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!!