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.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
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
love yall
Hermana Applegate
Monday, February 27, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, February 20, 2012
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
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
Well hello there everybody its monday again! haha what a week....
But i want to start off by apologizing to everyone for being a slacker when it comes to letter writing... a really really big slacker. sorry.. :)
But so this week was interesting.. i learned a lot. We had zone conference this week which i was a little worried about because our numbers have been really low... yeah its been hard to teach people. and even harder to find people who actually want to change their lives. and its really scary to talk to a stranger on the street. I tried contacting one person and she would only talk to my companion after telling me that the way i was talking to her made her very uncomfortable and she is a good person... yeah people are crazy here. i love it.
But zone conference was really REALLY good and we did get reprimanded, but i love my mission president so much and his wife! they both gave us so much encouragement. Hermana Levrino showed this video about soap.. that sounds weird but its about how they took a group of sculptures and gave them a bar of soap and a knife and were told to make something in an hour and they came up with so many cool things that they carved out of the bar of soap and talked about how youve just gotta have a vision for what you want it to be and slowly remove everything else. You have infinite possibilites for your life (for my mission) and if you have a vision on where you want it to be you can make it happen. slowly but surely. and so thats what im trying to do. Ive done a lot of praying for help to turn into the person and the missionary i want to be and slowly but surely i can feel myself changing. Slowly but surely. i wish it would happen faster. I wish i had all the confidence in the world to walk up to everyone and tell them in a language im learning that i have a message that can change their life. in a tactful way and ask them questions about their lives but i just dont. i get better everyday. but its a lot of work turning my soap into something else.
And Presidente Levrino talked about a lot of things but he also talked about faith and the need to have faith in our lives (so right there i started to finish my sentence in castillano.. cool..) He talked about Peter when he was walking on water and then he feared and he fell. But the savior picked him up again but he said "oh ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt" yeah that was for me... I am a person of very little faith and i need more. I dont have a lot of faith and i dont have a lot of humility. my two goals for the next few weeks.. faith and humility. Hopefully with these two things we can turn our area back around. (but it doesnt help that the elders that were here about a year and a half to two years ago were really RELLY disobedient. they went to Carnival which is a weird celebration they have here that goes all night long fridays and saturdays with dancing and a parade and not very well dressed people you get the picture and they went to clubs. and yeah especially fo rhte other hermanas people do not trust the missionaries...) But with faith we can find the people that the lord prepared. i just need to trust him more.
So yeah thats the most exciting parts of my week the rest was hot sun, doctors appointments for my comp...
so until next week!
and i love hearing from everyone! it always makes the week better even if i dont write back....
Les quiero
Hermana Applegate
Saturday, January 28, 2012
hey everyone!!!
Its hard to believe its been another week! crazy. haha its been a crazy crazy week.
I feel like no one has really wanted to talk to us this week. its been really hard to find people and then we do find people and we go and teach lessons and they last a really REALLY long time. the people just dont be quiet sometimes. haha that sounds terrible but a lot of latins have a lot to say about everything so you say "and i know that joseph smith was a prophet" and they start talking for 5 minutes about something.... its funny sometimes. i usually dont understand what they say so i just smile and nod. but i love the people so much i am okay just sitting and smiling. But for example we had a family home evening last monday with a convert. and we invited another convert and her grandson and she had other people there and jorge came and brought a friend. and the plan was to watch the prophet of the Restoration video and then share a scripture about Joseph Smith (the one about he lived great and he died great..) to help strengthen their testimonies about Joseph Smith. And no one here really knows anything about church history. But so in Oran every now and again they shut of the power. to everywhere. and when we got there they had turned off the power in that subdivision (barrio in argentina) great. there goes the video plan. So we turned to a lesson we were gonna give this convert about charity and love. :) and about halfway through the power came back on so they turned on the video (which is like an hour and a half to 2 hours...) we left them while watching the video bec we had to get back to the pension. yeah i felt bad about that one. but the friend of Jorge´s is now meeting with us. and it did strengthen their testimonies.
