venado tuerto 2 - july 6

Hola!

Sorry, I know it´s Tuesday, we had a little switch just for this week. But it´s too complicated to explain, but next week it will be mon again. But thank you for your letters, I love them! I seriously have the greatest family!

So i´m not sure if you saw the right thing on google earth or not. I don´t live next to any tall buildings, and there isn´t any snow. The weather here hasn´t been bad. I have been warm enough, it´s a little chilly but with a coat i´m fine. It´s only sprinkled a little, but hasn´t rained which is nice, though yesterday was super windy, and Sunday was warm. And the church is actually out of our area, about 12 quadras (blocks) from our house. I´ve seen a couple parks and yes shopping (which we haven´t done). I think there are about 10 missionaries in venado tuerto, but 14 in our zone. And we all have a different rama (branch) as far as I know.

Hna. Redfern is from the U.S. she is from nor. Ca. most recently but has lived a bunch of places. We figured out she knows jay tibbits and steven ingelbretson (sorry, can´t spell last name) from byu-Idaho as well. But she is awesome, we get along really well and I am learning a lot from her. She really is great, and very bold. She isn´t afraid to tell people they are wrong and they need to repent, and the people totally take it. The culture is pretty open. They tell hna. redfern that she is fat (which she is not) and that I am skinny, and they think it´s totally ok. It cracks me up.

The food is good! The members feed us way too much. We have lunch with a member everyday. The meat is good, but it´s not to die for like people seem to describe. The pollo (chicken) is my favorite. And the other day I tried this blood sausage thing, it was….alright. they eat pan (bread)with everything though. They just have it on the table with every meal and you break a piece of and eat it. Also potatoes, they eat those a lot. And their salads are also pretty good, they just take raw vegetables, put some oil, salt and vinegar on it and eat it, and it´s actually really yummy! We aren´t supposed to drink the water unless it´s from a bottle, which isn´t really a problem because all they drink here is juice and soda (not my favorite). And the fruit is good, no problems with that.

My shoes are good, they´re holding up so far. My nylons on the other hand though….they rip on the toe, not sure why, but it´s the same place everyday. But they have them here, so no worries. And our apartment is on the colder side, but i´ve been fine at night. I usually sleep with a sweatshirt on. But the water on the bathroom floor takes a long time to dry! It won´t dry unless we open the windows. The mission provides blankets, and they are good, and then I have my own pillow so i´m good.

Wow…you have lots of questions. Haha. But it´s all good, I would want to know too. But missionary work is awesome! I´ve learned so much this week. Last week my companions and I set the goal to reach the estandartes, or the standards, and we had one less day to work because of the game. (We weren´t allowed to leave the house because Argentina lost.) And there were a couple times where I wondered if we would be able to reach our goals because we had been walking all day and not getting into a lot of houses, so we weren´t really teaching. And then the Lord would provide for us, it was awesome. And we reached our goal! this week our goals are even higher. But if we are obedient and do all that we can, the Lord is going to help us reach our goals. I´m learning so much the importance of the little things. We need to be obedient!!! It is so important that we are reading the scriptures every day and attending church, and praying! The people here don´t fully understand that, and that is why we have so many menos actives (less actives)! We visited a family yesterday where the parents drop their kids off at church, but they don´t come because they love the peace of not having their kids for a few hours. I testified of how important it is to come to church and to be an example for your kids. I´m so grateful that I have parents who taught me the importance of those things, and I told them, I have a testimony because of the example of my parents.

So many times people forget why they joined the church, because they take everything so casually. It´s part of the culture too, the people are so great, but they don´t understand organization and consistency. As missionaries we are trying to set the example. The members that do come though, are awesome, and strong. I have such admiration for them, because they don´t have strength of the church like we do. They don´t have friends that are all LDS that have the same standards that they do, they are very much the minority. And for their faith I admire them.

The Lord has provided miracles in our lives this week. We are so blessed, and if we don´t look for those miracles we won´t see them. The first week we met a boy named Pablo. He´s about 23 and doesn´t believe in God. We contacted him outside his house, but he wasn´t interested. A couple days later we see him again…and he waves to us, so we go and talk to him. Hna. Redfern and I decide that we need to give him a B.O.M. so we went home and marked passages for him and wrapped it up so we could drop it off at his house. But we couldn´t remember where he lived! So after carrying this B.O.M. around for him for a few days Hna. Redfern says, ¨I want to take it out of my bag, but I know that when I do we will run into him again.¨ and so she keeps it, and later that day we run into him! You don´t see the same people over and over again here, that is rare. But we give him the book, he says he will read but he won´t come to church. But now we have an appt with him! That was a miracle! And we were so excited! And stuff like that happens, but some will say it´s coincidence, I say it´s the Lord.

I have such a testimony of this gospel, I love it! Missionary work is not easy, but i´m realizing how important it is! The world needs this message!! Alright, I love you, I have an hour and 15 min to write to you and the pres. And to read letters. Friends can e-mail me, but I have to write letters. But i´ll talk to you next week! Love ya!

Todo mi amor,

Hermana amundsen