Devee's in Argentina!

Dear Churchill Family,

It is a great pleasure to notify you that your daughter has arrived safely to the great mission Argentina Buenos Aires South. She is in a very good area with an excellent Trainer, Hermana Reyes . Although we have known her for a very short time we love her already. She will be great!

Sincerely,

President and Sister Asay

ARGENTINA HERE I COME!!!! ... I hope

SOOO... So far so good.. I got my flight plans and I'm leaving on Monday morning at 5 AM to go to ARGENTINA!!!!! YAY!!!!! It's about time! :) The whole "i hope" part though.... Apparently all the elders in my district just got visa delays and found out they probably wont leave for 2 more weeks... and they're all going to Argentina too. From what I hear if you're in Buenos Aires, though, you don't need a visa... so I think I'm safe... we'll find out soon enough though! So... Cross your fingers and pray hard that I'll get to go! :) PS have yal heard that Argentina is now the capital of the swine flu? Buenos Aires, specifically. Pretty sweet huh?! haha. Don't worry, I promise I won't die.
>
> SOOO... anyways, travel plans... I leave a 5 AM on monday... our flight leaves at 8 AM ... and we get into Buenos Aires, Argentina at 8 AM on Tuesday. Translation: it's going to be a very long day! It was gonna be a big party because we were going to have 30 missionaries all on the same flights, but now we'll probably only have 8. Oh well. We have 2 lay overs.. one in LA and one in PERU!!! YAY!!! Ok... I know it's silly to get excited because I don't actually get to leave the airport, but I'm still SOOOO stinkin excited to be in Peru again! :)
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> This week has been pretty good, but time is starting to slow down ever since we got our travel plans! It should pick up pretty quick though because we're teaching 15x in the TEC... meaning NO study time pretty much... just class and teaching. I'm excited!! I can't wait til I get to teach and find all day, everyday!
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> We've had some really good speakers this week! Last Tuesday Elder Angel Abrea of the seventy came and talked to us, on Sunday Margaret D. Nadauld (YW general president) spoke to us in Relief Society, and President Clegg (who set me apart) spoke on Sunday. Today we're hoping for a really good devotional since it's our last! Kind of silly to say since all of them are wonderful. I'm super excited though because we're singing "Blessings"... AKA "Come thou fount" in choir for the devo. AMAZING. I absolutely love this song! The spirit is SUPER strong when we sing it together!
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> Here's a quick thought for yal today: It's from Music and the Spoken Word from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. During the program some of the commentary really stood out to me. It basically said:
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> "Stop. Look around and realize how much you have been given and blessed with. Instead of thinking of what you can buy and be happy, think of what you already have that is sufficient to accomplish this. SLOW DOWN & ENJOY all the beauty around us that God has given us."
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> We are SOOOO incredibly blessed... every single one of us! Look outside. Look at your families and friends and the people who you care about the most in your life. All of these are blessings. I'm probably not the best person to talk about slowing down... after all, I'm my mother's daughter... but it's definitely good advice I'm trying to use. When we slow down and realize all we have we are instantly happier. This goes along with a quote from Henry Ford I really like too:
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> "Don't find fault, find a remedy. Anybody can complain"
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> I hope all of you are happy and loving life & living it to the fullest! Never waste a single day.
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> I love you all!
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> xo, Hermana CHurchill
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> AKA Devee!

I ESCAPED AGAIN!!! .....

Only meaning that once again i had to go to another appointment, which i DO NOT like!! It's all good though. This time it was pretty interesting... for the last week my front tooth has been killing me so finally my companions convinced me to go see the dentist, and its a good thing I did! It turns out that... well... long story. When i was 12 years old I face-planted on a concrete ramp and broke my front tooth. Apparently when that happened it blocked off the blood supply, so my tooth is dead now! Guacala. SOOO.... I have to get a root canal. On Monday they drilled a hold in my tooth and scraped out the inside, and i have to go back on Friday to get it filled. Crazy huh?! The craziest part is that right now I'm double insured medically but I have no dental insurance, so we were going to have to pay for it out of pocket and I was supposed to call home to tell them how much it would cost. The dentist just started doing the procedure, so I asked how much it costs and that I needed to check with my dad.... knowing that these things are usually $300-500, but he said "well.. for you... it'll only cost 2 or 3 pesos." Later he told me that he wanted to do it for me completely FREE!!!! Crazy huh>?!> I was so grateful!! (and my parents too I'm sure!). Oh the blessings of being a missionary! :) Oh.... and I still got to call home and talk to my mommy to let them know what was going on! (Sorry to those of you who were at home.... I tried calling there first! Now for the next 18 months you'll always answer the phone :)
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> ANYWAYS>.... aside from that I've been good. I only have 13 DAYS left in the MTC!!!!!!!! crazy huh>? I should be getting my flight plans this thursday, and I leave a week from Monday! I'm so excited!!! I'm definitely ready to go.
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> Oh... PS>... Happy 4th of July!! They treated us good here at the MTC! We got out of class early and went and watched a program they made all about the reformers and how they made it possible for the church to be restored. Pretty cool. Then we got to go outside and watch the stadium of fire fireworks until 11 PM! Pretty rebelious eh? haha. Don't worry.... President Smith gave us permission! It made me a little homesick being away from all my family and friends, but it's all good. It's just a good thing that not every day is a holiday, or else I'd really be in trouble!
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> Soo.... no big AMAZING stories or cool quotes for yal this week, but what I've realized the most this week is that whenever anything goes wrong or doesn't happen like you want it to, instead of pouting and getting depressed, just make the best of it! Heavenly Father always knows exactly where you are and knows far better than you what is best for you. So... roll with the punches. Make the best of every situation, no matter how bad it seems to be at that time. And through everything, NEVER forget to smile. Even if you have to fake it, smiling ALWAYS helps you feel better!!
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> I love you all. Be good.
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> Besos! Hermanita Churchill
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> AKA Devee!