Oh mom!!! so im turning into you a little bit. :) So we had a family home evening for the branch last night. We have them every sunday for our investigators and converts but tomorrow one of our branch missionaries is leaving for his mission so the branch president wanted a big one for the ward. So we centered it on missionary work and Jorge gave a talk about the importance of missionary work. but i get frusterated sometimes bec i feel like our family home evenings are just another lecture time for these people. they just arent fun. i wouldnt go... so i decided to plan a little missionary activity for the branch. (we actually had a pretty good turnout which was exciting bec ive heard that here no one shows up to activities...) but so my activity was i called them all on missions. I actually had little papers with missions on them i was gonna have them all open up and then leave on their mission but there werent enough people to make 10 papers for 5 different missions functionable. so i numbered them off. and they moved to their missions. and then i paired them all off into companionships. then i gave them 2 minutes to get to know their companion. they were all confused for a little bit bec i still cant explain things very well. but so then we had them practice. because in the mtc and in mission meetings we practice. and in our studies we practice. a lot. so i had them practice contacting someone on the street and bearing their testimony to them. then i had 3 people come up and share what they learned. :) it was pretty exciting. and i thought "im becoming like my mom!!!" and had to smile because you always come up with stuff like that. But doing stuff like that at family home evenings is foreign to them and having food they all like having food but when we were planning it they looked at me like i was crazy when i said we should bring food and have a little activity. but they liked the idea of food. so it turned out really well and we had investigators there and got a new one too.
So that was probably the most exciting part of the week. IT was Hermana Callejas´ birthday this week though. wednesday she turned 23. So the Cabana Family had us for lunch that day. and htey bought a cake for her. and so i ate all this food cause they always give you a lot of food here and then cake. and hermana callejas cut the first piece and i guess here the birthday person cuts the first piece then gives it ot the person they like the best. I didnt know this. so she cuts this ginormous piece and everyone closes their eyes nad she gives it to me and im like uhhhhh great.... a big huge piece that i cant finish and everyone cheers. i felt a little bad and was so confused but i figured it out and gave her a big huge hug. it was fun. but a lot of food.... everyone gave us food this week. and then we made food for another family whos birthday was the same day.and made food for the baptism we didnt end up having.
So we were supposed to have a baptism this week... that made it crazy. Because Marcelo is handicapped mentally. hes supposed to be 13 mentally but he seems so much younger a lot of times. younger than aubri (hes actually 35) but when he came to church for the first time he came up to us after sacrament meeting and said he wanted to be baptized. and weve really been working with him. using pictures and drawing. the only thing he remembers constantly is the spirit. and he wants to have the gift of the spirit. He feels it so strong. but when we say key words he remembers. he remembers quite a bit when you really work with him for the answer. but so we go to get his moms signature for permission and hermana callejas had to talk to her for forever to get her to sign and she said we had to talk to the sister first and get her signature too. okay so we figure out when shes gonna be there and come back at that time and shes sleeping and no one will wake her up.... for like 2 days so finally they say to come back in the morning. which is when we had the interview and so we double, triple checked to make sure they would both be there nad they all said yeah shell be there and he will. great. so we get there with the elders for the interview and they told us that everyone went to bolivia for hte day. and wont be back til night time. great....so stuff like this went on until past the time for the baptism nad finally they told Facundo that they dont want him baptized and then we could find them. yeah... itw as crazy. and im a little sad but i am glad the family really cares about him. They are very protective of him. i just want to help them understand that this is a good thing.
so i guess this isnt a very uplifting letter. im sorry.
oh and if anyone has recipies for things we can make for baptisms nad activities and stuff like that could you please send them (cookies, brownies - they dont have box mixes.., anything) im getting tired of the carrot bread stuff hermana callejas makes and banana bread. or even a good recipe for banana bread would be great... thanks...
So ive been studying the last couple days about the destruction of hte nephites. its a little depressing to read. especially on days where you walk and walk and nobody really wants to talk to you. but it mormon 9 i found a few verses that i really really liked. 3 of the verses (21, 25, and 27 i think) say believe in Christ, never doubting. that is what i needed to hear this week. never doubt. i do that a lot. i feel like i should do something and then i dont because im not sure if thats just me being crazy or not paying attention in lessons, or yeah lots of different reasons to doubt. but its important not to doubt. i was planning a family home evening for tonight and my mind kept going back to that and the verse in joseph smith history "i had seen a vision, i knew it, i knew that god knew it and i could not deny it" and how i need to be more firm in my convictions. everyone needs to be. Joseph Smith was. He died for what he had seen because he didnt doubt and lots more people are examples of that. thats one thing that i learned this week. i learn so much here.
but i love yall! its been a good week
les quiero!
hermana applegate
Its hard to believe its been another week! crazy. haha its been a crazy crazy week.
