Crab Sanchez y Arana Verges

Hola Querida Familia,

Glad to hear you're all doing well! I love getting your emails! This week has been crazy and we've got the craziest week of our lives ahead of us! This weekend is the baptism of Mariela. She's soo ready. Her daughter, Agustina, will probably be baptized in a couple weeks. Anyway, in the mission we have what are called standards of excellence. Every week we set goals for the numbers of lessons, references, baptisms, investigators at church, etc. The Standards of Excellence are numbers that the President sets for the mission as a goal. This week, Hermana Hundley and I decided that we're gonna reach the standards of excellence. That means we need 1 baptism and confirmation, 5 investigators at church, 6 investigators with a baptismal date, 16 lessons with members, and 7 new investigators. They're big goals, but we can do it! We're excited:)

So, last Monday Hermano and Hermana Chemin took us to the Beach Magagna. It's basically a bunch of big rocks that you can climb on and there's a million crabs! It's beautiful! I was standing on the edge of one of the rocks looking over the water and feeling the ocean breeze and it suddenly hit me so hard that I'm in ARGENTINA. That of course got me started on thinking about all my blessings and what I ever did to deserve this one. Basically I spent like a half hour thinking of all the blessings that I have been given in my life...and let me tell you...there's loads of them. God is so good. I can't even begin to imagine the extent of his love for us. Amazing.

So, back to the crabs. Like I said, there were tons. We all took turns picking them up and holding them...yep, even me. I picked up a big one!! Sick. It kinda gave me the heebie geebies...but, it was worth it...after all, I'm in Argentina! Not gonna miss out on nothin! :) Anyway, the beach is beautiful, and we only got a little bit wet (courtesy of the Elders). So, confessions. The Elders were walking around barefoot, so Hermana Hundley and I decided to have some harmless fun. After all, they were the ones that started splashing water. Well, the inspiration came from the movie The Parent Trap. We NAILED it. When the Elders weren't paying attention, we took Elder Sanchez's shoes and filled them with crabs...too great. He didn't even notice til we were well on our way back to the car. His face was priceless:) I will never in my life forget that moment. Hermana Hundley and I were dying of laughter and the other Elders were too...poor Elder Sanchez just stood there shaking his head while fishing crabs out of his shoes. Bless his heart. He totally asked for it. He had been throwing crabs at us all afternoon.

Moving on...Tuesday. We had our district meeting...I love my new district, and at the same time miss the old one. It was an awesome meeting though! I always leave those meetings wanting to do better and wanting to learn more. It's the best. So...remember how we filled Elder Sanchez's shoes with crabs? Apparently he missed one and Elder Verges and Elder Sanchez found it walking across their floor Monday night in the pension. They, being super smart, put the crab in some water and added salt. They even put in a few rocks to make it feel like it was in its home. Tender, right? That's what I thought...apparently though they put a little bit too much salt, because the crab died. (Now, this is all background information, but I didn't find out about this until Wednesday.) So, what did the Elders do with the dead crab? I know you're all dying to know...they wrapped it in tape, brought it to the district meeting, and hid it in my missionary agenda. Well, I found it at the end of the meeting and yes, it freaked me out, but please...nothing can beat the crabs in the shoes. Amateurs. So, to finish the story, there is now a dead mummified crab taped to our pension wall named Sanchez.

So, for the visits on Tuesday, we visited Soledad and Carlos and did an activity that I still remember from when Bro. Sanderson came to home teach us once. There's a scripture in 3 Nefi 13:33 that says first seek the kingdom of God and everything else will be added upon. Then we did the gumball and sugar example...if you put the sugar (things of the world) in first, the gumballs (things of God) don't fit...but if you put the gumballs first, the sugar fits too. Great object lesson. Shout out to Brother Sanderson! Hahaha..but seriously... Carlos really liked the lesson. It was a success:)

On Wednesday we had lunch with Hermano Chemin and the Elders. Good times. We always have such a great laugh together. The Chemin family is the best. After lunch we passed by the house of an old investigator who told us she didn't want more. We just wanted to see how she was doing. She invited us in and we even sang a hymn! We have an appointment with her this week. I'm so excited! Her name is Nancy and I love her! I was so sad when she told us she didn't want more. Keepin' my fingers crossed!

