February 27, 2012

Wow. City life is different. I forgot how nice the simple amenities of the city are. Being able to flush my toilet paper, not having to wash my clothes in my bathroom sink!! I love the city for that reason. It’s a different world here then in my last area. It reminds of my LA. Everyone is really laid back, into fitness and health...and believe it or not a ton of people speak English. I have seen a HUGE amount of progress in my Spanish this week. We speak it together a lot more and it been helping a ton! So in our apartment it’s Hermana Sperry and me, and then two other Hermanas from South America. Its fun because all the Latinas in our mission are asked by the church to learn English, and Hna Sperry and I are learning Spanish so we all help each other out and speak in Spanglish when were in the apartment. I think as a missionary you are given the gift to love in a different way then before you mission. I instantly love everyone I meet here as if I’ve known them for years... and a lot of the people I meet I feel like I have known for years. It’s weird.  The city (like everyone warned me) has a lot less receptive people. Most are more stubborn then in my last area.

My first bautismo is this Wednesday! I am so excited! Its little boy named Santiago. He is 9 years old and comes from a less active family. Last transfer they reactivated the mom who is probably one of my favorite people I’ve met so far in my mission. She was really closed off and not super receptive to the new missionaries because she really liked the other ones that left, but yesterday something happened (we don’t know what, we just know they were all sad and mad when we got to their house) so I shared my favorite scripture and after I bore testimony she opened up a lot and told me I'm welcome in her country when ever I want ha-ha. Didn’t know I wasn’t welcome before, but good to know I am now. Anyway, she’s a really good mom and a really good person. I'll attach a picture of Santiago. It will be a tough week though because her boyfriend that she lives with is getting back from a 2 month vacation this week and so we have to get them married so she can start following the law of chastity now that she is active again or they have to break up. Keep her in your prayers!

This week I was talking to Hna Sperry about the idea/inspiration I got when I was in the MTC, about as a ward member being able to teach the Gospel. I Want to teach the members, especially the youth how to teach what we believe because I wish I would have done better at that in High School, but I didn’t know how to teach. Anyway so I said ´´when I get back I want to help do that in my ward´´ and she said ´´HERMANA WHY WAIT. THATS AN AMAZING IDEA LETS DO IT IN OUR WARD HERE´´ so we have a vision of teaching the members how to teach and instead of us doing the missionary work and members helping us eventually our goal and the goal of the prophet too is the members doing the missionary work and the missionaries helping the members. I’m really excited about this! Were planning on teaching classes on how to teach and how to commit etc. I think it will be amazing and with time I really think it could take off! So don’t forget to do your missionary work!

Well like always, this week was an adventure, learning a new city, new people, new bishop, companion etc. But it’s been pretty smooth. The members in this ward are so helpful. We have at least one every day to help us and come with us to lessons. The youth are hilarious and teach us all the slang and make fun of our accents and even the tiny old ladies and men walk all over the city and come with us to help us teach. Hna. Sperry got her bag stolen this Wednesday...we don’t know how it happened she set it down for two seconds and I was talking to the ward member and she was making a phone call and then we looked back and her bag was gone. The funny thing was it didn’t have anything of value in it. Only scriptures and her Agenda...which is a big deal because I didn’t have a lot of the phone numbers and addresses she had because she has been here longer( by the way, lesson learned- I got everything important now in mine too) and her scriptures are of zero value to everyone but here..but all her markings and notes written in it. Well anyway we were walking back after it happened and talking and I said ´´you know, as long as were being exactly obedient and doing what were supposed to do, then we are protected and everything that happens is for a reason and part of the plan, so this has to be for a reason, maybe they’ll read the book of Mormon or something´´ she agreed and we joked about converting him. Anyway, about 3 days later our Mission Pres calls us....and guess what? The guy that stole it felt bad, called the presidents wife (her number was in her agenda in her bag) and turned it back in!! We couldn’t believe it. It’s in a different mission right now in Buenos Aires South, but in a few weeks she’ll get it back! How crazy! He obviously felt something if he looked at the stuff and felt guilty... so I hope who ever he is, and where ever he is he reads more into the church!! Our pres said were not allowed to meet up with him because he could be dangerous if he stole it, which makes sense so maybe Brandon Phillips will find him down in BA south someday!! Well everyone, I love you all tons and look forward to your weekly emails! Keep helping the missionaries in your ward and read your scriptures daily!! xoxox

Besos,

Hna. Marchant

Oh just realized I forgot my camera cord, so I cant send pics this week, next week for sure! and also I bird pooped on me this week right on the collar of my shirt!! ha-ha sick.

