Love you! :)

Hi Fam and amigitos!

First off... sorry this is later than usual! We had a CRAZY day today! Our zone all went to an island to play soccer on a beach there. It was AMAZING! It´s like a deserted little island with just a few houses and camp sites on it, but it´s huge. We got there and found out the path leading to the beach was flooded, so we got to go wading barefoot! :) It was a blast. Anyways, coming back we took the wrong bus and ended up traveling for 3 hours instead of 1.5. Not so great. But! All in all it was still a great day! And I FINALLY got to see the beach!!

We had a fun little week here in Olmos.... Here´s a few highlights:

1. Flavia, a member who hasn´t gone to church in 6 years that we´ve been working lots with, came out with us to go teach people this week! It was AWESOME!! She was so excited to go.

2. Familia Bustamante - This is the family from Peru that we met that I told yal about, who had gone to church for like 10 years and the dad had even given a talk. On Saurday they made us Lomo Saltado since they knew I loved Peru, and we had an amazing lesson. The dad started crying in the middle of the lesson because he wants to get baptized so bad, but in order to do so they have to get married and she doesn´t want to. It´s kind of a hard situation, but I´m positive everything will work out. Seeing his testimony and his desire to do what is right really touched me though, because I think many times we take for granted what we have.

3. Santa Rosa - Now that we switched areas, this is the only part of Olmos that´s a little shady and has villa. But we finally got to go there this week and had a blast! We were trying to look for a member´s house, so we knocked on a door to ask where they lived. The man came out and said "You´re mormons? I didn´t know that there are woman Elders". Turns out this house had a few family members that got baptised 5 years ago. Then NO JOKE like 20 other people came outside from the block (since they all know each other or are family) and just stood around us and stared while we talked. Kinda awkward at first, but it was great in the end because we got to teach a ton of them! I LOVE how receptive and kind the people here are!

Other than that, life has been crazy busy but wonderful all at the same time. :) But that´s how I like it. I hope all of you are taking the time to enjoy the blessings you have each day. Most importantly, that you realize the blessing it is to have family. Today we found out one of our members passed away who was rather young, leaving 6 kids (the youngest of which is 10) without a mom. It was completely unexpected. It makes you realize how precious our time here is, and how much we need to cherish every moment we have. So... make sure to tell those close to you that you love them, and then, even more importantly, show it. That way you can be sure not to have any regrets.

I love you all tons and am very grateful to have such great friends and family who support me in everything I do, including this great mission. I pray for you daily, and hope the absolute best. Be good... please? :)

xo,

Hermana Devee

Welcome to " The Hills" Mansion!

Man oh man is life GREAT!

We moved this week to our new pension.... our 4th move in 2 months! So now in 2 short months I trained, we opened a new area, and now we´re doing a "white wash"! CRAZY! Our new pension is AMAZING though.... almost too amazing. We get lost in it, and can´t hear each other. I think we´re so used to having to be SO close now because our last pension was smaller than a hotel room, that anytime I´m in the kitchen or something alone, I get super lonely and go to find Hermana Hill :) haha I love my comp! We are having so much fun together, and every day she´s loving the mission more and more. It´s great! Our pension is above Don Pedro´s Ferretería, and literally around the corner from the capilla, AND right in front of the bus stop. It´s SOO nice to be able to walk home at night and not have to look behind you every 10 seconds :). So no worries, we´re VERY safe!

We had some rocking experiences this week too. Moving was a pain, but we still got to find two really great families. One of them was like the 3rd contact we did here. We met Elisa, who was actually just visiting in her parents´ house, and had a great little chat and set up a cita go to her house the next week. The next day, though, we were walking in the same area and felt like we needed to go stop by. So we did and got to meet her parents, and it turns out that just a few days before the big change the Elders had contacted that house, too, and had set up a cita with the dad. Not only all this, but 30 years ago they were taking the missionary discussions too! It´s true that if you follow the Spirit it will show you exactly where you need to go.

The other family is the família Bustamante, who I already LOVE!!! They moved here from Peru 10 years ago and started coming to church, and have gone every week until they changed the wards a few years ago. The dad, who´s not even baptized, has even given talks in sarament meeting! They have an amazing family. Luckily, our Bishop is friends with them so he knew where they lived and took us to meet them. We already have a cita with them for Saturday, and they´re making us Lomo Saltado too... mmmm... :) haha. I´m way excited for their family though!

