I LOVE Being a Missionary!

Amigos y familia,
 

Well, I have calluses on my calluses, a mosquito decided to feast ON MY FACE last night, I hang my clothes on a line to dry, I wear flip-flops and wool socks in my house because it´s so cold, it was wet and chilly this week, I feel gipped because I left the states at the beginning of spring and now it´s the end of fall... BUT I AM HAPPY AS A DANG CLAM! Seriously! I love Pringles, I love sharing the gospel, I love speaking Spanish, I LOVE IT ALL!!  "I JUST DON´T UNDERSTAND!"  Ha ha, missionary work is the best.

- Investigators: The fecha(date) for Analia and Rodrigo has been moved. They didn't come to church :( Analia is having trouble getting married because the family of her pareja(partner) doesn't want to sign (marriage/divorce is way complicated here). So we´re praying for a miracle. Filipe, her brother, is not a member!! Ah! So he still needs to get divorced and married to his senora. They live in a TEENY house... seriously it is as big as my class at the MTC, with 4 kids! We went over there this week and he´s like, "I have the desires to stop smoking, I know I need to get baptized."  So I said, "do you have any cigarettes here?"  And he said "yup", then I said, "well, you can give them to me and I´ll take care of them." And he gave them to me!! WHAT! Since when am I the cigarette police! My name tag (plaque) sure gives you that extra authority! I felt super weird carrying those around the rest of the day!
-We found 3 nuevos(new) this week, Rosio (12), Florencia (14), and Carina. They are so sweet! Florencia has a learning disability, but Rosio said she would read the LDM(Libro de Mormon) to her. I'm excited about these girls. Carina is their mom, and she's a single mother of 8! I just love them! Now the challenge is GETTING THEM TO CHURCH! I swear, that´s where Satan does his work. He keeps people from coming to church. SO FRUSTRATING! I hope I´m still around for their baptisms.
- So Filipe"s señora was praying, and she´s evangelico, and they say Señor Jesus after every sentence. I SWEAR she said "amen"...so I said "amen"... but she was NOT finished. Embarrassing!
- This week we had interviews with Presidente. He brought us all in the capilla(chapel) and we could ask him any doctrinal question we wanted... or anything about our investigators. He is so insightful and smart! I love him! I´m sad he´ll be leaving in 2 months. Interviews were great. We missed our collectivo(bus) back to Pringles... and the next one didn't leave until 9 pm, so we had our district meeting then worked in our Elders' area. They have a wealthier area and man, I admire them because a lot of people were very rude and had hard hearts. It made me grateful for my little Pringles!
- So NOBODY has callings in the rama (branch). We are working on that. We need teachers! The missionaries can´t teach every class! We have qualified members who could easily teach... and our recent converts need callings to stay active! Only 5 people in the rama(branch) have callings. I think that if more recent converts got callings, they would stay active. There are 400 members in Pringles... about 350 are inactive... Yup, that's gotta change. Hna Israelsen and I are visiting a lot of menos activos (less actives? is that what it is in English? Ha, I can´t remember). The Familia Bailone has SO MUCH POTENTIAL. But Hno Bailone is angry at God for taking his father and angry at the rama(branch) because he had a lot of callings. BUT HE KNOWS that the church is true! A lot of praying is going to go into this family, that is for sure.
- I read a talk by Elder Christoffersen this week: The divine gift of repentance. I would encourage ALL of you to read it. I learned that without repentance, there is no progress or improvement in life. And that the invitation to repent is an expression of love. That is what we are asking investigators to do. Repent, and feel the joy that comes from forgiveness. The pain from the process of repentance is forgotten when one feels the inexplicable joy that comes from forgiveness. Also- when we repent, we strive to change. It may require repeated attempts but there is something refining and holy in this striving. WOW WOW WOW! I love being a missionary and receiving this sort of inspiration and personal revelation. I feel like I am growing and changing so much. I need to change, I have a lot to work on, that's for sure. But through the atonement, I CAN change. What a miracle.
-Shoutouts: Kelsey: Congrats on your teaching job! I want a picture of you in your teacher clothes. And HILLARY NORTON IS ON A MISSION! What in the world? why did I not know this? Kels, could you send her a dearelder for me? Tell her I love her and I want her address. SO COOL! Ecuador is getting one fine lady. Taylor: YOU ARE GRADUATED, YOU OLD LADY! Pics please. Kristen and Haddy: you better send me engagement pics and an invitation, or I´ll stop praying for you. Haha, jk, I WILL ALWAYS PRAY FOR YOU! Hno Larsen, 3 months is right! Tomorrow, woo hoo! Corbett family: loved your email! And loved your scripture study insights. ALWAYS great to get spiritually uplifting letters. Adriana Molina: Gracias por la carta! Besos y abrazos!  Paige- Waiting on the Lord: Thy will be done. Read it. Write back your thoughts. Love you. EVERYONE! I love you all! More than I love it when Hermana Linco says: 'I am a loser' when she forgets something! More than dulce de leche...and that´s a lot! Have a great week!

