One of Those Weeks....

Hello everybody!

Ok, this letter is going to lack its usual perkiness because to be honest, this week was just very, very difficult. Every missionary has them and wahhh.... I'm struggling a little bit. This week was just SO CRAZY. I've never had a crazier week in my life. My heart has been broken one too many times this week! Darn Argentines. Love em too much. I've almost broken down crying a few times, it's just been a little much. Now, don't feel bad for me or anything, just know every missionary has these kinds of weeks. Also, don't think that I'm some dramatic sister missionary that cries when things go wrong. I'M NOT! I'm usually pretty positive, but it was just a rough week.

- I'm staying in Pringles for now with Hna Israelsen... but we might be changing things around in the week to come.

- Let's start with Friday. Our zone leaders came to Pringles to talk with Pedro. The thing is, Pedro told us that he has depression now. He's been having bad thoughts about his past and is now on some pill trial to help him. He wants to wait until October when he finishes this pill trial to be baptized. We spent an hour and a half with him, sharing sciptures and testimonies, promising blessings, but he still wants to wait. Heart. Broken. I feel so sad for him. Keep him in you prayers and pray that he will be protected. PLEASE.

- (Mom, you might want to sensor this or take it out for the little ones, or THOSE OF YOU WHO READ MY EMAILS TO YOUR CHILDREN*****READ IT FIRST & YOU DECIDE) After we left Pedro's house, we heard a crash on the main blvd. It's pretty common here because NO ONE follows the traffic rules and I have only seen one stop sign here in Pringles, NO JOKE. ONE. The Elders were walking in front of us, and then they took off running. So I'm like, oh crap, then I start running. A guy had gotten hit by a car on his MOTORBIKE (Dad, PLEASE be careful on the Harley. I'm freaked out now!!!). The Elders ran over to take the bike off the top of this guy. No one was doing anything, just gathering around (of course school had just gotten out), so I run over there and kneel next to this guy and he's cussing and trying to get up. But, his leg is just thrashed. His ankle was cut wide open... I could see (for you anatomy nerds) his talus and his lateral malleolus was SHATTERED. Yes, I could SEE it. One of the Elders was closer to his leg and said his bones were exposed in his calf and he just had TONS of glass in his leg. He kept fighting to get up and we're like NO! Your LEG IS BROKEN! LAY DOWN! But he pushed us away and GOT UP AND STARTED WALKING! He tried to get on his bike, and drive away!!! (I can imagine Adrienne right now... You're covering your mouth with your hand aren't you?) Luckily the ambulance came and took him away, leaving us shaken and our ZL with blood on his hands. WHAT THE CRAZY??!!!

- This week, our numbers were just so bad. The worst of my whole mission. I don't know what's going on, but Hna Israelsen and I were talking and we just feel like failures. This is one of the reasons why the week was so bad.I felt like I had let the Lord down and wasted His time. We were wondering why we weren't having success, what MORE could we do in Pringles, when we felt like we've done everything to get menos activos (*less actives) back and they aren't progressing, and WHY the 80 percent of the conversos (*converts) of the last 6 months have NOT been coming to church... Then I read a talk by Elder Holland that explains Missionary work TO A "T"! Here it is: "I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary...I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price."  Then THIS is my favorite part, that has given me SO MUCH comfort, especially this week. "The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Yes. No matter what happens, no matter how sad I feel, or how I feel like I'm experiencing moments of Gethsemane right now, or how many times I get rejected, I am standing with the best life this world has ever known... I am standing with the Savior and Redeemer of us all... whose name I wear on my chest. 

- Let's get happy now, shall we?

- So we had to go to Bahía from Saturday to Sunday, and we attended church in Villa Floresta with the Hermanas. WE WERE IN A WARD. A real live ward! I didn't have to teach a class, give a talk, NOTHING. Is it bad that I liked the break?? 