More Pictures

Fort time!! Do you like that I'm wearing pearls & sweats? :)

This was by far the best night of sleep that I've had!

Me & Hna Fox both have the same alarm clock & everyone thinks that they're cell phones. It's helping me cope with losing mine.

Half of our district. E Robinson, E Haas, E Petersen, Me, Hna Fox, Hna Wise, Hna Fair. Hna Fair went to the Dominican Republic MTC & Elder Haas went home (sad), but now we have 2 more sisters & 2 more elders too!

Swimming anyone? :) Don't worry...I didn't actually do it.

Hna Fair (she left for Puerto Rico), Hna Fox & me

Playing at the temple in the rain

PARTY TIME IN THE MTC!@!!!

Hello everyone!!!!
>
> This week has been absolutely crazy in the MTC! .... Crazy cool that it. It was the new mission president seminar this week, meaning all weekend members of the first presidency and quorum of the 12 were here, as well as tons of mission presidents! It was so neat! So here are the cool happeninngs of this week:
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> 1. I finally have seen what heaven is like! .... Because all these people are here the cafeteria gets blocked off and we can only use half of it, so everything is a little different. Because of it though, they put all the cereal on one side together. Now you gotta understand... these are big huge cereal dispensers, and there were TWENTY of them, all different kinds, all along one wall! On Wednesday when we walked in and i saw this i was SOO excited. I looked up and thought "man... now this is heaven!" :)
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> 2. Ok... now real stuff. Before the devotional on Friday we had choir practice and then went back to our classroom to get ready for devo. I have an obsession with brushing my teeth a million times each day, so I convinced my companions (who always make fun of me) to go to the bathroom with me. When we got there, there were 2 other sister missionaries waiting and a woman who looked like a mission president's wife. We started talking to her and asked what mission she was going to and she said "Oh I'm not. I'm sister Beck, the Relief Society President". At first this didnt really register... and she went into the bathroom. We finally realized this was sister Beck,... as in RS president of the WHOLE church!! SO later we saw her again and she gave us hugs before she left :) It was pretty random, but pretty cool
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> 3. Then ,.... Devo... OHHH MYYY GOOOOOODNESS!!!!! :) Elder Holland spoke at devotional and it was phenomenal! Not only was Elder Holland there, but also on the stand was Elder Bednar, Scott, Perry, Cook, Anderson, Christoferson AND Oaks. It was SOOOOO coool! We sang Joseph Smith's first prayer and it was absolutely incredibly! I didn't know a choir with 200-300 people and only 2 hours of practice could sound that good! Maybe it's the whole 100% obedience thing.... people actually listen to what the conductor tells em to do :)
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> 4. The next day we had a big combined sacrament meeting... the biggest one I've ever seen! There were 600 missionaries, and so we had about 50 Elders blessing & passing the sacrament, which was set up on 4 long tables. It was really cool! At sacrament a couple members of the district presidency talked to us, and I REALLY liked a story that one of them shared with us, so I'll share it with you... in a little bit :)
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> 5. For Relief Society on Sunday, Sister Wendy W. Nelson, wife of Elder Nelson, spoke to us!! She is an amazing example to all women... she has her ph.d. and has accomplished a ton in life. One thought she shared that I loved was that we should ask ourselves "What am i willing to commit to the Lord, that from this moment on I will never do - or never do again - NOT EVEN ONCE?" Think about that for a lil bit...
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> Sooooo.... those are the highlights of the week. Oh... another cool thing... if yal have never visited mormon.org GO THERE!!! Its a cool website. If you visit the teachings part and watch the video clips, you hear a ton of cool stories from real people. Just a though.
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> OH!! So... the story I was gonna share.... Pres. was talking about a time when he and his son went night scuba diving to certify. He had put too much weight in his weight belt though, so when he came to the surface he was REALLY struggling to stay afloat, and the water was super choppy and keep beating against him while the weight kept pulling him down. His son saw him and swam over and said "Here dad, lean on me and I'll swim you to shore" so he did, got to shore, adjusted the weight, and then went out and had the most amazing dive of his life.
> He compared this story to the savior and said "Sometimes if you're carry8ing too much weight it takes all your energy just to stay afloat because the weight is pulling you down. The savior is off to the side & he says "Lean on me. I'll help you take off some of that weight & then you can go out and have the best experience of your life"
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> Don't forget... you're never alone!!! The savior is always there to help take off some of the weight.... he wants to help us as much as he can.
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> Be good. Never quit trying. Smile lots.
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> I love you all! :)
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> Hermanita Dev