Week 3: Pictures

Tova's "happy pillow" that Lily bought for her right before she left...posing at the airport on Tova's way down south.

Due to a lot of things, this email will be filled with typos ans errors, because I only have a short amount of time. :S But pictures are coming!!

This past week has been nice and warm, and I´ve been wearing my rain coat rather than my winter coat (although they both look identical :S).

On Martes (tues) we had district meeting, and I switched my winter coat for my rain coat jsut as we were heading out the door, so I left my sube (bus pass), the phone, and my agenda with my money in the other coat, and didn´t realize it until we were catching the bus. :S Thankfully my companion is patient, and helped me out.

We also had our first corolation with the mission leader of the ward this week, which went well. I didn´t say much :), but could understand about 1-2 of what he said. 

Cool thought: reading the Book of Mormon from a missionary´s perspective is so cool because I can totally tell when the prophets are teaching the lessons. The restoration, the plan of salvation, the gospel of Christ, they´re all through it! (for an example, see 1 nephi 13-14 about the restoration, esp. vs. 13:40 and 14:7)

This week I also managed to catch butter on fire :). Apparently the wrapper is aluminum, and so when I put it in the microwave, the microwave spazzed, I quickly turned it off, and opened it up, and there was a little flame in the butter and on the wrapper. :S. Note to self--check the wrapper for metal. 

We had our last zone conference with Pres. >Thurgood this week, and so we all went to the temple. It was so cool! And what was even more special is that it was on a Thursday, which is P0Day for the CCM right next to the temple, and so I got to see a couple of the girls that I knew that had stayed in the CCM for three more weeks!

While we were there I was able to get a spanish Liahona with the conference talks of the last conference. I have a goal to read through all of them before October. 

So I opened up the first talk (Gary Stevenson about the Keys fo the Priesthood) and read the first sentance, and almost started crying. I had no I idea what he was trying to say. Thankfully, it was just because he was talking about skiing down a hill in winter, and none of those words are in missionary vocabulary (although now they´re part of mine! _:D) 

2 Nephi 4 is definitely my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. I read it while I was in the temple, and it lifted my spirits (just like it does everytime). Then there was a song on one of my CD´s called "I love the Lord" and is based off of that chapter. It´s beautiful, and you can listen to it for free if you can find it :).

Quote: It´s going to be ok. How can you know? For God so loved the world... (Max Lucado)

Missionary promise from Pres. Uchtdorf: Counsel, use your resources, seek inspiration, and ask for confirmation, then go to work--and you will find who what when and where you need to serve.

We met an amazing member this week who was less active for years, but recently was reactivated, quit smoking, and wants to go out teaching with us! She has such a sweet spirit, and a lvoe for the church. We´re trying to teach her son and granddaughters who are all lessactive, and she´s very helpful in that effort as well.

Unfortunately, one of our other investigators told us she didn´t want us to come anymore. She was never enthusiastic before anyway, but we were praying. We´re still praying for her, and hopefully she will remember what we taught someday and feel the desire to know more. 

We met another recent convert, and she served us malta (my first time--it tastes good if you put enough sugar in it :)) with galletitos (cookies-crackers). 

The family that we found last week met with us again. And holy cow! they have a lot of questions. They´re very sincere and want to learn more, or at least want to know what the Church teaches. I felt pretty helpless, though, because they talk very fast. :) Thankfully, mi compañera helped me stay caught up, and helped me share my testimony. Then I was able to offer the prayer. We left them some things to study that will hopefully answer some of their questions.

I´ve learned how to do laundry in the sink. :) I wish I´d helped my mom with laundry in Hugnary when she did it out of the sink. But now I know. 

So, the reason this email is a day late. Yesterday was the day of the flag here in Argentina and no one was open (besides one shop that had a mini card reader that I used today--blessing!!) So we had zone conference and went shopping, and now I´m here :). 

This is also our mission president´s last week. Next week Pres. Calquin (sp?) is coming from Chile. For our last district meeting, Pres. Thurgood will be there, and we have a surprise musical number ready for him (so don´t say anything ;)). I get to play the piano!! :D

I love learning about life as a missionary. It´s very different and sometimes scary, but always improving. We´re learning to get along with the members of the ward, and how to receive referrals. 

Until next Lunes (mon)!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission