5 Months!

Well today marked Hermana Alldredge's 5 month mark! She is cruisin'!! So we headed over to Tropical Smoothie (her fave place), and got some smoothies, (even though it's freezing outside :)) and enjoyed sharing something we love about Hermana Alldredge around the coffee table with each other.  

We are so happy for all of the growing and learning she is doing as the beautiful young lady that she is, and also happy for the work that she is getting accomplished in Argentina. 

We Love you!!!

Nov. 17th Email Update

"I´m super happy about Ester Fink and her progress! I just feel like we were friends in heaven haha but she is doing so well! she came to church again and is just doing what she needs to and being her awesome self! my comp and i are good! for a while it was kind of awkward cause even though we are both cool people, we don´t talk all that much haha but it´s getting better! we have fun moments and she is super cool!!!!! she was a little stressed for a while because of her ending her mission and all that, and I was a little stressed too, so i think we didn´t talk all that much for that reason too but ya, we are chill with eachother! We have some awesome moments juntos! also, i haven´t gotten sick again since my blessing! wooooooot! not even one stomoach pain! i have been completely FINE! how crazy is that?! wooot! go preisthood!!! 

One of the updates i have is about the familia Bustamante (less actives). they wanted to get married the temple and so we were talking about their goal and how first they need to go to church to be able to even think about going to the temple and then we found out something else too that the hna (wife) doesn´t even have a testimony of the gospel! when we asked her if she had a testimony of this gospel she just straight out said no and we were like... what!?!? i don´t see how they think they can go into the temple if the wife doesn´t even have a testimony! so we are working with them to help them be more firm in the gospel and take little steps so they can reach their ultimate goal. lol wow, sometimes it just makes me think. but ya haha

Well my week has been super crazy!!! on tuesday we had an apostle come to talk to us!!!! Elder Nelsen and his wife! The talks they gave were sooooo amazing! She talked about how we are born with spiritual "lists" of what we need to do and remember here on this earth but sometimes they get lost or forgotten with all of the distractions around us. She talked about how we need to remember those lists and do everything that´s on them. we need to set our prioraties straight and if it´s not on the list, sometimes it´s not worth the time and effort. It was sooooo amazing! Then elder nelsen talked about missionary work and the real reason we are hear to help our heavenly family come back and enjoy the blessings of exaltation. He is actually a super funny guy and soooo cool! then at the end he gave us an apostolic blessing which was suuuuuuper cool! he was all like: i call upon the power of the preisthood keys which i how to bestow upon you an apostolic blessing and then he blessed our mission, us with health and protection, and our families it was sooooooo cooooooool! when he started saying it i was like: what is happening right now... this is soooo crazy!!!!! i don´t know how to explain it but it just felt like a lot of power in the room haha it was awesome! 

Then, justo, on like saturday we got a call from one of our miemers that we work with and they told us that they had someone for us to teach who is completely ready for baptism!!!!! we were like... whaaaaaa?!? we have been praying to have a baptism together but we kind of started to lose hope because we haddn´t found anyone and it´s like 2 more weeks till transfers and till my comp leaves home so we were like, ya, it´s not going to happen but then yup, for sure it did! we talked with her sunday and she is soooooo prepared it´s not even funny! she had taken the charlas before and has had her answer that the church is true and she needs to get baptized. her sons are baptized but because of reasons unknow she couldn´t get baptised then but now she wants to! she litterally just falled into our laps! she has been going to church for 2 weeks now and has such an amazing testimony! i think the problem was, was that her husband didn´t want to get married but now, sadly, she is separated from him and living with her sister in law who is in our ward. and she is determined to get baptized! it was so cute! i asked her why she wanted to get baptized and she started bawling saying that she knows the church is true and because of that she wants to have an eternal family. she started talking about how her sons are everything to her and to be able to live with them forever would be the best gift she could ever recieve!!!! ahhhhhhh! so ya, the date is 29th of November after we have the capilla Abierta in our ward! Everyone will be there and the spirit will already be there so it worked out perfectly! and it´s 3 days before my comp leaves haha. it´s so crazy how it all worked out! all we have to do is give her the lessons again really quick and she´s off to baptism and temple! She is soooo amazing! i´m so happy that there are people prepared like this! but ya, that´s my amazing week! haha crazy right? right!?!? and i´m super excited because it was within my 6 month mark, so i will be able to go with her in the temple when she gets her endownmetns and everything!!!! wow, what a blessing! 

The other day my comp and i friggin found a flippin trianchula in our pensh!!!!!! ok, maybe it wasn´t a trianchula but it was close to it! ok, look at your palm, that´s right, look how big it is, that´s how big the spider was, no joke!!!! i have the BEST videos of us trying to kill it! i´ll have to show you when we get home cause i can´t send videos sadly but ya, crazy stuff right there! we tried to kill it but we only wounded it with ant spray but we sprayed it a LOT so we didn´t know if it died a slow and painful death or if it just was wounded. but ya it ran back under the fridge! and so we basically locked off our kichen but after a while we would just walk in the kitchen with so much fear it was unreal! and then my comp was like: i can´t live in fear like this anymore haha so we looked behind the fridge and it was all curled up in a ball dead! yesssssss! but ya, that was a fun bonding experience haha but the pensioneros said that they would fumagate our house which is nice! :) but ya, that´s everything exciting haha. 