I feel like no one has really wanted to talk to us this week. its been really hard to find people and then we do find people and we go and teach lessons and they last a really REALLY long time. the people just dont be quiet sometimes. haha that sounds terrible but a lot of latins have a lot to say about everything so you say "and i know that joseph smith was a prophet" and they start talking for 5 minutes about something.... its funny sometimes. i usually dont understand what they say so i just smile and nod. but i love the people so much i am okay just sitting and smiling. But for example we had a family home evening last monday with a convert. and we invited another convert and her grandson and she had other people there and jorge came and brought a friend. and the plan was to watch the prophet of the Restoration video and then share a scripture about Joseph Smith (the one about he lived great and he died great..) to help strengthen their testimonies about Joseph Smith. And no one here really knows anything about church history. But so in Oran every now and again they shut of the power. to everywhere. and when we got there they had turned off the power in that subdivision (barrio in argentina) great. there goes the video plan. So we turned to a lesson we were gonna give this convert about charity and love. :) and about halfway through the power came back on so they turned on the video (which is like an hour and a half to 2 hours...) we left them while watching the video bec we had to get back to the pension. yeah i felt bad about that one. but the friend of Jorge´s is now meeting with us. and it did strengthen their testimonies.
Oh mom!!! so im turning into you a little bit. :) So we had a family home evening for the branch last night. We have them every sunday for our investigators and converts but tomorrow one of our branch missionaries is leaving for his mission so the branch president wanted a big one for the ward. So we centered it on missionary work and Jorge gave a talk about the importance of missionary work. but i get frusterated sometimes bec i feel like our family home evenings are just another lecture time for these people. they just arent fun. i wouldnt go... so i decided to plan a little missionary activity for the branch. (we actually had a pretty good turnout which was exciting bec ive heard that here no one shows up to activities...) but so my activity was i called them all on missions. I actually had little papers with missions on them i was gonna have them all open up and then leave on their mission but there werent enough people to make 10 papers for 5 different missions functionable. so i numbered them off. and they moved to their missions. and then i paired them all off into companionships. then i gave them 2 minutes to get to know their companion. they were all confused for a little bit bec i still cant explain things very well. but so then we had them practice. because in the mtc and in mission meetings we practice. and in our studies we practice. a lot. so i had them practice contacting someone on the street and bearing their testimony to them. then i had 3 people come up and share what they learned. :) it was pretty exciting. and i thought "im becoming like my mom!!!" and had to smile because you always come up with stuff like that. But doing stuff like that at family home evenings is foreign to them and having food they all like having food but when we were planning it they looked at me like i was crazy when i said we should bring food and have a little activity. but they liked the idea of food. so it turned out really well and we had investigators there and got a new one too.
So that was probably the most exciting part of the week. IT was Hermana Callejas´ birthday this week though. wednesday she turned 23. So the Cabana Family had us for lunch that day. and htey bought a cake for her. and so i ate all this food cause they always give you a lot of food here and then cake. and hermana callejas cut the first piece and i guess here the birthday person cuts the first piece then gives it ot the person they like the best. I didnt know this. so she cuts this ginormous piece and everyone closes their eyes nad she gives it to me and im like uhhhhh great.... a big huge piece that i cant finish and everyone cheers. i felt a little bad and was so confused but i figured it out and gave her a big huge hug. it was fun. but a lot of food.... everyone gave us food this week. and then we made food for another family whos birthday was the same day.and made food for the baptism we didnt end up having.
So we were supposed to have a baptism this week... that made it crazy. Because Marcelo is handicapped mentally. hes supposed to be 13 mentally but he seems so much younger a lot of times. younger than aubri (hes actually 35) but when he came to church for the first time he came up to us after sacrament meeting and said he wanted to be baptized. and weve really been working with him. using pictures and drawing. the only thing he remembers constantly is the spirit. and he wants to have the gift of the spirit. He feels it so strong. but when we say key words he remembers. he remembers quite a bit when you really work with him for the answer. but so we go to get his moms signature for permission and hermana callejas had to talk to her for forever to get her to sign and she said we had to talk to the sister first and get her signature too. okay so we figure out when shes gonna be there and come back at that time and shes sleeping and no one will wake her up.... for like 2 days so finally they say to come back in the morning. which is when we had the interview and so we double, triple checked to make sure they would both be there nad they all said yeah shell be there and he will. great. so we get there with the elders for the interview and they told us that everyone went to bolivia for hte day. and wont be back til night time. great....so stuff like this went on until past the time for the baptism nad finally they told Facundo that they dont want him baptized and then we could find them. yeah... itw as crazy. and im a little sad but i am glad the family really cares about him. They are very protective of him. i just want to help them understand that this is a good thing.
so i guess this isnt a very uplifting letter. im sorry.
oh and if anyone has recipies for things we can make for baptisms nad activities and stuff like that could you please send them (cookies, brownies - they dont have box mixes.., anything) im getting tired of the carrot bread stuff hermana callejas makes and banana bread. or even a good recipe for banana bread would be great... thanks...
