4-16-2012

Hermanas at the bus terminal

Kissing a pig

Pumping well water

Exploring the jungle

My poor shoes!

Argentine Mud

Cow Stomach for lunch

MTC Buddies

Buenas!!

Well, this week you all get a lot of great pictures, since I haven´t been able to send any the last couple of weeks and we have had some great adventures! Hermana Jaurez has been with us in a trio since her new companion hasn´t been able to get her visa and is stuck in Mexico.  This is I think the 5th or 6th time that she has been with us, so we have officially decided that we can count each other as companions since we have at least 6 weeks worth of time together now, haha.  It has been a blast!  My new companion Hermana Hobbs is AWESOME! The only problem we have together is that we stay up too late in bed because we can´t stop talking, hahah.  We have had an awesome week with the 3 of us, despite the drama of having to work in 2 areas.

A few highlights of the week... 

AKWARDS, INCOMODOS, Y CHISTOSOS

·         well, I only have one for this week, but it is definitely a good one.  This week, we had the lovely opportunity of eating mondongo with a member family. Mondongo in some countries is also called pansa de vaca.  For those of you who don´t speak spanish, that translates to COW STOMACH. Yes. It was as bad as it sounds. I almost threw up. Hahah. BUT, I DID eat it! And my full plate too. Well... almost. Luckily Hermana Jaurez was sitting next to me and she knew what that was like for americans so while the members weren´t looking she stole a few pieces off of my plate and ate it for me, hahah. But my poor companion had an ENTIRE plate full... way more than any of the rest of us, and she tried one bite and just couldn´t do it.  The members saw that she wasn´t really eating and asked if she didn´t like it, and she thought for a minute... and finally just shook her head. hahah. So they took it away and gave her something else. She felt SO bad, but she just couldn´t do it! I sent a picture of us all at lunch. Our faces may look happy, but our tummies definitely weren´t, haha.  I was feeling it in my stomach all day. Whew... glad to have that experience over! Now to make it even better... we were talking with one of our investigators later about the experience and we told her it was ´interesting´ trying mondongo.  Somehow she took that as ´awesome´ and invited us to lunch for this week so she could make mondongo marinera for us.  We have no idea how we´re going to get out of that situation now... hahah

AWESOMES

·         this week was awesome for a few reasons:

1.    we are in a trio, which=fiesta all the time!

2.    we have been able to find some really great people this last week that actually are progressing... I am feeling the work pick up a little bit!! lets keep our fingers crossed :)

3.    today for P-day we went to a member´s house in Hermana Jaurez´s area to hang out at their little farm and explore the jungle, which happens to be their backyard. It was Awesome!! Unfortunately we didn´t get to see any exotic animals :( they were all hiding.. but they told us that there are monkeys and tucans and everything!  I sent some pictures, it was an awesome day! AMO ARGENTINA :)

This week for my spiritual thought I am going to share a little bit of what I shared in church this last week.  Our branch president asked us 2 minutes before sacrament meeting started if we could give a 10 minute talk on missionary work to excite the teens about serving missions, haha.  I just shared a few scriptures in Alma 26 and my feelings about my mission so far.  Here is verse 16 from Alma 26

 16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.

I love this scripture.  This whole chapter is really great actually... I love how much Ammon just rejoices because of how great the Lord is in helping him and the other missionaries bring the gospel to the lamanites.  I feel the same way as him when he says ´I cannot say the smallest part which I feel´... when I was sharing my testimony I couldn´t express even the smallest part of what I feel for my mission up until now.  It has absolutely changed my life.  It´s not easy.  There are a lot of ups and downs, and maybe even more downs than ups.  But the special times are SO special, that it is worth every single little trial one has to go through in the mission, just for that one moment.  I am SO grateful for this decision I have made to serve a mission.  I would not for one second take it back.  Every day I am gaining a stronger testimony and loving the people here more and more.  Some days we are just walking down the dusty roads or sitting on the bus and I look out and think about how much I love this country, and how hard it is going to be to leave when my time comes to go home.  I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven and especially to my Savior for allowing me to have this incredible experience, and helping me every day to improve and try a little harder to love and serve the people here in this part of the world.