February 20, 2012

Hola!
Today we had transfers! I have bitter sweet feelings. I am with a new companion, Hermana Sperry. She is absolutely amazing. From the very first time I saw her she was going out of her way to befriend me and help me with the adjustment. I have a really, really good feeling about this transfer. She is fairly new also so she is a little worried to train, but I´ve been with her for 1 hour and she´s already doing awesome! Were in Urquiza now, which is very very close to Capital...or Buenos Aires. Dad did you serve here? I can actually flush toilet paper, and get my clothes washed in a real washer...not my bathroom sink. It's safe and clean, and I love it! This morning was a little sad to leave San Ignacio and Hermana Gillum. They were my firsts. First area, first companion! But she has one more transfer and then she goes home and I know she´ll rock it. Maybe I'll go back to San Ignacio in my mission to see those people again!

How was every ones Valentine's day? Mine was good! Hermana Gillum made me a scavenger hunt of little notes and then at the end the bathroom mirror was covered in little love notes! And after that we had a district meeting and the elders got us Valentine's Day cards with chocolate. It was funny because the only V-day cards they could find said ´´happy day for those in love´´ so they crossed it out put the chocolate on the back and wrote ´´happy day of the pure love of Christ´´ ha-ha.

This week was a week of recognizing blessings. We are so so so lucky to have all we have. Our investigator Lauti, the 12 year old had a rough week. We found out that his brother beats him, and this week was worse than usual. When we found out we went over to make sure he was ok and, he was. But I felt so bad for him. His living situation is so bad they don't even have running water in their house. They live in a shack and have a spigot outside of their house with tons of dirty dishes infested with bugs and other things surrounding it. That's how they shower brush their teeth...everything. It´s so sad. His mom is highly medicated at all times because she is schizophrenic and his brother beats him. His dad is nowhere to be found. He loves to skate board and play guitar and wants to learn English and live in the United States.. He couldn't even believe that his dreams are possible because of his situation right now. Well anyway that night I was reading the book of Mormon and writing in my journal and thinking about the events from that day and I came across Alma 5:33 and I don't remember exactly what it says but something like ´´repent, and I will receive you´´ and the thought came to mind that how I feel about Lauti.. Frustrated that he doesn't believe me and scared he won't do his part so I can´t do mine is how Christ feels all the time. He´s constantly saying ´´just repent and I'll take care of the rest...´´ and how many times do we say ´´no, I don't believe you´´ because of our lack of faith. How sad. Lauti might miss the opportunity of the life time now because of lack in faith... and we might miss the opportunity of enternity for the same reason. Something to think about.

Well funny story, a few days before any of that happened we were teaching the first lesson to them about the restoration. It was really spiritual and we were at the part talking about the apostasy and all the different churches taking only part of the truth and started a church. Hna Gillum and I were acting it out. we had different papers that represented all of the truth and she was saying ´´I'm the _______ church and I want this part of the truth´´ ´´I'm the ____ church and I want this part of the truth´´ and then she said ´´I'm the Jehovah witness church and I want this part of the truth´´´and at that second the dogs started barking because someone was at the gate in the front so we went to see who it was and guess who it was... two Jehovah's witness missionaries! Ha-ha we invited them in to listen and talk to us but they said no thanks! We all laughed forever! Well anyway I'm in a new area and I love it so far and I'm happy as could be! You are all in my prayers daily Thanks for everything and I miss you tons! xoxoxolove,
Hermana Marchant!

Remember Hermana Kapp. from the MTC my very first companion that moved up and we were best freinds so it was sad!! we see each other all the time and we love each other!!

