Happy New Year! It´s 2015, can you believe it? I can´t really, because nothing really feels different here! Time is such a funny thing on the mission. It´s been bothering me a little lately that Sundays don´t really feel like Sundays but then I´ve been realizing that it´s because everyday is like a Sunday! It´s so great, always having the spirit with us so much as we search and teach people. I hope the New Year passed well for you as well. We had to be in our pension again by 6 pm the night of the 31st, but we were able to have the chance to watch Frozen! In English! With Spanish subtitles and I kept learning funny new words. It was so great. Everyone was celebrating that night so when we finally fell asleep it must have turned midnight because there was this huge explosion of fireworks! We always sleep with our windows open because it´s so hot here, and I have to put on bug spray before I go to bed to keep from getting eaten by the mosquitos! It´s so funny because I always have like 40 mosquito bites...(that´s not an exaggeration by the way) and Hna. Rodas has maybe...3. We always joke about it because it´s really kind of funny.
Argentine people are wonderful, and so terrible frustrating at the same time. I love them though. The thing is, that they are the hardest people in the world to find. I feel like we´re playing Where´s Waldo when trying to hunt down our investigators sometime! We can literally pass by the same house every day for a week straight, all at different times, and they are no where to be found. I extended my first baptismal invitation this week....and it was accepted!! We had found this girl named Josefina, and when we went back to find here again we found her sister Vanda, and this week we ended up teaching both of them. We taught them the Restoration and then they accepted the invitation to be baptized! Now all we have to do is try to find them so we can teach them again and see if they kept their committments. Seriously though, the finding part is the hardest part of everything...that and the Spanish. Excuse me, I mean "Castellano". Whenever I say Spanish to the people here they always correct me and say castellano. It always kind of makes me laugh a little.
So a funny story from this week. First, our pension has two levels because they call it "pension hotel" because it´s where the other hermanas stay when they travel a long way from the coast for transfers or conferences or things like that. There are two rooms on the top level and then on the bottom is where we study and the kitchen and things like that. Earlier in the week it was so hot here even in the night and Hna. Rodas could not fall asleep to save our lives. So we were laying in our beds across the room from each other kind of commenting about how hot it was occasionally. I was laying on my side and all of a sudden I saw something move on the little desk by my bed. I told Hna. Rodas that I just saw something move and I jumped out of bed to turn on the light and....there was a cockroach crawling all over my stuff!! haa soo gross. So I ran downstairs to grab some Raid and then I hear a bunch of banging upstairs. When I come back with the Raid Hna. Rodas is standing over the cockroach with a shoe over her head and says to me in English, "I kill it." It was the funniest thing ever. Now that I just wrote that I´m realizing that it might not be as funny for you as it was when it actually happened but I´m just laughing writing it!
One thing that we´ve been working with the members and less active members this week for the new year is about setting goals. I never realized how important goals are until I´ve been here now. One of my biggest fears in life has always been not reaching my full potential and I´ve figured out the key to that...GOALS. Not only setting goals, but also fulfilling them as well. One of my favorite quotes from Predicad Mi Evangelio dice.."I am convinced that if we don´t set goals in our lives nor learn and master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we will reach a ripe old age and look back at our lives, only to realize that we have reached only but a small portion of our full potential. If we learn to master the principles of establishing and reaching our goals, it will make a great difference in the results of what we acheive in this life." That quote is by M. Russell Ballard. Sorry it´s not exact, but I don´t have my english Preach my Gospel with me right now so I tried to translate it the best I could! I love this quote so much because the things we learn in this life and how much we grow are so, so important. In our district meeting one week one of our elders said something like, a good man isn´t perfect, a good man is better today than he was yesterday. Little by little we have the chance to grow every day, with every choice we make. I´ve been pondering a lot on the Atonement of Jesus Christ this last week as well. How amazing it is that we can be cleansed from our sins and be freed from the guilt and shame and burdens that accompany us when we do wrong. Not only does the Atonement bring forgiveness of sins, but it also has an enabling power as well. There´s a certain kind of confidence, a certain spirit that accompanies one who is clean and can stand with confidence before God. Turning to Christ, submitting our will to doing His doesn´t make us weak or less human, but in every sense it makes us stronger and more like Him. The hard things that we pass through in this life, every single one can all be overcome, have already been overcome by Christ. We were born at the time we were and in the place we were because Heavenly Father knew exactly where we were headed was where we needed to be to learn the lessons we needed to. I hope that made sense. I always keep thinking back on what you used to say mom, "Bloom where you´re planted". Nothing is more true. We can make the best of everything that happens to us and evey situation we are in because even when our situations change, Christ never does. He is our rock, unmoving and always, always reliable.
This new year gives us a chance once again to begin anew, through the Atonement of Christ. I pray that you use every opportunity to learn and grow ;) (I would put a smily face but I´m not sure where the keys are on this keyboard and only know how to do a winky face) I love you all!
Con amor,
Hermana Feldermann
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