You're Not Gonna Believe This One...............

Hello Everyone...

Well, I'm running on about 3 hours of sleep but that's okay. 

SO LET'S GET DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTY.......

- So transfers came. My comp was sent off to Bahía Blanca... and I was told I would be training... AGAIN! Just send me all the newbies! I'll train them all! Don't worry! Haha, an Hermana told me I'm like Eve... "the mother of all hermanas"... LET'S GO HIJA (daughter) NUMBER 3!!! That night, President called me... he said  "Hermana! I know you have six weeks left (thanks for reminding me...) I'm going to send you another companion. She's from the U.S.! You know I trust in you a lot, and I want you to teach this sister all you know! She must have a marvelous mission, like you've had!" Then he told me that she was waiting for her visa and already has about 3 months in the mission. So I thought... "WHAT IF it's Jamie Vawdrey?" ( a girl from our former neighborhood, a girl from HIGHLAND, UTAH)  I found out there are 6 gringas ("yankees" as they lovingly call us) coming, and ZERO Latinas. Well, as of right now, there are only TWO American sisters... and only I am free to train. SO YEAH. Anyway. I just looked at my missionary profile to write to President... and IT SAYS MY COMPANION IS JAMIE VAWDREY! What!!?? WHAT ARE THE ODDS? Such a small world! 

- So, Hna Ibaña's collectivo(bus) left at 2 in the morning, and we had to wait for other hermanas to get to Santa Rosa... I'm going to be working in Santa Rosa with Hna Perdomo and Hna Troval until Wednesday... so we went to bed at like 3... wow, I'm tired. But I'm loving being with these hermanas... Hna Troval is from El Salvador and has such an amazing story. And she speaks English SO WELL. Hna Perdomo is so humble...from Honduras and the only member in her family. I'm just so pumped to be working with them, and so stoked for this transfer with Hna Vawdrey... an AMERICAN! A real live AMERICAN! Haha, she'll  think she's lucky to be with an English speaker... but little does she know that I can't speak English anymore. I was talking with Hna Troval in English and I'm pretty sure that she can speak better than I can... hahah. 

Hermans Perdomo y Troval

- This morning I had to go to Toay with Hna Perdomo to get some stuff. We started talking to a lady that I always cross paths with, she's really sweet and we chat a bit before the collectivo. Well, I was praying for an opportunity to share something about the gospel with her... well, she just started talking about God and His patience with us, and BAM! We started talking about forgiveness and Christ and what He did for us... next thing I know, she's crying. She feels alone and overwhelmed. We tried to get her address, but she said she would look for us...  not QUITE her time yet. But I was so amazed at how the Lord just puts people in our paths, RIGHT when they need us.

- I've been thinking a lot about this time in my mission. I'm in my last transfer. I'm the next one to go home. I know the language, I know how to work with the ward, I know how to find, teach and baptize... as Aubrey said, "I'm a big, bad, Spanish speaking missionary"... but when we start thinking we're successful because of US, the blessings stop. The sucess stops. I have realized that I have to constantly rely on the Lord and be worthy of His spirit, to direct me to the people that are being prepared to listen to the gospel. I tried hard to be humble this week... and the Lord prompted me to knock one door, where we found a wonderful young mother, Andrea, and two days later, He guided me to another door, where we found another awesome woman... who turned out to be the Mom of Andrea.They are both SO GREAT.

- Camila is doing well... she came to mutual and loved it!

- We've been teaching a man named Darío... he came to church yesterday, BY HIMSELF! He is really looking for the right path and is so great. Pray for him!

- An hermana is staying with us that just came from one of my old wards. She told me that Tatiana and Erika, my converts are doing SO WELL! So active... and Erika is going to seminary every morning :) I'm SO HAPPY!!!!!!

Shoutouts: KELS I LOVE YOU. Next time I have time, I will write you. 

ADRIENNE! Glad you are good! Thanks for writing! 

Aunt Lori, thanks for the update, chin up buttercup! And happy bday this week!

Happy bday to Hugo Jr! 

Aunt Jeni thanks for the pics and announcement! You are great! 

TO ALL FATHERS, especially mine, I hope you had a Happy Father's Day! 

Listen everyone. YOU ARE SO GREAT! I LOVE YOU ALL! PORTENSE BIEN!!!!! (behave!)

Hermana Squire

*meditating the scriptures (listen, this was at 10 at NIGHT okay?) and it's a joke...not really sleeping!!!

My district

Emergency Transferred...

Hello Everyone!

-Well. This last week was probably the longest and toughest of my mission so far. I´ll tell you why. It all started with Wednesday. We got a call around 1pm from our mission leader telling us that Mariana had passed away that morning. It was so sad. But she was suffering so much. The comforting thought is that she went from this world completely clean. One month ago today she was baptized... and that baptism was a miracle. She suffered so much, but knew that baptism was necessary. She knew it and we all knew it. So she went through with it, and now she is resting in paradise. That I know for sure. I'm so grateful that the Lord let me teach her. It was an amazing experience, and she is an example of perseverance.