Well... time´s up. It always goes by so fast! I hope you all know how much I love you and am so grateful for all the support and letters! I´m a lucky girl. Stay strong and be good. Smile TONS, and go out of your way to do something nice for someone in need. You´ll find that you too will be happier by doing so! Les prometo :) Les quiero. Cuidense

xo, Hermana Churchill

The party just NEVER ends here in Olmos!! .... 4th pension in 2 months!

WOW!! I FINALLY have a p-day and get to email you guys! This is the first time in 3 weeks that we´ve had a real p-day because of the flood and moving, and we almost didn´t get p-day again this week because we´re MOVING AGAIN!!! Ay, ay, ay! But this time we´re excited. Sad to leave, but excited too!

K, so here´s the deal (now i can tell you since we´re not going to be here anymore... :). When we came to this area to open it, everyone was really worried cuz for some reason we had ALL of the villa in our ward (and the only areas where the elders get robbed), but the Elders´ area was way more tranquilo. (chill). It wasn´t too bad though.... we just made sure to stay away from those areas at night time, and walk very quickly if we thought something was going to happen. And... I LOVE our area!!!! It´s like my dream come true!! THe people are absolutely amazing here!

Well, not only was our area a little dangerous, but then we moved from the hermana´s pension to our new pension which wasn´t in the best area either. EVERYTHING around it is great, except our little street! We live in a tiny little apartment, and in our building there´s about 10 apartments in total, and we havent seen a single woman who lives there. Then, to make matters worse, they´re doing a lot of construction on our street, and at night there´s not a lot of light, and there´s ALWAYS tons of men who are always making cat calls (which is nothing new in Argentina, but when there´s SO MANY right where you live, its not so great). Not so great for Hermanas I guess. But... Dont you worry!!! The people who take care of the pensions found a brand new pension in Olmos that´s SUPER safe and right next to the capilla, so tomorrow we´´re moving there and the ELders are coming here to our pension. Poor kids. They´re the ones who picked out this pension and now they dont even get to live there.

So... that´s the deal now. We´re SUPER sad to leave our area because we´ve met so many amazing people, but it´ll be better this way. Plus, at least we´ll still be in the campo (country) and not in the city. Oh... and we´re gonna have bikes.... YESSSSSS!!!!! I´m so excited!

One other good thing, too, is that President is letting us keep a few investigators to come and visit, since we´re all still in the same ward. We´re WAY excited, because we´ve been finding some amazing people lately!! I think i might have mentioned it before, but this week we found a GINORMOUS family! THe Molina family basically owns Los Hornos. They are 15 kids who are all grown up now and all live super close to each other, and all have like 4-10 kids each of their own. Its INSANE! They invited us to a birthday party so we stopped by to say hi and meet the rest of the family, and there´s like 200 in total! :) I LOVE IT! Even better, this week we found out about half of them have already listened to the missionaries, and one of them, Jose, was even going to get baptised a few years ago! :) So... we´re really excited to see what happens with them!

Anyways, I´ve chatted enough. Sorry... there´s just so many exciting things going on, and i havent even said half of it! No worries... next week I´ll share even more! Hehe... hope yal made it to the end of this :) The work is going GREAT here in Argie though. It´s neat to see how Heavenly Father prepares people to receive the gospel. All it takes is for us to open our mouths and share it with others! So... Be bold, get some guts, and talk to those you love! It´s the best thing we can possibly do for them, introducing them to something that brings more happiness than anything else in this world.

I love you all tons!! Be good and smile lots!! Thanks for all the love and support!! :)

Besitos!

Hermana Dev

GOOD MORNING FROM ARGIE!!!

Man oh man... sorry I´m writing this a day late, but yesterday was absolutely crazy! But... good news.... WE FINALLY GOT OUR VERY OWN PENSION!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! No more sleeping on mattresses on the floor, or studying on the floor. This morning we about died while studying because we were SO HAPPY having a desk! The mission really teaches you to appreciate the small things in life.

