

yeah it was a really great semana.... a lot of times it seemed like we were in the right place at the right time.  or knocked on the right door or taught the right lesson. 

it is such a joy to see the change in the eyes of the people when they feel the spirit or they start to realize that this gospel is true. when they get a testimony.. the confidence they start to have is so amazing.  i feel like im starting to understand what the book of mormon means when it talks about hte sons of mosiah.. i think i know how they felt before they left.. i love alma 26 because its ammon talking about the blessings of god and the things they had seen.

1 And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we ^astarted from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?  2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?
 3 Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how ^amany of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made ^binstruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.
...
16 Therefore, let us ^aglory, yea, we will ^bglory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his ^cmercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.
....
 26 But behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the wilderness not with the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls.
 27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to ^aturn back, behold, the Lord ^bcomforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with ^cpatience thine ^dafflictions, and I will give unto you success.
 28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.
 29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their ^asynagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been ^bstoned, and taken and bound with ^cstrong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.
 30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our ^ajoy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.
isnt the work of the lord beautiful and wonderful?  i havent come close to baptizing thousands like they did. but they joy i feel helping the people one by one is incomprehensible....
I KNOW without a doubt in my mind htat this is the work of the Lord. i know that these people i am serving are the children of god as well as everyone else in the world. they are amazing people if you take the time to listen. 

Ive actually had a song from the movie rigaletto in my head but it says
"music boxes have with them. melodies they carry with them. once they open music fills the air.
everybody you have known, has a song, of their own, once they open up youll hear whats there.
its not easy, you must listen, with your heart to the songs with in (not exactly....)
there was a melody locked deep inside of me but now its free. it found a place embraced by harmony. sweet harmony. 

love more than anything teaches my heart to sing. only love... could break the shell now i know very well. the love within myself."
I love this because as ive started to learn to love these people. love them sooo so much i am so much happier and i understand people more. i love to just listen to people.  i want to help them more than anything else.  And i know that the only way i can is through baptism...i dont have the power to do anything else... just listening makes them feel better temporarily but its like putting on a bandaid.... when they need stitches or something like that... we (the missionaries) are the only people in the world authorized to save souls... how crazy to think about.  because no one can be saved without baptism... no one... and i want all these people in the celestial kingdom (all of you guys too!!!!)

I saw lots of miracles this week and i hope to see more this coming week.
I hope you guys saw some too.
have a wonderful week
i love you all sooooo much. and im glad to hear that everyone is alright from the shooting.... someone told me it was in huston (im not sure how to spell anymore..)  and then someone else told me it was denver.... so im glad everyone is safe. ive got you all in my prayers.

hermana applegate

Hey everyone!!!

Happy fathers day!!! i hope everyone had a great one!!

I had a good one.  i had to give a talk. and so i prepared a really really great one about our purpose as missionaries. and that is "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sin, recieving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end."  how great of a purpose is that. But i decided the sunday before that i was gonna talk about Christ because a lot of time we forget about how central christ is in everything.  and so i broke down this purpose by little bit and was gonna talk about every little piece with scriptures and everything. Needless to say i was pretty excited about giving my talk (which NEVER happens...)  and then i got there and i was telling hernan who was gonna speak (its the missionary work people every third sunday...) and presidente Chauque came and said that analia had a talk aobut hte obra misional as well and so she talked instead of me... i shouldve known....

OH well they were really good talks and i learned a lot and i hope it inspires the members to do a little more because we are only 2 missionaries and the ward is huge and a lot of people think that the two of us and presidente are responsable for everything. which isnt true... but oh well.. its nice to know they have confidence in us.

This week actually ended a little rough... but i learned how to relieve stress a little more. and how to be more positive.  Because really. being positive is the most important thing when everything is going bad because honestly. if you are negative it just makes the bad things like 5 million times worse. so dont do it.  Sometimes its harder to look for the good than the bad but hey the best things are never easy.  Hermana levrino sent us a quote about that and overcomeing challenges... its in spanish so youll have to translate it yourself.


i dont know if you can read it.. its really good. its by albert einstein and he talks about how you would never learn anything is everything was easy. 

but thats aobut it for this week. have a great one

les quiero!!
hermana applegate

Hey everyone!!!

