Monday, March 31, 2014

Oh the adventures of the mission .. . . Welcome to La Plata

First, answers to your questions: the city is great, very different from anything thus far in my mission. It is my very first time living in a city...in my life. Haha I guess there is a first time for everything. We are about an hour and a half from Banfield and about 2 hours from Buenos Aires. I will send the pix of our pension so that you can see it. We live in the top floor of our building so it was quite exciting to haul the luggage up 3 flights of stairs. But it is way nice. It is not as big as the other one, but it is all the space we need. And it has a lot more light than the old one. I think I told you about Hna Medina last week. She is from the southern part of Mexico. As of Saturday she is 23. Her family are members too. The ward members are great and help us A TON. It is a lot different being in a ward vs a branch. So Sunday was a weird experience, its like the wards home, but it was weird with being in a rama for 7 months. And yes time is going way too fast, for sure. 


Secondly, this week was probably one of the longest and most interesting weeks of my mission, or at least the part in Argentina. 

Here is my week in review, Enjoy...
Monday- Transfers, new pension, exploring the city, meeting the Bishop and one of his counselors. 

Tuesday- 2am- 5am throwing up everything (which wasn't that much) that was in my stomach until there was nothing left in my body to come out. 5 30 (note- we didn't have a phone at this point and none of our neighbors would answer the door) I couldn't handle the pain in my stomach anymore so we left to find a taxi that would take us to the hospital. In the hospital, they put me on an ivy with medicine, (I had absolutely no energy or strength and tried to sleep) a little while after I threw the medicine up.  They did an ultrasound to try to figure out what the pain in my stomach was. Luckily they didn't find anything bad or dangerous, but they didn't find anything specifically wrong.  I guess when we left it was just after 11 in the morning, I was so out of it, exhausted, and dead from spending all morning throwing up that I had absolutely no sense of time.  We spent the rest of the day in the pension while I rested. For the next couple of days I was on a liquid diet to calm my nausea. We went looking for our phone that supposedly was going to get repaired but didn't in the evening then went to visit a member to use their phone to call our leaders and I got a blessing from the Hno.
Wednesday- I had just enough strength to get up and go to the zone meeting...where I happen to find a long lost companion...Hna Andreasen [see pix below] finally made it to Argentina!!!! woo. After the meeting we both got blessings from the zone leaders (me of health and Hna Medina of comfort and guidance, my poor comp, first week and all of this happened) and after lunch (that I ate very lightly) we went back to rest, being drained of everything again. 
Thursday- We were first just going to spend the morning in the pension to make sure I was a bit better, yea that didn't happen. The morning was great, we got a bit of planning done. The Bishop brought lunch. After lunch it all hit again... this time trading off with both of us. First my stomach then Hna Medina's it was awful! Also this day, I washed my hair and when I brushed it I lost a good handful...putting me into tears.  We called the mission nurse and she told me to go see the dermatologist to see what's up. It is to the point that I am scared to touch my hair for fear of it just falling out. 
Friday- Finished planning and finally left to work. I still had NO energy or strength but I wasn't going to spend another day in the pension...it was getting boring. Oh, me and my stubbornness. I only made it until 6 until I couldn't do it any more. And once again was drained of everything!
Saturday - First full day of work and it felt great. Still had a bit of nausea and not all of my strength was back but it felt good to get out and work and do something. 
Sunday- Church and another full day of work, with...a lot of rain. haha the area is big, but I am starting to recognize points that we pass and places.  

Needless to say we had quite the week here in La Plata. I have lost a ton of hair and weight. I hardly fit in any of my clothes and I look great. And I would be super excited if it wasn't for the fact that I still haven't regained all of my energy and strength back. But I have an appointment with the doctor/ dermatologist tonight to have him run some general tests and take my blood to try and figure out what the heck is going on. So I will let you know the results next week. 
I hope you all had a better week than we did. And hope you have a great week to come!
Love you lots, Hna Snow


"PIX FOR KIX"


 Look what is out my window. How cool!!

 the room and...




 my closet

 the hall to the rest




And look who decided to show up to Argentina!!!!!!!!!!! 
Por Fin [finally] haha and she is in my zone- its great.

 my hair or what is left

 One of the members owns a restaurant...
surprise, this is where they eat every Friday.

 me at the restaurant

 Saturday was Hna Medina's b-day (23) we celebrated with cake at lunch


the skyline, well part of it

 Autumn is here, sorry for the white spot the flash reflected off Hna Medina's camera

 the sign I made her for her b'day


 Today look what I found in the Super Market... 
everything for guacamole. Turns out they do have red onions here. 
Yes, tomorrow we celebrate with Guac!!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Pix for Kix

My side
 Hna Vasquez side
 Where we kept the materials
 extra room with our suitcases

 our entry and kitchen
 closer of the kitchen
 the bathroom
 The sign leaving Dolores. haha translation, ¨happy travels we hope you come back soon...
(if you could, can you send this one to E. Carlson please)
 okay here is one of us making french toast
hot dogs
 nutella
 classes de English that no one showed up for
 yw
yw pres y hijas [YW Pres & Daughters]
 fam Marquez
 Pres and Hna Lidia
My mom [Sr. Companion] Hna Tobar, me 
and my hija, [daughter/Jr. Companion] Hna Vasquez. 
3 generations
part of the zona La Costa the suit jacket is Elder Halley who is leaving

Q & A


Q: Have you seen or met Lauren Oakey? She’s from the 2nd Ward in our Stake.