On Thursday morning during weekly planning, Hermana Hundley and I set goals of obedience for the transfer. Like I said earlier, we have a big week coming up and we're not gonna be able to do it without God's help...so, we set goals and told Heavenly Father what we were willing to do this week to be able to receive his guidance and inspiration. It's gonna be an amazing week! That night we had mission correlation. We talked about a program called MMT...it's a program that President Rogers started. It's missionary + member = temple. Well, we were talking about how we can improve the program here in Rawson. Elder Sanchez suggested we change the program to "MMTA" missionary + member = temple and an ASADO. The Elders are always thinking about food it seems. Hahaha...but I'm sure the turnout would be great if we had an Asado afterwards! Basically with MMT we meet in the church on Friday nights and visit menos activos with the members. In the Patagonia, the church attendance has gone up sooo much in the areas that are implementing this program. It really is an inspired program for this area.

So, after correlation, the bishop asked us to stay for ward council. Obviously we said yes. We sat through the meeting quietly listening and sharing our thoughts when they asked...Elder Verges at one point asked if he could borrow my bible. Not thinking anything of it I gave it to him and continued listening. The meeting ended and we went home just like every other day. The next morning when I opened my Bible to study a little bit I found another little friend. Remember my friend Sanchez that's hanging on the wall in our pension? He now has a friend called Verges...only it's a spider. Luckily for the Elders it was a fake one or I probably would have killed them. Hilarious prank...right? Tell me about it. Hahaha.

On Friday, we didn't have lunch with a member because they were out of town, so we stayed in the pension and cooked for ourselves. We made pigs in a blanket...yep...classic college kids. I guess it's the same for missionaries too:) They turned out pretty good though! We also visit Mariela every day...on Friday she gave us presents! She's so sweet. She gave us each a bar of Mantecol which is pretty close to peanut butter, but it's more solid...it's delicious! Anyway, she also decorated her 2014 Agenda with lots of pictures... and she put a picture of when we were at the terminal saying goodbye to Hermana Cortes! So sweet. It's of me, Mariela, Hermana Cortes, and Agustina:)

On Saturday morning we had to go to Trelew to practice for a musical number we're doing at the zone conference on Tuesday. Apparently the zone leaders decided that I'm singing with three other missionaries. Thanks for telling me before hand, right? Ya, no. ...it'll be good though. We're singing Lord, I Would Follow Thee in Spanish. It'll be pretty:) Saturday we also ate pigs in a blanket again since none of the missionaries had lunch. We ate all together in the chapel.  Then we taught our English class! Mariela and Agustina came along with Gustavo Chemin, and some of the Pranes kids. It was soo fun! Elder Verges even said the closing prayer in English! I officially decided after this English class that I love it when Latinos speak English. It's the best! Adorable. Hahaha. After we all played futbol and ping pong with a bunch of the youth and some investigators. It was a lot of fun. I practiced juggling a soccer ball while all the Argentines made fun of me...including Elder Sanchez who is from Panama. I don't remember if I told you, but he played professional soccer before the mission. I'm getting better though! By the time I leave Argentina I WILL be able to juggle a futbol.

Yesterday we went to Church with Mariela and Agustina. It was awesome. In Sacrament meeting we sang "In Our Lovely Deseret." That is one song that I've never been able to make it through without laughing...somehow in Spanish it's even funnier. Last night we visited the Pranes Family. We talked and laughed and laughed and laughed. They are preparing a musical number for the baptism on Saturday:) Then they fed us an asado...they are the best. I love them. It's been such a blessing to be able to help them activate in the church again!