Besos y Abrazos,
Hermana Squire, Skeeray, y Hermana.... "No sé" (Alexis, the son of Presidente, is 8 and doesn't know how to say my name. He says Hermana...Sk...  Hermana.... "No sé" *don't know)

cydnee.squire@myldsmail.net

Parents:

 I GOT THE PACKAGE! And letters 1 and 2 from dad! WOOOHOOO!! PEANUT BUTTER!!! I almost cried! I'm so serious. Yes, it's chilly. It will get worse. My foot is fine. When I stretch it, it feels like a creaky door but it´s not bothering me anymore. Oatmeal is so great! We don´t have a microwave so it takes longer to boil water, but so delish! Thank you! Please send Burt's Bees chapstick, if possible, the April conference edition when it comes. Can you have it bound? Sorry to ask for so much!!! I LOVE YOU BOTH! THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE AND PRAYERS! 

The Crazy Man In The Window

¿Cómo andan?

Wow, I can´t believe I´m in my 2nd week here in Pringles. It is such a great place and I absolutely love the people. I´m so excited to be in Argentina! Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I´m like, whoa! I´m in Argentina!

-      -  Pringles is a super safe town and we have no problems walking around at night or anything. We are lucky to have an Amazing branch presidency who will do anything for us. Hermano Achigar comes by and brings us fresh vegetables and fruit multiple times a week and we have lunch at President Wilt´s home 2 times a week. They take great care of us and I love all the branch members. Ha, they SHOULD take care of us, because between the 4 Hermanas, we rotate teaching gospel doctrine, relief society, the youth class, AND give talks. I´m giving my talk next week… eek!
-         - Funny stories this week: Hermana Israelsen and I were studying in the main room when all of the sudden she starts freaking out. There was this guy looking in our window! We ran out of the room and the other Hermanas came out and it turns out, he was trying to ask us what time it was. Whoops. A couple days later, Hna Israelsen and I were walking in the street and all the sudden, right in the middle of her sentence she said ´Ugh i just stepped on a diaper and it was squishy´ Sick, huh? Then last night I was getting ready for bed when I hear HERMANA HERMANA ARAÑA!!!! (Hna Israelsen is terrified of spiders) I come out thinking it´s a little spider, but NO. It´s as big as a freaking tarantula! I´m serious! It could have swallowed a mouse! I would like to tell you all that I courageously slapped it dead with my shoe, but no.. What did I do? I got on the chair and started screaming with Hermana Israelsen until Hermana Linco came out. She sprayed Raid at it which made it scuttle around and made us scream louder. Oh my gosh. There better not be any more of those in our house. I have a picture and once I figure out this picture thing I´ll send one.
- - We had a 3rd companion with us this week. A little stray cat we named Favian. He followed us around for half a day and patiently waited while we contacted. We lost him after an appointment then he miraculously showed up 2 days later and followed us again! How funny:)
- If anyone wants to give me advice on how to convert a Jehovah´s witness, that would be great! They are so hard to talk to and trying to get them to even listen is impossible.
 -- Fasting works miracles. We had a zone fast and after that we found 4 new investigator, and a family with an 11 year old menos activo and a 9 year old who wants to get baptized. We are going to work with them and find out what kept the mom from being baptized. I´m so stoked.
- -Julieta- She has a fecha this Saturday but it probably will fall through. She only wants her boyfriend, Enrique to baptize her but he´s been less active for about a month because of a dumb fight with a kid in church. BUT HE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY! WOO!! So he is working on being worthy to baptize Julieta. Ah, I love Julieta! She´s 16 and always keeps her promises. WE taught the Word of Wisdom and she was like yeah, I´ll live it. SO SWEET!
  - We celebrated Ramon´s 85 birthday this week. We got him a little alfahor and a candle and sang to him. I LOVE HIM! He is the cutest grandpa!
  -We are also working with a recent convert, Juanita (MOM!!), and she is the sweetest old lady. Every time we go over she tells me I need to eat more or I´ll blow away in the wind. Another menos activo: Maria Jose. I LOVE HER! She had a problem with smoking and didn't want to come back because she was ashamed. But she hasn't´t smoked in 2 weeks!! She has a strong testimony and has gone through the temple. We visit her and she whips out her preach my gospel, gospel principles book and we just chat! AHH love that woman.
--- We found a nueva yesterday, IDE... sounds like Iday? Anyway, we knocked on her door and it was like BAM. Smoke cloud. She is a heavy smoker but we´ll help her change that. Also, there were approximately 150 flies in her house. I about died, but THAT went away when she said she would be baptized. Woo!
-  Shoutouts: Tyler, thanks for the email! CONGRATS ON TENNESSEE!!!! You were right in your post script once again. Sis Corbett thanks for the dear elder! BYU peeps, I hope finals go well! Then you can write me! Dearelders take 2 weeks, letters I'm not sure, and emails are obviously quick. Hermano Larsen, Thanks for the email! Thank you all for the endless love and support.

