10-24-2011

Sleeping in the kitchen after the flood

Milanesa, fideos, y alfajores

Recent converts

Whew! What a week!! This week was definitely an interesting one.  But before I go into that... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LOVELY MADRE!!! :) I won´t announce how old she is.... because everyone knows she hasn´t hit 40 yet. :) Hope it is a great one madre mio! Also felicitaciones mom and dad on your anniversary! Sheesha you guys are old! :)  Jk jk... ok, so this week´s going to be a little bit different. Tiempo por historia!

Bueno... it all started Tuesday when our zone leaders called us and told us we had to go to this building TODAY and get this paper signed and stamped for this lady who wanted to get married Friday and baptized Saturday.  It was supposed to take a couple hours, so we went after our district meeting and they told us they couldn´t do it that day and they could only do it the next day.  So we left with lots of time to spare and decided to go visit Ramona (one of our progressing investigators who is CAPISSIMA).  We went to see her and we taught her the law of chastity.  We were really worried to teach it to her because she has a baptismal date and wants to get baptized but she´s not married and her marido (spouse-ish that she´s not married to but lives with) drinks a lot so we didn´t know how she would take it.  After we talked about it we asked if they had thought about marriage and she said ´actually... I couldn´t sleep last night, and I was lying awake thinking about that, and I asked him if he wanted to marry me, and he said yes!´ and our mouths just dropped open.  We were like ´wait... was he asleep? was he drunk?´ haha and she told us he was awake and he was clean!  So crazy... so we were all super excited, and told her to talk to him more about it to make sure he wasn´t just saying that and that he really meant it.

Then that night we were going to an appointment and we stopped to visit the familia Rotela.. Fabian and Matias are still progressing but can´t do anything about it because the mom still doesn´t want to get married and won´t give matias permission to get baptized.  Anyway, we were stopping by and Fabian told us he had a friend who is in trouble and needs the gospel (so awesome.. not even a member yet and already doing missionary work!) so he asked us to go visit him that night.  We told him we probably wouldn´t have time but we would stop by this week.  After our appointment we were walking past their house again and this guy (who´s name is Jorge) was there so we met him and talked to him.  He is an alcoholic and it is really bad... he is super super depressed and has destroyed his family, and was talking suicide a lot.  Fabian was really worried about him... we told him we might not have time to stop by the next day but we could Friday and Fabian asked if we could get someone from the church to go visit him then... after he said that we realized it was pretty urgent, so we told him we would make sure to stop by the next day.  We ended up talking to him for a bit and singing him a hymn and then we were past curfew so we had to leave. 

The next morning we wake up with water on our floor in the bathroom.  We didn´t know what was wrong but something was leaking, so we told our dueño and he had some guys come and try and fix it.  During this, we got a call saying we have to run to the terminal to pick up a missionary that doesn´t have a companion (it was transfer day).  She is Hermana Nava she´s from Mexico and has 7 sisters serving missions right now!! She is capissima. She was waiting for a mini missionary (an hermana from the area that can serve a mini mission for just 1 transfer... we have a lot of those in our mission) so she was with us and we were a trio for that day.  So we went and picked her up, and came back to them still trying to fix our bathroom.  They left so we left to get lunch and came back and ate, and then left for the day. We went back to that building to get the marriage thing and they told us we had the wrong number, so we waited and tried calling everyone we could and nobody answered.  We ended up calling and waiting for about 2 hours trying to get it finished (because it was urgent we had to do it asap) and it ended up that we just left and didn´t finish it. 

So we go back to the pension to find that our bathroom and room is completely flooded. Completely!  Hermana Nava also reallllly really had to use the bathroom, haha. So the guys came back to fix it and they worked on the toilet while we mopped up our room for about 2 hours.  Poor Hermana Nava... hahaha

After that we went out to see Jorge again and we brought 2 priesthood holders to give him a blessing.  When we get to the house of the familia rotela, we see Jorge sitting there, completely WASTED.  They decided to give him the blessing anyway, so we went to his house and talked to his mom for awhile and they gave him the blessing.  It was so sad... he is really messed up.  He was just sobbing and calling out to us ´ayudame, ayudame´.  When we were leaving, I went to shake his hand and he started pulling me in and it was so awkward and I didn´t know what to do hahaha and my comp was like ´cuidado cuidado!´ so I turned my head to he couldn´t kiss me (since everyone does the kisses on the cheek thing) and we end up just hugging kind of really awkwardly hahaha.  The same thing happened with hermana payne and hermana nava, and it was pretty hilarious seeing them try and dodge him, haha.