Emiliano and Evangelina. she is a member he is her boyfriend going to get baptized in tw weeks

Found him dead by my bed. HUGE and i think was the culprit of my tennisball sized bite! sick

Feb 13, 2012

Hola!

We´ll this week was really good! I can now honestly say I'm starting to get the hang of this...I love this feeling, but am a little skeptical because usually that's how you know something hard is coming, right?!

I love the people of Argentina so much. Remember how much I loved the dogs before that I would feed them? Yeah, well now I've been chased down by 3 or 4 and my skirts been bitten by one...more scared of them now then anything! I see myself slowly becoming immune to little things. Things that before were such big deals. Bugs everywhere, sweat, people not understanding me... getting used to it all. Spiders I keep finding in my bed... that one I'm still working on getting used to. That whole ring worm scare last week? Nope, not ring worm just a huge spider bite. The bite was as wide as a tennis ball, red purple with a white ring around the outside and a black dot in the center. So gross. I had to get antibiotics and now I'm back to normal! I spray spider killer in my bed every night before bed and that seems to be helping. Yeah mom I know, bad harmful chemicals I'm sleeping with...I´ll be fine!

We´ve been working a ton with less active members, and it's been really rewarding. We have helped bring back a lot of people. Alfredo ( the old guy who was a little prideful about coming back to church and was waiting for members to come see him for years..I wrote about him last week remember?) He totally came to church this week! I was shocked! We walked into the church and there he was dressed all nice in his suit and tie sitting in the back alone looking around at everyone. I was so excited! We ran over to him and sat next to him and told him how good it was to see him. While we were sitting there in Sacrament Meeting next to Alfredo I was so overwhelmed with feelings and thoughts of ´´this is why I'm here´´. After Sacrament tons of his old friends ran up to him and hugged him and were talking and laughing and welcoming him back. It was really really cool to see! I'm excited to talk to him and see how he felt!

We set another baptism date. Ours keep falling through, so I'm really hoping for this one! As I said we have been working with less actives, and our bishop doesn't want baptisms until all the less actives are active again...impossible, I know. But Anyways so we have decided to reactivate less actives and baptized the family members not baptized in those families. Compromise. Well we went to the familia Trocha´s house this week. One lady, 2 sons, 1 daughter, and not sure what happened to the dad. The lady and daughter are baptized and inactive, oldest son is a gangster and the other son is 12 years old. Hermana Trocha is schizophrenic so she forgets she's a member sometimes. She´s really sweet though, a little out of it, but really sweet. She has dentures in her mouth and with each word she speaks the moved up and down ha-ha it's hilarious, and kind of sad. But anyway, the 12 year old is seriously amazing. I have never met such a confident special 12 year old. He is out going, smart, funny, respectful everything. Very mature for his age. Not baptized. He loves playing the guitar and skateboarding. But he´s the only one out of his friends that has a skate board so he loves to talk about it with us because we're from the United States and everyone there skates. He wants to be professional skate boarder in the United States one day. And wants to learn English more than anyone I've met. Well we got them to church and after we're teaching him about the Book of Mormon. He wasn't too excited about reading it so when Hna Gillum asked him if he would read it and started to hesitantly say ´´maybe´´ I said ´´we can give you a English one and a Spanish one and then as you read you can learn English´´ and the second he caught on to what I was saying (because it takes me 5 hours to say one sentence ha-ha) he started continuously shaking his head yes! He was so excited ha-ha. I figure, with his desire to learn English he will really be paying attention to what its saying and his desire for the words and the BOM its self will grow too! He committed to baptism in 2 weeks. Transfers are next week so we´ll see if I'll be here!!

