Transfer #13...

Hola Family,

So...today's a pretty depressing day. It's Monday January 26, 2015. Today I started transfer 13 of my mission...for those of you returned missionaries... Elders have 17 transfers...and Hermanas have 13. Six weeks left. I'm trying my best not to think about it because my heart already hurts when I rememeber how little time I have left down here in Argentina. I'm gonna make the most of it! Luckily I'm staying here in Rio Gallegos to finish with Hermana Solórzano. Lots of missionaries are leaving...and most of them I'll never see again. This weekend has been harder than I thought it would be. Pucha.

Anyway...no more pity party for me. This week was great. On Tuesday morning we left for Calafate!!! An Hermano from the other branch drove us down in his bus...there were 18 of us I think:) We arrived at the glaciar at 2:00PM and had until 4 to walk around and enjoy ourselves. We split off as a district and walked around. It was INCREDIBLE. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I wish you all could have been there. It's BEAUTIFUL. I could have spent all day there. Every now and again a big chunk of ice falls off into the water...it's sooo loud...it sounds like thunder and you can almost feel the earth shaking. It was really neat. As I sat there looking at the glaciar I couldn't help but feel tiny and insignificant next to something like that...but then I remembered that I'm a child of God...we all are. We are God's supreme creations. Isn't that amazing?! We are of infinite worth to our loving Heavenly Father:)

Sooo...other than that the week was pretty normal. We did lots of contacting this week. Sometimes it's boring...one day we knocked like 20 houses in a row and not a single door opened. I'm tellin' ya...there's no one here in Gallegos. But the weather was great this week! It was sooo sunny...I started getting my tan back along with the awkward tan lines that scream sister missionaries... but as dad always says, "beggers cant be choosers." (...how do you spell beggars?...beggers? beggurs? oh well. you get what I mean)...I was getting a little bit too white for my liking. Haha...I love the sun:):):)

Soo...I don't remember if I ever mentioned the obsession Argentines have with mayonaise...they put it on everything...literally everything. It's weird. The mayonaise here is yummier though than what we have back home..but still. Crazy argentines!! :)

Mmm...I don't really have anything else to say. Today we're gonna be in the terminal from about 4:00PM until 10:00PM...wish us luck! Have a great week! I love you all!! Don't forget to read and pray!

Hugs and kisses from the bottom of the world!! :)

Hermana Heath

El CALAFATE!!

Hola Familia!!

I have nooo time. Puucha. So...real quick. This week was pretty crazy. We don't have any investigators with baptismal dates which is always a bummer. This week we're gonna find nuevos a full! Lots of contacting ahead:)

Hmm...so...this week I went to the clinic here in Gallegos to have them look at my eye. Last thursday while walking in wind a little rock flew into my eye and I couldn't get it out..but don't panic friends...on saturday morning it was still bugging me so Hermana Leiva took me to the clinic and the doctor looked at my eye and pulled it in a whole bunch of weird ways and then he just gave me some eye drops..he said the rock was no longer inside..it was just a little red and irritated. the drops burn...but I'm okay...and the doctor didn't leave me blind. that was a legit fear when I went in:) hahaha. I don't like argentine doctors.

Also...tomorrow we're going to calafate as a zone to see the glaciars!! I'm suuuper excited! Next week there will be pictures I'm sure:)

Also...if you can keep Hermana Myriam Arriola and her family in your prayers. Her son Juan Gabriel Balado left the house last saturday...9 days ago...and never came home. they think he had a panic attack and lost his memory. it has happened in the past but he was always at home. please pray for them and ifyou can put their names in the temple. I LOVE YOU ALL!

until next time,

Hermana Heath

16 months down...2 TO GO?!

Hola Familia!

Sooo..how's it going? I hope you're all doing good. I love hearing about how things are going at home. It makes me miss ya'll a little bit less! It seems like you're all doing well.

This week was great!! Stella got baptized. I still can't believe it. Haha....the bad news? The branch president said her name wrong when they gave her the holy ghost so they have to do that ordinance again. Puuuucha. Ooooohhh she's halfway there...ooooohhh livin' on a prayer!! Hahaa...we're gonna try to get that done as soon as possible. But the baptism was really nice. We had a great time. I love being a missionary!  I love seeing how people change when they accept the gospel. It's a miracle! I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am for the restored gospel in my life. I never truly understood or realized just how different my life would have been if I had grown up with different beliefs or without the knowledge and testimony I have. We are sooo incredibly blessed...do we even know it?! I don't know...sometimes I think we take it all for granted. My mission and the people I have met have completely changed my life...but not only that...my understanding of life and the gospel too. Missions are the most amazing thing ever!! :)

Mmm...other than that...this week was pretty normal. I was sad to hear about Spencer. I hope he can get feeling better so that he can finish his mission. I'm so grateful that I haven't had any health problems while I've been here. There are soo many missionaries that have problems with that.

This week we had several lessons...but mostly with less actives. Rio Gallegos is pretty much a ghost town. Everyone leaves for vacation. Yesterday we ate asado with the Elders and their investigators. It was really yummy...we ate cordero...lamb! And it was REALLY good. I probably never would have eaten that before the mission. Hahaha. The investigators are named Paola and Ricardo. They're awesome! They're gonna get baptized next week...the 24th I think. They're super excied. Ricardo's brother Leo and his wife Veronica are our investigators...but Veronica is about to have a baby so things are a little bit complicated with visiting them. We'll just have to wait a little bit:)

Okay...that's all I can come up with for today. I think we're gonna play pool today as a district. Not really sure...but Elder Huffstutler from Alabama is cooking lunch today...guess what he's gonna make...CHILI! My life is made:) Have a fantastic week family! I love you all sooo much!!

Hermana Heath

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Querida Family,

It's 2015! What?! I can't even believe it. 2014 was the best year of my life... and the hardest. I love being a missionary. I learned so much and had so many incredible experienes that have changed me and my life forever! I've never been so happy in my life! I wish I could stay here in the Patagonia forever. Life couldn't be better! :)

This Saturday my comp and I have a baptism...Stella. She's great...and a lil crazy...but it's common among these Argentines in the Patagonia so dont worry! She's super prepared and happy and excited for her baptism...we're just hoping and praying that it doesn't fall through...again. Other than her, we're looking for new investigators. I love Rio Gallegos...it has practically transformed into a ghost town...everyone is on vacation...so that makes things hard...but I really do like the city and the members are awesome!

I dont' really have much to say this week. On new years day we got to watch monsters inc 2...monsters university. It was suuuper cute. Then we played in the chapel as a zone. It was super fun. I love my zone:) I love missionaries. So many friendships that will last for a long time:)

On saturday we had zone conference with President and Hermana Rogers. It was awesome. I love learning from them. President said he'll think about sending us to EL CALAFATE in two weeks if we work hard. I hope he lets us gooo....I wanna go sooo bad. It's a huuuge glacier and the pictures are GORGEOUS! I think he'll let us go:) anyway...we're gonna keep working hard in the mean time:) i love my companion...she's an absolute angel. Couldn't be happier! Hahaa...

Well family...have a great week! I kinda missed you last week...that was a little bit werid. Homesickness hasn't really been a problem for me in my mission..what's happening?! hahaha...but don't ya'll worry...in a few days I'll go back to not missing you anymore...hahahaa just kiddding. I think about you all the time..you're always in my thoughts and prayers. I love you all sooooo much!!! Thank you for your love and support! The church is true friends so keep going every sunday. Read the book of mormon...we're currently reading it together as a mission...we have to finish by april 6th. It's the best book ever...especially in spanish! :) ok...bye!

Hermana Heath

FELIZ AÑO NUEVOO!

Hey family...

It was sooo good talking to you all on Christmas! I was suuuper happy I got to talk to Matthew...err...Elder Heath too:) That made my day. I didn't think I was gonna get to talk with him:)

This week for new years we're gonna be with the same family...the only difference? The four Elders from our branch are gonna crash our party! Puuuucha. All six of us are gonna be together which will actually be really fun. I love this time of year in Argentina:) Oh...and we're gonna watch Monsters Inc 2...I'm super excited. I've also never seen that movie. Frozen was sooo cute. I've been singing the songs all week long.

This week we've got some more service planned as a district:) We're really excited. Yesterday was Elder Boyd's birthday so we had a small party in the church...we told him it was a meeting with the Elders quorum president. It was fun. After we played that game where you tie the balloon around your ankle and have to pop other peoples. It was fun...I took second place:) Hahaha.

Sooo...I think I pretty much to you everything on Thursday. But...I'm sure you've all seen the video the church made this year for Christmas..."He is the gift" Remember, Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He is the gift. I love the video. It's really powerful:)

Yesterday as a district we took some time to share with each other our favorite scriptures...it was really cool. I came across seccion 31 in D&C...the section mom shared with me before the mission. Last night I read it again... inserting my own name and remembered lots of promises and blessings from my setting apart. How quickly this year went by! Puuucha. I'm not ready to come home yet friends. I'm determined to stay foreverrr! :)

Well..have a very happy new year! I love you all! Em and Craig...watch some good disney movies for me...it looks like you got a pretty good colection:)

I LOVE YOU ALL! Have a great week:)

Hermana Heath

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

Hola Familia,

¿Como andan? This week is Christmas!! Can you believe it?! I sure can't. What happened to the year...I think we skipped half of it. But anyway...I hope ya'll have a very merry christmas this year. We'll be talking soooon!