Well, this week was a great one! I'm super tired and I think that's a good sign!! Happy 9 months to Emily and Craig! That's crazy...where does the time go? Also...that's awesome that you're gonna do the retention lessons with Justin at our house!! Sooo cool. Do you ever feed the missionaries? Because you totally should...it's the best...for the missionaries too:) Something interesting about Argentina? On the news, they always tell what's going on in the United States before they talk about Argentina news. I've always found that strange. Of course...I still have no idea what's going on there:) Hahaha... also...someone wanna fill me in on what's happening for the Super Bowl? I wanna knowwww...maybe President will let us watch it...hahaha... just kidding.  Also...Vocal Point has an awesome album called Lead Thou Me On...it's great!

Well, I think that's all for this week folks! I love you all! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and know that you're always in mine!! Have a fantastic week! :)

Forever and always...CHAU!!

Hermana Heath

Hermana Kuhn (MTC companion) and I

on transfers day...she's in Puerto Madryn now!!

Beach Magagna! (If you look really closely you can see Antarctica
in the background!! Hahaha...well, actually you can't,
but that'd be really cool!)

the wittle baby cwab! :)

Magagna Beach :)

Hermana Hundley and me :)

Arana Verges!

Mariela!

Watching the video of Daniel's mission call!

So cool that he's going to GERMANY!!

HERMANA HUNDLEYYYY... :)

Hola Familia!

I'm glad you all had a great week! The dogs are sooo cute! Mom and Dad can we keep them? Pleaseee?? ...we'll take good care of them I promise!! :) Kim, have you named them yet?

Well, Matthew is still the stud of the school making all the girls weak at the knees when he walks by it seems. I'm not surprised:) Hahaha...que capooo! ...and the cinnamon rolls look delicious! This morning Hermana Hundley and I went around the corner from our pension and bought some facturas... Argentine donuts...but they're not really donuts...but they're delicious.

Well, last Monday was an awful day. We didn't sleep hardly at all because we had to get all of Hermana Cortes' stuff ready to go to Gallegos! We woke up early...like 5:00AM ish, finished packing, didn't have time to eat breakfast, and then later when we went to Trelew with the Elders we went and bought ice cream as a district...1 kilo. Downed it like champs and then we went to the terminal and one by one said goodbye to the Elders from our zone. At 5:00PM Elder Elliz left...I still don't know why that one was so hard for me. I think it was because he was the one that called us every night to ask about our day...kinda like when I was at BYU and I would call home each day or night or you would call me. It's nice to have someone who wants to hear about your day and make sure you're doing okay. I was bawling. Great...because I need one more thing for people to look at me funny for. These people already think I'm weird...crazy Argentines. I'm sure it looked hilarious though, I'll give them that much. Anyway, I decided that I hate change. I hate saying goodbye...especially to people. It's gonna rip my heart out when I leave Rawson.

Welp, round two came when Hermana Cortes left at 8:00PM. That one wasn't as hard for some reason...mostly because I think I had prepared myself mentally and emotionally for that moment and it just kinda happened really fast. I was going to be staying with two hermanas from Trelew but we had to wait for another Hermana who was arriving at like 11:30PM. Welp...all day I had only eaten a little bit of ice cream that we bought earlier. Turned out it was Hermana Twitchell we were waiting for! I'm gonna take a time out from the story to talk for a minute about Hermana Twitchell...she's soo great and staying super positive. I hadn't heard that she was going home on Tuesday. I can't imagine how hard that would be, but it's probably good because she's gonna get to the point where she won't be able to fly home because she's so sick. She's awesome though. She's one tough cookie for sticking it out for this long.

