´´ They walked... and walked... and walked... and walked.... ´´

Man are our feet getting a beating!! This week we have been running like crazy!! Literally :) We started Noche de Luz practices and have had to cram in everything else so tight, but somehow we´re still getting everything done! It´s funny though... I thought my life was SO hectic and busy before the mission, but now.... it´s just a more organized version of busy :) Funny moment of the week... we had stake conference this week, and 2 of our investigators came with us to the church, one of which was Raul, the man with the broken arm who has a baptismal date in 2 weeks. Anyways... we were sitting in conference and they started to do the sustainings, so we were explaining what it was and how by raising our arm to the square we show that we will support the people who are being called to each position , and so on. Anyways... when we explained this in the middle of it all he raised his hand and said ´´well, can i do it for you too? I want to support the two of you too because you´re angels.´´ :) It was nice of him. We explained quickly so he put his hand done, but it was pretty funny. Gotta love the little moments that make you smile :) This week I´ve really thought a lot just about how incredibly happy I am, and for SO many reasons. First off, I love my mission. Being able to serve people all day, every day is a dream come true, and brings more happiness than imaginable. People always talk to us about how terrible it must be not watch movies, listen to the radio, or even talk to our family more than a single email each week, but really.... I wouldn´t have it any other way right now. I don´t even notice those things. The quote from.. President Benson I think... about how when we put things in order in our lives and put God first, then all other things will fall into place or drop out of our lives completely... is so true! When you really focus on what´´s most important, all the trivial, meaningless things don´t even matter. I´ve also realized how much I LOVE studying. Have you ever realized how many amazing books and talks there are, that tell us EXACTLY what we need to do to be happy? Yet somehow we still are too busy to read them and apply them to our lives. I know that´s how I was at least. There´s one book in particular I´m talking abuot... yep, how´d you guess it... the Book of Mormon! It´s AMAZING!!!!!!!! By far the coolest book ever!!! :) But it´s SOOO much more than just a book too! It´s literally the answer to every question, the crutch we need for every trial we face, and the boost of energy we need just to get through the day! Speaking of the Book of Mormon, we started a new goal as a mission this week, to start over and read the entire Book of Mormon this transfer. BUT... not just read it. Rather, we´re reading it and marking a vertical line in the column of each part that applies specifically to us at this point in our lives. I really like this challenge, because at different times in our lives there are different parts that apply to us. SOOOOO... I want to invite each one of you to do the same challenge with me!!! A transfer is a long time... 6 weeks... so it´s not terribly hard. Only about 15 pages each day and you´ll be good. But instead of marking it like you normally would, ONLY go through and mark the parts that apply specifically to you. I promise that you will find the help or the answers that you are searching for, no matter what it is! Put it to the test, and ´´experiment upon the word´´!!! :) Les prometo muchas bendiciones!! :) Anyways.. I better get going. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures!! Sorry this email is kinda long.. I´´ll be better next week :) I love you all tons!! Have a wonderful Halloween!!!! ANd send me lots of pictures :) I´m sure I´ll have some good ones for yal next week. But... our costume is a secret... you´ll just have to wait and see :) BESITOS! Hermana Devee

Talk about the perfect companionship!!! ... and pictures finally !!!

