The Story of Toms

Hey all you tan summer people!

Don't even worry about me... I'm just white as a ghost... with fleas. Whatever. HOW'S IT GOIN YOU CRAZY PARTY ANIMALS?? Things are super great here in Pringles... but things are always super great when you're a missionary.

- Look at your toms. Now back at me. Now BACK at your toms. NOW BACK AT ME! See the logo on the back? Cool stripes right? WRONG. That, my friends, is the Argentine FLAG. Did you know they are made here? But here they're called alporgatas or something. EVERYONE HAS THEM. Know why? Cuz they're like 16-20 pesos. Know how much that is in US dollars? 4-6ish. WOOP! Have fun with your one pair of toms because I'm going to by ten pairs for the price of one... heck, I'll buy a lifetime supply I think. 

- SO! You are now looking at a member of the YW presidency in the rama(**branch) Coronel Pringles. YUP! The missionaries are now in charge of the YW and I AM STOKED! We're planning mutuals and lessons and everything! Antes,(**before) the YW were in with the RS. Now we get to really focus on our youth! I'm so excited. I love las mujeres jóvenes.(**the Young Women)  If ya'll have ideas for mutuals and lessons... LET ME KNOW! 

- We had the best lesson last night. We were doing the survey method ( IT IS THE BEST). We were teaching these three girls and one had her 8 year old brother, Octavio there. We asked them what the purpose of life is and he said "To obey God's commandments" We asked how he knew and he said "I don't know, I just feel it." SO CUTE. We ended up teaching the entire plan of salvation and then taught them how to pray. Then we asked if they thought it was true. Octavio said, "I do". How do you know? "I just prayed like you told me and God said yes". I LOVE CHILDREN! They just get life.  We'll see how it goes.

- Pedro is as awesome as ever. He is quititng the wine and is counting down the days to his baptism. 

- Santiago: This kid is super cool. He's 16 and is coming to seminary with one of the members, Alejandro (WHO IS SUPER GREAT). He's having a rough time getting up for church. Pray that he can get up in time and also that he can have the strength to cumplir (I really cant think of the english word for that right now)(**cumplir-fulfill or keep) the word of wisdom.

- So we were on our morning jog and I saw this creature thing that looked like a cat. But it wasn't!!! I was yelling THAT IS NOT A CAT!!! Over and over so we had to stop and look at it! It was backed into a porch and Hna Leguizamon said it was a vizcacha!!!! AHHH! It was so ugly! Like a possom/kangaroo/rabbit. I can't believe I ate that. It then hissed at us and we screamed and ran away!! Cool story.

- So Ive perfected "the newborn baby cry". (Mom and Kels you'd be proud) You know how ALL elders learn that stupid snap thing with their fingers? I learned a baby cry and I REALLY freaked out our district leader. HILARIOUS:

- So I've been studying about grace lately. I read about it in a talk by Brad Wilcox, "HIs Grace is sufficient" (GO READ IT) I don´t really think that I got it before. I always thought that there was a graph thing. We do our part up to a line, then the Grace of Christ fills in the rest. But in reality, grace covers EVERYTHING. There is no line. There is no, "I'll do my part and Christ will do the rest". Elder Bruce Hafen said "The Savior's gift of grace to us is not necessarily limited in time to "after" all we can do. We may receive his grace before, during and after the time when we expend our own efforts". Wilcox then says, "So grace is not a booster engine that kicks in once our fuel supply is exhausted. Rather, it is our constant energy source. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light that moves us through the tunnel. Grace is not achieved somewhere down the road. It is received right here and right now. It is not a finishing touch; it is the Finisher's touch." We are not only SAVED by grace, but we are CHANGED by grace. Thanks to the atonement, we have to opportunity to live more abundantly, be transformed, and we not only can return home, but we can FEEL AT HOME there. Because no unclean thing can dwell with God, but no UNCHANGED thing will even want to be there. My mind is like WOWOWOWOWOWOW right now. It kinda hurts. ;-)

