SARMIENTO

Bueno dear loved ones of mine, hows it going this week? Hope all is well. Sorry I didnt have time to write last monday because I just had to write President and then print off my itinerary for my flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires. Leaving Rio Grande after 4 months of hard work, was harder than I thought. I cried like a baby when i parted ways with Natalia. I gave one of my plaques to Flia. Tello because they are for sure a second family to me and I love them with all of my heart. They said they want to build me an extra room in their house their building haha. I left waving bye to Hna. Milmont and Hna. Gutierrez out of the bus window and oneof our really important investigators came running up to the bus to give me his guitar pic and tell me thank you for everything and goodbye. And because Elder Christensen and I have been in the same zone since july I was sad to say bye because hes taught me a lot. I just wrote on a sign "thanks for making it hit!" (talking about Gods love and the atonement) and he just gave me a thumbs up and they all waved bye. The poor lady next to me watched me read what everyone wrote in my diary and bawl like a little baby. I went through a good 5 packets of tissue or so and she just kept looking at me like, wow, what happened to her! but I could barely muster the words "im fine im just really sad to leave some of these people here because I really love them." Then I closed my book, and started teaching her about the Book of Mormon. Ushuaia was welcoming as usual. Its so pretty! Christmas was a good time. We baked all kinds of goodies, sang tons of christmas songs to everyone, exchanged christmas gifts within our zone and watched the best two yrs (which is a lot more funny as a missionary) Then after skyping the Fam we went out to work and we saw some amazing miracles that Ill never forget. I love sister Malhue and Shelley so much! They are kapa missionaries for sure. Ushuaia was so heavenly because the weather was absolutely perfect!

AIRPORT

Elder Smith and Elder manjarres dropped me off at the airport and I started teaching this grandma sitting next to me. She kept hugging me and kissing my hand because she was glad I speak her language haha. Then one stop in Calafate where I switched seats and taught all of lesson 1,2, and 3 to a guy named Daniel who sat on my left. The gentlemen on my right was a nice father and husband who spoke english and has been traveling for work. I gave him a card with our info on it and he helped me with my baggage to meet the elders in the airport. I hope to see him one day and see how his family is doing. He lights up when he speaks about them. He speaks highly of his kids and his wife. It makes me happy. I want the same for my family one day.

TIGRE

Elder Johnson and Elder Neilson, picked me up and we drove off to Tigre! seeing all the big city again was like being HOME because thats where I started the mission. and seeing them was good company. Elder neilson had to go home and return because of an accident he had and Im so proud of him for finishing. Tigre is the place I always wanted to go my whole mission! YES ROMO I THOUGHT OF YOU THE WHOLE TIME! love you! I just was there for a day with Hna. Salas whos in my group and a greeny Hna. Allen whos from utah also. They are cute girls.

MISSION HOME

Then in the morning I was off to the Mission Home where all the zone leaders were having a meeting and President called me and Hna. M. Gonzales into his office. "you two have the responsability of opening an area today and I have full confidence in the two of you to get the job done okay, Hna. Gillum will be waiting for her jr. comp in a couple weeks for the area." I LOVEEE hna. Gonzales and we work super hard together so this was great news to me. President told us of the revelation he recieved for this and asked us if we could feel the spirit as strong as he could... it was surely present.

OPENING AREA IN SAN MIGUEL SARMIENTO WHOOOO!

So having the experience of opening an area before now, this was easier... but this time starting from scratch, no carpeta, no materials, no map, no chairs or bedding we moved into our brand new cute little house and made due with what weve got. We organized anything and everything we had and went out in search for what we lacked. We as hermanas tend to organize in detail so you better believe that we have everything colored, tabbed, filed, and in alpha-betical order. haha. We work better that way. Less stress later. Elder Leiva (1 yr in mish) and greeny Elder Winward FROM ST. GEORGE UTAH whooo! met us to show us around the new area of Sarmiento, San Miguel. Let me tell you, this area is HUGE! I am really wanting a pedicure because my feet are all bandaged and blistered from walking so much. Its like 60 quads both ways. The elders have bikes in their area so we have also been given permission to have bikes for our area.

We have seen thousands of miracles in just these 6 days here! I wish I could share them all with you because its been so amazing! I absolutely love this area! Its golden for sure!