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!! This week has been AMAZING!!! First off, my new companion Hermana Turley....I absolutely LOVE her!!! Funny thing too... We were talking one day, and I asked her where she lived in Provo before her mission, and it was Carriage Cove, the same place I lived!!! We talked more and realized she lived in my same ward, and even with my same exact roomates Mindy and Allie, before she left (which... i moved into Carriage Cove 4 days after she left!! Craziness!). SO.... this means we know all the same people and have a ton of the same friends!! Even funnier is that we´ve discovered we are super alike and even have the same exact missionary shoes and clothes. Pretty funny! haha. Needless to say.... I am LOVING this new companionship I´m in! :) So... for those of you in CC... yes, i finally met Kaylee Turley, and now she´s my comp! :) To make it even better, we had a ROCKING week this week! We taught more lessons than we´ve ever done in this area, set a baptismal date with Sonia, a woman we´re teaching in Escalada, got Raul to come to church just by showing up at his house, AND.. best of all... found a family that has 13 KIDS!!!!!! We met them while knocking doors, and not only did they invite us in to talk, but later we found out that 10 years ago they were listening to the missionary charlas!! (aka discussions). Pretty cool huh?!?! So... we´ll see what we can get going this time. Apparently they weren´t prepared to receive the gospel 10 years ago, but maybe this is their time! We´ll just have to wait and see... So I have a SUPER cool thought for yal this week! It comes from a lesson in the Argentina MTC and 1 Corinthians 9:26¨ ´´I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air´´ One of the hermanas explained that in boxing, when a boxer goes to hit and misses, it wastes 7 times more energy than if he had hit his target. We can apply this in our own lives, in that when we don´t go straight for the goal or target we have, we´re like one that ´´beateth the air´´... simply wasting energy and time. Instead, everything we do should be things that are centered on our target. I really like this analogy because I know how easy it is to get distracted. (Honestly... my attention span is worse than that of a 5 year old!) Really, though, we need to make goals of what we want to do and how, and then focus all of our efforts upon that. Then we won´t waste energy on the things that dont matter. So... think about what´s most important to you in your life, and how you can focus on that to achieve your goals. Thank you a TON for the support and love!! I can´´t even start to explain how happy I am right now!!! I love you all tons and tons!! xo, Hermana Dev PICTURES!! FINALLY!!! 1. Angel´s baptism2. Cookies for hermana reyes´ 1 year! 3. Pizza Hot :) Argentina´s Pizza Hut4. Marta and Diego´s baptism!!! I LOVE this picture!!! They´re my favorite :) Sorry no pics of me and Hna Turley yet... they´ll come soon though!

TRANSFERS!!!! WHOO HOOOOOO!!!!

Alright... so i have 10 minutes to email yal, so this is gonna be short!!! Man was today crazy....

First off, it was transfers meeting! Saturday night we found out Hermana Reyes, my companion, was leaving, and now I´m with Hermana Turley who´s from Conneticut. Two gringas!! Whoo hoo!! SHe´s SUPER cute and I already love her! She and I are both in Noche de Luz together, and this week we start practices... about 5 hours a week! Crazy eh? But so much fun too! I also got to play ´´My shepherd will supply my need´´ ... the mo-tab one... on the flute with 2 elders on violin and piano and 4 elders singing... it was amazing!!

Alright... so this week was super fun! I got to do intercambios (exchanges) again with Hermana Strasser, which I loved! We even got to go to the villa (ghetto,... but WAY more ghetto that any US ghetto :) and taught a lot of lessons to the people I met last time. And of course we had a little fun too :) Funny moment of the week was when we were walking along and.. you know how tennis shoes on telephone wires means thats where drug-dealers live, but its small so its kinda hush hush? Well... we were walking along and I looked up and I saw this... but not just one pair... literally like 30 pairs of tennis shoes on this one wire!!! Guess it´s not such a secret here :)

Then on Friday we got to do another radio show!!!! Hermana Reyes recorded it, so hopefully sometime I´ll be able to send it to yal so you can listen. It was really neat though, being able to share my testimony with so many people!

Aside from all that, this week has been pretty tranquilo. It´s starting to get hot here, thank goodness! I´m sick of the cold! With everything going on back home and here in the mission, though, I´ve really come to realize how blessed we are in our lives. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who I know is always watching over us.

Anyways, I love you all and pray for you every single day!!! Take care, be safe, smile TONS!!! And go and do something nice for someone else today!

Con Carino,

Hermana Devee

I´m famous now!! :) Radio show and a baptism... could it get better?

Ok, ok.... so maybe not quite famous, but this week we got to be on a RADIO SHOW!!!! It was pretty sweet! One day me & my comp were walking down the street and we saw a little sign for a radio station, so we decided to stop and ask if they would announce General Conference for us. In the end, they asked us if we just wanted to have our own show, and gave us a WHOLE HOUR to talk about whatever the heck we wanted!!! So... Friday we went with 4 other elders from our zone, and got to talk all about the Restoration of the church, the Book of Mormon, conference, and listen to MoTab! Pretty sweet huh???? Afterwards they offered to have us back again, so this Friday we´re probably going to do it again!! It´s an AM station, but you can also listen to it on the interenet at www.radioindependencia.com.ar from 12pm-1pm on Friday (that´s Argentine time... I think that´s like 8 am Seattle time, or something like that).

Speaking of conference... wasn´t it AMAZING????? I LOVED it! I can´t even explain how wonderful it was! This week was absolutely exhausting, since we had the radio show and were working a ton to invite people to conference, and we had to prepare a baptism for Sunday. Whoof! Even so, Friday night I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve... I could not sleep! I woke up so many times, and when it finally hit 6:30am, I jumped out of bed!! haha. It was a wonderful weekend though. It´s funny because a lot of people think going to all 4 sessions is so much time, but I wish there were more!!!

