Life is a PARTY! :)

Holy exciting times in Argentina!

First off, with all the excitement of Raul´s baptism I forgot to tell yal that we just had transfers. It´s funny because before I wanted to leave Banfield 2, or "Beverly Hills" as everyone calls it... but then I got Hermana Turley, and didn´t want to change so we could stay together! Well.... transfers came, and we stayed!!! YAY!!! It´s pretty crazy though, because Hermana Turley is leaving early right before Christmas, so I´m going to have a "mini-missionary" for 2 weeks (kinda like mini training) and then I have to stay ANOTHER transfer in Banfield 2... meaning - por lo menos - I´m going to be here in Banfield for 5 TRANSFERS!! (o sea... 7.5 months) Pretty crazy. Definitely did not expect that!

This week was way exciting too! Thanksgiving was pretty tranquilo (calm). Mom... you´d be proud of me... we had district meeting on Thanksgiving day, so I made 2 pies for the zone. There was no way I could go from making 40 pies last year to none this year, so I made sure to at least make a few! :) Me and hermana Turley also had fun making gum-drop turkeys... the pictures are to follow... :)

In other happenings, right now it´s crazy weather season in Argie, and this weekend we had a HUGE huge storm! I thought I knew what rain was, but I didnñt know anything! Sunday morning it started raining like CRAZY! I´m talking... you go outside and you feel like buckets of water are pouring down on you! It was fun watching it from the pension, because we´re 11 floors up and could see all the flooded streets that literally looked like rivers! Then we went downstairs and found out our street was flooded too!!! This is totally normal in other areas, but we live right in the center of the city where that never happens! Anyways... when we got to church finally at 9:40 there were only 9 people there (church starts at 9:30). Luckily more showed up later, but boy was it a fun day! Being a missionary is hard when it rains so much because no one lets you in and you´re soaked all day with mud-covered shoes, and just end up walking tons... but I liked it! :) Makes for some AMAZING puddle jumping!

This week our Noche de Luz performances start!!! YAY! :) For the next 3 weekends we´re going to be performing Friday, Saturday, and SUnday in all the different zones in our mission! I´´m way excited. It´s turned out really good. We have a choir of 10 sister missionaries and 10 elders, a flute, a violin, and a trumpet. AND... last minute Hermana Fitch decided she wanted me to sing in an octet too! So... I´m excited :) This is going to be a CRAZY hectic, but very fun few weeks! :)

Alright... well... time to get back to work. Ok... not quite... but I gotta bounce! :) Here´s an awesome quote for yal before I go..

" There is no greater blessing, no greater joy and happiness than comes to us from relieving the distress of others."

- J. Reuben Clark

I love you all! Find a way to help those around you this week! Even though it may not seem like it, everyone is in need of some sort of help. Be good, smile lots!

Besitos!

Hermana Churchill

PICTURES!!

1. CANDY TURKEYS!! missionary style :) I´m the yellow one, Hna Turley is the red one

2. Pie time! We made apple and banana, and our other hermanas made peach cobbler! Yumm.

3. hehe... we had a little too much fun with the candy turkeys... this is the baptismal photo we took of our turkey family... mommy, daddy and baby! :) "la pila bautismal" = the baptimal font

4. SOrry its dark, but this was our street on Sunday morning. It was 9:00 in the morning but looked like it was 9 at night! So much fun though!

5. Ice cream day :)

"Sister smiles" - RAUL GOT BAPTISED!! (**This is the real one!)

Ok... so I have to tell yal the best story ever!!

I can´t remember if I already told you about Raul, but... let´s just say... I am SOO happy!! The first time we met Raul he accepted a Book of Mormon from us, but basically said "Alright I´ll take it, but I hope you know I´m going to have a LOT of hard questions that no one has ever been able to answer, including all my previous pastors"... so... we were a little worried since bible bashing is not our idea of fun, but agreed and said we´d be happy to answer all his questions. And, sure enough... the next time we came he had some pretty tough questions. Funny thing is, though, that the answers were ALL in the Book of Mormon, and ended up being pretty easy to answer. Nonetheless, he was really hard-headed for the first few weeks we met with him.