This week was soooooo good. I felt like a bit of a failure last night but im over that now and i am so grateful for this week.

We had a baptism saturday!!!! her name is Nilda. and she is amazing!  Shes 80 years old.  and her family is crazy!!! ive told you about her. but her kids dont want her to get baptized.  they dont like the whole tithing thing.  but so she decided she was gonna get baptized anyways she just wasnt gonna tell anyone about it.  So i felt like we were planning the great escape.  because she always has  someone in the house to watch her husband and her daughter. and so they couldnt know so wed go into other rooms and talk quietly and when she came in we´d talk about somethign else and it was crazy for like a week. but 2 people knew. elle who works in the mornings and marsia who we taught with nilda but now only works sundays.... but the baptism was so wonderful. it was really stressful. but really great. Nilda has great faith and the more opposition she had the more she wanted to get baptized.  And let me tell you what! Satan did NOT want her baptized.  

the day of was cold. and she is old so we had to try and get the water as warm as possible and so the thing they use to heat water doesnt get really hot. and theres a window we cant shut that was blowing in cold air...and the water didnt come out fast, and we couldnt put cold water in too because that would make the water colder... oh and it had to be in the mornign when elle was there... so it was getting closer to the time to go get her for her baptism and the water wasnt very close to be full... so we started to fill up pots of water and boil them and when they boiled dump them into the font.  THis was actually a good thing because it heated up the room with the baptismal font.  (the church doesnt have heat and it was like see-your-breath-cold taht day. it actually gets pretty chilly here....)  so finally other people came to keep up the water while we went to go get Nilda.  Oh AND our ward mission leader hasnt showed up to his meetings this week so we werent sure if he was gonna be able to help us organize the baptism... but anyways we go get nilda and come back. adn she only has about an hour.... and the water still wasnt where it should be. so we wait a little bit and then we couldnt find the key to the baptismal font!!!! to enter into it!!!! oh dear.  

We finally found the key and then we get nilda changed but the bathrooms were like a refridgerator.  but so gladis had the idea to close the little divider thing between the room with the font and the kitchen (they are one room...)and nilda could change in the kitchen where it was nice and toasty! and that was great!  

The next obstacle was baptizing her. because she is old she has a hard time bending her back and she didnt really understand that she needed to be completely underwater (oops... we did explain taht though...)so standing didnt work. then she kneeled down and we still couldnt get it. so finally she ended up sitting down and finally matias could baptize her. but we were working with her for like 30 minutes in the water. it was crazy (You can tell that the water was Really slow which ended up being a blessing but stressful before hand...)

Then yesterday her confirmation was linda..(tahts the word for beautiful, pretty. good ... you get the picture.. in this situation it doesnt translate completely but it works in spanish...)  Matias confirmed her too. he was really nervous because hes never confirmed anyone before but it was amazing.  hes gone with us to visit her every week so they are good friends.  But Nilda is amazing. I am amazed by her and by the change in her. and im amazed by the faith of Matias.... He is great and he was really nervous and made extra sure that the blessing came from the lord and not from him.

Well thats about the highlight of my week!!!

oh we also had a conference fo the hermanas with my mission presidents wife. it was great! it was nice to be in a missionary meeting and not be iwth the elders... haha. but it really made me happy to be a daughter of God aand to be serving him. I learned a lot but i cant write everything.  Ill just leave it at the fact that i am so grateful to have righteous women to pattern my life after.  mom, hermana levrino. the other hermanas.  i hope i can be more like them. Firmer in the gospel of jesus christ.

I love you all!!! 

Remember Faith can conquer anything!

Have a great week

hermana applegate

well hey there everyone.

