Transfer Week

Family!!!   

So I am so incredibly sorry but i forgot to tell you last week that every transfer week our pday gets changed to Tuesdays.  Sunday night I realized that and was like... dang it, Mom's gonna be worried.  But ya, here I am.  As far as transfers, because I am still being trained nothing changes for me for at least another 6 weeks.  After that who knows but for now I just keep chuggin' along.  Spanish is.. there. lol people say that I am improving but I feel just as tongue tied as I did a month and a half ago.  It's amazing to me how the Spirit works despite my inability to speak -- Investigators progress, people understand and we see miracles all the time.  I am constantly blessed with tender mercies at my weakest moments and even then I have soo much to learn, not just with the language but with myself.. patience, understanding, love.  And gosh, I have never felt more sorry for the people at the tower of Babel than I do now.  I think I would have just cried all the time.

This week we got to travel to Santa Fe again for Zone Conference.  It went really well and my zone leaders had me sing lol.  I'm pretty sure that Bishop Dixon put something about me singing in my papers because people that I have never met come up to me and are like.. you like singing right?  ...yes..  (gosh, i guess I put that in my papers??)  ya, you are really good. you will have to sing some time. (ok, i definitely didn't put that)   haha then it clicked.  anyways, it went well. always easier than speaking. :)  

Sunday was probably the most wonderful day that I have had so far in Argentina.   For almost 4 weeks now we had been struggling to get one of our investigators to church.  every Sunday we would go by her house and for one reason or another she wouldn't come.. sometimes she wasn't there, other times.. honestly I don't know lol.  Anyways, this week, we decided that she was coming sí or sí so after waiting outside her door for almost an hour and helping her get all of her kids ready, she came!  just in time for sacrament meeting.  It was perfect too because Ramón was confirmed that day and the Spirit was soo strong.  gosh, he is just amazing.  Afterwards he was so emotional which just so cute because he is 50 something.  Our church meetings are always absolute chaos because the kids just run around like it's a playground but for a miraculous 30 minutes during the sacrament and the confirmation they were all so good.  It was truly an answer to my prayers.  On top of that it always amazes me how the Spirit can work on people through all the chaos.  When we dropped Guada off at her house she just gave us the biggest hug and had the biggest smile.  This gospel really does change peoples lives. 

Yesterday was super tough for me and yet so many awesome things happened.  As far as I am concerned pday on Monday truly is inspired because after a long crazy week, having that one more day of work just killed me.  My Spanish was exceptionally bad and I just felt like dirt but we had lunch withRamón and his family and FHE with Hno. Spies (who baptized Ramón) and his family. I think they both see how hard everything is for me and truly appreciate what I am doing.  It feels good and I love them so much for it.  Just having someone understand me and care about me even though we don't really talk or anything.  It´s just interesting how it all works.  I don't know if I ever told y'all but before his baptism Ramón wanted me to baptize him.  We explained everything with the priesthood and what not but wow. I just wanted to hug him. Anyways, we ended up eating pescado frito.  Ha, it was super super good but nothing like I imagined.  They literally just fry the whole fish.. tail, fins, scales, eyeballs... and you pick through everything with your hands to eat it.  Lol I think they enjoy watching me struggle with things but like I said, super super good.  For the FHE we did the activity with cornstarch and water and related it to testimonies and how when we stop fortifying our testimonies by praying and reading and attending church etc, they melt just like when you stop playing with the corn starch and water it turns to slime.  Ha, we passes the ball around and everyone had to say a way to strengthen their testimony before they could pass it. It was crazy and messy but so much fun.  

Well I am out of time for now but thanks so much for everything. The emails, pictures, forwards, etc etc.  I love you all so much. 

Cyd, Paiton, Halley, Rylie, Connor, McKenna -- Good luck with school!!  Have so much fun and work hard, k? miss you all!!

Ciao!!

-Hna. Morgan

Chandler -- ugh, no letter yet. hopefully in a couple more weeks. However, I have been told to ask you if you knew/ could find out how to say Buenas Noches in Quechua.  Lemme know.  love you. :)

Semana Loca

FAMILLYYY! 


