Week 28: Hola Todos! (#2)

This week has been amazing.

I don´t know if I already shared that last week we past a couple of men outside a house and they started asking us questions (Where are you from? Are you Evangelists or Catholics?) but we kept walking. Afterwards my companion felt bad, so we started walking more instead of taking the bus in order to see if we could find them again.

Last Monday, we found one (Matias) outside the same house, but he was drunk. We still talked to him and later his dad came out to tell us that if we could come back another day, his son really needed to learn about God. So my companion went back during intercambios and they had a good lesson with him, and he accepted baptism! He´s going through a lot of trials right now, so he´s really depressed but likes it when we come to talk to him and teach him about how he can change his life. Wow!

How to make the missionaries in your district amazingly happy and homesick at the same time-- make lemon bars :). Every missionary from the States said something like this ¨Are these lemon bars?¨ Yep ¨Wow, my mom makes these!¨ :D

This week, a youth in our ward was with us for two days in a row, and we were able to give out ten Book of Mormons and teach investigators and find less actives with him. 

As we were contacting, this member contacted a lady and introduced us as from the Church of Jesus Christ, and she finished his sentence ... of Latter Day Saints. She and her family moved here a year ago, and for about 4 years have been inactive. But her son is studying to be a piano professor and came to the piano classes on Saturday. We talked about the piano and I showed him some exercises and he showed me some cool songs he´s already learned.

Then a family came to learn piano and won the prize of the first people that have come for two lessons in a row :). It was amazing to see the mom. Last week they´d learned what the notes looked like and this week we took a hymn and practiced identifying the notes. She got so excited that when it was her turn to practice on the piano, she took out her favorite hymn and started playing it! She played the first line and then turned and gave me a huge hug :). Then she finished playing it! It´s amazing seeing her and her daughters practicing. It´s also cool to feel how I need to teach them each so differently and at different levels. It´s that way with missionary work, too. Everyone has different expectations, situations, and experiences and need different approaches and information.

This Sunday there were alot of less actives that came to the church!!!! It was amazing. One woman recently lost her son, and has felt that she needed extra peace, and recognized that she could find it by coming to church. We were able to talk with her a lot, and are going to visit her again. 

It´s been una semana maravillosa!! I feel a lot more excited and my companion and I are working hard.

I love you all, have another great week!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Week 27: Hola Todos!!

Cómo están?

This week was amazing, and we´ve had miracles come our way!

Our district meeting was great, we put together our vision and took all of our favorite scriptures, took a phrase, and made a ¨Super Scripture¨!! 

A member (Luciano--16) came with us to visit Mimi and we decided that we´re going to trust in the scriptures and read them with her for the lessons. She´s already received almost everything we have to teach her, and just needs to exercise her faith and act.

We also talked with Olga (less active) and she´s also progressed a lot. Now she just needs to attend the church :).

Miracle in Thursday!! We went to see if a reference was home, and not only was she home, but when she saw who we were, she let us in, and we started talking! Catalina is going to have her baby this month, has a lot of great questions, and is so receptive to our message. We shared about the Plan of Salvation, and she believes in a lot of the principles already, and just needed to hear about them.

We also visited a new member in a critical time, she just received some hard news and we were able to share in Mosiah 24 when Alma and his people received strength to carry their burdens. 

We visited her again in Sunday and just that morning an uncle had passed away. The Lord really loves her because he keeps putting her in our path during these hard trials in her life. 

In Friday we were able to have a lot of lessons! We found a family that usually isn´t home, and they shared with us why they don´t want to come to church, which is great because now we know how to help them. 

We also got to know an amazing family in our ward. We had lunch with them then they came to our piano classes. They´re so much fun, and it was great to get to know them. We´re going to be reaching out even more to the members this week. 

This week has been amazing. I love my companion and the ward. The investigators are great, and the people are open to the message. I´m loving reading the scriptures. As a zone we´re reading the entire Book of Mormon this transfer, so it´s been really cool (and I´m reading it all in Spanish, woohoo!!)

Love you all!

Have a great week! 

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Week 26: Good News and Bad News

The good news is that I had a great New Years with other missionaries (different ones from Christmas) and on Sunday a member family surprised us by taking us to their house for lunch where we ate and chatted.

The bad news is that as I was plugging in my card to send pictures the computer once again wiped my memory :(. 

Thankfully, my companion takes all the pictures that I take, so she can send them to me to send to you guys :D.

