Sept 24, 2012

WE FINALLY BAPTISED HERE IN CONGRESO. With last transfer being my first and hopefully ONLY transfer with out a baptism we finally baptized here, and started this first week of this transfer awesome! Her name is Margit (forgive me for not telling you all the weekly progress of each investigator, but I remember reading missionary letters before my mission and thinking BORING about the weekly updates of people I didn´t know) She´s probably one of the strongest converts I´ve had on my mission! It’s actually a cool story.

So Friday (the day of her baptism) we went to the church to fill the water. It takes about 3 hours to fill so we planed to go work while it was filling. But if you guys remember a few months ago the water over flowed once........ok twice times because we wanted to be proactive and work while it was filling. ha-ha so I was scared, but it´s better then wasting time so we left anyways. Well we planned to come back and set everything up so we could turn off the water and have time to clean a little bit and get it all cute for her baptism but with the craziness of missionary work we were late......LATE. I knew the water was going to be everywhere, and on top of it our member that was a woman bailed so we had an investigator who is a man and us two Hermana’s... which means we couldn’t all go into the church with out another woman. But I didn’t want to leave him out side waiting for an hour so in my mind I was freaking out. Well finally after getting to the church extremely late waiting to see a wave of water rushing out of the door we walked in and there was nothing. Confused we ran to turn off the water and it was already turned off with the perfect level of water...and cleaned. Someone took out all the nasty bugs! Luckily there was another member (woman, so we could all go into the church) there so we ran to tell her thanks for turning off the water and she said ´´I didn´t do anything I just got here´´.  We called the other elders from the other ward and they said they didn’t do it either! It was kind of a miracle! Well Margit was baptized.

The ward was AMAZING. they actually brought deserts and drinks and flowers (nothing like the other wards I´ve been in) the bishop was happy. It was the best day ever! 

Yesterday we did a ward activity. We all went to Congreso (the big government building...its actually really legit and famous you should all Google it) and split off in twos and talked to random people there. It was a normal day for us, but the members were so proud of themselves. They found a ton of people and gave us the addresses of the people they found and we handed out books of Mormon and Ensigns (magazine). One member said ´´I SHARED MY TESTIMONY. I DONT KNOW HOW IT TURNED OUT BUT I GOT THE ADDRESS FOR YOU´´.  He was sooo proud it was cute! Its going to help so much because so many members are soo scared to talk to people of the gospel but if they conquer there fears with us in activities like this one then it will become easier for them every day to do it at work, with their friends, in the subway..everywhere! It turned out awesome! This ward is really small but really cute. They are super supportive of everyone! Well I  love you all a ton! Xoxoxoo

Abrazos,

Hna. Marchant

Sept 17, 2012

¡Hola!

Well we had transfers yesterday...but everything stayed the same here in Congreso!! We’re both really happy!

This week was good. Remember Romina (my little convert from my old area who I always talk about)? Well, she and her family are like best friends with a family here who (half of the family) are recent converts. Small world! So she came this week and we got to see each other. She came with us to do some visits and after we didn’t have lunch so they fed us Peruvian food. It was good, we both cried when we saw each other. I know we were ‘besties’ before we came to earth.

I really love the mission. Thinking back on this past transfer (which absolutely flew by) I can´t help but feel extremely grateful for the fact that I have the gospel in my life; and that I was chosen to be the one to come to Argentina and preach it.

It´s interesting how life works. How we're all a little part of one big plan. I can see how Satan is working to destroy families. If ´´eternal families´´ wasn´t our ´´claim to fame´´ and one of the most important things in this gospel why else would Satan be working so hard to destroy it? Sometimes I wonder how someone could NOT believe the gospel. Especially if you love your family and want to be with them forever, after this life too. To me seems like you would do what ever you have to do to be able to be with your loved ones forever. Well luckily we know that there is a way. Through the gospel we can go to the temple and be sealed forever with our family. I know that it’s true. That our families can be together forever, and I feel extremely grateful to have my eternal family supporting me. So, thanks family! You guys are the best.

I spoke in church yesterday again; On obedience. I actually kind of like speaking in church now. Huge change, I know! Well that’s about all. I love you all tons xoxox

Love,
Hermana Marchant

Sept 10, 2012

This week was awesome!!

We had the dedication, the fire side with Elders Eyring, Balard, and Christofferson, the stadium performance (parade thing) - everything went well.

Yes, I saw Brandon! (Brandon Phillips is John and Voniece Phillips’ son in the Bs.As. South Mission).  I don´t have any pictures because we weren’t allowed to bring them to any of the activities. Sad. But I´ll still never forget this weekend! It was one of my favorites of my mission.

My mission had super strict rules about saying hi to our friends in other missions so I was trying hard not to look for Brandon and my other friends in the other missions.   I didn´t have the temptation, but luckily Brandon was sitting really close in the fire-side and as I was walking out he whispered ´´Abby..Abby...ABBY!´´ …and we shook hands and then I had to go ha-ha. We got to see each other the next day too at the stadium event and we could talk for a few seconds! He seems happy! It was good to see a familiar face!


I feel extreamly lucky to be here right now; with these circumstances with the temple dedication and everything!

Sorry this is short! I love you all have a good week! Congrats Sara and Ryan!
Love,

H. Marchant

Sept 3, 2012

Hi!
This week is the dedication of the temple. All of the missions; Buenos Aires North, West, and South get to have a fireside with Elder Eyring, Bednar and Christoferson on Friday! We got a huge long speech on how we should dress good and look clean and put together.  Ha-ha so I stared at my closet this morning for about 10 minutes looking for ´´clean good clothes´´ to wear this weekend.  Then I realized that even my ´´cleanest, cutest´´ clothes are super ghetto. Luckily its pday and we live down-town. Hopefully we can find something today to buy. I´m sure I´ll have pictures to send this next week of all the events. The fireside is Friday, the parade is Saturday, and the dedication is Sunday. It should be fun!

The chicas Melany, Sharon, and Margarita weren´t baptized this weekend because they really wanted to wait for their dad (traveling in Peru), but he said he was coming back Sunday and didn´t end up coming.  He a really bad dad from they things they have told us. It’s sad. They are so prepared, but they are scared to do anything with out his permission...and we have to have it to baptize them anyways. So we’re waiting to see what he says, if he´s even coming back from Peru, and if he´ll give them permission. It was a let down. Obviously this isn´t the first baptism that’s fallen through on my mission, but it is definitely one of the saddest and most disappointing.

On a happier note...I don´t think I wrote this story last week. If I did, oopsies! But. My companion is learning English. But the thing is, she is suppppppper scared to talk in English to anyone besides me. So in church we learned about developing your talents and I was making fun of her (half joking half not) for not developing her talent to speak English. So the next day as a half joke again when we prayed to leave the house I prayed that we would find people that speak English so she could ´´develop her talent´´ .  Well we live in Congreso. It’s a huge city for tourism. Usually we find or hear 3 or 4 people a day speaking English from England or The US. But no, this day that I prayed, we found AT LEAST 15 people that spoke English as their first language. Even when we weren’t trying to. We asked some girl that looked totally Argentine what road we were on and she starting speaking English. Everyone that passed us and asked us questions or that we asked questions ended up being from the US and England and Australia. It was super funny!

My comp started to conquer her fear and explained the plan of salvation. They didn’t want to have lessons, but my companion was so proud of her self anyways, it was super cute! So I guess that’s my message this week, do the little things to start to conquer your fears! Even if you get rejected! Ha-ha love you all xoxo

Love, Hermana Marchant!