 Its another week here in Oran. and guess what?!?!?! this week wasnt really that hot! Its starting to get cooler. and by cooler is down to normal colorado late summer/early autumn. its so nice. and I love it. I love not sweating and being able to use a sweater if i want. and not smelling gross.... haha

So heres a cool story for the week... We have been visiting this old lady, Nilda, and i love her but really she wasnt really progressing. She always talks about the same thing as she gives us food.... soo much food.  But usually its Her and hermana rojas talking about her problems and prayer as i talk to her daughter Kayla.  And Kayla is special something happened about 20 years or more ago and she got hurt in an accident and now is mentally handicapped and in a wheel chair. Shes fun. But she always asks me the same questions. and hey Michael... Theyre all generally about you.  you have a friend here in Oran.  But she asks me the same set of about 5 questions about 20 times every visit. She doesnt really talk to hermana rojas.  :) 

But so finally one day we gave Nilda a Book of Mormon. and assigned her to read 3 Nephi 11.  And left. So yesterday we went back to visit her and she told us that she had started to go to the church to attend and her son went to find her and bring her back because the house keeper didnt know what to make for lunch (oh nilda is about 80.)  But Nilda had started to read the Book of Mormon.  and she said she just couldnt stop reading. She read one night until 6 in the morning!!!! and she showed us where she ended up at and it was the end of Moroni. and she was planning on reading the dictionary thing we have at the end of the spanish book of mormon.  But she talked about how clear it was and how much she loved reading it. and it was sooo amazing. so amazing.  Im really excited to teach her. Aand her other house keeper (at night) usually is very cold when we come, she is very... active in her church... and doesnt really want anything to do with us, but last night she was different. She listened to us and i could tell she felt the spirit and she gave us kisses when we left (okay clarification about the culture here. no one really hugs. ever. the way you greet people and say goodbye is with a kiss on the cheek. well only the women for us..  so its not weird) normally she just says bye with her arms folded. and she listened and it was cool...

The spirit is sooo cool. When it is strong it changes hearts.  And im learning ( ive still got a long way to go...) that the only way to get it strong is to be obedient and to follow it when i feel like i should say or do somethign. Do it. Even when it seems weird, like asking to sing a hymn in the middle of a conversation because i feel a little bit of contention.  Its really amazing. I was reading about the stripling warriors this week and they were pretty cool. The reason they had success is becasue they had confidence in the Lord and when they could, they brought the fight to where they could control what would happen (thats when they drew the lamanites out of their city to come fight them on fair grounds) nad we do that through the Spirit, when the spirit is there, they change. When its not, they dont and we end up arguing a little bit.  but yeah that was something cool i learned this week. Dont doubt and bring the "fight" to where we have the upper hand. Where we can control what happens. And reallyt he investigators feel more comfortable when the spirit is present.

So it was a good week not terribly excitign but good for me. I hope it was good for you guys

Les quiero
Hermana Applegate

Hey there everyone!!!

Felizes Pascua!!!!  Thats Happy easter in spanish.... I hope everyone had a great easter.  Really mine wasnt any different than any other sunday... But i did get up and make a breakfast for everyone. And it was actually not to bad. but it wasnt really how i wanted it to be and the other hermanas had to leave so we all ate at different times. and then as i was moving all of the food over towards hermana Rojas´ plate (we all always sit in the same seats all the time its a little odd....) but i dropped all of the food on the floor and broke the plate!  I felt so bad! i wanted to cry and laugh at the same time!!! what a way to start a day. hehe

So in church we had 3 confirmations! and honestly i think confirmations are better than the baptisms now that weve had the whole elizabeth situation.  (she still hasnt come to church to get confirmed...)  But i realized lately that the baptism is just one part of the whole thing. The more important part is to be confirmed. Thats when we get the gift of the Holy Ghost and recivie the blessings of baptism.

