Week 41 and 42: Another Great Week

May 15 pictures and email and May 22 pictures and email:

15:So this week we had exchanges, a zone conference, a baptism, and mothers day call so it was pretty loco :).

Tuesday we had four lessons!!! All with good investigators that are progressing or almost progressing. We`ve started killing two birds with one stone by having Candela (the little girl who can`t be baptized because she doesn`t have permission) in the lessons we have with her neighbor, a less active member. 

Then was a crazy 24 hours of exchanges, I was in the other area--Adrogue. We had an amazing lesson with an invesigator that didn`t feel like she could pray, but we had her say the prayer in the end and she started crying. 

When we finished there was no rest from traveling. We dropped off my things and went to two lessons (one fell through) and then returned to the chapel to have the baptismal interview of Fabian.

That night we ordered pizza

The next day we had zone conference. For lunch we had pizza. So we traveled early in the morning and got home in time to have another lesson with Fabian and dinner with a member. She made pizza :D

Saturday we had a lesson with a family medio-eternal investigators, but were able to hear from the mom what she felt she lacked in life and teach about the plan of salvation.It was so spiritual, and she even accepted the invitation to be baptized! 

Sunday was crazy, we were in the chapel from 9 until almost 3 with the baptism of Fabian and ward counsel and everything :). We had a crazy lesson with an investigator after lunch and then ran to do skype in a member`s house. Apparently my english is pretty bad and I have a spanish accent :D. (But in spanish I have an english accent, so I`m stuck between the two :S).

Today we had our district activity and an elder from Brazil made us Strogonoff de Brazil (It`s different from the US version). You fry garlic a little bit, put in a bunch of cut up chicken, put in a bag of sauce (like spaghetti sauce, but different :)) some cream, ketchup, and mustard, and parsley. It was super yummy. I made an interesting brownie that had a cave in the middle somehow, and was all the way cooked besides a doughnut shaped area. I don`t understand how... but it`s delicious for me anyway :D.

I love you all! I`ve loved feeling lost in the work. I know that wherever we are, if we have our priorties right we can feel this way, that whatever happens, we`re doing the Lord`s will and it`ll turn out all right 

Love you! Hugs!!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

22: This week we had a couple of visitors-- called Viajeras ¨Traveling Missionaries¨-- two sisters who help us do double in our area for a week and especially help us find new investigators. They arrive Monday night and leave Sunday afternoon and always come in rounds of two, so this afternoon we`ll be receiving another two :D.

Hna Davis-- remember? My comp from last transfer? :D-- and Hna Menezes from Breazil were here, and everyday we did divisions.

Also, Tuesday we had interviews and a less active sister brought us a container filled with lunch. It was kind of funny, because none of us knew her, we just had her name in the calendar and her phone number. When she arrived I thought I`d recognize her, but nope :S. She lives in the elder`s part of the ward, so I hope that they started to visit her, because she was super sweet :).

It`s been raining a lot this week, so there was a lot of walking in the mud. One day we were literally walking through a mini lake the entire ¨street¨ had two inches of water. I had rain boots, but Hna Menezes only had her little shoes, and her feet got soaked :(.

This week I did an inordenate (is that a word?) amount of cooking: Monday for the district activity, Wednesday for the district meeting, and Thursday for a sister`s surprise birthday party. It was fun, but I ran out of cooking things. :(

Today for lunch my comp and I made mashed potatoes and gravy, mmmm.... with an argentine tomato salad on the side of course :)

Oh! Speaking of american food, I love my companion. She received a package from her family with.... (hold your breath....)..... Root Beer flavoring.... and instructions of how to make root beer.... mmmm... for my cumplemes 13, she made up some root beer, bought ice cream, and I had my first root beer float in a year!

It was kind of crazy sharing an apartment with two more, but we made it work :). Hna Menezes started to teach me portuguese, which I can understand, becuase it`s super similar to spanish, and I just need to learn what`s different in order to speak it. Eu amo ser missionaria. 

So yeah, it`s been an amazing week. Sad news-- our investigator that got baptized last week couldn`t make it to his confirmation this Sunday becuase of the mud. :(. But the elders had a baptism and it was so sweet. It`s been great for the ward to have two baptisms in two weeks. We`re going to be working to keep it up.

