#6 from Argentina

QUE PASA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!!!

les extraño muchisimo!!! Me encanta la gente de Argentina. Somos muy bendicidos estar aqui. Hemos visto milagros cada día con nuestro investigadores! I have my journal here with me so I can update you with things in the order that they happened.

FRIDAY - Dec. 16th 2010- Today was AWESOME! in the morning we decided to go see Loraina Tieste´s house. She is a sweetheart. Shes the daughter in law of the huge family we found out on their pourch. She has three gorgeous little girls. Its always ridiculously hot when we head to her place and she lets us right in and gives us something to drink. I love their family so much. The kids scream with excitment when we come over and the girls crowd around me climbing on my back and play with my hair haha. I dont know what it is about children out here but they like flock to us haha. Its my favorite thing! Kids are the best. We taught her and her younger sister Lesson 2 (the plan of salvation) and they were all very receptive and agreed with everything we said. The spirit was very strong. I carried my parts of the lesson with perfect spanish and COULDNT BELIEVE IT! The spirit truly brought words to my knowledge that ive never before been able to say. My companion was quick to notice it too it was incredible. Then we headed to Lunch at Hermana Arrieta´s. We have had Melenesa (wierd breaded meat stuff) mashed potatoes (with mayo so wierd) fruit and french bread like every other time we eat somewhere. Im really missing some of my favorite foods from home. Even the simplest things that they dont have here. I love Jalapeños but they dont exist here people look at you crazy when you ask. Anyways, lunch with members are either really entertaining or real awkward and this was awkward haha. It was really silent and she barely has any light in her house so it was slightly creepy haha but I just started a conversation on any topic I could think of and I told her that I have a vision of the ward growing much stronger and bringing back all the less actives again. She has a lot of doubts because she says its their own chioce whether they come or not so I read some scriptures to her. I explained that its also OUR duty as members to do EVERYTHING we can to strengthen our ward and the people in our area. We are responsible for uplifting everyone and lifting burdens. I told her the if we can all figure out their reason for leaving the church we can help change it and show them how much they mean to us. I find myself in situations like this ALL THE TIME here. Im so grateful for all the things ive experienced before my mission because the members and I have a connection almost in EVERY situation. I told this Hermana this story about my family. When my family (not members of church) were sad because my Grandmother suffered from cancer, it was a difficult time around Christmas and the ONLY ones that helped us (even though we were not active in the church) decorated the house and sent gifts and money and meals so my grandmother could have one last Christmas of giving and love. In a time that was so incredibly hard for us... the church was there. And I told here... ¨hermana, look what impression was left with me, now... im a missionary.¨ Her husband later in church thanked me and said it really made a difference to her. I was grateful that the spirit brought to my rememberance experiences that relate. When we left her house I passed by the Bum ¨Luis¨ that we met asleep in the rain. He was walking around a corner when we were headed to the bus stop and I stopped him. He had a ciggarette in his hand and since he was drunk when we met him he didnt remember us. I said Luis, dont you remember us? We are the missionaries that gave you a couple pesos to get out of the cold. You called us angels and we told you to get rid of your beer, do you remember that? haha he mumbled oh si si si chickas muy amable! gracias! wheres your church I wanna go! haha so we gave him directions and told him to be good. I looked at his ciggarette and said, oh no Luis, whats that in your hand! Thats no bueno you dont need that! and im not kidding you this was the best reaction we´ve seen yet : he looks at it in disgust as if it jumped into his hand and says YOUR RIGHT! and chucks it into the gutter so fast hahahaha he is the funniest thing. We took the bus to the villas to visit Daniel (less active with kids) we brought him a chirstmas package with church stuff and his face lit up with gratitude he is coming to church again and his daughter has a baptism date for the 26th! shes 17 and pregnant so the plan of salvation was good to share with them so she can be comforted. It breaks my heart to see their home. its red brick and cement splashed all over parts of it with dirt floors and a torn up broken couch with a little table. bugs everywhere. no windows. its so sad. Ppl dont ever finish their houses and things are so dangerous like stairs with nothing supporting them, nails wires and glass sticking out of things, dirt everywhere. It really humbles you. these people sit by there tiny broken christmas tree and light up with joy listening to our message, when thats all they have. It brings tears to my eyes every time. We went to Mariannas (member) we taught her son about his baptism that was this last Sunday! We then taught these punk kids. everytime we go over there, theres 15 kids and no parents. They are always smoking and up to know good so we taught them about keeping the commandments and why its important mixed in with a little bit of them needing to find a purpose in their life so they dont waste their lives away being caught up in bad stuff. I saw this girl across from me (who looked 12) and had a super low cut shirt on, pop a ciggarette into her mouth while she was talking to us. She looked so pretty behind all that makeup and tought exterior. I took the ciggarette and I said, are these an addiction for you? how much do these cost you every day? she said yes and alot. So at this point my BIG SISTER motives came out and I guess you could say I chastized them all a bit by telling them they are way too young and beautiful to be living like that. the lesson ended with hugs all around and they changed their perspective. Every street we walk down theres babies holding babies. as in little girls as young as 14 that have kids already! its CRAZY! and having the mother instincts that I do, it is so hard for me when I see young mothers mistreating their newborns. Its everywhere and its considered normal. Davíd S. is an investigator that has been taught for like four months now and he gave us his testimonies before his baptism! it was so cool to read the progress of our work.