But we baptized hernan saturday!!! he is the husband of Adriana who we baptized 2 weeks ago.  It was a MIRACLE!!!! he was unsure for a long time and had some problems with the word of wisdom. But this week he told us that he was ready and made the changes completely!! WOOO HOOOO:  I am soo stinking excited for them.  We confirmed both of them yesterday as well as the little bo y we baptized the week before. :) it was the best easter ever!!! I cant wait for them to go to the temple. And oh my goodness i want to be there when they get sealed together. Hopefully.... If the buenos Aires temple is finished in a year nad they decide to go there, and it happens to be right as i get off my mission and if president levrino says its okay..... (they dont know im planning/thinking about all of this.. haha) but if it all works out just right. i might. just might get to go. Oh my gosh i love them so much. Its like they are a part of my family. Or i guess more like im a part of theirs and ive known them forever. I love to just listen to adriana talk she has a lot of different experiences that have made her how she is.

and then we went to work and we found this girl - well shes 24 but i dont know how to classify that anymore-  But her name is Noelia (i love that name by the way) and she has a little 5 year old boy and we taught her and i dont know. There was nothing too distinctive about the lesson but the spirit was there and it was a sweet sweet spirit. And i could tell by the look in her eyes that she felt that what we shared was true. Im excited to be able to visit her again and teach her more.

And then we visited Antonia. And shes great. Shes this old lady. and she saw us coming and when we came up she was pulling out chairs for us to sit in and talk. And she read the pamphlet we left and is praying and wants to come to church next week (she couldnt this week bec she had just gotten back from Tucuman) but she is a fireball and LOVES TO TALK. A lot. Im pretty excited for her too. she said shes gonna read the book of mormon a lot. :)

I love easter. So here they have this weird catholic procession thing. but all of the people ask what we do for easter. and my companion says "really we dont do anything special for easter in church because we remember the sacrifice of our savior every week in church" which actually really bugs me... but its true. we didnt do anything special in church. we didnt even sing easter hymns.... Nothing was really out of the ordinary but i tried to take the time to remember my savior. and talk about him. and i should really be better about remembering him every week. in everythign taht i do. Ive started thanking Heavenly Father for this in my prayers. For the Atonement and the great blessing we have to remember that he suffered and died for all of our sins. and this has helped me use this more in my life and feel my saviors love in all times, all things, and all places. (im still working on that but it has helped me be a lot better) and so everyone.. Will you pray and talk to your heavenly father? thank him for the atonement? And use that wonderful gift everyday of your lives?

I know that He knows exactly how we feel and he loves us.  I love Alma 7:11-12

 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and ^aafflictions and ^btemptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will ^ctake upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
 12 And he will take upon him ^adeath, that he may ^bloose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to ^csuccor his people according to their infirmities.
I know that this is true!!! i know that he knows how you feel and he loves you. I know that Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father know you personally.  They have spent time with you because they lived with you before you came to this earth. And you can know that too. You just have to ask. I lvoe in Joseph Smith prophet of the Restoration.  when the old lady is asking him about the church (after complaining to his mom abotu the mormons...)  she says "what makes you so certain mr. smith that God even cares." and he said " he does care. and you can know it. You only need to ask"  And i know that tahts true. You only need to ask. and he will answer. 

Well I should go!! Happy Easter everyone!  Remember who you are! and remember your savior and your Heavenly Father.

Les quiero
Hermana Applegate.

Okay everyone soooo guess what!?!?!?!

We found Elisabeth! woo hoo! we finally talked to her thursday about what happened.  And she has a lot of problems with her older sister and i dont understand all of it but i think what happened for her baptism is her sister (who doesnt really like the fact that elisabeth wants to join the church) made it so she couldnt leave the house. And then i think she was a little ashamed to talk to us for awhile. but we finally found her and we ended up baptizing her saturday.  We talked to her and finally i asked when she wanted to get baptized and she said at 9am saturday. Okay 9 am.... It was SO special.

Oh my goodness i cant explain exactly how i felt. but is was just Elisabeth, me, Hermana Rojas, Cristian (who baptized her and a friend of hers), Gustavo and nelson (who were witnesses) and Hernan (the secretary for the branch who directed) and that was it. Hermana Rojas and i used our exercise time to run to the church (well i ran really slowly as she walked it wasnt the greatest exercise but hey it was exercise) and we filled the font. and then came back and baked the banana bread we made the night before as we got ready and then left really quickly to go find elisabeth and head to the church.  So because it was really a last minute baptism hermana rojas nad i talked. I talked about baptism and the gift of the holy ghost and oh man, the love i felt for her as i stood there and looked at her and told her about the love of her heavenly father was soooo great.  And about the holy ghost and the blessings in my life because of this church.  Missionary work is so great. so soo great. I love ti. and watching her get baptized was such a special feeling.  she looked so happy.