Ha, I love love love hearing from all of you!  It souds like everyone is doing so great and happy and that makes me happy!  This week was absolute choas and our numbers prove it unfortunatly :/.   On Tuesday we took the collectivo to Recreo for district mtg like every Tuesday but from there we went all the way into Rosario and didnt get to the mission home til around 10 at night.  We were called there to do trámites while lasted all of Wednesday morning.  My companion has been here for almost a year now so they had to renew all her visa stuff and I am a newbie so I was fingur (i dont know how to spell that word...?) printed like 5 times and had to get my picture takes and sign stuff but I should be receiving my Argentine documents soon which is pretty exciting and legit. :)   (cyd -- smilieys are not that hard. but the at symbol is impossible haha i htink i have to press alt and a combo of numbers to get it)  We took our 4ish hours of busses and remisses and i think i was dehydrated because i had a searing headache the whole day which made everything super duper fun.  Thursday went fine. work as usual.  I dont know if i have told you before but Thursday is the only day that we eat with members here.  Hna. Susana cooks for us and man.  her comida es ricísimo!  This week we had milanesa and tomato and egg salad.  ha, i was confused at first if i was supposed to eat it with something else but nope. sliced up tomatos and sliced up hard boiled eggs with a little salt. I loved it and if you are wanting a little taste of Argentina, it is super easy. :)    

Friday... wow. Friday.  Remember last week when I told you about the crazy rain and how its usually only in the middle of the night?  Ha.  Not on Friday.  We left the pench with a nice drizzle... ok no big deal.   6 blocks later... downpour.  cats and dogs. you name it.  i was just laughing as we sloshed through puddle after puddle.  Also. news. my little black rain coat that we like so much. .. not water proof.  haha.  my tan one from express is though so thats good. also, my poor shoes.  not only were they drenched but caked in mud.  So much for keeping them nice and clean for church and what not... the leather cleans up fine though.   That evening I ended up just going out in flip flops. I know i know. im a huge sinner and what not but if my feet were going to get wet regardless it seemed better that they could dry off when were teaching rather than sitting in their pools.  It wasnt overly cold either sooo... ya. who knows.. a may need some sort of rain boot for ... next year? lol I have no clue. weather is so unpredictable.  

Saturday we had a baptism!!!  yaaayyyy!!   It was wonderful.  ...Incredibly stressfull but now all i have is the pictures and everyone is smiling so.. it must have been awesome right?    lol. the font takes 5 or 6 hours to fill up and our branch president decided to come 3 hours before the baptism to set it up and fill it. .... ... we ended up starting an hour late and even then he had to be baptized 3 times because the amount of water made it difficult.  lol he actually ended up sitting the 3rd time. and the water was freezing and it was overcast... gosh. We were horrified but, everything worked out and he was so happy afterwards.  :)  progress. slow and steady. 

Yesterday we traveled to Santa Fe for stake conference.  Goodness I cannot even describe to you how wonderful it was.  There is a giant chapel with tons of people in it!  There was even a choir!  and people dont wear jeans.  and just sat there smiling and taking in my surroundings.  ... the talks were really good too... :)  

Anyways, thats it for this week.  I LOVE YOU ALLLL!!!!!

Stay strong and know that the church is true. 

-Hna. Lyndsey Morgan

 Ramón  before his baptism!!!!!  Hno. Spies (espees) baptized him. He is a recent convert (8 mon?) and is the strongest member that we have in the branch. everytime he sees me he says  ¨Hay low!¨  super excited like.  its the best. :)

this is pretty much the branch.  ...i htink we are missing one or two families. but this was taken after we got back from stake conference

dad -- argentine sky.    we didnt wait for the sunset cuz we had to go inside but more to come. :)

mom -- our kitchen. nice and humble. haha  (french toast mixture recipeee!!!)

:)

Hola again from Esperanza :)

It was wonderful hearing from you all. Sounds like the Summer is keeping everyone nice and busy :) Tell Cyd and Halley that I am patiently waiting to hear about efy and ecuador and girl´s camp and whatever else they have done. Things here have been pretty great. The language is coming and yes yes I know.. patience. I never expected to pick it up right away but it just kind of makes it hard to work with this brick wall of a language barrier. haha. This week we spent almost all of our time (at least it seemed that way) with our 2 progreamados -- investigators with a baptismal date. They are both so awesome and so ready but things always manage to get in the way, blasted adversary. Anyways, one of them, Ramón is all set for his baptism next Saturday. He is such a humble and happy man. I love it. 3 or 4 of his.. 12 i think, children were baptized about 4 years ago and it has been really neat seeing the change in him that has come over time. The Lord truly does work with time and everyone progresses and learns through different experiences. Our other progreamado is Guadalupe. She is so smart and loves reading and learning. Ha, every lesson with her is so cool but we can´t seem to get her to understand the importance of coming to church. That is probably the most frustrating thing about this area. About 4+ years ago the branch president would come and pick everyone up for church on Sunday as well as drive around to all the members and bring them food if they needed it. As a result, we have been told that attendance used to be around 70+ every Sunday. This man actually died a year or so ago and now our attendance is around 20 for sacrament and ...10 for the other hours? We have met with a ton of inactive members and most of them have no clue who we are and barely remember their baptism. It´s like it didn´t mean anything to them except free food. No I don´t know. But that is the image of the church here. And people like Guadalupe whose mom is a member or anyone who knows a member of the church has this false idea of what baptism truly means. Even if they understand baptism and are excited for the prospects of being clean and following the example fo Christ.. the concept of going to church on Sundays just dont quite.. connect? No sé.. Guadalupe also is pregnant and has 3 other children under 5 and a husband who doesn´t do to much to help her with them so that doesn´t make things any easier. Gosh, ya. ...and I´m just along for the ride! haha..