So...this week was crazy. Remind me one day to tell ya'll what happened cause I don't have much time. But basically Hermana Rodriguez didn't end up leaving until Tuesday morning. On Monday night we were at the pension of the zone leaders until about 11:30PM with all the missionaries wrapping up suitcases in plastic bags and tape from the missionaries that had traveled north...the people from the colectivo wouldn't let them take more than one on the bus. Anyway...we had like 30 extra suitcases to deal with. Then we ended up eating hot dogs cause we hadn't eaten anything all day. We didn't end up going to bed until like 2:30AM that night. I love transfers. Let me tell ya. Earlier that day we played soccer at a field that we rented for two hours. It was fun...and Hermana Heath scored two goals. Ya buddy! It was a good day... Tuesday we got up at 5:00 so that my comp could be at the terminal at 6:30AM. Then  I was on splits with the other hermanas until that night when I got on the colectivo and couldn't sleep due to the man next to me snoring suuuuper loud. On Wednesday morning I was in the pension of the hermanas in comodoro for about 3 hours...there were 7 hermanas training...we had a great time talking and toward the end we started stealing each others phones to call people from our old areas. I got super lucky because Hermana Salazar is currently in my area in Rawson and Hermana Villela is in my area in Caleta Olivia so I got to call Mariela, Agustina, and Maxi!!! :) Then with Hermana Zanuttini we called the familia zampa. It was sooo good to talk with them. They're all doing great:) At about noon we went to the offices and met the new missionaries. 5 gringas and 2 latinas. My new companion is Hermana Solorzano from Guatemala. I'm soooo glad she speaks spanish. As of right now...training is NOT fun...but my companion is great so we're doing good. We had a looong bus ride back...somehow I was able to sleep for most of it. Then we worked in our area the rest of the week. We put 4 new baptismal dates this week and found two new investigators! I'm super relieved because we lost pretty much everyone we had last week and the week before. Anywayy...on Saturday morning we did service in san benito as a zone. We had to clean out a garage..it was filled with lots of...well...the only word I can come up with is crap. Yep...it was filled with crap. I'm pretty sure this lady is a hoarder. There was an opened bag of lays chips from 2008. Puuuucha. There were also car parts...couches...baby strollers...clothes everywhere...anything you can think of was in that garage. I impressed everyone with my ability to carry heavy things. It was actually just because the Elders never let us do anything so they're always surprised when they find out we can open a door by ourselves and everything. Who knew, right?! Hahaha...the Elders are great! Such gentlemen. Hahahah.

Well...that was my week. I left lots of things out...but that's all I can come up with right now and my time is running short...like always. But...on Thursday we'll talk! :) I LOVE YOU ALL! MERRY CHRISTMAS! :):):)

Hermana Heath

TRANSFERS CAMEEE! ...por fin! :)

Hola Familia,

Soo...I'm pretty much out of time. Again. How does that happen so fast?! Beats me. Anyway...this week was really long...but it was good. We had lots of fun activities in the church. On tuesday we had district meeting which was awesome. I had to talk about christlike attributes...I've learned a lot about them this transfer. On wednesday we went christmas caroling as a district...an hermana in the branch made us santa hats and everything :) On Friday we had our christmas dinner as a branch. We did the live nativity...but it looks like you already found that out...the members here are really good with facebook apparently. hahaa. Anyway...I was Maria...and i got to hold a baby...for all you RM's you know that we're not supposed to hold babies...but what was I gonna do? Make Joseph hold it? No way Jose! I definitely took advantage of that opportunity...and I loved it...i almost didn't give little baby benjamin back. he's the son of the elders investigators. Soooo cute. I was in heaven. Best day ever...it made the embarassment worth it:) On saturday as missionaries we sang at seminary/institute graduation. it was fun! then they told us transfers. I'm gonna be training. I go to comodoro tomorrow night to pick her up...another loooong bus ride. wish me luck! Hermana rodriguez is going to ushuaia with hermana reyes. she's got awesome zone leaders down there so she'll be okay. Well family...I don't have much else to share this week. Griselda and Miguel didn't end up getting baptized. Puuucha. They're soo close. keep praying for them. the elders are gonna take over now...so i've gotta find new investigators!! I love rio gallegos. the families here are AMAZING! There's one family in particular the familia fernandez that takes such good care of me. I LOVE THEM! :)

Have a great week! sorry for the short unorganized letter. I love you all...next week we're gonna skype! shoot. I forgot..I haven't checked on times with members or anything. i'll let you know the time...it'll probably be in the afternoon...like 6:00 my time...2:00 your time. when are you gonna talk with matthew? christmas came fast! next monday i'll let you know for sure :)

Hermana Heath