I love you all, have an amazing week!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Oops!  Sideways...sorry, folks.

Skyping with family!

Week 40: Hola!!!

May 8, 2017

So this week was amazing!! So long and so short at the same time, as always.

It seems like time just keeps going faster and faster :(

Monday we found a family that we´d lost contact with and were able to teach them again. The son is still interested in coming to church, so we´re going to be working with him some more, hopefully this time he´ll have more support from his parents.

We taught our very active 10 year old about the Gospel of Christ and had her walk physically through the steps to return back to heaven--faith ... repentance... baptism... etc. Her dad said she couldn´t get baptized, so we´ll be working on having a member "sponser" her until she can decide for herself. 

Tuesday we had a great district meeting. Every companionship in our district changed, including our district leader, and it looks like we´ll be having a lot of unity and power in our areas these next months!

Thrusday we found a couple of new investigators... and one of them had the JW´s visiting when we got to our appointment.... :S. But everything ended peacefully and we were able to get to know a little of the JW doctrine :)

Friday was crazy with a meeting all day and then trying to go a lesson in the dark that night (it didn´t work, so we won´t be repeating it :)). 

Saturday we had the miracle of finding a new investigator and inviting him to be baptized next Sunday (this week, now). His mom recently reactivated, he´s the thrid to last child of 11 children (sound familiar :)), and super smart. We´re going to be going to his house almost every day to help him prepare.

Sunday was super fun with a great lesson with the aforementioned boy, and a dinner with the bishop. We now have a great relationship and trust with him.

There´s a great article about war in the April Liahona, it´s amazing.!

Love you all!!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Alarm meets floor :)...on accident??

Cake to celebrate a wedding

Week 39: Love you all!!!

May 1, 2017

I hope you all had a great week like I did :D.

Tuesday it rained really hard, but we were able to contact some people. 

And... we had transfers.... and I left my old agenda in the apartment... so I don`t really remember what happened this week... :S

But it was amazing! In weekly planning we figured out that we could have a baptism every week this transfer if we work hard, have faith, and help the investigators keep coming to church (and talk to a lot of parents to get permission :D)

So it`s going to be a great transfer! One of our investigators (Candela, remember? 10 years old?) brought her 8 yr old nephew to our lesson with him, and then brought her sister to church yesterday. Today we had a ward activity and Candela brought her sister and another sister to the activity! :D She`s such a sweet girl.

So it`s been a great week! I made apple pie for the ward activity, and the district leader just called asking us to cook for the district meeting... little does he know I always cook :D...

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

After a rain storm

Week 38 part 2: Super Fun!

Hola Gente!

This week was super amazing and crazy long and short at the same time. :S (I´m not sure how it works, but that´s how it is)

We had lunch Tuesday with a part member/less active family, and the sister (Flavia) told us that after attending church last sunday and praying she made an appointment with the minicipalidad to be married with her husband (Abel) so that he could be baptized!!! Then her husband told us that he wanted to attend church with his family even though he worked until 5 in the morning everyday.

It was amazing! The two obstacles that Abel faced for baptism (marriage and attendance) were taken care of and we hadn´t taught him anything or asked them anything! (he has listened to the missionaries before, a coulpe years ago).

There´s another family a couple blocks that is in a similar situation, inactive husband living with a non-member with four kids. (I think I talked about them last week). We talked with him Wednesday and he told us that he doesn´t have any doubts that the church is true but isn´t 100 percent sure that Joseph Smith was a prophet, so he´s going to pray about it. His daughters are attending all of the activities and he came with them again this sunday. The problem is finding his wife, because she literally works all day everyday besides saturday and sunday. We´re making them a priority and will be visiting them with other members this weekend.

Wednesday and Thursday I was with Hna Garner again. Thursday morning we got dumped by the part-member family that we´ve been working with since I got here, so that was tough, but that evening we found a girl (Candela-10) who is friends with a member, and she came with him to the activity Thursday night and to church yesterday. She´s reading the Book of Mormon every day before sleeping, and is super sweet! 

Saturday we had another chapel open house that was fun. We took two groups on tours, and the spirit was very strong with the first group. While we waiting, annother hermana and I started singing duets together with the hymns and it was super fun. 