After a while, though, Raul started to realize that every single thing we taught him was what he had always thought was the truth before, and that the Book of Mormon really was written by prophets who were called of God. We would ALWAYS ask him to pray specifically about it to get an answer, but he always just brushed it aside and said he knew it was a book from God. FINALLY, one day we asked him AGAIN, and he rolled his eyes and said " yeees, chicas.... i did it.... and you were right" and told us all about the experience he had :) We were so happy! The charlas just kept getting better and better from there. Also, he came to church every week, and in 2 weeks read the WHOLE book of mormon, the whole Principles of the Gospel book (i havent even read all that!), and asked us for a triple so he could read more! It was AMAZING!! Usually you have to hastle people to come to church!

Anyways, the date we had scheduled for his baptism came and he still wasn´t prepared because he needed to quit smoking and also just be more sure of it. He´s smoked a full pack every single day for 38 years, so quiting was going to be hard. BUT.... this man is amazing! When he puts his mind to something, he´ll do it!

Anyways... long story short(er), he quit smoking in a week, and set his own baptismal date because he wanted to do it! Funny thing too... he´s a PE teacher, and hasn´t worn anything but sweats and tshits in 25 years.... not even to a wedding or ANYTHING! One day we talked about this and why we dress nicely for church, and the night before his baptism he surprised us when he said "I have something to show you" and brought out black dress pants, a nice button up shirt, and a brand new tie!! He had bought it all for church! We were so excited.

So... Saturday he got baptised!!! It was so special. We´ve had baptisms before, but I was so happy this day, just because I knew the HUUUUGE change Raul had made in his life, and the person he has become. The entire service he couldn´t stop smiling, and when he came out of the water he had the BIGGEST grin and a big thumbs up!

Anyways, that´s my story for the week. I wish I could tell you even more, but it would take HOURS!! I am so grateful that I had the priveledge of meeting Raul and being able to share the gospel with him. The gospel really does change lives. I know this is the work of the Lord, and that we are all a part of it. I love my Heavenly Father, and I hope to be the best person I can be so that I can please him.

I love you! Be good, smile lots!

xo, Hermana Churchill

PICTURES!! YAY!!

1. Raul always calls me... in english.... "Sister SMiles" and always teases me for smiling so much. Every time we come to his house he always has a bag of cookies or alfajores waiting for us, and this week he was so excited because he found these cookies for me (sonrisas = smiles)

2. The mission leader filled up the font and there was a whole bunch of dust and stuff, so we had to try to clean it out SUPER quick before the service started!! (Hermana Turley and Vanina just said i was looking for an excuse to go swiming... :)

3. RAUL´S BAPTISM!! :) Hermana Asay (President´s wife) even got to sneak out of a stake conference to come!

6 MONTHS..... WHAT?! And... ELDER BEDNAR IN ARGIE!!

First off, today´s my 6 month mark! CRAZY! It´s pretty funny, because at the beginning of the mish it seemed to drag a little, but now it seems like I just left yesterday!!! And yet, I´m already 1/3 of the way through my mission. This is gonna fly, I can already tell!

In other news... Yesterday we had an AMAZING devotional with Elder Bednar. Last week I was told that I was going to play the flute during the program, but they took out the musical numbers last minute... bummer. So, I didn´t play for Elder Bednar. But I also saved myself a whole lot of nervousness! (... is that even a word in English?...)

Anyways, the devotional was absolutely amazing. It was with all 3 of the Buenos Aires missions, and we got to sit right in front of an apostle of the Lord and listen to him speak and answer questions for 3 hours. I think I learned more in those 3 hours than I have in my whole entire life! Elder Snow and his wife were also there, so we got to listen to some amazing messages from them as well. I wish that I could tell you everything I learned yesterday, but even I can´t write it all down. The most amazing part to me, however, wasn´t the words he said or what he told us. Rather it was how the Spirit was able to answer the questions. You have to understand, the whole time he had missionaries just ask questions and he answered them. But, even with 3 hours, he obviously didnñt have time to answer 600 missionaries´ questions. But... that didn´t even matter. I came with questions, some questions I forgot I even had, and although he didn´t specifically answer one of my questions, I left knowing the answer to every one of them because of the spirit there. It´s an amazing thing. Do whatever you can in your life to find that same spirit! Your entire life will change when you realize the unlimited love Heavenly Father has for you.

