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"