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"