Okay, back to the story....so we slept in Trelew...didn't go to bed until at least 1:00AM because Hermana Twitchell arrived late. Woke up at 6:30...obviously. We studied and then went to the terminal...still not having eaten anything. So, all those attributes of missionaries that we find in Alma 17 that we read about Alma and the Sons of Mosiah? Yep, one of them says something like "they suffered hunger and fatigue." That scripture took on a whole new meaning this week for me...keep in mind that in the last three days I only had about 15 hours of sleep and it had officially been 24 hours without anything solid to eat...pretty sure there's a rule about that in the handbook. Well, turned out that my companion was not on the bus she was supposed to be so instead of going back to Rawson with the Elders to eat lunch with a family that had prepared lunch for all of us, I got to stay with an Hermana in Trelew at the terminal for another 2 hours, miss the lunch appointment, and wait for my companion to come. Well, she finally did.

Here's the part of the story that kills me. Elder Verges knew that I hadn't eaten and it was likely my new companion hadn't either, so he talked to the family Nievas and asked if we could come a little bit later to eat...they happily agreed...Elder sent me a text with the good news. I was super excited...but when my companion arrived, we started looking around for Hermano Chemin who was no where to be found. He was our ride back to Rawson. It's about 2:00PM...turns out, he also assumed we must be hungry and came back with 6 HUGE footlong hotdogs for us to eat...my companion and I both ate two a little reluctantly knowing that the Nievas family had a feast prepared for us since they always make sooo much food. Our only hope was that the Elders had eaten almost all of it. No such luck. We got to the members house shortly after and there were two huge plates of food with 4 Elders smiling happily at us so excited that we were finally going to get some food...I wanted to die. We slowly but surely got all the food down and left the house with the Elders (using the excuse of having people to visit...which was true...but we had like 3 hours) ready to puke...luckily we got out BEFORE they could offer us dessert. Now, it was about 27 hours that we didn't eat anything solid...that's not fun and a little bit uncomfortable, I'll give you that, but I wasn't dying. But going from hungry to completely stuffed and overflowing in the matter of an hour is just straight up miserable. Poor Hermana Hundley...her first experience in Rawson. Oh well, we've more than made up for it:) And mom, don't worry, we always have plenty of food to eat...it was just a weird situation where we were stuck in a terminal for hours and hours with lots of little inconveniences:)

So, speaking of Hermana Hundley.  She got to Rawson on Tuesday in the afternoon. I don't have any pictures of us yet, but I will soon! She's AWESOME! We are already having so much fun together. There's always an automatic connection between the North American sister missionaries because we have pretty much the same experiences before the mission and lots of the same challenges coming to the mission. But, get this! Turns out Hermana Hundley and I were in the same Statistics class at BYU! Hahaha... what are the odds? Of course we never ran into each other because the class had 900 students...so maybe the odds were in our favor...haha just kidding. But cool, right? Oh, also...did you know that Daniel Cottam is getting his mission call this week? I didn't either until just now...wanna know how I found out? Yep, Hermana Hundley told me. That was a super awkward moment. We both just kind of looked at each other...looked at her screen... laughed...and then kept writing our emails. Hahahaha...sooo funny. They met at BYU and apparently are pretty good friends. Small world? I think yes. Anyway, Hermana Hundley is from Mesa, Arizona. She is thinking of studying exercise science at BYU...just like ME! Hahaa...but for reals we are gonna get along so well. She speaks the language really well and we haven't had any problems this week with not understanding or having a hard time teaching. The hardest thing is the change for the menos activos and investigators. It's gonna take a few visits more for some of them to open up, but it'll come! Hermana Hundley came from Rio Gallegos where she served for 4 months. I love her!!

Welp, that's pretty much the news for the week. Today we're going to the beach to stare longingly at the waves from a safe distance with Hermano and Hermana Chemin and, of course, the Elders. We have two new Elders. Elder Sanchez is from Panama and Elder Watkins is from Utah! He graduated from Davis High last year...so he's from like draper or something like that. I can't remember. They're both awesome Elders and we're excited to have them in the district! It's just Elder Verges and me left from our original district here in Rawson. Crazy how the time goes by. I can't believe that I've been in Rawson for 3 months already. It's insane.

