It won´t be easy, you´ld think it strange
When I try to explain how I feel.
That I still need your love even when I am gone.
You won´t be grieving
All you will see is a girl you once knew
With all she´s not dressed in long skirts.
She´s not preaching or teaching to you.
I had to let it happen
I had to change
Couldn´t stay all my life with my plack.
Doing contacts in the streets
Knocking doors all day long
So I choose freedom
Running around trying everything new
But nothing will impress me at all
I never expected it too
Don´t cry for me Argentina
The truth is I´ll never leave you
All through my RM days
Those crazy institute dances
I kept my promise
Don´t keep your distance
And as for marriage
And as for school
I never invited it in.
Though it seems to the world
that it´s all I desire
They are illusions
They are not the solutions they promise to be
The answer is here all the time.
I love you and hope you love me.
Don´t cry for me Argentina
The truth is I´ll never leave you
Not through my RM days,
those crazy institute dances
I´ll keep my promise
Don´t keep your distance
Have I said to much?
There´s nothing more I can think of to say to you.
But all you have to do is look at meç
to know that every word is true!
Don´t cry for me Argentina....
I also translated this song into spanish during my language study. I bet you thought you were going to get some spiritual last letter talking about my mission.....But I´m just not that kind of missionary. I am so much cooler. You´ll get my spiritual experiences in person....later.
Love you all, see you soon
Hermana Reed
Monday, September 10, 2012
Monday, September 3, 2012
Tu Conversión
Hello friends and family:
Sorry about last week. That was rough. But Don´t worry, now I have 2 weeks of stories to tell you. But the keyboard here sticks and it´s making my hands tired so I´m going to bulletpoint instead of trying to make it flow or have a theme. Don´t hate, I´m a good writer.
1) So we went to the open house with our new converts. And at the temple they give you a little card to fill out with your name and information. Well, one of the box essays “Religion” and one of the little girls asked, “What do we put for religion?” and her sister replied “Mormon, We´re mormons now.” I nearly leaped for joy. They have no idea what all that entails – we will continue to teach them that – but they were super proud of the fact that they are mormons. And I loved it.
2) Buahaha,okay, so the other day we had a member ask us to help them! That in and of itself could be a bulletpoint because it´s a miracle, but the story is a bit funnier then that. So, an Hermana had been assigned to clean the church, and due to work and other complications, she ends up being the only one going to clean, with an added homework to help cook for this big Bishops lunch the next day, so she asks us to give her a hand. So we go to the church to begin cleaning, and we´re doing fine when all of the sudden I hear this squeal “HERMANA!” What the freak!? I turn around and Hna Lobos has just found a little grasshopper in a corner. Now, to be fair, Hna Lobos is deathly afraid of insects, which I think is funny. We´ve had a couple of opportunities to kill small spiders and bugs together. I don´t do it for her, I help her do it. Anyways, well, we can´t kill it when it´s in the corner so I help her get the grasshopper out of the corner, and it jumps, natural right? Grasshoppers jump. Here´s what´s not natural. Her reaction – blood curdling scream! In the chapel. I was dying laughing. Absolutely dying. Anyways, I tell her, we have to kill it or you´re just going to be scared. So we get some paper towels and cover the poor grasshopper (o, did I tell you that it was already wounded? Yeah, we have a fun time) and then on the count of three Hna lobos steps on the bug. Blood curdling SCREAM otra vez! IN THE CHAPEL! And I was just laughing so hard. I´m such a bad person sometimes. Anyways, we get her calmed down, I clean up the bug and we move on cleaning. But, so funny.
3) Where´s Crystal? I finally got to talk to Elder Vargas from El Salvador, he was doing tramites last Monday as well. His eye´s nearly popped when I said that you say hi. And he got excited to know that I know you. He still looks up to you a lot. I don´t know if you have ever written him, but it would probably make his day. I also learned he has very good art skills that he learned from his life before the church. Maybe you could explain that to me someday???