- Later on Wednesday, we had Juan Enrique's baptismal interview. TODO BIEN. He passed. On the way home in the remise, our district leader called us and said there was EMERGENCY TRANSFERS: WHATTT!! NOOOO! He said we would be leaving THE NEXT DAY. But we were like "NOO! We have a baptism on Sunday!" So after our Z.L.s (*zone leaders) talked to the A.P.S. (assistants to the President)... we were able to stay until Sunday. And we had time to say goodbye. They put Elders in this area and Hna Ibaña and I were assigned to TOAY, LA PAMPA (a different providence in Argentina) OPENING THE AREA FOR HERMANAS!!!! and Hna Batista and Hna Godoy got sent to Pigue. So the whole half of the week was spent preparing, saying goodbyes, packing, cleaning the pension, and writing up info about the area for the Elders. It was super sad saying goodbye. Especially to our ward mission team. The best ever. The girls cried. I'm not gonna lie, it blew. Emergency transfers blow. It's a big change to put in Elders. But the Lord knows what's best. 

- Juan got baptized!!! It was the best thing ever. He looked so cute in white, and was just grinning from ear to ear. It's been a long time since someone got baptized that wasn't a referral from members. So, it was a true miracle. Juan taught me that you are never too old to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is never too late. I know he's gonna be great.

- SO, here I am in Toay!  We left last night at 8:30 and got here at 8 in the MORNING.. well we arrived in Santa Rosa. I LOVE LA PAMPA!! It reminds me of Nevada or Arizona or Texas. Hopefully, I'll have more pictures of the Area next week. I think I'll be finishing my mission here and I'm pretty excited about it! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it already. 

Shoutouts; Happy Birthday Corb! And thanks for the email! :) 

Also thank you to Tio Hector for the email. 

Hope all is well. 

HEY I LOVE YALL! 

Have a great week. 

Hermana Squire

(******note from mama Squire: In a separate email, she wrote that Sister missionaries have not been in Toay---pronounced *toe-eye* since 2008. So she is super excited to be in an area that has not had hermanas for a long, long time.)

Familia Henrik

Graciela and Carlitos

Hermana Raventos & Gladis

Missionary Team in Puerto

Ward Misson Leader and his family

Barby, a ward missionary

With Estefy, FUTURE missionary!

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!!!!!!!

Bautismo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLA!

¿Cómo andan? Ah I am just so happy to be a missionary right now. I flippin love it. Every. Day. Even when I'm walking bent forward, trying not to get blown away, when I'm cold, wet, tired and sore... I still love it. BAH!!
-Estoy TAN feliz porque tuvimos un BAUTISMO ayer! **(I'm so happy because we had a baptism yesterday!)** Yup! Belén quit smoking (same with Jorge) and was baptized yesterday and IT. WAS. AMAZING. She looked so pretty in white and was so nervous before. But everything went well and she is super happy now. She'll get confirmed this Sunday. Sad thing is that no one from her family came. Only Jorge and his dad. Jorge was super happy. The Elders came to Pringles on Friday so she could have her interview. She, of course, passed with flying colors. Jorge started asking Elder Christensen about MISSIONS. OH MY GOSH. How great would that be??!!! They BOTH would be amazing missionaries. I have no doubts about Belén at all. She quit smoking in a week and a half, reads her scriptures and participates in the classes so much. I LOVE HER!!! Seeing the joy on someone's face as they come out of the waters of baptism, cleansed from all their sins,  is something I will always remember. Amazing.
- My Spanish is definitely improving. I've been getting comments from the members that I'm speaking better and THAT truly is a compliment! Argentines are pretty blunt and honest, so they won't lie! I'm really working hard with my Spanish and I have truly been blessed because I am learning so quickly!
-We had another asada on Friday. OH MY. I am convinced we will be dining Argentine style en los cielos.**(in the heavens)** Only bad thing was that the man of the house was like, "don't be shy hermana, eat all you want." I DID EAT ALL I WANT. But then he kept putting more on my plate. "Don't be shy, don't you like it?" Have you ever prayed to be able to have the strength to keep eating? I almost DIED!
- We will be having a zone conference this Friday in Bahía with interviews with Presidente. This is his LAST transfer before our new president comes in! Sad, but I'm sure our new president will be amazing.
- I just found out that Dr. Mike was in the branch presidency at MTC of Hna Israelsen's branch! Small world!
- EVERYONE! GO read "Finding Joy in Life" by Elder Richard Scott. It will change your life. " When you trust in the Lord , when you are willing to let your heart and your mind be centered in His will, when you ask to be led by the spirit to do His will, you are assured of the greatest happiness along the way and the most fulfilling attainmet from this mortal experience". GO READ IT!
- SHOUTOUTS! I got so much letter love this week! THANK YOU! VENICE! I love your guts. I'll write you next week. Taylor- LOVED the graduation pics. WHERE IS DEV GOING ON HIS MISSION! I need to start sending your letters to CA now, right? KRIS- YOU ARE A DANG BABE in your engagements! I loved it and I LOVED your letter! PAIGE! I keep forgetting to congratulate you on your 1/2 marathon. YOU GO GIRL. And i loved your letter and pics. Almost wet my pants with the wrestling pic and your birthday drawings. I got another GREAT letter from the Serna crew in Virginia! I LOVE YOU ALL! Thank you for the drawings and notes!! Everyone!! Thank you for all your prayers! I feel them every day! I am so spiritually uplifted EVERYDAY thanks to your prayers. 

LOVE YOU ALL!

Hermana Squire

Hermana Cydnee Squire

Argentina Bahia Blanca Mission

1755 Chacabuco

8000 Bahia Blanca

Buenos Aires

Argentina

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!