Amy's Adventures in Argentina!: 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