Then sunday came...

And we went to go and find her to bring her to church for her confirmation. and she couldnt leave with us because she was watching her neices again.... but said shed be there. and she didnt come. dang it...  Then after lunch as we were heading to the church to study i felt like we should go see her. so we stopped by and she just said that she couldnt come but didnt give a reason why.  she just said she couldnt which bugged hermana rojas. She has something going on. that shes not telling us which makes me think that we did something wrong. to make her not trust us completely but i think it makes her ashamed to talk to us sometimes.  >but hermana rojas said we would visit tuesday but i felt like she just needed to talk right hten but i didnt say something. I am so dumb sometimes.

But next week we will get her confirmed. I have learned a ton about faith here. The faith to do all the things the lord asks. Study the whole time. talk to everyone in the streets. not listen to the music that plays in the street (not that i understand it anyways) or when memebers are watching tv when we come to not look.  All of these little seemingly harmless things really help with everything and especially to have the faith that we can complete the goals our president gave us when we do all of these things.  When i do my contacts in the street somehow we have more time for lessons (im not sure how that works because im using more time) or if im doing everything and trust the lord that we WILL be able to baptize saturday even when our investigators dont seem to be ready how we wanted them to be we are able to baptize.

 HAHA so wednesday we went somewhere and we had 2 different baptisms planned for this past saturday hernan and facundo and we baptized elisabeth instead... But we went somewhere and hermana rojas scheduled an appt for when we planned for a baptism and i said but we have a baptism saturday.and she was kinda like uh huh. who are we gonna baptize. and i said im not sure right now but we were told to baptize every week and therefore the lord has someone in mind for us to baptize. and lets go find them.  and then i asked her where is her faith. ahh i dont know where taht came from when i told her that. but i realized if i dont have the faith to complete all of hte things its never gonna happen. But when i have the faith it happens.  it may not happen how i want it to or the way we expect it to. But really God keeps his promises if we have the faith to let him.

It reminds me of hte movie Legacy (one of the 4 movies we can watch here...) and at the end as they are packing to leave winter quarters the dad is getting after eliza and askign why she doesnt wait for spring... and then she said something like "god promised us that he has a place of rest for us. Lets help him keep his promises."  I love that. we have to help god keep his promises.  And we do that through obedience and faith.  My companion always teaches faith and puts something on the table like a rock. and says I have faith that this rock can move.  Do you? and then we talk a little bit about it and then she moves the rock. and says look it moved. I had faith and i acted. and it moved.  I love that

Well i should go.

I love yall
have a great week!

Les quiero
hermana applegate.

hey everyone!!!!

Give my love to Sister Coombs! oh dear. that is not good and so sad to hear. I didnt know she had any health problems.. Im a little oblivious sometimes. Tell her we love her here in Argentina and are praying for her.  

Soooo this week, no baptism but we decided it was better to not have a baptism than to baptize Elizabeth before she was ready.  And we found out like wednesday that she smokes... man i wish we knew that earlier... but anyways, we are gonna work a lot with her this week and help her get ready and hopefully soon.. 

But so we have this new investigator Ofelia. and she is soooo great. We actually found her in January but she was never able to meet with us until last sunday ish (not yesterday.. the week before). (she told me this week that she just didnt want to talk to anyone) but so we found her sunday and we talked with her and invited her tocome to a family home evening we had at the church and shesaid no not this timea nd maybe she will come to church sunday. Then we prayed and she said immediately "ill go tonight and next sunday ill go to the morning meetings" wow! great! and she did go to the family home eveningand every night we went to go see her for a little bit and she had chairs sitting out with pillows for us and water and was waiting for us to come.  Waitng for us! and knew if we were later than normal or early and when we have to leave at night to get back to the pension.  She is so great and everything that we say she just accepts.  But she wont accept a baptismal date just yet she wants to be sure.  so she thinks like in2 or 3 months... okay we can work with that but she is sooo ready. I love to just sit and listen to her. she reminds me of my old ladies back in provo that i used to visit only a little more (okay a lot more) healthy