-If anyone wants to pitch in money for a flea collar, contact mama squire. (JK DON´T do that.... but It´d be hilarious)

Shoutouts: TAYYY! I can't believe you're off to DC! Good luck! Send me pics! DEVON!!! LIMA PERU!!! AHHHHHH!!! That is flippin AWESOME! We can be Spanish speaking buddies! Kris... WOW YOU ARE TAN! STOP IT. Venice- my mom sent me the pic of you at my house. YOU ARE GORGEOUS. As usual. MOM! Some lady was watching Larkrise to Candleford in Spanish and I was like HEY! MY MOM LOVES THAT SHOW!! Aw. I miss you. (and dad of course). Hey paige. Love ya. Sandii! Thanks for the email. I´ll read it tonight, and hopefully get another letter sent off to the Hiatt crew. Sis Corbett. THANKS FOR THE DEAR ELDER. I hope you caught that pesky rabbit.  HEY! I´m sorry if I haven´t had time to write you or give you a shout out, but GUESS WHAT! I LOVE YOU ALL: I can´t say it enough. I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU. 

PICS:

Hermana Brown and I....we're matching...so cute...

Bautismo de Amanda
My shoes...que verguenza(how embarrassing)....
So DIRTY!!!!   Don't LOOK!

Hermana Linco.....miss her

ZONE CONFERENCE!!!!!

Hey you summer peeps!

I'm sorry if you had a heart attack yesterday, wondering why I didn't write!!! (mom) We had a ZONE CONFERENCE yesterday and it was the freaking BEST!

- I GOT TO SEE MY HERMANA BROWN! WAHOO! At first I was way worried because her comp is sick and I didn't know if they would come. BUT SHE CAME! I gave her about 18 hugs I think!!! It was the best thing EVER! All I wanted to do was just talk and talk and talk to her. She´s doing so great and her Spanish is getting GOOD! Love you Brown!

- So, even though conference was on pday(*preparation day) it was great!! PRESIDENTE AND HIS WIFE ARE AMAZING!! I love them! Presidente talked about our objective as missionaries. To invite ALL to come unto Christ. Then he talked about our reason for serving missions, because we love our Savior. Do I love my Savior more that sleep? More than my friends? More than my education? More than the comforts of home? Yes. Yes, I do!! That´s why I'm here!! I'm here for me, my future family, the people here in the Bahía Blanca mission, but more importantly, I'm here because I love my Savior and it's one small way to show my gratitude for His sacrifice. Hermana Parreño is THE LOVELIEST woman ever!! Seriously. SO elegant and charasmatic. WOW! She taught us new ways to contact... one being the survey method, where  we knock on doors and tell people we're doing a survey and ask them questions about religion and beliefs. THEN we sneak a brief lesson and try to fijar una cita (**set a date) to come back. There has been A LOT of success with this, so I'm stoked to try it!! Sneaky! A lot more people will let you in. I LOVED CONFERENCE! I also LOVE being with other missionaries. I looked around and thought, "hey, these kids are all doing the same thing I am. They're struggling, they're exhausted and cold. I can do this."

 
- One thing I noticed at conference is that I understood EVERYTHING (even with their crazy Spaniard lisps). The gift of interpretation of tounges has come! I love living in Spanish!

- One thing I DIDN'T like about conference is that they told us we have to turn our malefactor (heater) off at night to lower the risk of CO (*carbon monoxide) poisoning. We think ours is ok because it has a vent thing to the outside, (still need to approve that with the APs**assistants to the President**) but we turned it off last night and it was 50 degrees in our room this morning!!! We left to jog and there seriously was hardly any difference between our house and outside!!!!! BRRRRRR.  Also, we came back to Pringles on THE MOST GHETTO collectivo (**bus). I didn't think we were going to make it!!! I kept hearing weird noises and smelling burnt rubber. THANK GOODNESS WE ARE STILL ALIVE!!!!

