I'm OLD! I'm UGGGH Like the Crypt Keeper!!!!!!

Hey you people whom I love so DEARLY!

If you can guess what movie that´s from, we´re BFFs. WOW CAN I JUST SAY I FEEL SO LOVED!!???? Ok wow. I´m 22. I also completed 8 months in the mission TODAY! Way to kill two birds with one stone!! I FEEL SO DANG LOVED!

- Ok so this is what went down on my bday. WE HAD A ZONE CONFERENCE! What better could I have asked for!??  But first. I was a good girl and waited until this morning to open presents. I was so touched at the stack of cards I got! Seriously! Made my day, and it was more than I could have ever asked for. Just about cried, thanks. I got some sweet cards from my companion and from my companions de pension.(**apartment). THEN we left for zone conference. I got to see Hna Israelsen, Linco and Leguizamón and got some birthday wishes from them and a bunch of hugs. Mom, NO I did not wear the "Birthday Girl" badge to conference, because you know me and attention.... but it didn´t make any difference because I got a whole bunch anyway!! Right after lunch, we were all chatting and waiting for the conference to start back up again. I was up front, chatting with some Hermanas, when presidente was like "Attention! We have an Hermana here...." and that's when I was like "Shoot!!!!" and tried to sneak away, but I got trapped........ "...that has a birthday today!!!" And then the two zones sang happy birthday to me, or rather, "Se lo cumpla feliz", complete with clapping. I almost DIED of embarrassment!! But, I did feel loved. Now, I´m all spiritually uplifted and edified and I´ve got some ganas(motivation) to get out and teach some people!

- Zone conference was AMAZING!! We learned more ways how to better ourselves as missionaries through planning better, and having more desires to work. Sometimes it´s hard to have desire when you get so many rejections, especially when you leave the house thinking, "well, here we go. Let´´s get some more rejections."  BUT I've been trying to be better. I'm trying to leave the house with more faith, and a vision for miracles. Our area is TINY TINY TINY, and I feel like all these people have already had their chance. But there is always that ONE person that you haven't talked to. One person who is ready. ALL you have to do is LOOK. All you have to do is have faith that God will put them in your path. That's why it´s important to talk to EVERYONE! Experience time. So on Thursday, we combed our area book, praying about old investigators. We felt good about 3-4 in every sector of our area. Friday and Saturday, we passed by the majority and eliminated a few, and than the rest, we couldn´t find. I was struggling with the lack of success we've seen here in Villa Mitre II. On Saturday, I read through my letter book of all the letters y´all wrote me before the mission (I didn't read ahead mom, don´t worry :-)). Then I prayed more fervently than I ever have before. I prayed for strength, for courage, and the faith to see miracles. Then I wiped the tears off my face and we headed to work. Nothing happened on Saturday, but the miracles came on Sunday. We went to look for an investigator at church and guess what? She didn´t answer. So we trudged up our dusty hill ( I swear, it is SO DUSTY HERE! It´s ridiculous. It´s like sand in some areas) and made it to church. That´s when the miracles happened. Luis, our investigator, came with his girlfriend who is menos activo. THEY STAYED THE WHOLE TIME! He needs to get divorced and they need to get married, but there is progression. Hernan, a menos activo and x missionary came too!! We've passed by there two times, and he came to church, after about a year of inactivity. WOOO! Miracles. Then. That night, we passed by another x investigator, one that was on our "feel good list" and she was there! SHE IS A MEMBER WITHOUT KNOWING IT! Her name is Paula. She had investigated a little bit with her husband before he died. She LOVES the Book of Mormon and still reads it. She goes to a evangelica church and her pastor was giving her beef about the LDM,(Book of Mormon) and she said, "If you would just READ it you'd find out that it's true, and that it's similar to the Bible. I understand the Bible better because of the Book of Mormon. And I was like "IS THIS REAL LIFE????" She said, "I've seen you chicas walking by my house and I wondered, why haven't they stopped by me yet? Just before you came, I was praying. I told God I felt alone, and that I needed someone or something. I looked out the window and I saw you." And she pointed to me. "I thought you came alone because I only saw your head over my fence, but then I saw this bajita (short one)  with you when I came outside". This woman already has such a strong testimony of the LDM. She knows what we teach is true. She´s just afraid to leave her church, and I know that her pastor is going to hound her. SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray SO HARD for Paula. That her pastor will leave her alone and will not influence her decision. I cannot believe this miracle. I am sitting here, full of love and the Spirit, grateful that God has blessed me with this miracle. I know that the Lord will put us right where we need to be. I know that if we are worthy of His Spirit, He will guide us to where we need to be.