So we come home that night and everything is fine and we´re climbing into bed, when the toilet breaks again, only this time it is squirting water.  We went to talk to our dueño and he came up with us and our room was already flooded worse than it had been before. Sheesh!  We spent a good hour and a half cleaning it up again and finally went to bed around midnight.  Since there were 3 of us though, someone had to sleep on the floor on a mattress, but since our floor was flooded we had to put the mattress in the kitchen.  Hermana Nava was dead tired so I offered to let her sleep in my bed, and I slept on the floor of the kitchen. Haha :) capa.

The next morning we woke up at 5 to send Hermana Nava off.  Then later the other missionaries called us again about the marriage paper.  They needed it right then.  So we stopped in the middle of planning and ran to the building, got it taken care of, then ran to the terminal to send it off.  It took a good 3 hours or so.  Then we ran out of credit on our phone so we couldn´t call any of our investigators to tell them our change of plans for the day.  Also the zone leaders called us again to tell us we had to go back to the terminal that night to pick up another missionary-Hermana Juarez who is also waiting for a mini.  Also we met with Ramona again and she started crying in our lesson and told us that she thinks her marido is into drugs and that he has cheated on her and that he told her he doesn´t want to get married now and also her daughter told her she doesn´t want to finish school. WHEW!  Monton de emociones.  It was really sad, and Sunday we ended up having someone give her a blessing.

SO.... now, we have Hermana Juarez with us and we are a trio until they find a mini for her, we have a toilet that is somewhat fixed (it still leaks a little bit sometimes), we have a drunk that we are working with, I have now recieved my first hug in the mission, and.... yep!  Whew.  LONG WEEK. Hahaha.  It was awesome though!  Way fun, and I learned a lot.  Ohhh the drama of missionary work!

Ok, so now that I am out of time and I just wrote a million pages of a story.... I better go.  Haha.  But I hope all is well! Thank you thank you thank you everyone who wrote me this week and sent pictures!!! I am going to write back next week because I am out of time but seriously all of your letters and pictures made my week!  Check out the pictures this week to get a visual of the happenings of this week.. haha.  I am so grateful to be here serving in Argentina and I know there is no other place I should be.  I hope you are all helping out in your wards to do missionary work because the best missionary work is done through members (and that´s a statistic!).  Thanks for your constant support! :) Besos! Ciao-ciao!

--Hermana Hunt

Dinner!  Roasted Pig

Our Landlord

A smashed mosquito!

10-17-2011

group email:

Well, I am now starting the first week of my 2nd transfer here in Argentina!  So crazy how fast the time flies!!  Feliz Dia de la Madre to all of you who are mothers!! They had their mother´s day here yesterday which was pretty fun.  Things are going great!  I don´t have a whole lot to say this week (or a whole lot of time as usual) but here are a few things...

AWKWARDS INCOMODOS Y CHISTOSOS

• being told by someone almost everyday that this neighborhood is dangerous... :S haha! (don´t worry mom and dad, we are always in by 9 so we are never out during the dangerous times!)
• ummmm........ yep that´s about it!  I swear I had more funny things that happened this week but my mind is drawing a blank.  just know that I have awesome awkwards moments throughout every day with the language especially... I think they just happen so often that I am getting used to them now and not recognizing them.

AWESOMES

• this week we had interviews with President Heyman.  He and his wife are amazing!! Such awesome people!  We were the last hermanas to have our interviews so we got to go get lunch with President Heyman and his wife!  They bought us pizza and we went to a bench on the coast of the river to eat.  It was beautiful, hot, and the pizza was sooooo yummy :).  Afterwards we ran and got ice cream with the other 2 hermanas before heading back to our area! what a fun day!

• the people we are working with right now... so awesome!  Ramona and Lorena are progressing well and Ramona told us the other day that she really feels like this is the true church and wants to continue moving forward.  She has felt a lot that the Book of Mormon is true too.  We are working with them a lot and they are seriously incredible! Unfortunately her marido (husband except not really) is iffy still and wouldn´t let her go to the RS broadcast this last weekend (they rebroadcasted it here so we were going to take her to it).  We also met this lady Priscila this week who is absolutely hilarious and is interested.  Her marido also wouldn´t let her go to church though.  But she invited us to dinner this week (which is super rare because we never eat dinner and no one really eats dinner here) so hopefully things will change!

This week I have been thinking a lot about how blessed I have been to grow up in the situation that I grew up in.  It is so crazy here... it is SO rare to find a family that is put together and funcioning.  Nobody is married but everyone lives together and has kids and a family.  None of the husbands and wives love each other... basically they live together because they need food and shelter for their kids, and the husbands treat the wives so poorly and basically control their lives.  It is the saddest situation.  Many of the women are raped and it is normal, or they have kids when they are 13 or 14 or 15.  They also start living with each other when they´re around 16.  Such a different culture.  President Heyman told my companion that when he served here it was rare to find a couple NOT married.  It is incredible to see how the world is changing and the powers that Satan has.  I´m so glad to be serving here where the gospel has the opportunity to completely change the situation of these people´s lives.  They are incredible people and deserve to be happy and excel in life, not just push through it trying to survive.  Anyway... I hope all is well at home!  Is it getting cold yet?  It´s just getting hotter hear and I heard that in the summer sometimes it gets up to 50 grados which is somewhere near 125 or 130 degrees F!! I am going to die!! Haha.. hopefully not!  Anyway... all is well and I am loving my mission! I´m learning SO much everyday.  About the gospel, about people, and life, and work, and everything and I know that this experience is going to change me forever.  I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here and for the blessing I have of the gospel in my life... I know without a doubt that it is the gospel of Jesus Christ and I am so incredibly grateful for it!  Have a fabulous week! Ciaocito!

--Hermana Hunt

Socks, on our laundry line!



 

10-11-2011

Buenos Dias todo!
Ok... 10 minutes to write quickly.  This week was awesome!  Probably my favorite so far since I´ve been here in Argentina.  First some awkwards...


AWKWARDS, INCOMODOS, Y CHISTOSOS

• don´t know if I have written this one yet but it happens often... we greet the women here with the 2 kisses on the cheeks ya know.  What is awkward is when you miss the cheek.... not kidding... hahah
• this happened last week but I forgot to write about it.  My clothes! gah!  Something happens everyday and I´m afraid I am already going to have to buy a whole new wardrobe.  All within a couple of days, one of my skirts caught on something sharp and totally ripped right in the front (don´t worry I hand sewed and it just looks great!), and I spilled super glue on a brown skirt, and I couldn´t get it out with soap so I just colored over it with black sharpie and now there is black sharpie and a big white stain around it... hahaha.  It is so bad I have to wear the skirt backwards so it´s on my backside instead of the frront.  Also like 3 of my shirts have bleached streaks from sitting in the sun in the washing bucket, and others have color bleeding stains from sitting in the buckets together.  So great.. :) my clothes are a little messy.. but... it´s all good! :)
• I had more that I can´t remember right now...  sorry! I´ll write them next week if I remember.

AWESOMES

• our investigators, so awesome! We are working with some great people right now that are progressing well.  We had 2 investigator families and to other investigators in church on Sunday... a total of 9 or 10 people, which is awesome! Usually it´s hard just getting one or two people there!  One family is so awesome.. I talked about them last week, the mom is Ramona and her daugther Lorena, they have been coming to church and we have been meeting with them a lot.  They have been reading the book of mormon (even though Ramona can´t read) and Ramona has been including her whole family.  Her son Agu is 6 and I think I am in love with him, he is the cutest little kid in the world!! They are such an awesome family.  Except of course they aren´t married and her spouse hasn´t been interested in meeting with us yet.  But I think slowly it is coming and eventually he will be open to it, and hopefully open to marriage so they can be baptized.  Last night we had a noche de hogar (family night) with them and another member family (la Familia Marquez) and we watched The Testaments.  It was so awesome... we all felt the spirit and a few tears may have been shed-by Ramona and Lorena too.  We shared our testimonies after and Ramona really feels good about this and like it´s right.  It was an awesome night :).  We are also working with a 25 year old named Gaston. It´s interesting working with guys around our age... we always have to be careful and pay attention to what their motives are, haha.  We´re not entirely sure about him, but we think he is a good guy and is sincere.. he´s just a little different.  Anyway.. he is progessing as well and came to church and really liked it, her is really friendly and met a lot of people.  He will probably be baptized!