Yesterday we had another bunch of people in church. Flavia brought three of her neighbors (also less actives) and all of their children, so it was great!

I¨m super happy here, and a little nervous for the transfers that are coming up this weekend.

I love you all, and knw that this church is true. Read the Book of Mormon, it has all the answers.

Love you! Besitos!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Week 38: An Amazing Week

April 24, 2017

So this week we found a new investigator--Belen. Her sister is an investigator that`s getting baptized in a couple weeks and Belen accepted being baptized with her!

So my comp is a sister leader so she needs to do intercambios and I need to stay with the comp of the other sister leader (for some reason they don`t have them as companions in this mission... anymore :S No sè porque). So I spent Wendnesday in Adrogue and she spent Thursday in my area, Alejandro Korn. Her name is Hna Garner, and we`re basically comps after being together two days this week, two days next week, and who knows how many days in this next transfer. :D

In her area we got lost on the way to lunch, but were able to help the less active sister who fed us-- she has cancer and feels really weak but is trying to turn to God in this trial. She was so sweet, and it was an honor to meet her.

Then we had a lesson with a family that`s investigating--a mom with her two daughters (who are also moms). Her questions that no one has been able to answer are Where did the Devil come from and What is he made of? So we explained the deep doctrine of the preexistence with revealed the REAL question she had which was how can God permit evil to exist if He`s all good. So we read in 2 Nephi 2, and one of her daughters was super sweet and opened up how she`s been doubting her faith and she really wants to build it up more, so we invited her to read the BoM and attend the baptism the ward was having that Saturday.

It was great! 

The next day we traveled to my area again, and we contacted a family that was a reference from members--the father is less active hace 20 years and has four daughters, two of which can be baptized. He told us that his wife is evangelist (? I don`t know the name of the religion in english) and doesn`t accept the church, but when we visited the next day she was super open and we were able to talk about faith in Christ and why we celebrate easter. Her daughters came to the movie night we had Friday and attended church yesterday with their father!!!

But I`m getting ahead of myself... Thursday night after contacting in the four corners of our area (literally walking to our four limits) we had our ward FHE and we were in charge. We played some fun easter games and ended watching the new video Principe de Paz and talking about Christ. 

Friday we finished the intercambios and I was officially with my comp again, we had our lesson with that family I mentioned and that movie night I talked about already :D. Oh, and my comp (Hna Davis) used to work in a popcorn shop in Vegas, and so made popcorn for the movie night.

Saturday was amazing and full!! In the morning we helped the Primary President finish up a project (love service!!) Her husband was the one who led us to the family we`re now working with and when we finished helping his wife he took us to another less active he`d found and whose husband isn`t a member--another investigator!! We shared an easter message and they invited us to have lunch tomorrow!! :O While we were talking, a neighbor who helps her with laundry came in and said "Oh, I`m a member, too. If you want to visit me I live in that corner." ... Okay, of course we`ll visit you! :D

And that was just the morning. We ate a quick lunch, visited Brisa and Belen (remember, the girl from the beginning?), and then picked up a member to help us visit a less active who she used to work with when he was an active member. Poor guy, he`s super sad and loosing faith. But we`ll help him pull through!! Then we went for our last appointment, and the neighbor (Faima) came and told us that they moved out two days ago, but that her mom was a member and that Faima used to attend church with her. Then her mom came out and we set an appoinment with her. We went to the house to which our appointment (a less active and investigator) had moved but no one answered, so we went to see some new investigators, and their parents weren`t home but the girl (12) said that she`d finished reading the intro of the BoM and was in the Test. of the 8 Witnesses!!! :O Wow. We found out when her parents would be home, and are definitely going to be following up with her :D. 

We had five of our investigators in church yesterday and 20 people in total in our class of Principles of the Gospel with all of the less actives that came, too. I love Easter Sunday!! It`s been an amazing week seeing fruits. Now we`re working on helping those fruits lead to the tree of life, and helping the investigators accept baptism.

I love you all!! Thanks for all of the emails, support, and prayers. I really have felt like I`ve been walking in the clouds this week, it`s been amazing. 

Love you! Have a great week!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission