ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey

Ladies and Gents, this missionary hit her one year mark this past weekend!!!!! ONEEEE YEEEEAAAARRR! Can you believe it? Woo! Well, it wasn't too eventful of a day, but Hna Mansilla and Hna Batista made it special. They dressed up as a 1 and a 2 for 12 months, and put clown noses on. It was super fun!!! 

Pointing to ONE YEAR mark on calendar that my mama made me!

SOOO here's a little list of things that I have learned/done in the 

last 12 months of my mission:

- I have drank a lot of water that I probably shouldn't have

- eaten a lot of food I didn't want to

- eaten MORE than I wanted to

- Have had great companions, and learned to love each one.

- Have had baptisms with each companion, so far

- Gained weight (BOOO!)

- Lost weight (yahoo! now let's stay that way!!!!!!)

- Met amazing people that I consider to be family

- Taught hundreds of lessons

- Talked to strangers in the street

- Entered strangers' homes like it was NBD(no big deal)

- Missed several weddings (booo!!)

- Been chased by a few dogs

- Had my skirt RIPPED by a dog

- Learned a little bit of Spanish

- Knocked on a lot of doors and clapped at a lot of gates

- Received very creative excuses as to why someone can't listen to us

- Got a few rejections... OK, a LOT of rejections

- Felt the Spirit stronger than I ever have before

- Heard words leaving my mouth in grammatically correct sentences with words I didn't even think I knew how to say

- Borne my testimony every day

- Strengthened my testimony about this gospel

- Walked endless miles

- Grown closer to mi Salvador y a mi Padre Celestial (***my Savior and Heavenly Father)

And many more. To repeat what cousin Greg wrote to me in my letter book, this has been the "MOST year" so far in my life. And I am happy, happy, happy!!!!! Even though I'm TIRED. But it's all good.

OK, SO WE HAVE THE BEST INVESTIGATORS! We had ELEVEN PEOPLE IN CHURCH YESTERDAY! Excuse me, are we in Lamanite land?? That does NOT happen, especially in Bahia. And they all came by themselves or with members. WOW! I wish I had time to explain all of them, but I'll give y'all the DL.(down low) 

Suni and Emanuel. This is the third time that Suni has investigated the church. When she read 3Nefi 11, she got emotional because the people didn't hear the voice of the Father until the third time. She felt that this third time is HER time. She has a testimony already and said  "I know I need to join this church". Her husband comes to church with her, but doesn't have a strong testimony. We're working on that. Both of them and Jony, Suni´s son (10) have baptismal dates for the 23. THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!  Our lessons are super spiritual and they are SO smart so they ask great questions. Then we have Laura. She has like 6 asistencias (church attendances) but wants to go slow. She said in our last lesson "How do I have to prepare to get baptized??" HELLO! WE CAN HELP YOU! She wants to get baptized at the end of March, but we are confident that she can make it to the 23 too. Then we have Mariana. She has cancer, and is very sick and in so much pain, but is determined to get baptized. She needs to quit smoking and make it to the 23 as well. PRAY FOR THESE PEOPLE PLEASE!

-So there was a HUGE storm on Friday. LIKE HUGE!!!!! We were close to the house so we hid inside while it passed. But the thunder sounded like CANNONS. AND then it hailed huge ice-rocks! One hit me in the head and it HURT! (see pic). But wow, it was CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shoutouts: Happy Birthday this week to Eric Dunn!! 

Aunt Lori, thank you for the email! Glad to hear an update from the G-Lo, especially about the Super Bowl half-time show. 

Thank you to Sister Wirig for the email, too! 

LOVE YOU ALL!

H. S.

Milk in a bag....yeah.......we do.

Our new missionary phone! It replaced the old brick that we had before!! yay!!

Just a little hole in my shoe!

MY PRINGLES PEOPLE!!!!!

HOLA MY PEOPLE!!

How are ya? Fall is around the corner for you all and I'm hopping into SPRING!! WAHOO! 

-Well here it is, the last week of the transfer and I'M SO READY FOR SOME CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!!!!!!!! (if you know what I mean).

- I've started noticing more funny things about Argentina that just make me love it more... like during the siesta little camionetas FULL of cartons of eggs pass through the streets and a man on a megaphone yells LE VENDO HUEVOS, HUEVOS BARATOS, BARATOS BARATOS (I'll sell you eggs, cheap eggs, cheap cheap) But its more like LEVENDOHUEVOHUEVOBARATOBARATOBARRRATTTTOOOOOOOO! Jaja, I LOVE IT!! Then there are these little horse drawn carts that go and pickup cardboard boxes that people leave out... just a horse drawn cart in the middle of the city. NBD. (**no big deal)

- So Elder Caicedo will be leaving this week which is way sad. We've grown to be good friends with that little Columbian. He's trying to learn English and works with 3 American missionaries in his area so we always make him practice. He says the funniest things. Last funny thing he said to me: "Hermana Squire you have to eat more cake!" When I didn't finish my postre. We all were dying. He's just as focused as ever and I swear he wont get trunky until his plane ride home. We'll miss our little Columbian!!

- We have a microwave!!!!! Oh MY!!  We are now getting up to date on things here!! We got it and we were like... "ok, now what do we do?" I've been warming up my oatmeal on the stove still because I keep forgetting we have it!! Wonder how things will be like when I get home, when I have a stove that is electric, a dishwasher, A DRYER, and carpet. I won´t know what to do with myself!!!!!

- So I had the wonderful experience of seeing Amanda TWO TIMES this week. On Thursday, she came for a doctor's appointment and she came to see us! It was the best! She is now COUNSELOR IN THE RELIEF SOCIETY! Ahhh nothing is better than to see your converts progress after baptism... getting callings and preparing for the temple. I got to see her AGAIN on SUNDAY along with all my PRINGLES FAMILY! Gigi and Melisa, my YW, came running up to us yelling HERMANASSS!! AHHH! I just hugged everyone so tight! I´ve missed everyone SO MUCH! Amanda has her temple reccomend too! AHH! Presidente Wilt was like "how are my dear angels??"  Oh my. I miss little Pringles.

- The temple rededication was so great. On Saturday, we got to see the celebration and see all the traditional dress and dances. I LOVED IT! I just was grinning like a goon for love of these people and this culture and this country. I really think I got a little peek into the love that our Heavenly Father has for them. I got tears in my eyes thinking how much I love them. I felt a little bit of pride too like, "I love my country." Then I was like, "wait, I´m American... then I said "NO IMPORTA! SOY ARGENTINA EN MI CORAZON!" (***NO MATTER! I'M ARGENTINIAN IN MY HEART!")  I also saw Elise Leavitt with the missionaries!!! Ah! Sunday was great too! So spiritual and I love President Eyring. Elder Christofferson did the dedicatory prayer in Spanish. Loved it!! Such a great weekend!!

- We also had our mini missionary with us on Sat, Yanet. She's 16 and super cool! She loved being with us and loved living a day in the life of a missionary. We had studies in the morning and left like normal! We didn't have tons of success, but she loved the experience. 

- Quote from Elder Oaks: Testimony is to know and to feel, conversion is to do and to become." My dear friends and family, are we truly converted? We may have testimonies, but what are you doing about it? What are you doing to become better disciples of Christ?

- I have another quote for yall. It's by Bruce R. McConkie: "I am called of God. My authority is above that of the kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him. To stand in His place, to say and do what He himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me. My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts, my words are His words and my doctrine is His doctrine. my commission is to do what He wants done. To say what He wants said. To be a living modern witness in word and deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous latter-day work."  How great is my calling!!!!  I love being a missionary!!! We all know the calling process... the apostles sit in a room and a picture of the missionary comes up and by pure revelation, we are assigned. I have no doubt whatsoever of where I have been called. God knew I needed to be here, with these people, loving them and teaching them. There isn't one day that I am not proud of my calling. I am so proud to be a missionary and a representative for our Savior.

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Shoutouts! KELSEY OH MY GOSH YOURE GETTING MARRIED!!! AHHH!!!!!! I'm way stoked for you and your ring is GORGEOUS! My word... will I EVER EVER, be a bridesmaid!??? Sheesh. 

Jk!!! I am BEYOND happy for you! 

Happy Birthday to TYTY!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Sister Wooden! Hope your day was great!! 

Happy Birthday to Mikael too!! 15... oh my, I'm so old. I remember watching you learn how to walk. Love ya kid. 

Jenny! Thanks for the message! I miss ya! 

SANDII! Thanks for writing, glad that Elly is finally outta diapers!! 

Serna's in VIRGINIA! I sure love getting letters from my little monkeys! I love you kiddos! Love you too Robert and Julie :). 

Abuelo Serna! Espero que todo salga bien con su gallbladder. Estaré orando para usted.

LISTEN YOU PEOPLE! I LOVE YOU! I hope you have a great week and know a little sister missionary in Argentina loves you and prays for you! 

Hermana Squire

Foto 1: Us and our PRINGLES PEOPLE at the stake center for the rededication!!!
Foto 2: For the love of ARGENTINA!!! (the INSIDE of one of my shoes....)
Foto 3: The dogs in Argentina are either 1. really ugly. or 2. really fat. This one we affectionately named Jefe---Chief.