- So.... we might have a bit of a flea problem!  "GASP! Oh no! Poor thing! Gross!" That's your reaction right now, right? We went to a members house and I showed her my bites and she said "FLEAS." AHHH! She said, "oh don't worry, it's common. Just spray Raid on your blankets and leave them outside." NO THANKS I DON'T WANT TO BREATHE IN RAID ALL NIGHT!!! SO... that's the situation right now. I HAVE FLEAS. I never ever thought I'd say that!!! Well. I don't PERSONALLY have fleas. Our ROOM does!!!! And they've been biting ME!! THEY TAKE FOREVER TO GO AWAY and when I first get a bite it ITCHES like the dickens!! But I haven't gotten a new one in a few days. Maybe the cold is killing them. I hope you all don't think differently now because I have fleas... I'm still a clean person...!!!!!! I wasn't going to share this but I decided to anyway... know why? BECAUSE I THINK IT'S FREAKING HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!! I'm in Argentina freezing my tush off and I have fleas. HAH!! (**her burst of laughter here!**)

-Ok weird thing we ate this week... cow liver. BLEH!! Had the consistency of cat food. What's next on the menu? Weasel.??? Yup. I'll let you know how it goes. :-)

- Ok, PEDRO- this man is  GREAT!! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and the only thing he does is drink a glass of wine at night. But you know what he said? "Oh that'll be easy to give up!"  WAHHH! PEDRO IS THE BESSSSSST! He's so willing and always wants to do the right thing. 

- SO we have an investigator named Pedro, another named Santiago... and we found a Juan. (Peter, James and John). This is evidence that God has a sense of humor. :-)

- I forgot to mention a funny story last time. When I was sick, I went to the pharmacy to get cough drops to help my throat. They had something in them to make it numb or something. WELL MY TONGUE WENT NUMB TOO! Try speaking Spanish with a tongue that doesn't work!!!

- I've started noticing how 80's everyone is here.  High tops, leggins, leg warmers, side ponytails. It's hilarious! Hello!????  It's 2012! I love my Argentines!!

- Quote time: "God has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man (or woman) in the world." - CS Lewis. Love it! The atonement is SO INDIVIDUAL and SO PERSONALIZED: Christ saw each one of our faces in the Garden of Gethsemane and suffered for us INDIVIDUALLY. 

SHOUTOUTS: DAVID DUNN! Happy birthday my cousin-who's-soon-to-be-a-papa! 

Aunt Jeni, THANKS for the fruit chews! It tastes EXACTLY like cantaloupe!! A little summer for my winter world! 

Wahoo Devon will get his call this week! WOO! My guess is......... Sao Paulo (spell?) Brazil. LET ME KNOW ASAP! 

Amberly! I'm glad my parents got to see ya! I hope things are WELL! Love ya!  

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TYLER AND ASHLEY! Sure love ya!!!

Sorry this email is way scattered. I just have so much to say! 

Everyone: GO read Pres. Faust's talk  "Where Do I Make My Stand." SO GOOD!!!!!! The church is true. If you haven't found that out, I invite you to do so.

 

I LOVE YOU ALL AND HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

HERMANA SQUIRE (who has fleas, NBD) **NBD: no big deal

Pringles Just Got a Lot Bigger

Hey you people!

Ok, I hope you´re all doing well. No time to chat because I'VE GOT LOTS TO TELL. So... let´s get down to the nitty gritty.

1. We had a baptism on Saturday!!! YAHOOOO!
2. I´m in a trio. Still. More on that in a second.

-BAPTISM!!!! YAHOOO! AMANDA GOT BAPTIZED! I know I haven´t said much about her.... whoops, sorry. But, we first met her in April, through Hno Achigar (note future missionaries- THE MEMBERS ARE THE ANSWER!! Gain their trust and they start introducing you to their friends). We dropped her after a bit because she wasn´t progressing. Then we went back at the beginning of June and BAM! Progression. She took a bit to get a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but when she did, she said, "I´m going to get baptized. I need this change for myself. I need to be better. WOOO!!! Besitos, hugs, feeling the spirit... AHH so happy! She was confirmed yesterday!

