Monday, December 9, 2013

Don't cry for me Argentina!

Querido Familia,

I'm glad to hear you're all doing well. Matthew and Craig I hope you're feeling better!! Being sick is never fun:/ Today I don't have tons of time since we're going to a museum in Trelew and then a shopping center. We'll be back in Rawson in plenty of time to make sure we get in a good game of futbol and basketball though for sure:) Kimmers, keep working on the personal history!! It's a big project, but it's so fun to look back on when you've finished it!

I was so sad to hear about Aunt Ann! I even cried a bit in the cyber. She was always so loving and kind and made me feel special. So many memories of family reunions and silver dollars...the good news is we know that families are forever and that we'll all see each other again! In fact, Nani Velazquez (the Hermano who served with Tyler in Brasil) introduced us to his nephew and niece yesterday and we taught an awesome lesson about the plan of salvation. The spirit was so strong and both the nephew and the niece started to cry at different points. So special. What an incredible blessing it is to have all the knowledge and understanding that we do!

This week was good. We had 27 lessons in total!! (13 with members!) The people in the south of Argentina are fairly...difficult to teach. They all have a religion and most aren't open to listen to our message despite our efforts to persuade. BUT, the Lord is working along side us in his vineyard just like we learn in Jacob 5. This week I started the Book of Mormon over again. I'm about to finish 2 Nephi. I came to reallly appreciate the prophet Nefi this time around. He is such a solid example of faith and obedience. Just what every missionary needs! In 1 Nefi 17 when the Lord commands Nefi to build a ship, Nefi's response is not what one would expect. He doesn't say "I don't know how to build a ship!" He doesn't say, "That's way too hard! Are you sure, Lord?" Instead, he responds by asking the Lord where he should go in order to obtain material and tools. Que capo. What a stud. I decided this week that I'm gonna be more like Nefi. I will go and do...

This week so many hilarious things happened. First, one day we entered a house of a referral to teach a lady, and they were having a Brittney Spears dance party in the back. SO FUNNY. Of course, none of them know the words of the song, but I knew most of them. They were all of her first songs that she released. The temptations to sing along and join the party were almost too much to handle. It made concentrating on the lady EXTREMELY hard. It's always hard to concentrate and listen in Spanish when the TV or radio is speaking in English. Haha. BUT! It was okay. Oops I did it again... hahahhaa

Next, Hermana Delfina Carcamo. The old lady I think I told you about? No teeth, approximately 5 feet tall? Adorable? Well, we were supposed to eat lunch with her one day this week, so we called the night before to confirm. She answered the phone, but unfortunately has a hard time hearing. She couldn't hear us talking to her and hung up. Round two. We called again and the same thing happened. So what did we do? Try again. By this point my companion is SCREAMING into the phone. No luck. She hung up on us again. After 4 times, she stopped answering. Welp, the next morning, we called again and somehow she could hear us, but of course, was not prepared to feed us lunch. So, the next day, we went to visit her and apologize for not calling sooner in advance. We showed up around lunch time, bad timing on our part, and nearly gave her a heart attack. She thought we had shown up to eat lunch with her without advising. Anyway, we assured her we were only there to apologize and asked if we could eat lunch there the next day. She agreed and we laughed about the whole situation. She's so endearing. It kills me. As we were leaving we softly reminded her that we don't eat a lot. The next day we showed up to eat lunch and she had prepared a HUGE lunch. Only we didn't know that because she only brought half of it out at first. We were proud when we had managed to eat all the food between the two of us since Delfina can hardly eat anything. It was only a little bit more than a normal serving size. Then she brought out the rest. Lets just say, we snuck out several servings of meet, french fries, and our dessert in napkins. Oh well. She's adorable. I seriously love her.

Next, on Wednesday morning the Elders helped us sacar el juju (weed) the lawn of an investigator. Hermana Cortes got the easy job of ironing clothes and chatting with Isabel. I was left to labor outside in the hot sun with Elder Verges and Elder Acuña. It looked like a mini forest...no joke.  We were cutting all the plants/weeds out and burning them in the fire place in the shed. Lots of green which equals lots of smoke. Luckily most exits through the chimney, but at one point there was so much smoke in the shed that we had to step outside for a bit. So, the three of us emerged from the shed with tears streaming down our faces. Sooo funny. Hermano Chemin came around the corner, looked at us, and turned around went back to work shaking his head. Haha... I love him. Elder Verges broke out into a chorus of "Don't cry for me Argentina." Priceless. We all had a good laugh and then went back to work. We still have more to do so we're gonna go back again this wednesday morning:)

Last week for Elder Verges' birthday we didn't end up going to the beach because it was sooo windy. We stayed in the church and played basketball and soccer and celebrated with the 5 of us. Oh, and have I mentioned that the church has a pingpong table?! Yep, we played and I DOMINATED. I was quick to tell them that my little brother is the real pro:) We bought a cake and opened presents, took lots of pictures, and then bought some ice cream. 1 kilo...we ate it straight from the carton. We had no problem finishing it all between the five of us:) It was such a fun day. We are the cutest missionary family ever. No joke. Oh, also, the new companion of Elder Elliz came on Thursday! His name is Elder Scogin. He's from Washington. I haven't had the chance to talk to him much and I promised Elder Elliz that I would only talk to him in Spanish. I'll talk to him some more today:) He seems nice! haha...all missionaries are nice though:)

Well, I hope ya'll have a fantastic week! Thanks for the updates and good luck with all the upcoming craziness that always emerges in December! Can you believe that Wednesday is my 3 month mark? To quote dad, "that's just not right." Welp, gotta go! Love you tons!! You're always in my thoughts and prayers! Keep being wonderful.

Forever and Always,
Hermana Heath

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