Last Monday was great. We finally remade our map that we have of our area that was ugly and confusing, so now it makes sense and looks super cute. 

The Reeses didn´t turn out like a reeses but it tasted amazing! :D There´s now an elder from Sweden in our zone, and he said that he´d make something from Sweden and give me the recipe. Yeah!

Tuesday was full of miracles!! 1-- we went ot find a reference from a member, and contacted her father in law, who gave us her address and we gave him a card!

2--We talked with the reference

2.5-- We contacted a lot of other references we received and have appointments for this week.

3--My companion had lost her scriptures, but we found them again in the house of a member

4--My companion got new scriptures... A Spanish Quad!!

5--A member took our dirty clothes to clean them

6--We found a less active that we don´t usually find

7--Another less active went to the mutual activity!

8--A member that hasn´t attended church for a while was in her house, let us in, and told us what was happening. We were able to talk to her, and she and her whole family came to the church yesterday!!!

It was amazing.

Wednesday we had our first district meeting in our news zones (they were all divided, so now our mission has 12 instead of 6). It was fun, and after that we had lunch and visited Mimi. She invited us to a birthday party for Leonardo this Friday and asked us to play violin and sing. :S. So then we went to a member´s house and they helped us find songs to play for the party. :)

Luciano is a young man in our ward who accompanies us in a lot of our visits. He went with us in our lesson with Maria in Thursday and helped us by sharing scriptures and bearing testimony. If you ever get the chance to go with the missionaries for a visit, take it! Even if you only do it once, for 10 minutes it´s worth it and it´s such a strength for the missionaries and the investigator. He also made some contacts that were fun-- he´s preparing well for his mission in a few years.

Friday we were able to talk with the reference we contacted on Tuesday. She has a lot of problems, but accepted a Book of Mormon and said she´s read it and pray. We´re going to call her to set up another appointment. 

This weekend we received lunch and dinner from a member and ICE CREAM!! It was 41 degrees cel. in Saturday, and then it rained Sunday morning. One thing that is certain about Argentina is if it´s going to rain during the week it will do it Sunday morning. Without fail, throughout my entire mission up to this point. 

It´s been an amazing week, and I´m so excited for this upcoming week.

I know that this is the work of the Lord and that the Spirit guides it. 

Have a great week! Enjoy the snow! 

Love you all!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Week 25: FELICES FIESTAS!

Hey everyone!!

This week was crazy for two reasons-- it was Christmas, and I was sick. :D

Monday I fell asleep at 6 and woke up the next morning.

We went to our district meeting and I shared the cupcakes I´d made before knocking out and I received a blessing for my health. Our zone and district is super fun, so I´m a little sad about transfers that happened today, but excited to get to know even more people.

On Wednesday we worked in the afternoon and had a couple of lessons. We taught about temples with Mimi, and she asked us if she marries with someone being a widow, which husband will she have in the next life. We told her we´d answer her question next time.... :). We´re going to use the episode in the Bible when someone asked Christ the same question. God has all power and He loves us so He´ll work everything out for us.

Thursday we were both sick, and I used the afternoon to disinfect the apartment. And then we got better!! Woohoo!!

We got to teach Maria about the Law of Chastity Friday (my favorite :S) and she didn´t completely understand, so we need to teach it again :(. But she´s super sweet, and we´re looking forward to her future when she´s married in the temple!

Saturday another companionship arrived and we did divisions to so one did her skype with my companion and a member, and I went with the other to collect Christmas cards and packages in Monte Grande. We needed to be inside by 6 due to the partiers that would be out, so we enjoyed a dinner from members and the fireworks out our window, and a game I got for Christmas.

Christmas day it RAINED and THUNDERED and LIGHTENINGED!! :D I was happy, because it was the closest thing to snow. But because it was Christmas no one was open including the buses, so we walked to church happily in the rain. It was a beautiful sacrament meeting, I got to play violin one last time with the ward choir, and then we went to have lunch (hamburgers!) and went to talk to our families!!! Yeah!!! I was so happy, and loved seeing my cute little brothers and sisters and Drew (jk, :)--you´re cute, too Drew :D) and Grandma and Grandpa and my mommy and daddy and everyone! It was amazing.

Experiment of today--making a Reeses.

 

I´m excited to get back to work, and to work with the spirit that´s left behind after Christmas when everyone is still happy and a little more relaxed and open to the Spirit (and the missionaries :)).

Happy New Year´s everyone!! Enjoy your week!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission