Pics Week 46

A street I walk normally

Choir Practice

A train we missed 

Cut with a potato peeler

An investigator

Power out again

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 24: Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful time this holiday season!

Wow! it was just last Tuesday that my companion and I arrived on time in the train station and couldn´t get to our zone conference until 20 minutes late becuase we had no idea where it was and no one was answering their phones becuause they´d already put them in silent and we had to wait until the elders that arrived late showed up. It feels like it happened two weeks ago. :S

Zone conference was amazing!! One elder shared that we are literally living the dreams of the prophets. They saw our days and were so happy with how the church was growing.

After the conference a couple of sisters had a lot of stuff (book of mormons, pamphlets, etc) to bring back in their two hour journey, so they stayed the night in our pension, and the pensioneros (elders that organize everything in the pensions, rent, furniture, todo) picked them up the next morning with their things. That morning was the birthday for one of them and so we had a little celebration for her with balloons and presents. 

That day (wednesday) we had a lesson with Mimi about praying, reading, and going to church and it was really good. She still doesn´t really want to be baptized but our lessons are a lot better and she´s a lot more open. We also talked with Hna Olga about the Restoration, and then had a last minute rehearsal with the stake choir. 

They had their performance yesterday and the missionaries joined them for the last song- Joy to the World. I also joined the program playing the violin. In a couple of songs they also had me play the tenor part on the keyboard to amplify the sound. It was crazy and fun!

The performance was amazing! We´re going to get the photos and videos from the two photographers (members of our ward :)) and I´ll send them to you all.

To my embarrassment this week I fell asleep during a ¨lesson¨. :S We´´d found an old investigator and she talked and talked and talked, and it was late afternoon and I was sleepy, and so I fell asleep around 5 times during her conversation. :(. Lesson..... DON´T FALL ASLEEP DURING LESSONS!! :S

But we got a return visit, so she wasn´t offended (or didn´t notice, hopefully :))

Friday we had a lesson with a member that´s super sweet and is raising her neices. She came to the ward dinner that night which started at 8 and ended at 12 (we only stayed an hour), but looked super fun!

Our investigator Maria accepted the Word of Wisdom without any problems, so we´re super happy for her! 

Saturday and Sunday were musical! We practiced again with the stake choir in the morning, ran to lunch, ran from lunch to violin lessons and piano lessons with a less active member and her granddaughter, and ran to the stake center again for the baptisms of the stake. One of which was a member in our ward. She was the last person in her family to accept the gospel, but now they´re all together, and she wants to visit people with us. She´s super sweet, and it´s amazing that she´s had this opportunity.

Then Sunday was church, practice for the ward choir, eat lunch, and practice for the stake choir, and perform for the stake choir. 

It was really the best church production I´ve been in, and in the end people were crying, and Mimi was able to go, and it was all amazing.

Overall, I´m super happy. We have fun plans for Christmas, the highlight of which is going to be..... the apple pie. JK, talking with my family!!!

Famililes are amazingly important, and in the Christmas season we appreciate them even more. Because Christ was born, He was able to perform the atonement. Because He performed the atonement we can be clean from sin. Becuase we are clean we can enter the temples. And becuase we can enter the temples our families can be sealed together forever. 

I love you all and *May your days be merry and bright, and my all your christmases be white*

(we´re going to have a lightening storm here. I guess that´s the closest we´ll get to snow :))

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Week 19: Sorry

I´m sorry for the short emails, the time goes by super fast.

Last Monday we had an AMAZING family home evening with a member family. We had so much fun, and now whenever he sees us, one of the sons always makes a funny face from the games we played. :)

We also almost lost the keys, and spent ten minutes tracing our steps in the streets, only to return and find them three steps outside of the gate :S. But the miracle was that we found them!! :D

On Tuesday we had interviews with President, and it was amazing!!! He told me that when problems come up, we can just forget about them, and move forward. It´s been amazing, because I´ve felt so much more free to love and feel the Spirit as I´ve tried to forget about the things that bug, frustrate or go wrong.

That same day, one of the new members of the ward (who has her mission papers in! :D) went visiting with us, and we found out that some of her friends that went to the MTC were some of my best friends there!! Wow! Small world :).

We also met a sweet elderly couple that are less active, and don´t feel like they have any friends in the ward. 

Lessons from Stake Conf.-- The way to improve is to always be a better friend, especially to those who are new or investigating the church.

Love you all!! More catch up next week, because this week was amazing!!

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

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PICTURES:

Enjoying Mom´s 20$​
​Roses from an investigator​
​One of the coolest flowers I´ve ever seen​
​There´s a hook like thorn inside​
​Mi Compañera!!​
​She made cards for some girls who got baptized​
​Happy Halloween!! (I´m a gypsy)​
​

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Week 14: Pictures and chocolate!

My first real mango** Besides having the texture of a peach, it tasted good​

​Chocolate during intercambios --I can never remember the word in english--​

Can you see what´s wrong with this picture??

Mom's response:

Well, if it is the mango pictures, maybe you forgot you already took a picture and accidentally took another one?  Or maybe it is that you are trying something different, like  a mango :)?   I can't see anything that is deliberately missing or misplaced between the two.

Ummm....the chocolate picture with you and the other sister: what is wrong?  You don't have both of them :)?

The chocolate bars one: the fact that they are uneaten yet?

The first one?  Let's see...you have lovely shoulders and must be overly warm to be displaying them so :).  You lost your hair?  No, it's just pulled back...hmmmm...the crack and leak in the wall behind you (please don't tell me that your house collapsed, although that would be quite the story!

Ummmm....there is definitely not anything wrong with that beautiful smile!  Love you!  Can't wait to hear!

Dad's response:

I can see lots of things wrong with the picture:

One room is pink and the other room is white, but the paint line between the two is not straight. 

There is a hole in the ceiling where the rains gets in.

There are three pack of cigarettes on top of the fridge and you shouldn't be smoking on your mission (or off your mission). 

You have two refrigerators.

Your hair is parted on the wrong side.

One of the fridge magnets is for a company that is no longer in business so the number has been disconnected. 

Week 13: Pictures!!! And "Learning About the Atonement"

Kinotos --the fruit​

 Tip for preparing for a mission-- make a plan of salvation kit and a kit for teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, because if you wait until your mission you don´t really have that much time :D. But I´ve been putting mine together because I realized when Hma Walters left that if Hma Conceicao didn´t have a kit we´d have to teach with out it --and it´s so much more fun**--

This change has been good, because I´ve had to talk more as the person in charge, and this has put me out of my comfort zone. Unfortunatly there are still times when I look ¨lost¨ as my companion puts it, but it´s been a lot better, and I feel more like I´m using my own words in the lessons rather than the words from the book. 

This week I tried to move on from studying the attribute of faith to hope, but faith kept popping up** Naturally, this led to the following set of scriptures: GEn. 14:26-36 ´´JST,  Eph 2:8-9,  James 2:19-26,  1 Peter 1:7-8

Last Friday we had a meeting with Elder Packer from the Area Presidency, and he showed us the video of two people trapped on an escalator. Sometimes, in our missions --or our lives-- we get stuck, but only because we don´t move to change something. 

He also shared something that I thought was cool about Family History. Through family history, the Holy Ghost can testify of the divine nature of the family. That put so much more meanin into what we did when we helped the new member with her family history, and made me want to fill out my ¨Mi Famila¨ booklet. 

This week we were able to contact SO MANY PEOPLE*** We have a lot of new investigators and are working to get the members involved in helping them come on Sunday. 

When we were contacting one of our new investigators, the kids ran in to tell her we were there, and then came out and said ¨She said she´s not home.¨ :D I never thought that would actually happen to me, but it has.

Hma Conceicao is teaching me portuguese along with spanish. They really are similar. I can introduce myself and sing Silent Night :D.

Beautiful scripture--Jacob 6:5-6.

We had an awesome lesson with Elizabeth in the library, and she was able to understand the Plan of Salvation. Next step.. baptism** :D

Guess what happens in Jacob ? People repent, and then go and PREACH THE GOSPEL*** What is it about repentance that relates so closely with sharing the gospel with others? Then I read in Enos --I tried to read it with my friend´s perspective, because it´s her favorite part of the book of mormon, and it was soo cool. After he received a remission of his sins, he prayed that others could receive the same joy, and then he acted on his prayer.

Funny story-- you know how we´re not supposed to greet the men with a kiss? Well there was a man this week, and when we explained this to him and I was shaking his hand, he said ¨Oh, so I´ll just kiss your hand instead.¨ and before I could take my hand away, he bent over and kissed it. :O. We´re still considering whether or not we should go back and teach him :S.

Amazing talk from today-- If Ye Lack Wisdom, with the beautiful teaching that although the internet is amazing --I couldn´t imagine my mission without hearing from my family weekly-- ¨One should not roam through garbage¨. He then quotes the scripture that we should study by faith, and I´d never applied the scripture in that way. When we study by faith we can discern the truths from the falsehoods of this life. 

Have a great week***

Sister Tova S Biesinger

Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission