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