LOVES!!!!

-Hermana Alldredge"

Hermana Alldredge forgot her camera AGAIN! Better luck next week maybe. She also sent these videos, and encourages everyone to watch them this week! Enjoy!:

English:

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-01-010-patterns-of-light-the-light-of-christ?lang=eng

Spanish:
https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=spa#d

Nov. 10th Email Update

"So ya, i gave myself a pat on the back (per your instruction) haha- slyly lol aka i scratched my back then did a little tap then slyly started typing again haha just so you know lol hazah! but yes, thanks for your praise! but ya, definately read Jesus the Christ! it´s a good read! I really miss chilling at your house and eating your food haha ;) but really. it´s cute to hear about Sofia and her part in the primary program. We had it here too which was fun! 

My mission is going by sooooo quick! I have been out almost 5 months!!!!! how crazy is that!?! sometimes days feel so long, but when i look back i feel like it has gone by so fast. I know that my work here is not in vain, although sometimes it feels like it is. This last week one of our less actives came to church AGAIN!!! we were so happy to see here! she has come in 4 weeks straight! and is preparing herself to go to the temple for her endownments which we are way excited for! she really is progressing and i love to be a part of it! it´s a joy i can´t even describe to help those sheep who became lost. we are also working with the members to help the ward out! we made a mission plan for our ward, and it should help us get the members excited about missionary work! something that i learned while on my mission is how to be a better member! well i´m going to head out! 

Miss You!"

Nov. 3 Email Update

"bueno, me preguntaste sobre mi español, entonces, voy a escribir un poco en español :S Joel- no me critique mucho jaja sí, la humedad es MAL pero ahora no es tan mal porque esta lloviendo mucho entonces por lo menos no tengo la calor con la humedad. no hicimos algo muy divertido para Halloween pero solamente descansamos que fue de diez! lo necesitábamos jaja pero enserio, mi compañera es MUY buena y me ayuda mucho para ser la misionara que yo quiero ser! estamos trabajando más con los miembros y organizando la directorio del barrio. No pueden creer lo que hay personas en la directorio quien están muertos por mas que 7 años... ya, no bueno jaja pero estamos arreglándolo ahora que es muy bueno. una de nuestras menos activos quien se llama Ester Fink va a iglesia por 3 semanas! estamos REfeliz por este! también ella quiere ir al templo para su investidura y para bautizar su familia! pero sí, estoy muy agradecida para mi compañera porque hna Quintero no quería ayudar hna Cerrini porque dijo que ella es loca pero no, ella solamente necesitaba amor y ayuda con algunos cosas. y la día fue muy linda cuando le ayudamos. y sentí muy bien después porque fue un poco como un descansa por un poco tiempo solamente para hablar con un miembro. 

So ya, our week went good. we´re just doing the same, trying to find new people to teach. we got dropped by two people this week but hey, what can you do. you just have to bear your testimony and then try to find more people. i learned that we can´t let things like this bring us down. if we do, we allow our faith and hope for the area to suffer. we can only invite people we can´t make anyone do anything. if someone doesn´t want to keep with the compromisos that we leave then its better if we spend our time elsewhere. of course, it kind of hurts because this Gospel is for everyone but we all have agency. I totally understand why people wouldn´t believe in this stuff. i mean a 14 year old boy recieving a vision of God and Jesus Christ? but sometimes only a 14 year old boy will listen. This Church is the only true church on this earth today. I really have been so blessed to have been raised in such an amazing family where i was able to learn the Gospel from a younge age, living in the truth cause honestly, i don´t know if i would have believed this story. but Joseph Smith said that if he hadn´t seen it with his own eyes he didn´t know if he would have believed it either. but it happened. He knew it, he knew God knew it, and he could not deny it even though he was attacked like crazy poor guy! but i´ve come to know that i know it as well and i know God knows i know it and i cannot deny it. I know it as if it had happend to me. we need to have our own personal conversion constantly and come to the point where we know of the truthfullness of this Gospel almost as if it were tangable because with study, prayer, and work we can know all things so that when the devil tries to knock us down we won´t even be effected by him. one day we are going to see him and we are going to look at him and think really... that´s him...? that´s the guy who made good men fall? that´s the man who was in all the wars and bloodshed? he´s nothing. We are here as children of God and have the power to crush Satan! We kept our first estate and have God on our side so why should we fear? ya, that´s right, we shouldn´t :) anyways... haha that´s some cool things that i learned. i would definately recommend reading Jesus is the Christ. Super good book. a little bit of a hard read... it took me a while to get into it but it´s really good! but ya, we are still just working here. sadly, this sunday we only had 48 people in sacrament meeting but hey, our menos activo we have been working with, Ester Fink, came 3 times in a row and is working to go to the temple to do baptisms for her antepasados and later, take a temple prep course and get her endownment! she´s awesome i know! :) but ya, that´s my week. 

Love you TONS!!!!"

-Sorry no pics, she forgot her camera again!-

Oct. 27th Update

"I'm feeling a LOT better now! the meds and oils helped me out! My stomach hasn´t been hurting so far! wooot! time to work! haha but ya.

