Soccer!

The past two Pdays have been crazy busy and fun, so that is the reason why I couldn´t send a general email last week, but it´s been fun!

Primero...I will catch ya´ll up with highlights of last week hah.

We traveled to Ritero for trámites I had to do (papers for......I honestly don´t know what...just so I´m legal I guess), It was such a beautiful area, I really wish I brought my camera....it all looked like an old European city, the buildings were so cool! I´m sure I´ll go back there sometime.

Last Sunday we watched the broadcast of the dedication for the temple in Córdoba....it is seriously SO beautiful! President Uchdorf and Elder Chrisofferson were at the dedication. It was so amazing to watch!!!! I´m waiting for the day when we get to go to the Buenos Aires Temple :)

We have been seeing so many miracles! One night while planning for the next day, I opened my agenda to the next day and saw that I had a Ruth down for 3pm....I had no idea who Ruth was and neither did my companion. I was trying to figure out why I had her name down, and I figured out her house was an address of an old investigador. The next day, we passed for her house....but we didn´t know why, just knew it was in my agenda. When we touched the doorbell, someone else came to the door and said a Ruth didn´t live there and as we started talking, she told us that her and her family have been really confused about what church to join and have been searching for a church...oh hey, Joseph Smith had the same question! ;) She had a strong desire to learn more, and we´ll see what happens, but I know that we passed for a reason :)

Another miracle that happened...well, is still happening, whoop! There´s an inactive family that many missionaries and many members have been trying to reactive for years, and they will never let them into their house. They wanted nothing to do with the church. One night we had a little extra time, and decided to try knocking on their door again. We finally got her to come out of her house, and she wasn´t too excited to see us at first and was pretty hard-headed about it...but we were finally able to get an appointment with her set for the next day, but she didn´t want us sharing anything from the Book of Mormon or anything about the church. The next day we brought another member with us and visited her and her family...they were telling us the reasons why they didn´t like the church or what doctrines they thought were wrong....the family and the member started raising their voices having a battle over it and I felt a lot of tension! My sweet companion spoke and calmed them down...she´s pro. We took out the Book of Mormon and I shared a thought, knowing they would have to be quiet and listen pretty good to understand what I was saying in my broken spanish. After everything was calmed down, we were able to share, and just about everyone in the room cried. The next day, she called us and wanted us to share something with her daughter and granddaughter because her granddaughter had a friend pass away and couldnt sleep at night. Wahoo, they finally trust us!! We taught her the plan of salvation and we have been continuing to teach them (they´re now investigators!). One of the less actives wanted us to sing...so we did and they cried again! She told us we could come anytime we wanted....and so we take the offer lol...it´s been going so well! She went to church and was talking to EVERYONE and shared more in the class than anyone. She loved it and it really was so amazing. It feels amazing to have the trust in them....finally!!

Last Pday, we went to Congreso.....it´s SUPER awesome! It´s the heart of Buenos Aires, very crowded/tourist area. I thought it was so beautiful! We ate at TGI Fridays...which here, is really expensive and honestly not good quality food. But ah well, it was fun!!

Today for Pday, we had an activity as a MISSION!!!! IT WAS BOMB! :D It´s hard to get us all together, but they made it happen! We played soccer for hours.....seriously is SO fun!!!! I love it. We had lunch, and watched Meet the Mormons! I also realized that one of the Elders in my mission went to the same high school as me...so weird! I was able to see my old companions and hermanas the roomed with me in the MTC, which just meant we laughed forever. I can definitley say friends I have made here in the mission will be life long friends! I have met some amazing people!

Love you all tons! Chau!

I have to send pictures separately again.....I don´t know how everyone else can put them together but not me! Hah...ah por favor.

Congreso ~ Oh my beautiful. I loved how European everything looked! Super old.

This is their "White House"... except for, well, it's pink. Casa Rosa. The house of the President!

Nicole traveled to Congreso today and saw the President's House and other cool things! She did not have enough time to write her group email. She did send this picture with the group she was with. :)

Mothers Day!

Familia y amigos!