We had so many miracles thisweek... (man mom i have been terrible about writing my blessings in that little journal you gave me i feel terrible but i carry it everywhere in case i remember....)  So many i cant write them all. and hermana Rojas is FABULOUS. shes  a lot more laid back and content to just listen than hermana callejas was and is all about finding the needs of the investigators. Which i love doing! i love sitting and listening to people i dont like talkingso much. but unfortunately sometimes people just talk and it doesnt help ushelp them at all and we end up wasting time which is a bummer but at the same time we have had some powerful lessons just listening.

One lesson, we didnt talk hardly at all and the spiritjust changed this investigators heart as he talked and worked through everything. He stilldidnt go to church which is FRUSTERATING but the lesson was really good. 

Ive learned that the lords opinion is the only thing that matters.  And ivedone a lot of changing to try and do the things he would be proud of and as ive done that i have felt a lot better about havinglower numbers.... i still feel like we ahvent done everythingwe can but we are trying our best and we are gonna make our goals this week. Thats my goal. haha.  

well ive gota go!
love yall

Hermana Applegate

Hey there Everybody!!!!

This week was soooooo great. okay our numbers were really down but we had some really great miracles.and i just love my companion! a TON.

Hermana Rojas is pretty much amazing. I have learned so much and we work together better than me and hermana callejas and we get along better and she is just content to be quiet which is nice sometimes and at the same time i am more comfortable talking to her. And she just loves people. she isnt okay we are here to teach a lesson so im gonna cut off the investigator really quickly. so many of our lessons have been listening to people asking questions about their lives. what they want to learn and hten working a scripture into it all to help them realize taht our message will help them (we are in the process of finding investigators) or working their worries/problems into the lessons. and she is amazing at finding out peoples worries and needs. Its sooo great! and its nice to have a companion that actually wants to go out and work and isnt afraid of all the people.  and just loves them all.  even in their weaknesses.  ahhhhhhh such a good week. (dont get me wrong i loved hermana callejas but my personality fits a lot better with hermana rojas.)  Shes a convert to the church and so she relates really well with our investigators as well. I have a lot to work on... i need to be better about asking questions but she helps me a lot in our studies. comp study is a lot of practicing but its really good and really constructive.  I feel like im re-learning all that they taught me in the mtc. its so good.

oh and another thing she told me is that it is okay to tell the people that i cant eat all of the food! WOO HOO!!!! i always feel like im gonna explode bec they give me so much food and she told me just dont eat it all and that she hates it when people tell you you have to eat it all because its not true.    oh i feel so much better. i feel like ive gained so much weight. ( i havent really gained that much. just a little but i hate it.) now i can go back to normal because im not trying to fit in an obscene amount of food.

But so yesterday we went to go find an old investigator and we taught her and we invited her to noche de hogar in the church last night and to go to church and she was alittle aprehensive and said well maybe... but then we said a prayer to leave and after the prayer she said. "ill go to the meeting tonight and church on sunday" great!!!! and so then we got to noche de hogar a little late and she was there!!!! she actually came and she said it was a beautiful meeting and she wanted to come back sunday and that we could come visit any evening!!!! wooo hooooooooo.... i am so excited about that.I dont know what happened but something changed her view point.

and we have another old investigator that we finally found this week. we have been trying to teach her for more than a month and she is never there when we have appointments. Its really pretty annoying. but we finally taught her and then teh rest of our appointments didnt work out but saturday night we found her and she couldnt talk but she told us she didnt want to miss anymore church and she would be there sunday. and we were like okay.... so we went to find her sunday mornign for church and she came!!!! she has investigated the church a couple times so with yesterday she has gone to church enough times to be baptized saturday!!! if we can get her taught all the lessons. which if everything goes to plan we can.  but she is so ready to get baptized she has a strong testimony and a really really big desire to change and follow the gospel.  the first time she came to church with us she couldnt find the keys to the house and so she climbed out the window.... its pretty cool.