So, I don't remember if I told you about Mariela, our superstar investigator. She has a baptismal date set for February 1 and is sooo ready! She's a reference from a ward member. She came to say goodbye to Hermana Cortes at the terminal in Trelew and we've been visiting her everyday! We're also teaching her 13 year old daughter Agustina. She's great! She's a little slower with the learning and will hopefully be able to get baptized the same day as her mom, if not maybe the week after. They are both really  interested and have received answers that the church is true and that this is the correct decision for their lives, but it's one thing to feel it, and it's another to actually do it. Mariela is willing to give up anything to get baptized, but we still have to be super careful with her because as we've seen with other investigators, this is the time that Satan works the hardest on them. He knows that it's their Salvation we're dealing with, and sometimes the investigators haven't come to really grasp that concept yet. Lots of prayers and fasting for her coming from my tiny pension in Rawson. She's gonna make it though, she's strong.

Oh, also. I had to speak in church again yesterday...about missionary work. again. It went well. Ten minutes is a long time in English...in Spanish it's an eternity. I slept about 4 hours Saturday night because I kept waking up freaking out about speaking. There's just something about a bunch of fluent Spanish speakers staring at you and knowing every time you say something wrong. Hahaa...good thing they love me, right? Hahaha...it went well though. Nothing to stress about:)

Have a fantastic week! Stay safe and happy! You're always in my prayers!

Forever and always,

Hermana Heath

TRANSFERS ARE HERE...duhn duhn duhn...

Hola Familia!

¿Que Tal? Welp, you're all back in school...probably have been for a week now, but I still forget how quickly the time goes. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months...4 months on Saturday. Crazy. If you feel like it you can join me in praying for the time to slooooow down. :)

Well... there were quite a few exciting things this week, but all week I was a bit anxious for the phone call from our zone leaders on Saturday night. For transfers we do a huge conference call with the entire zone... then the zone leaders read off the changes painfully slow. So, at 10:15PM the phone call finally came through. This transfer there were changes in EVERY area in my zone. From my district, half of us go, and the other half stays. Care to make a guess about which group I'm in? First, I'll start off by saying that my district leader is leaving. Elder Elliz is going to Rio Grande to be a zone leader! He'll be great. Elder Acuña is leaving to Puerto Madryn. And...duhn duhn duhn... Hermana Heath is going to stay in Rawson for at least 6 more weeks! Hermana Cortes is going to Rio Gallegos. Everyone leaves today :( I'm super excited that I get to stay with these amazing people in Rawson, but that doesn't stop all the tears...only most of them. So, Elder Verges and Elder Scogin are staying here with me in the district of Rawson. Our companions come on Tuesday I believe. All I know is that my companion's name is Hermana Hundley. North American...super. Hahaa..I'm never gonna learn Spanish!! We're gonna find out just how disciplined I can be...I don't know how long she's been in the mission, but it's not more than two or three transfers more than me. Elder Verges is gonna be the new district leader...at least I think so.

So, this week we had more problems with the pension. Hermano Chemin saved us, as always. The love in my heart for him...don't even get me started. Also, last Monday we went to the going home party of Elder Holland and Hermana Hualpa. At the end of the day, they both shared their testimonies and thoughts about the mission. It was really sweet, but seriously the only thing going through my mind was that I never ever want to reach that point...the point of going home. There's no way I'll ever be ready to leave this amazing country. Would ya'll be really upset if I decided to move here? Because...it's a real possibility:)