SATURDAY-Dec. 17th 2010 I woke up at 5 a.m. today and it was already so bright outside. My testimony grows more each day. I feel that im coming much closer to my Savior. Davíd was baptized with Mariana´s son Fransisco! TWO BAPTISMS WHOOO! once again... words cant sum up the love felt during the baptisms! Incredible! Then we had our big Ward Christmas party dinner and that was fun. our ward is maybe 30 ppl. sad. but I love them. then we watched fireworks on the roof of our apartment. Argentina is always looking for any reason to party so its an every other day thing. It reminded me of home and the 4th of july. It reminded me how blessed I am to have what I do, and the people that love me.

SUNDAY-Dec. 18th 2010 - WOW we worked our tails off today! We accomplished a ton! So we got to church and witnessed Davíd s. y Davíd Medina recieve the holy ghost and the preisthood! It was so amazing. they felt very peaceful and enlightened afterwards. We Gave David m. a thing with baptism photos and cards of kind words which he later texted our phone about saying: Hermanas, I wanted to thank you for the beautiful gift. I love it. Thank you for changing my life and my family and setting me on this path. It was SO sweet to hear that. Pretty sure we walked like a hundred miles by the way. We covered our entire area and met family after family after family! We taught so many lessons and taught a few guys that were real stubborn (catholics and evangelicals that dont read the bible much) They are the best to talk to because the answers to their questions are in the bible AND the book of mormon and they never have questions we dont have answers for. Its the spirit that softens their heart to get them to actually listen. We have many new investigators and we have 3 baptisms coming up! WHOO! its been so great. This is my comps last pday and im so torn because im sad to see her go but im happy for her to return home where her boyfriend will be getting home from his mission too and they will be getting hitched asap! Im so happy for her and I love her so much. Im not ready to switch companions but Ill make the most of it. I see so much around me that makes me grateful. For example when we were walking over here we passed the bank, I saw this mother who obviously has cancer, standing in the island in the middle of the street holding her little girl in her arms. The mother was bald and her face lit up with a huge smile as she stared into her daughters eyes and she twirled her little hands through the curls her mom had left. It was precious. People here are not afraid to be who they are. Its beautiful to see how people dont see the need to hide or cover anything. She was just proud to stare into the face of her daughter and paid no attention to the reactions of anyone. People also are very nice here. extremly loving and compassionate. Its incredible to see. at first I felt so out of place and now... it feels like family. I love that the gospel does that. It helps you see through the eyes of christ. I have totally let go of all judgement and just felt love for everyone I pass. Like last night... I was prompted to stop at this tatoo shop by our house that is owned by this guy we see a lot. He has real long black hair and beard and would scare the majority of people he passes but the spirit told me to speak with him so we did. He noticed my little tattoo on the back of my neck(before I was in the church) the week before and so he instantly brought that up when we started speaking... but I let him know that God loves all his children and its not about our past but its about where we are going and how we choose to live the rest of our lives. I bore my testimony and asked if we could share our message. we left a pamphlet for him to read and we set an appt. Its my new goal in this area to get that man baptized! Beneath the piercings and tattoos I saw one of the most sincere guys that we have crossed. He spoke so nicely. I remember Eyrings talk... I didnt see the problems... I saw the solution... I saw in my mind, Christs atonement... for him specifically and I saw a lost sheep that Heavenly Father led me to have the courage to find. I saw one of his sons. I will do all that I can to bring him some light in his life, hes a good guy. This christmas will be great. For those of you who dont know, my mission has truly blessed my family, my little sister Jocelyn was baptized on DECEMBER 11th 2010 and I cried because I was so happy. My companion did too haha. Im so proud of her. Im proud of my mom for pressing forward in faith since ive been out here. Im grateful for the effort they put forth to stay strong and do whats right. Im grateful to the Vaughn´s and the Seely´s for their unconditional always supportive love and help. Im grateful for my friends and mothers friends who have been supportive and have encouraged me and helped me be here. Im grateful to my amigos in the mission field right now also, your countless emails are so encouraging for me and you are all my eternal friends! This Christmas I wont have snow... ill have sunshine... I wont have a live tree... ill have a paper cut out one... I wont have physical gifts... ill have pricless ones. I have on the Lords errand. The greatest gift of all is what He has given me. His ministry of a perfect example of love and long suffering. An infinite atonement that has made me new and made it possible for me to keep going. My eyes are flooded with tears typing this right now... haha.... im just seriously... so forever changed and humbled by the love ive been so blessed to feel. Thank you all. Your kindness is enscripted in my heart more than you know. Family, I miss you. I miss the sounds of your voices and the laughter and holiday traditions but I will be with you again when I return. So know that I love you. Each and every one of you. Know that Im thinking of you and you keep me going. Know that Im working hard and I pray that you count your many many blessings this year because people here have so close to nothing and yet thats still everything to them. I love you with all my heart... MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010

 

con amor,

hermana ashley ann gillum