Oh... yeah... skipped a little detail... ANGEL GOT BAPTISED ON SUNDAY!!!!! WHOOO-HOOOOO!!!!! Angel is the guy who showed up at church and beasically said ¨Hi I want to be baptised, what do i need to do? ¨ :) Wonderful, wonderful! So, we had the baptismal service in between the sessions (a little tricky since that left the whole chapel without running water for people to wash their hands). All went well though. One fun part, too, was the talk from Maxi, a pre-missionary in our ward, who HATES public speaking and gets super nervous. We asked him to give one of the talks, and he DID NOT want to do it. But... the night before, we went to his house and had a super fun lesson about how to give a talk... Hna Reyes helped him write it and I taught him how to present it... that was fun. Anyways, when he got up to give his talk he surprised us by memorizing the whole thing!!!! He did great!!

Anyways.... that´s pretty much my fun for the week.... Radio show, General Conference, and a baptism!!! Not a bad week :)

Well I hope life is wonderful back home, and hope to hear from you all soon! SMILE LOTS!!! Jesus loves you :) .... and I do too!!

Besitos!

Hermana Devee

(no subject)

What a week, what a week!!! I think it was a little more hectic and crazy back home than it was here, but I´m glad to hear everyone is safe and still alive! :)

Anyways... Only 2 weeks left until tranfers!!!! Yay!!! I love transfers time... and not only because all the missionaries in the mission go to Burger King together... :) Last week we had interviews with President Asay, and he said there´s a good chance I might be changing companions. Of course we still don´t know, but it´s exciting just because I love changes!!

Well the mission is great. Time is SO weird here, because some days seem SO long, and then before you know it the week is already over! I´ve already been here for over 4 months... crazy! And it´s only going to go faster since we´re going to start practicing for noche de luz soon. Our area is doing great though!! This week we found 17 new investigators!!! Pretty sweet, since thats about as many as our area had each transfer (6 weeks) before. We´re loving it, and just trying to push forward and work hard.

Wanna hear something exciting?? This week is GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!! Party time! Party time!!! Man, I am so stinking excited!!! It almost feels like Christmas!! With it being conference week, though, I have a VERY, VERY, VERY important challenge for every one of you!!!! Find someone... a friend, coworker, neighbor, ANYONE, and bring them with you to one of the sessions of conference!!!!!! You have no idea what a difference it will make!!! We were talking, and a lot of missionaries said that every single investigator who has gone to conference wanted to be baptised. Why?? BECAUSE THEY GOT TO HEAR A PROPHET OF THE LORD SPEAK!!!! What could be better?! This is an opportunity for every single person to listen to an actual prophet, who has been called of God to speak in his name, talk to US! So... that´s my challenge. If you´re a member... invite someone! If you´re not, talk to someone you know who is LDS and make the arrangements to go Saturday or Sunday!! You will NEVER EVER regret it, I promise!!!! If there is any question you have or any problem you´re facing, take it to conference and i PROMISE you´ll get an answer!!

I love you all. Be safe, don´t sleep while driving, and as always... SMILE tons!!! :)

Besitos,

Hermana Churchill

Life is WONDERFUL :)

Buenos Dias a todos!!!!

Man is it a beautiful day in Argie land! We had a great week this last week, and are getting ready to have another great one! First off... CONGRATULATIONS AARON AND YUKA!!!!! :) :) :) I´m a new auntie! ... again :) YAY!!! Sukai is GORGEOUS and I´m so excited to meet her!! ... in ... a year. haha. And Beanie Bear... you look gorgeous too!! Keep that smile going.

Anyways.... Yesterday we had 2 BAPTISMS!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! Marta - the mom of Marcela, Daniela, and Leo - and her other hijo Diego got both got baptised yesterday, and man was it wonderful!!! I know I´ve probably told you about them tons, but even so I love talking about them because they´re the perfect example of how wonderful the gospel is and how much peace and happiness it brings to people´s lives!! We met this family my 2nd week of the mission. Apparently other missionaries had gone by before, but never had taught them. When we passed by, we were talking in the gate when the mom came out, skinny as a stick and in tiny clothes with her hair crazy, and told us if we were going to talk we had to come inside so the neighbors didn´t get mad. We were kinda thrown off and didn´t know what to do, but ended up having an awesome lesson with there family, and have been teaching them ever since. At the beginning Marta was a mess... and she says so herself! She´s had a TON of hard things happen to her and her family, and has gone through things I can´t even imagine. When we met her she was always depressed and sick, and always had something to complain about. Now, though, she´s ALWAYS smiling, and is always out and about talking to neighbors and playing with her kids. I LOVE going to their house, because in every lesson it´s a fight for who gets to choose the hymn and who GETS to say the prayer :)

