Feliz Navidad on Cinco De Mayo!

Feliz Navidad!!

Yes, Merry Christmas to me. I finally got 2 Christmas packages this week. I am now listening to the Christmas CD that was in there, hung up my stocking, and am drinking hot cocoa with marshmallows. I love the Christmas spirit :) And its starting to get cold, so its feeling more real than it did in December.

The surprisingly really successful thing we did this week was start teaching English classes in the church, now that I have an American comp. It was a hit! We even had an investigator, and the members are excited to come again, and are spreading the word. This could be a great thing to help unite this ward, and find new investigators! Not to mention its pretty entertaining... :) nacho libre/ chinese accents all over the place.

Another thing we are starting to do to try to help out the wards unity and testimonies is to start a Book of Mormon challenge. To start this week, and finish by the end of the year. Thats only about 18 pages every week. Not bad at all! Those old, young, wise, smart, readers and kind of can read people can all do it. I know that if they really do read it and let it change them, it can make a huge difference. The Book of Mormon has SO much power, and I have learned to love it so much here. 

As for investigators, we are in the process of dropping our many investigators that we do have, and finding those chosen prepared ones. Juan Carlos is on date for this week, pray that it all works out!! And Sunilda, my little Argentina abuelita has a date for the 24th. Shes adorable. Her doubt for getting baptized was that she would be cold after because shes so old, and how they would dunk her. And she didnt want to come to church because she has to go to the bathroom a lot.. Haha shes adorable. But one thing ive learned with her, is that no matter how old or frail or who knows what, the person, EVERYONE needs the gospel, and to make that special covanent with God. 

Well, I love the gospel, my Savior, the mission, all of you guys, and Christmas time :) Have a fantastic week!!!

Out 10 Months!!!

GoodBye Hermana Guevara!

Baptism  and  12th Birthday on the same day!!!

BFF Pan Rosales!!!

Transfer #5 in Mayoraz

Hello my wonderfuls!

Today is transfers again, and I am now the vieja, or the person in the zone that has been here the longest. I am okay with it, and ready to work up a storm with my new comp Hermana Borup, who comes tomorrow. My first American comp here in Argentina! That will be different, but great. Im glad shes been in the mission longer, so it wont be TOO much pressure for the whole language thing. And I can continue learning from my senior comps!! Obviously Im still in Mayoraz still because theres something that Ive yet to learn, and thats the question of the soul right now, and believe me, Im gonna find it!! But thats what the mission is full of. Learning. Learning from people, from the scriptures, from places, from EVERYTHING. And I just love it!!

This past week was a fast one. My comp was getting to leave and everything and we were constantly running to baptismal interviews and lessons and all that jazz. Its been a week of patience with our district leader as well. Because of the language barrier we have had some issues, including having 2 interviews for Silva, and forgetting baptismal records, and what not. But it all worked out, and we had a lovely baptism. Both of which that got baptized have relations of some sort with recent converts. Thats where the majority of the baptisms Ive seen have come from. MEMBERS. Theyre the most important resource in the work. Ive said it before, and will say it for the rest of my mission, that its the members work, and we are here to help them!

I love easter time, even though basically all they do is buy hollow chocolate eggs and say ¨Felices Pascuas¨ and thats it, I got to think about the Resurrection and our Savior. It is because of Him that we all one day will be able to be resurrected, in perfect form. Even though our bodies will be perfect, our spirits and intentions and such will be the same. If we are bad now, we will be bad then. If we seek first for the things of God now, we will then. Its like a Restoration! Connecting lesson 1 and 2 for you missionaries out there. :) Im so grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, and the blessings that we have in store. But theres always the IF we do our part now. Like Nephi got the promise for his posterity in 1 Nephi 2:23, IF they remember God, and do His will. Its something like that, I dont know how it is in English. But im on round 2 in reading the Book of Mormon in spanish!! 

Welp, I just love you all dearly, and hope you have a fantastic week!!

XOXoxxoOXOXxo

Hermana Wilde

DECEMBER 2nd

December already? And wow, sure doesn´t feel like it. We are roasting down here! Definitely an adjustment to be made!

This week we had divisions with the sister training leaders, and I got to go to a different area, which is always so fun. This Hermana is more shy, and doesnt talk as much as my companion, so when we contacted and taught lessons, I actually spoke the same amount as her, if not more. Can you say confidence booster? That was much needed for me at that time, and I now have the motivation and confidence to keep going strong, opening my mouth, and becoming better every day! 

We went to a supermarket the other day to pick up some things, and this Chinese family owns it. We were talking with this girl, Lucia, and her Castellano with an asian accent. I could barely understand her, but I could connect with her. I bet thats how people think of me and my American accent! Haha it was pretty funny. Its rather interesting to see these Chinese Argentinos!