I love how The Church really is the same everywhere! My comp and i were talking about that the other day, and how we are the same everywhere but other churches can be soooo different depending on where you are. The capilla Abierta was a super fun experience, and it was nice to go to a different place even though the turn out for the activity wasn't very many, i am positive it helped someone feel loved! I know it helped me to prepare for the capilla Abierta in Adrogué on th 29th! 

oh the Utah weather.. how i miss the dry heat! haha here its 92F today, but the thing is that it´s SUPER humid so it feels hotter, and the air just sticks on you. But we are drinking a lot of water now and just waiting for the weather to get hotter... lol it gets up to 108ish in January/Febuary time- and around Christmas it´s SUPER hot too, which will be weird for me but i think it´s the humidity that makes it so horrid haha but hey, it´s not for THAT long, i can handle it for a while I guess lol. 

I wish they celebrated halloween here! if you tried to trick or treat here i´m pretty sure you would get shot or kiddnapped haha but they do acknowledge the holiday... with beer but hey, it´s Argentina lol we do get to go back to our pensh early that day... i think.. because it´s dangerous since everyone is drinking haha oh you've gotta love these people haha any excuse to get drunk. 

As usual haha my new comp is SUPER cool! she´s from Utah and she is ending her mission with me here in Adrogué which is exciting. She likes Nocho Libre, Psych, and The Office, so we get along pretty well! she is such a hard worker too! she is teaching me about hard work. But we are having fun and taking a break if we need it, so it´s perfect. She´s also teaching me how to get the ward involved in missionary work. 

We have some ideas that we are going to try out so i´m super excited but besides that it´s pretty chill right now nothing too crazy in the work. We´re trying to contact all the menos activos in the ward, and already two of the houses we contacted are outdated- one of the people moved like 2 years ago and the other person died like 9 years ago... ya, weird that it didn´t say anything about that... that´s how much work we need to do here haha but it´s fun work cause we get to meet new people and just make someones day. The other day we helped an older lady in our ward who hasn´t been feeling well. Her name is hna Cerini and she is about 80ish, and very presh! we went over and cooked for her and ate lunch with her. she told us her life story. classic. but it was actually really fun to listen to. She told us how she found the church and how she met her husband and everything. There are moments in the mission where sometimes the only thing we do is make someones day... but it feels like so much more than that! but ya, that´s my exciting mission right now. 

i love you guys soooooooooooooooo much! have a flippin fantastic week! 

LOVES!!!!

-Hermana Alldredge"

October 20th Email

"Thanks for the happy 4 months haha 14 more to go haha which doesn´t seem like all that much now... it´s crazy how fast it really flies by but it´s crazy how much i am learning! it´s a love hate relationship. haha 

So we had transfers today and we heard the testimonies of the people leaving and it was so crazy. most of them couldn´t even believe it! it really does go by fast even though sometimes it goes by super slow haha but ya, that was interesting... it was super hard to see hna quintero leave too! it broke a bit of my heart and made me super nervouse because i still don´t know everything about my area haha but my new comp hna Olsen seems way cool! She´s finishing her mission her in Adrogué with me, which means that i will probably be spending two more transfers here! 

We had an open house here in another area in san jose which was fun! we were able to do a little program for them to help teach other people. Mostly members... but hey.

LOVES!!!

Hermana Alldredge"

4 Months!

Saturday the 18th marked 4 months for Mina in the mission field. Can you believe it?

This is us at a celebratory dinner at her old place of employment, The Pizza Factory. It was delish. 

Love you Hermana Alldredge!!!

Oct. 13 Email

"But ya, our 'pensh' (apartment) is a lot bigger than others so that´s super nice! i really do like it!!!  

well ya, this week  i got sick again haha my fever was about 102.6, headache, stomach ache, and throwing up haha but i got a blessing which really helped me out. It told me, like my blessing when i was set apart, that i´m going to have a lot of challenges in the mission but Heavenly Father loves me (it said it twice haha i really needed to hear it) and that he´s going to give me strength to finish my mission. I knew a mission was going to be hard, but it´s harder when you get sick a lot lol but we´re trying to figgure out what´s going on. We´re thinking that it´s the water but i´m going to be noting the things i eat now to see if it´s a type of food or what. also, my eyes keep getting red so i´ve been wearing my glasses a lot haha but hey, these things aren´t really important right now. The important thing is that I really work when i can! 

We actually found another investigator who might need a lot of time, but i know that he will be an amazing member in this ward, and he has so much potential because of the person he is. Super nice and friendly! the only thing is is that he smokes... a lot... haha but i´m sure once he knows that this is the true gospel, that will change in a heartbeat cause he has the gift that he can feel the Spirit super stong through his feelings. It reminds me of you haha but the first little talk we had with him after we prayed- he was bawling like crazy. He has such great potential! Well I love you tonnnnns! hope you have a great week!!! 

LOVES!!!!

-Hermana Alldredge"

Picts of my apartment: 

Oct. 6, 2014 Email

VERY short and sweet email with great Pics :) Hope everyone has a GREAT conference weekend!!

"I´m happy to hear that Joel had a good birthday!!!! With amazing food! gosh! My mouth was watering haha something i actually really miss here is breakfast food, especially Denny´s. haha i miss that a TON! Thanks for the photos! i showed my comp and i think she thinks that my family is crazy haha but that´s ok, it´s MY crazy family and i love them! I´m feeling a lot better now about things, which is good! But nothing too exciting this week, cause we had interviews with the Mission Pres and conference, and then pday haha so we had kind of a restful week which is nice every 6 months! The pres gave me a blessing, and promised me more strength and animo and i already feel it. The conference weekend and the chance to take it easy for a bit was perfect timing. A moment to recharge spiritually. I´m glad to hear you guys are doing alright and what not! Love you guys!!!!!!

LOVES!!!!

-Hermana Alldredge"

September 29th Email

"I feel the exact way you do about the language (Lily). I can understand almost everything, but to speak it... i just can´t because i get scared and i don´t want to say anything wrong so i just don´t say anything at all haha. it´s kind of hard but i´m sure with time i´ll get it. I absolutely LOVE what you wrote me! thank you so much! seriously, that made me feel loads better! the lesson I taught on 'obedience' went well. i learned a lot myself about obedience, and that really it is the way we can truly be free... cause i feel so captive if I find myself in disobedience. it´s hard to explain.

These past few weeks have been kind of hard, i´ll be honest with you. It has been difficult. that´s how i can describe it. I feel like i´m working but no one is listening and every night for a few nights I would come home thinking, 'what have i really done today... nothing....' it was super hard, I never thought it would be like this in the mission field. All of my excitement is worn off. But the other night i talked to my comp, and I asked her if she ever wondered why she was on a mission, and if it was what she thought she was suppose to be doing. She gave me her story about why she was on a mission. She also shared with me a scripture (Alma 26:27) and that really hit me. I´m not here for myself. As much as a want to think about myself and as much as i am tired and all of my hopes are lost, I need to keep going because: did Christ stop when he was suffering for our sins? If he had, we would be lost eternally. but he didn´t, and that´s what i need to do now. I may not be seeing any immediate success, but at least i´m working and trying to find people. Even if i can touch the heart of one person- that would be worth my whole 18 months of sacrifice. I´m not here for myself. I left you guys, my family and friends for 18 months so that others can be with theirs for eternity. This is my purpose and i know it´s hard to remember sometimes but i need to try harder. 18 months is nothing and it´s going to go by so fast i just have to hold on. Even though i may not see it now, i´m going to be blessed for my service and this is going to help me in my future life like crazy all i have to do is endure to the end! 

A less active family FINALLY CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!! it´s the family Lagheiri, and i ablsolutely LOVE them to bits!!!! it´s the parents, girl twins, and their son. the dad comes every once in a while and is a super awesome dude but the wife hadden´t come for like years and didn´t want her kids to be forced into coming to church which kind of hit me because of course her kids aren´t coming to church they never had to. so even though the dad wanted to take the kids to church the wife wanted them to go because they wanted to go so of course they didn´t go. now the son is lost. He doesn´t want anything with the church but the wife finally realized that none of her kids are going to church let alone believing in the church so she had us come talk to them one day and i found out that the twins believed in Christ, but that´s about all. They didn´t believe that our church was true because of all the other churches here. So we talked to them about the preisthood and the book of mormon but we told them that we could teach them all that we want but that they needed to know for themselves through reading and asking God. We talked to them about how to know for themselfs and the holy ghost. sadly one of the twins i could tell was believing nothing of the whole talk but the other one was at least listening. It´s the person´s choice to act or not. but at least the dad, mom, and one of the twins (Yessica) came to church! i was so happy i almost cried! and then we had another less active who finally came to church this Sunday too! We were so amazingly happy that she came cause we have been working with her to come to church the whole time i´ve been here and she finally came with her son! we were so happy and we might teach her husband cause he isn´t a member... yet... but we´ll see. her name is Erika Herrera, and is the sister of Hna. Corria.

Well, i really should go. love you!!!!!!!

LOVES!!!!

-Hermana Alldredge"

Sep. 22 Email Update

"So, the other day we were walking and we were about to walk into an area which is kind of dangerous. So i took out my card from my camera, my money, my card, my bus card, and my watch and hid it, and my comp was doing the same when a random man came up to us and asked us if we were going to go into the risky neighborhood. it scared me at first but when i looked up to see who it was i felt calm it was super weird. he looked just like an American! i´m not sure how to explain what that looks like but he reminded me of dad. you could just tell that his clothe were not from Argentina... anyways, so for some reason i felt fine just talking to him and my comp too cause she just started talking to him all chill even though it´s something really weird to do here two girls with a guy. so he told us that we probably shouldn´t go in that area for our appointment (idk how he knew we had an appointment there, but alright) and then he told us to be safe and left. it was kind of weird but i didn´t feel weird. so my comp was like ok and we decided to go with our plan b instead. while we were walking away my comp asked me if i had ever experienced a miricle with one of the three nephites ... cause i might have just had one. i was like whaaaaaaa?!? it was a cool feeling! for real! but we did have a BUNCH of stuff that we probably shouldn´t have had on us going into that area so i´m super glad that guy told us not to go in and helped us out! so for sure, we´re really being blessed over here! 

I loved getting your pictures!!! although the ice cream here is super different, it's super amazing! i still miss the mint chocolate chip! i haven´t had it here... yet... idk if they have it or not haha but their strawberry is to DIE for! 