-We almost got eaten by two dogs this week. Freakin perros. (**dogs)

Shoutouts: TO ALL OF YOU WHO SENT ME BDAY CARDS!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I felt so much love today (and a little trunkiness) BUT THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! Flip, I have the best family and friends IN THE WORLD. Ty Ty, Corb and Steven... WHEN DID YOU BECOME MEN??! Ha! I love you guys! Grandpa and Grandma Squire thank you for the card and such! Wow, I can´t thank every SINGLE one of you but I WISH I could!  THANK YOU! Venice, Haddy, Paige, Kris... your pics are gorgeous. You're all tan and such! Tyler W. Standifird!!!! Bout time you wrote me you goober. I expect better from YOU these next few months!! Peterson family! Thank you for the package! HAVEN'T OPENED IT YET!! Grandpa Serna, Muchisimas gracias! Tio Hector & Alice, Thank you! Grandma Hobson- I have become the popular sister missionary here through your cookies. Just look at the picture below. Elders offer me FAVORS in exchange for your cookies. When I brought them to the office last week, Elder Costanzi (glasses in front) looked like a kid on Christmas day. They took this picture and it is now the desktop of Elder Costanzi´s computer. Thanks for making me extra popular! EVERYONE!!!!!!! WOW!!!! Thank you for EVERYTHING. Thank you for loving me so much!!! I love you allllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!  Work hard, and pray harder!

Hermana 22-year-old Squire

FOTOS:

1. Bday decor. Thanks mom!

2. I´m twenty twooooo.... and my hair has never been so blondeeee

3. Hna Vawdrey and I... with our cool party favors!

4. MY CARDS! THANK YOU EVERYONE!!

5. Office elders and their cookies. Almost cried laughing.

Still lost...........

Hey you crazy people,

How's it going? I can't believe school starts sooooooo soon. Have fun with THAT!

-Well, another week has come and gone and I'm just sitting here like "whaaat??"  I'm sitting here in this dark game den... because our normal spot is closed for another holiday. Flippen Argentines. Always celebrating something. ANYWAY. I usually am a lot more prepared with a list of things to write and a spiritual thought and such, but it's just been another crazy week. We still feel pretty lost still and we're still trying to get to know our area. 

- There are like 3 widows in the ward who are just SO excited to have Hermanas. The Elders can't come eat with them, and they are just so lonely. I feel so bad! We try and go visit them and stuff but they sure can talk your ear off. They just need someone to talk to! But for the most part, the members here are great! There's a lot of gossip and talking bad about the leaders. That upsets me. They don't have super great ward attendance, but at least they have enough to have teachers and such. No teaching for me this transfer! There is the CUTEST lady in the ward whose name is Rosa, she's a little bit menos activo,(**less active) but SO SWEET! She comes to my elbow and has no teeth. I love her! We had lunch with the chorister, who has purple hair, and I found cat hair in my jello... yup.

-Ok, with lunches. We have lunches scheduled EVERY FREAKING DAY. My word. We had to say no for Mondays (pday) and Thurs (planning) but there is like fights for lunches, because there are four of us. It even got a little heated in Relief Society and I got super uncomfortable! They think they need to make this huge feast, but really, the Hermanas don't eat as much as the Elders!! I've been better at just saying "I can't eat that much," and even if they are offended I'm just like "listen. I don't want to blow up like a balloon here!! The Elders can take care of that.!!"..goodness... they each had 3 plates on Sunday!! Crazies!! We had lunch with the former bishop and his family and it was my FAVORITE!!!  So delicious and they were so funny. Way sarcastic and just fun to be with. They had asked about the weird foods we had eaten and asked if we'd had cow head yet... with the brains and eyes and everything. Ummm YUCK!! No! Hopefully that NEVER happens!! Then they said that cow testicles are pretty common to eat. UM WHAT!?? NO WAY JOSE!!! ALL of our faces were like "uhhhhh." Then they went off on cow testicles are tasty and I was dying of laughter AND embarrassment. Real nice conversation for Elders and Hermanas, eh? NOT!

