EARTHQUAKE

THE EARTHQUAKE WAS REALLY COOL!!!!  And sad because people died, but
it was the first time that I´ve ever felt one.  I´m in the part of the
mission that´s closest to the epicenter.  It was about 8:30 in the
morning, just chill-in´ doing my personal study, feelin´ the spirit.
And then everything started to mildly shake for a few minutes.  And I
just looked at my companion and Told her "Choo, Y la moyoria de los
argentinos aun se quedan dormidos" (And most of Argentina is still
sleeping)  and then we just went back to studying.  My people here
know how to sleep.  Things don´t open until 9ish and NOTHING; NOTHING
is open from 1-5 because everyone is at home napping.  I love it here.

Other exciting news, remember the wild ostriches that live here?  WE
ATE A CAKE MADE FROM OSTRICH EGG!!!!!

There are also wild monkeys.  We saw 2 yesterday, they we super cute.

I have lots of really funny pictures to show you when I get back.

I don´t have an aunt named Jennifer Shumway do I?  And a cousin named
Braden?  From Arizona?  They started e-mailing me and I literally
haven´t the slightest clue who they are.

This week was amazing because..... We hade 40 people in our sacrament
meeting!  But only like 15 stayed for the other classes.

La familia Roque (who live in the village 20 minutes away from our
village)  came and are really excited for their baptisms!  They´ve
been reading the Book of Mormon and the teachings of President Benson
together every-night and feel the spirit SOOO strong.  They invited
some of their friends to our last lesson.  We taught the word of
wisdom and the law of chastity- AND EVEN THOUGH IT WAS THE FIRST TIME
WE MET THE FRIEND THEY COMMITTED TO LIVE THESE COMMANDMENTS!!!  And one
of them really, really needed to hear our message and she cried and we
were able to teach about repentence and obedience to the Lord.  It was
soo spiritual.  Hno. Roque had goosebumps after the lesson.

Our branch President thinks that they will be able to start another
branch in their village.  I feel so blessed to be in this area at this
time.

Yesterday was mothers day here.  I love you.  It´s really cute here
because they make a HUGE deal out of it.  They decorated the church
and everything.

Thank the Olsen´s for their letters!  They are soo cute.

Miss you!  Chau!!

Tartagal

This week was really cool- but it was emotionally draining.  I´ve never
been homesick while I´ve been in the mission, but this week I got
area sick.  4 days out of 7 I wasn´t working in my area, because we
were traveling and training and in conferences.  It was super amazing
to be able to get to know, and work with other missionaries- but I
kinda missed walking in the dirt and sun all day reciting the first
vision.

We fasted to be able to use in the best way the short time we had in
our area and we were able to witness miracles!

3 investigators came to church!  2 of them are a married couple, and
the wife suffers a lot of health problems and can barely walk.  When
she was in the church, she was praying to know if it was true- and
after her prayer HER LEGS STOPPED HURTING!!!!!  And in gospel
principles class they shared their testimony that they know that this is the
path to salvation!!!!  I feel so blessed to be here and know them.
They live in a tiny village that´s even smaller than ours about 20 miles
away- but are doing everything possible para learn more about the
gospel.

We found a different family that night that knew the missionaries
before and were so happy to talk to us.  Their eyes were literally
shining when we talked to them about baptism!

Also, there weren´t a lot of people in the branch so the sacrament
bread was HUGE.  Literally I could not put it in my mouth in 1 piece.
I had to break it up in 3!!  (I secretly think it happened because it
was fast Sunday  but only God knows)

I feel really blessed.

It amazes me how easily that `people can love the missionaries.  After
the conference in Tartagal, the elders arranged for us to lunch with
some of their members.  We knew this family for 45 minutes, and I feel
like I´ve known them forever.  They are so excited to edify the church
that they asked to be ward missionaries and leave every week to find
people to teach and visit the less actives.  They are also making
customized scripture cases for my and my companion and have asked the
elders if we can eat with them every time that we are in Tartagal.

While we were waiting for our bus, we met some really cool artesanal
oborigenies.  I bought grandma a flippin sweet
winchime-mobile-dream-catcher thing (and one for me).  And a bunch of
necklaces and a bracelet made out of seeds.  And 4 bags that are
exquisite. Everything put together was about $20. I think I´ll have to
buy you guys more stuff when I go back next month.

I love you.

The conference was amazing!!

The hot chocolate is different- its not sweet.  If you want it to be
sweet you have to add sugar.  And it tasted like coffee even though
it´s not coffee. It´s called malta. Or they have nesquik.  But i´m
defiantly bringing back malta!

I miss the temple.

The conference was amazing!!  You can re-watch Elder Hollands talk and
remember that I love you mom.  It was a little bit weird to watch the
conference in Spanish because I know the voices of the apostles, but
Elder Cristofferson dubbed his own talk in Spanish!!   It was amazing
to be able to see his face, but hear his voice in Spanish!  Elder
Viñas visited our mission about 4 months ago!  It was crazy to see him
on a TV screen and not in person!  He dubbed his own talk too.

I still working on translating Jenn´s testimony into Spanish.  Being a sister zone
leader is a lot of work, I´m traveling and doing a lot more things. Tonight we
 travel to the mission offices for the mission leader conference and then we
 are there almost the whole day Tuesday.  And then Friday we train missionaries
 in one zone and then Saturday a different zone.  I´m starting my 3 week in my
 new area and I still don´t know it super well!

This week I went on companionship exchanges with an Hermana that I
used to live with and it was one of the best days ever!  Their new
district leader doesn´t know how to ride a bike so he gave his bikes
to the Hermanas.  I GOT TO RIDE A BIKE!!! It was kinda fun in the
beginning but in the end I was kinda scary because with dirt roads
with lots of rocks it was more like mountain biking.  And when it got
dark we used a little flashlight because they arne´t many street
lights and I kinda felt like I was gunna die.  But, it was SUPER
pretty because there was a forest of banana trees, and hundreds of
fireflies.  And we felt the spirit a lot.

La Colonia is soo pretty.  It more tropical than my other area, and
there are little canals everywhere and we walk on really sketchy
bridges. And you can hear little frogs in the nighttime! Everyone
mango and avocado trees.  Mango season´s in December and you can
already see the fruit starting.

There is a really fun elderly convert that always has these huge black
spiders in his house.  We made a couple of comments but he just
laughed and told us that he´s spider-man.

I love you all, and hope that everything is well!