Monday, November 24, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Mi queridisima familia,

So...what's up? I have about two seconds to send you an email...it's a holiday in Argentina (surprise! surprise!) and the only ciber open is super expensive asi que your email is gonna be short..that seems to be happening a lot lately...

First we had interviews with President and Hermana Rogers. Can I just tell you how much I love them! They're amazing...and they both motivated me to keep going. They love me:) Hahaha I'm so excited for ya'll to meet them one day.

...HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I totally forgot...but  I hope you have a splendid day. Make sure Shaun doesn't eat all the banana cream pie...I feel like we always had a battle for the last piece...haha. Man, I'm gonna be missing home on thursday..but honestly not that much. Give everyone big hugs for me!! :)

This week I got to talk for a few minutes with Hermana Hundley...benefits of being friends with the assistants. She's doing good...it's always great talking to her. It pretty much made my day...plus everyone in Gallegos LOVES her and so they automatically love me too. It's the best:)

On Thursday two investigators Griselda and Miguel got married!! Yahooo... they're 24 and 22 years old and have 4 kids...on Friday Griselda told us she's pregnant with the 5th...anyway...they're super poor, but they are the cutest family. We're working toward baptism with them. I LOVE them...Miguel reminds me sooo much of the Craig-meister...it kinda makes me wanna give him a great big hug every time I see him. They're awesome.

Ummm...last but not least...sketchy Argentina water is finally starting to affect me...or I should say my hair. My hair is FALLING OUT. As you can imagine...I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS! Someone do some research and tell me what I have to do to keep my hair in my head...remember back in the day when my hair was long and pretty and thick? Well..those days are no more. Puuuucha. Someone help me please!  :(:(:(:( Hahahhaa...okay so I might have exaggerated a little bit...but really someone tell me what to do!

Yesterday in church we talked about what it means to be a true disciple of Christ..I LOVED IT! It's never gonna be easy...but it's worth it every time! Our first loyalty should always be to the Lord...in relief society we talked about taking the beam out of our own eye before trying to get rid of the mote in someone elses. So..it all tied together really well. It was an awesome day in church!

Okay that's all I can come up with this week! I love you all! Have a very happy thanksgiving! Hugs and kisses from Rio Gallegos!

Hermana Heath

Monday, November 17, 2014

Heyyy...

Hola Familia...

So...this week was EPIC. I didn't have time to read your emails...internet time is SUPER expensive here....soo...I'll read them later. Anyway...this week flew by...kind of.

On Tuesday I was in divisions with Hermana Johnson in centro Rio Gallegos. It was a good day...and a nice break from my companion. President Rogers wasn't kidding! Haha. I also hit 14 months in the mission...can ya'll believe it? I sure can't. The time is going by wayyy to fast. We're already half way through november!! Que LOCO!

On Wednesday we were at the dentist all day...my comp had to get a root canal last week and this week they did some other stuff. That night at 6:00PM we met up in the chapel and went to the terminal together...at 8:00PM we were boarding the bus that took us to Comodoro! It was sooo fun. I was sitting next to Hermana Garavito but Elder Ramos was in the other aisle seat across from me (my old zone leader in Trelew) It was the first time I had seen him since I left Rawson (he's in Calafate now which is about 3 hours outside of Gallegos) We talked until about 1:30AM about the mission and remembering good times in Trelew Sur. Hermana Garavito was also in that zone so she didn't get left out:) Haha. We only slept a little bit here and there...bus rides are impossible!

We got to Comodoro at about 6:30AM. We passed through Caleta and it pretty much ripped my heart out...I almost got off there. I could have made it to Maxi's house in 5 minutes running. Temptations. Anyway...we went to the mission office...the first Elder I saw that I recognized was Elder Alvarez...it was soo fun to see him. Then I saw Hermana Rasmussen, Hermana Zanuttini, Hermana Tumbaico...I had 7 of my 9 companions there. CRAZY. Haha...it was super fun. I finally found Hermana Hundley...it was the best reunion EVER. I love her with all my heart. We just kinda stood there stunned...neither of us knew what to say so we just hugged each other...from that moment on we didn't leave each other's sides all day. She's doing really well. I was happy to talk with her:) Elder Christofferson showed up with Presidente Gonzalez and Presidente Rogers and their wives at about 10:00AM. The conference was GREAT...and Elder Christofferson wanted to shake our hands...you can bet I wont be washing my right hand ever again...it's my apostle hand. I shouldn't have a hard time with that goal because in Argentina they rarely have soap anyway! Haha. Crazy Argentines.

We ate lunch after and then just had the whole day to chill in the church. It was the BEST. The other missionaries all left before our zone...which was sad..I cried when Trelew and Puerto Madryn left...and then again when Caleta Olivia left...but right before getting on the bus Elder Dunford asked for my agenda he knows my companion and that she's a little bit hard so he wrote on the front page "you're better than the whole bunch of them put together old sport" apparently it's a quote from the great gatsby...but it always makes me feel better during the day when I see it:)

Have a great week! The church is true...Elder Christofferson said so! I love you all!!