My investigators are doing well. Those who really want to hear what we have to say anyway, haha. But ya, the family Mené are great but we haven´t had the time to give them the first lesson still... the mom got SUPER sick and had to go to the doctor so we haven´t been able to meet with them but we stopped by to see how she was doing a few times and she said that she´s getting better. someone just doesn´t want us to teach them right now cause they know how flippin amazing they are going to be in the church!!! 

My Spanish is... well... coming still. i´m able to understand a LOT more than before, but i still have trouble speaking so i don´t really talk much in lessons, which is probably bad, I know... but i´m trying to get it. i´ve been talking more which is good but then i feel bad a lot of times cause they don´t always understand me... ya... it´s hard! But i´m trying! Maybe with some more time... haha hopefully. 

This morning, i really remembered why i am really out here, and that this is not MY time right now- it´s The Lord´s time. And then to hear from you guys it really helped me out! For real! Thanks for your prayers! i can tell they´ve been helping me out! 

Oh, and the whole thing with Heather having another baby girl!!!!! Crazyyyyyyyy! What are the odds?! for real- 4 daughters, and 4 grand daughters! Hahahaha! I am so happy and excited!! But ya... that´s about all. I've got to head out now. Sorry I don´t have that much time. Love you guys!!!!

LOVES!!!!

-Hermana Alldredge"

3 Months!!

Well, yesterday (Sep 18) marked 3 months for Hermana Alldredge in the mission field! We had a late start to the evening, and since it was a school night, we had our own little ice cream celebration at home in her honor! Yum yum and Hooray for Miss Mina!! WE LOVE YOU!

Los Alldredge's also went out in honor of Hermana Alldredge and shot a picture our way:

There it is! In pregnancy terms, she is through her first trimester! hahaha. Keep up the great work Hermana Alldredge! We are all rooting for you and the people of Argentina xoxo.

-L

Sep 15, 2014 Email

"My week has been alright. Veronica dropped us... idk if i told you that yet or not but ya. She wanted to go to her church, 'Avangelica', again. that was a little rough. Also, the family Mené got sick, so they wern´t able to go to church this week and we haven´t been able to see them but we made a date with them for wednesday! woooot! 

We also have been working with Carlos this week quite a lot too. we gave him the law or chastity lesson, and it was the funniest thing of my life! Ok, so, he´s like 75, and we thought he was married to the woman who was taking care of him (he has some problems since his car accident), but i guess he isn´t. so we were giving him the lesson and telling about the importance of being legally married before baptism, and he told us how he wants to get married to the woman who was taking care of him there. he has two woman in his life. one takes care of him durring the weekdays (which is the one he wanted to get married to), and the other who takes care of him on the weekends- and he just moves from house to house each week. so he calls in the one he wants to marry and asks her to get married and she says 'ni hayí!' which is like saying 'of course not you crazy fool!' haha it was so awkward cause then she went on talking about other stuff and we were all just sitting there busting up laughing, even Carlos, because she just went off and seemed embarrassed lol. we were also there with a member that is close friends with him, and he was really dying of laughter! so she left after. Then he turns to us and just says that it´s all good, because he can ask the other woman now that he knows this one doesn´t want to get married to him. haha!! it doesn't seem as funny when I write it.... you really had to be there and hear the lady go off on the man... it was soooooo funny! but all silliness aside, he really is trying to change his life cause he really wants to be cleansed from all the sins from before which is GREAT! we are so happy for his faith and his desire! so we´ll see what happens with him! but ya, that´s the highlight of this week. 

Nothing too exciting but we´re still working hard! i had i spiritual thougth i was going to share but i left my english scriptures in the appartment so i don´t have my paper... dang.. next week will be more spiritual haha. but ya. I also got a letter from my coworkers at PF (Pizza Factory) today!!!!!!! A real letter with my friends who wrote letters to me! I almost cried... ALMOST... well, i can´t lie, i´m a missionary... i teared up lol so i wanted to say thanks for giving them my address! that really made my day! it reminded me of home haha. but ya. love you guys tonnnnnnns! i´m praying for you guys always! les amooooooooooooooo! besitos!

LOVES!!!!

-Hermana Alldredge"

I was once again online at the same time she was hahaha so we were able to email back and forth a couple times before her time was up. Most of it was joking around and other random stuff... but I thought I'd include this bit so that everyone will keep her in your prayers, especially her health!:

"I felt like i was going to die the other week haha i got sick again lol it was sort of not good. i had to go back to our apartment and i slept for the rest of the day, and half the next lol headache, wanting to throwup, weak body, fever- but ya i´m feeling better today. still have a headache, but it´s not as bad and we still have to work! at least it´s pday today though! ya, i got the letter from PF and i was like ahhhhhhh! everyone here knows how much i love the people at PF, so right when the letter came they gave it to me. i was soooo happy! it was a little bit of home (lord of the rings reference)."

Luckily, I was able to remind her about the DoTerra Oils that we sent her with. She had totally forgotten about them and said she was going to rush home and use them! Hahaha. Please continue to pray and keep her in your thoughts!

-L

1st Transfer- Sep. 8th Email

"It's already my first transfer!!! how crazy is that!?! it went by sooooo fast it´s not even funny! I only have 11 more transfers in my mission!!! ya... that sounds crazy right!?! 11! I´m so glad that my trainer and I get another transfer together, and that l am still here because i still don´t know the area very well lol but hey, i´m learning little by little... line upon line, precept upon precept like a summer shower, giving us each hour his wisdoooom! haha! idk if those are even the right song lyrics... don´t think so... but you know what i mean... i hope.. lol :D

It´s so true what you were saying about the whole 'ward' thing! That´s why we have wards! I really think that Heavenly Father knows best, and he gave us wards to help us out for real! And if we don´t go, we are only hurting ourselfs. We get so many blessings from going to church, more than we may realize. Like with every commandment. God knows what will help us here on earth, we just have to trust him enough to do what he says. It´s by living the law that we are able to see how much of a blessing it really is, and how much joy it really does bring! We have commandments to protect us and help us live in happiness and, of course it´s our choice to follow them or not but, if we don´t, we miss out on SOOOOOOO many things! Our level of overall happiness is based on us following what has been commanded of us!  That´s something i really got to learn here on my mission thus far.

Alright, so my week has been más o menos... it´s been kind of a 'down' week- we had a lot of people bail on us this week. Dyanna and Christian (i can´t remember if i told you or not) are a super great family, but the only issue is that they are not married and the husband told us that he doesn´t know if he wants to get married... even though they have lived in the same house with four kids for quite a few years... it´s weird. But it happens a LOT here. So we made a lunch appointment with them, but it fell through so we had to stop by there house everytime we were in their area to try and see if we could contact them but it´s been kind of hard. Finally we contacted them but only dyanna was home. We gave her and her daughter a short message from the Liahonna because the dad wasn´t there, and we made another appointment with them next week. So nothing really new there. Same thing with Veronica. She didn´t come to the capilla, so we keep passing by her house- but her daughter came out and told us she was 'sleeping', so we asked her to ask her which day we could stop by. The kid went in the house for like two seconds and then came back out and told us 'sometime in the trade'... aka she was definately not asleep... idk. We tried contacting her a few more times but she´s either ¨showering,¨ ¨sleeping¨ or gone. We´re hoping that she wants to learn more still, but if not, we would greatly appreciate it if she would just tell us 'no' so that we don´t have to go by everyday. She lives kind of farther out, so it takes a little while to get to her house.

 None of our menos activos or our investigators came to church this week, which really made us feel bummed. It was kind of a hard week and it made me want to leave Adrogué and go to a different area... but then we found a family. Three girls, None of them have a unmarried spouse or a boyfriend, they had a book of mormon that some missionaries gave them years back, and they loved what we talked about with them in the short time we had. They are real capas!!! We love them soooooo much and we think that they might be our baptisms!!!! They are so ready and they don´t smoke, drink tea, coffie, or alcohol much, so they really are the 'golden investigators' that we´ve been praying for, and we just met them in the street one day when we were heading home! How crazy is that?! So, i´ll make sure to keep you updated on that! But ya, that´s been my week! Still here in Adrogué with my trainer and we are super happy to be together for another transfer!!! Wooooot!

LOVES!!!!

-Hermana Alldredge

P. S. Ya, we were on the comp. at the same time AGAIN last week. How cool was that!?!"

Explanation from Mina:

I may have sent you some of these pics from our area already… sorry if I already did.

So, some of the dogs here have the coolest eyes!!! they are like a white blue! i LOVE THEM!!! haha this dog i had to pet haha, that was my bad, but he came up to me all chill and his eyes were sooo pretty so i had to take a picture! 

A yummmmmmmmy treat that a menos activo made for us when we came to visit her.

I also learned how to make cake in a cup in two minutes!!!! it´s soooooo delish!!!! 

but ya, that´s all this week... haha my bad i didn´t take too many. 

September 2nd Email

"Heeey!-

Sometimes we don´t get cards for AGES because the office people give them to us, and if we are far from the office (which right now the office is in my area so i´m good), we don´t get the letters until we have zone conference which is about every 3 months... ya.... i didn´t realise that but that´s the way the cookie crumbles. but luckily right now i am in the area of the office so it´s super easy to get my mail but transfers are right around the corner so idk if i´ll still be in this area or not. i hope my comp and i stay her for at least another transfer but we´ll see. 

I´m happy to be here still! transfers are coming up and that´s making me super nervous cause i have no idea about the area still. we have a HUGE area because we work in the same area as the office elders, so we get to work in their area durring the day tambien cause they are usually in the office most of the time. which means we technically have 3 areas... ya... it´s huge! lol but the people we are working with are real capos! 