MIRACLE/ BAPTISM/OUR WARD

We were working on wed. and prayed to find someone who has attended church enough times that could be baptized this weekend... sure enough just for opening our mouths to talk to everyone we found in our path, miracle after miracle we came across a man running into his house and right before he went to close the gate on us, I caught him and asked if we could share our message with him.... As we began teaching through the fence we thought he was just a man who had probably never seen missionaries before... but our prayer was answered... he had gone to church many times, he had even had a baptism date before in his life... He was a miracle. So right before we wanted to asked him to follow christ and be baptized we thought it was a better idea to ask greeny E. Winward if he wanted to... he got a big smile and looked a little nervous but sure enough...he did just fine and when Diego said Yes E. Winward looked so happy we all said good job buddy! You did great! He was like wow... he said yes! haha Elder Winward is a very good missionary. Very humble. He is always writing things down in his notepad and askes a lot of questions. Hes a good example. So since Diego lives in our area we were responsible for teaching him all the lessons and commandments and then on Saturday December 31st at 2:30 pm Diego entered the water of baptism and came out a new person. we all felt the spirit really strong in his baptism. "He has recently seperated from his wife and said, I need God more than anything else in my life and if I want an eternal family then I need to change myself first for my family and kids, thats why I want to be baptized. I need a new heart to have an eternal family!" HOW SWEET! We were obedient in all things and getting to know the Bishop. He is from China his name is Bishop Chen. His wife is a return missionary from Argentina and their kids are DARLING!!! We had lunch with them one day and their love story had us all in tears. They look at eachother like they are still getting to know eachother because they are so in love and so happy in the church. She converted him to the church by taking him outside the Buenos Aires temple blindfolded and after he saw where he was she told him how important it is to her that shes married in the temple to have an eternal family. Then she left on a mission and he learned more about the church, and waited for her. When she returned He would talk to her on the phone with the dictionary so he could speak in her language better. Now he is the bishop who was recently called only 3 months ago and they are happier than ever. Honestly EVERYONE in our ward is super happy because there is a huge variety of age groups and youth. All the couples are return Sister and Elder Missionaries with beautiful kids and everyone that didnt serve missions who were converted later on are all WARD MISSIONARIES! The organization here is perfect! We are Preparing 2 other families to be completed within these next two weeks! There is a couple who has a date to be married for feb. 10th and they are preparing for baptism! Also we felt the need to sit down on a street corner and talk to three teenagers about 19 yrs of age and they all appeared sad about things. long story short we taught them a great lesson, they felt the spirit, they turned their frowns upside down, we read scriptures together, and they are preparing to be baptized on the 28th of this month! Their golden! Sunday was AMAZINGGGG!!!!!! Getting to church was interesting haha... we were stopping by the houses of our investigators to get them and at one house the uncle whos about 24 yrs old said, they are not here but I need to go to church... so we told him we would see him there... but walking behind us there he was... following us and pleading DONT LEAVE ME I NEED TO GO TO CHURCH TOO!... by the way he was walking and slurring his words he was wasted from the new years partying all night. (which in Argentina all parties start at 1am and goes til 10am) We were praying that he would just go another way or something but he followed us the whole way. So I said a prayer as we walked that went a little something like this... "oh dear heavenly father, thou art ALL powerful... please make this man instantly sober before we get to the church!" haha Well as we entered we explained to him, that the house of God is sacred and he must respect it and sober up. Seeing him slouched over laughing all goofy one minute has us worried, but ill tell you that our church is powerful haha because the second he entered the gate and walked inside and shook the leaders hands who greeted us at the door this kids spine shot straight up and wide eyed and very collected he shook their hands and said very clearly something that would translate more or less like "good day sir, beautiful sunday in the church of the lord." We just laughed to ourselves and let them know someone needs to watch him. The leaders took him to the bathroom to splash some water on his face and give him water to drink and he was happy as ever singing hymns and participated in everything just fine. Infact Diego (our new convert) was lecturing him on all the reasons why he shouldnt drink haha. DIEGO´s confirmation was absolutely beautiful! He has a light now that he didnt have before. I loved walking into the sacrament meeting as everyone whispered "ooo look we now have sister missionaries too!" haha we sang a special number and bore our testimonies about why we decided to serve and I just kept smiling as I looked into the eyes of all of our investigators that all came to church! And just as we were counting how many people came, I felt sad that Charly (a rehab recovered investigator who lives with a member) wasnt here. He has a mental disorder and so we just like to teach him slowly while we teach the whole family he lives with and he promised every day this week that he was excited for church but didnt show... The family was, but not Charly... and just then while we were singing... a knock at the window in front of the whole congragation he had a HUGE grin and waved at us all dramatic like saying, " HERMANAS! AQUI ESTOY! AQUI ESTOY!" (sisters, im here im here) I got teary eyed and we ran to the door to greet him. He rode his bike pretty far to get there and walking through the door he took his hat off that he wears everyday, combed his hair with his hand and sat with his family. I WAS SO HAPPY!!! the people in the ward all had smiles and kept telling us, great work hermanas!

NEW YEARS 2012 WHOOO

Taking the sacrament with all of our investigators is the best feeling! Especially for the new year 2012!

New yrs. night our neighbors were lighting off fireworks and had a lot to drink and when we woke up at midnight from all the noise and sirens we stepped on our porch and I just saw this huge firework from the groud flying right towards me from their yard! That thing hit me straight in the knee exploding in between my calves and I had to go to the hospital... just kidding... about the hospital part... im totally fine but my pj pants have a burned hole in the leg and my companion died of laughed when we ran back in the house. haha. She told me a was dancing like a leprechon and looked so scared. I just told her im glad I was the one that could take the hit haha My garments protected me because my skin wasnt harmed at all but now ill really never forget this new years and Ive got the pjs to prove it! The next morning we just heard how everyone had a bunch of fires and accidents... argentina for ya haha its just a lil crazy.

Our Zone leaders right now are Elder Bruce (frm cali whos parents are mission presidents in Chile right now) And Elder Nueffer (who goes home with me in 11 weeks) , and then we have Elder Brown (frm arizona) and Elder Rodriguez (frm Uruguay, whos our District leader, he goes home with us too) Elder Leiva (kapo de chile) y Elder Winward (from st geezy)

Anways... you guys all asked about the weather... bueno... im dying of heat... just like I like it. Im FINALLY GETTING TAN!!!!!! back to my normal color! its beautiful right now!

welp people, this is my update for now, ill have to send you guys photos later but ive taken a ton. I think I have 7 pen drives full now and 5 cds from my whole mission. I love you guys so much thank you for all your love and support! The miracles just keep coming so thanks for all your prayers!!! have a great week! I send you my love! BESITOS!!!!!!!

love ash