4) Even in the boonies of Zarate we received a temple miracle. We have been working with a recent convert to help her start coming to church again. She had been out of work for a long time, and when she found work, it included Sundays. We started talking to her and really encouraged her to do everything in her power to go visit the temple. She finally did, the last Saturday it was open. But, unbeknownst to us, she took her daughter with her. And her daughter loved the temple. She said that she felt a peace inside that was out of this world, and it was peace that lasted. Afterwards, the daughter ends up showing late to work, and instead of being irritated by all the normal negative comments, she just kept feeling peaceful. And it´s a miracle because apparently, the Elders of Zarate 1 always go there to buy bread (normal) but by this interaction she was even more willing to talk to us. Because this last Wednesday, the recent convert moved in with her daughter, when we went by to give a leccion deretencion, our convert wasn´t there, but the daughter was. She recognized us as missionaries and asked us to come in. We started talking with her, she told us her story, and said if it hadn´t been for her experience with the temple and the Elders, she wouldn´t have spoken with us. Normally she doesn´t bother talking with religious people, because they just have the title and don´t really live what they believe. But us "Mormons" we´re different. We were able to teach the Restauration of the Gospel and give her a Book of Mormon. And that night she was reading and asking her mom all sorts of questions about the church. She wasn´t able to come to church with us the next day because she worked but she already promised to come on the 16th. And she was excited, she wanted to go. So much so that she allowed her mom (recent convert) to take her two kids to church on Sunday. And they loved it and were singing and sharing their experiences with their mom afterwards. That is our temple miracle.
5) Okay, so one of my favorite recent converts is Walter, and he´s not even my convert, but I claim him. So, last week he received the priesthood (finally!) and so this week we were searching everywhere to find him a white shirt and tie, and pants. Which means, we asked the Elders to loan us some. Loan, to gift of their own. And seeing him in church this week in a white shirt and tie. Shoot, it was like a mother´s pride, I nearly cried watching him pass the sacrament (he was super nervous to do it, he asked us about it and I told him that one of the Hermanos would help him out.) I´m such an emotional baby these days, but I don´t even care. It was so great to see how far he´s come in his progress, and to know that he´s now prepping to serve a mission.
6) I´ve learned that I have changed a lot. The people here know that I¨m leaving soon. And they keep asking me for my name. But I don´t give it to them. I told them I would give it when I leave, and I´m not saying my name a minute earlier! Even though some sneaky elders kept trying to look at my name on my tramite paper last week. Elders….. anyways, I just have been able to notice that I´m not “Carlee” right now. I left her behind when I entered the MTC. Right now, I´m “Hermana Reed” and I like myself better that way. It´s weird to hear my name, or even to see it. It just looks wrong. The people in tramites even called my first name. I was like 2 feet away, and they called my name like 7 times and it didn´t even register that they were talking about me. One of the sneaky elders who saw my name had to call my attention to the woman.
Alright, it´s time for me to head out. Love you all. I hope you enjoy my letters. My life is hilarious.
Hermana Reed
Sorry about last week. That was rough. But Don´t worry, now I have 2 weeks of stories to tell you. But the keyboard here sticks and it´s making my hands tired so I´m going to bulletpoint instead of trying to make it flow or have a theme. Don´t hate, I´m a good writer.
1) So we went to the open house with our new converts. And at the temple they give you a little card to fill out with your name and information. Well, one of the box essays “Religion” and one of the little girls asked, “What do we put for religion?” and her sister replied “Mormon, We´re mormons now.” I nearly leaped for joy. They have no idea what all that entails – we will continue to teach them that – but they were super proud of the fact that they are mormons. And I loved it.
2) Buahaha,okay, so the other day we had a member ask us to help them! That in and of itself could be a bulletpoint because it´s a miracle, but the story is a bit funnier then that. So, an Hermana had been assigned to clean the church, and due to work and other complications, she ends up being the only one going to clean, with an added homework to help cook for this big Bishops lunch the next day, so she asks us to give her a hand. So we go to the church to begin cleaning, and we´re doing fine when all of the sudden I hear this squeal “HERMANA!” What the freak!? I turn around and Hna Lobos has just found a little grasshopper in a corner. Now, to be fair, Hna Lobos is deathly afraid of insects, which I think is funny. We´ve had a couple of opportunities to kill small spiders and bugs together. I don´t do it for her, I help her do it. Anyways, well, we can´t kill it when it´s in the corner so I help her get the grasshopper out of the corner, and it jumps, natural right? Grasshoppers jump. Here´s what´s not natural. Her reaction – blood curdling scream! In the chapel. I was dying laughing. Absolutely dying. Anyways, I tell her, we have to kill it or you´re just going to be scared. So we get some paper towels and cover the poor grasshopper (o, did I tell you that it was already wounded? Yeah, we have a fun time) and then on the count of three Hna lobos steps on the bug. Blood curdling SCREAM otra vez! IN THE CHAPEL! And I was just laughing so hard. I´m such a bad person sometimes. Anyways, we get her calmed down, I clean up the bug and we move on cleaning. But, so funny.