- So the Olympics are playing EVERYWHERE. TEMPTATIONS!!! Some guy was talking to us and he kept saying, "That Pellps guy can swim" and i was like who the heck is Pellps?? Finally it clicked. PHELPS! Jaja, ph=f sound doesn´t exist here. 

- OK ARIEL! I LOVE THIS KID! I've never had such strong desires to hug a 15 year old! He learns so quickly, is so intelligent, and WAH! So great! We asked him to pray and he said "Thank you for this opportunity I have to learn about your church. I ask that other kids can have this opportunity as well". Wish I could give him a squeeze, SERIOUSLY.

Shoutouts! KELS! HE'S HOME!!! YAHOOO!!!. TAY. Jimmer and JT I DIED LAUGHING!!!! Have fun in DC for me! I love yah! HUGO! Congratulations! You are a TEACHER! Never take for granted the Holy Priesthood that you hold. It is a divine gift and responsibility. HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK JULINA!!!! Everyone. I love yah!!! Sorry I'm so dang morose today. I'm still happy to be a missionary. I still love life. I still love serving the Lord. 

LOVE YA,
Hermana SQUIRE

Padres:

LOVE YA: WATCH SOME OLYMPICS FOR ME. 

PS. A guy showed us pics of his travels to Lima and his hike to MACHU PICHU. LET'S DO ITTTTT! PLEASE!!!!! POR FAVOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ding Dong, the Fleas are Dead.......

QUERIDOS!!

Whaaaatttttssss up!! Here we are, at the end of July.... and I'm going to hit my SIX MONTH MARK THIS WEEK!!! What the crazy! Andddd.... I haven't gotten a flea bite in a week. I think the cold killed them, that or they're tired of my gringa blood. What's next? Lice???? It's quite popular among the missionaries. EEKKK. I think I'd rather have fleas. I KNOW I'd rather have fleas!!

-This week was so windy and cold! It was definitely a dirt in the mouth, nose, ears, eyes, EVERYWHERE kind of week. BLAH. It is also the end of the transfer. I´m pretty sure Hnas Israelsen and Leguizamón are going to leave, but I don´t know what´s going to happen to me. It´s kinda whatever the Lord wants, you know? Y adonde me manda, iré. (**Where he sends me, I will go**) I want to stay for 2 reasons. One´s named Pedro, the other Ariel. Pedro didn´t come to church yesterday, we´re thinking it´s because his daughter was in town, SO he wont get baptized this Saturday. We had a lesson with him tuesday, and he said he thought that our church and the catholic church were the true churches. It was one of those smack-your-head-on-the-table-and-say-NOOOOOOO moments. BUT THEN. We came back and taught the restoration again, and watched the movie. He said he knew that THIS CHURCH was the true church! WOO! Ok Ariel- AH-Ree-Ehl. He´s 15 and a friend of one of the YW in the rama. He came to church yesterday, was super attentive, and even sang the hymns! We met with him after and he asked us how to pray and a bunch of really great questions. We invited him to get baptized and he said yes! This kid is CAPO. Pray for him.

- TONS of funny things happened this week. Like really. Let´s go though them all, shall we? 
      -So I ordered new name tags right when I got here and they FINALLY showed up. And what do they say? "Hermana Esquire". I almost wet my pants laughing, no joke!!!! I'll send one home and ya'll can have a good laugh!!

      - I got clothes lined by a clothes line. It was my "I'm tall" moment. I didn't see it at all and it whacked me right on the forehead!! I had a nice red mark after that!!!

     - A car passed us the other day blasting Whitney Houston. We all looked at each other and without saying anything, burst out singing: ANNNND IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIeeeeIIIIIIIIIIIII WILLL ALWAYS LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUooooooO! jaja.

  
     - So we were kinda cold this week so to keep ourselves warm and entertained, especially at night, we tried to remember the "Remember the Titans" dance and we were singing and dancing in the streets to EVERYWHERE WE GO, PEOPLE WANNA KNOW, WHO WE ARE, SO WE TELL THEM. WE ARE THE MORMONS! THE MIGHTY MIGHTY MORMONS! Complete with the "whoo haa, feel good"s. Sometimes I´m surprised at how dorky I am. 

