venado tuerto 6 - aug 3

hello!

so, i am in Rafaela! and my new companions is Hna. Hansen. crazy and totally unexpected. let me explain what happened...i figured i was staying in venado tuerto because we just white washed it. So sun night, me and hna. redfern took a 3 hr bus ride to rosario because i would be staying with them until we had transfers on wed. and she would be heading to the mission home. but as we are pulling up to rosario the assistants called and told me i had to take a bus back to venado to grab my stuff and that i would be heading up to rafaela. so, we met the other sisters in rosario and hung out in their apt for a few hours until i had to get back on the bus. At 4:15 am me and Hna. Kusilek went back to vendado tuerto. i grabbed my stuff and left at 10am to go back to rosario. it was kinda a bummer because we have a baptism this weekend and i won´t be there for it. once we got to rosario again, i then got on a bus to rafaela which was another 4 hr drive. and this one i was by myself. scary when you don´t know the language or what the place looks like that you are supposed to get off at. But i arrived last night here in rafaela. usually transfers don´t happen til tomorrow, but because hna. Hansen´s companion died with my comp, she was alone and i had to get to rafaela asap. so i traveled 13 hs. and didn´t sleep at all sunday night. that was fun. but i am good, and actually super excited to be here! and just so you know, in the future, transfers mean that pday is on tues that week.

But i feel like the Lord really blessed us this last week with hna redfern. a couple week ago we got a reference for this lady named isabel. when we went to visit her she said, ¨do not talk to me about God¨...we asked if we could ask what happened. she said her son was murdered when he was 19 yrs old, and she is just angry. but we talked for a second and asked if we could just share a scripture. she said to come back another time and that we could talk. wow. so we have been back twice now, and have been able to teach her and her daughter nicol. and it´s amazing to see the changes in the attitude of isabel. she really does believe in God, she is just angry with Him. But her daughter Nicol is seriously chosen. she is 10 yrs old and has read everything we have given her and when we ask about it she can tell us almost all that she read. then she just asks us these profound questions. they were supposed to come to church but had to go out of town. and now i won´t be able to see them! but i left a note for the new missionaries that go there.

also, we met this lady carina. she's awesome. hna redfern and i each said our separate prayers, and then each of us wrote down 10 street names. then we compared and we had one in common. jujuy...so we went and knocked doors. the fifth door was carina. we didn´t even introduce ourselves, she just invited us in. turns out she works at a kiosko we´ve been to a couple times and knew who we were. we didn´t get to talk to her much, but she is totally prepared for the gospel and really wanted us to return so we could talk. and she has lots of questions. she has 4 kids, 2 died right after her birth and the other 2 live with their dad because she can´t give her kids all the material things they want. but she is so strong. she says she just has to keep living her life and ask herself what she is supposed to learn from this because everything happens for a reason. she is just great, but we haven´t had a chance to go back and visit her.

holy smokes i love this gospel! my tesimony just continues to grow. we definitely had some challenges this week too. i was extra tired for some reason. and fell asleep filling out the carpeta de area one night. and then walking in the street i was just exhausted. the other morning our alarm goes off, and my body just feels super heavy and stiff, and hna. redfern says ¨"i can´t move!" and i was like, "me either!" but we keep going and the Lord blesses us.

One of our investigators, Ademar, doesn´t believe in God...or so he says. But he texted one of the members asking for hna. Redfern´s e-mail (since she is leaving) so that he could write to her when he got baptized! that´s what he said to us! by the way we had another baptism this last weekend. it was Julian (the older brother of diego) he is 13 and he was so excited to get baptized. He even gave Hna. Redfern his lip piercing after we talked to him about it.

so here i am. my second transfer in argentina. Venado Tuerto was great. in total we had 3 baptisms! not bad for a white wash. I learned a lot. i´m sad i didn´t have a chance to say goodbye to the ward i love so much, but hopefully i will be able to return some day. the Lord continues to bless me. my shin splints i think are gone, i don´t feel them, but i´m pretty sure they could come back easily if i am not careful (so continue to pray for me, and for the langauge too...it´s coming but very slowly) But other wise i am fine. there are also 4 sisters in our apt now. i don´t know who the 2 others are yet because right now the others are leaving. One is actually going to venado tuerto to white wash again and to train a new latina comp.

i feel like so much is happening and my thoughts are always so scattered everytime that i write. it was so good to hear from you guys though. my new comp is from Lehi utah. she is super sweet, and this is her first time being comp mayor so she is a little nervous, but i think we will get along just fine:). well, i better write to the president. but i look forward to hearing from you next week. glad you got the pics! ok. gotta go! love you guys so much!!
todo mi amor,
hna. amundsen