Plus, this week Marcela (17) went out with us for her first time to teach other people, and it was amazing! She ALWAYS wants to share her testimony, and always wants to help other people. She even says that she wants to serve her own mission, as does her little brother Leo. They´re SOOO wonderful. Basically... I´m in love with this family!! :) It´s true.

Anyways... I gotta head out. Today we had a district asado (AKA amazing BBQ... but way better than a BBQ) so I´m all out of time. The big thing that I´ve realized this week is how wonderful studying is!!! There is so much to learn about and grow! So, I just want to encourage all of you to take the time to study the scriptures this week. Not just read them, but actually STUDY them. You´ll be amazed at what you´ll learn and how much happier you will be.

MILLIONS of kisses to all of you!! Love you all tons and tons!!

Con cariño,

Hermana Churchill

AKA Devee :)

Argie time!! :)

I am BEAT! But man does it feel good :)

SOO.... today was WONDERFUL! Sorry about the delay in the email, but this week our p-day was switched to Tuesday because we got to go to the temple!! WHOOOO HOOOOO!!! Sadly, though, it was my first and last time going to the Buenos Aires temple, because they´re closing it for 2 years in November to do rennovations :( sad day. But at least I got to go, and boy was it wonderful!!! :) So, this is my temple shout out to everyone... whatever it takes, BE WORTHY to go to the temple!! If you´re not right now, then get worthy!! If you are, then make time to go!! The temple is a PHENOMENAL place, and the feelings and thoughts you have while inside are better than anything else imaginable. If you don´t know what the temple is... well.... let me know... I´ll fill you in :)

(Oh... PS... while at the temple... Josh McDaniel, one of the Hermanas from Lanus said she was talking to you a few weeks ago and said hi to me for you :) It was awesome! And Allen... while walking back from the temple I met your ¨hijo¨.. pretty funny... i dont remember his last name but it starts with an M... he says hi! )

So.. this has been a pretty mixed up week. Wednesday I spent the day in Capital doing paperwork for my visa... not so exciting... but we did get to have a sleep over with Hermana Fox (my MTC comp who i LOVE) and another hermana... and Thursday we had zone conference... yay! Zone conference is always amazing, but this one was especially fun because I got to play the flute with another Elder playing the violin and another on the piano. I am SO happy I get to play!! We also got to talk about all the awesome experiences we´ve been having, and the crazy number of miracles we´ve seen! Before our ward was pretty cold to missionary work and not interested, and finding people to teach was difficult. Now, though, we´ve been finding tons of people who want to learn more about the gospel, and the ward is starting to see it and get excited!! Yay!

So.. thought of the week is from the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon. Can I just say that I love Alma the younger? Anyways... He´s talking about the experience he had with repentance and how wonderful it is to be forgiven of his sins. Sorry I dont have the english scripture, but I LOVE Alma 36:21... ¨No podia haber cosa tan intensa ni tan amarga como mis dolores. Si, hijo mio, y tambien te digo que por otra parte no puede haber cosa tan intensa y dulce como lo fue mi gozo. ¨Or... basically he says there is nothing as intense or bitter as the pain he felt, but also there is nothing as intense and sweet as was his joy when he repented. It´s SO true to. So many people suffer because of things they have done in the past and the guilt the feel. Imagine, though, that if they repent the joy they feel is just as intense, if not greater!! We are SOO incredibly blessed to have the atonement and the opportunity to repent of ALL of our sins! Our brother Jesus Christ suffered for us so that he could help us. All we have to do is turn to him and he will take off the burden and we can be HAPPY again!!! :) There is nothing sweeter!!!

Well... I love you all more than you can even imagine!!! I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve. I´ve only been gone four months, but I am already amazed at the difference this has made in my life, and will be eternally grateful for the chance I´ve had to serve in this amazing work!! Thank you so much for all the prayers and support!! :) Les quiero

Con carino,

Hermana Dev :)

PS.... BYU updates? Anyone? :) :) :)