     - We had a Noche de Hogar in the rama on reverence. We even got some jóvenes to model church clothes....it's a problem here that people don't come properly dressed. Then one of the jovenes started playing Chariots of Fire and Presidente and his councilers came in slow motion modeling their clothes. It was so funny. I love it here!!!

- AMANDA! I´m really seeing the fruits of my labors from this woman. She wants to come with us to lessons, she is excited and willing to be a visiting teacher, and her testimony is so strong. She has no problem telling her friends and family she knows the church is true and it has changed her life. I really am going to miss her. Even her husband said he doesn´t know what she´ll do when we leave, she´s become so attached to us. LOVE IT! LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. Pray her family will one day accept the gospel.

- SO. I have something to say. It might be a bajar de caña for some people (drop the cane), but I´ve been thinking aobut this a lot, especially with all the menos activos we´ve been seeing around here.  It´s about being offended and leaving the church because of it. Go read Pres Uchtdorf´s talk "The Merciful Will Obtain Mercy". Being offended and holding that grudge is like taking that initial "hit from the hammer" from the "offender" and hitting yourself over the head with it over and over and over. Is your testimony not strong enough so that one unkind word will cause you to deny what you know and leave the church? Sometimes I think... How old are we here! When it comes to being offended, holding grudges, looking to harm others... apply Pres Uchtdorf´s 2 word sermon: "STOP IT". Really. It´s that easy. People are not perfect. The gospel is. Do not expect to receive forgiveness if you yourself cannot forgive. Heaven will be filled with those who are forgiven. And those that forgive. I´ve seen this happening WAY too often in Pringles. And I think, really? You are going to deny yourself these blessings because someone offended you? Remember this scripture 2 Nephi 31:14  "But, behold, my beloved brethren, thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: After ye have repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should ^adeny me, it would have been ^bbetter for you that ye had not known me." When you deny what you know... It would be better if you hadn´t known Christ at all. WAHPUH! That is my bajar de caña noise. I hope you weren't offended by this! IF you were, then you totally missed the point of my little rant. Prophets have said this, apostles, the scriptures. Like my dear brother, Brandon would say "Cry me a river, and build yourself a bridge and GET OVER IT." This is all meant with love. The Savior will always be waiting for you to come back with open arms. It is never too late. He is waiting, saying "Come in, come follow me." He is the way, the only way. Remember, all of this was meant with love.

-Shoutouts: Julie- THANK YOU FOR THE GORGEOUS PIC OF EMILY!!! Ahhh she is a doll!! Could you print an extra for me and give it to my mom to send? Please?!! Tori Rydalch!!! Thank you for your sweet letter! It made my day! Thank you for your testimony! Hno Larsen! Thank you for the letter, I just got it on Friday! I´ll be sending you one hopefully this week. TYLER JAMES MADSEN. Bout time you wrote me!! I will be sending you a letter soon too! Mom, thanks for all the wedding invitations... EVERYONE!! STOP GETTING MARRIED WITHOUT ME THERE! Sheesh. Nah, jk, go find your eternal mate and be happy! Just know I¨ll be sad I wasn´t there. :-(  Serna CREW! Thanks for the letters! I love my little missionaries Leah, Joshua, Matthew and Rebecca!! Tio Hector, thank you for the email, You and tia alice are in my prayers. JENNY RUFF! I was so happy to hear from you!! Thank you!! Adrienne! Thanks for the email! ANNA! Thank you for writing. ONE MONTH (maybe less) for BABY DUNN!! Aunt Lori! Give Trevor a giant Cyd squeeze! Tell him I love him and SEE YA NEXT YEAR!

-ALL you people! I love you dearly! I hope all is well!