Hermana Squire
cydnee.squire@myldsmail.net

Little Devastated

Hola Todos!

Well, here I am in the final week of the MTC... with no visa. Half of our district got theirs and will be leaving on Monday, and the rest of us will be stuck here until we get ours. To say I'm bummed is a huge understatement. I was pretty much devastated. But, there is still hope that the rest of ours will get ours next week. It will be hard to see the rest of our district leave on Monday, I'm not looking forward to saying goodbye and having to stay here. So pray hard, I don't think I can last much longer in the MTC... I'm going a little crazy!!

- David Archuleta is in the building. The rumors are true. He is so small and he looks scared all the time, like someone is going to tackle him or something. He's pretty well guarded and for the most part, everyone kinda lets him be. Which is good.

- We are ready to sing for conference! We have been practicing so much and working so hard. It's going to sound so AMAZING! The sisters have been having a rough time finding pastel-like shirts. And the Relief Society Presidency had us wear our outfits for Saturday this past Tuesday to get approval. Try singing your part with the Relief Society Presidency pacing around you and scrutinizing your outfit with their eyes. Not easy, I tell ya! It's going to be so amazing, I hope that you get a glimpse of me in the crowd!

- This past week has been great... a little monotonous at times (so many practices and acting like fake investigators!) but great. Hermano Larsen made it special for us by showing pictures of his mission and we FINALLY got to see the real Sergio. He was exactly as I pictured. A little stocky and grumpy looking. We saw post baptism pictures and man, what a difference. He's so happy and has the light of Christ in his eyes. I can't wait to witness that first hand in Argentina. Today we're doing in-field training... it's where they tie all the loose ends together for the departing missionaries. So far we've learned contacting, working with members for referrals, and preparing investigators for baptismal interviews. It's been really great actually! I can't wait to leave and apply all that I'm learning.

- Our new district has an Elder in it that looks like Squints from the Sandlot. I GOTTA take a picture of him before we leave. It's pretty awesome. We'll be getting another district this Wed... but let's hope I'm not here to see them :) We got new girls in our room and they're all going to MCALLEN TX! Small world right? It gets even smaller: one of the Hermanas is Rachel Richards. I went to school with her in Jr High and High School and she even came to my bday party when I was like 14! So nuts! It's always fun to see people I know here.

- I'm sorry this email is so scatterbrained and a little unfullfilling. I really am at a loss for words and don't know what to talk about! Everything is the same here in the MTC! All my days run together and I never know what has happened on each day. Shoutouts: Paige- you are great, thanks for the email. A letter is coming your way (for all of you). Had- YOU ARE ENGAGED! I saw the ring and it is GORGEOUS. Ahhh and your pictures! I love you!!! Rachelle- thanks for the dearelder and I LOVE YOU!! Grandparents Squire: thanks for the email! Hope you all feel better soon! Summer- thanks for the dearelder! I miss you, and keep me updated on your life. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Hno Larsen told us... why should we ever be discouraged? We have SO MANY people praying for us. In every temple, our wards are praying for us, the prophet prays for us, and all our family and friends pray for us. I am so blessed to have you all pray for me. I really appreciate it. When I feel discouraged (especially since I'm not leaving on time anymore) I think about you all and how much I love each of you. I hope you have a great week and always remember that I love you... but more importantly, I hope you remember you have a Father in Heaven who loves you and cares about your happiness. He knows you personally because you are His child. Always remember that you are sons and daughters of a King. This is the work of the Lord! I cannot wait to start bringing others to Christ.

Con amor,

Hermana Squire

Pray for Visas!

Que tal mi familia y amigos?

24 days and COUNTING until ARGENTINA! What the crazy? I'm so pumped and so ready to get out there. This week was so great, but every week is great when you're a missionary!

- I am now officially coordinating sister. Pretty much I take care of the Hermanas in our zone (3 of us), go to branch council, and tell people off in the residency for not observing quiet time... in a loving way of course. Then when new districts come in, I help the zone leaders do orientation and teach them a little about the MTC and such. We got a new district last week, they're going to Columbia and are leaving before us! But they'll be in the Columbian MTC for 6 more weeks. Hopefully we get a new district this week... there are only 3 districts left! Maybe we'll get some Hermanas, who knows!