3) Where´s Crystal? I finally got to talk to Elder Vargas from El Salvador, he was doing tramites last Monday as well. His eye´s nearly popped when I said that you say hi. And he got excited to know that I know you. He still looks up to you a lot. I don´t know if you have ever written him, but it would probably make his day. I also learned he has very good art skills that he learned from his life before the church. Maybe you could explain that to me someday???
4) Even in the boonies of Zarate we received a temple miracle. We have been working with a recent convert to help her start coming to church again. She had been out of work for a long time, and when she found work, it included Sundays. We started talking to her and really encouraged her to do everything in her power to go visit the temple. She finally did, the last Saturday it was open. But, unbeknownst to us, she took her daughter with her. And her daughter loved the temple. She said that she felt a peace inside that was out of this world, and it was peace that lasted. Afterwards, the daughter ends up showing late to work, and instead of being irritated by all the normal negative comments, she just kept feeling peaceful. And it´s a miracle because apparently, the Elders of Zarate 1 always go there to buy bread (normal) but by this interaction she was even more willing to talk to us. Because this last Wednesday, the recent convert moved in with her daughter, when we went by to give a leccion deretencion, our convert wasn´t there, but the daughter was. She recognized us as missionaries and asked us to come in. We started talking with her, she told us her story, and said if it hadn´t been for her experience with the temple and the Elders, she wouldn´t have spoken with us. Normally she doesn´t bother talking with religious people, because they just have the title and don´t really live what they believe. But us "Mormons" we´re different. We were able to teach the Restauration of the Gospel and give her a Book of Mormon. And that night she was reading and asking her mom all sorts of questions about the church. She wasn´t able to come to church with us the next day because she worked but she already promised to come on the 16th. And she was excited, she wanted to go. So much so that she allowed her mom (recent convert) to take her two kids to church on Sunday. And they loved it and were singing and sharing their experiences with their mom afterwards. That is our temple miracle.
5) Okay, so one of my favorite recent converts is Walter, and he´s not even my convert, but I claim him. So, last week he received the priesthood (finally!) and so this week we were searching everywhere to find him a white shirt and tie, and pants. Which means, we asked the Elders to loan us some. Loan, to gift of their own. And seeing him in church this week in a white shirt and tie. Shoot, it was like a mother´s pride, I nearly cried watching him pass the sacrament (he was super nervous to do it, he asked us about it and I told him that one of the Hermanos would help him out.) I´m such an emotional baby these days, but I don´t even care. It was so great to see how far he´s come in his progress, and to know that he´s now prepping to serve a mission.
6) I´ve learned that I have changed a lot. The people here know that I¨m leaving soon. And they keep asking me for my name. But I don´t give it to them. I told them I would give it when I leave, and I´m not saying my name a minute earlier! Even though some sneaky elders kept trying to look at my name on my tramite paper last week. Elders….. anyways, I just have been able to notice that I´m not “Carlee” right now. I left her behind when I entered the MTC. Right now, I´m “Hermana Reed” and I like myself better that way. It´s weird to hear my name, or even to see it. It just looks wrong. The people in tramites even called my first name. I was like 2 feet away, and they called my name like 7 times and it didn´t even register that they were talking about me. One of the sneaky elders who saw my name had to call my attention to the woman.
Alright, it´s time for me to head out. Love you all. I hope you enjoy my letters. My life is hilarious.
Hermana Reed
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
!!Fotos!!
Burnt finger from relighting pilot light before baptism
At the baptism
This is what dripping wet looks like!
At the temple
Going to the temple
Only got 4 minutes to save the world!
I rememberthat I started my mission saying that, and now I´m on the other side of this process saying the same thing. WEIRD! Alright, enough about you, lets talk about me.
Lets talkabout how this week was crazy insane, and I loved every minute of it.
Monday - wehad a rock awesome game playing cita with our investigators with the recently returned missionary and the family loved it and him.