anwaayysss, what else. this week has been craazy weather wise. some days are oddly hot.. im going to assume low 80s while other days are freezing with gloomy skies and lots of wind. We have been getting a lot of rain too whcih is a lot of fun with a metal roof and a dirt road outside the pench. It tends to rain most in the middle of the night and I am frequently afraid the rain is going to break through our roof it is so loud. Mud gets caked on our shoes and has a tendency of splattering on clothes and what not too which is a lot of fun. But wow, let me tell you. Nothing beats the sunsets here in Argentina. The land is so flat and the sky is filled with clouds and colors. It´s incredible. (shout out to dad -- I think of you almost every sunset. ha, I end up stopping my companion like every 5 min ¨mire! mire!¨ lol i think she is used to them by now because she always just nods and says ¨sí¨ haha but ya. ill try and get some good pictures)

well, out of time for this week. Know that I love you all so much and am doing great down here.
-Hna. Morgan

Catholic church in Esperanza. :) Pretty no?

and now for this week‏

Hey Everyone!

...So... mom. Now that I have finally received your email from June, have you got mine from the past two weeks?   Ha, this is kind of frustrating not knowing what is going through and what isn´t..  I guess let me know?  Cool

So, this week was a little slow I guess.  It flew by as usual but we didn´t get near as much done which is always a bummer to realize at the end of the week.  I´m back down to probably understanding 65% of what´s going on but I have been working on truly focusing and staying focused. Gosh it´s hard.  ... ha it¨s hard for me even when I can understand what´s going on.  Lol I realized too that I tend to use my sickness as an excuse not to focus.  so bad.  I am sooo much better than last week though.  I definitely had some sort of flu/fever thing on Monday. I ended up sleeping for over 3 and half hours that day when we got home.  I was just achey alll over.  Even my teeth were sore. We had one appt that night which went fine and the next day when I woke up I was fine.  ...people said I still had a fever but other than my lingering cough I felt perfect.  My companion is convinced that I shouldn´t eat Grido (ice cream) today because it will be harmful but... I keep trying to tell her that 1.  ice cream cures everything and 2. my throat doesnt hurt, my cough just sounds bad.   Everything here is always so ¨serious¨though.  I was told at least 3 times that because of my cough I needed to go to the hospital.   and yet, the remedy that I have been told to take by the mission presidents wife is honey and lemon.   My companion also had me buy an herbal medicine at the farmacy...  it was only 26 pesos so I did but I´m pretty sure it´s just watered down honey soo..... ya. at least it tastes yummy.

Ha so this week´s highlight was our remisse ride of death.  lol the city we are in doesn´t have a bus system so if we have an appt on the other side of town we take a remisse ...its pretty much a taxi but cheaper.  And just like taxis, usually it´s better to just cloe your eyes and trust that you will make it there.  Argentina makes things a little bit more interesting though becuase stop signs don´t exist here and stop lights are only used on the interstates.  So cars just.. go. and if another car is coming, they stop... hard. haha. and the faster the cars want to go (theres no speed limits either) the harder they have to stop when they come to intersection that is already occupied.  There also arent lanes so cars can drive... side by side, a mixed up.. you name it. the only real regulator is speed bumps and since all the cars are itty bitty fiats and vw etc, they need to practically stop or else their car will crumble on these things. lol hopefully you can kind of envision this adventure. :)

well thats all for now I think.  O!  Paiton! Yesterday was el día de los niños here!  Im sorry that I didnt tell you sooner so that you could celebrate but ya. awesome right!?  A whole day just for kids. and parents give them toys and there was a huge carnival think in the plaza with bounce houses and shows.  I always wondered why there was a mothers day and a fathers day but no kids day.   well, there is!  :)  love you!!


LOVE YOU ALLL!!
caio for now. :)

-Sista Morgan