- So Saturday we had a mission conference and Elder Viñas of the Quorum of 70 came. We all thought it would be a bajar de caña on our hineys, (lower the cane-or chastisement) cuz that is what mostly happens when General Authorities come. But it was actually so great!!! He gave us some great council and he left one hour for answering questions. Every question he went to the scriptures. One day I hope to be like that! He was so great!! I also LOVE LOVE LOVE being with other missionaries!! It's such a strength to me. I even got to see Hna Linco! LOVE HER! (mom she says thanks for her lotion and things). Conferences always get me pumped up for missionary work!!!!!

- Yesterday, we were walking to find our investigator, Rosalia to bring her to church. I had brought my umbrella because it's been raining for the past 3 days. Lo and behold it was warm that day. So I had my umbrella and I was like "why the heck did I bring this?" Right as I said that, 4, yes FOUR dogs came running after us and Hna Israelsen shouted "USE IT!!!"  And so I started swinging!!!! We escaped! Dumb dogs. They are so much worse here!!!  And Rosalia... she's 78 I think and just a spit fire!!  SO CUTE! She comes to my shoulder and weighs like 80 pounds. She didn't make it to church, and she might move to the campo to work. PRAY THAT SHE WONT SO SHE CAN GET BAPTIZED!!

- Rain is the WORST to do missionary work. You'd think people would be like "poor things, come inside." BUT NO. It's just another excuse. They say, "come back when it's not raining!" UM WHAT DOES IT MATTER TO YOU! YOU'RE INSIDE! LET US IN YOUR HOUSE SO WE CAN HELP YOU ACHIEVE ETERNAL LIFE! Sheesh. So we just walk around all day and get wet! And I swear cars think it's funny to spray us with water!! So I just give em the thumbs up when it happens! Yep, thanks so much!  Not like we weren't soaked anyway right?? 

Villa Mitre is ok... not as receptive as Pringles. People are pretty much hard as rocks. We have to count a lot on the members to get us references and help us get into houses. I'm pretty tired of people waggling their fingers at me and talking to me from their windows. But what can ya do. You just keep going, and keep looking for the elect. The ones who are ready to change.

 Mom, don't freak out. We're safe. We only work in the semi sketchy places during the day, and the nicer barrios at night. The Elders take the sketchy villas and work there. Every area has its dangers. PRAY WE'LL START SEEING SOME SUCCESS. We're looking hard for the Lord's elect.

-Shoutouts! TAY AND KRIS! Got your dearelders! Love ya! KELS! I got your letter. I flippen DIED at your news bit! Haha didn't see that coming!!! HADDY! AHHH I loved your dearelder. MISS YOU! Have a great week everyone! Work hard and pray harder!!

Con carino,

Hermana Squire

Padres, Vaughan is from S. Carolina and we're gonna be BFFs. She might come home early for her foot. Pray for her. DAD YOUR MUSTANG!!!! SO COOL!!!! Don't worry about me. Doing well.  

love yah. still tracking miles, 200 last transfer... 

Transfers and I Almost Got Eaten By A Dog!

Hola Todos!

Well, my first transfer in the field is now over. It went SO FAST! What in the world? I will be staying here in Pringles. In fact, all of my district will be staying, so we're happy about that! We've got some promising investigators and we are ready to work hard to get baptisms this transfer.