On Saturday the Elders from Playa Union had a baptism (Elder Elliz and Elder Scogin). We made cookies again...in an oven that gets continually hotter. Try that one at home. Anyway, her name is Elsa Salamanca. She's sooo sweet and is a friend of the convert of Elder Verges and Elder Acuña. References are the BEST! Speaking of references, Nani Velazquez introduced us to his cousin this week. Her name is Mariela. She came to church last week with him...we talked, set up an appointment, and she's GREAT. She's getting baptized on February 1st...for SURE. She's so ready. She has an answer...now it's just teaching her everything she needs to know...but most importantly she needs to keep feeling that it's right. She came to the baptism on Saturday and felt really good. When we told her last night that Hermana Cortes is leaving today, the first thing she said was, "Pucha, you're not gonna be here for my baptism!" Missionaries dream come true...haha. She's soo good. She has a daughter who is 13 years old and often sits in on the lessons and they do the "homeworks" in the Book of Mormon together...in other words...we're gonna get a baptismal date for her as well:) Great family. Mariela's son Jonatan is also awesome, but rarely in the house. He's 19 years old and just had a little baby boy with his girlfriend in January. Super adorable.

This week, we went to take a card to Natalia to remind her that we're thinking about her and that we love her..she wasn't home, but the window was open. Well, naturally, we weren't just gonna leave...we're missionaries...we don't have time to "just drop by later" sooo...we used a stick we found on the ground (because windows here have bars, not screens) to pull the computer chair next to the window, left the chocolate and card on the chair, and then skillfully pushed the chair back to its original place. We went around 11:30AM so most likely everyone was sleeping...basically all those sneaking around skills when Ems and I were kids really payed off. It's time for me to go pro. We NAILED that undercover job.  We later learned that she had found her chocolate and card:) Hahaha. Good times.

Sooo...trivia question for ya'll. First off, here's some background. Every morning in companionship study we practice introducing the Book of Mormon. One morning I said, "The Book of Mormon, like the Bible, contains the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." My companion stopped me and told me that wasn't true...huh? We got into a big discussion about this question... here it is...we all know that the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel...DOES THE BIBLE CONTAIN THE FULLNESS OF THE GOSPEL? What do you think? Yes or no? Well, pause and think for a minute. I argued yes, my companion argued no. The answer can be found in the opening paragraph of the Introduction to the Book of Mormon. YES, the Bible also contains the fullness of the gospel. In the Spanish Book of Mormon, the small little phrase that says "as does the bible" isn't translated at the end of the paragraph and doesn't imply that the Bible also contains the fullness of the gospel...although it doesn't imply that it doesn't either. Anyway, my companion was so sure that the Bible didn't have everything...then she started asking me why we have the Book of Mormon if the Bible has everything we need to know? Welp, as you can see this is heading in a bad direction... especially seeing as we're missionaries preaching to the people that the Book of Mormon is the keystone...the evidence of our message. I reminded her what I know about the Book of Mormon. What Joseph Smith said, that it's the most correct book of any on the earth and that we can grow closer to God by reading it than by any other. Then we talked about the two continents... European and American...of course God loves all his children and communicated with both continents equally. Hence, the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I even went so far as to read to her from Preach My Gospel where it says that the Bible and Book of Mormon complement each other. After a solid 15 minutes of wondering why we need the Book of Mormon, my dear companion seemed to finally remember her testimony of the truthfulness of the book and we were back on track:)

Yesterday the missionaries that are leaving bore their testimonies in Sacrament Meeting. I started crying... again. Pucha. Hahaha. After church we ate lunch with Gustavo and Fernanda Chemin and little Jasmin. What can I say, the little one still loves me. ADORABLE. One of these days I'll take a picture with her and send it to you. She's soooo cute. We're the best of friends. We also spent time writing in each others memory books...basically books we bought so the members can write to us and missionaries as well. Greatest idea ever:)

Anyway, that's all for this week. I'm running super low on sleep since Saturday night we went to bed around 1:30AM and woke up at 5:30AM Sunday morning. Last night was the same. Gotta get everything ready for Hermana Cortes to leave. Lots to do in very few hours. We're down to 4 hours until we head to Trelew. Elder Elliz leaves at 5:00PM and Hermana Cortes and Elder Acuña leave at 8:15PM.

