What an adventure this has all been...
So ill be happy to update you all on the latest news by starting off this way... ive never been so lost in an area in all my mission. Its the little things in life that we as Americans can easily take for granted. Such as organized addresses, phonebooks, street signs and so forth haha. The majority of our area is made up of dirt roads and the regular random housing of Argentina, we are lucky to find numbers on the houses or fences or sometimes spray painted on their trees but more then half are without the name of the street. Our area is pretty huge so we were given permission to use bikes. Im not sure if bikes were a blessing or not because the chains are always falling off and these are not bikes made for mountain climbing so its an interesting way of travel... especially when my sweet new companion has all of the boys in the street yelling blonde woman at her. (not the typical latin hair color) haha shes a great sport. Getting completely lost so many times now has actually led me to get the hang of this place a little better. Ive found all the ways NOT to go so now im narrowing things down to the correct streets to get to our destination. Apart from the disorder in addresses the majority of these streets will cut off on a dead end and have a huge field in between until the same street continues miles away... thats what makes the altura or numbers even more tough to find haha. I dont see why they dont just go around putting the names and numbers on all the same places and changing the street names when they cut off. No because that would make sense. haha Gotta love it! Its an adventure and no im just that much more greatful for the things we have at home. We need to see how much we have. Ill never complain about being lost again. I feel like I can find my way around anywhere with the experience of the mission.
So heres some news... the last two weeks have been full of changes and new things. Last week with Hna. Gonzales I kept complaining for how white I am from being in the south so long and so when we were doing studies out on our back patio I chose to bask in the sun while she stayed in the shade on her half of the table.... I figured Its going to take a week or so before I actually get enough sun... wrong.... I have never been so burnt in my life and Ive got the pictures to prove. I have quite the nice farmers tan mom you would laugh. My comp was laughing when I had to sleep all wrapped up in frosted towels from our freezer. Shes like "I told you not to sit in the sun" haha thats sooo like me, not listening and then finding out why I should have! I always have to find out the hard way. BUT its finally tanned out this week and im so glad! Hna gonzales and I were just focused on our baptism of Diego the first week, the next week was spent teaching him and his family and going to training meetings in San Fernando and then San Isidro to get our greenies to train. Ofcourse I should have known I wasnt going to have to JUST open the area, but train at the same time.. that made things fun.
We all marched in singing "called to serve" and it was crazy watching my comps face and remembering my first day and how lost I was haha. She is so much MORE than I ever could have hoped for in a companion. She is loving and full of life and love and ready to get to work. She has had lots of life experience and is similar to me in many ways and she is always asking questions and wanting to progress and learn. I love her with all my heart. I feel as if we were friends before the mission. She grew up in Michigan, (near aunt teresa) and moved to BYU Idaho for school, then went to L.A. (where our family is) for hair school and now her family lives there too. Her name is Abby Marchant and I am doing everything I know how to do to be a good example and loving companion for her. She has struggled just a bit with the big culture shock and missing her family but I bore my testimony to her that the mission is the best thing in the world for her life and family and after a few quick pep talks shes up and at em and ready to work again. I love her energy and we are seeing so many miracles. Its hard but its kinda fun training. Hard because I have to translate 75% of the time for her and pay attention to everything going on, but its fun because I know that I can greatly impact her and help her to become the missionary the Lord knows she can. In the beginning we just dont know what we are made of exactly, and in the end we have a much more clear perspective. Its also fun because she notices things that are NORMAL to me and she says how strange they are haha. I remember when I used to think those things were all strange and now im used to it. She was really suprised at how many wild dogs are roaming the streets all the time and how crazy the bus drivers are. Shes always wanting to take pictures but i told her that she will have plenty of other time throughout her mission. She comes from a very sweet family, her father served here yrs ago and her mother served in the states. I am more than happy to be her companion and this companionship has been very great for me. Its keeping the fire of my testimony going. But nearing the end of the mission is a very emotional time... for your guys´s info, I have kept myself from crying to be strong for her and focus on our time here and now so I havent let any of this emotion show dont worry. But it is a very wierd transition. I have dreams about when Im going to come home and its a wierd feeling but Im going to love being with the family again!
So our new zone is awesome, E. Bruce, Arrowchis, Stronks, Pino, Lemo, and Burga and me and hna. marchant!
We have seen many miracles. We have been talking to everyone we find. We have been focusing on gathering whole families as President has asked and we have had tons of success. We went to contact a family that was a reference from the bishop and THEY ARE SOOOO AMAZING! They have a date to be married on feb. 17th and be baptized with their 8 yr old son on Feb. 18th! Then we have a couple with a marriage date for feb. 10th and baptism Feb. 11th! They are progressing greatly! whooo ITS ALL ABOUT FAMILIES!!!! We found a ton of new ppl this week and we are super stoked to work with them. The members are gaining so much confidence in us and giving us references everyday. We are working really hard! Last night was one of the most spiritual nights of my mission. So theres this guy named Guillermo, hes been less active for 6 yrs and used to be a great leader in the church. Him and his whole family stopped going to church 6 yrs ago and their daughter was never baptized. Well in our ward council we asked our bishop to pray with us all on our knees for families that need to be completed and who we all need to work on bringing back and the family of Guillermo kept coming into our minds. After much prayer and discussion over this family my companion and I walked all the way to their house share with the entire family how important they are to the ward, to the Lord and to us. It was a very spiritual lesson. I was so impressed with what the Lord had me share with them. I could feel the saviors love so strong for this family that we were all in tears. I asked the father to read Doctrine and Covenants 6:20 and put his name in the beginning and he could hardly read it because his emotion was so strong. It built up my testimony even more to hear him say, "you know hermanas, we have felt all of the prayers for us this last week, we have truly felt each one of them, so thank you." I was so happy that Heavenly Father heard our prayers. Then I asked the little daughter (not a member) to come stand by me. The spirit prompted me to have her express how she felt about her father while she looked at him... then her mother... then how they felt for her.... all of them were in tears and full of gratitude for one another that I knew it was the time to commit them. I said, " familia, this is not me or my companion asking you, but this is the Lord inviting you with open arms to return back to him, to forsake your sins and renew your covenants you made with him by attending church with us this Sunday and every Sunday that follows so your sweet family can be eternal!" They all said that they wont miss another sunday and that they want their daughter to grow up in the church. We have faith that the Lord will help them recieve the answer in their heart that she can and should be baptized this weekend according to the will of Heavenly Father. We will be seeing them tomorrow and asking them to pray to know if its right and we will make sure that she is well prepared and has met the bishop and his counselors so they will be welcomed back with great love! We are also very excited for the progress we are having with Diego and teaching his children that he brought to church this last sunday. Also the daughter of Zuni finally came to church and we are seeing her progress more each week.Theres a lot of work to be done and we are always trying to improve and find more to do.
Damian is a great help to us, flia. garcia, flia. maidana and flia. chen are all such a great help because they are all married returned missionaries and they are awesome when it comes to helping us out! We are seeing the work grow each and every day! Keep us in your prayers so we can continue finding these families!!!!!!!!!!!!
I miss you guys so much. I love you tons and its been hard being away from you all but I also love the mission and its made so much more out of me than I could have alone without it. ITS THE BEST! ill see you soon anyway! Well I love you guys tons! keep being missionaries!
love hna. Ashley Ann Gillum
No comments:
Post a Comment