One of our menos activos came to church this week!!!!! we were suuuuuper excited about that and we are going to visit her again this week to talk to her about it! i can´t wait! the family of Dyanna and Christian are progressing. they didn´t come to church this week... but they are praying to know the truth and the husband told us that he knows that the plan of salvation is true! that blew me away. i was soooo happy when he said that! but he wants to know why our church is different so we told him to stay tuned cause our next lesson is going to be the restauration! but we have a baptismal date for his daughter Violeta which is the 25th of october.. ya... we are really going to have to work with the family cause they smoke, drink, and aren´t married yet even though they have 4 kids together and live in the same house... ya... totally common here it´s kind of sad. but it takes ages to get marrage stuff all organized and what not but we´re working with them and they are super awesome and i love them un montón! also, one of our other less actives we are really trying to work with to get her to come to church didn´t show up.. again... we were super sad. we passed by her house that Sunday and we were giving a lesson and she told us straight out that she knows she needs to go to church. we were surprised for a while but we are also super happy that she knows how important church is. it really is here to help us and give us the strength we need for the rest of the week! i didn´t really know until now really why we go to church. it´s to help us learn more about the gospel. to always be abiding in good works and growing but not just by ourselfs but in a support system. it really is a gift from God to help us have happiness in our lives and to help eachother grow and keep going forward. she knows the importance, she knows! but she just can´t get the force to get up and go. this is hard for me to see cause i can see all the blessings and all the important things that she is missing. and i learned that faith with out works is dead. we can believe the word but if we don´t let it change us; if we don´t put it into action, it does nothing for us and i know i´m frustrated when my investigators tell me they know something important so they are going to do it and then they don´t i can only imagine how sad and frustrated heavenly father is when he wants to bless us but can´t because we don´t act on our faith. 

Veronica didn´t come to church either.. sad day! but we stopped by her house and she wasn´t there so hopefully we can catch her again! I know she´s busy but i also know that what we have to say is important and that it will bless her life soooooo much if she will listen! She also has a LOT of problems with her family right now. her family is a part of the church called 'umbanda' which basically worships satan and the grimn reaper. there are surprisingly a lot of them here... but they don´t really want her to listen to us. I´ve also started to see myself change. i didn´t realize it till today. it was crazy cause it was in my district meeting and i realized how differently i view things... it´s crazy! this life is really a preparation for eternity. we need to learn here to do the little things everyday to bring us closer to christ cause we were so graced with the opportunity to change and overcome the natural man. live everyday as if it was already the milenium! also, this life is soooo short! it´s like a mission compared to eternity! for real! i know that the plan of salvation is true!!!!!! how awesome is that! but ya, that´s the exciting stuff right now! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it here (even though i miss you tons!!!!!)! love my comp! love the people! love my mission! and I love the Gospel! 

besitos!!!

-Hermana Alldredge"

Aug. 25th Email (with pictures!)

"This week has had it´s ups and downs. we talked to Veronica (investigator who has loads of faith), and we found out that she is having a lot of family problems right now. It´s hard to see her suffer so much! We waited for her in church but she didn´t show. I was so sad! We found out that she is sick, so i understand this time. Let´s hope she comes next week! Also, her family doesn´t want her to listen to us. That´s hard! When we arrived at her house the other day, they started to blast spanish music and it was really hard for us to bring the spirit in with random music in the background. haha, but she really does want to learn more and she kept appologizing because of the music. She felt so bad. We made an appointment with her for next time in the capital (chapel) here in Adrogué, so that we can talk without the distraction of her family. 

I got a virus that´s been going around here. Woooooooot haha it started with a HUGE migrane throughout the day, I could barely function cause my thoughts would not gather correctly. I was so out of it, it was bad! Also, my body was super weak and i coud barely walk, let alone speed walk (which is what we usually do here) haha. It was rough, but after a day or two that left and i got clogged nose and cracky throat which i´m fighting right now. It´s not too bad cause i took a lot of the emergency first aid things I have, so that´s a huge blessing!

A lot of our menos activos don´t want to come to church aparently... that´s really hard too! We decided that we´re done with 'telling them in loving ways', we are going to be straight forward with them haha talking about how, really, faith without actions is dead. And that we can believe, but if we don´t change our life because of what we believe it doesn´t do any good for anybody. We really are working hard with these people, but none of them have come to church yet. 

Oh, also, funny stories. there was this one time when this older lady was walking with us and she obviously could tell that i wasn´t from Argentina. So she asked me where i was from. At this point, she was super nice and just chatting with us. I told her i was from America, and she thought that was cool, and then i said 'estoy acá porque soy una missionera de la iglesía de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Días', and right after I said it, she RAN for her life!! haha it was kind of funny. I have also come to realize that there are a lot of drunk people here at night.. ya, slightly creepy. The other night, we were walking and a drunk guy started to yell at us asking if we were saints or wiches... ya.. creepy! He kept yelling it, and then started saying that we were wiches... we ran for our lives after that haha. Kinda freaked me out but whatevs, i´m protected right? So ha. Lol but ya, that´s my life right now. Not anything too exciting, but hey ;)"

LOVES!!! 
-Hermana Alldredge

She DID send pictures! So here are a few of those. I was also able to chat with her for a *short* time because we were on our emails just before she had to get off the computer! It was so cool to see her respond to my emails, and know that she really is ALIVE! Hahaha, it was weird but I am so grateful to have had that opportunity. Anywho, here are the pictures. Enjoy! 

Aug. 18th Email Update!

