Fotos

My family sent a stalker to find me (I don't know how he did!!) and give me the package...ahaha they're the best! #americangoodies

Nicole!

Casa Rosada

HOLLLLLLAAAA!!!!

Last Monday on Pday, my companion and I had plans that crashed so we decided to do something super spontaneous. We took a subway to Congreso(One of those times it was so packed I didnt have to hold onto anything because I was squished in the middle of a billion people..trying to breathe ha)...I´ve already been there before and that was one of my companions area so we wanted to go explore. When we got there, we saw a line of people entering the casa rosada...we had no idea what it was for, but we got in line and they let us in the casa rosada (my companion said they NEVER let public in for the 5 months she was there). IT WAS SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL INSIDE! There were open garden areas with fountains, statues of past presidents, paintings, red carpet going down the isles, soldier men marchin around,and crazy detailed architecure (my english stinks now). The thing is, is that we were walking around this royal castle looking thing in our sweats because we thought we were going to go play sports...we didnt quite fit in, but oh well! The rest of our adventure around Congreso was super fun! 

We´re kinda in a tough spot finding people, but we still see miracles everyday and we keep working hard! Something we started doing was making more goals everyday (different kinds of goals and more of them) and we came up with a super rad reward. If we achieve our goals, we can have a dance party at the end of the day! Haha....sounds lame, but you would be surprised how that really pushes us...hahah. After planning and night, we write in the journal, do the things we have to do, dance, then go to bed (we´re dead tired at the end of the day). But hey, we´re seeing success come from it!

So...my companion and I came to the conclusion that we should be fluent in Corean/Chinese by now.....jokes, but en serio...in my area, a ton of the shops, signs, and stuff are all in Corean. In the states we have a lot of things that have a spanish translation after the english one, but here it´s all translated in Corean. Sometimes we ask ourselves if we´re in Latin America haha, I love how diverse it is here!!! 

The work is so amazing. I love seeing the change it makes when people accept the gospel in their lives and strife to apply it daily. It´s truly amazing to be a part of it all. Nobody said it was easy and I will testify that it´s not. But there´s a video by Elder Holland called...well actually I have no idea what it´s called in english, but maybe look up The Atonement and missionary work...it´s SO POWERFUL (He never fails to make a message really powerful!) But there´s a part that says that we shouldn´t feel like the work is hard, because it is NOTHING compared to what Christ went through in his earthly ministry. I think about all the things that have already happened to me and other people in my mission and it really does bring me so much joy. 

Well...I don't know how we managed it...but we took over 100 pictures this week...so I will just upload what we did. I actually left my other drive at the pension so some of them will wait until next week! 

The pic with our hair with a ton of gel (practically plastered back!) is from a lesson we did with the hermanas in our zone.....my companion and I have had some pretty creative lessons. This one would be too hard to explain in email, but it was so funny!

Love you! 

Twins

The Lord's work

 

I´ll start of with a miraculous story...

We had lunch with the daughter of Olivia (our convert that passed away) and she told me stuff I didn´t even know. So I thought I would just tell a brief story of what happened because it is such an incredible story. Olivia moved here with her daughter and son-in-law from a provencia because her husband died. Her and her husband heard a lot about the church because her daughter got baptized when she was older and now a lot of her family is baptized and in our ward, but they were catholic and didnt want anything to do with the church. My first week in this area, I felt so strongly to visit Olivia, but I had no idea who she was. We made an appointment, taught her a lesson, and asked her to be baptized. She didnt even hesitate to say yes and her family was speechless and so happy. We passed by every day to teach her. About a week afterwards, she had a dream that her husband told her not to get baptized, and that developed a lot of doubts and she wanted to wait a few months. We weren´t gonna let that happen.... After talking to her for awhile, she understood the importance of getting baptized and was really excited. I remember so clearly knowing that she needed to be baptized as soon as possible. Her baptism was absolutely beautiful! Two of her grandsons helped her in the water (she uses a wheelchair) and she was smiling during the whole baptism, as well as her family being in tears and with big smiles. It was such a special moment! During the week between her baptism and her confirmation, my companion and I felt really strongly that something was going to happen to Olivia, but of course we didnt say anything and just kept visiting her. Something that her daughter told me at the lunch was that after her baptism, she told her daughter that she was going to leave because she did what she needed to do here on earth and their was nothing else to do. (I didnt know she said that until 2 days ago). A day after her confirmation she was in the hospital because her heart wasn´t working correctly and she needed a pace maker. After a couple days, they couldnt put in the pace maker because she got an infection in the hospital. Also, her mind left a little and each day it got worse until she couldnt even really talk. But like I said...my companion and I knew, so we did our best to comfort the family. The first hour of this transfer, her daughter called us telling us that her mom passed away...but that she looked so peaceful. Her family thanked us for touching Olivia´s heart and for what we did, and yeah....teared up. Her family knew that she came to Buenos Aires to be baptized...just nobody knew that until after.