Mom, Carlos is interested in the Church...in fact he's an investigator. An awesome one at that. We're working with him..but it's a slow process. Yesterday during our lesson Soledad and Carlos gave us ice cream...first because Hermana Cortes is leaving and second because yesterday was sooo hot. So much wind...but even the wind was hot. It was nastyyy. I had so much dirt on my face when I got to the pension at night. Every day we come home and grab a tissue to wipe our forehead which is always caked with dirt.... but last night was ridiculous. Tons of wind and dirt roads don't mix well. Hahaa. And I am feeling just great, no worries mother dearest. It was a really long process for my body to become accustomed to the food and everything else, but it's getting better. The first month was pretty much awful...but it's okay because only my body didn't feel good...my spirits were great and still are! Yes, President Rogers takes really good care of us...in our weekly letter we're always required to tell him about our health that week.

Okay, I lied, one more story. This week we got a text from Elder Elliz that said, "Hermana Heath. A package and like 5 letters came for you today." BEST DAY EVER!! Hahhaa...anyway, the next day I got them. The package was from the Peterson's! So sweet. They have always been such good neighbors. I love them. I really do. So thoughtful of them. Mom, please give them a BIG hug for me:) I got letters from Jenni Boyle, Miriam (love the Christmas picture...it screams Cottam family in my opinion. Classic.), and I got the Heath Family Christmas letter! I was soooo happy! Good job, mom! :)

Welp, have a fantastic week! You're always in my prayers and I think about you sooo much...maybe more than I should...but as long as it's not distracting me I don't see the harm. Mostly I just talk about you to everyone...we have some pretty great stories that deserve to be shared:)

I love you all soooo much!

Forever and Always,

Hermana Heath

Celebrating the farewell of Elder Holland

and Hermana Hualpa in Trelew

the fishing place in Playa Union...

sneaking a peek at the beach...Hermano and Hermana
Chemin :)  Adorable, aren't they?

Practicing our sneaking skills!

Hermana Cortes, member from Trelew, me,

Hermana Hualpa, Hermana Smith

Opening the package :)

learning how to make empanadas! (an Argentine FAVORITE!)

Mia and Agustina....my little One Direction fans :)

A park in Rawson :)

HAPPY 2014!!

Hola Family!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope you had a very enjoyable New Years! Can you believe it's 2014 already? I can't either. CRAZY how fast the time goes by... this week I'm gonna reach my 4 month mark. Say what?!

So, this week. Where to begin. How about Monday? Well, actually that's a bad idea because I can't remember what happened on Monday. So, I'll just start telling stories as they come to mind.

New Years Eve...welp, it started out GREAT! We had study time and then district meeting where Elder Elliz talked about the dogs in Argentina. He said, (all in Spanish of course!) "Yesterday a dog was following my companion and me around our area, and I thought to myself, we're just like the dogs. We follow people around with great big smiles on our faces, visit the same houses over and over again just to get rejected and stare through the window while the people inside go on with their lives. Why do we do this? Because we love them and we're always loyal." Huh. What a cool analogy...and unfortunately extremely accurate. The number of rejections usually exceeds the number of lessons by far. Anyway, after district meeting we had lunch with a family who has 9 kids. Party? Nope, chaos. Complete chaos...but I loved it...hahahaha. We went around and visited a few less actives because they're the only people that will let us into their houses on New Years Eve, and then we ran into Natalia on the street. She told us that she needs some time and is too stressed with everything going on right now to be able to think about getting baptized at this moment. We still see her and she's very very friendly, but at the moment we're just friends. Sooo, that definitely put a damper on the evening.

We visited the Pranes family that night and chatted with them for awhile. All 8 of them were there. I LOVE their family. So special. They're one of the first families I met here in Rawson. They're awesome. Then we went to Soledad and Carlos' house for the rest of the night. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it was pouring rain. Like...POURING. So, we ran really fast:) We spent the night talking and laughing with Carlos and Soledad and then we ate asado. At midnight the fireworks started...there were even more than there were for Christmas Eve. It was sooo cool. We got home a little before 1:00AM and then went to bed quickly. I was soooo tired. Oh, I forgot to mention that they gave us beer. Hahaha...you gotta remember that only Soledad is a member of the church, and her parents were there as well. It's currently chillin' in our fridge. The good news is that it's non alcoholic...but I'm still not sure if we're allowed to drink it...hmmm.