The language is coming... I still can´t communicate and understand super well but I know it will come with work and time!  But the people always tell me I speak really well and pronunciate really well.  The other day a member told me I pronunciate better than they do, hahaha.  I don´t feel like that though I feel like I am always stumbling on my words!  But it´s ok... I know the Lord is helping me!  I have also been playing the piano in church every week... trying to sight-read the songs has been an adventure haha. The people are so funny here, they freak out when they find out that I can play because it is so rare here.  They also freak out when they see my eyes because NO ONE here has blue eyes.  At least once a day I hear something like ´ah! sus ojos! celestes!!´ haha.  So great.... :).  Anyway, everything is going well and I am loving it!  Thanks for all of your constant support!  Feel free to send letters :) I love hearing from everyone and getting updates on everyone´s lives!  Tengan una buena semana! Ciaocito!

--Hermana Hunt

10-03-2011

Hola hola!
¿Como estan todo?  I am now in my 4th week here in Argentina!  Holy moly!! Loco, no? That means that I have hit 3 months in the mission (this Wednesday), which means I am 1/6th of the way done!  So weird... it feels like I have been here forever but at the same the weeks go by so fast.  Time is flying!  How has the weather been in Utah?  Cold or warm still?  We had a good rain storm the other day, but other than that it has been pretty hot!  Last week it was 36 grados (I have heard that is around 96 ish in Farhenheit but really I have no idea haha) and the humidity is crazy!  I have decided I will just be content with constantly being wet, haha.  It constantly feels like when you have just gotten out of the shower and you are still wet and the humidity is in the bathroom and everything... haha, it´s great!  Also great that our pension doesn´t have air conditioning and we have 2 fans but only one plug in our room so we have to share one during the night.  It´s really not too bad though!  In January I have heard it is unbearable though... so vamos a ver!  I´m sure I can handle it!  Ohala que si.  Anyway... here are my highlights for the week!

AWKWARDS, INCOMODOS, Y CHISTES

• having to ask to use people´s bathrooms all the time.  The other day I used a member´s bathroom but the light didn´t work... so I had to use my camera as a light to find where the toilet was, toilet paper, and trash can.  Also great is when the toilets don´t flush, or it looks like they should flush but you can´t find anywhere to flush it so you just leave it... bahaha
• the owner or whatever of our pension lives right by us and he is so sweet he always checks on us and stuff.  But the people here are just so funny about health!  If they have the tiniest cold, they can´t go out or do anything.  And they are always like ´oh you have to drink so much water!´ etc. and they go on and on about how we need to be healthy, as they use their bathrooms without toilet paper and sinks and walk around bare foot on the dirt... hahah.  Anyway... the owner guy came up to give us the bill or whatever for the month and he asked us if we have been getting up and exercising in the morning.  Every morning we usually go over to the church and go inside and exercise in the gym, but I guess other missionaries have ran around the basketball court before and he hadn´t seen us do that so he was concerned.  He then went on to tell me specifically that I need to be running and exercising everyday, and then he asked me how much I weighed. Bahaha! LOVE how honest the people are here in Argentina... love it.
• as usual, we had many great experiences with people talking this week.  The other day we clapped at the fence of a part-member family just to say hi and keep walking, but the non-member dad who is super friendly insisted on us coming in.  He showed us this painting he did (which was really good!) and then he went on and on and on and on for I think 30 or 40 minutes, without us getting a word in. Hahaha!  Talking about painting and what he was doing to fix up his house and his job and how we need to be healthy and drink water and wear sombreros in the summer and then about drumline and all the things his kids do that they have to keep up with and everything... haha.  We walked away just shaking our heads and laughing.  Some people here are just so great.  They are such great people, they are so so nice and friendly.... but BOY do they know how to talk
• a few random/fun facts about Argentina/my area: 
• the people here are obsessed with snow white.  I have no idea why!  I haven´t seen any other princesses... it is so random, but tons of people have like these little creepy figurines of snow white and the seven dwarfs in their yards.  It is so random!
• to sell cars here they don´t put for sell signs on them, they just park them somewhere and put a jug of water on top and that means that they are for sell
• basically no one here is married... but most of them have been together for 10 years plus and they have kids together... many of them have full families with 5 or 7 kids but still aren´t married, and refuse to get married still, even though they know they will never part or anything
• also everyone here is either Catholic or Evangelist.  The Evangelists are very very dedicated to their congregations and their preachers and are very active, and then none of the Catholics are active or ever go to church but they are catholic through and through and will never change.  It´s funny though because we talk about the Bible and basic Christian beliefs and they don´t really know anything... when we ask who Christ is for them they all say ´mi salvador´ and we say ´but specifically for you, what is the meaning of Christ in your life´ and then they end up saying I don´t know.. haha.  It is pretty funny and crazy how strong the Catholic tradition is, but how far from religion so many of the people are
• another funny thing... how they are so funny about health, but their teeth... oh boy!  I think I have only seen a couple people with a full set of teeth.  Most people are missing 4 or 5 or more teeth.  Of course we love them nonetheless :) and we know to not judge them by their looks.  They are the sweetest people in the world!