Oh we have had so many different miracles this week i wish i had time to tell you all of them. but i dont.  but one thing i have learned a lot lately is HUMILITY. Humility is really really important. its so easy to just judge people. judge situations but you can be completely wrong. we have gone to find a lot of old investigators that we dropped because we decided they didnt want the gospel but as we are re finding them thats not true. or my opinions of people just change when i look at them differently.  I dont know how to describe it. but i love it

well i should go
love yall
les quiero!
hermana applegate.

Ahhh we had transfers again today! and Hermana Callejas left, as i suspected.  Her health was really really degrading.  Saturday we didnt leave to work til 5 because she didnt have any strength and looked terrible.  But i was SOOOO nervous to get a new companion. So nervous.... After hermana doxey and hermana callejas left hermana suarez and i did the normal p-day stuff waiting for our new comps to get here.  It was her first real transfer too.  Hermana Doxey was her mission mom and Hermana Callejas mine.  we bought ice cream and ate meatless tacos (it was sooooo good to just eat veggies. I am SICK and TIRED of meat.) 

But i love hermana suarez. Im glad shes still here in Oran with me.  She actually came into the MTC (here in buenos aires because shes from mendosa) the 29th of september. So we are leaving at the same time! but she gets one more transfer than me because she didnt have to learn castillano.  We decided we are gonna always live in the same area. train together etc. we will have to see what happens but she is really great. 

So hermana callejas was supposed to leave at 8:30 this morning so we had to be there at 8 so we didnt have time to do a whole lot before and her bus never came until 11... we were there til 11:30 and my comp came at 2:30 so we didnt have much time to clean and eat and shop and wash clothes. I felt bad for my comp coming to a kinda dirty house, but i did get it all cleaned up. and i got a couple new skirts out of everything. and shirts too. which is good bec my wardrobe has gotten boring.

Soo my new companion. is Hermana Rojas.  She is from Cordoba Argentina, is 24 years old and has 2 sisters and 1 brother. and she taught little kids before her mission.  She is really nice nad i think i worried a little too much before she came.  I feel good about her as my companion and for this transfer. now my stomach hurts because ive eaten way too much today because of my nerves ( i never used to be a stress eater. whats up with that?)

So this week.... I learned a lot about patience. and the lords own time.  Saturday i was really frusterated because we had all of these plans to improve and then she was sick and we couldnt leave and put or plans into action yet.  Sooooo I did a lot of studying.  You know that chapter in 2 nephi (one of the isaiah ones) that talks about the daughters of zion will lose all their fancy clothes and be ugly and smelly (not the exact wording but you know the one) well i decided Isaiah saw the sister missionaries here in oran.  Everyone gets sick. i never look cute and we are always sweaty and i say that a lot but the next chapter says that after the daughters of zion have been cleansed of their filthiness they will have a place of refuge and recieve blessings. So the sickness of hermana callejas, the heat, walking for miles for members that dont know that they are members (that was crazy) is just a refiners fire and the Lord has greater blessings for us.  And then i was reading in Doctine and Covenants 5 (i think it was 5...) but it talks about Joseph Smith only being given the gift to translate at first and he wanted to do more. and then the lord told him to stop for a time bec people were trying to destroy him (and martin harris was gonna screw up). and it was during that time that he wasnt translating that Martin Harris lost the manuscript. and if he hadnt stopped translating we wouldnt have as much of the book of mormon that we have now. They wouldve lost more. I realized that God has a reason for everything. Including a sick companion. a hard area. everything. He has a reason for everything and it will be the best thing for us. weve just gotta use it to improve and work through.

Yeah i learned that mostly but some other stuff too... but hermana Rojas and i are ready to go to work.

and thanks to everyone who writes me. it always makes me smile to hear from people.

love yall
Les quiero
Hermana Applegate