So ive been studying the last couple days about the destruction of hte nephites. its a little depressing to read. especially on days where you walk and walk and nobody really wants to talk to you. but it mormon 9 i found a few verses that i really really liked. 3 of the verses (21, 25, and 27 i think) say believe in Christ, never doubting. that is what i needed to hear this week. never doubt. i do that a lot. i feel like i should do something and then i dont because im not sure if thats just me being crazy or not paying attention in lessons, or yeah lots of different reasons to doubt. but its important not to doubt. i was planning a family home evening for tonight and my mind kept going back to that and the verse in joseph smith history "i had seen a vision, i knew it, i knew that god knew it and i could not deny it" and how i need to be more firm in my convictions. everyone needs to be. Joseph Smith was. He died for what he had seen because he didnt doubt and lots more people are examples of that. thats one thing that i learned this week. i learn so much here.
but i love yall! its been a good week
les quiero!
hermana applegate
Monday, January 9, 2012
hey everyone!!!
this week was slow still but better than last week because it wasnt a holiday. (and it helped that i wasnt sitting around for 2 afternoons while my companion was sick :) that was only one day and that was bec i was sick but im better now!!)
But so today we went to this town called irigoyen. We have a less active family weve been working with bec the kids are all non members and we are trying to get them baptized. But the one daughter is married and a member but it is her birthday this week and the same day is my comps birthday. So we went to celebrate it was a pretty fun day but i now am all peopled out. really peopled out haha. Thats just me.
But while we were there we made empañadas which are probably my favorite argentine food. they are really good but so they are a little tortilla/bread type thing that you flatten and put in meat, potates cheese etc. theyre itty bitty and then you fold it over kinda like a calzone and fry it. i think some people bake them too i like those better but when you fold it over everyone folds it in a way that it looks like a little braid and i cant do it for the Life of me. Looking at them all before theyre cooked you can tell exactly which ones i made. the ugly ones but they tasted just as good! and then we had mango. Everyone has mango trees here. and ive eaten a lot of mangos. they are so good! but the first day i ate one i was there and they handed me a knife and a whole mango and i was like uhhhhh how do you eat this? finally Hermana Callejas took it and cut it open for me. Every one just cuts a slice eats it. Manners here are so different. I feel bad at meals with families bec i am trying to hard to adjust to the culture and food and i concentrate on how to eat things so im afraid sometimes it looks like im not enjoying the food. Which is sad because it is always really good.
Anyway... So this week we had a lot to do so we had divisions where i went with one sister in the ward and Hermana Callejas went with another one and no one was home or wanted to talk to us. The one investigator that was home told us she didnt want to talk to us anymore. I was kinda really sad. But so finally we started to knock on doors and I found like 3 new investigators! by myself! im pretty excited about that. My spanish is getting better everyday. I actually understand whats going on in conversations now. but now sometimes i get so caught up in the excitement that i know whats going on, i forget to say something.... oops
So i learned something really cool I was reading in 3 Nephi (Love 3 nephi) but chapter 14 talks about how not everyone who says "look at all the good things ive done" will make it into heaven and it actually says that christ will say "i never knew you" and i thought that was a little harsh. they did good things in his name... but so i started to read the cross references. and the parable of the 10 virgins kept coming to mind. and in seminary (i think) we watched a video of it. and the 5 wicked virgins after trying to find oil went to the house of the bridegroom and he opens the door and they tell him that they are his friends and he says to hold up their lamps so he can see their faces to make sure and they couldnt so he sent them away. So i think thats kinda what that scripture is saying (im not sure so dont hold me to that doctrinally) but just because weve done a couple good things doesnt mean weve done all that we can. The 5 virgins had some oil in their lamps and they were waiting anxiously for their savior. but it wasnt enough. they didnt do everything they could to remove the darkness from thier faces so their savior would know without a doubt who they are.
I think sometimes i catch myself doing this in my life. i justify the things that i dont do with the things i did do. And ive realized here that diligence is key for anything. If i want the results I have to do the work. All the work. NOt just part of it. Not justify not having any lessons because we were doing service (service is good but it should be helping us further the work and plan better) not procrastinate. which has been one thing ive always done. yeah i learned Diligence this week.