Hermana Heath

Monday, November 10, 2014

Rio Gallegos...

Hola Familia!!

Hey friends. So...my first week in Rio Gallegos was an ETERNITY. My companion is Hermana Rodriguez...she's got about 6 months in the mission and from Peru. She has lots of sicknesses including severe chronic gastritis and a couple other stomach problems so we don't get to work as much as I like... President Rogers is watching her closely which also means that I talk with him way more than I'm used to over the phone...which is probably good. Hermana Rodriguez has been labled as one of the "hard" companions in the mission for lots of reasons only one of them being her health...president told me if I can get throught this transfer I will have magnified my calling... haha...I think it was mostly a joke...at least I hope so!! Apparently she has a really strong personality. BUT! I don't tell you all this to complain about my companion because that's not cool. Mostly I'm just gonna send out a quick reminder...something one of my seminary teachers always said, "There are two types of people in the world...the ones you love and the ones you don't understand." I can tell it's probably gonna be a hard transfer...my companion is one of the people I don't understand yet. I'm gonna have to understand her to love her, and love her to understand her. We'll see how this goes! Wish me luck...and remember...don't judge people...because usually once we get to know them we love 'em!

I love Rio Gallegos so far. The members here are awesome. I love the familia Fernandez...and thanks to Hermana Hundley...they love me! Everyone here loves Hermana Hundley...and I get to see her in 3 DAYS! I'm sooo excited. It should be a great conference with the apostle. It's gonna be a looong bus ride though....

I can't really think of anything that happened this week...the Elders in my district are great. My district leader, Elder Rendon, is from Colombia...my zone leaders are great..I've met them both before...Elder Benitez...the kid that I sat next to for 5 hours during that protest in Caleta when I was headed to Grande? Good times. And Elder Mamani...don't remember where he's from... Chile I think.

Leaving Caleta Olivia was brutal. I cried HARD. Hermana Villela...my replacement...showed up about 2 hours before I left...awkward. I was not down to hang out with her and was surprisingly jealous as I realized that she was gonna be living in MY pension...sleeping in MY bed...eating lunch with MY families...visiting MY Maxi...I hope she takes good care of them. Anyway...Maxi was such a capo and stayed in the terminal with me until my bus left. His mom even came to say goodbye. That surprised me cause she doesn't want anything to do with religion (although she supports Maxi and is happy he's making good decisions with his life) She told me she's gonna miss me and that she loves me and thanked me for all I did for Maxi...yep...I was crying. Maxi gave me a letter and drew me a picture of a tiger...I didn't know he could draw...but wrote that the tiger was sad because I'm leaving...I try not to look at it because it makes me sad. I'm gonna get permission from President to call him for his birthday in a coulple of weeks...and at the conference I'll probably steal Hermana Davis' phone and send him a message...oh...Hermana Rasmussen is in Rawson...in my area...and Elder Tarwater is also in Rawson. I'm super jealous. Okay...so that's all I can come up with to tell you...next week I promise I'll write a good letter...I read all your letters this week so I didn't have a lot of time to write.

I LOVE YOU ALL! This week I've been singing "I'm trying to be like Jesus" all week long...what a great song. Do ya'll remember the words? :)

Have a great week! Sorry for the boring letter! Next week's will be awesome for sure!

Hermana Heath

Monday, November 3, 2014

Gallegos...here I come!!

Dear Family...

So...I made the mistake of reading everyone's emails before writing to all of you guys and now you're not gonna get a very good or long letter. Anyway... my head is spinning a little bit...but I'm not saying anything until someone confirms my thoughts.

Anyway...they told us transfers on Saturday night. I'm going to Rio Gallegos. I leave tonight at 9:00PM. I'm sad to leave Caleta and Maxi and the familia Zampa, and Natalia...plenty of tears have already been shed. Maxi is coming to the terminal tonight so I haven't had to say goodbye to him yet. Anyway... I'm excited to go to Rio Gallegos. I think. My new companion is Hermana Rodriguez I think.

This week was good. It flew by. Will the time ever slow down? I doubt it. Next week the apostle is coming. It's Elder Christofferson...but shhh don't tell anyone. Technically I'm not supposed to know that...none of the other missionaries know yet. Hermana Zampa told me yesterday(we ate cinammon rolls again yesterday!)...she has good contacts in the church:) Haha...anyway.

Well...for Halloween I dressed up as an Elder. I had a tie and everything. I borrowed Elder Dunford's name tag. Good times. Not as exciting as Emily and Craig I suppose.

We did an activity on Saturday night in the church..."trip to Hawaii." It's awesome...remind me to explain it to you one day.

Well...have a great week. I love you all. Bye!

Hermana Heath