One specific part that I did like was when Elder Bednar talked about discouragement. A missionary had asked what he does as an apostle whenever he gets discouraged, and he replied in the most simple way, yet it really clicked with me. He said that if he is ever discouraged it is because he is worried about himself. The same goes for us. If we are ever discouraged, it is because we are worried about ourselves. If we quit worrying about ourselves then we won´t be discouraged! It´s that simple. I´ve definitely seen this in the mission, which is why I keep the quote from President Hinckley right above my desk - "Forget yourself and go to work". If you do this I promise you will be happier than ever before!!

Finally, I like the quote Elder Snow shared with us, which he always kept above his own bed on his mission...

"I don´t want to sit at the setting sun and hate myself for what I´ve done"

Think about that a little. I know that all of you are ABSOLUTELY amazing!! I love you and can´t wait to hear from you! Be good, smile tons, and help someone out this week! Love you tons and tons!!

Besitos,

Hermana Devee :)

NUNS?? Wait... what is it that i´m supposed to be again??... :)

Ok... anyone who knows me knows that there´s no possible way I could let a holiday go by without celebrating! So, of course it being Halloween, even though it´s barely even recognized here in South America, we HAD to dress up! I have to admit though, this was probably my favorite Halloween costume EVER. Mostly just because there´s good reasoning behind it. As missionaries, a lot of times people think we´re nuns, especially when they find out we can´t date or go dancing or any of that. SOO.... we decided to be just that for Halloween! :) Of course we didnt go out in public in our outfits, but we did have a blast surprising all the missionaries in our zone at district meeting by greeting them at the door as nuns with candy :) Hope you enjoy the pics!

ANyways... this week was great, but I´m especially excited for next week, because ... (drum roll)... ELDER BEDNAR is coming!!! YAY!!! So I should have some good stories for yal! Oh... speaking of.... My Pday next week is Friday instead of Monday, so you´ll have to wait a little bit to get my weekly letter.

This week was pretty good. It´s funny how much the actions and choices of others can affect you personally. We have 3 people who need to get confirmed, and we have been working SOOO hard to make it happen, but there seems to be SOMETHING that always happens. This week we ran around like crazy again on Sunday, and finally made it to church with one of the 3, but when we ran in the sacrament had already started, which usually means no confirmation. Luckily, though, he still got to be confirmed. So.. YAY!! Good things happen when you work hard!

Honestly, though, its been a huge test of patience, because a lot of times even if you do work super hard things might still not turn out how you want. But.. that´s life. You just got to roll with the punches, and remember that God knows everything, so there´s probably a good reason things don´t always turn out as we want.

Speaking of... my thought this week is short and sweet... its a talk from Elder Wirthlinñs talk in 2007 that I love:

"Do you love the Lord? Spend time with him, Meditate on His words. Take His yoke upon you. Seek to understand and obey, because "this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments¨. When we love the Lord, obedience ceases to be a burden. Obedience becomes a delight. When we love the Lord, we seek less for things that benefit us and turn our hearts toward things that will bless and uplift others."

I love you all. Go out and find a way to uplift those around you!

Love you tons!!
Hermana Dev

Pictures:

1. NUNS :)
2. Our Halloween in the mission! We got DRENCHED! This is the day we pushed the remis
3 and 4: A member gave us lunch but we had no where to eat, so we had to firgure out how to light the argentine stove in the church and then eat on cardboard boxes :)

HUGE rainstorm, water up to our knees, and pushing a car in skirts! Could it get any better?? :)