And thank you everyone for your letters today. And ive had a couple people ask about care packages. And i am not opposed to care packages. but... Argentina has a tax on packages that come from other countries. and it is half of the dollar amount claimed on the items sent (i think) and then you multiply that time 4 for pesos. so a $50 package is a $25 tax and so its 100 pesos. and the mission has a rule that the missionaries pay the tax. and i have a budget and cant afford a whole lot of packages. soooo if youre going to im grateful. but keep it as inexpensive as possible or combine things with other people. yeah.... so thats my deal with packages.
but i am grateful for letters!!! i love letters and emails and they dont have a tax. i just need stamps to respond.
but thats about it for today!!! love yall
les quiero
hermana applegate
this week was slow still but better than last week because it wasnt a holiday. (and it helped that i wasnt sitting around for 2 afternoons while my companion was sick :) that was only one day and that was bec i was sick but im better now!!)
But so today we went to this town called irigoyen. We have a less active family weve been working with bec the kids are all non members and we are trying to get them baptized. But the one daughter is married and a member but it is her birthday this week and the same day is my comps birthday. So we went to celebrate it was a pretty fun day but i now am all peopled out. really peopled out haha. Thats just me.
But while we were there we made empañadas which are probably my favorite argentine food. they are really good but so they are a little tortilla/bread type thing that you flatten and put in meat, potates cheese etc. theyre itty bitty and then you fold it over kinda like a calzone and fry it. i think some people bake them too i like those better but when you fold it over everyone folds it in a way that it looks like a little braid and i cant do it for the Life of me. Looking at them all before theyre cooked you can tell exactly which ones i made. the ugly ones but they tasted just as good! and then we had mango. Everyone has mango trees here. and ive eaten a lot of mangos. they are so good! but the first day i ate one i was there and they handed me a knife and a whole mango and i was like uhhhhh how do you eat this? finally Hermana Callejas took it and cut it open for me. Every one just cuts a slice eats it. Manners here are so different. I feel bad at meals with families bec i am trying to hard to adjust to the culture and food and i concentrate on how to eat things so im afraid sometimes it looks like im not enjoying the food. Which is sad because it is always really good.
Anyway... So this week we had a lot to do so we had divisions where i went with one sister in the ward and Hermana Callejas went with another one and no one was home or wanted to talk to us. The one investigator that was home told us she didnt want to talk to us anymore. I was kinda really sad. But so finally we started to knock on doors and I found like 3 new investigators! by myself! im pretty excited about that. My spanish is getting better everyday. I actually understand whats going on in conversations now. but now sometimes i get so caught up in the excitement that i know whats going on, i forget to say something.... oops
So i learned something really cool I was reading in 3 Nephi (Love 3 nephi) but chapter 14 talks about how not everyone who says "look at all the good things ive done" will make it into heaven and it actually says that christ will say "i never knew you" and i thought that was a little harsh. they did good things in his name... but so i started to read the cross references. and the parable of the 10 virgins kept coming to mind. and in seminary (i think) we watched a video of it. and the 5 wicked virgins after trying to find oil went to the house of the bridegroom and he opens the door and they tell him that they are his friends and he says to hold up their lamps so he can see their faces to make sure and they couldnt so he sent them away. So i think thats kinda what that scripture is saying (im not sure so dont hold me to that doctrinally) but just because weve done a couple good things doesnt mean weve done all that we can. The 5 virgins had some oil in their lamps and they were waiting anxiously for their savior. but it wasnt enough. they didnt do everything they could to remove the darkness from thier faces so their savior would know without a doubt who they are.
I think sometimes i catch myself doing this in my life. i justify the things that i dont do with the things i did do. And ive realized here that diligence is key for anything. If i want the results I have to do the work. All the work. NOt just part of it. Not justify not having any lessons because we were doing service (service is good but it should be helping us further the work and plan better) not procrastinate. which has been one thing ive always done. yeah i learned Diligence this week.
And thank you everyone for your letters today. And ive had a couple people ask about care packages. And i am not opposed to care packages. but... Argentina has a tax on packages that come from other countries. and it is half of the dollar amount claimed on the items sent (i think) and then you multiply that time 4 for pesos. so a $50 package is a $25 tax and so its 100 pesos. and the mission has a rule that the missionaries pay the tax. and i have a budget and cant afford a whole lot of packages. soooo if youre going to im grateful. but keep it as inexpensive as possible or combine things with other people. yeah.... so thats my deal with packages.
but i am grateful for letters!!! i love letters and emails and they dont have a tax. i just need stamps to respond.
but thats about it for today!!! love yall
les quiero
hermana applegate
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