Thanks everyone for your love and support.  Les queiro a todos!!

--Hermanita Hunt

P.s. Hna. Payne ahh thanks for your email!! I´m going to send you a letter this next week and I am going to try and get a letter from the flia Ortiz and Hna. Jaurez to send with it.. the Flia Ortiz still always talks about you and they told me they want to write you. Also, yes I did find out the Lucas finally got baptized a few weeks ago!!!!!!!! Even better... Lorena, who hadn´t been to church in probably 2 or 3 months, went to his baptism, and shared her testimony, and called him her dad. MILAGROS!!! Te queiro hermanita!!

04-09-2012

Hello fam and friends!

Well.. this week was pretty exciting! As exciting as it can get here in Parque at least! Here´s a recap of the week...

Wednesday-got my new comp! Her name is Hermana Kristina Hobbs. She is from Arizona and it SUPER awesome!! She is super super sweet and fun, and we get along really well. She´s a nurse (which is great, I´ve already learned weird medical stuff that I never knew existed haha) and she has 5 months total in the mission, she just finished being trained in Resistencia. We will have a lot of fun together and will work hard together!

Thursday-we may or may not have gotten a little visit from Dusty and Allison! Hahah. It was so fun!! We met them in the terminal Thursday morning and went and had lunch there, and then went to the pension to drop off their stuff. While we worked they got to go see Centro in Formosa and even ran into and talked to a member family in our ward who we were supposed to have lunch with that day, haha! Thanks so so much for coming out of your way to see me! It was super great. And NO don´t worry, it didn´t even make me trunky in the least bit. :) Haha.. it was just fun to see them!

Also Thursday morning my companion Hermana Mamani went home! It was sad to see her go but I´m excited for her! She was a really great companion and I learned a LOT from her.. one of the most loving and Christ-like people I know

Saturday-our only progressing investigator, Myriam, dropped us. She told us she wants to continue in her evangelical church (which she wasn´t active in when we found her). It was actually really hard. We have been dropped tons of times but I have never been dropped so often as I have in this area. It was especially hard with her though because she was doing everything... reading, praying, coming to church, etc. but her heart was closed to the answer and in the end she told us that she didn´t really want to receive an answer. I have never cried when an investigator has dropped us before, but when she told us she didn´t want us to visit her anymore I couldn´t help it. I walked away sobbing.. it was really weird and really sad. I think the more I am understanding the gospel and the more I am being converted, the harder it is to see people choose not to accept it.. especially when they are already so close, and when they are someone I care about so much. It was an interesting experience that I will never forget. I will continue to pray for her and have hope that someday she will make the decision to accept it.

Friday-I might have hit 9 months. ouch. It is really weird. I don´t know how I feel about it, haha. Don´t worry, I took some great ¨9-month¨ pictures.. one with allison and one in my apartment

Sunday-hardly anyone was in church, and we had no investigators there

Well.. as far as the work goes, it may look a little disappointing. Which it is, BUT, life goes on and WE are learning a lot, which is a plus! Also, I know that none of our efforts are in vain. It doesn´t matter if we don´t get to see any of the success that we have... what is most important is that we are doing our best and improving every day to be more like Christ and to share his gospel, and our efforts will make a difference in somebody´s life.

Scripture of the week-- 1 Corinthians 8:1

1 Now ^aas touching things offered unto ^bidols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but ^ccharity ^dedifieth.

I have been thinking about this scripture this week. Sometimes we worry so much about being so perfect and doing everything right and knowing everything and being smart, etc... but when we worry about this things and don´t worry about LOVE, we become puffed up instead of edifieth. When I think about the word puffed up, I think of a marshmallow, hahah. But something that is false.. something that is not firm, not made of real solid material, just falsely large. But edifieth... it is something that is solid, built up, strong, established, made of real matter that won´t fall down with time. I hope that we all can always focus on Christ, and what HE thinks of us, and what HE wants us to be, instead of what the world wants us to be, or our neighbors, or our friends, etc. In the mission I feel like I see this a lot... people worrying about the numbers, the positions, being a ´great missionary´ instead of a ´great servant´, and the difference is who you are trying to please... other people (missionaries, members, etc.), or the Lord. I hope we can all always have our focus on pleasing the Lord!

