Montanas rusas

Montanas rusas

It's been such a rollercoaster here--and you know how I don't like rollercoasters. We have lots of people progressing, then they all disappear, then we find more people who progress, and then they all disappear. Right now we're stuck her sin nada. Well, we have the little recently activated girls who are getting baptized on June 18th, but all the other investigators have kind of fallen away. But we've been in that sector of our area for a long time now and we're going to move on to another sector. Find new people, learn new streets and baptize tons of people! I'm really ready for a little change of pace and new faces. A fresh start!

So this week was kind of mas o menos and at the end of the week we were just very tired with not very many numbers (which is what our leaders are always looking for). And we didn't even get to meet president Arnold! I guess he techinically had his stuff in our house Saturday and Sunday but we were busy doing missionary stuff and he was busy doing Area President stuff and we never even got to see him! But he's coming for zone conference in July so I'm sure he'll be in the mission home then, too.

Zone conference was amazing. President talked about the atonement and how it works in our lives and how to help others to let it work in their lives. He also talked about  working more with the members--but more that we just help the members (like we have to walk around at church to meet all the investigators they bring and we're tired of filling up the baptismal font because it just takes too long). So this Sunday (on the 5th sunday) we're putting together a special class for our branch to map out our goals and show them how they can help us and show them a little more how they can do it. And tomorrow night we have a branch activity, so hopefully there will be some future investigators there for us to meet.

We also got to sing in a baptism for another branch on Saturday. My companion and I both sing so President Detlefsen sent us over, haha.

But I love going to baptisms and we got free food, so it was pretty great.

I've also been eating mandarinas (kind of like clementines) like the world ends tomorrow--but then Saturday came and the world didn't end and there I was just stuffed full of mandarinas. Too bad that evangelical guy was wrong. Now I'm all out of mandarinas.

And I would just like to say hi to Sister Orton, your daughter told me that you read my blog and that you love my mom because she's the only one from the missionary mom website that answers your emails. Whenever the elders ask us how our moms know each other and we say, "missionarymom.com" they just kind of groan a little bit. You know, that pained kind of groan that teenage boys sometimes do. But anyway, I hope you enjoy my letters home, haha :)

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Thanks for the prayers and letters and support.

Love,

Hermana La Playstation

President Arnold is coming.....

No, not for zone conference or anything, just for a YSA fireside, but he´s going to stay in my house! O sea, the mission home, but the area president is going to be down the hall from us this weekend. I´m a little scared. Needless to say, this will be the most strictly obedient weekend of my mission.

We had a good week with good lessons and commitments to go to church, but when we went by on Sunday nobody answered their door even to tell us they didn´t want to go... And we passed by EVERYBODY.

Investigators, ex-investigators, inactive members, less-active members--we missed Primary! But nobody... Then we passed by them again in the afternoon but they weren´t there. Ok one family was and they say their roof started raining Saturday night... and their entire house was flooded. So I guess we´ll take that as an excuse for now, but it better not start happening every week!

We´re struggling with Walter, who we thought was so golden at first.

He´s missed church 3 weeks in a row now and we´re going to have to change his baptism date for a second time. But he did just get kicked out of his house and lose his job... he´ll get there, we just need to be a little more patient.

Vanesa is doing well. She´s been reading the Book of Mormon and she likes how she feels when we´re teaching her, but she hasn´t prayed yet to know if the Book of Mormon is true. She said she would do it and we´re going to see her right after internet so hopefully she has good news for us. We want to teach her husband (well, her boyfriend), too, but when we´re there he´s either sleeping or working. Hopefully we catch him today.

We also do have zone conference this week, so I´m going to get to see Hermana Collette and Hermana Tingey! And I´m sure President is going to teach us some cool stuff.

Speaking of President, he and his wife have been learning English and right now their English teacher has them learning the song "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra, so I told President that it´s making me trunky (it´s a joke, I´m not really!!!) and so now whenever he sees me he turns the music off really fast. But he still keeps telling me every day that I go home soon and he shows me the papers he has to fill out for all those missionaries who go home in July. I think he wants me to feel like sudden destruction is right around the corner, but he doesn´t want me to think about home too much. I just keep doing missionary work.

Well I hope everything is going well on that end. I love you all!

Love,

Hermana LaPray

more transfers, one hermana "dead"

These transfers were CRAZY! We didn´t get time to write yesterday because Hermana Olsen was DYING. So we sent her home. It was really weird because now I´m in the next group of hermanas to go--but I´m just not going to think about that and work hard!

We´re doing GREAT with Walter--he hasn´t smoked since Tuesday and he loves how his lungs feel. He´s really excited for his baptism next Saturday. He´s a funny guy, he makes fun of me a lot (especially lately because I lost our cell phone... yeah... don´t judge me

please...) and always reminds me not to forget my shoes or anything like that.

The daughters of the Helmer family went to church on Sunday (they´re an inactive family with baptism-age girls). The parents didn´t go because their little boy was sick, but they´re excited to come this Sunday. We´re waiting on a baptismal date for them because our branch president is going to put a goal with their dad for HIM to be able to baptize them, and then hopefully they´ll be going to the temple at the end of the year!!! We´re so excited for them.

Oh and there´s more big news: We now live in the richest neighborhood in Bahía Blanca, Palihue. We live with President Detlefsen´s family.

Our house is currently being torn apart because the foundation was collapsing from underneath us and I guess that´s a bad thing. Now we live in the NICEST house and they give us food all the time and they have central heat and soft mattresses... I´m hoping these construction workers take 3 months to finish our house :) haha

Anyway, I´m so grateful that I can be a missionary right here, right now. They changed our zones to get ready for the third stake here in Bahía. We´ll be part of the "new" stake and it really helps us have more of a vision of what we´re working towards. This work is so great!!! The Lord is helping us so much right now, and I´m really grateful because I really need it.

Well, I´ve got to go now, but I´m excited to talk on Sunday :) If some old man answers speaking Spanish just ask, "está Hermana LaPray?" and hopefully I´ll be there, haha. You better not be trunky when you call me! And make a list of things to ask me, because I don´t know what to talk about. I don´t even speak English any more!

Love,

Hermana LaPray