HOLY CRAZY WEEK!!!!! .... But man was it a good one!! Im sorry this is long, but it´s DEFINITELY worth the time to read it!!! :) :) :) First off, Friday was one of those days that just makes you feel good! We had a couple in our ward give us a reference of the wife´s mom, and tell us that they never give this to the missionaries, but they really like us and trust us so they want us to go visit her. It´s wonderful when people WANT to give you references, instead of begging for them :) Then we had a lesson with Miriam, who we´ve been teaching for 2 months now, but hasn´t ever got an answer as to whether she should get baptised. In the lesson she told us that she had prayed about it and got an answer and wants to get baptised!!! YAYYY!!!!!!! We were SOOO excited!!! :) So... that was the good day... then came Saturday.... Story time :) We started the day out by visiting one of our investigators and meeting his wife, but it turned into more of a marriage counseling session. It was really sad to see how couples treat each other sometimes, but by the end of the lesson everyone was more happy and content. As much as I dont want to be a marriage counselor, I´m really excited to go back and visit with this couple, because i KNOW the gospel is going to change their lives completely. It´s the best marriage therapy you can possibly find, and best of all... it´s free! So... that started our day. Then we went back to the pension to eat lunch, and got ready to go out with TONS of Books of Mormon and folletos (pamphlets), because Saturdays are always the BEST days! It was a little overcast, but didnt seem like it would rain, so we left our umbrellas. BOY WAS THAT A MISTAKE!!!! It started POURING rain.... and im not talking just a nice heavy rainshower... I´m talkin buckets of water falling down on us!!!! We were SOAKED from head to toe, right down to the bone! :) What made it even worse is no one wanted to let us in, or come outside because of the storm, so we were stuck wandering the streets trying to think of SOMETHING to do! *** side note... there´s a story in ´´Preach My Gospel´´ about a taxi driver in Mexico who´s driving in the middle of a rain storm and sees two young men walking, completely soaked, so he pulls over and tells them to get in, that he´ll take them wherever they´re going for free. The story ends up that these missionaries got to share the gospel with this cab driver and later he and his family all found what they were searchjing for... the gospel... and were baptised.**** Ok... now you know the PMG story... so while we were walking along we sais ´´man, where´s our taxi driver to save us from the rain?!´´ just joking around. That´s when we came to a big intersection that was completely flooded with water. On the other side was a car pulled over and a guy trying to push it from the door. As soon as I saw him i wanted to go help push, even though it was surrounded by water, and luckily my companion was completely in agreement! SO we ran over and told him we would help. He tried to politely refuse because he didn´t want girls to help him, saying that we would just get wet, to which we looked at ourselves, looked at each other, and just laughed (at this point there was no possible way to get MORE wet!) Instead of listening, we just jumped behind the car and started pushing. Then 3 women got out of the car and started yelling at the driver, saying they would just walk the rest of the way. So... with water almost all the way up to our knees, in skirts and backpacks, we pushed the car for about 2 blocks while running, and it finally started!!! Then the guy pulled over and told us to get in, that he would take us wherever we were going. At this point we were only a block away, so we nicely said no. He insisted, so instead we told him that it would make us even more happier if he would accept a folleto (pamphlet) from us. That only made the experience even funnier when, while still pooring rain, we pulled out a folleto and tried writing on it. Wet paper and wet pens dont make a good combination :) Anyways... that was our awesome rain story. It wasnt until later when we realized that he was a Remis driver (a remis is basically an argentine taxi), and that we really did get our taxi just like in ´´Preach my Gospel´´!!! We spent the rest of the time on the way home jumping in puddles and making up rain songs to help keep our spirits up. The BEST part of all of this, though, is that even though this potentially could have been the worst, most MISERABLE day, I think it was one of the best I´ve had in the mission, just because we were so HAPPY being out there as missionaries and being able to help other people, that all we could do was laugh! :) ANYWAYS.... I know this is RIDICULOUSLY long so I´ll get going. Maybe its missionary syndrome or something, because missionaries always write such long emails! Anyways... for those of you who made it to the end, I hope you enjoyed the stories :) It just proves that you can ALWAYS, ALWAYS be happy, no matter what the circumstances are or what the world throws at you! So.. go out and find something nice to do for someone else! I LOVE YOU ALL TONS AND TONS!!!! Thank you so so much for all the sweet messages and support! xo, Hermana Devee :)