Well.. I hope all is well at home! I love you all and am so grateful for all of your love and support!

LES QUIERO! BESITOS!
--Hermanita Hunt

04-02-2012

Family and Friends--
Well.... this week was super crappy. All of our progressing investigators dropped us and we seriously have NO ONE to teach. We get rejected everyday and no one wants to talk about, and it has been
super hard. I am kind of thinking about coming home early.
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 APRIL FOOLS!!!!!
 
 
 
Hahaha, I am so funny. Ok ok so that was a really bad joke, hahah but they don`t celebrate April Fools here so I had to do something since I didn`t get to play any jokes on Sunday! :) No.. things are actually
going great! Although it is true that we really don`t have any progressing investigators haha things are great. It seems like we find some really great people and then within days they drop us. But we do have one lady who is progressing and we are really hoping and praying hard for her. We are working hard though and things are great!! I am learning so much and loving everyday!
 
AWKWARDS INCOMODOS Y CHISTOSOS
-one for this week... so it`s always really fun when people realize that you`re from the US and they think they are so cool and start throwing out the few english words that they know. This week we walked past a group of 10 year old boys playing soccer and they started calling out stuff. As usual, we kept walking pretending like we didn`t hear them. However, I couldn`t help but bust out laughing when one of them yelled `Hey baby!!`. hahahah. Yes... hey baby, from a 10 year old. Only in Argentina!!
 
AWESOMES
-so our one progressing investigator, Myriam, is awesome. She has a lot of doubts but she is also very sensitive to the spirit and can feel the truthfulness of the gospel. The other night we went to see
her late at night because we were worried because we hadn`t heard anything from her for a few days and she didn`t show up to an appointment and hadn`t been answering our calls. We came just at the
right time. She was really struggling and satan has been working on her so hard... putting tons of doubts in her mind. We had a nice little chat with her and then we closed with a prayer. While I was saying the prayer, I felt the spirit really strongly and I could just feel so strongly how much our Heavenly Father loves her. I prayed for her, and we all felt the spirit, and after the prayer I saw that she was crying. She told us that she could feel the love so strongly, and that she really needed it that night. That moment in that night will always stay in my mind. When we are in tune with the spirit, we are able to be there for people when they really need someone. More and more I am falling in love with the people here and really recognizing God`s love for each of them, for me, and for everyone.
 
Another awesome would of course be CONFERENCE!!! It was so awesome! I loved every minute and it flew by way too fast. A few highlights from my favorite talks...
 
-what we do on a day-to-day basis is our biggest sacrifice
-acting on even a twig of faith allows God to grow it
-we must not be weary in what we do.. we are doing a grand work!!
-does my countenance reflect the Savior`s light?
-following the spirit=doing the Lord`s will... it is the key to
success in all areas of our lives!
-there is NEVER justification for resentment
-`don`t judge me because I sin differently than you` (one of my
favorite lines from conference!)
-it is the merciful who will receive the mercy from God
-where your treasures are, there will your heart be also. What is
most important in life? And am I devoting all of my thoughts, actions,
and time on these things?
-that which comes from above is SACRED... we must take care of it and
take advantage of it, or we won`t receive it anymore!
-does my life reflect my love and devotion to the Savior?
 
Just a few little notes that I wrote down in my agenda from my conference notes. I especially loved the talks by President Monson, Elder Scott, Elder Holland, and others! I hope you all were able to watch all four sessions and if not.. go and look them up now! I promise you will receive inspiration and things that will help you with whatever trials you are passing through right now.
 
This week my companion goes home so I will get a new one this Wednesday. Time is passing by SO fast. This Friday I may or may not hit my 9 month mark. YIKES!
 
Bueno.. I hope all is well with everyone! LES QUIERO MUCHO!!
 
--Hermanita Hunt