Tuesday -we ask said recently returned missionary to do our daily contact for us because we were working in the temple all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Working in the temple was great. It was actually very quite because it was raining ALL DAY LONG.
Wednesday -we finish working at the temple and drive home in the rain- We get back about 7:30 at night and RUN to have daily contact with our investigators to find outthat one little girl fell in love with the recently returned missionary....and now wants to get baptized. LOVE IT!! More details on this one. On Monday while we were teaching she was being all sorts of flirty. She was touching his ears/hair, commenting on his eyes. He was beet red and I was trying to compose myself. Finally, it wasn´t happening to me. Poor guy, I do feel bad for him.Oh, did I mention that this little girl, Milagros, is 8? Anyways, point is, now she wants to get baptized and we call Pte Gulbrandsen and he gives us permission! Even though she´s never been to church. At least we have been teaching her. I promise Kind of. She likes to run a round, she has a lot of energy. Beside the point.
Thursday –we go to the church to do our planning and to clean the baptismal Font. Which takes, forever. Then we go tromping out in the POURING RAIN to find the family for their interviews. We swim back to church (okay, a member picked up most ofthem and Hna Lobos and I walked/swam) to find out zone leaders waiting to do the inverviews. Perfect. While we are there we have them try on their baptismal clothes and they are running around like crazy super happy. Ayelen comes out of the interview and shouts “I´m getting baptized!” Well, lookie there. I´m glad you are happy about that. Then they start running around in the baptismal Font I had JUST cleaned. And it got dirty again. But it was an easy fix so that´sokay. A Little dirt never kills anyone.
Friday –Everyone is calling us. Are we still doing the baptism? Are your investigators getting baptized? Uh….DUH They are getting baptized! A Little bit of rain shouldn´t stop a baptism. However, sometimes here in Argentina it does stop a baptism. But that´s beside the point, it´s not stopping this baptism. Because I have a lot of faith…and we´re calling a remis. Done and done. We show up dripping wet to the baptism. But all 4 of them are there. They all get baptized. SCORE!
Saturday –we wake up and leave early in the morning to go to the temple with our baptisms. Woohoo! It´s a long ride, and we´re super squished in the back of a convey, but we get them all in and they love the temple. LOVE IT! They are so being fiel.
Sunday – we go to get them for the confirmation. We have a bit of a scare as some sex-crazed idiot tries to follow us for 7 blocks. But God has more power then Satan…and we still had credit on our phone. So we call up Hno return missionaryto walk us to church. By the time he gets to the house the creeper is gone, butwe still feel better protected because we have a priesthood holder. Yay! Preisthood holder!! And it came to pass that this weekend there were not 1, not2 but 4! Count them 4 baptisms and confirmations in the Zarate II Ward. And the crowd goes wild! Wooooaaa!! And I know that I didn´t really do anything. God is great. He gives us baptisms. Love it.
And now, I´m chilling with the Hermanas of Campana. It´s a holiday so we´re going to go do some fun stuff. I´ll talk to you later! Seek out miracles!
Hermana Reed
Lets talkabout how this week was crazy insane, and I loved every minute of it.
Monday - wehad a rock awesome game playing cita with our investigators with the recently returned missionary and the family loved it and him.
Tuesday -we ask said recently returned missionary to do our daily contact for us because we were working in the temple all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Working in the temple was great. It was actually very quite because it was raining ALL DAY LONG.
Wednesday -we finish working at the temple and drive home in the rain- We get back about 7:30 at night and RUN to have daily contact with our investigators to find outthat one little girl fell in love with the recently returned missionary....and now wants to get baptized. LOVE IT!! More details on this one. On Monday while we were teaching she was being all sorts of flirty. She was touching his ears/hair, commenting on his eyes. He was beet red and I was trying to compose myself. Finally, it wasn´t happening to me. Poor guy, I do feel bad for him.Oh, did I mention that this little girl, Milagros, is 8? Anyways, point is, now she wants to get baptized and we call Pte Gulbrandsen and he gives us permission! Even though she´s never been to church. At least we have been teaching her. I promise Kind of. She likes to run a round, she has a lot of energy. Beside the point.