Hermana "Esquire" :-)

Padres, 
SEND ME SOME OLYMPICS IMAGES! Maybe tape a few events! Ahhh I love the Olympics! AND LONDON!! MOM WITH RODNEY ATKINS!! Of course!! You´re you! Kinda like me at the HP premiere. I know where i get it from!!!!! Before i forget, there are about 200 missionaries here, about 30 sisters. I think. Mom, I would like the song "Savior Redeemer of my Soul" that´s on the essencial missionary collection. ANd i would like Ginger to sing that at my homecoming. Trunky moment. But it´s my favorite. See if she´d be willing. also another church song... it says something like "the morning breaks, the shadows flee, come see the light....." I´d love the May 2009 Ensign if we have it. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

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

The Week Where I ate a bunch of Weird Crap!

Querida Familia y Amigos!

¿Que tal? I hope life is going well for ya'll and that you're having a great summer. Meanwhile, you can think of me in Argentina, wearing way too many clothes and freezing my tush off. Where to start?
- This week was super cold and snotty. Yup, snotty. I've had a cold the past week and felt pretty miserable doing missionary work when it's 30 degrees outside... but I'm all better now!

- On Tuesday we went to Bahia to work some stuff out for my visa. We came back to the office to pick up mail and packages, but the Elders told us that their wasn't anything for us, so we left... but our DL(district leader) said we DID have stuff, so we ran back!! Lo and behold, 2 letters, 2 dearelders and a package from home. No letters eh, Elders?? What??? Sometimes I wonder if some of the Elders use their brains... ANYWAY we practically ran into the office before we would miss our collectivo(bus) and whom did we meet? Presidente Parreño! He is the NICEST MAN EVER! I'm so excited to be serving with him. He even told us we were the first Hermanas he'd met! What a privilege! 

- Those fires in Utah must be pretty big because Belén told us she heard about them on the news! In ARGENTINA! Hope everything is okay now, I've been praying.

- Ok so the weird things I ate... we had some stew that had vizcacha in it. What is vizcacha, you ask? Well, I just googled it. It's like half squirrel and half rabbit. EWWWW. It was gross! Then we ate cow stomach lining. I've had it before... but this time it had the cilia on it still. SO RUBBERY SO GROSS. Then! A member served us some chamomile tea, and what was in mine? A BUG! I just sighed, took it out, and drank it. I just don't care anymore. Also, some bug has been having a jolly good time chillin in my bed with me and eating me alive at night. I've washed my sheets and everything, but we think it's in the wool blankets we have. We are gonna go buy some stuff to kill the suckers tomorrow! What a week right? Snot, bug bites... quite glamorous!!

- LA OBRA! Ok, so I don't have much time left, but I want to tell you all really quick about Pedro. We found him on Saturday, and he agreed to be baptized. He's had some pretty terrible things happen to him, but his faith in Jesus Christ is SO STRONG. We invited him to church the next day, and HE CAME........ALONE! This never happens! AND HE STAYED ALL THREE HOURS! This also never happens the first time. He is such a great man! I'm super excited to work with him. Keep him in your prayers!

- We´ve been sharing a scripture with menos activos lately that´s in 2 Nephi 26: 24-28 

 24 He doeth not ^aanything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he ^bloveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw ^call men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation. 25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: ^aCome unto me all ye ^bends of the earth, ^cbuy milk and honey, without money and without price.26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should ^adepart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. 27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his ^asalvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath ^bgiven it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to ^crepentance. 28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but ^aall men are privileged the one ^blike unto the other, and none are forbidden.

I LOVE IT! The atonement of Christ is FOR EVERYONE! Not for a selective few. WE ALL have this great opportunity to be cleansed from our sins and to change. Christ suffered for us all in Gethsemane, rich, poor, sinners, EVERYONE. 

-SHOUTOUTS: Hiatt fam! Thanks for the email! TAHNEE OWENS! I forgot to wish you a Happy Birthday last week! I need to write you soon! Love ya! Kris and Paige! Got your dearelders! LOVE YA. EVERYONE! I love you all. I wish I had more time to write. HAVE A GREAT WEEK!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY JOSHUA SERNA!

Hermana Squire