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