"My week has been pretty chill! The other day we got a new investigator named Veronica, and she is amazing! We taught her the first lesson and we asked her the baptismal question: ¨will you be baptized... and before we could finish asking the question she said 'sí!'. It was crazy! We paused for a sec and then finished with the rest, 'with someone holding the propper authority'. Haha, I gave the last prayer and i started bawling because of her amazing faith! It was crazy! I knew that the Lord had prepared her to receive the gospel, but at the same time it´s up to her to accept it or not. Here in Argentina there are a lot of couples who are 'parejas', which mean that they are together, have a family, and live in the same house,  but still aren´t married. It´s a weird concept/life style for me but hey, alright. We set a date for her but then we realized after that she´s married, so it´s going to take at least a month for her to get the certificate and be able to be baptized and that´s if her husband wants her to... it´s kind of sad but that´s how people live here. But wow, her faith/Spirit. It blew me away. It was insane. 

We also had an investigator drop us (idk if i told you that or not...) her name´s Estephanie, and her mom is a menos active (less active), and so one day when we were at her house her daughter (who is like 24) came in and we started talking to her but the next time we came she just left. So it was kind of sad but, you can´t force people. We are here to invite. But we are also hoping to help reactivate her mom. Because she didn't want to listen, her mom was super sad 'cause she realized how much she wanted her daughter to listen to the gospel. We are going to try to find a way to tell her nicely that she has to be an example before her daughter is going to want to have anything to do with the gospel. But ya. 

We also have another family that are menos activos that we are trying to help activate again. They want to get married in the temple. They are the Bustamantes, and they are way awesome but gosh they like to talk soooooo much! Argies LOVE to talk. We are at people´s houses for 2 hours trying to give a 20 minute lesson haha it´s so hard to stay on shedule! But this family likes to talk more than any other. it´s mostly the dad though. We were at their place for 3 hours!!! We finally had to say, we have to go now because it was already 9pm haha. They are great people though and they are the family who cooked the assada (argentinian bbq) which was heaven!  

Ya, it´s a new thing The Church is starting in some places (working with the menos activos). Also we are to teach the 1st 4th lessons of the gospel to people after they are baptized, so that´s cool too! Oh, does joel know about the alfajores? idk if he had them on his mish... but oh my gosh, heaven! The ones with moose and the oreo ones are the bomb! 

But ya, the language is... coming... i think... it´s hard to know the progress cause i don´t feel like i´ve made that much progress at all but i don't really have anything to compare it to. The other day, my comp started feeling stressed because of things here with families that we can´t control. One member (not menos activo mind you) won´t let his wife go to church because he doesn´t want her to... we don´t know why... but it´s way sad cause she just got baptised a little while ago. But in my blessing it talked about how i have learned a lot, and that he would bless my comp with patience. That actually helped me feel a LOT better. I was able to talk to one of my zone leaders who´s way cool and is from Spanish Fork, and he made me feel a lot better too cause he felt the exact same way, but his trainer wasn´t patient with him at all which is sad. 

But ya, that's been my life here this week!

LOVES!!!!

-Hermana Alldredge"

No pics again this week :(

The 18th also marked 2 months in the mission field for Hermana Alldredge!! Which meant another trip to Tropical Smoothie for us :D haha We loved having a little celebration in her honor.

August 11th Email

"The men here are kind of creepy lol i´ve been hit on by so many men it´s crazy haha, nothing major, but they're like that with every woman! But i think even more to female missionaries, especially because we are wearing nice cloths lol. This one time, a creepy old man was on a bus and we were waiting for another bus at the stop, and the bus stopped by us and i made eye contact with the old man, (first mistake) and then he gave me the 'creepy eyebrow' nod haha it was so creepy cause his jacket was covering his mouth so i could only see his nose and eyes, and oh my gosh, so creepy haha!

It´s crazy that i´m here right now! I still feel like it´s a dream! But i know now that this is where i´m supose to be! the things in this life helps us be where we need to be, so long as we´re doing what we are supose to be doing!  I know now that i needed to serve a mission not only for others, but for myself! I have already learned so much here that i most definately would not have learned outside of the mish. I absolutely love it here even though there are rough times especially since i´m here in arg. without knowing spanish... it´s super rough. But i wake up everyday at 6:30 and think to myself how truely lucky i am to be here, in Argentina, and to learn more every minute of every day! it´s crazy how blessed i really am, and i hope that i keep this feeling throughout my mission! when people ask me how i´m doing i always say that i´m doing super bien- porque yo soy una missionara! idk if i told you but we clap at doors, not knock! i thought that was a fun thing! haha also we clapped doors the other day and we found a bunch of new people that actually wanted to hear the gospel!!!! we were so excited! apparently argies are a lot like europeans, and are comfortable in their own traditions and ways- so it´s really hard to get new investigators. But we´re working on it! one of our investigators actually dropped us :( haha ya, sad, but hey, we are here to invite others to listen, even though sometimes we may want to force them haha. my spanish is... coming... haha i´m not sure how different it is right now compared to how it was in the beggining. i hope it´s better but idk. I need to get a little more confident with it! 

The work is continuing and i´m just happy to be a part of it! i don´t regret my decision to come at all! i´m a missionary doing the Lords work, therefore, i´m happy! but ya. I love it here! Absolutely love it! oh, idk if i ever told you, my comp and i hug every night, like Joel advised us to, and it really does help our relationship- and me personally 'cause it makes me feel like I'm not alone. We also say that we love each other every night, which may sound cheesy, but it´s nice to hear it from a person... you know?! Anyways, i should probably head out. 

Bye! Have a fantastic week!"

-H. Alldredge

No pics this week :(