This week has been a patience tester for me and my companion, with our ward mission leader. There always seems to be some sort of drama. I´ve been studying up on patience and humility and it really puts into perspective these words. We always talk about how they are Christlike attributes that we should all work on to obtain, but how often do we REALLY work on it, and pray for it. Its pretty hard! But humility is so so so important. It is the only way to submit to the will of Heavenly Father. When we have pride we are not being humble. In 2 Timothy 3:1-3 (I think?) It states the characteristics of pride, and wow, there are so many. It really puts it into perspective. I hope to work hard on this, and to become more of a patient and humble person! But this week I have realized that the mission really does change people! Im realizing that I love organization and cleanliness! and love to read. Its marvelous! Haha. 

We are still finding and teaching new investigators, but have yet to see some big changes and miracles! Stay tuned for these big events!! 

Love you all :) XOXoxoXoox

Hermana Wild

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Last Week in Virginia!!!

Just kidding, I'm not going to send a mass email because I don't really have anything great to share with the world... Well more like 5 people. But still. I will just send you a few pictures from this week. One of our biking adventure we had one night this week. ( Let's just say I like having a car better..) There's this Elder that is our neighbor that sprained his ankle and couldn't bike this week and needed to go to an appointment, so we got permission to switch transportation methods.. It was an adventure! Haha. And the other one is of mine and Hna Allen's favorite member, Hna Bruno, and her son Jonathan. She has been such an angel. She has helped us out in so many ways, and is so willing to help out with the work. One thing Hna Allen always says that I love is that this is the member's work, and we are here to help them. I think that is so true.

So I'm not 100% positive yet, that I can call you at the airport, but I'm assuming that I can.. If I do, I'll try to think of something to say in Spanish to you guys. I can't really do it when I'm put on the spot. Haha. But I feel like my Spanish is coming a long pretty well!! I just can't wait for the day to be fluent, and have dreams in Spanish. That will be the day!

Oh!! I remember something funny from this week. Saturday. The day of Seviche. It's a Peruvian dish. Until this day, I have loved all the Peruvian foods I've tried. Then we went to the familia Pocorri's house for lunch. I was so excited because she is an amazing cook. However, we had seviche... Not positive what it is. But tastes like a super super sour/ onion spiciness sauce, and apparently it's raw fish and octopus. Didn't know it was raw until after the fact. So I downed that really fast. We had a nice slice of Costco pumpkin pie to finish it off though, so that was nice. Little did we know, our dinner appointment at the Joya's would be the SAME thing. Seviche. and some rice with little octopus pouchy things, I have no clue what it was. And I looked on the counter, and there was a Costco pumpkin pie. I thought it was so funny!! The elders were at this meal with us, and no one ate very much, and they were offended, so me and Hna Allen took one for the team and took seconds.. Then that night we got a text from the elders saying that someone ELSE gave them seviche... Poor elder Creager threw up that night, and him, Hna Spencer and Hna Argueta had dreams about seviche.. Sooo funny. Well!! Have a great day!! love you!! :)

Another great week in the mission! I've been getting to know and love Hna Allen and am really sad to be leaving in a week or two, or whatever it's going to be. One thing I knew, but have really realized that every companion is SO different. Each of them is a new experience to learn and grow from. Hna Allen has taught me what is like to be an obedient, hard working missionary. She knows why she is here, and what she should be doing. We have had so many laughs too, which is great. That's one of my mottos as a missionary, is to laugh often. The one who laughs lasts!! She has told me several times that she is grateful for that and that it makes missionary work much more enjoyable, and she hasn't had that with any companions for a long time. However we do know how to work hard. I think I've taught more lessons and done more finding and actual talking to people with her, and I feel myself improving leaps and bounds faster. I also love that she loves sports, and we get along great, so we are definitely going to be friends after the mission.

 

One funny story this week... So we were teaching this former investigator, named Gualy. She's this 70 something maybe 80 year old lady from Bolivia. Super tender and in a way kinda walks and talks and reminds me of Grandma Wilde.. Haha. But we were teaching her the first lesson, and right when Hna Allen was done saying the first vision, we made a little pause, and Gualy said "..hm.. Jesus.. Oremos?" Which is basically saying "Shall we pray?" Aka time to leave!! Haha yeah, she's definitely not interested, and pretty oblivious, and super cute and nice. but we had a good laugh.  And I just realized that the majority of my funny stories don't even sound funny when they are written down.. Well, there's that.. Haha.

 

Right now we have one progressing investigator, named Patricia Coca Cayo. The missionaries have been teaching her on and off for about 7 years.. And she's just kind of clueless and just loves hearing the word of God. But since Hna Allen has come, we have seen some serious improvements and it's so exciting. She came to one session of General Conference, then to a baptism on Saturday, then to church on Sunday, then asked us how to watch the conference talks online, and is praying to understand better. It's great how much she's improving!

 

I don't have too much to report this week, but things are going great here, and I'm just learning how to be a missionary each day, and it's great!! Can't wait to see what Argentina brings to me. I've been trying to start using the Argentina accent when I say some words, and I just laugh every time.. I can't see myself getting used to it. but we shall see!! Love you all so much!! :)

Hna Wilde