Well overall my love for my mission and these people is growing everyday! The hard things are hard, but the good things out weigh them by far. I love you all and miss you tons! Besos

Hermana Marchant

Hello!
Hope everyone had a great week! We as you all know had to start over with all of our
investigators. It went well!! We have a lot of new ones. Our ward is really focusing on Less
Active members and is having us do that too. They are being difficult about baptisms and only
want us to focus on reactivating, so we are all working on a compromise. But we met a less
active member named Alfredo. He is absolutely amazing. We came to his door and the first thing
he said with tears in his eyes was ´´you don't know how long I have been waiting for you. it
gives me emotion to think you are finally here´´ It made me feel like ´´wow I really am where I
need to be´´ He got offended at church years ago and because of his pride that he knows he has
he was mad no one came to say sorry so he stopped going. We were the first ones to come visit
him in years. He said he reads the Book of Mormon all the time. I told him that ´´the Gospel is
perfect. The people are not. You need to come back to church. The people and what they said to
you doesn't matter what matters in your devotion to the lord´´ ...in broken Spanish of course ha-
ha and he said he knows, but he is really scared. So we are working on getting him to commit to
coming back! He is the cutest little old man you´ve ever seen though! He said he is glad that I
can understand some Spanish because usually one of the missionaries in companionships can't
understand ANYTHING. Ha-ha little did he know I could only understand every 5th or 6th
word...I'm good at nodding my head and pretending like I understand I guess!! Another random
(non member) we met said ´´I've been waiting for you guys to come to my door for a long
time...finally your here´´ also. That was two people in two days! So crazy!

While looking for another less active members house (which is almost impossible on 9 out of 10
of them because the roads and the addresses and houses and everything in so unorganized) we
asked a random guy a question about the road or something and he called us over and told us that
we shouldn't go in that area we were looking for because it's very very dangerous at this time of
night so we ended up talking to him for a few minutes and I fell in love right away. He is also a
little old man. He has ´´sickness of his heart´´ not sure if its cancer or what, but he said has dying
and only has a little time left. My companion was talking to his friend and I was attempting to
talk to him. He is different. I know we're going to baptize him. The second we started talking
I knew that we can help him. His name is Hugo. I couldn't get him out of my head that whole
night. We will see him again tonight or tomorrow! He is very closed to our message right now
because he's very Catholic, so I'm praying to be able present it in a way that he can feel!

This week we had a lot of rain! One day we were out working and one of the bikes broke (of
course) so we found a repair shop and got it fixed and got on our way. It started to drizzle right
then...thinking nothing of it we kept on going. Well before we knew it, we were at the farthest
tip of our area and it was dark and POURING. We started laughing because we are both accident
prone and disaster prone ha-ha doing our best to keep working we decided to stand under a bus
stop and talk to people waiting for the bus hoping the rain might calm down. Well 30 minutes
later, and 3 lessons taught later it started pouring even harder. We got a call from the Elders
telling us to go home so we started on our way. Little did we know, the roads turn into rivers
here when it rains hard! At first we were trying to avoid the water, but we were already soaked
and there was no point anymore. So we started going straight down the center of the road.
Laughing and singing the whole way. The sewer ditches along the side of the roads were over

flowing and all the other mystery puddles we usually avoid were all mixed in...Knowing there
was nothing I can do, and full of fear that I was going to get a disease, I blessed the water ha-ha.
Just like they teach us to do at members houses with drinks. Bless and ask that it won't make us
sick! We get home and that's when the laughing stopped and the annoyance started...the clean
up! All the papers in our bags...ruined our shoes....puddles with every step... clothes and bags:
soaked, muddy, and the weirdest awful smell ever! I don't even want to know what was on us ha-
ha. Plus when it rains we get tons of bugs in our house. Well to make a long story short I have
ring worm or something very strange and weird that sounds like the description of ring worm on
my upper thigh. I have to send the doctor pictures today and he will tell me what to buy at the
pharmacy tonight hahaha. Argentina never lets me down on interesting stories :)

This week was really good. Once I met Hugo (the cute old catholic man that is dying) I was
laying in bed and I was just thinking about how I can help him, then my mind started wondering
and I got SO excited about all the Lord has in store for me this coming 15 months. All the people
I can help, the good I can do, the changes that need changing all that are waiting for me!! I hope
you all are doing your missionary work there at home! I love you all and miss you tons! Stay
Happy. Besos!!

Hermana Marchant