AWESOMES

• well, clearly the most awesome thing of the week was CONFERENCIA GENERAL!! Ah... I am so sad it´s over! We got to watch all 4 sessions in our stake center, and in English which was even better! We planned on having about 10 investigators there, but of course all of them fell through last minute and we only had 3.  It´s ok though... one of them is a lady named Ramona who we found this week.  When we first started talking to her she broke down in tears about how much she misses her dad and how it´s been really rough for her family because her husband drinks a lot a lot.  Her 16 year old daughter also broke down in tears.  They are really interested and we are working with them a lot.  Her oldest daughter is 16 and she is only 30... you can do the math!  Anyway... so conference.  I loved all of the talks, but my favorites were Uchtdorf´s, Carl B. Cook´s, Hales´, and Randall K. Bennett´s.  The first 3 talked a lot about trials and pushing through them... how the Lord is always watching out for us and is always aware of us.  I have such a testimony of this and of walking forward in faith, or ´waiting on the Lord´ like Elder Hales talked about.  So many times we don´t feel the connection with our Father in Heaven, even if we are trying.  Sometimes we want to change but we don´t have the desire to do the work with a positive attitude.  Sometimes all we can do is walk forward in faith and continue to do what´s right until we feel that connection again or until the trial has passed.  I loved the story Elder Cook told about seeing President Monson in the elevator and he said to him ´Remember... it´s better to look up!´ we can´t forget that we always have a loving Heavenly Father watching out for us and a loving Savior who is always there to help us out of our trials.  I also really loved Randall K. Bennett´s talk about choices and how much they affect us.  I am learning more and more the importance of obedience and how really it is black and white... we can either choose eternal life, or the world.  There is no way to successfully choose both.  My companion and I have talked a lot about choices in little things, like what music to listen to or movies to watch or activities to do or whatever, and how it is much easier to make the decision ahead of time to always choose ´eternal life´in those situations, instead of thinking about them over and over in indecision.  If we make the decision ahead of time, we can make the choice without even thinking about it and then move on.  It is black and white, and all of our little decisions determine which side we are on.

Well well, that is it for this week!  How awesome is it that we having a living Prophet today? Wow... I have sure gained a testimony of how important it is to have a prophet, and that President Monson truly is a prophet of God.  We are so lucky, and should cherish his words and the words of the apostles, because they are the words of God just like the scriptures.  We have modern day revelation, and we are so blessed to have it!  I hope we can take advantage of it and not take it for granted.  Thanks for all of your constant prayers and support!  Feel free to write anytime! :)  Have a fabulous semana!

--Hermana Hunt

P.s. ok I keep forgetting to put my address here!  I am finally going to put it.  Haha.  There´s a different one that I gave out to a couple of people that is wrong... you can still send stuff there but I think this one is more correct and letters will arrive quicker with this one.  The address is:

Hermana Linsey Hunt
Mision Argentina Resistencia

Entre Rios 435
3500 Resistencia
Chaco - Argentina
(I don´t know if you have to put Argentina Resistencia Mission but por que no?  Also... I believe it is 98 cents to send a letter...?  So like 3 stamps?  And it takes about 2-3 weeks to get to me and 2-3 weeks for a letter to reach the US from here)