Thursday –we go to the church to do our planning and to clean the baptismal Font. Which takes, forever. Then we go tromping out in the POURING RAIN to find the family for their interviews. We swim back to church (okay, a member picked up most ofthem and Hna Lobos and I walked/swam) to find out zone leaders waiting to do the inverviews. Perfect. While we are there we have them try on their baptismal clothes and they are running around like crazy super happy. Ayelen comes out of the interview and shouts “I´m getting baptized!” Well, lookie there. I´m glad you are happy about that. Then they start running around in the baptismal Font I had JUST cleaned. And it got dirty again. But it was an easy fix so that´sokay. A Little dirt never kills anyone.
Friday –Everyone is calling us. Are we still doing the baptism? Are your investigators getting baptized? Uh….DUH They are getting baptized! A Little bit of rain shouldn´t stop a baptism. However, sometimes here in Argentina it does stop a baptism. But that´s beside the point, it´s not stopping this baptism. Because I have a lot of faith…and we´re calling a remis. Done and done. We show up dripping wet to the baptism. But all 4 of them are there. They all get baptized. SCORE!
Saturday –we wake up and leave early in the morning to go to the temple with our baptisms. Woohoo! It´s a long ride, and we´re super squished in the back of a convey, but we get them all in and they love the temple. LOVE IT! They are so being fiel.
Sunday – we go to get them for the confirmation. We have a bit of a scare as some sex-crazed idiot tries to follow us for 7 blocks. But God has more power then Satan…and we still had credit on our phone. So we call up Hno return missionaryto walk us to church. By the time he gets to the house the creeper is gone, butwe still feel better protected because we have a priesthood holder. Yay! Preisthood holder!! And it came to pass that this weekend there were not 1, not2 but 4! Count them 4 baptisms and confirmations in the Zarate II Ward. And the crowd goes wild! Wooooaaa!! And I know that I didn´t really do anything. God is great. He gives us baptisms. Love it.
And now, I´m chilling with the Hermanas of Campana. It´s a holiday so we´re going to go do some fun stuff. I´ll talk to you later! Seek out miracles!
Hermana Reed
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Benedryl - the $7 babysitter!
Sometimes, I think about sleeping just a little bit to much. My body is going all wacky from the different schedules we´ve been having this week. There just isn´t a sleeping routine anymore. BUt it´s okay because we receive blessings! Like working in the temple. It was great. We went last Wednesday - leaving at 6 in the morning taking a little breakfast break in capital and still managed to make it to the temple by 10 o´clock!...we were supposed to be there by noon. We were definately not late! So we were able to have some study time while we waited for our shift to start. We went and had lunch with Pte Gulbrandsen and Hna Gulbrandsen in the CCM that is behind the temple and then started to work. Hna Lobos and I started in the reception tent. Essentially, after the tours, everyone is led to this tent where there are chairs to sit down, a few snacks/goodies and time to reflect on how you felt and what you saw. Our job was to invite everyone (specifically those that weren´t members) to fill our a commentary card and to answer any questions that they had. It was a fun opportunity because a lot of the people were members - so we got to ask about their conversion experiences, and help them understand a little more about the temple. Talking with those that weren´t members was also really fun because we were able to teach mini lessons. They had really good questions, but it was just amazing to see the changes in the people for going through the temple. One Hermana told us that a man in our group started the tour being a little cocky, having only come for his daughter, not really wanting to be there. But throughout the tour he began to feel the spirit and by the end was very reverent and had a touching experience. Many people came out crying. The tour ends in the sealing room talking about the family and everyone having the chance to look in to the 2 mirrors into the eternities.
Then around 9:30 when everyone had finally left we were able to go up to our rooms....except the lock didn´t work. So we trooped back to Pte Gulbrandsen our mission dad to fix the lock. And he acted in a very dad-like manner. First, he was laughing at us because we were all so tired we were slap happy. Hermana Whitehead was dying. She was laughing/crying at everything (to be fair, we as the farthest missionaries had gotten up at 4 in the morning to be at the temple) and Pte Gulbrandsen just laughed at her. We figured out that the key didn´t work because it had been next to an i-phone all day (which I´m glad, because if Pte had opened the door when I couldn´t I would have felt like an idiot). So, first, like any good dad - he tried to jimmy the lock with his credit card. When that didn´t work, he went to go look for a spare master card. We eventually made it into bed.
9 o´clock the next day we start up again. This time we are in the entrance. There´s a hostel/building where the tour begins with a 10 minute video explaining the temple and the Hermana´s give a 30 second presentation of the videio and then we leave. That´s all. It was definately more routine/robot-esque but good at the same time. In the down time between groups we were able to read our scriptures.
And then when the next shift of Hermanas came in at 1 we were free to leave. And we started traveling and were back in Zarate at 7. Just in time to do daily contact with our 3 baptisms this week!!!
It was an amazing experience, we were able to spend a lot of time with Pte and Hna Gulbrandsen. Hna Gulbrandsen is hilarious. When we ere in the reception tent we spent a lot of time with her. And even though she still struggles with Spanish, she throws herself into the work. She just makes sure she has a translator with her at all times. But she was totally being our mom too - making sure that we were okay, keeping us busy, happy, entertained, and then helping with the people. She´s wonderful. I love our mission president and wife so much.
Okay, that´s pretty much the most exciting thing that is going on. Sunday morning was an adventure because it had rained like crazy the night before. Small little rivers that nearly kept us from getting our investigators. We had to cross over on a makeshift bridge. And then one little cranky girl almost didn´t go to church because "she was tired". Honey, you don´t know tired, get out of bed. I didn´t say that, but I thought it. Instead I just got some water and splashed it on her face.....done with love. It got her out of bed and she was able to enjoy el día del niño at the church. Afterward she thanked me for waking her up. Oh the joys the gospel brings.
Alright, I´m heading out. We´ll be going to the temple again tomorrow. So I´ll be giving you an update on the works again next week.
Love you!
Hermana Reed
Then around 9:30 when everyone had finally left we were able to go up to our rooms....except the lock didn´t work. So we trooped back to Pte Gulbrandsen our mission dad to fix the lock. And he acted in a very dad-like manner. First, he was laughing at us because we were all so tired we were slap happy. Hermana Whitehead was dying. She was laughing/crying at everything (to be fair, we as the farthest missionaries had gotten up at 4 in the morning to be at the temple) and Pte Gulbrandsen just laughed at her. We figured out that the key didn´t work because it had been next to an i-phone all day (which I´m glad, because if Pte had opened the door when I couldn´t I would have felt like an idiot). So, first, like any good dad - he tried to jimmy the lock with his credit card. When that didn´t work, he went to go look for a spare master card. We eventually made it into bed.
9 o´clock the next day we start up again. This time we are in the entrance. There´s a hostel/building where the tour begins with a 10 minute video explaining the temple and the Hermana´s give a 30 second presentation of the videio and then we leave. That´s all. It was definately more routine/robot-esque but good at the same time. In the down time between groups we were able to read our scriptures.
And then when the next shift of Hermanas came in at 1 we were free to leave. And we started traveling and were back in Zarate at 7. Just in time to do daily contact with our 3 baptisms this week!!!
It was an amazing experience, we were able to spend a lot of time with Pte and Hna Gulbrandsen. Hna Gulbrandsen is hilarious. When we ere in the reception tent we spent a lot of time with her. And even though she still struggles with Spanish, she throws herself into the work. She just makes sure she has a translator with her at all times. But she was totally being our mom too - making sure that we were okay, keeping us busy, happy, entertained, and then helping with the people. She´s wonderful. I love our mission president and wife so much.
Okay, that´s pretty much the most exciting thing that is going on. Sunday morning was an adventure because it had rained like crazy the night before. Small little rivers that nearly kept us from getting our investigators. We had to cross over on a makeshift bridge. And then one little cranky girl almost didn´t go to church because "she was tired". Honey, you don´t know tired, get out of bed. I didn´t say that, but I thought it. Instead I just got some water and splashed it on her face.....done with love. It got her out of bed and she was able to enjoy el día del niño at the church. Afterward she thanked me for waking her up. Oh the joys the gospel brings.
Alright, I´m heading out. We´ll be going to the temple again tomorrow. So I´ll be giving you an update on the works again next week.
Love you!
Hermana Reed
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good.
Hey there family, Can I just tell you something real quick. Life is funny, and never easy. And if think that we deserve an easy life we for sure haven´t read the scriptures enough. That said, I´m for sure looking forward to my first "p-day" in casa when I´m going to take a very loooong nap.
First - transfers. Nothing changed. I´m still in Zarate II, and I´m still with Hermana Lobos. Hermana Whitehead and Hermana Erickson are still in Campana II - so life is pretty good. We got a super awkward despedido phone call this morning from the only Elder that left from the district. He called everyone, so it wasn´t inappropriate, it was just weird. It´s always weird, it´s happened a couple of times. They call, and give a little shout out to every person (Elder Burgas kindly wished me a happy death and that I baptize a lot this transfer....thanks Elder). And Hermana Lobos and I kept saying. "okay....bye!....okay.....bye. Bye Elder. Thanks Elder, bye." Despedidas should be like bandaids. Just take them off real quick and then throw it in the trash. I´ll be seeing you again. On facebook if not in person. Geesh. Elderes. I never knew that people could get so sentimental. I mean, I know I´m funny.....but that is ridiculous.
We moved! And we have light! When we moved we just had a bunch of cables hanging from the ceiling, we lacked the portolamparas. I don´t know what it´s called in english. the thingymajig that you put the bulb in. Anyways, we have those now. We spent the first couple of minutes with the lightbulbs singing "divina luz con esplendor benigno, alumbrame!" Okay, I was singing Divina Luz. My companion just listened. What else did we do? Oh, well, we went back to work. It was a pretty rough week, work wise. Everything just seemed to be off a bit until Sunday. With all the moving and what not it was super hard to have daily contact with our investigators, and in the end we didn´t have anyone at church on sunday. Blegh, hate that. But we showed our faith and went to their houses directly after church to re-fijar the fechas! They will all get baptized......someday. but we will be like Ammon and Alma and baptize nations for OUR faith. Because God is very involved in the work and wants us to be successful.
Things did start looking up Sunday night. We set up a cita with a recent convert at church and then asked another member to accompany us. Well, this member just happens to be the Young Adult representative so she asked if we could make it a FHE thing. Sure! Why not? Miembro Justo! So we end up having this FHE with 6 people, and we decide to play charades with the commandments (10 commandments + a few additionals). And it was funny - because it doesn´t matter if you are in Argentina, or the U.S. if you´re 20 or 30 - you will still feel dumb acting something out in front of a group of your closest friends. (Why? You´re friends because you do dumb things together. I´m pretty sure that´s part of the definition of friendship...) Or maybe they weren´t as good of friends as I thought. Either way, it was doubly funny because I´m sitting there thinking it will be the easiest thing in the world - there are only 10 commandments and the others are pray, read. We do these things in church all the time. Primary answers. But it was harder then they thought. It´s one of those "oh, I can recognize the answer, but can´t come up with it myself" type of moments. And it was great because we read Mosiah 2:41 afterwards which talks about the blessings of keeping the commandments and enduring to the end. And we talked about how it´s hard to keep commandments when we don´t know what they are. So as members of the church, we have made promises to keep these commandments, we better know what we should be keeping. So we need to keep coming to church, reading, praying, to know what it is that God wants us to do.
Also, we need to be sure that we are interpreting the commandments correctly. Because every person was acting out the commandment, but sometimes in a way that we had no idea what they were doing. So, even though we knew the commandment, we just stared blankly at them...or burst out laughing. So, we need to be sure that we are keeping the commandments in a way that those around us, recognize what we are doing. (Something akin to being an example of the believers.) It was a good little devotional. They all had a good time, we taught our recent convert. And then we were able to talk about the mission for a bit. 2 of the YA´s have received mission calls (one to Colombia the other to Neuquen), one is thinking about going on a mission, and our recent convert is 18 - and prepping himself to serve a mission. The other was our ward mission leader - who has served a mission. He helped out a lot and had some funny stories to share. But, all the current or returned missionaries gave heartfelt testimonies that the mission is the best thing that they had ever done. I sure like it.
All right, that´s all for now. I´ll talk to you next week!
Hermana Reed
o P.D. i don´t really know my duties specifically for the temple, or when. I still don´t know the schedules, but all we will be doing is talking to the visitors in the reception hall - to answer questions, and we will be part of an opening movie that introduces the temple. We won´t be giving tours. But it will still be cool to work there. :)
Love you!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
And the good news is....
The good news is - so much is going on right now in my life that it´s just awesome and I love it. The bad news is I didn´t write yesterday and yáll were probably wondering why. I will tell you.