New Years Day started out with me waking up at 5:30AM to throw up everything that was in my stomach. Awesome. I couldn't really sleep much after that. Then, the Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on our door. Fabulous. Now they know where we live! Pucha. At noon we went with the Elders to Trelew. We played games with all the missionaries there and ate some pollo and tacos. Yumm. Then we all started singing songs. Disney (hilarious... remember that the mayority of my zone is Hispanic and barely speaks English).  My personal favorite was when we sang Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up." Elder Holland tried to get Celine Dion's "My Heart will go on" but that ship was sunk before it reached the harbor. Too funny. Being a missionary is the best. No joke.

Ohhh... I don't remember if I told you, but last week we visited a friend of Hermano Chemin and she told me that I speak better Spanish than my companion. Hahaha...her Colombian tone throws the people here. She sings so much when she talks. But like SO MUCH. It's hard for the people to understand lots of times...it's hard for ME to understand lots of the time. Good times though.

So, Haydee, an investigador, got her car set on fire by a bomb on New Years Eve. Yep, some idiot teenagers threw a bomb into her car. It's still sitting in front of her house completely burned. So sad. She's doing good though! Yesterday we visited her and she let us help her pick peaches from her tree in the backyard! Then she gave us some to keep:) Delicious. I never knew how much I liked peaches until now. It's the main dessert here. Peaches and cream...and it's divine.

This week was freezing!! I don't know who stole the sun, but I'd really like it back. BRUTAL. Thank heavens I only have one winter here in Argentina because I wouldn't make it for two...I'm not even sure I'll make it for one... and with my luck I'll be down in Ushuaia. Pray for me people.

So, funniest story of the week? After visiting a family one night, we left the lesson a little late and it was 9:05PM...so what did we do? We started sprinting for the pension. It's about a 15 minute walk, but we ran home in 5 minutes... we made good time ya? Well, I hope it was worth it because we looked like freaks. Complete crazies. A "blonde" North American running through the streets with a big bag of books and pamphlets. Any reputation I had was lost in those 5 minutes. Awesome.  We got home quick though...and that was the point. Trying to be obedient. Points for effort?

Welp, that's all that comes to mind at the moment. WAIT! Noooo....yesterday guess who came to church?! The Familia PRANES!! The mom didn't come and the oldest son didn't come...but the dad and Diego and Marcelo with the three sisters Jimena, Gabi, and Micaela. I was sooo happy. We've been visiting them every week since day one here in Rawson and we're finally seeing the results! Jimena is 22 years old and stayed active while her family wasn't. The mom, Juana, has been coming to church pretty regularly since we started the visits, but the dad and the boys were angry and offended and haven't wanted to come back. I guess they changed their minds. They set a goal to be sealed in the temple...they're willing to do whatever it takes... starting with coming to church!! We're gonna keep visiting them...in fact we have an appointment on Tuesday night. But I was so excited I was trying my best not to squeal. AHHHH!!

Welp, that's all for now folks. I hope you're all doing well. Back in school? That's too bad, but hey...you're half way there! Keep up the good work!! Love you all forever and always and I think about you often! Have a blessed week!

Chaus!!

Hermana Heath

familia Pranes :)

New Year's Eve!! Carlos, Soledad and family

New Years Day...playing UNO!

picking peaches!!!

just for Kimberly :) cutest little puppy ever!!

another one just for Kim :)

dos corazones...yummy candy with love poems inside.
Hermano Chemin brought them for us at mission correlation.

playing games on Christmas Eve!!

Christmas Eve with the familia Mayor

Trelew South Zone with President and Sister Rogers

penguins just for Em...Punta Tombo