- This week, we got to leave the MTC TWICE! Hna. Hinze's retainer broke so we had to go to the orthodontist. I got to venture out into the REAL WORLD! It was weird, but I liked it. They had real music playing in there too! It was hard not to stand up and sing along... " I LOVE ROCK AND ROLL, PUT ANOTHER DIME IN THE JUKEBOX BABY!" Don't worry, I refrained. We get to go back next week! Woo!

- So, the prayer for devotional went well on Tuesday. Except President Brown called me Cindy Squire. Yup, that's me. I sorta knew it would happen, but oh well. I was SO DANG NERVOUS that I couldn't eat dinner before. Ridiculous, I know. Elder Evans came and spoke to us and it was really great. We've been hearing the recurrent themes of Enduring to the End and using the Book of Mormon more. Missionaries HAVE GOT TO ENDURE after their missions! One of the saddest things is seeing a RM go inactive. We teach our investigators to endure to the end, SO WE HAVE TO ENDURE TO THE END TOO! It's so important. I don't know how one can go inactive after experiencing all the miracles of missionary work. This gospel is so engrained into me, I cannot possibly fall away. When investigators call me up when I'm 50 years old saying their son/daughter is marrying in the temple I want to say, I'LL BE THERE!

- On Sunday night, we had an interesting fireside. Alex Boye came and did sort of a talk/singing session. It was great. He was pretty hilarious but then got spiritual. He told his conversion story and promised that years from now, people we helped to convert will speak our names with reverance and with a heart full of gratitude for sharing what we know with them. That hit me hard. It made me think about how I want to be remembered. I want to be remembered as a humble missionary who was so full of love for the people and for the gospel.

- Investigators! Sergio: I love this man!! On Saturday, we went to teach him. We left him with Ether 12 and he told us that he loved the chapter. He read it 3 times and focused on Ether 12:27 (weak things become strong), and told us that he was up all night thinking about it and decided that he wanted...NEEDED... to be baptized. WHAT! The Book of Mormon works miracles!! The Hermanas are the only ones who have a baptismal date set in stone... why? Because of the Book of Mormon. That's why. Later, Hno. Larsen told us that Ether 12 was the EXACT scripture he shared with the REAL Sergio and it made him finally decide to be baptized. I was floored and so humbled by that. THE SPIRIT IS REAL!! It prompts us and tells us of the things we need to teach and share. We had more lessons with him, and we taught about how Satan was going to try and change his mind and be working on him really hard. We told him to write down his feelings of when he decided to be baptized and used the BoM a lot. After that, Hno Larsen told us that it was our best lesson by far. He told us that we, as 6 week missionaries, were teaching like we had been out for 6 months. It was the best compliment I could have ever gotten. Ruben- Sweet Ruben! I love this kid. We finished up the plan of salvation and talked a little about how to enter the celestial kingdom we needed to continually stay on the path and continually repent. He was like what is repentence and how can I do it? That right there is a proud moment for a missionary. When someone wants to do something without you even asking. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

- Spanish is coming along great. I feel like I can speak more and more every day, and my fluidity is getting better during lessons. It's exciting!

- We're slightly worried that our visas won't make it on time. Other Argentine missionaries have been delayed. So, PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR VISAS! I want to get out there! If we don't get them, we'll be temporarily reassigned to a state side Spanish speaking mission for a month or so. I would go if the Lord wanted it, but I WANT TO GET TO MY PEOPLE!

- Shoutouts: Squire Grandparents: thanks for the dearelder! Love you! Paige and Taylor- thanks for the dearelders! You two never fail to make me laugh until I'm crying. Tio Hector- I hope your surgery went well! I love all you Texas people! Grandma Hobson- You are a sweet angel! Your cookies are legendary on the 4th floor! Thank you so much! Dunn family- I was so sad about Lucky. I don't remember a time when you didn't have him. Love you all. TAHNEE OWENS: get your hiney in gear and send me a dearelder or SOMETHING! I miss you! A quick note on dearelders. I just found out that we CAN get those in Argentina! They can be sent via pouch and they send them out once a week! Who knows how long it will be till I actually GET them, but it is still an option! I don't know how, so ya'll are on your own on this one.

Being a missionary is one of the most rewarding things ever! I love it! It's challenging, but I know with the Lord's help I can do ANYTHING! This is HIS work and He will not let me fail! Thank you all for the prayers and support. I love each of you so much!

Con Amor,

Hermana Squire