A: Yes. I met her in Idaho too. Right before I left and she recently got here to ARG

Q: Are the shoe inserts working for you?

A: Yes they are perfect and exactly the ones that I have been using. MUCHAS GRACIAS!!

Q: While reading E. Carlson’s Blog he mentioned for his birthday they cracked an egg on his head and then threw flour at him. Did they do this to you?

A: Haha poor kid. No they didn't do that to me. When was his b'day?

Q: E. Carlson also mentioned something about “clapping” at the door. Do you not knock or ring the doorbell?

A: Sometimes like if they live on a busy street, then yes we knock. But it is customary here to clap at the door. Sorry I don't remember what I have or haven't told you.

Oh what a day.

Hello. So as I mentioned last week, this weekend we received transfer calls...and drum roll please...I am finally out of ¨Dolores¨! And I have to be honest, the place - I´m not going to miss very much. But I will miss my hija [daughter/Jr. Companion] and some of the people that were there. Strangely enough it was a bittersweet feeling bearing my testimony yesterday. Haha who would have thunk it.

Anywho, I was transferred to the zone La Plata 2. Right smack dab in the middle of the city of La Plata. Hehe I am just moving up the mission map. Starting out in the bottom of the mission in La Costa, moving up a bit more to Dolores, and now moving up a bit more to La Plata. We all think that I will either die here or move up one more step and end in Banfield. Haha I guess we will see.

So I spent the night last night and day I guess saying bye and getting pix with some of the members. We left Dolores at 3 in the morning (with my 3 suitcases, this time the space wasn't the issue more so the heaviness in trying to get them and those other Elders that left too into the storage space)...slept the entire 3 hours to La Plata, waited an hour to catch the train that left at about 7 ish, took an hour ride to one station to then catch another train to Banfield. But here's the story, as we were very quickly unloading all the luggage of us and other misionaries, we were getting the last and the train started pulling away. We got all the luggage and the last Elder jumped off as it gained speed...we looked around and noticed that someone was missing...yea, Hna Vasquez was still on the train, as it rode away, and there was nothing we could do in this moment b/c the man gave the sign to leave as she was trying to get off...um panic attack. She is new, our area is campo [field]. After much thinking and freaking out we realized that there were still missionaries that didn't get off with us. phew we figured out the area they were in to call them to make sure that she was with them and that we would be waiting for them at the station. Bah...I felt horrible and after all the freaking out and we were finally all together in the capilla [chapel] we got a good laugh. But, oh man, heart attack. To be separated from my comp. but then to see the hand of the Lord protecting us all in how it all played out.

The transfer meeting was really good, with my old zone leader from La Costa leaving, sad day. But their testimonies are super strong. We got photos, as a lot of us from the ´original zona la costa´were there. Then I found my new comp, Hna Madina, she was actually in La Costa for a transfer while I was there. She is 22 from Mexico and we are super excited to work hard and experience La Plata together. hehe  it is also super funny after the transfer meeting when all of us are leaving to our new areas the train station is filled with missionaries and their luggage. Its great

I am super excited for this different transfer. With a lot of things that are going to be super new for me, like we don't have the bicis [bikes] anymore, and I am not in campo [field/country] anymore. I am in full city. It will be a change, but a good change.

pix, my new comp Hna Madina

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Hola to all!

Firstly, thank you for celebrating my one year mark with hitting the slopes. For me it was a weird feeling. For one, realizing that I only have 6 months left in the mission and in Argentina. 2. It is getting harder and harder for me to write and speak English- (I end up speaking Spanglish hehe) and Tres, I hit a year and everything started coming back from my past life... songs, quotes, movies...bah. It is kinda horrible and distracting. So yea that is what happened to me on my one year mark. How exciting no?