So that was just the brief story, I mean yeah, it was still long haha but there´s a lot more powerful details and miracles we saw. I just wanted to share something from that experience. It just PROVES that this is THE LORD´S WORK, not ours. HE prepares the people, and we are just the servants. It also strengthened my testimony in the fact that we are in our mission, our area, and our companionship for a reason. He times everything SO perfectly. The experience is a perfect example that He set it up so perfectly. Moral of the story, listen to the promptings of the spirit, act on them, and trust in God :) 

It´s always a good compliment when your´re talking to someone on the phone and they think you´re latina. It´s a great moment. But funny story....I called the hospital to make an appointment for my companion, but the phone was kinda cuttin out and the man on the other end asked me if I needed to talk to a CHINESE doctor.........he thought I was from China!!! What in the world! :O 

We did a lot of traveling again this week. One day we took a subway, tren, and bus just to get to one area...yeah, we´re in MEGA CITY. Which really isn´t my thing, and it´s a little tough, but it can be pretty interesting to say the least! 

My companion and I had a contest with the other hermanas in the zone to see who could ask people to be baptized the most. My companion and I have a goal to use our bold personalities and, well, just to be bold in commitments, finding their true desire, and things like that. It has helped us a lot to find more people, we have a lot of baptism dates set, but Satan works hard with them, and it´s definitely a little tough to drop people. But we do it with faith knowing that the people who can progress will be put in our path.

Speaking of which...

One of our investigadoras came to church, and when we got there there was a man sitting on the bench that said that his friend (from a different ward) told him to go to church, so he did, solo! I was super impressed, and he already wants to keep coming back and wants us to teach him! What the! There´s a lot of moments in the mission that are just like "uhhh...woah....is this really happening?". Pretty much one of the coolest feelings! 

Gracias for all that you do. I love you all and this week is SUPER GREAT! 

 

We had a dulce de leche party....it's delicious.

During breakfast, I was cold....so that calls for the Cruela De Vil coat and mate (I'm finally becoming accustomed  to it.... I hated it SO much at the first...:)

Hahah I was cold....I think if I would have went out like this, I would have gotten a lot more "Are you from Russia?" questions...haha

Haha redneck shreddin, We had to get rid of confidential stuff...but we both love fires, so I enjoyed every second of it, just thinking of good ol camp fires ha.

On top of a building. Welcome to the city! Look how close they all are. This is an example that you walk in one door, to lead to other doors to other people's houses. Because they all live to close together.

I was standing in front of a realllllly old prison.

 

Raiiiiiin

HOLA!!!!

So this one will be shorter....but a lot of my week will be explained by pictures :) 

This week was super great!! We had to do a TON of traveling this week with my companion`s hospital appointment, tramites (document work so we`re legal), and conferences, so the work was a little bit slower, pero igual, we have seen some pretty great things, have met a lot of great people, and have developed a lot of great friendships! 

It has been raining like crazy here. We kept getting caught in the rain super unprepared and soaked, so that always turns out to be an adventure. But luckily we had our gear yesterday because it was INSANE! There were hardly any people in the streets so we walked in the streets because it was like little rivers at some parts! I feel invincible with my 4x4 rain boots, they rock! We`re probably just easily entertained but it was super fun walking against the flow of all the water haha. The raindrops are HUGE! 