Our pension is really funny though.... it´s TINY... all one room, with a tiny little kitchen nook, a desk, our closet, and our bed all together, and a little shower. Its super nice though! We took pictures to send but can´t find anything right now, so I´ll send it next week! Now we just need gas and a window that locks, and we´re set! I am finally getting the true mission experience of cold showers though. I couldn´t even do what allen did to heat water on the stove, cuz the stove doesn´t work either! Maybe tomorrow I´ll go out front and rub some sticks together and make a fire or something. :)

Anyways, things are going good here. We had transfers yesterday, too, and "The Hills" (me and hermana hill) get to stay together again! Yay! Oh... good news too... She´s doing great and finally decided she´s staying in the mission! Wew, was that a tough one! But I get to keep her, whoo hoo! Transfers was fun, and a bunch of my investigators and recent converts came to the chapel to see me, so I was super happy! Pablo (member) and Tatiana (his gf) came to visit and introduce me to Uma, their baby girl who was born a week ago, and they told me they´re getting married and she´s getting baptized! :) :) :) :) :) :) That right there is why I love the mission! Seeing people take the steps necessary to have an eternal family and to return to live with Heavenly Father and be HAPPY:.. that´s what its all about! :)

Anways, that´s all for now... I love you all tons! Be HAPPY... there´s nothin better! Smile lots, be good... and all that other good stuff!!

Besitos!

Hermana Devee

:) Sonríen! :)

Hi Guys!!!

So you know this country song... "And it´s a great day to be alive... i know the sun´s still shinin when I close my eyes...there are hard times in the mission world, but why can´t every day be just this good?!"

hehe... that´s our theme song for right now :) Life is wonderful, as always! This last week... honestly.... was a little stressful.... my comp is still very homesick, and i got really stomach sick the whole week, but it´s still WONDERFUL! :)

This week we worked a lot with the members who are less active, and had alot of amazing experiences with them. Then, on Sunday we had a blast! Not only did all the less active members that we visited come to church, but also Renzo (who´s 11 and is an "investigator" because he´s still not baptised) got up and bore his testimony for the first time in his life! Ok... back track... i have a little story to tell you...

Renzo is an example for all of us. His family has been members since forever, but quit coming to church about 20 years ago, so he´s never gone. We decided to go and meet them, though, and while everyone went out to play in the swimming pool Renzo stayed in to study the Book of Mormon. Then, during the week his brother found him in the kitchen reading, and tried talking to him, but he said "shh, i have to read these chapters the hermanas left me" and read everything! THEN... to top it all off, his family wont take him to church, so instead he comes over to his aunt´s house every Saturday and asks if they´ll take him the next day to church. Talk about an amazing kid! I think we can all learn from him. Not everything is easy or handed to us in life. We shouldn´t shy away from grand opportunities simply because they take a little sacrifice. In the end, they all pay off.

Alright.... sadly I´m out of time, but hey... I think this is the record for the shortest email i´ve ever written :) hehe.... oops. ANyways... enjoy the pics, be good, and smile tons!

xo, Hermana CHurchill

PICS:
1. In front of the cathedral in La Plata
2. This is where we LIVE... sleep, study, eat, plan, everything. Cute huh ? Someday we´ll have a pension of our own.... some day....

?!??!?...?!?!....?!. <-- That´s how life goes sometimes. :) But isn´t it wonderful?? :)