- Now the trio deal. Hermana Leguizamón's companion never showed! We don't know why, but we called our DL (*District Leader**) and he said they weren't sending anyone else. At first we were like, ¨THIS ISN'T FUNNY,  ELDER! STOP JOKING!¨ But it's the real deal. All of Pringles! For the three of us! Our investigators, menos activos,(*Less active*) conversos recientes,(*recent converts*) and area have doubled! Now we're all in the same room. We have been running all over Pringles! Literally, running at times. We need bikes!! This week has been WAAAY stressful with the baptism, change and everything.  It's a little different, but I've finally got a Latina companion! It's been a little difficult because Hna Israelsen and I move a little faster than Hna Leguizamón. It doesn't help that she comes to my shoulder! She's kind of short! And when I do missionary work, I get my "Disneyland Walk" on. You all know the "disneyland walk". When the park opens and you make a beeline to Space Mountain or Indiana Jones because the lines get long super fast for those two!!! Poor thing just can´t keep up! So I´ve had to slow down a bit. It´s going to be a challenge to get organized, but once we get in the groove of things it should be better. I hope. Pray for us. 

- HERMANA BROWN IS IN DORREGO! Guess what? That is in MY ZONE! My comp has been sick SO WE GOT TO CALL OUR MISSION NURSE! Yahoo! I got to talk to her! I just love her! Hope we have a zone conference soon.

- I ate ostritch this week. It wasn't too bad. At first we were just eating milanesas and Presidente said, "do you know what you´re eating?"  Um, meat? NOPE, OSTRITCH! What!!! Would I eat it again? Probably. :-)

- I´m really just sooo tired. But still happy!! It´s weird.

- I COMPLETED 5 MONTHS IN THE MISSION YESTERDAY! What the crap!?? Who said time could go by so quickly??

- We have a new theme song... it´s "Behold, A royal Army". In the chorus it says "Victory, victory through Jesus Christ our Lord" (I think) but in Spanish it´s "avencer, avencer por Cristo rey Jesus" but instead of that, in the last verse we sing "ENCONTRAR, ENSEÑAR, BAUTIZARRRR!!!! (find, teach, baptize) POR CRISTO REYYYY JESUSSSS!" I LOVE IT!! I hope you all understand this haha. 

-I read a great talk given by Presidente Uchtorf in the Priesthood session 2010 titled "Continue in Patience". IT WAS GREAT! I REALLY need some patience... especially at this time. Two quotes I loved "Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than the receiving that we grow most." And, " Patience is a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for peace". I think in the world today, we could all use a little more patience. Especially when it comes to answers to prayers. We all have to remember that answers and blessings come in the Lord's time and in the Lord's way. And they always come! There's a reason why it's one of the Christlike attibutes in PME. (*Preach My Gospel*)

- SHOUTOUTS: KRISTEN YOU ARE A MARRIED WOMAN! My mom sent me a pic and you looked SO GORGEOUS! And Tay and Paige, you made gorgeous bridesmaids. I miss you three. Aunt LORI!! Thanks for the email. Finally. I don´t have time to read it, but I will print it off! Love ya! 

BENJAMIN SERNA AND JOSHUA SERNA! Happy birthdays! Love you both! 

ADRIENNE! It's about time you sent me an email!! THANK YOU! 

Sandii- I read a talk "Mothers and Daughters"- Russell M Ballard and I thought of you and Izabelle. Read it!

- All right everyone. That's a wrap for this week. Have a great Independence Day... even though it's winter here and Hna Israelsen and I are the only Americans in Pringles, we'll celebrate somehow! I LOVE AMERICA! WOOO! I love you all! Gotta go!

BESITOS! 

Hermana Squire