First - I had a meeting in the temple at 9:30 in the morning Monday. Wait...did I say temple? Heck yes I did! I mean, All that is sacred and holy indictes that I did. And family, the temple is beautiful, after our meeting we were able to take a tour of the temple, and it was just so amazing, you could totally tell that it is a sacred house of God even with the workers putting on the last finishing touches of the temple. The Celestial room nearly took my breath away. I literally started singing How Great Thou Art in my head. Which was rough because I only remember like two lines in English, And I don´t remember the words at all in spanish. Oh well. That will be my next language study session. The news is that the Hermanas are going to be helping out with the Temple Open House. Not every day, we don´t know our schedules, but we will be helping. I. LOVE. Being an Hermana. And Being in the Buenos Aires North mission. How cool is it that I was able to be called to this specific mission at this specific time and that I get to help with this specific rededication. I love God. God loves me......YESSSS!
Anyways, and then after the meeting that lasted until 1. The bus decided to take forever to get here and then take us to the apartement in Congreso where we had stayed the night (got to Congreso at 2:45) then another capital colectivo (45 minutes) to the big comfy bus that would take us on a 2 hour ride to Zarate. The only perk was that we got to stop and eat at McDonalds, something my companion had wanted for about.....all this transfer. She loves the french fries. I was just hungry. By the time we ate it was 4 o´clock in the afternoon. We left captal at 5, and didn´t get back to Zarate until about 7:30 - where we had to wait for another colectivo to take us to our apartment. Which we didn´t end up going to because we saw an investigator who is super hard t get a hold of - so we just jumped off the colectivo pj bag and all to talk to her. It was a great lesson.
And then today - I´m writing super late in the day because we´ve been packing, cleaning and moving all, day, long. And we are beat. And we haven´t taught a lesson all day. We´ll be going there soon, we just had to write the Pte and you guys real quick. So, I´m going to leave it at that. We´ll try to get some more writing time scrunched in next Monday, but with my life, we never know what´s going to happen. Anyways, I love you all. Go eat something awesome and think of me. I say that because I´m currently hungry, this isn´t a normal every day thing. Just a in the moment thing.
Toodles,
Hermana Reed
First - I had a meeting in the temple at 9:30 in the morning Monday. Wait...did I say temple? Heck yes I did! I mean, All that is sacred and holy indictes that I did. And family, the temple is beautiful, after our meeting we were able to take a tour of the temple, and it was just so amazing, you could totally tell that it is a sacred house of God even with the workers putting on the last finishing touches of the temple. The Celestial room nearly took my breath away. I literally started singing How Great Thou Art in my head. Which was rough because I only remember like two lines in English, And I don´t remember the words at all in spanish. Oh well. That will be my next language study session. The news is that the Hermanas are going to be helping out with the Temple Open House. Not every day, we don´t know our schedules, but we will be helping. I. LOVE. Being an Hermana. And Being in the Buenos Aires North mission. How cool is it that I was able to be called to this specific mission at this specific time and that I get to help with this specific rededication. I love God. God loves me......YESSSS!
Anyways, and then after the meeting that lasted until 1. The bus decided to take forever to get here and then take us to the apartement in Congreso where we had stayed the night (got to Congreso at 2:45) then another capital colectivo (45 minutes) to the big comfy bus that would take us on a 2 hour ride to Zarate. The only perk was that we got to stop and eat at McDonalds, something my companion had wanted for about.....all this transfer. She loves the french fries. I was just hungry. By the time we ate it was 4 o´clock in the afternoon. We left captal at 5, and didn´t get back to Zarate until about 7:30 - where we had to wait for another colectivo to take us to our apartment. Which we didn´t end up going to because we saw an investigator who is super hard t get a hold of - so we just jumped off the colectivo pj bag and all to talk to her. It was a great lesson.
And then today - I´m writing super late in the day because we´ve been packing, cleaning and moving all, day, long. And we are beat. And we haven´t taught a lesson all day. We´ll be going there soon, we just had to write the Pte and you guys real quick. So, I´m going to leave it at that. We´ll try to get some more writing time scrunched in next Monday, but with my life, we never know what´s going to happen. Anyways, I love you all. Go eat something awesome and think of me. I say that because I´m currently hungry, this isn´t a normal every day thing. Just a in the moment thing.
Toodles,
Hermana Reed
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