Hi fam! Well.... I´m a little drained this week, but doing great still! This last week added about 5 years to my life, I think. But, all went well and Ramon got baptised on Saturday!! It was great! He´s been investigating the church on and off for about 3 years, but finally got baptised on Saturday, and is loving it! Sunday was great too, because we got to give talks! It wasn´t just on missionary work, though... the WHOLE sacrament meeting was about SISTER MISSIONARY WORK! It was awesome. Me and hna Hill gave talks and 4 RM sisters shared their testimonies... it was amazing! Alright, so this week was pretty entertaining... here´s just 3 of the reasons: 1) SPIDERS - Last night while doing laundry on our porch behind the pension, I noticed a huge spider chillin on its web in the garden (of weeds) that we have... the only thing is it was HUGE! And weird too.... i really want to find out what kind it is. All i know is it was silver with fangs. So, we decided to catch it in a bucket. It almost got away, but we caught it, and took lots of pictures. While out there, though, someone closed the sliding glass door so it wouldnt get in the pension, and it Locked....meaning we were locked out... all 4 of us! Luckily we didnt lock the front door, so we climbed over the big wall and got in. But man was it a close call! 2) PIGEONS - We have a family that we´re teaching right now who is great, and is planning on getting baptised in a couple weeks. We went on Tuesday and they told us that the pigeon Camilo had got away (yep... a stray pigeon he brought homefrom the park to be his pet), and that he was devastated. While we were teaching them, though, in flew the pigeon! They were all amazed and kept saying it was because we were there, and that it was sent from God. The only thing is that this pigeon creeps us out! Then, the next cita we had on Thursday, the pigeon had left again, and while we were talking Camilo ran in with the pigeon and said (in spanish) " Look! He came back! He came back!" So now they always say the pigeon is sent from God. ...We just smile.... 3) EX-CONS? - One day we saw the brother of one of our investigators, so we stopped to say hi. As we were talking with them, more and more friends kept showing up, so we kept teaching more and more of them and giving out more and more folletos. I don´t know if you remember, but here in Olmos they have both the women´s and the men´s prison. We found out while talking to them that one was an ex con who never believed in Godbut "found God while he was in prison". Mom.... it made me laugh cuz it reminded me of you GLS rap CD since the artist who made it did the same thing. :) So... we decided... man, wouldn´t that be perfect... everyone only knows Olmos for the prisons, so now we´re going to have a baptism of ex¡cons! Don´t you worry.... we´re safe... it was just a funny moment. Anyways... those are our stories for the week that basically describe how random and twisted our week was. But hey... that´s what makes the mission so exciting... you never know what to expect! ANd just as soon as you think you´ve seen the weirdest, something else happens that always beats it :) I love you all. The church is true... no doubt about it! There is nothing better or that brings more happiness than following Christ and being obedient in all things. Les prometo. Smile tons, and go out of your way to help someone who is in need this week.

Un besito grande! Hermana Churchill

BRRRR!!!! .... haha.... SIKE! :)

Hey everyone! How´s life in the cold, icy states? ha.... so weird.... we´re MELTING down here! But... good news... we got a fan! Still no pension though. They already have it all picked out and everything, BUT.... just to our luck... the place that does the contracts is on vacation right now... just like the rest of Argentina. So... we´re still sleeping on our mattresses on the floor, and being very creative with eating (since we have one knife and one bowl in the pension for 4 people), and shower schedules for 4 hermanas in the morning. But heck... life is great! I´m still completely in LOVE with my area, and it just keeps getting better and better! Well... 2 things that really stood out to me this week were 1) how to be a good member, and 2) how awesome the gospel is! Haha... dont worry ... i´ll explain :) So the first... Our ward is amazing here! In the 3 weeks we´ve been here, we´ve only eaten lunch in the pension ONCE, cuz every day members feed us! Its awesome! It´s funny though, cuz here even all of our investigators ask us to stay for lunch. The people here are so amazing. SO many have basically nothing, but always are offering us stuff. It shows you wants really important in this life. Another cool thing about our ward.... here´s an example... one day we got a phone call from an hermano who said " Hermanas, i have about 6 references of full families for you guys to visit, can you come over and get them?" FAA!!! This ward never ceases to amaze me! I have definitely learned, in MANY ways, how to be a good member. 2) Ok... the 2nd thing I love is that i really dont have to do ANYTHING here! Ok... thats a lie... i do have to work... but my FAVORITE thing about being a missionary for the true gospel and the true church of Jesus CHrist, is that I don´t have to convince ANYONE of ANYTHING! It´s awesome! Not a single person has to listen to me! All a person has to do to know if it´s really true what we claim, is to read the Book of Mormon... even a tiny part.... and PRAY... and they´ll know! Never has anything so great been so easy! So... that´s my invitation this week, to just do the experiment and see what happens. It´s so easy. If you have a sincere heart and real intent, you´ll feel and know it´s true... every single part! And if you´re already a member, DO IT AGAIN! It never hurts to ask. I promise that every time you do this experiment, yoúr testimony will be strengthened I love you all tons and I LOVE hearing from you! Thanks for the support! It has been an insane 3 weeks here with everything going on, but I´m loving every second of it (minus the marriage proposals... but thats a story for another day :) ! Be good and smile tons! Besos, Hermana Churchill