My companion and I are seriously having a blast! It`s a little crazy how alike we are haha, but it`s been super fun. Definitely a lot of laughs, jokes, and blonde moments. 

Me encanta obrar en la viña del Señor y estoy tan agradecida para ser un instrumento en sus manos. He visto tantos milagros y bendiciones. Sè que hay tiempos difíciles, pero Él está caminando a lado de nosotros cada día y sabe exactamente lo que estamos pasando...sabe exactamente como a ayudarnos. Por eso, me siento felicidad y me ayuda tener esperanza, paz, y consuelo :D

The work is going great, I`m having a blast, and I`m so grateful for you all. I think about your examples and support often and it brings me a ton of joy! I love you all and hope yall have a great week! School`s startin for many of ya...woot ;)

I know it's hard to see but....we found this funny. They've got the European building, the Brazilian tiki thing, the super poor villas, and then the bazillion buses (city life...ha), it's just super diverse haha.

For a zone activity we had a "Minute to Win it" Pday.. with a bunch of super fun competitions. I have some hilarious videos from it and now I have so many good ideas for when I get back lol. If ya look closely in the pic you'll find something a little off... just a lil where's Waldo for ya. :)

A member surprised us one night with Mcdonalds......what the! Mcdonalds here is SUPER expensive, it's fine dinin here. It was super thoughtful. I have never liked Mcdonalds at home....and it's not any better here, but....like I've said, things are different in the mish haha. So yeah, eating Mcdonalds during verifications with the district leader has.

The scarf isn't because it's cold...because it's not! I had to wear it because it smelt SO bad in the streets! I have no idea why.

I cut my companions hair

These four pictures were to animate the other Hermanas in our zone....just for good laughs! We have flags (representing when Captain Moroni threw his flag for liberty) with quotes for animo. Porque somos fuetes como Moroni :)

Hermana Baldwin... my twin

BUEN DÍA TODOS!

This email will be a shorter, perdòn.

First off...I`m having a blast with my companion! President really put me with my twin of the mission! Somos iguales. We like the same things, have our blonde moments, and laugh A TON! We`re going to make this transfer super fun and see lots of miracles :)

We have a lot of high goals for this transfer, but we have faith to accomplish them! There`s a TON of work in the area and we have a lot of ànimo for that. We also have a goal to ALWAYS be super happy. Because yeah, the work can be a little tough sometimes, or things fall through, but that`s just a part of life. Attitude really makes the difference. We make specific plans of how we will reach all of our goals. So we have a list of things we will do when times like that happen lol. So we will never be disanimada and always keep optimistic! :D

I`ve been teaching piano to help young women with their personal progress, it`s been fun! I definitely miss piano, but I`m grateful for the times I get to play it here. My companion is a killer singer, so we were practicing a couple songs, singing and playing piano...just for fun. Then a young woman asked us to allow her to take a video of a song we were just trying out. She put it on like every social media site and told us she`d make us famous (how embarrassing).....and all of her hashtags were pretty much an advertisement for the missionaries. But hey she`s inviting everyone to talk to missionaries through hashtags, so that`s pretty cool haha.

We didn't have money on our sube (our bus pass) and had to walk way out in Egypt to contact some people, but we figured we would just talk to everyone on the way. It seemed like a nice day, but as we got about halfway out, it started POURING! Argentina rain rocks. I loved it, but we weren`t prepared para nada! When we arrived, we were completely soaked....water in our shoes, heavy/wet clothes, hair like a lion...I felt a little weird showing up to the appointments haha, but it`s understandable! It`s a good thing I love the rain.

The work is doing good, I have met a lot of awesome people and have made a lot of great friends...the mission life rocks. Excited for another great week!

It poured rain all day....The lighter part on my skirt is were my fanny pack (yeah I have one now....things change in the mish lol) was covering, so the rest of the dark area is my soaked skirt haha.

After a little rain

About to go out and play ultimate frisbee with the zone!

My companion and I were watching mormom messages and eating galletitas in her bed....those beds are the tiniest things ever!