- Belén- This girl is the DIEZ!(10) She's the girlfriend of a menos activo and we found her last Sunday. We've already taught her the first 3 lessons! She's 17, and OH MY GOSH! She is the best!! She reads everything we give her, highlights passages in the Book of Mormon, AND does the additional studies in the back of the folletos (pamphlets) that we leave her! She remembers what she's read and everything! Sometimes Hermana Israelsen and I are like...Is this girl for REAL?! Get this, I asked her if she knew Jose Smith was a prophet. AND YOU KNOW WHAT SHE SAID? Well, yeah. There?s no way he could have written this book without the help of God. He's like Moses, right? AHHHH! Pray hard for her!! I really want to see her baptized!
- We are concentrating more on the menos activos in the branch than before. We really need strong members who can have callings and help us with our investigators. Presidente Wilt told us yesterday he really wants us to work with the menos activos, so he can lift the load of teaching all of the classes off our shoulders. We are really trying to strengthen these menos activos and get them back to church. There are SO MANY that have great potential.
- I ate cornmeal mush/crap again this week. I need to teach them how to make cornbread.
- Ok, so I read another talk by Elder Christoffersen this week. I LOVE THIS MAN! It?s called "As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten". SO AMAZING. Here's what I learned: We will be judged for our works on this earth, but what we've DONE isn't as important as what we've BECOME.  We should willingly accept and even seek for corrections. Just think: God considers us worth the time and trouble to correct. Divine chastening has 3 purposes 1) to persuade us to repent 2) Define and sanctify us- to prepare us for greater spiritual privileges and 3) at times to redirect our course in life to what God knows is a better path. He then shared a story about the Currant bush. GO READ IT. May we always say "Thank you Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down".
- So, I almost got eaten by 3 dogs. I thought this only happened to Elders, but I WAS WRONG. So we were looking for a menos activo family and were clapping at this gate (we clap here, we don't knock if there's a gate) and these 3 HUGE dogs come running out from behind the house. Usually, dogs just bark at us and leave us alone. But they came up and were jumping on us and one was tugging at my skirt with his teeth! I have 2 huge tears now! At least it wasn't my flesh...Well, we started running, but Hna Israelsen turned around and swung her Book of Mormon like a bat and knocked one over the head. They ran away after that! It's a good thing she had her LDM (Libro de Mormon) in a hard case! It would have been death by dog for the both of us! We were pretty shaky after that. Dumb dogs.
-We are actually on a shortage of LDM in the mission. They are on back order! It's hard to have someone pray about the LDM if they don't have one, haha. Pray that we get some Libros de Mormón, soon!
- We had a lesson with Enrique and Julieta and they asked me to pray in English. I COULDN'T DO IT! I haven't prayed in English in 3 months! It was like trying to speak a new language all over again. "les bendigas... erm please bless" haha, so embarrassing.
- Earlier this week, it was raining SO HARD! We seriously looked like we decided to shower in our clothes. So we came to a curb and there was practically a river running next to it, so I was doing this awkward shuffle, trying to figure out the best way to jump across (who knows why, I was soaked anyway), when I stepped on something and almost fell. I looked down, and what was it? A diaper? No. A DEAD, BLOODY, DECAPITATED PIGEON. A PIGEON!  I started yelling PIGEON! I STEPPED ON A PIGEON! Like some weirdo and ran off the sidewalk. Couldn't stop laughing after that.
Shoutouts: HADDY MAE JARVIS- you are a DANG BABE in your engagement pictures. I love you. I read your letter and I laughed so hard about the Ryan Reynold's picture (I'M BUSY!). Happy Bday on the 20th! I miss you and a letter is on the way!! Congratulations to Sean Johnson on getting set apart as an Elder! Proud of you, buddy. Dave and Anna- BABY BUMP! Oh my gosh! I can't wait to see pictures of baby girl Dunn! Got any names picked out? Hey mamas! I hope you all had a fabulous Mother's Day :)

I'm so dang happy here in Argentina. THESE ARE MY PEOPLE! I LOVE THEM! Sometimes I want to bop them on the head for saying they'll come to church, then they don't, but I STILL LOVE THEM! Being a missionary is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. THE BEST, I TELL YA! I hope all of you are well and enjoying spring. I love ya!

Hermana Squire

Padres,
LOVED TALKING TO YOU YESTERDAY! AHHH best ever. I had a perma-smile for the rest of the night. So: we walked 280 miles this transfer. WOW!!! My shoes are holding up. Dirty, but still working.  LOVE YA!