I hope all you mothers had an amazing Mothers Day! I´m SUPER DUPER grateful for my mama. As you all know, she is INCREDIBLE! She is extremely selfless and always puts others first, it really blows my mind! I can´t even comprehend everything she has done for me. She really is perfect! I´m lucky to have such a great role model and I hope I can gain some of the qualities she has while I´m on my mission. If I'm lucky :)

I GOT TO SKYPE MY AMAZING FAMILY! They seriously are the best! They had me laughing pretty hard, it was a good boost of energy for the week. I still have a smile on my face from it!

Well, I have tried something new I guess! Usually we eat chicken because meat is expensive here now and started feeling gross after eating ¨beef¨, and thought it tasted super gross. I finally asked my last companion why it tasted so weird and she told me it was horse meat! Was she ever going to tell me I was eating HORSE MEAT?! Haha.....

I already love my new companion! Chilenas speak super fast and don´t pronounce a lot of the letters, but after a couple days I could understand her fully haha. She is extremely nice and selfless. One morning I got out of the shower and she had made me a smoothie with a note next to it, the next day she made me an extravegant meal from Chile (it was like food decoration haha). The next day she made me a Chileno medicine hot drink for my throat....I kept telling her my throat is super raspy in the morning and night, but she thinks I´m sick...It´s really just normal haha. Oh well, she´s super sweet! We both love to laugh and she´s super funny! She knows great phrases in english like "oh freak" and "wazzup dude" and other funny stuff like that....so it always makes me laugh when she throws out one of those haha! Having a Chilena companion is a huge help for my spanish! Thank goodness, because I´m the only white girl left in my zone lol. It honestly was a little weird talking to my family in english, I kept slipping out spanish words, but it has been a big help!  I still have to think pretty hard about what I want to say and I´ll need to keep working on the accent. At least a couple times a day someone will ask me where I´m from, and it´s because of the accent, because clearly I look latina! ;) But the weird thing is, is often times we´ll be in the middle of teaching someone in the street, and they´ll ask me if I´m from Russia. It´s always Russia or Poland, rarely the US. WHAT?! Haha......

This week flew by! But it was super great, ready for another one! 

Love you all!

This is a tripancho.......gigantic hot dog. Whoop!

This is from last week. We were waiting for the subway in Polermo!

My companion makes bomb food art.

Baptism!

This last week was AWESOME!

Last Pday we went to a richer area called Polermo, it was super fun! Sooo many people there and everyone lives in tall towers...really crowded, big city. We went to a really cool mall to eat and window shop (everything is extremely expensive in that area) it was super nice and kinda futuristic looking. Lol. I do remember why I´m not a city person though haha. 

We had a baptism! It was so cool to see. Her name is Milagros (miracles in spanish) and she is SO cute and loving! She was sooo excited to be baptized! :)

One night after arriving to our pension, our carbon monoxide detector was going off.......scary, right? I have heard of terrible stories with that! So....we slept on the roof. I LOVE sleeping outside, I really could just sleep up in the mountains for weeks haha. But it was really cold. I loved it though!

People here are CRAZY about soccer. They have the games on Sundays, so typically there is absolutely nobody in the streets of Lugano on Sundays. We literally didnt pass one person for hours haha. During the games, people scream like they´re getting boiled alive! We can hear tons of people at the same time screaming in their houses. It actually sounds super scary! 

Today was transfers. I already miss Hermana Carrasco. I have a new companion named Hermana Pordo from Chile. She is awesome and I already love her! Hermana Carrasco and I talked way too much in english and I am not use to her accent or really fast talking though...Chilenas! That really kicked me in the butt though because now I feel like a monkey trying to play charades at times. But I know a latina will really boost up my spanish. I will tell ya´ll more about her next week, because I really just met her lol. 

Have a great week! Love you!

Mili's baptism!

Sleeping on the rooftop! Notice our lil black cat... Cutie.

Eating outside because of carbon monoxide. Using my robe as a snuggie haha.

Alto Polermo Mall

Crazy sock models. Mine are camo hunter socks and hers are fox socks. HAHA

Hermana Carrasco ~ I already miss her!