We had exchanges this past week, but instead of changing areas the other sisters came and stayed with us in our house and we divided and conquered both parts of our area. It was fantantic! My comp and the Hna Farnsworth (she is from Utah, Sandy to be exact...and to make this world smaller, we know each other from Alta b/c we graduated together) visited our converts and other investigators while the Hna. Anae from Hawaii (who was in my zone when I first came to ARG in La Costa, hehe) found new investigators in our other area and taught some less actives. Then Wed. we were smart enough to plan lunch literally in the other end of Dolores - the farthest point of our area away from our house...it was quite the adventure walking...haha the other Hnas had the bicis b/c we would be a bit closer working in the area we were...the problem was walking back to the house after so that the two other Hnas could get their things ready to head back to their area. Lets just say about a little over an hour later we made it back to the house. My thoughts: the bicis are a blessing and my legs are still hurting. haha but it was quite the fun adventure walking every point of Dolores. Definitely have some funny memories that is for sure. 
 
Anyway not much else really exciting happened this week minus the fact that time still is just speeding up. We have transfers this coming week and will get transfer calls Saturday night. It is all up in the air, but I will let you all know what happens next week. So for now we all have to wait in suspense. haha que bueno. 
 
Hope you are all doing great and having fun with life (by the sound of it things are going good). Say hello to everyone for me. 
 
Love ya tonz and bunches,
Hna Snow

Monday, March 10, 2014

A week in a blink...

I swear every time I blink another week just goes by. I now officially have 6 months left of my mission (not sure how I feel about that). It is getting harder for me to talk and write in Ingles [English]. It is sad to think I have to leave ARG one day. But happy that I will be able to see all of you. 

This week we had our con de zona [Zone Conference] that was buenisimo!! [no clue] About what we can do to help our members to have them help us...now we just have to apply it here where we have little to no support from the members still. But little by little we hope that we can change this rama [branch]. 

Lately there has been a black cloud over Dolores that is effecting everyone. The joys of a small town where everyone knows everyone...its great. 

But on the bright side...we had 2 baptisms this weekend. Both older people. One went perfectly, Carlos. He is golden! We found him. Got to know him - he was a smoker for most of his life and had stopped for about 4 months when we found him. He wanted to change his life. We started teaching him and he absorbed everything. About a month later was baptized.  He is one of those incredible success stories that you sometimes hear about where they just take hold of this Gospel and take off. He was definitely prepared for us to find him. And he is sincerely and truly converted. It is amazing!


The other convert, Susana, has a fear of dogs and just about everything else...she is always nervous and jittery, but she retained everything we taught her. About 5 min before the service started she said that she didn't want to be baptized anymore b/c her fear of water and not being able to swim. We took her aside and tried to calm her down. And tried to explain to her that her fear is Satan trying to keep her from being baptized.  We had the baptism of Carlos first to show her that she wouldn't be alone in the font and that she would be just fine. After Carlos she jumped up and said okay lets do it. Seeing, rather than just us telling her that things were going to be just fine. And that the Hno would be with her every step of the way (hehe and litteraly every step into and out of the font). So we had 2 baptism's! It was pretty cool!


Well, not much else happened this week...can't believe that we are almost at the end of another transfer...time should stop speeding up. But what can ya do?

Anywho, hope you are all doing great and having fun with life amidst all the bad things that are in this world.  
Love you and miss you all!

Hna Snow

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

"It´s a hard knock life for us."

Hehe Hola mis queridos! [Hello my dear]

This week was super fast again. It is like we blink and the week is gone. Not so much a fan of that because that means I am getting closer to the end of my mission...but lets not think about that.


Honestly I don´t really remember much from this week. But my mind has been acting super weird lately too. I think one of our investigators who is super nervous ALL the time is rubbing off on me..oh dear. All I know is that again I haven't been sleeping much, my mind is ALWAYS racing as with my heart beat and pulse. But between that stress and I think the water - I have lost a bunch of hair (like Cancun but worse! I'll send a  pix next week) and weight...not sure what to do but I feel like I am eating all the time.


Anywho, with Carlos. He is golden and is super excited to be baptized this weekend! He wants it. The last lesson we had with him we were able to have members come with us and bear testimony of the prophets and how they are guiding us in these days. Its amazing. Carlos recognizes the miracles in his life and can see the changes that are happening. It is so exciting.  He is seeing the blessings of the gospel play out in his life and the power of prayer in helping his family- it is so cool! hehe.


Yesterday I gave the lesson in YW on the atonement of Jesus Christ, all I can say is wow. The spirit was super strong and the lesson was great. We have a 16 yr old convert of like a month who bore her testimony in the class about how she was able to make the changes in her life and is now enjoying the blessings of the gospel-  seriously I think sometimes the converts have stronger testimonies of these things than us being members our whole lives. They have been on both sides and know both sides - a life w/o the gospel and a life with the gospel. Yea I have always had a testimony of the Atonement, but it has definitely grown stronger and I understand it so much deeper now.


I hope you all realize and appreciate the sacrifice of our Savior for each of us. It is real and no matter what you have done you can always turn to Him for forgiveness and help with anything.

Love you all! Have a fabulous week!!
Hna Snow